Ballyhoo!

Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestlings formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the sport as we know it. During this period, the major conventions that would define wrestling to the present day were perfected and codified, as wrestling morphed from a rough sport practiced on farms and at town gatherings to melodramatic mass entertainment that reliably drew large crowds in cities across the nation. The narrative uses the life and career of Jack Curleya boxing promoter whose fortune took a turn for the better when he began promoting wrestling matches--as a compass as it charts the development of wrestling. By the late 1910s, Curleys shows were selling out Madison Square Garden monthly. Ballyhoo chronicles his competition with the other promoters, as well as the lives of colourful athletes like Strangler Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch, the Masked Marvel, Jim Londos, Gorgeous George Wagner, Farmer Martin Burns, and Dynamite Gus Sonnenberg.