Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
On December 1, 1944, Universal Pictures released the latest horror film in the Frankenstein series, House of Frankenstein, with an all-star cast. Boris Karloff, who originally played Frankenstein’s monster, returns to the series as the mad scientist Dr. Niemann. An earthquake releases him and his hunchbacked assistant Daniel from prison. Dr. Niemann intends to exact revenge on the men who
While bare knuckle prizefighter Tom Allen was born in England during 1840, he spent the majority of his adult life in St Louis after relocating to the United States in 1867. After a disappointing loss to Jem Mace in 1870, where he impressed spectators with a gallant performance in a losing effort, Allen started campaigning for a shot at American
On January 10, 1927, Universum Film (UFA) released Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). The German film company produced a science fiction class, which still holds up today. On the Internet Movie Database website (IMDB), users rate it 8.3 out of 10 stars. It is #104 on the Top 250. In a theme society has wrestled with since the beginning of the
Tom Allen was born in Birmingham, England on April 23, 1840 but he became famous as a heavyweight bare knuckle prizefighter in America. Settling in St. Louis around 1867, Allen won the American Heavyweight Championship in 1873 and held the title until 1876. He returned to England for a year before returning to St. Louis for good in 1878. Back
By the end of the 1910s, professional wrestling promoters booked wrestlers in worked or pre-arranged wrestling matches. Occasionally, usually as a result of a double cross, fans would see an actual contest or “shoot” match between the wrestlers. One of these matches occurred in late 1921 and arose from a feud between Tex Rickard, primarily a boxing promoter, and Jack
On December 14, 1915, the International Wrestling Tournament was coming to a close. A featured match revealed promoter Samuel Rachmann was manipulating outcomes to keep interest in his tournament. After the wrestling public lost complete interest in the tournament during its opening few months in the spring, Rachmann introduced one of the most successful gimmicks in professional wrestling history. Rachmann
Monte Attell was the younger brother of World Featherweight Boxing Champion Abe Attell. Monte would always be stuck in the shadow of his older brother but was a talented fighter in his own right. Monte would win the World Bantamweight Boxing Championship during his career and establish himself as a world class fighter. In 1904, he was a 19-year-old up-and-coming
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) released After The Thin Man (1936), the sequel to the popular Thin Man (1934), on Christmas Day 1936. The film is one of 14 films William Powell and Myrna Loy made together. Powell and Loy play Dashiell Hammet’s characters Nick and Nora Charles respectively. Nick Charles formerly worked as a private detective before marrying the wealthy heiress Nora.
Georg Lurich made his reputation as a professional wrestler competing in European Greco-Roman wrestling tournaments. When Lurich travelled to the United States to ply his trade, he made the transition to catch-as-catch-can wrestling, the dominant style outside of Europe. Lurich adapted well to this style and earned a shot at the World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, Frank Gotch, in Gotch’s last
This week’s post is to finish up the story of the double cross involving Dick Shikat and Danno O’Mahony. The origins for the double cross actually began in a match with Ed “Strangler” Lewis in Madison Square Garden on June 9, 1932. While this match was a prearranged exhibition, the wrestlers had been in discussion about Lewis dropping the belt