A Hollywood Movie In Making
The Tale Of Ali Baba
#PWHS #Article #TaleOfAliBaba #HollywoodMovie
His story just begs to be made into a Hollywood movie. It starts with heartbreak and sadness, and ends with happiness and success. Arteen "Harry" Ekizian lost everything. His family and his freedom, yet he managed to persevere. He found his way to America where he would become a successful pro wrestler eventually winning the World Heavyweight Championship.
He was born Arteen Ekizian in the Black Sea, port town of Samsun, part of the Ottoman Empire in 1901. His father, Krikor was a wealthy Armenian tobacco merchant who worked for the American Tobacco Company, and traveled back and forth to America from Turkey (eventually earning American citizenship). When he was 14 years old the Ottoman government attempted to systematically wipe out its Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek citizens. He lost most of his immediate family in the horrors of genocide that followed. His father was lynched and his brother starved to death. To hide from the Ottoman soldiers and escape genocide, he would hide with his mother and sister in caves. The loss of her husband and son proved too much for his mother Mary to bear, which resulted in a nervous breakdown, then a slow descent into madness. Her deteriorating mental state would cause her to repeatedly try to flee the protection offered by the caves. To keep her from doing so at night Ali would wrap her long hair around his fists. Then one night she managed to escape. Harry would wake to find a large chunk of her hair in his hands. With the distraction and the chaos of looking for his mother his sister disappeared. Tragically, he would never see either of them again.
Shortly after his sister's disappearance, he was captured and sold into slavery. Harry was forced to do hard labor for four years, surviving on scraps of food and sleeping on barn floors. Miraculously, he escaped and reunited with an older sister in Istanbul. With the help of his Uncle Garabed-who resided in the United States, in Massachusetts-and due to his father's U.S. Citizenship, Ali managed to emigrate to the United States in 1920. Starting his new life by working in his uncle's fish market for a time, Harry built his strength lifting heavy barrels of fish onto trucks.
That is how most people know his story. Researcher Steve Yohe discovered that Ekezian was actually in this country earlier than his story related and that he graduated from high school in Pasadena, CA in 1917, and then attended Pasadena Junior College. He wrestled at both schools. In 1920 he traveled to the Boston area to work for an uncle in the fish business.
He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during 1923, serving two terms of enlistment. In the Navy, Harry was introduced to and fell in love with wrestling. On December 18, 1923 Eddie Shaboo defeated Harry Ekezian for the USN Scouting Fleet Middleweight Championship at a Navy Boxing and Wrestling Tournament held at Madison Square Garden. Shaboo won the grueling bout, but it required an extra period to do it. A week before this contest, Ekezian won another tournament for the Navy Light-Heavyweight Championship , beating N. Neilson at the 106th Regiment Armory in Brooklyn. On that card Shaboo wrestled Navy Heavyweight Champion “Tarzan” Knight to a fifteen-minute draw in an exhibition bout. Like Ekezian, Shaboo became a pro wrestler following his naval career.
Ekezian went on to win several Fleet Championship Titles and at least one Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Tournament Title. He is said to have earned the title of World Champion Navy Wrestler after a match in Copenhagen . It was claimed he was prevented from participating in the Olympics because some of his Navy matches involved cash prizes.
Another part of the story which may not be completely true is that he was honored at a White House Reception in 1927 by President Calvin Coolidge. Ekizian would also be named the “Navy’s Strongest Man” in a magazine. After finishing his term of service, Ekizian moved to Pasadena, California, got married and found work at a auto parts shop.
Although Ekezian began wrestling professionally in the mid-1920s, it was not until her was discharged from the Navy in 1930, that he pursued the career full-time. Although an Armenian, he was often billed as a Turk, a Kurd or an Arabian. He also did some extra-work in Hollywood movies, including as one of the beast-men in Island of Lost Souls (1932), and a part in The Man On The Flying Trapeze. In the latter movie he wrestled with the famous actor and pro-wrestler, The Super Swedish Angel, Tor Johnson. Over the years the story was told how Johnson had many connections within the wrestling industry and soon, a promoter in Arizona booked Harry for his first professional match. As you just read though, that is another embellished part of his journey.
According to wrestling historian Mike Chapman:
“He was a superb athlete and a very powerful man, that’s one of the things promoters would look for, somebody who looked the part and if they could actually fit the part it would be better. These fellows really put on a show, they could draw a crowd.”
While honing his wrestling skills, he fully developed his Middle Eastern gimmick, and changed his name to "Ali Baba." Ali started working in the Detroit territory due to its large Middle Eastern community. He proved to be a popular heel and a huge draw. This earned him a match against Dick Shikat for the World Heavyweight Title. In Detroit on April 24, 1936, the commemorative date for the Armenian Genocide, Ali defeated Dick Shikat in front of a crowd of 8,000 for the World Heavyweight Championship. However, this win was not recognized by the New York State Athletic Commission. So the following month Ali once again defeated Dick Shikat in a 53 minute match at Madison Square Garden, earning himself official recognition as the World Heavyweight Champion. Ali would lose by DQ to Dave Levin in Newark, New Jersey on June 12, 1936, causing the World Heavyweight Title to be split into factions by promoters. He would lose his version of the title to Everette Marshall later that month in Ohio. He lost a rematch to Marshall on November 20 in Chicago. Ali would continue to main event wrestling cards across the country and around the world for several years following his loss of World Title recognition.
As he wound down his wrestling career, he found himself financially strained. He bought a citrus ranch in Dinube, California, and used his still strong hands to reinvent himself as a masseur, healing the aches and pains of migrant workers and business men alike. He became a seasoned rancher, doting family man, and devout Christian. Ali would always credit God with his survival from slave to World Champion. He believed that any reprisals against those responsible for the genocide would be taken care of by a higher power. Ali told those who asked, "that you can’t carry hatred towards a whole group of people." He spent the rest of his days tending to his citrus trees, surrounded by family and friends, who were his everything in life. If this were a movie this is where the credits would roll.
Harry Ekezian AKA Ali Baba, Ali Yumid and Harry Ekiz passed away on November 16, 1981. Regardless of the tall tales involved in his story, there is no doubt that Ekerzian was one of the most colorful characters in the wild and wooly history of professional wrestling. He liked to say, “God always had his angels behind me.”
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
A Hollywood Movie In Making.
Authors: John-Paul Volino and Mark Hewitt.
Published: Pre-October 2014.
Editor: #68.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: June 15, 2019.
A Hollywood Movie In Making.
Authors: John-Paul Volino and Mark Hewitt.
Published: Pre-October 2014.
Editor: #68.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: June 15, 2019.
Other articles by John can be Read Here.