The Boom & beyond Tunney

Excerpt from 'Quick Bits: The Best (& rest) of Toronto Wrestling'

While there were few threats to Frank Tunney's promotion throughout the 40 plus years he controlled Toronto and the outlying towns, it did happen a few times. As it was, Frank enjoyed the jewel of the territory, Maple Leaf Gardens, of which he had the exclusive wrestling rights. The Toronto office was seeing 200-300,000 fans a year through the turnstiles at MLG alone through much of the 1950's for the weekly cards.

Amidst the wrestling boom of the 1950's Tunney and his affiliate promoters were also busy promoting the towns around southern Ontario.

Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Barrie, and Oshawa all had regular seasons, and others were run in the summers. He had trusted partners in place to run the bigger towns. Pat Milosh, Sammy Sobel, John Katan, and Tommy Nelson were some of the trusted few.

Others like the Maich brothers (Joe and Don) in Brantford on a smaller scale and Larry Kasaboski in North Bay on a larger one, ran their own show but kept an amicable relationship with Tunney going back to their wrestling days. Kasaboski's Studio TV Wrestling frequently featured Tunney stars 'Straight from MLG!' Dave McKigney (The Wildman) started promoting his brand of mayhem in the mid 1960's but at this time he was a young high flyer working on Red Garner shows.

 Garner and Kasaboski were both promoting shows in Tunney's backyard and it led to some friction.

Red Garner and the Middleweight Circuit

Garner (pictured) card 1951 

Edwin 'Red' Garner, a former amateur standout was based in the small town of Richmond Hill just North of Toronto. He ran a small circuit using mostly trainees from his gym set up near his home in Richvale. He started promoting cards in the 1940's and was going strong by the 1950's.

Using fast and exciting middleweight wrestlers he had a strong fan base around Richmond, Hill, Thornhill, and Aurora.

His wrestlers mostly had an amateur background but it was a pro style. The lighter grapplers didn't pose much of a threat to Tunney and Red started to create a regular fan base North of Toronto.

1952 was an especially good year for Red and company. They were doing brisk business with youngsters including Baron Waldo Von Sieber (later Waldo Von Erich), Jacques Dubois ( Dave McKigney), and Toronto born Gori Ed 'Killer' Mangotich whom later found great success in the UK. Mike (aka Baron) Scicluna and Bull Johnston also spent their formative years on Garner's circuit.

New Action In Stoufville

Despite Garner's success, in early 1953 Stoufville Arena announced a change for it's second Wrestling season -the arena opened in 1952- with a move to 'Southern States wrestlers.' Said to be the same stars from the Grapefruit states which were shown on Toronto's film TV shows. The wrestlers eventually featured were not household names. Irish Michael O'Toole, Steve Zaboski, Wes Glazier, a 'Red Demon.' Don Ireland of Oshawa, Ted Swift from Niagara Falls and others from the area.

That outfit ran a few shows and one report claimed it to be the 'best wrestling show that has been offered here since it was introduced here over a year ago.' The only notable local name that appeared was Killer Jim Conroy (somewhat famous Toronto bouncer) as Bert Killer Conroy.

By 1954 though, Garner was back in to Stoufville kicking off the season with Von Sieber against Mangotich. Garner's matchmaker, former amateur star Roy McMahon (yup), offered a money back guarantee if you weren't happy with the show

If we flash back to 1952 while Garner was filling out the arenas on his circuit, Tunney was running Barrie -using famed sportsman of the day Max Hurley as promoter- as well as Collingwood 60km away. With his regular stars and guests like Boxing great Jack Dempsey as special referee, they were regularly drawing 1000 fans to the small arenas. Tunney's shows ran from 75c to $2.50 for ringside while Garner had lower prices of 65c to $1 for ringside.

*Note: an item said that the top stars had issue with the fact that Dempsey received a hefty $225 to appear in Barrie. A 'very expensive proposition for Tunney.'

Wrestling Returns to Barrie 1954 - with Northland Wrestling

Wrestling was absent from the two towns through 1953. In 1954 Barrie announced a new summer wrestling season kicked off May 25, this time with shows promoted by Northland Wrestling Enterprises headed by Kasaboski. Northland was enjoying a huge upswing at the time due to its popular live TV Studio wrestling, one of the early studio shows in North America. Kasaboski had previously warned off Tunney a few years earlier as Tunney had contemplated running Kasaboski's North. 'I told Tunney I pioneered this territory and to keep out.' Tunney apparently agreed not to muscle in.

