PBAYS Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Does anyone remember the Friday night wrestling at the Forum in about 1940? I remember Lou Theis, Danny McShane, the Masked Marvel for some. What a treat to go to town with my Dad on Friday nights to the wrestling matches. Does anyone know if the Forum is still there. What was the address? Patricia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsb320 Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 I thought they 'rassled' at the Coliseum. I don't recall hearing of The Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Paul Bosch Rasslin' was at the Coliseum back in the day. That's also where Matress Mac became "famous". I have never heard of the Forum either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark F. Barnes Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Absolutely correct TJ Paul brought Houston Wrestling to the forefront on Channel 39, and gave Mack his first spots on TV. Remember Paul Bosch, the Houston Wrestling promoter advertising ear rings for a jewelry company. He claimed they even made his ears beautiful. I think they were clip-ons. Now men prefer the pierced type. Before Paul it was Bruce Layer (sp?) broadcasting wrestling matches, a lot less colorful than Paul. Paul use to hang out down at the old Lamar Motel and Drink Coffee all the time, really a nice guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREASER Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Bosch was an awesome promotor and showman. I remember the line every week "if you have heart problems, please dont come next week"..that was obviously the hint that I HAD to be there. He actually paid his performers unlike many in his day, and didint base it on attendance. Many of the guys promoted their own buisness..like Tinger Conway Jr and the fence Co. Bull Ramos and his wrecker service.I saw MM on there his first time and thought it was a joke...they used that to introduce new wrestlers...but nothing ever happened, he just showed up every week promoting the buisness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Bosch, was promoting I.W.Marks in those ads. Everyone would "BOO" MM, then yell in unison, "SAVE YOU MONEY!" It was a riot, nothing like being there LIVE to see it all. Greaser, I was always waiting for some wrestler to come from behind the curtain and hit him with a chair. I think there is a thread on here about Coliseum wrestling, still never heard of The Forum though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucesw Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Paul Boesch goes back a long way before 39 (or Mattress Mack) was a gleam in anybody's eye. The Wiki article has it partially right - he was doing rasslin' from the Coliseum Friday nights back when there was only one TV station in town, Channel 2, except when he was occasionally pre-empted by Dick Gottlieb doing play by play of the Buffs from Buff Stadium. Before that he did rasslin' on the radio.I don't ever remember Bruce Layer doing rasslin', just Boesch, but Layer was the first Sports Director of KPRC-TV after the Post took it over from W. Albert Lee so it's possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREASER Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Boesch and Danny McShane (seemed to be the house referee)were friends when they were performers themselves...The old tapes of Boesch wrestling are kinda funny. Neither guys were big, even as I kid I thought they were kinda small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark F. Barnes Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark F. Barnes Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Paul Boesch goes back a long way before 39 (or Mattress Mack) was a gleam in anybody's eye. The Wiki article has it partially right - he was doing rasslin' from the Coliseum Friday nights back when there was only one TV station in town, Channel 2, except when he was occasionally pre-empted by Dick Gottlieb doing play by play of the Buffs from Buff Stadium. Before that he did rasslin' on the radio.I don't ever remember Bruce Layer doing rasslin', just Boesch, but Layer was the first Sports Director of KPRC-TV after the Post took it over from W. Albert Lee so it's possible.Paul began his wrestling career in Madison Square Garden on October 25, 1932. Paul had wrestled in Texas in January '42, soon after Pearl Harbor. and stayed until May. He fought in Germany during the war. Immediately following the war he headed back to Houston to pick up his career where he had left off. He stayed about seven months. and really liked Houston, and liked and trusted Morris Sigel, the promoter. He started out his broadcast career in Houston on KLEE in 1948 when he was handed the mic by Bruce Layer, who had to make a mad dash for the restroom due to complications during a ringside radio broadcast. (KLEE was before the Hobby's bought them out and it became KPRC). He took the TV broadcast over when KLEE aired in 1949. When Houston Wrestling they kept getting bumped for other KPRC programming, Sigel took it to Channel 13 in 1954, and it stayed there until 1967 when Paul took over the reigns as the head man, after Sigel's death in December of '66, they were off the air for about three months, while all the paperwork was worked out from the buyout from Sigel's widow. But when they came back on air on Ch 39, Paul took them to the forefront, because he used his career on the mat to lure in wrestlers from all over the world (Paul wrestled in the South Pacific for years prior to WWII), to Houston, and had a reputation as an honest promoter that always paid his people. And that was the reason he got so much talent to come to Houston, because they never had to worry about getting paid, Sigel had much the same reputation, so it wasn't a hard sell. Houston had a long wrestling history going way back before WW I. Between 1915 and 1923 there were matches at irregular intervals. In those days many wrestling matches were often held for private bets between the contestants. About 1925, Julius Sigel, brother of Morris, started promoting in Houston's City Auditorium. Soon they had top wrestlers coming to Houston on a steady basis. Friday night was the night they chose to hold the matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsb320 Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 If I remember correctly, Paul did advertising for IW Marks on all the channels. He had those cauliflower wrestler ears with a big ole earring clipped onto one, as the camera slowly rotated to make it sparkle. It seems like he was wearing a gansta-style hat as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Montrosian Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 We have a promotional picture of Paul autographed to my mother-in-law with the sentiment "I'll always remember the good times!" We didn't ask.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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