26.08.2010, 21:59
Mildred Burke - The Ladies Champion Of The World
Bericht von 1949
“On the wrestling mat Mildred Burke is one of the most capable people in the sport and her record of never having been defeated in over ten years as champion is a mark that no man has never equalled. Off the wrestling mat this quiet, unassuming red head is a typical housewife and mother who would rather cook a roast for her husband and son, Jimmy, or ply a needle in a bit of fancywork, than anything else in the world.
But Mildred Burke enjoys wrestling; she enjoys the competition, the traveling and the fact that she is the world’s highest paid woman athlete. So she intends to continue wrestling until the very unlikely day that someone will deprive her of her title in the center of the ring. Originally from Kansas City, Mildred became a wrestler through a series of circumstances. She was always a natural athlete who competed in sports, in school and out, and continually yelled herself hoarse every time she went to the wrestling matches. She became so interested in the sport that she visited the private gym of a neighbor who had won the Missouri State title just a short time before.
At first the neighbor, Billy Wolfe, tried to discourage her, but when he saw that she had a lot of natural ability and would not be scared off he decided to teach her wrestling; eventually wound up marrying her, and managing her pursuit of the title.
Mildred won the world honors from Clara Mortensen and since then she has never been defeated. Some sports writers say she has never come close to defeat. She proudly wears a beautiful championship belt made of 24-carat gold, set with four sapphires, six amethysts and a 7-carat diamond that gleams like a beacon above the small picture of the champ placed in the center of the belt.
Milded’s hobby is collecting diamonds and with the figure her annual income reaches it is a hobby she can well afford. Wrestling has been good to Mildred Burke, bud she has been good to the game is return, because she has stimulated the interest of hundreds of thousands of fans who see her in action and then look forward to seeing her again.”
Mildred Burke
Women’s Champion
Oktober 1952
“Mildred Burke, world wrestling champion, can best be described as the Pin-Up girl who pins ‘emdown - at $50,000 a year. In 15 years of wrestling, Mildred, born in Coffeyville, Kansas, birthplace of Walter Johnson, the Big Train of major league baseball, has never been thrown although she admits rugged matches in 43 of the 48 states, as well as in Cuba, Mexico and Canada.
The 33-year-old, 5 foot, 2 inch blue-eyed pioneer of girls wrestling says: “That while I started out to become an interior decorator.” She preferred to decorate her opponents with tough holds: “This sport got into my blood early. I wrestled men and women during the Great Depression and my first match was in Bethany, Missouri, before 300 persons. Times have changed since then”, says Mildred. “Gust Karras, the promoter then, would be amazed to see the crowds I draw today - averaging from 5,000 in smaller cities to 10,000 in the Coliseum in Mexico to 15,000 in the Boston Garden and the Philadelphia Convention Hall. I guess I wrestled some 200 men, all comers, in my time. It was rugged work, but my challengers today are just as spirited and even more tricky. There are about 100 girl wrestlers today, but I would say there are about 16 who can be classed as top notch wrestlers.”
Manager Billy Wolfe says Mildred wrestlers in the average of from 3 to 5 nights a week, 8 months a year. “She rests the other four,” says Billy. “Mildred has two homes in Los Angeles, both showplaces,” he says with pride. “One is for her and the other for her mother.” While the world knows of Mildred’s skill, few know her personal backround. Her mother, Mrs. Bertha E. Bliss, lives next door to her in Los Angeles. She is 75 years of age. “I own my success to her,” says Mildred. “She is a clear, sound thinker. When I told her I was going to drop interior decorating for wrestling she advised: “If you do that, put your heart into it.’ --- I guess I did. I’ve been champion for 13 years, a title I earned in a Columbus, Ohio tournament sponsored by the Mid-West Wrestling Association. There were 15 girls entered. In the finals, I defeated Edna Bancroft to win a belt that weights 15 pounds and is 24 karat gold, containing 7 diamonds, 4 sapphires and 6 amethysts. I always wear it before a match,” says Mildred.
