Good morning, the week is well underway, and I am packing boxes and cleaning out drawers for my move this weekend as the Bluegrass Boy returns home.
Coming up in today's issue of The Daily Chronicle, I have a special boxer/wrestler flashback article once we do our daily wrestler tributes.
July 22nd in the Time Tunnel:
Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:
In Memoriam:
Lillian Ellison\The Fabulous Moolah 1923
HIro Matsuda 1937
David Von Erich 1958
Steve Gillespie\Dr Hannibal 1963
Happy Birthday:
Bob Roop (83)
Shawn Higgenbottom\Shawn Michaels (60)
Shaun Simpson (59)
Marcelo Rodriguez (56)
Kenny King (44)
Curtis Hussey\Johnny Curtis\Fandango (42)
Akira Tozawa (40)
Melissa Cervantes\Thunder Rosa (39)
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.
Julius John Woronick\The Great Mephisto 7-22-1968 at the age of 57
"Two Ton" Tony Galento 7-22-1979 at the age of 69
Randy Tyler 7-22-2002 at the age of 51
Larry Pitchford\Beauregard 7-22-2024 at the age of 88
Wrestler Profile Flashback: "Two-Ton" Tony Galento
Tony Galento hailed from West Orange, New Jersey, and began his professional boxing career in January of 1929.
He became one of the leading boxers in the decade of the 1930s and early 1940s. He boxed in over 100 bouts in his professional career. Galento lost a championship boxing match with Joe Louis on June 28th, 1939, at Yankee Stadium in New York City. They drew 34,852 and a $333,308 gate. The match attracted many celebrities of the day including Jack Benny, Tyrone Power, Andy Devine and J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI. The match was broadcast on NBC radio network, and it caused crowds gathered around radios all across the United States. One of those who was leaning in to listen in my hometown in Kentucky was my grandfather, Charles Croft. That experience affected him to the extent his nickname for me when I was a small kid was "Tony Galento".
Galento had quite a run up to the match with Louis, winning eleven straight bouts in a row.
Pictured: Tony Galneto and Joe Louis taunting each other
It is said the promotional skills of his manager; Joe Jacobs were without peer. Some called Jacobs a "ballyhoo wizard". In what would be a preview of coming attractions in the professional wrestling business, Galento and Jacobs would hype up the fight the way you would become accustomed to in the territory days of professional wrestling interviews on studio television. They accused Louis of having a metal bar inside his right-hand boxing glove, which was producing the powerful punches he was throwing producing the knockout of Max Schmeling through newspaper interviews. They also bragged of calling Louis up on the telephone, insulting him and predicting they were going to knock him out, and Galento questioned Louis' manhood and made sexual comments about Marva, Louis' wife.
In a later interview about whether Joe Louis ever got mad at his opponents or if the fights ever got personal, he remarked, "I never got mad at Schmeling. That was all newspaper stuff. We were actually really good friends, but that little fellow, Galento, he made me mad. All those mean things he said about me while training for our fight. He got me mad all right. So, I decided to carry him for a while in our fight and punish him for all those nasty things he said. When he knocked me down in the third round, I decided I better not fool around with him because he hit too hard. So, I knocked him out as soon as I could."
Pictured: Tony Galento’s two sconds of fame when he knocks down Louis
All this hype about the match made it for must listening on the radio to see what would happen through all this back and forth between the fighters.
Later in his life, Galento made an apology for his conduct and the things he did and spoke. Louis said he never held a grudge after the fight, he just thought Galento was being put up to it by Jacobs and they were both full of wind.
Besides Louis, Galento had high profile matches against the likes of Lou Nova, Max and Buddy Baer.
Galento got the nickname of "Two-Ton Tony" from his side career as an iceman, lugging and loading ice blocks for a living. He started working in an icehouse after leaving school at age 12. By age 15, he had his own ice wagon and horse making rounds pedaling ice. By this age he was also drinking alcohol and selling protection. If another kid had someone stealing his marbles or was bothering their sister, Tony was for hire. He said that for a small piece of the pie he would beat the guy up, for a nickel, he'd bust him up. If he couldn't whip the guy on his own, the next day he would be back with a baseball bat for the job.
His career in the ice business continued into his boxing. After he was late to a bout where he was supposed to act as a cornerman for one of his peers, Galento remarked he was late because he had two tons of ice to deliver before he could show at the matches.
He compiled a record in his boxing career of 79 wins, 26 losses and 6 draws.
The boxing historian Bert Sugar called Galento the "human butcher block".
Tony Galento left boxing in in 1944 and started in professional wrestling and one of his first matches was a natural against fellow former boxer, Primo Carnera. Besides Carnera, Galento was booked with other starts of the era including Man Mountain Dean, Kola Kwariani, Gus Sonnenberg and Stanislaus Zbyszko. Zbyszko called Galento, "the strongest man I have ever been in the ring with."
Tony Galento wrestled in a lot of gimmick matches during his wrestling career, most often, bookers would use him to do boxing matches with a kangaroo, or wrestling an octopus and he did a tour with Teddy, the wrestling and boxing bear.
He stopped wrestling in the ring in 1959 but was used as a "special referee" gimmick in a match between Bobo Brazil and Gorilla Monsoon in the WWWF at the Washington Coliseum for Vince McMahon the Senior.
He tried to break into movies in the 1950s after the success of fellow wrestler, Tor Johnson in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and he had appearances in some big movies such as "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando in 1954, "Guys and Dolls" in 1955, "The Best Things in Life Are Free" in 1956 and "Wind Across the Everglades in 1958"
Most Hollywood critics say that Galento was a great character actor, especially like in movies such as the Brando film where he is basically playing himself. His biggest problem with acting was he couldn't remember his lines, but in the right part, he was perfect.
Pictured: Tony Galento with a cigar and Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront”
Tony Galento developed diabetes and died of a heart attack on this day in Pro Wrestling History, July 22nd, 1979. Prior to his passing, he underwent two significant surgeries. The week before he died, his right leg was amputated. Two years before, in 1977, his left leg was amputated at mid-calf. He was buried with the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in West Orange, New Jersey, the same church in which he was married in 1935. His funeral was attended by Jersey Joe Walcott and Tippy Larkin. Joe Louis, dealing with his own failing health was unable, but would have been willing to attend the funeral. He did attend a memorial for Galento in Newark, New Jersey sometime after.
One Thing I Learned Today About Pro Wrestling History
Julius Woronick was one of the professional wrestlers known as The Great Mephisto. James Ault, AKA Frankie Cain saw him working for Jack Pfefer in Columbus, Ohio and thought he was one of the best workers he ever saw, so he adopted that as part of his gimmick later in his career. Woronick, although a great worker was not necessarily a great person. He was arrested for the first time in 1931 for beating up his mother. He was arrested for the last time in 1962 for beating up his mother. It’s a true story.
Pictured: Julius Woronick, Jack Pfefer’s “Great Mephisto”
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!
Remember, paid subscribers get access to exclusive and special content such as some special issues including a multi-part deep dives on wrestling territories, wrestler bios and championship title histories, special audio and video interviews on territory pro wrestling and more special content available in the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel for Paid Subscribers.