Promoter Joe Murnick Was Key to Crockett TV Business

By Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

In an article about wrestling promoter Joe Murnick in the Raleigh papers in the early-1980s, Murnick explained how it came to pass he wound up in the wrestling business and shed light on the origins of TV wrestling in Raleigh which would become the center of the TV aspect of Crockett's business.

Promoter Joe Murnick

"I worked in Norfolk after serving there in the Navy, and later moved to Charlotte, where I bought a paint store," he said. "Jim Crockett was promoting wrestling matches in Charlotte and I used to go watch them every Monday night." 

Murnick stayed in Charlotte for the decade of the 1950s and became very active in the community and in civic life. It was there that he also formed a friendship with - - and became a business ally of - - the biggest event promoter in the Southeast, Jim Crockett, Sr.

"I loved wrestling, and I thoroughly enjoyed the friendship that developed between Crockett and me," he continued. "This was in the early 1950s when pro-wrestling was just beginning to be on television. Jim knew I had friends in the media in Raleigh and he suggested that I might get a television package for wrestling there. That's how I got into it."

Later in 1961 following the death of eastern Virginia/North Carolina promoter (and Crockett business partner) Bill Lewis, Crockett sent Murnick to Raleigh to take over Lewis's part of the vast Crockett wrestling empire, a territory which stretched from Raleigh eastward to the coast of North Carolina, and included eastern Virginia and the key cities of Richmond, Norfolk, Hampton and that area. Murnick became a huge promoter in Raleigh, not only of wrestling but, like Crockett, of concerts and other events.

Crockett was also able to establish local television wrestling in Charlotte and the Greensboro/High Point market in the 1960s, but it was Murnick's early arrangement with WRAL television in Raleigh that would make Raleigh the TV hub for the organization. 

"We'd go to a city that had television and supply the Raleigh tape [to the local station]," Murnick recalled. "The station would use it to collect the advertising." The barter arrangement allowed the Crocketts to significantly grow their business through the exposure of the growing TV industry. By the mid-1970s, all of Jim Crockett's TV production was merged into the weekly Wednesday night TV tapings at WRAL. The shows were syndicated to TV markets blanketing North and South Carolina, Virginia and also selected markets in West Virginia, Georgia, Florida and even Texas.

It was just another example of how Joe Murnick was a pioneer in the wrestling business for Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1950s until his death in 1985.

Pete Apostolou and Roanoke Wrestling

Pete Apostolou promoted many wrestling matches in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, both on Saturday afternoon TV shows on WDBJ-TV (Channel 7) and in live evening venues such as the old American Legion Auditorium, Legion Stadium, and Starland Arena, seen here. (Roanoke Times Photo)

The following is an edited from a much larger article from the Roanoke Times by Ray Cox, originally published March 11, 2018. We extracted info about longtime Roanoke promoter Pete Apostolou for historical purposes, fleshing out some great detail about the old TV tapings that took place at WDBJ channel 7 in Roanoke.  Take time to read Cox's entire article on the Roanoke.com website here.
 

Professional wrestling has a rich history going back many decades from coast to coast, up into Canada and down into Mexico. A fondly recalled footnote involved the many Star City bouts promoted by Pete Apostolou on behalf of Jim Crockett Promotions.

WDBJ-TV (Channel 7) carried live studio wrestling Saturday afternoons from 1957-67. Early years of the show were staged on the second floor of the offices that still serve The Roanoke Times. Beloved WDBJ weatherman Hal Grant handled ringside blow-by-blow and post-match interviews. Apostolou was the color man. [The shows] were usually preludes to live evening bouts at venues such as the old American Legion Auditorium. More on the Bolos in a minute.

Eventually, in 1965 Apostolou bought an old bowling alley between Salem Turnpike and Shenandoah Avenue, dubbed it the Starland Arena, and continued Saturday night shows there. Apostolou thus had “the perfect set-up where the guys could come in and do the live ‘All Star Wrestling’ TV and the Starland Arena show all within hours of each other,” wrote Dick Bourne at Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Another perfect setup for these weekend productions was that the touring grapplers would stay at the former Ponce De Leon Hotel on downtown Roanoke’s Campbell Avenue, right across 2nd Street from the Times-World building. Thus the beefy stars of the Saturday beating and banging matinees could wake up from their naps and walk to work.