 In summer 1954 Kasaboski ran Barrie on Tunney's former Tuesday night while Tunney countered in Collingwood on Wednesday's.  At the end of the month Kasaboski ran a card featuring the very popular little people stars as the main event and filled the arena. Tunney sent his most well known stars of the day alongside Whipper. The Mills Brothers, Fred Atkins, Yukon Eric.

Kasaboski Tuesday Night Aug 10 1954

Tunney Wednesday Night Aug 11 1954

 A July main in Barrie had the former Olympic star and soon to be major star Maurice Mad Dog Vachon vs Bobby Ford while Tunney followed with Whipper vs Sky Hi lee in Collingwood. Dory Funk Sr. and Don Evans also appeared for Kasboski that summer and other U.S. stars came up to enjoy the Ontario North. Kasaboski was regularly drawing 700-1200 to the shows. Tunney's attendance was not reported.

 At that time Kasaboski's circuit was vast. He was running shows in over 30 towns from La Sarre in Northern Quebec across the northwest to Wawa, Ontario. And working his way down as far as Brockville on the Canada/U.S. border. 

1954 sharing the page, Tunney ad taking 2nd place

Tunney Fights Back 

 At the 1954 NWA convention Tunney, who had been elected as vice-president, complained about Kasaboski going into his towns and under-bidding him to promoters. Kasaboski was not a member of the NWA.

Tunney takes Stoufville 1957 

In 1956 Tunney moved into Stoufville bumping Garner out with regular cards featuring Dick Hutton, Fritz Von Erich, Whipper, and the rest of the cast. They also go more frequently to other towns Garner ran including Newmarket and Bradford. Garner continued to run Thornhill and Richmond Hill on alternate days to the Tunney cards. Tunney would promote with 'Big Name Stars' prominent on the ads.

In Sutton (across the Lake from Barrie) in July 1957 Tommy Nelson via Tunney drew 1,500 fans for a main of Whipper vs Kiniski. It was said to be the largest draw at the Sutton Arena for any sport over the past several years.

It's unclear if Tunney had any grievance with Garner who wasn't quite the same threat as Kasaboski was.

Somewhere along the way Kasaboski and Tunney settled up as some of the names crossed over. One Kasaboski card in September 1958 was set to have a main of  Fred Atkins (billed from Frank Tunney's Toronto circuit) vs Bobo Brazil, who were both current stars for Tunney. Bobo no showed forcing Atkins to face Scotty Thompson. It said the 'incident will not go unaccounted. Northland promoter Larry K who brings in the Toronto men through his friendly connection with Frank Tunney, is sure to find out the reason why.'  The recap for that bout claimed Thompson made Atkins 'work, probably harder than he has in many bouts.'

Somewhat related was that the Barrie Fair that same month had originally scheduled wrestling via Kasaboski. It was reported that the OAC had said it was illegal to put on wrestling at the fair so the card was cancelled. Have to wonder as many fairs in Ontario at the time had 'exhibition' wrestling, and if in fact Tunney had something to do with it. 

Northland Winning The Fight

 A column in the Barrie Examiner in Sept 1958 looked at the past season and determined the best wrestling was ....Northland.

   'While the Northland wrestlers were although a mite smaller, proved far more schooled in the science of the game. They were faster, and did more than hold their right arms up, claiming victory.'

 Added was 'Best Villain - Maurice Vachon' and best supporting cast of Bill Curry, Louis Papineau, and the soon to be appearing at MLG Sandy Scott, and Frank 'Scotty' Thompson.

 

Tunney heads North 1958

Tunney in turn headed North into Kasaboski's area promoting some shows at the Bracebridge Community Centre.  Bracebridge -100km North of Barrie, 200km north of Toronto - is the gateway to the North. For two successive shows they ran Yukon Eric vs Kiniski mains.

