Part 27 of an in depth look at the growth of women’s wrestling, from noted ring historian The Phantom of the Ring.

THE PHANTOM OF THE RING

Lipstick, Dynamite and Glowworms, Part 27

Legends of the Game, Part 1

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We’ve covered many women wrestlers from the past, including an extensive tour of Japan. But some readers have asked us when we’re going to cover the true legends of the American women’s game. One question we received simply states: “When are you going to acknowledge Mae Young?”

Well, rest easy, readers. In this installment, we’re going to cover Mae, Penny, Ella and a whole lot more, including some legends of the Seventies through the Nineties that deserve mention for their contributions to the game.

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Can any series of women wrestlers not mention the contributions of Johnnie Mae Young (Born March 12, 1923, in Sand Springs, Oklahoma)? Her career spanned more than 60 years in the ring, and she got a new life with WWE at the age of 76, when most people are securely retired.

We really don’t know much about her early life, but what we do know is that she competed on the boys high school wrestling team, being schooled in the sport by her brother. She also played softball with Tulsa’s national championship team. While still in high school she wrestled at local carnivals to pick up money for her family. She also attended a professional wrestling show, so the story goes, and challenged Champion Mildred Burke to a match. The promoters told her she could not wrestle Burke, but she could wrestle Burke’s opponent that night, Gladys Gillem. The next day, Billy Wolfe brought both Gillem and Elvira Snodgrass to Burke’s high school. Supposedly she wrestled Gillem in a shoot fight and beat her within seconds, then did the same to Snodgrass. Billy Wolfe was said to be so impressed that he invited Young to join his troupe and become a professional wrestler.
Young was said to have started her professional career in 1941. When in 1941 we do not know; the earliest result we have is July 22, when she was disqualified in her match with Ann LaVerne. (Thanks to J. Michael Kenyon for this result). We also know that she was wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee on December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.

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After the war, her career began to flourish. She and Mildred Burke helped open up Western Canada for the women, working for Stu Hart in the early 50s. She was also a part of the troupe Burke took to Japan to open up women’s wrestling there. Using the influence of Gorgeous George, Mae did a female version of George’s gimmick, calling herself “The Great” Mae Young and sauntering to the ring in expensive looking flowing robes, complete with a valet. Besides wrestling, she also served as a trainer for Billy Wolfe, training, among others, The Fabulous Moolah.

She eventually hooked up with Moolah in the 60s after Wolfe’s death and served as a trainer at Moolah’s school. She won the U.S. Title from Ann Casey in Mobile, Alabama, on July 3, 1968. (She was accompanied to the match by her valet, Cheri.) In the mid 70s she resurfaced in the Gulf Coast Promotion, this time as Ma Bass, ornery manager of her two “sons,” Ron and Donnie. Ma was famous for whacking her sons’ opponents with her purse, which when emptied by a babyface during an interview, was found to be containing a brick.

We lose touch with Mae at this point and fast forward to September, 1999. On the September 9th SmackDown!, Mae is seated at ringside with The Fabulous Moolah. Jeff Jarrett invites Moolah into the ring and smashes a guitar over her head. Mae enters the ring to help Moolah and Jarrett catches her in a figure-4 leglock. We next catch Mae and Moolah on the September 27th Raw, where they defeat then-Champion Ivory in an “Evening Gown” match. During the match, Mae is stripped to her bra and panties. Young accompanied Moolah to the ring as manager at the October, 1999, No Mercy PPV, where Moolah defeated Ivory for the Women’s Championship. The duo then joined with Debra and Tori at Survivor Series to face Ivory, Jacqueline, Luna, and Marlena (Terri Runnels).

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In January, 2000, Mae wins a bikini contest at the Royal Rumble and is declared “Miss Royal Rumble.” Although she appeared to remove her top during the contest, in actuality she was wearing a rubber prosthesis. Shortly after she took part in one of the most bizarre punishment angles in the WWF. Supposedly, she was the only woman that could satisfy “Sexual Chocolate” Mark Henry’s cravings. Vignettes would turn away from the arena to find the two of them in bed. The height of the angle came when Mae announced she was pregnant. When it came time for the delivery, the “child” turned out to be nothing more than a bloody rubber hand.

