Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Arthur Wontner is arguably the best film portrayer of Sherlock Holmes. His fifth and final outing as Holmes in Murder at the Baskervilles (1937). The film was released in the United Kingdom in 1937 but was not released in America until January 15, 1941. Wontner was excellent as usual but Murder at the Baskervilles is the weakest offering in the
In a testament to his foresight and vision, the World Wrestling Champion William Muldoon was preparing to be a fitness trainer even while at the height of his powers as a wrestler. Muldoon held the championship from 1880 until he retired in 1890. During his reign, he often gave exhibitions to attract attention to his way of training. The Saturday,
I wanted to write about one of my favorite movies, The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935). It is an adaptation of the novel by the same name, written by Baroness Orczy. The film (affiliate link) concerns an English peer, who risks his life by saving French aristocrats from the guillotine. The story is complicated by the fact the peer is married to
On September 5, 1984, I walked through the doors of Grover Cleveland High School for the first time. I attended St. Louis’ most popular magnet school at the time, Kennard NJROTC Academy. The St. Louis School Board decided to move the program to “The Castle on Grand”. Cleveland High School would graduate many St. Louis children on St. Louis’ South
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
Julius “Uncle Jules” Johannpeter was born in St. Charles, MO on March 5, 1875 to recent German immigrants Frederick William Johannpeter and Johanna Johannpeter nee Grieve. “Uncle Jules” was seven years older than his sister Caroline Leah “Lee” Johannpeter, my great grandmother. When Lee’s husband William Ellis died in 1917, Lee had the challenge of raising her two-year-old son Gilbert as a single
On September 27, 1941, Warner Brothers Film Corporation released Sergeant York (1941). The film (affiliate link) tells the story of Sergeant Alvin C. York, a reluctant World War I hero from the small town of Pall Mall, Tennessee. Western film veteran Gary Cooper stars as Sergeant York. The film begins with the contrast of a Sunday church service and the
Before he became St. Louis Chief of Detectives in 1890, William Desmond plied his trade as a Detective with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. During February 1890, Detective Desmond’s persistent efforts to locate two confidence men paid off with the arrest of both men. “Kinch” Keegan and “Thatch” Grady were brother-in-laws and accomplices in several confidence games. On January
On July 7, 1939, Twentieth Century-Fox Films released the final Mr. Moto “B” film starring Peter Lorre as Inspector Kentaro Moto. Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation finds Mr. Moto accompanying the Queen of Sheba’s Crown from its discovery in an Egyptian archaeological site to a San Francisco museum. Mr. Moto suspects the arch criminal Metaxess, who authorities believed was dead, intends
During the Gilded Age and for several decades after, St. Louis had the distinction of being the largest city west of the Mississippi River. Pickpockets and thieves rode the rails to ply their illicit trade in the bustling metropolis. On September 21, 1901, hotel employees overpowered a sneak thief, who attempted to burglarize a room in the plush Southern Hotel.