 
In 1959 Ricky Starr missed a Tunney show in Barrie. In a column titled 'Bad Feelings' Barrie Sports Editor Steve Jonescu kicked off with 'Francois Tunney, wrestling promoter at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto doesn't have too many friends among the wrestling crowd in the Barrie area.' He reminded readers of the Bobo no-show the previous year but said that Starr hadn't drawn very many anyways - as they weren't advised of the substitution until they entered the arena. Again it was said 'Northland Wrestling Enterprise was quite upset...'

Garner Still Going Strong

All this time Red Garner wouldn't miss a beat, filling them in at the Thornhill Farmers Market shows and in his home base of Richmond Hill. One of Garner's stars Stoney Brooks was from Campbellford in the eastern part of Ontario and they ran occasional shows in the region including Cobourg and other towns. Kasaboski also occasionally dropped south of his usual circuit and ran Perth and Cornwall and other towns in the Eastern area.

No Hard Feelings

Both Garner (as Great Kudo) and Kasaboski returned to wrestle at MLG in the early 1960's. Garner was slowing down and would retire soon after, but not before a WWWF title shot vs Bruno Sammartino. Larry K wrestled for Tunney in 1958 and again in 1960. He came in for a last time in 1964 to face newcomer The Sheik who spent the better part of the 15 minute bout 'chewing on his victims left ear.' Maybe Tunney got his revenge after all.

Epilogue

Garner teamed up with Gus Marmon and The Olympic Wrestling Club in the early 1960's for a time and they had a short run TV show shown in Eastern Ontario as per ads. Red retired for good in 1964 and went on to drive the Bookmobile (library on wheels) in North York and was later the head of Woodview Library. He passed away in 1994.

Kasaboski continued to promote the North through 1975 but wasn't down in the southern part of the province very often after his initial run in the 1950's. The great story of Northland Wrestling (if you can find it) as told by Gary Howard in  'The Rassler From Renfrew' is a great read - and my favorite wrestling book.

Tunney celebrated the 50th Anniversary of MLW in 1981 and passed on in 1983 after 42 years at the helm. The promotion passed to nephew Jack and Frank’s son Ed, and as far as I know, no one else ever had rights to promote wrestling at MLG before it closed in 1999.

-AC

*The info on Tunney complaining about Kasaboski may have come from Gary Howard or maybe Barry Penhale. If you have additional info (I already asked Tim Hornbaker...)

For more on Red Garner and the CCWA see
Red Garner: The Pride of Langstaff
History of the CCWA *back soon 

And more on Ontario Promoters

Quick Bits: More with Great Kudo 1961

Clad in a yellow full judo style outfit with mask and wrestling barefoot, Red Garner- as Great Kudo-  tore up the outer circuits before making it to MLG for a few big bouts against Bruno. By 1960 Red was winding down his own CCWA and went in with Gus Marmon & his Olympic Wrestling Club while he went under the mask as Kudo. They ran un-masking bouts around the circuit including one in Kingston in 1961 that caught my attention. 

Initially notable because Whipper is appearing on what was then an Indy fed. Through the history of Red Garner's CCWA there was no crossover that way. Many wrestlers ended up on the Tunney circuit but not the other way around. A few including George Scott and Bull Johnson crossed back to the Indy’s early in their careers but not after they were established.

Kudo was feuding with Scissors Joe Greenfield, Red's real life son-in-law. They had some heated battles before Kudo then faced Whipper in Napanee that ended in a no decision. Scissors Joe taking over the referee spot for the big bout. And again for the rematch in Kingston later in the season. 

This time Whipper beat Kudo winning 2/3 falls. The recap in the Kingston paper written by Paul Rimstead no less tells of Greenfield & Watson having to forcibly remove the mask to reveal ....'a fat faced fellow with a square-cut-goatee.' It goes on to name the un-masked Kudo as 'Kudo Tokida background and personal statistics unknown.'

Later that year Yukon Eric came to Kingston (along with fellow Tunney homesteaders Pat Flanagan & Bunny Dunlop) to face Kudo. This time they had more info. Kudo was Cam Takeda (an actual wrestler) from Vancouver. His father Japanese, mother Irish, and wrestling for 18 years. It claimed he had put on the mask a year before and that most fans think the story is a falsehood. 'Is the old devil trying to pull a fast one? No one knows except the promoter.'.... Wink!

