Jules Beck, a promoter of boxing and wrestling in Pittsburgh during the 1930s and '40s, was born on February 22, 1896 and died on January 25, 1981 in Los Angeles. In late February 1932, Ed "Strangler" Lewis wrestled John Maxos in Pittsburgh, and initial reports were that Maxos suffered a broken neck. Lewis was taken in custody and held on $500 bond. There was heavy rumors going around that Ernie Dusek was going to dethrone Danno O'Mahoney for the World Heavyweight Title on January 6, 1936 in Pittsburgh, but the speculation didn't help boost promoter Elwood Rigby's offering. In fact, his gate was $2,000 lower than O'Mahoney's previous appearance in town. Dusek didn't win the title that night, and their match was a wild double-countout, ending in both wrestlers' purses being held up and the two grapplers being suspended for 30-days by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. For many years, Pittsburgh was booked by Al Haft of Columbus and the likes of Ruffy Silverstein, Buddy Rogers, Marvin Mercer, Joe Scarpello, and Frankie Talaber were headliners locally at The Gardens and Northside Islam Grotto at 107 E. Montgomery Avenue. Alex Bentley, a Beaver Falls automobile finance agent, and Louis Shiring bought Fritzie Zivic's interest in professional wrestling for a reported $2,000. Haft teamed with Bentley and renown television announcer Wayne Griffin to launch a new television wrestling series from the Grotto beginning on Saturday, December 8. The show, sponsored by Fort Pitt Brewing Company, would be broadcast live on WDTV (channel 3) at 2:00 p.m., and the gimmick for the program would be that it was an ongoing wrestling tournament to determine a heavyweight and junior heavyweight champion. In publicity, it was claimed that these two new local titleholders would then face off with national champions to create undisputed champions. 36 wrestlers were said to have signed on to participate. Notably, this was the first WDTV effort outside of their studios. Griffin, who also did the announcing for the national Chicago wrestling telecast every Wednesday, was going to drive to Pittsburgh every week to also do the WDTV broadcast, and Bentley would be the promoter of record. On August 30, 1960, Vince Risko was named matchmaker of the Pittsburgh Wrestling Club and planned shows at Forbes Field beginning on September 16. Risko was the brother of former boxer Babe Risko. Ace Freeman (Zoltan Friedman) died on Monday, July 9, 2001 in Middlesex Twp., Pennsylvania at the age of 87. Freeman was a wrestler from the early 1930s until 1965, then promoted the sport throughout Western Pennsylvania until 1979 with Rudy Miller. He arrived in the United States from Hungary at the age of 15, and grappled as an amateur. Research by Tim Hornbaker |
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