Synopsis
Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling features approximately 400 images from 1950s until the heyday of the late 1970s of Memphis wrestling. Fans of wrestling will see never before published images of the Swedish Angel, Mario & Spider Galento, Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Len Rossi, Don & Al Greene, Tojo Yamamoto, Jerry the King Lawler, Bill Superstar Dundee, Tommy Wildfire Rich, & Handsome Jimmy Valiant--just to name a few of the regional and national superstars that came from the rich Nick Gulas wrestling territory. Before cable tv destroyed regional wrestling scenes, Memphis had one of the most active, popular, & lucrative wrestling enterprises anywhere. Ron Hall captures the emotion of the ring; the wild looks of the chiseled wrestlers, the babyfaces, the heels, the masked men (and women!), the wrestling bears, the women of wrestling, and the midget wrestlers; and everything else in between this amazing, no-holds-barred world of wrestling. With an introduction by Jerry Lawler, a bonus cd of songs long out of print by wrestlers like Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Len Rossi, and Handsome Jimmy Valiant, as well as reproductions of old wrestling posters and 45s, Sputnik, Masked Men, and Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling has something for every wrestling fan out there. This beautiful coffee table book is the coolest book published on Memphis wrestling ever!
About the Author
Memphis music historian Ron Hall created a whole audience for the over-the-top Memphis garage rock scene of the 60s & early 70s with his first two books: Playing for a Piece of the Door: A History of Garage & Frat Bands, 1960-1975 and The Memphis Garage Rock Yearbook as well as two compendium CD's. The compilation CD's gathered unbelievably rare lost 45 gems from many of the bands featured in the books. Not only did the books break all garage rock book sales records in Memphis, they also revitalized the historic Memphis garage rock scene and helped many of the bands re-form 35 or 40 years later! Now Ron Hall has turned his attention to the also amazing Memphis wrassling world -- pre-cable tv, bleached hair, and steroids with a new book--Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling published by Shangri-La Projects. Memphis wrassling WAS the roots and forerunner of the WWF and the WWE. Many of the giants of the corporate cable wrestling world first wrestled in Memphis including Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Lance Banana Nose Russell, and many others. But before Lawler, in Memphis, there was Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Don and Al Greene, Tojo Yamamoto, and Plowboy Frazier.
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