Her appearances since then have not been as frequent. She showed up at the June 15, 2003, Bad Blood PPV and gave Eric Bischoff a bronco buster. In 2004, Mae and Moolah toured with other WWE stars as part of WWE’s fiftieth anniversary. 2004 also saw her induction into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Mae also appeared in the 2005 documentary Lipstick and Dynamite. Mae and Moolah appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show to promote the movie.

In 2006 Mae, along with Moolah,  appeared at the New Year’s Revolution PPV during the “Bra and Panties Gauntlet” match. Mae entered the ring and did a striptease, while Moolah watched from ringside. As Mae was leaving, she was attacked by Victoria, which in turn led to Victoria being attacked by Mae and Moolah, who together removed Victoria’s top. Mae later made an appearance in April at WrestleMania 22, where she was involved in another weird angle, this time with Gene Snitsky. Supposedly, Snitsky had a foot fetish and enjoyed himself “fondling” Mae’s tootsies. Mae and Moolah were also at the October 9, 2006, Raw Family Reunion. Mae (using a walker) and Moolah waved to the crowd from the stage.

In 2007, Mae was at WrestleMania 23, where she appeared dancing backstage with several other WWE wrestlers both past and present. On the August 24th SmackDown! Mae again won a bikini contest. At the Raw 15th Anniversary special, she appeared in a skit with Vince McMahon where McMahon hinted that he and Mae had an affair after Moolah’s funeral.

On March 29, 2008, Mae Young was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, the oldest living woman to have this honor. During her ceremonial speech, she said that she planned to go on wrestling until she is at least 100 years old. Somehow I have a feeling that, even at her age, she could whip 90% of the current Divas in a shoot.

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The next Legend to be discussed is Gladys “Kill ‘Em” Gillem (Born Gladys Wall on January 6, 1921), a wrestler who began her career working carnival shows. When she ran out of volunteers from the audience, she wrestled bears and alligators. While performing her carnival act, she was spotted by Billy Wolfe, who asked her to join his troupe of wrestlers. She began working for Wolfe sometime around late 1938 and stayed with Wolfe until she retired in 1962. She was a frequent opponent for Mildred Burke during both their primes, but after Burke left and Gillem grew older, she became more of a jobber; in particular, being one of the women selected to put Wolfe’s hot new protégé, Karen Kellogg, over. Gillem was also known among fans for her crazy bumps. She was knocked out of the ring so many times that a soft spot began to form on the back of her head.

After leaving wrestling she became a lion tamer and also wrestled alligators in parks across Florida. Her grandson, Beaver, formed a rock band in 1977 called “Killem Gillem.”

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One of the most mysterious of the legendary wrestlers is Judy Grable (Born Nellya Burres-Baughman on August 21, 1925 in Bremerton, Washington), whose nicknames in the ring were the “Barefoot Contessa” and the “female Rocca.” Both testify to the fact she wrestled barefoot in the ring, like Rocca, and to the fact that she used high-flying tactics, also like Rocca.

Where it gets hazy with Grable are the reports that she began her wrestling career in 1938. It may well have been carnivals for all I know, but the first recorded result I have for her is 1943, in a bout with Rita Martinez. Grable worked both with the Wolfe troupe (challenging Mildred Burke on several occasions) and the outlaw promotions. She is said to have won the AWW Women’s Title on May 14, 1947, but I have no knowledge of this promotion or its titles.

It is also said of Grable in the many obits that she was a heel. I always knew her as a babyface, and she came to work for Jack Pfeffer in that role during the mid 50s. In 1956 she was the wrestler Moolah defeated in Pfeffer’s Baltimore tournament (September 18, 1956) to claim the Women’s Junior Heavyweight Championship of the world. Later, she joined Moolah’s troupe and served as a trainer at Moolah’s school. Two of her students were said to be the original Joyce Grable (Fowler), who retired in the late 60s after marrying George Becker, and Betty Wade, who Moolah christened as the new Joyce Grable. (Moolah, it would seem, had a thing about the name Grable, but both did look like Judy.)

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Judy wrestled throughout the 60s and retired around 1970. Throughout the 60s she was ranked highly in such magazines as Ring Wrestling and Wrestling Revue, so we know her career was thriving.

She also made an appearance on the original What’s My Line? On September 20, 1959. With Groucho Marx on the panel that evening, the questions tended toward the somewhat risqué, to the point where John Daly had to flip all the cards and tell the panel what Judy did for a living. The panel wouldn’t have guessed it by looking at her; here was a beautiful woman clearly out of the stereotype.

