Frank Brown and Dorothy Livengood were married. They ran the Wrestlethon on Thursdays. Fed up with television featuring their matches without the proper compensation, Red Berry and Danny McShain, on Wednesday, December 10, 1952, went into the San Antonio office of Dorothy Brown, and refused to wrestle before cameras. Berry and McShain represented another 30-plus wrestlers who were also going to go on strike unless a deal could be struck giving them talent fees for appearances on TV. Instead, WOAI-TV in San Antonio broadcast a film that night, allowing Berry and McShain to wrestle live at the Wrestlethon without the cameras. The brewing television situation was going to instigate an all-out war between Dallas promoter Ed McLemore, a main proponent of wrestling on TV, and the major wrestling talent group based out of Houston. Former wrestler and promoter, Ralph W. Hammonds was injured in a car accident in September 1954, suffering a broken pelvin, arm, and six broken ribs. Hammonds had been traveling to San Antonio from Houston when the accident occurred five miles east of Seguin on U.S. 90. The Associated Press (9/11/54, Dallas Morning News) reported that Hammonds had been recently indicted on three felony charges of perjury "growing out of the operation of his insurance business." It was said that he'd remain in the hospital for some time. Morris Sigel, the NWA member from Houston who supplied talent to San Antonio, began to have problems with the Brown-Livengood franchise, claiming that the latter wanted organize their own syndicate and muscle Sigel out. Brown claimed it was all a misunderstanding. Paul "Pinkie" George, the founder of the National Wrestling Alliance and longtime resident of Des Moines, shifted his operations to San Antonio in 1959-'60 for three reasons. One being his health, he was suffering from a serious sinus condition, and the other was because of the problems he was having in the Central States against a formidable outfit run by Gust Karras and George Simpson with ties to wrestlers Bob Geigel, Sonny Myers, and Pat O'Connor. The latter group was trying to take over the region. The third reason is also very important: Wrestling in Iowa was just not as popular as it had been in years before. The decline was blamed on the abundance of television and shoddy booking. George was looking for new terrain as a wrestling promoter, and came into San Antonio as the matchmaker for Sigel's brother-in-law Norman Clark. The Clark-George group was going to run opposition to the established promotion of Brown and Livengood, and stage shows at the expensive Municipal Auditorium. According to the press reports, Sigel was forced to continue sending wrestlers to Brown-Livengood because of antitrust laws, and was really booking talent to both sides of the conflict. That being said, Brown was going to face difficulties getting regular stars on his programs, and diminishing attendance was going to hurt his wallet. He was also considering obtaining talent from a different booking agency to guarantee better quality wrestlers. By February 1960, George ended his promotion at the Auditorium, calling off further hostilities. Research by Tim Hornbaker February 22, 2011 |
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