Retired Roanoke newspaperman Bob Adams recalled the bad old days of Campbell Avenue head-busting. “The wrestlers would come up to the third floor rest room, which used to be right next to the sports department, to use as a dressing room,” Adams said. “On the second floor, they hated each other. They’d come up to the third floor, and be laughing and talking.”

Apostolou would take down the results of the bouts and bring them up to the sports desk, where editor Bill Brill, moonlighting as a publicist, would write up the press release, Adams said. At other times, one wrestling magazine or another would call into the sports department for results. Peeved copy editors, with regular newspaper deadlines looming, were as likely to make something up as give an accurate report, Adams remembered.

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Here is the link to the original story on the Roanoke.com website which includes greater detail, plus references to Jimmy "Boogie Man" Valiant and a deep dive into the Bolos via Gateway contributor Mike Cline. Great stuff from Ray Cox! (And thanks for mentioning the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)

WOYM: Who were those masked wrestlers of the early days of Roanoke television?
By Ray Cox | Special to The Roanoke Times Mar 11, 2018 
https://www.roanoke.com/news/woym-who-were-those-masked-wrestlers-of-the-early-days/article_ae4cf29e-59f6-593b-bf1f-31051e4c65cc.html

Thanks to Kyle Rosser for making us aware of this particular column.

This Gateway article was originally published on the Studio Wrestling website, a part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway family of websites. 

Grapplin' Greats: Bolo Brutality

by Mike Cline
Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats

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Mike Cline publishes the excellent Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats blog that regularly looks back at wrestling for Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1960s and early 1970s. From time to time we like to republish some of his posts here, with his permission of course, and we consider Mike a friend of the Gateway as well as a Gateway Contributor.

Check out all of the wonderful nostalgia on Mike Cline's Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats.

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BOLO BRUTALITY

We don't hear much talk anymore about JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS wrestling as far back as the late 1950s. Many of the adult fans (and wrestlers) of that era have passed away. But there are a few of us who were just youngsters at that time who remember many of the stars of sixty years ago.

Good guy-wise, there were GEORGE BECKER, 'Irish' MIKE CLANCY, DICK STEINBORN and RED BASTEIN, to name a few. On the other side of right and wrong were guys like THE SMITH BROTHERS, DUKE KEOMUKA and MR. MOTO. But many fans of today, even though they don't remember them or weren't around to see them, have heard of THE BOLOS.

JCP wrestling fans still talk about THE BOLOS.

Graphic by Mike Cline / Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats

There were probably as many guys at my elementary school who tried to make a BOLO mask out of one of their Mom's discarded pillow cases who wore bath towels as Superman capes.Making a BOLO mask wasn't easy. I found that out.

First, in the late 1950s, there was THE GREAT BOLO (Tom Renesto). Then, in the early 1960s, the masked man added an identical-looking partner, BOLO (Jody Hamilton). THE GREAT BOLO and/or BOLO were the top heels in JCP for close to six years, before heading further south, eventually changing their names to THE ASSASSINS.

Fans all over the MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING territory bought many a ticket to the matches to see THE BOLOS not only lose, but be unmasked. Hero grapplers such as THE KENTUCKIANS, BECKER, WEAVER, THE SCOTTS, CHIEF BIG HEART, BILLY TWO RIVERS, HAYSTACK CALHOUN and MIKE CLANCY all tried over and over to expose the identities of the hooded hoodlums, but, alas, it never happened. Occasionally, THE BOLOS lost a match and even a mask here and there, but they always escaped protecting their identities.

Not until years later in Georgia, when Tom Renesto retired from active wrestling and voluntarily removed his mask on television, did the public ever know the identity of either of these men.


Originally published 2/28/20 on Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats.
Original Story Link

Bobby Becker's Silver Dollars

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

One of the cool things that occasionally happens here at the Gateway is we hear from someone who has an interesting connection to wrestling's past.

Such is the case with a nice fellow named Gary J. Grieco who wrote to tell us about his connection to one of the famous brother combinations in wrestling's long-ago past - - George and Bobby Becker.

George and Bobby Becker
The famous brother team were big drawing
cards for Jim Crockett in the early 1950s
   

Gary found our website searching online for info on Bobby Becker and stumbled across our post from May of 2016 about a cool promotional postcard featuring the Becker Brothers used back in the 1950s by Richmond area promoter Bill Lewis. (See that post here.)

