08.06.2004, 11:45
Sunday Morning, August 15, 1965
Augusta Chronicle-Herald
Augusta, Georgia
Happy’s ‘panting’ for sales
Augusta’s Happy Humphrey, the slim shoe cobbler, may have lost a few pounds but he’s a heavyweight in the salesmanship department.
The former wrestler who made headlines by losing 570 pounds on a Medical College of Georgia diet, is selling his old trousers for $50 a pair.
Latest buyer is a San Francisco man who wants a pair of the king-size trousers for the Kalico Katz Square Dance Assn.’s annual hoedown there Oct. 23.
The square dance caller plans to dye them pink – he is know (sic) as “Pink Pants” – to liven things up a bit.
If the market holds, Happy said, he may have to “whip up” a few extra pair since he has only two more sales to make before his present stock is exhausted.
Happy – his real name is William J. Cobb – has little use for the trousers now. He has dropped from a whopping 802 pounds to a mere 232.
He now works for a shoe repair shop here and is apparantly doing all right for himself. But, two years in a hospital is a long time and Happy admits that he could use some extra money.
“Anybody wants to buy a pair of pants for $50 just call me,” he said.
Tuesday, August 17, 1937
Augusta Chronicle
Augusta, Georiga
Musician Lauds Wrestlers
Ex-Violinist Turned Grunt and Groan Specialist Says Tossers Are ‘High Class’ – Professionals Really Earn Money – Mortality Rate High
By Paul Mickelson
New York, August 16 – (AP) – A talk with Ray Fabiani, a sensitive man who gave up a brillant career as a concert violinist to promote professional wrestling, leaves a warmer spot in one’s heart for the groan and grunt boys.
Since pro wrestling went in for gag and burlesque stuff, it always has struck me as a sport for rubes with a flock of bums getting paid for rough stuff that no longer goes in saloons and taverns. But Fabiani, whose real name is Aurelio, insists wrestlers are high class fellows who save their dough and pay a terrific price to get it.
So heavy is the toll, says Fabiani, that 35 wrestlers have died of injuries on the mat during the last three years.
“Sure, they all are experts in the art of tumbling,” he said, “but even so the fatality rate is exceptionally high. Don’t think they don’t earn every cent they get. Those who do escape with their lives are lucky if they aren’t crippled. For instance, there’s Joe Stecher – one of the very best and cleanest. Today, Joe is a physical wreck, trying to recuperate in a naval hospital outside of Minneapolis. I couldn’t help but cry when I saw poor Joe. He made money but how he’s earned it. Incidentally, do you know no pro wrestler can get insurance? The risk is too great.”
The average wrestler, Maestro Fabiani estimates, makes from $20,000 to $30,000 a year. The greatest drawing card of them all, of course, was Jim Londos, who drew a total gross gate of approximately $11,000,000 over three years. Gus Sonnenberg ranked next to the Greek Adonis over the golden era.
“If you check further,” continued Fabiani, “you’ll never find a real down and outer wrestling man. They’re different than the average run of fighters. Your average fighter comes from pool halls and street corners; your average wrestler is a college man or a farmer who left a plow to toss bodies around. You seldom see an old wrestler broke. The high percentage of old fighters is busted, flat and down and out.”
It was Londos who got Fabiani to leave the concert stage to take up wrestling promoter. After a performance at the Chicago Civic Opera 13 years ago, Londos came back stage to compliment Fabiani on his violin solo. They became fast friends, Fabiani became interested in wrestling, and promoted his first show in Baltimore as Marie Jeritza, noted soprano, held up her hands in horror at the thought of Fabiani leaving violins for grunters.
Augusta Chronicle-Herald
Augusta, Georgia
Happy’s ‘panting’ for sales
Augusta’s Happy Humphrey, the slim shoe cobbler, may have lost a few pounds but he’s a heavyweight in the salesmanship department.
The former wrestler who made headlines by losing 570 pounds on a Medical College of Georgia diet, is selling his old trousers for $50 a pair.
Latest buyer is a San Francisco man who wants a pair of the king-size trousers for the Kalico Katz Square Dance Assn.’s annual hoedown there Oct. 23.
The square dance caller plans to dye them pink – he is know (sic) as “Pink Pants” – to liven things up a bit.
If the market holds, Happy said, he may have to “whip up” a few extra pair since he has only two more sales to make before his present stock is exhausted.
Happy – his real name is William J. Cobb – has little use for the trousers now. He has dropped from a whopping 802 pounds to a mere 232.
He now works for a shoe repair shop here and is apparantly doing all right for himself. But, two years in a hospital is a long time and Happy admits that he could use some extra money.
“Anybody wants to buy a pair of pants for $50 just call me,” he said.
Tuesday, August 17, 1937
Augusta Chronicle
Augusta, Georiga
Musician Lauds Wrestlers
Ex-Violinist Turned Grunt and Groan Specialist Says Tossers Are ‘High Class’ – Professionals Really Earn Money – Mortality Rate High
By Paul Mickelson
New York, August 16 – (AP) – A talk with Ray Fabiani, a sensitive man who gave up a brillant career as a concert violinist to promote professional wrestling, leaves a warmer spot in one’s heart for the groan and grunt boys.
Since pro wrestling went in for gag and burlesque stuff, it always has struck me as a sport for rubes with a flock of bums getting paid for rough stuff that no longer goes in saloons and taverns. But Fabiani, whose real name is Aurelio, insists wrestlers are high class fellows who save their dough and pay a terrific price to get it.
So heavy is the toll, says Fabiani, that 35 wrestlers have died of injuries on the mat during the last three years.
“Sure, they all are experts in the art of tumbling,” he said, “but even so the fatality rate is exceptionally high. Don’t think they don’t earn every cent they get. Those who do escape with their lives are lucky if they aren’t crippled. For instance, there’s Joe Stecher – one of the very best and cleanest. Today, Joe is a physical wreck, trying to recuperate in a naval hospital outside of Minneapolis. I couldn’t help but cry when I saw poor Joe. He made money but how he’s earned it. Incidentally, do you know no pro wrestler can get insurance? The risk is too great.”
The average wrestler, Maestro Fabiani estimates, makes from $20,000 to $30,000 a year. The greatest drawing card of them all, of course, was Jim Londos, who drew a total gross gate of approximately $11,000,000 over three years. Gus Sonnenberg ranked next to the Greek Adonis over the golden era.
“If you check further,” continued Fabiani, “you’ll never find a real down and outer wrestling man. They’re different than the average run of fighters. Your average fighter comes from pool halls and street corners; your average wrestler is a college man or a farmer who left a plow to toss bodies around. You seldom see an old wrestler broke. The high percentage of old fighters is busted, flat and down and out.”
It was Londos who got Fabiani to leave the concert stage to take up wrestling promoter. After a performance at the Chicago Civic Opera 13 years ago, Londos came back stage to compliment Fabiani on his violin solo. They became fast friends, Fabiani became interested in wrestling, and promoted his first show in Baltimore as Marie Jeritza, noted soprano, held up her hands in horror at the thought of Fabiani leaving violins for grunters.