In 1880, William Muldoon would become World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in the Greco-Roman style after defeating Thiebaud Bauer, the reigning champion. Before he would accomplish this feat, Muldoon had to pay his dues and prepare for the title tilt with Bauer. In 1876, Muldoon caught the attention of former bare knuckle prizefighting world champion John Morrissey. Morrissey was a former […]
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Oliver Leonard Kirk has the distinction of being the only Olympic boxer to win a gold medal in two separate weight classes in the same Olympic Games. Oliver Kirk accomplished this feat at his hometown Olympics in 1904. St. Louis hosted the third Olympiad during the 1904 World’s Fair Exposition. Like the Paris Games four years before, St. Louis gave […]
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On January 24, 1946, Columbia Pictures released the tenth film in the Boston Blackie Series, A Close Call for Boston Blackie. Jack Boyle created the character Boston Blackie for short stories in magazines beginning in 1914. Blackie was a jewel thief and burglar. Boston Blackie was a thief and burglar although a heroic one in the first film, Meet Boston […]
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On Wednesday, May 9, 1900, the second day of St. Louis Streetcar Strike, a stray bullet killed Frank Liebrecht. Frank Liebrecht, a Spanish-American War veteran, was watching a strike rally at the corner of Finney and N. Taylor Avenue. During the rally, some in the crowd observed the last two streetcars for the day coming down the tracks about a […]
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On March 4, 1922, F.W. Murnau released Nosferatu (1922). Nosferatu was Murnau’s adaptation of the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker. Murnau neglected to purchase the rights to film the story from Stoker’s estate, which almost led to this film being lost to film viewers. Stoker’s widow successfully sued Murnau and the German film company that produced the motion picture. The […]
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George Collins, the second bank robber involved in the Union, MO bank robbery on December 26, 1902, attempted to escape the St. Louis Jail in January 1904. Besides working with the other prisoners on making a hole in the wall of the jail, he also arranged with a prison guard to have saws smuggled to him. Collins intended to use […]
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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 […]
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(I wrote this post from the perspective that most students start martial arts training to learn self-defense. After twenty years teaching, I do not think it is the main or only motivation anymore.) When I first started martial arts with a Shotokan karate class at our local junior college, the instructor handed out an article for everyone to read. The […]
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On December 15, 1903, about 2:00 o’clock in the morning, George Harding, the clerk of the Erie Hotel, was busy working in his office. Used to working alone, Harding had relaxed his vigil and didn’t notice three large, hard looking men enter the hotel at Fourth and Clark Streets. His attention was arrested, when the first man entered his office […]
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Dressed to Kill (1946) is the fourteenth and final Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. Universal Pictures released the last film (affiliate link) in the series on June 7, 1946. Once World War II ended, the series returned to non-war related crime stories. Cyril Delevanti plays a thief serving at Dartmoor […]
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