While not athletes, Mildred is also proud of her three sisters. “All are ordained ministers in the Four Square Gospel in California. They are Mrs. Edna Newell, Mrs. Flora Bingham and Mrs. Marie Butcher. I am a Baptist, myself. My brother, Louis, used to be organist for Aimee Semple McPherson. He was Norma Shearer’s secretary at one time, too. Today, he is an engineer,” commented Mildred, who has a 14-years-old son, Joseph, who attends John Muir, Junior High School in Los Angeles. Although she has never appeared in England, Australia or South Africa, Mildred says “she gets a ton of mail a year. I average at least 1,000 letters from girls who want to wrestle.”
The Pin-Up girl who pins ‘emdown has a waist of a musical comedy star and build of a female Atlas. “Frankly, I was 150 pounds when I started to wrestle. Today I average 130, net. Wrestling is great for woman. It keeps one agile and one’s mind alert. Of course, the earnings are interesting, too. That’s why I hear from so many girls each year. Those who make the grade become sound businesswomen, in property, in investments, in clothes and jewelry. I know several competitors who own businesses. Now, what secretary can make those claims?” says Mildred Burke."
Billy Wolfe
Oktober 1952
“Billy Wolfe, Impresario of Girl Wrestling is 55 years of age and was born on a farm in Davies County Missouri. Around the age of thirty, he was recognized in his home state of Missouri by the wrestling commission as the Missouri State Champion. While that is a small sounding title when compared to his fabulous booking business of today, Billy still cherishes fond memories of that title. At about this same period Billy was also Wrestling Coach for Amateur Wrestling at the YMCA in Kansas City, and had his own private gymnasium for training both men and women for professional wrestling. It was in this private gym that he trained and produced Mildred Burke, the present World Champion girl wrestler. Women wrestling is not a new thing as there are some islands in the Pacific, West of Panama, where for unkown centuries the native women settle certain disputies by wrestling each other. In the ruins of Tibet --- massive decaying walls of temples of another area --- have been found carvings on some of the walls near the top of buildings depicting women wrestling with each other. This proves for a certainty that women have wrestled for thousands of years, however, we do not know what the women of Tibet were wrestling for, whether it was for prizes or to settle disputies, but it proves without a doubt that they were interested in this athletic activity even at that early date.
When Billy Wolfe started training girls for professional wrestling, there were quite a number of girls throughout the United States who wrestled only in carnivals, circuses and on the stage in burlesque and vaudeville theaters. But no girls anywhere in the United States, or anywhere in the world where professional wrestling existed, were accepted or permitted to wrestle in the regular wrestling shows where men wrestlers performed. Billy Wolfe is one of the only man in the world who put girl wrestlers in the same auditoriums and on the same programs where men wrestlers were booked. Wolfe first convinced the Wrestling Commission of the State of Alabama that it was alright for girls to perform on regular wrestling shows. Then the State of Texas followed, with the Kentucky Commisson being the third state to okay girls. Most State Wrestling Commission were skeptical and in some instances it took several years to sell a State Commission on the idea. However, at the present time the Billy Wolfe Booking Office is booking girl wrestlers in 42 of the 48 states, in Western Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and South America.
When Wolfe first started out he personally trained the girl wrestlers which he booked, but at the present time girls have are being trained for wrestling in many sections throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico --- that they can be accepted by the Billy Wolfe Booking Office for professional appearances. Throughout the United States, Wolfe will average having girl wrestlers in eight different cities every day of the week from Monday until Saturday, which is the largest wrestling booking business in the world owned and managed by one man. There are at present time some girl wrestlers in various parts of the country and other countries that are booked by other promoters, but it can safely be said that 95 percent of all booking of girl wrestlers in the United States and foreign countries is done by Billy Wolfe.”
Nell Stewart
Oktober 1952
"Orginally attracted by the lure of big money in professional girl wrestling, Nell Stewart is collecting some of that lucre these days. The Betty Gable of girl wrestlers is not only one of the better looking performers, but she is one of busiest and one of the most sensational performers.
The only thing her detractors says of her is “Nell has the first dollar she ever made in girl wrestling.” That is a compliment to her consecutive qualities and her credit. After all, she is one of the Big Five of girl wrestlin today --- a sport approved of in 43 American states. Nell Stewart was an ordinary working girl eight years ago in Birmingham, Alabama, where she was a waitress, saving tips to help support her mother and two brothers. Altough Nell sacrificed her graduation pin and the ceremonial frills that go with it, the Alabama Assassin has gained her education today through travel, good books and drama, wherever she can see it on the stage. “Although I got enough drama in every match in the ring,” she added with a chuckle. Today, that drama has paid off. Her mother has her own home and her brothers are in good schools. “I’m really more proud of that achievement than anything I received in the ring against tough opposition,” she says. Hard work did all that.