Gary grew up around wrestlers. His father, Mike Grieco, was an amateur wrestler prior to World War II at the Cooper Athletic Club in Ridgewood, Queens NY and then wrestled professionally from 1949-1955 under the ring name Mighty Mickey Cartolano. One of his father's best friends was also a wrestler, a fellow by the name of Johhny Emerling, whose ring name was Bobby Becker. In fact Emerling was Gary's godfather.
 
The Becker name is nearly synonymous with Crockett wrestling in the 1950s and 1960s. George Becker was a fixture in the Carolinas and Virginias during those two decades, also booking the territory during some of that time. Bobby Becker was sure to be a star here, too, but he died at a relatively young age after a short and sudden battle with leukemia.

The Becker Brothers were a very successful team here from 1951-1955, up until the time of Bobby Becker's death. The two were only brothers in wrestling lore; they were not related in real life. Richmond promoter Bill Lewis, who became a business partner with Jim Crockett, is credited with bringing the Beckers to our area.

A 12 year old Gary Grieco with Edouard Carpentier,
Skull Murphy, Magnificent Maurice, "Handsome"
Johnny Barend, and Jolly Cholly, the Wrestling Hobo.
Sunnyside Garden, Queens, NY circa 1963

Being a wrestler's kid occasionally has its advantages. Gary got to hang around locker rooms with his Dad, and he met lots of wrestlers such as Magnificent Maurice, Handsome Johnny Barend, Edouard Carpentier, Skull Murphy and others. Another wrestler, Al Smith (real name Al Alexander), was such a close friend of his father's that Gary called him "Uncle Al."

Gary has a large collection of memorabilia that his father kept from that era including early photos of the Becker brothers and other wrestlers, newspaper clippings featuring his father Mighty Mickey Cartolano on the bill (one seen below), as well program bills, etc.

But of all the memories and memorabilia Gary was nice enough to share with us via email, the one that struck me most was a poignant memory he shared related to Bobby Becker. Gary was born in 1951 and Bobby Becker (John Emerling) died in 1955, so Gary never really got to know his father's close friend. But there is one particular memory of Becker he still fondly recounts today.

Johnny Emerling, aka Bobby Becker
circa 1940s

"My memories of Bobby Becker are from when I was a three year old kid," Gary wrote. "He always gave me a silver dollar when he visited the house, and a three year old kid never forgets that kind of stuff!"

There is something very special and warm about that, those silver dollars a tangible token of a close friendship. Those simple acts speak to character and affection for folks you consider almost family. And what a cool thing to give to young kid. I just love that story.

While Gary didn't have much of a chance to get to know Bobby Becker because of Bobby's death in 1955, he was fortunate enough to meet and get to know Bobby's older wrestling-sibling, George.

A 1949 newspaper ad for a show that
included Gary's father (3rd match down.)

"I got to meet George Becker on several occasions as a teenager," Gary wrote, "and he was cut from the same bolt of cloth -- Bobby and George could have been brothers in real life."

That was particularly nice to hear. 

Gary's dad was also a sandlot baseball player and he had another neighborhood friend -- a diminutive shortstop named Phil Rizzuto. "I have a boatload of information and signed photos of Phil also," Gary wrote. "But that's a whole other story."

Sounds like Mike Grieco, aka Mighty Mickey Cartolano, led a fascinating and full life. A special thanks to his son Gary for sharing some of the memories of that fascinating life that have a connection to the area we cover here at the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

(All photos courtesy of Gary J. Grieco)

Jim Crockett's Earliest Foray into Televised Wrestling (1956)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

All-Star Championship Wrestling

Carroll Hall, who publishes the "All-Star Championship Wrestling" website, has unearthed information on what most surely was Jim Crockett's earliest foray into televised wrestling.

In May of 1956, WFBC Channel 4 in Greenville, SC announced they would begin airing live wrestling matches in the studios of WFBC beginning on June 2, 1956. The show was called, appropriately enough, "Carolina Wrestling."

Here is the text of the announcement that appeared in the Greenville Times.

Channel 4 Will Have Wrestling Ring in Studio

Wrestling in the studios of WFBC-TV on Rutherford Street will be presented "live" by Channel 4 each Saturday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30, the television station announced yesterday.

A 20 x 20 regulation ring will be set up in the spacious studios and name wrestlers will appear regularly. First performance will be next Saturday afternoon.

The wrestlers who have been scheduled to appear at various times include Mr. Moto, Kinji Shiduya, Gene Becker, Jack Whitzig, Don Arnold, Don Eagle, and Cheif War Eagle, Lea, Chick and Leo Garabaldi, Carl Von Hess, Dick Steinborn, and Angelo Martinelli. There will also be girl and midget wrestlers.

