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Something Left For All of Us by Dick Bourne |
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Gordon Solie…Something Left Behind By Gordon Solie, Robert and Pamela Allyn
Florida Media Inc. 224 pgs. 8" x 11" Hardcover with dust jacket. $19.95
Available through Florida Media, Inc.
Click here for more information or to purchase this book.
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By all accounts of those that knew him personally, Gordon Solie was a special man. For those of us who only knew him through our television screens each week, he was special for perhaps a different set of reasons. For the hardcore fan that may have discovered wrestling on their own, Gordon Solie helped give credibility and realism to the sport of pro-wrestling. To the long time fan who sat in the living room floor and watched wrestling on television with their grandfather or went with their Dad to the matches at the local arena, Gordon Solie was an institution.
Fans in Florida may have known him best, but fans nationwide, via the advent of cable television in the mid 70s, soon began to count on Gordon Solie to bring wrestling in a national sense to them each week. Like Bob Caudle and Lance Russell, contemporaries of Gordon’s who were each equally important voices in their regions of the country, Gordon became a household word, like your favorite uncle that came to visit with you on a regularly basis.
So it was a great surprise to open the new book Gordon Solie...Something Left Behind and get to know Gordon Solie from a whole new perspective. Gordon Solie the story teller, the poet.
In the years following her father’s death, Gordon’s daughter Pamela Allyn, along with her husband Bob, worked diligently to review a collection of prose and poetry Solie had privately written over the past decades. Before his death, Gordon told Pam he was leaving them to her, that she would know what best to do with them. We are grateful she decided to share them with the rest of us.
Gordon’s private writing reflected his happiness and despair over turns in his personal and professional life. It is at times funny, sad, nostalgic; but always poignant. These collected writings, along with photographs, memorabilia, and reflections from wrestlers Gordon worked with over the years, draw a more complete picture of Gordon Solie the man, not just the wrestling announcer or racing enthusiast. I would guess that even those that new him well will find something in this book that casts new light on their friend, a wisp of color on the canvas that perhaps they had not noticed before. In that way, both personal acquaintances and those of us that knew him only from his work get to share Gordon Solie together in a new light.
As a wrestling fan, there is plenty here to marvel over, wonderful photographs of some of the great stars Gordon worked with over the years. Fans of Georgia wrestling on nationwide cable TV will especially love a number of images that will be instantly familiar to them; a collection of photographs taken during his many years broadcasting wrestling from the WTBS studios in Atlanta. It was great fun remembering all the different sets and the great talent that stood with Gordon Solie in front of the camera.
Gordon Solie…Something Left Behind leaves all of us with a brighter memory of a voice we so recognized and a face that warmly greeted us each Saturday afternoon. For that, we owe his daughter and son-in-law great thanks. They have shared with us a special side of Gordon Solie we otherwise would not have been fortunate enough to know.
- Dick Bourne February 2005, Mid-Atlantic Gateway |
