06.12.2007, 18:10
Dallas, Texas
Dallas Morning News
25 April 1954
Fish Eating Prince, Big Game Hunter on Dallas Mat Programs
Antone Leone, a retired legislator from New York State, and Prince Maiava, a fish-eating member of the Samoan nobility, have one or two things in common. Both are proponents of the evil or no-holds-barred school of wrestling and both of them are highly emotional.
They will probably never meet in the ring, since Maiava performs his Samoan sword dance for Norman Clark, the Pappy’s Showland impressario, while Leone emotes for Ed McLemore at the Sportatorium. This is an unfortunate circumstance since the two of them might wreak havoc such as has seldom been seen outside of Elugelab.
Maiava is a temperamental, inarticulate savage with a penchant for stomping on bonfires and sharp nails and eating raw fish. Leone is a suave sophisticated man of the world who has a vast storehouse of words available on nearly any conceiveable subject. He has never stepped on so much as a match, although a time or two he has been victimized by other wrestlers via the hot foot. He hasn’t stepped on a sharp nail since his childhood in Oyster Bay, New York, and, except when he appears in the ring, he wears shoes. Maivia doesn’t wear shoes in or out of the ring.
Leone discovered Leone while attending Brown University and wrestling on the side. Maiava was discovered by a gentleman from Long Beach, Calif., named Coconut Willie, who heard of the prince via grapevine and journeyed all the way to Samoa to sign him to a wrestling conract.
Since Maiava’s English vocabulary is confined to three words – “eat, sleep, girls” – Coconut Willie must have used sign language to sign him. He directs Maiava in the ring via a Samoan war drum, beating a tattoo on it with his palms which means something to the prince and Willie but leaves their opponent bewitched, bothered and in the fierce clutches of Maiava.
On the few occasions when a mere human has triumphed over the untutored savage, it was because of foul play. The victors invariably deserted the ring to snatch the drum away from Willie and hide it. With no drum beat to advise him on the niceties of the strategy and tactics of the wrestling ring, Maiava was at the mercy of his ruthless foe and lost in a welter of confusion.
Since part of Maiava’s act is a sword dance performed either immediately preceding or following his engagement with another wrestler, ringside seats to his battles have become hard to sell. He performs the sword dance with two razor-sharp swords which he juggles with a rare insouciance and a perfect disregard for the customers. Once he adminstered a crew-cut to a row of seven customers with one fell swoop of a sword, but he has never injured a paying fan.
Maiava has an affinity for fresh fish as an item of diet. Recently, he journeyed with Coconut Willie to The Dallas News for an interview. While Willie went inside to locate a sports writer, Maiava remained in the car, dreaming of fresh fish. A wrestling fan began chivvying him – presumably via his own personal drum – producing a vast emotional upheaval in the savage breast. Although Maiava’s three-word vocabulary makes an interview simple, he became so upset he could not bring himself to face this writer and had to be shepherded to his hotel room by Coconut Willie. Three hours and several dozen fresh fish later, Willie called to say he had put out the fires and Maiava was calm enough to interview.
The interview was carried out in Maiava’s hotel room. The prince said, “Eat, sleep, girls,” stomped out a bonfire thoughtfully prepared by Willie on a slab of wood in the middle of the hotel room, and trod daintily on another slab of wod full of nails. It was an obvious effort for him to control his emotions.
Leone has never wrestled so savage a savage, although he once fought his way across the length and breadth of Africa. During this safari, he met and defeated Willie Liebenburg, the South African champion, and Gert Danhauser, champion of North Africa.
After these polar successes, he also met and defeated a leopard, which he first looked boldly in the eye, then shot. According to Antone, the lion is not really the king of beasts – he just has a good publicity man. The leopard, elephant and Cape buffalo are the most dangerous animals, not counting Samoan wrestlers or a chap named Jolly Midget Fisher.
Jolly Midget Fisher no longer wrestles, but his memory is green in the mind of Leone.
Fisher, according to Leone’s hospital records, is the roughest adversary he ever faced.
“He broke my left leg and subjected me to unimaginable tortures,” says Leone, simply. “He didn’t put me out of my misery fast enough.”
Leone’s brief tenure as a member of the New York State Legislature came as a strong protest against the governorship of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“I campaigned on an anti-Governor platforma nd was elected,” he says. “I made a ringing speech denouncing the Governor and his policies and resigned forthwith to return to wrestling.”
When he retires from the ring, Leone would like to run for Congress from Dallas. His platform is simple.
“I’m for McCarthy and against income tax,” he says. “I’m going to run as a representative of the Constitution party.”