On April 14, 1954, she married Arthur Howard, whom she divorced after four children, on June 11, 1959. Grable herself passed on from this world on May 11, 2008. She will be missed.

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One of the most beautiful wrestlers ever to set foot in a ring was Penny Banner (Born Mary Ann Kostecki on August 11, 1934 in St. Louis, Missouri). Penny became a wrestler even though she was not a fan (her parents didn’t own a television set) nor even heard of women being able to compete in the sport.

She was discovered by Sam Muchnick working as a cocktail waitress in St. Louis. It seems Sam Muchnick frequented the lounge where she worked and Penny’s boss told the promoter that Penny could do 200 sit-ups. Muchnick doubted this and Penny showed him he was wrong. (It has also been said that Lou Thesz recruited Penny, but I tend to doubt this as Thesz always had a low opinion of women wrestlers, viewing them as strictly carny.) Muchnick called a week or two later and offered her as job as a wrestler. Penny accepted and was sent off to Billy Wolfe’s school to learn the fundamentals. She said that she wanted to learn wrestling as a way to defend herself outside the ring. Once, while walking home after her shift as a cocktail waitress, she was attacked and vowed it would never happen again.

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During her long career, Penny has held various titles, but they are difficult, to say the least, to track down. On her web site, she is listed as a three-time Canadian women’s tag Team Champion. That could well be, but I could find no confirmation of it, as well as any confirmation of her supposed three-time reign as U.S. Women’s Tag Team Champion. She was reputed to have held these titles, as well as the NWA World Women’s Tag Team Title, with Bonnie Watson, Betty Jo Hawkins, and finally with Lorraine Johnson. What I have been able to find is that she did indeed hold the NWA World’s Women Tag Titles with Lorraine Johnson. According to the records, they won the straps in 1955 in Ohio and held them until 1959. But that’s it as far a tag titles are concerned. If someone out there has the information, I would love to see it.

Also, according to her web site, she won the Texas Woman’s title from Nell Stewart in 1963. My records list the victory over Stewart as being on March 8, 1961, in Fort Worth, Texas. (This according to what is the bible of title histories, Royal Duncan and Gary Will’s Wrestling Title Histories.)

The most controversial of her titles may well be her claiming of the first AWA Women’s Title. She won it on August 26, 1961, in Angola, Indiana. On an all-girl card featuring ten wrestlers, the main event was billed as June Byers vs. Penny Banner for the NWA World Women’s Championship. Pre-match publicity announced the main event as follows: “for the lady’s world title (sic) . . . “the one and only June Byers against the glamour girl, Penny Banner, the leading challenger, who is No. 1 for June Byers’ title . . . There’ll also be a colored girls tag team match, a sensational riot, between Babs Wingo and Lulu Mae Provo against Ethel Johnson and Ramona Esbelle. The four white girls tag team match will be between Lola LaRay and Mary Hillis against LaChona LeClair and Elain Ellis. The four colored girls and the four white girls will be in a wrestle royal with the two finalist wrestling a one fall to a finish match, and this will be the most sensational girls show in the history of professional wrestling. This will be the first time an all girls wrestling show has ever been presented in the tri-state area.”

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However, Byers no-showed, and according to Banner’s account, Therese Theis and Donna Wimbley were involved in the match. What seems to have happened, according to historian Will Morrisey, is that the booker, Balk Estes and the promoter, Jim Barnett, simply re-staged the show as a tournament for the American Wrestling Association Women’s Title. The first event was a battle royal with the order of elimination determining the tournament match ups in three matches. Banner, Wimbley and Theis won those three matches, and, according to Banner’s account, she eliminated Wimbley before defeating Theis for the championship. However, Morrisey notes there is no official confirmation of this in the local press, because the local press failed to publish the results. It is also noted that Byers defended her World’s Title in AWA territory on a few occasions in the early 60s. There are no records I could find of any title defenses by Banner in the AWA.

In 1959, Penny married wrestler Johnny Weaver, and when Weaver left for the Carolinas in the early 60s, Penny packed up baby daughter Wendi (born in 1960) and accompanied him there, where she became the star female attraction for the Crockett Mid-Atlantic Promotion.

She wrestled many matches over the years, including such luminaries as Belle Starr (Patricia Onaindia), Fabulous Moolah, Barbara Owens and Toni Rose. Penny retired in 1977 at the age of 42 because Moolah effectively controlled the woman’s wrestling scene to the point that there was almost no one for Penny to wrestle.