“I saw my first wrestling match in 1942”, said the 24-year-old statuesque wrestler, owner of a pair of sprightly limbs. “I was always a good athlete in school,” says Nell, “but the first time I saw girls wrestle in Alabama I knew that I could fit into the picture. After all, Mildred Burke was earning $30,000 a year in 1942 and what Mildred Burke can do, I can do, too, in the ring. I always feld that way, anyway. Well here I am. I got my first taste of girl wrestling in Memphis, Tenn., under the promotional banner of Charley Rontrop. He had lots of patience with me, but it paid off and I am never so grateful to him. From Memphis, I went to California, when several friends advised me to go there. It was there that I met Gladys Gillem, a former star. Again I am thankful to her, too. Six or seven years ago, Gladys was a top notch wrestling star. What I have learned from Glayds stood me in good all over the country. She was a stern teacher and disciplinarian. She was in the sport 12 years and as you know, everything she did inside the ring, I had to follow. I trained with Gladys seven months before she would permit me to wrestle and when I did it was in Mexico City. I met all types, but I learned. I made my first star appearance in the Mexico City Bull Ring. Everyone attends girl wrestling there. I wrestled under the promotion of Salvadore Lutteroth.
He booked me in many matches there and I also have him to thank. When I came back to California with Gladys Gillem, I was ready to go on tour of America --- and did. I have been wrestling for years now and I’ve never really been badly hurt although I got my bumps and bruises. I’ve made close to $20,000 each year, and I have it invested in real estate, furs, clothes and diamonds. I’ve got to have something to show for my work, haven’t I?” And Nell Stewart has plenty of security for the day when she will be retired, thanks to Rontrop, Gillem, Lutteroth and Mr. and Mrs. Wrestling Fan throughout the country.”
Bericht von 1949
“On the wrestling mat Mildred Burke is one of the most capable people in the sport and her record of never having been defeated in over ten years as champion is a mark that no man has never equalled. Off the wrestling mat this quiet, unassuming red head is a typical housewife and mother who would rather cook a roast for her husband and son, Jimmy, or ply a needle in a bit of fancywork, than anything else in the world.
But Mildred Burke enjoys wrestling; she enjoys the competition, the traveling and the fact that she is the world’s highest paid woman athlete. So she intends to continue wrestling until the very unlikely day that someone will deprive her of her title in the center of the ring. Originally from Kansas City, Mildred became a wrestler through a series of circumstances. She was always a natural athlete who competed in sports, in school and out, and continually yelled herself hoarse every time she went to the wrestling matches. She became so interested in the sport that she visited the private gym of a neighbor who had won the Missouri State title just a short time before.
At first the neighbor, Billy Wolfe, tried to discourage her, but when he saw that she had a lot of natural ability and would not be scared off he decided to teach her wrestling; eventually wound up marrying her, and managing her pursuit of the title.
Mildred won the world honors from Clara Mortensen and since then she has never been defeated. Some sports writers say she has never come close to defeat. She proudly wears a beautiful championship belt made of 24-carat gold, set with four sapphires, six amethysts and a 7-carat diamond that gleams like a beacon above the small picture of the champ placed in the center of the belt.
Milded’s hobby is collecting diamonds and with the figure her annual income reaches it is a hobby she can well afford. Wrestling has been good to Mildred Burke, bud she has been good to the game is return, because she has stimulated the interest of hundreds of thousands of fans who see her in action and then look forward to seeing her again.”
Mildred Burke
Women’s Champion
Oktober 1952
“Mildred Burke, world wrestling champion, can best be described as the Pin-Up girl who pins ‘emdown - at $50,000 a year. In 15 years of wrestling, Mildred, born in Coffeyville, Kansas, birthplace of Walter Johnson, the Big Train of major league baseball, has never been thrown although she admits rugged matches in 43 of the 48 states, as well as in Cuba, Mexico and Canada.