Interesting that Garner's previous gimmick as Mr Moto is as confusingly entangled; there was the U.S. based Hito & Moto that were here during that time (mid 50s). Was Red also Kudo - yes he was. Was he always Kudo - who knows! 

More with Garner at Red Garner: The Pride Of Langstaff  and around the site

Some footage of Kudo vs Bruno  and more on the MLG Film 

-AC

Red Garner: The Pride Of Langstaff

   Edwin 'Red' Garner certainly deserves his place in the history of wrestling in Canada for his tenure as an amateur, pro, and promoter for thirty years in Southern Ontario.

Red's story goes back to about 1932 when he started showing up on Toronto's busy local amateur boxing and wrestling scene. At  17 years old and 126 lbs. Red learned the ropes out of the Premier Athletic Club, one of the many clubs in Toronto. The city was full of contests at all sorts of venues. Amateur mostly, some mit-mat (boxing & wrestling), and some that were a mix of the pro and amateur styles.

Maple Leaf Gardens had been open for about a year with Jack Corcoran running pro cards there. Ivan Mickailoff, the man who had started the regular weekly cards in the city, was holding court at the Mutual St Arena.

Around 1933 Garner began wrestling on shows for the West Toronto Wrestling Club out of Mavety Hall (later West End Theater) at Mavety and Dundas St. Now up to 150 lbs Red began moving up the ladder to main events which led into appearances on the pro cards at Mutual St. Amateur star Ted McKinley became one of Red's early allies. McKinley was a regular on the scene in the early 1930's and had earned a Silver medal (and some local notoriety) in the 1934 Commonwealth Games. McKinley often billed as Canadian Champion.

In 1937 Red suffered a serious injury dislocating a neck vertebrae and they held a benefit card for him at the Mutual St Arena. Many of the cities top amateur stars came out with the main event featuring McKinley vs another area regular Ernie Hughson. Sam Gotter, a fine amateur who later worked with the Toronto (Tunney) office and refereed at MLG was also on the card. 

Garner recovered and joined the Army in 1940 to train soldiers in physical fitness and athletics alongside several others on the scene (Pat Flanagan notably). Red still appeared regularly on the weekly shows for the Crawford A.C. held at Foresters Hall at College and Yonge, and was busy organizing and wrestling on the many mit-mat shows around the area.

In 1946 he traveled to Mexico and spent nearly a year there, appearing in a Welterweight Tournament held at La Arena Coliseo. The following year he appeared on several cards in Oshawa for Pat Farrell who pre-dated Pat Milosh as head of the Oshawa scene. Farell and others were running cards with the lighter wrestlers in and around Oshawa

Turn to Promoting, Moto, Wally, & Dave    

Garner would step out on his own, creating the CCWA- Central Canadian Wrestling Alliance, around 1948, starting with shows at the Richmond Hill Arena every Tuesday evening.

Oshawa 1947

As the early 1950's began Red was also running cards at the Thornhill Market, Weston Arena, Lakeshore Arena, and Newmarket Arena. He steps out into Guelph, Milton, Acton, etc. as well during the summer months mostly.

Shows in Richmond Hill were billed as 'Professional Light-Heavyweight Wrestling - coolest spot in town - Wrestling On Ice.' Other wrestlers now appearing included The Black Knight, Juan Lopez, and Roy Hassan/Hassan Bey (Georgio Stefanides - later a referee at MLG). Garner also travelled a bit up the road to both Ottawa and Montreal and other towns in Quebec before coming up with a new angle to help himself get over.

Friends had told him he looked Asian so he took up Sumo and studied the style and costumes of Japanese Wrestlers in order to turn into Mr. Moto, dreaded Japanese heel. In his new persona Red spoke in broken English and made up a phony story about his Japanese ancestry. The first appearance of Mr. Moto appears to be in Ottawa in 1952. There was a more known Mr. Moto who wrestled in the U.S. so hard to decipher in results. If Red was that Mr. Moto he faced a young Buddy Rogers in Montreal that same year. The Moto & Hito that appeared at MLG (I have some photos) were the U.S. team.

Red had initially set up a gym in his garage and was training wrestlers to use on his cards. Joe Greenfield, Norm Alexander, Bill Clubine, Harold Van Dyke, Stoney Brooks were all trainees that worked on the local scene through the 50s. Al Korman who later refereed at MLG and Mike Scicluna aka Baron Scicluna were other early trainees. Most notable were Wally Seiber and Dave McKigney, two newcomers who would each make a big impact on the Ontario Wrestling scene.