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After retirement, Penny went into real estate, training horses, and spent time as a youth 4-H Horse Council instructor. When she turned 55 she competed in the National Senior Olympic Games in the Discus, Shot Put and Swimming events. Her 35-year marriage to Johnny Weaver ended in divorce in 1994.

She also served on the Board of Directors for the CAC, where she was in charge of finding women honorees for each year’s convention. She was quoted as saying that finding women wrestlers with their ring names and then their married names is a difficult task. (Tell me about it.) This has long been one of the problems in getting any historical sense of wrestling.

Penny also served as the Commissioner of the Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA).

In late 2005, Penny was diagnosed with cancer. Though the cancer had shrunk considerably by 2006, it led to other health complications, including pneumonia, which resulted in severe weight loss. Penny passed away in her sleep on May 12, 2008, at the home of daughter Wendi in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a sport where legends are invented, she stood out because of her honest talent, ability and knockout charisma.
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Ella Waldek (Born Elsie Schevchenko in Custer, Washington in 1929) was originally training for the roller derby when a male friend took her to the wrestling matches. She was hooked and went to North Carolina for training. Her name was shortened to Ella Waldek, though she also worked under the names “Jackie Lee” and “Charming Carmen.”

Despite the fact that she held several titles, including the NWA Women’s Tag Title with Mae Young in 1951), The NWA Southern Women’s championship (Florida) in 1957, and the Florida Women’s championship in 1971 (a year before she retired), Waldek will most be remembered for her match with Mae Young against Janet Boyer Wolfe and Eva Lee in July, 1951, at East Liverpool, Ohio. During the match Waldek stomped and body slammed Wolfe, who rolled out of the ring and collapsed. Waldek called for the timekeeper to take her to the dressing room, where she later died. Waldek said that she pled with Wolfe to see a doctor about the headaches she had recently been having, but that Wolfe, the adopted daughter of Billy Wolfe and Mildred Burke, wanted to work the match. (Mildred Burke would later state that the real cause of her daughter’s death was Wolfe’s over-training regimen.)  East Liverpool police initially arrested Waldek, along with Young and Lee, considering charges of manslaughter, but the death was later ruled to be accidental and all three wrestlers were released. Following the incident, fan interest in Waldek surged, with people attending the matches to see her if only to shout “murderer” at her.

After her retirement in 1972, Waldek became a private investigator and founded her own security firm. Her experiences inside the ring are recounted in the documentary Lipstick and Dynamite.

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No woman wrestler overcame more adversity than Ida May Martinez. Born in Connecticut, she was abandoned by her mother and raised by abusive relatives who hid her away when company came to visit. She finally had enough and ran away at the age of fifteen.

She trained for the ring at Billy Wolfe’s school in Columbus, Ohio, and made her professional debut in 1950. Because of her Latin looks, she was billed as the Champion of Mexico. She was noted not only for her good looks, but also for her flying tactics, and a mean looking drop kick that usually finished the match. She wrestled until 1960, when she married and left the ring.

In 1971 she obtained her GED certificate and later an Associate’s Degree in Nursing in 1975, followed with a B.S. in Nursing in 1980. Not stopping there, she obtained her Masters in Nursing (with Honors) in 1990 and was inducted into the International Honor Society of Nursing. Her work involving home treatment of AIDS patients with John Hopkins Hospital inspired her to write a paper on coping with behaviors of AIDS patients and their families that has now become part of medical literature.

Ida May now resides in Maryland, continuing as a nurse, participating in animal rights causes and pursues a sideline in yodeling (for which she appeared on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.)

– The Phantom of the Ring

You can write to the Phantom care of Karen Belcher

kabelchr@verizon.net

Thanks. Most of this I already knew but its great to get a refresher and share it with those only marginally familiar with these great ladies. My favorite story of Gladys Gillem was when she clamped down and bit Mildred Burke’s leg trying to escape a headscissors till she caused the leg to bleed. Mildred had to break her nose with her fist to escape the torment.

I’ve liked your work from the very start, but I especially enjoy this installment, particularly for the very fine writing you’ve done on Penny Banner. Thank you for all of your work.

lets chat about my fave…BETTY NICCOLI! I got a lot of info on her because,I KNOW HER.WOO HOO..the feud between her and jean antone WAS REAL!! , HEEHEE..GOOD FOR US!! THANKS for all your articles, i love them immensely!!