Commentator for the events will be Claude Freeman.

According to Hall's research of newspaper archival TV listings from that time period, the show ran for just over three months, with it's last appearance on the TV schedule being Saturday, September 8, 1956. Demand for the free tickets to the studio show grew so quickly that on at least one occasion, WFBC moved the show to the famous Textile Hall in Greenville, site of many Jim Crockett wrestling events in the 1950s and 1960s. The move was reported in the Greenville Times to accommodate the huge demand for tickets to the live broadcasts.

WFBC-FM radio personality Claude Freeman was the host for the program. Freeman had been on WFBC-FM going back into the 1940s, hosting a popular morning program called "Kitchen Capers."

To put this show in historical perspective of the times, WFBC Channel 4 had only been on the air for two and a half years at this point, first broadcasting on December 31, 1953. Jim Crockett would not put wrestling on WBTV in Charlotte until January of 1958. So the June 1956 "Carolina Wrestling" show was bound to be the first ever affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions.

The show proved to be quite popular, both in ratings and in interest for tickets, which begs the question why it was relatively short-lived. As reported on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, wrestling would return to the studios of WFBC in Greenville in 1960 with hosts including Bob Poole, Bill Krieger and Billy Powell.

For Carroll Hall's first post on this information visit:
"Carolina Wrestling" on WFBC 4 in Greenville, SC"
http://allstarchampionshipwrestling.blogspot.com/2017/10/carolina-wrestling-on-wfbc-4-in.html

Jim Crockett Celebrates his 25th Anniversary as an Event Promoter (1958)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"You can count on Jim Crockett to bring Charlotte the finest of National figures in the entertainment world..."

In 1958, Jim Crockett Sr. was celebrating 25 years in the event promotion business. The image below is from a wrestling photo-book sold at the matches.

It was in this same year that Mr. Crockett first put pro-wrestling on television in Charlotte, the first broadcast taking place on January 11, 1958, at the studios of WBTV-3. You will notice the invitation to see wrestling live at the channel 3 studio.

 "See the outstanding events at the Charlotte Coliseum, 'Madison Square Garden of the South!'" 

Crockett first came to North Carolina in 1933, running his first wrestling events here first in Greensboro, and then moving his base of operations to Charlotte in 1934. 

The page also mentions the Charlotte Coliseum (later known as Independence Arena and Cricket Arena, and now known as Bojangles Coliseum) and it's nickname "Madison Square Garden of the South." The coliseum had opened three years earlier, in 1955, and was renowned as an engineering marvel. At the time, it was the largest unsupported dome in the world and the first free-spanning dome in the United States.

A Letter from Jim Crockett Sr. in 1950

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Historian Matt Farmer recently posted on his twitter account (@mattfarmer93) a letter from Jim Crockett, Sr. to Jack Phefer, a famous (and sometimes infamous) pioneer promoter of pro-wrestling from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The letter was written in July of 1950 and is seeking advice from the veteran promoter Pfefer, who at various times promoted or booked wrestling in New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Masachusetts, and Illinois.

We're particularly interested in the restaurant Mr. Crockett mentions in the second paragraph in the letter, in relation to a framed photograph he thought to be stolen.

It has been reported in many places that Jim Crockett ran his businesses in an office in the back of a small restaurant in Charlotte, but have never know further details. Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorensen wrote in a 1987 column:

"Crockett first worked out of his home. Then he owned a series of restaurants - the Queen's Soda & Grill, a predecessor to the Town House on Providence Road; the Ringside Soda Grill in Elizabeth; Wesley Heights Grill; Jim & Jake's. The restaurants were his office."

As always, we're  hoping to eventually learn more and will report back here at that time. I love these little bits if history about Mr. Crockett and Jim Crockett Promotions.

The Great Bolo: Colorful Franchise Player in a Black & White World

It's not often that we publish about wrestlers or events from the 1950s (the main focus of our website is the 1970s and 1980s), but it's fun to occasionally take a look back and learn about some of the key players for Jim Crockett Promotions in earlier years.

Mike Cline recently wrote about some of his memories of The Great Bolo on his "Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats" site and we have republished that article here with his permission.

THE GREAT BOLO  =  FRANCHISE  
by Mike Cline
Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats 

In the late 1950s, JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS was virtually built around one guy, a really 'bad guy'...THE GREAT BOLO.

