June 8th in the Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Wild Bill" Longson 1906
Scotty Williams\Red Masked Marvel 1907
Baron Michele Leone 1909
Ricky Cortez 1930
Ruben J. Huizar\Eddie Sullivan\Mighty Yankee #3 1941
Happy Birthday:
Dan Severn (67)
Chris Chavis\Tatanka (64)
Gionna Jene Daddio\Liv Morgan (31)
RIP Memorial: We stop & remember those who have passed on this day and gave themselves to the business for us, the fans. We salute you and thank you.
Henry Ordermann 6-8-1947 at the age of 64
Theodore "Tiny" Roebuck 6-8-1969 at the age of 63
Bobby Eugene Nutt\Ron Starr 6-8-2017 at the age of 66
Select Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Match Flashbacks
60 Year Flashback: June 7th, 1965:
6-7-1965: Jack Donovan & Mrs Jack Donovan (Verne Bottoms) vs Bobby Shane & Fran Gravette at the Roll-O-Way Roller Rink in Monroe, Louisiana
Pictured: Jack Donovan and Mrs. Jack Donovan (Verne Bottoms)
In June of 1965, men traveling to the moon is still four years away, however the United States is experencing technological advances like no other country in the history of mankind. Just four days before this wrestling card takes place in Monroe, Louisiana, Astronaut Ed White makes the first "space walk", journeying outside his Gemini 4 spacecraft thousands of miles above the Earth. Bob Dylan has just released "Like A Rolling Stone" and America is in the middle of the Civil Rights struggle. As crazy as it sounds, the Women's Liberation movement was about to hit full swing as well, but in Louisiana there were at least two women who held their own just as much as the men, at least in the pro wrestling business. In the 1950s, mixed tag matches became popular attractions for fans and booking favorites for promoters. When one of the particpants would make a tag to their partner, then the opposite partner had to com ein the ring to engage them. Men and women could not wrestle each other. This often increased the pace and variety of the match, which fans fell in love with. Often, the men would struggle together hold for hold for five to six minutes, then one of them would tag their female partner, the other female would come into the ring, followed by a high spot like a beal or a drop kick, which was to the crowd's delight. For bookers in the 1950s, because many performers were married and traveling together already, they could book a card with all four performers with two singles matches and a mixed tag match plus a referee and 5 people could be dispatched to a town, sometimes in one vehicle for an exciting three-match card. This particular match was part of a four-match card, as Monroe was a little bigger town in the Oklahoma circuit. Jack and Bobby wrestled each other, Verne and Fran wrestled each other, then Chief Kit fox defeated Mark Starr and then the mix tag team match took place as the main event.
Pictured: Bobby Shane and Fran Gravette
Fran Gravette was a Canadian from Alberta who had the platinum blonde good looks of the movie stars of the 1950s and 60's like Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield that so dominated ladies fashion and body styles at the time. She has been a very overlooked female performer in the documentation of pro wrestling history, having made her debut into the business in 1959. Growing up as many did in this area of Canada, she was a rancher's daughter, doing farm chores like putting up hay for farm animals and other tasks that her helped develop muscles and strength into her teenage years. Fran sought out Moolah in South Carolina in '59 to be mentored by the experienced female wrestling star. She stood five foot 8 and weighed around 145 pounds. In most of the historical documentation of her in the relevant times, she is spoken of has really being put together in both hair style, nail care and choice of clothing. Fran Gravette was stylish in the times she was living in. She was a ranchers' daughter her entire life, always having the goal of owning one once her wrestling career ended, she never accomplished that but she got as close as possible, she worked in a Western wear and saddle tack shop in Tulsa as well as May's Drug Store chain for over 25 years. By all accounts, she was a really good female worker in the ring. She worked in LeRoy McGuirk's Oklahoma territory for all of 1964 and up to this last match for her career in 1965. She had done a mixed tag team match with The Donovans on April 15th in Wichita Falls, Texas with Angelo Savoldi as her partner and had been working with Bobby Shane and the Donovans since late May. Why she decided to make this her last match until 1970 is not entirely clear, but after this match, she took five years off away from the ring. Fran Gravette died February 16th, 2016 at the age of 77.
Verne Bottoms was a force of nature. As the female manager of her husband, Jack Donovan, she was not scared of getting heat with the racous Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri crowds of McGuirk's territory. She was from Lancaster, Tennessee, about one-third of the way East from Nashville toward Knoxville on Highway 40. Lancaster is a small village, not even a town of less than 400 people, but it was obvious Bottoms had been exposed to things that made her know and understand what made people mad, as she used all those tricks every night to rile up the crowd. Two of her outfits were on display at the Pro Wrestling hall of Fame that was at Wichita Falls, Texas. One was a beautiful red, white and blue jacket and another was a shirt and top combo with her purse she carried, complete with loaded brick inside. She was one of Jerry Brisco's list of favorite and best managers of all time. "She was a tough looking lady in the 1960s, she was always in the mix of things during the match, carrying that brick in her purse, fans knew she had it and that got her a lot of heat" said Brisco who watched her in the Oklahoma territory and later worked with all four of the people in our match. Possibly one of the most heat getting things she did was being billed as "Mrs Jack Donovan." In this era of life inm the United States, it was common for women to be identified with their husbands' names, especially if the husband was an established figure, indicating a certain "dependant nature" upon their husband's profession. At the same time, Mrs Jack Donovan was anything but dependant, taking a very dominant role as his manager as a solo act and later in tag teams, her contradictory behavior to society's norms made her character somewhat controversial for the time and helped with the psychological heat that would get sparked with her actions with the crowd. Being billed from Hollywood, California and having that "better than you" aura didn't hurt the emotional investment of the crowds either. Jack Donovan has been described as a master of the heel craft by many, so between the two of them, they were a highly combustable combination. She and Jack Donovan hit the Oklahoma territory in October of 1964 as a powerful heel duo like a firestorm staying through the end of September of 1965 with Verne working in mixed matches and often in programs with Kay Noble, or being the manager working ringside in Jack's single matches. Verne Bottoms died of a heart attack on September 17th, 2009 at the age of 77.
Pictured: Verne Bottoms and her ring attire formerly on display in Wichita Falls, Texas
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History:
In one of the first examples of anyone doing this kind of thing in professional wrestling, a wrestler promoting his own matches and feuds, publishes a public challenge in a newspaper. Colonel James H. McLaughlin on February 17th, 1872 publishes a challenge in the newspapers challenging anyone, including any of the major English champions for $5,000. As an example in my article on The Poffo Family in yesterday's issue, they did this consistently to Jerry Jarrett's wrestlers in 1980. McLaughlin was doing it in national papers worldwide in 1872, over one hundred years prior and for a whole lot of money in 1872 as well.
Thank You for Reading
I'm Tony Richards, Pro Wrestling Historian, Author and Storyteller. I share pro wrestling historical items in each issue of the Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling History Newsletter. Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my information on select events, matches and insights, please share it with folks you think might like to be a subscriber!