Wally from Holland Landing morphed into Waldo Von Seiber, and later when teamed up with Fritz Von Erich as cousin Waldo Von Erich. Both Wally and Fritz had appeared on the same cards around Toronto in those early days prior to taking the name. McKigney too created his own legacy by using a wrestling bear as early as 1957 and later becoming The Canadian Wildman. At this time McKigney was billed as Jean or Jacques Dubois -the Flying Frenchman. Along with McKigney and Seiber, others on the cards included soon-to-be Garner regulars, Ed Gori Mangotich, Ron 'Wildcat' Osborne, Tom Sullivan, Al Wallace, Ivan Klimenko, Jack Flicker 'The Aurora Madman', Billy Foster (Georgetown Lacrosse Star), and Les Lyman. Mangitoch made several trips across to the UK and became quite a star there in the 1960's.

Scarborough's Les Lyman was promoting around Toronto at the Scarborough & Lakeshore Arenas and the two were sharing talent and resources. Lyman starring on his own cards as Canadian champ. One of Red's trainees 'Jumping' Joe aka 'Scissors' Joe Greenfield also emerges on the scene and becomes family when he marries Ed's daughter Phyllis in 1953.

Fighting from the knees 1952

In the late summer of 1953 Red along with Gori Ed Mangotich described as 'the biggest Toronto villains' were invited to Quebec to wrestle on shows for Promoter Sylvio Samson. Samson, similar to Garner, was promoting shows in competition with the big players in Quebec, Eddie Quinn and others. Garner saw action alongside Dr. Jerry Graham, the Lortie's Bob, Donald, and Ray, as well as the Quebec version of the Wrestling Bear, Gorgeous Gus (handled by Billy Fox).

Waldo Von Seiber also made some of those shows with partner Kurt Von Seiber as would another prominent Ontario name, Joe Maich. Maich was another notable amateur turned pro who promoted for many years in Brantford and area along with his boxer brother  Don. Red showed up on their shows from time to time in Simcoe, Delhi, and the other spots they were running.

 Back in Ontario under the banner of Central Canadian Wrestling Alliance (CCWA) Red expanded out into the smaller towns across the Southern part of the province. Stoufville, Georgetown, Port Perry , Cobourg, Peterborough, and Lindsay were all popular stops. Former wrestler Toar Morgan who had settled in Lindsay also promoted some shows in that area in a partnership of sorts. Locally the troupe filled Lakeshore Arena for weekly shows in the mid 1950's and other spots, East York Arena, Scarborough Arena. In 1955 they started in Aurora on Monday evenings at the Aurora Arena for a season lasting usually 4-5 months.

Tied in the ropes circa 1952

 Family Affair

It truly was a family affair for Red. Along with son-in-law Joe Greenfield who wrestled and refereed,  Joe's brother Pal and Red's son Ed Jr trucked the ring and bear trailer around to the different venues. Ed Jr billed as 'Red Jr' also wrestled a bit on his Dad's shows. Red's daughter Phyllis (Joe's wife) helped man the box office. One night Red got into it with a fan and Phyllis hit the guy over the head with the moneybag and it split open sending cash all over the Arena floor. Another daughter Betty was married to wrestler Stoney Brooks, a regular on the circuit for many years. Joe's son ( Red's grandson) Edwin remembers that when he was a kid that the ring was set up in Garner's backyard for the wrestlers to work out and train for the upcoming shows.

In the summer of 1955 Red promoted a series of cards at the Port Perry Arena. Baron Von Seiber (Waldo) headlined most of them with other names such as 'Langstaff Jumping Jack' Tommy White, Irish Jack Phelan, Sylvain Richard, Calvin Cosburn, and Joe Greenfield, billed 'Langstaff Scissors King'. Garner also featured the fabulous midget wrestlers who were very popular in those days. A two card series in Stoufville in 1957 featuring Sky low Low, Little Beaver, and others drew 3,000 people over the two cards. Red also ran weekly shows in the winters at the Thornhill Farmers Market between 1955-1958.