He wore a yellow gold mask with matching attire. No wrestling fan knew his true identity, and according to a lengthy interview by the man under the hood himself (TOM RENESTO), the other wrestlers didn't, at the time, know either. This idea, he said, was designed by JIM CROCKETT himself. BIG JIM felt that keeping the wrestler's identity a real secret made for a more realistic approach to the storyline.

THE GREAT BOLO had his own private dressing room, and he wore the mask into the building upon arrival and out of the building when he left. (I'm not sure if I really buy into that, but true or not, it makes a great story.)

THE GREAT BOLO was BIG! Fans laid out their money every night in some city hoping to find out who the guy really was. All of the top wrestlers ('babyfaces' and 'heels') in the territory worked the masked man.

I experienced my first LIVE wrestling event fifty-seven years ago at the old semi-pro baseball park one summer night in Statesville, North Carolina. The main event was Indian star BILLY TWO RIVERS VERSUS THE GREAT BOLO. Next to GEORGE BECKER, BILLY was the top 'good guy' in JCP at the time.

Most of us tikes in the neighborhood went. We lived in a black and white world in the late Fifties, and when THE GREAT BOLO stepped out of one of the dugouts and made his way towards the ring, we were stunned by the bright gold colors. Up to that point, we could only guess what colors he wore. On black and white TV, it could have been most any shade.

My group, along with some other local kids, made a dash towards the masked man, whopping it up and trying to taunt him. A threatening move and a loud growl-like sound scattered us all back to our grandstand seats in record-setting speed.

Several years later, with tag team wrestling becoming extremely popular, THE GREAT BOLO brought in a partner BOLO (JODY HAMILTON). From this point on, the duo was billed as THE GREAT BOLO and BOLO, or simply THE BOLOS.

Either way, they were just as hot as RENESTO had been as a single.

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This article was originally published on Mike Cline's "Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats" website and is republished here with his permission. © 2016 Mike Cline

The Becker Brothers - Promotional Postcard

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Back in the 1950s the local NWA wrestling office out of Richmond, promoted by promoter Bill Lewis (who was affiliated with Jim Crockett in Charlotte) sent postcards out to regular fans reminding them of the upcoming shows at the arena at Strawberry Hill, the venue on the State Fairgrounds of Virginia just outside Richmond. Lewis ran weekly shows there.

Seen here is one of those vintage postcards, featuring a photograph of the Bobby and George Becker, one of the great tag teams in the early 1950s.

The postcard is very cool in its own way. I love the reference to the locations for tickets - Adam Hat Store at 8th and Broad Streets in Richmond. Interesting how a hat shop was place for wrestling tickets; the same was true in Charlotte for over four decades where tickets to Charlotte events could be purchased at the National Hat Shop. 

George Becker was a fixture in the Carolinas and Virginias in the 1950s and 1960s, also booking the territory for Jim Crockett Sr. for nearly a decade. Bobby Becker died at a relatively young age after a short and sudden battle with leukemia.

Carroll Hall, who publishes the All Star Championship Wrestling blog, once wrote of the Becker Brothers:

The late Bill Lewis, promoter from Richmond,VA is credited with bringing George and Bobby Becker to Virginia and the Carolina's in 1951. They were extremely popular, so much so that sometime during their time as a team here (1951-1954),the Mayor of Charlotte, Victor Shaw, presented them with the keys to the Queen City.

They feuded with Al and John Smith, Ernie and Emil Dusek, Hans Schnabel and Mr. Moto, Freddie Blassie and Billy McDaniels and many others.

The story about Bobby Becker dying in the ring is a myth. He wrestled his last match in Nov. 1954 in
Greenville SC. No one in the wrestling business knew that he had been sick except George. Bobby Becker passed away on Thanksgiving day 1954 in a New York hospital. This was two weeks after his last match. 

Steve Johnson, co-author of the book "Pro-Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams", added:

Did a chapter on the Beckers in our book on tag teams. I spent nine months trying to find a surviving relative of Bobby (John Emmerling, also wrestled as Ray Schwartz) without luck.

As Carroll noted, he died of leukemia and it came on very quickly. Lewis tried to get to NY to see Bobby before he died but did not make it in time. Box office gold in the early days of tag teams, not just here but also in California.

This wonderful postcard is a relic of an era long gone in professional wrestling.

Postcard part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Collection.