The 33-year-old, 5 foot, 2 inch blue-eyed pioneer of girls wrestling says: “That while I started out to become an interior decorator.” She preferred to decorate her opponents with tough holds: “This sport got into my blood early. I wrestled men and women during the Great Depression and my first match was in Bethany, Missouri, before 300 persons. Times have changed since then”, says Mildred. “Gust Karras, the promoter then, would be amazed to see the crowds I draw today - averaging from 5,000 in smaller cities to 10,000 in the Coliseum in Mexico to 15,000 in the Boston Garden and the Philadelphia Convention Hall. I guess I wrestled some 200 men, all comers, in my time. It was rugged work, but my challengers today are just as spirited and even more tricky. There are about 100 girl wrestlers today, but I would say there are about 16 who can be classed as top notch wrestlers.”
Manager Billy Wolfe says Mildred wrestlers in the average of from 3 to 5 nights a week, 8 months a year. “She rests the other four,” says Billy. “Mildred has two homes in Los Angeles, both showplaces,” he says with pride. “One is for her and the other for her mother.” While the world knows of Mildred’s skill, few know her personal backround. Her mother, Mrs. Bertha E. Bliss, lives next door to her in Los Angeles. She is 75 years of age. “I own my success to her,” says Mildred. “She is a clear, sound thinker. When I told her I was going to drop interior decorating for wrestling she advised: “If you do that, put your heart into it.’ --- I guess I did. I’ve been champion for 13 years, a title I earned in a Columbus, Ohio tournament sponsored by the Mid-West Wrestling Association. There were 15 girls entered. In the finals, I defeated Edna Bancroft to win a belt that weights 15 pounds and is 24 karat gold, containing 7 diamonds, 4 sapphires and 6 amethysts. I always wear it before a match,” says Mildred.
While not athletes, Mildred is also proud of her three sisters. “All are ordained ministers in the Four Square Gospel in California. They are Mrs. Edna Newell, Mrs. Flora Bingham and Mrs. Marie Butcher. I am a Baptist, myself. My brother, Louis, used to be organist for Aimee Semple McPherson. He was Norma Shearer’s secretary at one time, too. Today, he is an engineer,” commented Mildred, who has a 14-years-old son, Joseph, who attends John Muir, Junior High School in Los Angeles. Although she has never appeared in England, Australia or South Africa, Mildred says “she gets a ton of mail a year. I average at least 1,000 letters from girls who want to wrestle.”
The Pin-Up girl who pins ‘emdown has a waist of a musical comedy star and build of a female Atlas. “Frankly, I was 150 pounds when I started to wrestle. Today I average 130, net. Wrestling is great for woman. It keeps one agile and one’s mind alert. Of course, the earnings are interesting, too. That’s why I hear from so many girls each year. Those who make the grade become sound businesswomen, in property, in investments, in clothes and jewelry. I know several competitors who own businesses. Now, what secretary can make those claims?” says Mildred Burke."
Billy Wolfe
Oktober 1952
“Billy Wolfe, Impresario of Girl Wrestling is 55 years of age and was born on a farm in Davies County Missouri. Around the age of thirty, he was recognized in his home state of Missouri by the wrestling commission as the Missouri State Champion. While that is a small sounding title when compared to his fabulous booking business of today, Billy still cherishes fond memories of that title. At about this same period Billy was also Wrestling Coach for Amateur Wrestling at the YMCA in Kansas City, and had his own private gymnasium for training both men and women for professional wrestling. It was in this private gym that he trained and produced Mildred Burke, the present World Champion girl wrestler. Women wrestling is not a new thing as there are some islands in the Pacific, West of Panama, where for unkown centuries the native women settle certain disputies by wrestling each other. In the ruins of Tibet --- massive decaying walls of temples of another area --- have been found carvings on some of the walls near the top of buildings depicting women wrestling with each other. This proves for a certainty that women have wrestled for thousands of years, however, we do not know what the women of Tibet were wrestling for, whether it was for prizes or to settle disputies, but it proves without a doubt that they were interested in this athletic activity even at that early date.