In the mid 1950's Red was also visible in his local area as Manager of the Langstaff Bantam minor hockey team. His son-in law Joe served as coach. Red (and Joe) continued that involvement through the 1960's and when mentioned in the hockey news section was usually preceded with 'Well known wrestler Red Garner...'.

 

As Moto (right) 1956

 I asked Roger Baker if he had ever attended any of Red's shows.

'I did see one of his shows in Toronto back around 1957-1958, he had it staged in an old Toronto movie theater called 'The Runnymede' this was down on Runnymede Street near the intersection of Runnymede and College. It was the first time that I got a to see how a small 'Indy' promotion was staged. Garner wore many hats that evening, including being the announcer, as well as the referee, and wrestling with the mask on as well. He was very adept in all his roles that evening. 

Can remember only the name of one wrestler who worked on that show, his name was Killer Joe Conroy. Several years prior I was invited to second some wrestlers who appeared on a show in Scarborough, one of those wrestlers was Killer Joe, and I can recall him telling me that he was going to live up to his moniker that night. Being a young guy at the time and not having been clued in, this big brawler had me on edge.'

The intimidating Killer Conroy returned on Red's shows under several aliases including Mr X, The Masked Marvel, and bearded 'Russian' Ivan Volkoff. Conroy, who retired around 1970, later was the doorman at Kelly's bar at Shuter and Dundas and had quite a reputation. 

Kudo on the mat 1960

Gus Marmon, another former amateur star,  was putting on shows under the name Olympic Wrestling Club. Marmon had a partnership of sorts with Garner, hitting many of the same towns with many of the same wrestlers as was appearing on Red's shows, as well as Red himself. Red at this time had taken a job with the Toronto Library and started to wrestle under a mask to avoid being recognized.

A 1960 Cobourg ad has  'Channel 11 in Kingston for a new ‘Live Wrestling Show starting June 11 Featuring International TV Stars, Ali Pasha, Cowboy Carlson, Danny Shayne, The Blonde Bomber, Kudo'. Unsure if that ever got off the ground but the promotion continued. Along with the smaller towns in Ontario Marmon held some shows at the Lansdowne Theater in Toronto in 1961. Others on these cards included Conroy, the Jennings Brothers, including Sudbury's Wilf 'the Wolf' Jennings (who later worked as a ref/photographer for McKigney and Tunney) Tony Manousos, and Garner regulars Orlando and Osborne. Headlining these shows was The Great Kudo.

The Great Kudo   

As Kudo vs Bruno MLG 1962

This was the new masked persona for Red - The Great Kudo - and he wrestled barefoot. Kudo made his debut around 1960 on the circuit shows before showing up at MLG in February 1962. He wore a striking yellow mask with matching cape and kept an Asian style gimmick (pre bout ceremony).

After a few bouts Kudo was matched up against the newest Toronto star Bruno Sammartino and the two got embroiled in a lively feud. During one bout Kudo's manager Sam Sullivan (Gus Marmon?) got involved with Bruno and a near riot ensued.

Roger was at ringside and taking photos on that night.

'As I recall it was a very rough match and both wrestlers got involved with some rowdy ringsiders who tried to beat up Garner's manager for this appearance.'   

*note - now available to be seen on MLG Film 1962-1964

 Bruno went on to win the WWWF title and in his first Toronto appearance as champion, his opponent again was Kudo.

Red hung up the boots soon thereafter as the ring was taking its toll on both his body and his family life. In an 1981 article he remarks 'I was too old, too tired, and it was too hard to keep in shape' and how he 'wanted to spend more time with Dorothy and the kids.' He worked up to be a Chief Librarian in Toronto before retiring in 1980. In 1981 he became restless and took on a job driving the kids favorite, the Bookmobile. Our pal Griff remembers that...

Enjoying retirement with Dorothy

    Red passed away in 1994 and while most remembered in the wrestling community as the trainer of Waldo and Dave among others, he certainly had a major impact on the local scene. He also likely inspired McKigney to branch out on his own as Dave started promoting around 1964, filling in where Red once filled the smaller arenas.

-AC

Thanks to E Greenfield for his help and photos 

Thanks to Roger Baker

Some info on Ted McKinley here Ted McKinley

More on Gori Ed Mangotich

Some rare footage of Garner as Kudo vs Bruno at MLG Film 1962-1964