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Tiger Tales: DuMont TV And Gorgeous George

Posted: Aug 27th 2013 By: CMBurnham

The DuMont Television Network was one of the world?s pioneer television networks in the late 1940s and early 1950s that rivaled NBC and CBS. It was founded in 1946 and by 1949 had expanded its coverage to 32 cities from coast to coast. Its founder, Dr. Alan DuMont and his company were credited with inventing the first all-electronic TV set in 1938 and conceived the idea of selling TV time ads to many different companies instead of just one company. In the early days, Doctor DuMont and his fledgling company were looking for different forms of entertainment to fill their time slots. In those days NBC, CBS and DuMont would have substantial off-air time because of the lack of available programming.


Pro wrestling and its superstar the outrageous and flamboyant Gorgeous George became a life saver for Doctor DuMont.

Professional wrestling was cheap to produce and it was the first TV programming to make a profit for the DuMont Network. Other programming, featuring stars such as ?Mr. TV? Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason were expensive and couldn?t be utilized more than once or twice a week. Not so with pro wrestling. It was sometimes scheduled nightly and on weekends for up to three hours at a time.

But the newest TV craze still lacked something, a superstar who would ensure that people would always stay glued to their sets each and every evening to watch grown men in black tights and boots parading around a ring getting hot and sweaty.

As I wrote in last week?s column, Gorgeous George Wagner in his early days had realized the untapped potential of professional wrestling and the medium of TV. His theatrics and character performance pushed pro wrestling to the forefront of TV entertainment and propelled him to the top as TV?s ultimate superstar.

He won many titles in his illustrious and famed career, including the AWA World?s Heavyweight title on May 26th, 1950. Even in his waning days when alcoholism was beginning to take its toll on his body, George was always thinking of a new gimmick to bring in more money. He approached the promoters and offered to shave his beautiful, blond and curly locks if one of his opponents in his last few matches actually beat him. The promoters jumped at the idea so the first ?Hair Match? was tossed into the pro wrestling mixture of promotional zaniness. Gorgeous George won his first two hair matches but in his last bout he lost to Whipper Billy Watson before a sellout crowd at Comiskey Park and had to sit through the indignity of having Watson and the barber shear him bald. He soon retired in November of 1962 as his battle with alcoholism got worse and went into turkey farming and the restaurant business. Unfortunately he died December 26th, 1963.

Take a look at professional wrestling today, especially Vince McMahon?s WWE. The bleached blonde grapplers, elaborate entrance music, fancy robes, valets and managers, pre-bout theatrics, boisterous and catchy interviews. All these mainstays of the sport, including the hair matches, trace their origins back to Gorgeous George.

Even Las Vegas? iconic ?Mr. Showman? Liberace credited George with influencing his outrageous outfits and theatrics as he banged out tunes on his famed piano. The influence of one George Raymond Wagner are definitely intertwined throughout modern television today, especially in the sports world.

COMMENT

Speaking of wrestling, the mainstream media was gaga last week over the announcement by WWE wrestler Darren Young that he was gay. It?s no big deal. That act is getting so pass? now that I virtually ignore such pronouncements. Young, like the Boston Celtics? Jason Collins, was a small fish in his prospective sports organization so I imagine this was as much about publicity as ?coming out.? Until one of the top-tier pro stars come out, then it?s a ho-hum headline to me.

Finally, in researching next week?s column about the so-called dangerous world of football, I came upon some interesting statistics from 2012 about participation in a sport that finds itself squarely in the bull?s eye of the concussion crusaders and liberal activists.

In youth football, there are 2.8-million players. There are 1.1-million kids playing high school football and 68,000 ?student-athletes? competed in college. Of those 68,000 college players, 32,000 were on scholarships.

In the NFL there were 1,696 players, each averaging $1.96-million a year in salary witth the average career lasting three and a half years.

As of this writing, there are 4,000 former NFL players suing the league while there are a large number of former collegiate players going after the NCAA. I knew the colleges would be next. Then it will be the high schools and the youth leagues? turn next.