When Billy Wolfe started training girls for professional wrestling, there were quite a number of girls throughout the United States who wrestled only in carnivals, circuses and on the stage in burlesque and vaudeville theaters. But no girls anywhere in the United States, or anywhere in the world where professional wrestling existed, were accepted or permitted to wrestle in the regular wrestling shows where men wrestlers performed. Billy Wolfe is one of the only man in the world who put girl wrestlers in the same auditoriums and on the same programs where men wrestlers were booked. Wolfe first convinced the Wrestling Commission of the State of Alabama that it was alright for girls to perform on regular wrestling shows. Then the State of Texas followed, with the Kentucky Commisson being the third state to okay girls. Most State Wrestling Commission were skeptical and in some instances it took several years to sell a State Commission on the idea. However, at the present time the Billy Wolfe Booking Office is booking girl wrestlers in 42 of the 48 states, in Western Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and South America.
When Wolfe first started out he personally trained the girl wrestlers which he booked, but at the present time girls have are being trained for wrestling in many sections throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico --- that they can be accepted by the Billy Wolfe Booking Office for professional appearances. Throughout the United States, Wolfe will average having girl wrestlers in eight different cities every day of the week from Monday until Saturday, which is the largest wrestling booking business in the world owned and managed by one man. There are at present time some girl wrestlers in various parts of the country and other countries that are booked by other promoters, but it can safely be said that 95 percent of all booking of girl wrestlers in the United States and foreign countries is done by Billy Wolfe.”
Nell Stewart
Oktober 1952
"Orginally attracted by the lure of big money in professional girl wrestling, Nell Stewart is collecting some of that lucre these days. The Betty Gable of girl wrestlers is not only one of the better looking performers, but she is one of busiest and one of the most sensational performers.
The only thing her detractors says of her is “Nell has the first dollar she ever made in girl wrestling.” That is a compliment to her consecutive qualities and her credit. After all, she is one of the Big Five of girl wrestlin today --- a sport approved of in 43 American states. Nell Stewart was an ordinary working girl eight years ago in Birmingham, Alabama, where she was a waitress, saving tips to help support her mother and two brothers. Altough Nell sacrificed her graduation pin and the ceremonial frills that go with it, the Alabama Assassin has gained her education today through travel, good books and drama, wherever she can see it on the stage. “Although I got enough drama in every match in the ring,” she added with a chuckle. Today, that drama has paid off. Her mother has her own home and her brothers are in good schools. “I’m really more proud of that achievement than anything I received in the ring against tough opposition,” she says. Hard work did all that.
“I saw my first wrestling match in 1942”, said the 24-year-old statuesque wrestler, owner of a pair of sprightly limbs. “I was always a good athlete in school,” says Nell, “but the first time I saw girls wrestle in Alabama I knew that I could fit into the picture. After all, Mildred Burke was earning $30,000 a year in 1942 and what Mildred Burke can do, I can do, too, in the ring. I always feld that way, anyway. Well here I am. I got my first taste of girl wrestling in Memphis, Tenn., under the promotional banner of Charley Rontrop. He had lots of patience with me, but it paid off and I am never so grateful to him. From Memphis, I went to California, when several friends advised me to go there. It was there that I met Gladys Gillem, a former star. Again I am thankful to her, too. Six or seven years ago, Gladys was a top notch wrestling star. What I have learned from Glayds stood me in good all over the country. She was a stern teacher and disciplinarian. She was in the sport 12 years and as you know, everything she did inside the ring, I had to follow. I trained with Gladys seven months before she would permit me to wrestle and when I did it was in Mexico City. I met all types, but I learned. I made my first star appearance in the Mexico City Bull Ring. Everyone attends girl wrestling there. I wrestled under the promotion of Salvadore Lutteroth.
He booked me in many matches there and I also have him to thank. When I came back to California with Gladys Gillem, I was ready to go on tour of America --- and did. I have been wrestling for years now and I’ve never really been badly hurt although I got my bumps and bruises. I’ve made close to $20,000 each year, and I have it invested in real estate, furs, clothes and diamonds. I’ve got to have something to show for my work, haven’t I?” And Nell Stewart has plenty of security for the day when she will be retired, thanks to Rontrop, Gillem, Lutteroth and Mr. and Mrs. Wrestling Fan throughout the country.”