TH: The sophistication of Leone is somewhat hard to believe, especially if you are privy to the letters written by Antone to Department of Justice officials and the Judge of the 1956 Antitrust case. In my opinion, the letters were written by a borderline psychotic - wishing death upon many people in the wrestling business. I guess he had a personal right to be angry and was fueled by the assumption of blacklisting, but he was WAY out there
Dallas Morning News
25 April 1954
Fish Eating Prince, Big Game Hunter on Dallas Mat Programs
Antone Leone, a retired legislator from New York State, and Prince Maiava, a fish-eating member of the Samoan nobility, have one or two things in common. Both are proponents of the evil or no-holds-barred school of wrestling and both of them are highly emotional.
They will probably never meet in the ring, since Maiava performs his Samoan sword dance for Norman Clark, the Pappy’s Showland impressario, while Leone emotes for Ed McLemore at the Sportatorium. This is an unfortunate circumstance since the two of them might wreak havoc such as has seldom been seen outside of Elugelab.
Maiava is a temperamental, inarticulate savage with a penchant for stomping on bonfires and sharp nails and eating raw fish. Leone is a suave sophisticated man of the world who has a vast storehouse of words available on nearly any conceiveable subject. He has never stepped on so much as a match, although a time or two he has been victimized by other wrestlers via the hot foot. He hasn’t stepped on a sharp nail since his childhood in Oyster Bay, New York, and, except when he appears in the ring, he wears shoes. Maivia doesn’t wear shoes in or out of the ring.
Leone discovered Leone while attending Brown University and wrestling on the side. Maiava was discovered by a gentleman from Long Beach, Calif., named Coconut Willie, who heard of the prince via grapevine and journeyed all the way to Samoa to sign him to a wrestling conract.
Since Maiava’s English vocabulary is confined to three words – “eat, sleep, girls” – Coconut Willie must have used sign language to sign him. He directs Maiava in the ring via a Samoan war drum, beating a tattoo on it with his palms which means something to the prince and Willie but leaves their opponent bewitched, bothered and in the fierce clutches of Maiava.
On the few occasions when a mere human has triumphed over the untutored savage, it was because of foul play. The victors invariably deserted the ring to snatch the drum away from Willie and hide it. With no drum beat to advise him on the niceties of the strategy and tactics of the wrestling ring, Maiava was at the mercy of his ruthless foe and lost in a welter of confusion.
Since part of Maiava’s act is a sword dance performed either immediately preceding or following his engagement with another wrestler, ringside seats to his battles have become hard to sell. He performs the sword dance with two razor-sharp swords which he juggles with a rare insouciance and a perfect disregard for the customers. Once he adminstered a crew-cut to a row of seven customers with one fell swoop of a sword, but he has never injured a paying fan.
Maiava has an affinity for fresh fish as an item of diet. Recently, he journeyed with Coconut Willie to The Dallas News for an interview. While Willie went inside to locate a sports writer, Maiava remained in the car, dreaming of fresh fish. A wrestling fan began chivvying him – presumably via his own personal drum – producing a vast emotional upheaval in the savage breast. Although Maiava’s three-word vocabulary makes an interview simple, he became so upset he could not bring himself to face this writer and had to be shepherded to his hotel room by Coconut Willie. Three hours and several dozen fresh fish later, Willie called to say he had put out the fires and Maiava was calm enough to interview.
The interview was carried out in Maiava’s hotel room. The prince said, “Eat, sleep, girls,” stomped out a bonfire thoughtfully prepared by Willie on a slab of wood in the middle of the hotel room, and trod daintily on another slab of wod full of nails. It was an obvious effort for him to control his emotions.
Leone has never wrestled so savage a savage, although he once fought his way across the length and breadth of Africa. During this safari, he met and defeated Willie Liebenburg, the South African champion, and Gert Danhauser, champion of North Africa.
After these polar successes, he also met and defeated a leopard, which he first looked boldly in the eye, then shot. According to Antone, the lion is not really the king of beasts – he just has a good publicity man. The leopard, elephant and Cape buffalo are the most dangerous animals, not counting Samoan wrestlers or a chap named Jolly Midget Fisher.
Jolly Midget Fisher no longer wrestles, but his memory is green in the mind of Leone.
Fisher, according to Leone’s hospital records, is the roughest adversary he ever faced.
“He broke my left leg and subjected me to unimaginable tortures,” says Leone, simply. “He didn’t put me out of my misery fast enough.”
Leone’s brief tenure as a member of the New York State Legislature came as a strong protest against the governorship of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“I campaigned on an anti-Governor platforma nd was elected,” he says. “I made a ringing speech denouncing the Governor and his policies and resigned forthwith to return to wrestling.”
When he retires from the ring, Leone would like to run for Congress from Dallas. His platform is simple.
“I’m for McCarthy and against income tax,” he says. “I’m going to run as a representative of the Constitution party.”
TH: The sophistication of Leone is somewhat hard to believe, especially if you are privy to the letters written by Antone to Department of Justice officials and the Judge of the 1956 Antitrust case. In my opinion, the letters were written by a borderline psychotic - wishing death upon many people in the wrestling business. I guess he had a personal right to be angry and was fueled by the assumption of blacklisting, but he was WAY out there