Let's Go To The Movies
Chapter Two: The Rise of Hollywood
#PWHS #Article #LetsGoToTheMovies #RiseOfHollywood
As mentioned in the previous article there were many, many wrestlers who featured in movies over the course of time. So many that it would be an incredibly long and tedious article were I to recount them all. Instead I will focus on a small selection of guys who made a name for themselves in the platforms of both movies and professional wrestling.
With World War I out of the way with and America already starting to make the vast advancements in motion picture technology, it comes as no surprise that in the 1920's that the scene really exploded. Sound in movies began to appear and become increasingly more frequent until it totally took over the silent pictures by the end of the decade. More movies then ever were being produced as well as a serious uptake in wrestling matches themselves being caught on film. Arguably the most famous being the surviving newsreel footage of Joe Stecher versus Earl Caddock from January 30, 1920 which is often wrongly called the "Oldest professional wrestling footage in existence." It is merely the oldest known in America, as is often the case people forget professional wrestling has a longer and equally luxurious history outside of the United States, but I digress.
After William Muldoon's appearance in the Other Girl from 1916, Constantine Romanoff made his in 1921. Romanoff like many after him would be utilized as a villain in movies due to his hard-life looks. He appeared in a total of one-hundred-and-eighteen movies up until 1951. From Kid Brother to Flash Gordon to It's a Wonderful Life.
What was quite remarkable about Romanoff though was that he did something that not all of the wrestlers in the 1920's were able to do. Romanoff managed to survive into the era of sound. While there were plenty of wrestlers who were perfect for the silent pictures, many of which struggled once there was the addition of talking. Romanoff, who as you can see by the longevity of his career, maintained a regular role in Hollywood for three decades. He saw the industry go from black-and-white silent movies to technicolor extravaganzas.
Next up we have a man who only wrestled professionally briefly. He had been an amateur wrestling star and silver medalist in freestyle wrestling at the 1920 Olympic Games and went on to star in one-hundred-and-fourteen movies between 1924 and 1956. His name was Nat Pendleton.
In several of the Marx brothers movies Pendleton made appearances, but possibly his most well known movie role was that of the one in The Great Ziegfried where Pendleton played the part of the one and only Eugen Sandow. The wrestler also had a re-occurring role in the television series based around Dr. Kildaire and Dr. Gillespie, playing the role of Joe Weyman.
George Kotsonaros prior to wrestling he had been a prize fighter and thus had a rugged look about himself. With cauliflower ears and visible wounds from his many fights over the years, no-one was more suited to play the thuggish villain or monster of your nightmares than Kotsonaros. From 1926-1931 he appeared in a total of eighteen known movies.
One of the most famous appearances he made came in The Wizard. For that appearance he basically wore a gorilla suit, but kept his own head to make quite a freakish looking beast. Something striking about this movie is how much of a cult following it seems to have for a movie that is lost by all reliable accounts, although some people do claim to have seen it and refer to it as a very good movie which is a direct contradiction of reviews at the time of it's release. Either way, through this movie and another one which you may have heard of called Honeymoon Lane, Kotsonaros has become immortalized. Not only that, but Kotsonaros appeared in several Laurel and Hardy movies and is considered by many fans of the comedic pair, one the best "thugs" they ever used. Unfortunately his life was cut short while driving between towns for a wrestling show.
Another name associated with Hollywood even though he never appeared in a movie to the best of my knowledge was Patrick Finnegan better known as Lord Lansdowne. Finnegan who was an innovative junior heavyweight in professional wrestling found himself at home among the Hollywood stars of of the mid-1930's. He received a lot of attention when he was questioned over the murder of hotel starlet, Thelma 'Hot Toddy' Todd.
Strangely there were not a whole lot of big wrestling name cross-overs, probably because there was more money for the top of the pack in wrestling than in front of a camera. However, Wladek Zbyszko did try his hand at making a couple of movies during 1932. He appeared in Flesh, Deception and Up Town New York. And his brother, Stanislaus, made an appearance in Madison Sq. Garden in that same year. In both cases they were portraying the character of a wrestler.
That's just a handful of guys who made a name for themselves in the 1920's and the 1930's, there are many more. Some of which will be looked at in the next part, they just haven't been included in this one because they made a name in movies later on. For now though, thank you for coming with me to the movies and next time we'll look at the first peak for a wrestler starring in Hollywood.
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Let's Go To The Movies: Chapter
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: July 2014.
Article: #38.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Let's Go To The Movies: Chapter
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: July 2014.
Article: #38.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Let's Go To The Movies: Chapter Three - Read Here.
Let's Go To The Movies: Chapter One - Read Here.
Other articles by Jimmy can be Read Here.