"Gorgeous George" - flamboyant early TV wrestler/showman

[+ azdr0710]

inspired by an LPSG post, I did some research on George Wagner (1915-1963), who I'd never heard of before....very condensed summary ahead:   way before there were all those flashy pseudo-wrestlers in the 1970s/80s/90s, there was Gorgeous George way back in the earliest days of TV......early in his career, though straight, he created an extremely flamboyant persona for his wrestling "shows" (even back then it was mostly "fake", though Wagner was a competent wrestler)......ticket sales and personal fame skyrocketed and he's highly credited with making television a profitable venture in its early days and with influencing much of later pop culture celebrities......Muhammad Ali and James Brown said their flamboyant public personas were partly due to the influence of Wagner........Bugs Bunny wrestled a flamboyant "Ravishing Ronald" (an obvious play on the Gorgeous George alliteration) in one 1950 episode and "I Love Lucy" made a few references to George in the day......he died in 1963 of liver cirrhosis and a heart attack at age 48

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgeous_George#:~:text=George Raymond Wagner (March 24%2C,was an American professional wrestler

 

 

 

 

 

    

[+ purplekow]

 

this brought back memories of my grandmother, who spoke little English, sitting and watching wrestling, specifically and initially Gorgeous George.  I remember his dancingin the ring and shaking his hea to make his blond hair fly.  Later, My grandmother enjoyed Argine Apollo and the beautiful beast that was the hairy Bruno Sammartino.  My Grndmother was widowed at age 30 and never remarried.  Now I think she was probably tittilated by these men and that may also partially account for my own preference for very muscular men and men in speedos.