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PROFILE: George Wagner

George R. Wagner: First television superstar changed professional wrestling into popular entertainment

Copyright © 2008 by E. A. Kral

The person who transformed the sport of professional wrestling into popular entertainment in America was George R. Wagner, the Nebraska native known as Gorgeous George.

From the mid-1930s to1962, he emerged not only as the first television superstar of his field but also as one of the most famous persons during his era. In the beginning, the light-heavyweight had only average success in Oregon, and he was unimposing at 5 feet 9 inches and about 200 pounds. But he was handsome with dark, flowing hair.

After deciding he wasn't attracting enough attention, he began wearing a royal blue robe with sequins for a match at Eugene in 1941.

That, combined with an act that had a policeman carry his robe, escort him to the
ring, and bow to him, caused the crowd to heckle him. About the same time, a lady at ringside commented, "My! Isn't he gorgeous!" Thus his stage name was born.

George added to his act when he was in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1943. He hired an ex-bus boy called Jeffrey, who removed the robe, spread a rug at Wagner's feet, and sprayed the wrestling area with a perfumed disinfectant. Sometime later, he sprayed the opponents and referee, and stirred up the crowd by yelling at the referee, "Get your filthy hands off me!"

While at Honolulu in 1945, he obtained a permanent at a beauty salon, and began wearing butter-cup yellow hair with curls and gold-plated bobby pins. Later on, he had a recording of Pomp and Circumstance played as he approached ringside.

With the advent of television in 1947, the year he legally adopted Gorgeous George as his name, the bars and grills in the Los Angeles area displayed the signs "Gorgeous George, Television Here Tonight," and pro wrestling became the first televised program that drew millions to the new technology. He designed almost 100 different robes during his career.

In 1949, the year he was acclaimed as "Mr. Television," he lost only three of 207 matches and received 27 percent of the gate receipts. About 40 percent of his audiences were women, reported Reader's Digest in July 1950.

During his era, Gorgeous George was thought to be more famous than the U.S. President, and he is credited with influencing generations of future wrestlers and other figures in sports and entertainment, such as boxer Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) and pianist Liberace.

He protected his family from publicity, but he did promote his investment in a 195-acre turkey ranch near Beaumont, California, and there were other promotions of such products as bathrobes, strength belts, and Gorgeous George dolls.

Wagner is the subject of a chapter in Joe Jares, Whatever Happened to Gorgeous George? (Prentice-Hall, 1974). And there is an entry in American National Biography, Sup 2 (2005) 576-577.

To date, the only book-length biography is John Capouya's Gorgeous George (HarperCollins, 2008).

For his contributions to professional wrestling, he was inducted into The Ring Chronicle Hall of Fame in 2000 and two years later into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame at Schenectady, New York.

According to his birth certificate, he was born in 1915 at Butte, Boyd County, Nebraska as George Raymond Wagner, son of Howard J. and Bessie M. Francis Wagner. (Nearly all published sources erroneously report George's birthplace as Seward.) His father was born in Iowa, his mother was born in Seward County, Nebraska.

For a time, he and his parents lived on a farm near the village of Phoenix in Holt County and probably in Seward County before they moved to Waterloo, Iowa and later Sioux City.

When George was age seven, his family moved to Houston, Texas, where he associated with kids from a tough neighborhood, did various jobs to support his family, and dropped out of Milby High School.

He started wrestling at the local YMCA, but after Wagner earned a small amount of money for winning a match at a carnival, his coach considered him a professional, which was regarded as entertainment at the time. So by the mid-1930s, George moved to Oregon, made a living as a pro wrestler, and married Betty Hanson at Eugene in 1939. The couple adopted two children, but after the marriage ended in 1952, he was remarried to Cheri Dupre. He and his second wife had one son.

In 1962, when he retired from his career, he was divorced again, and sold his tavern in San Fernando Valley. George R. Wagner died at Los Angeles in 1963, and his remains were interred at Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park at North Hollywood. He had performed at the Fairgrounds in Lincoln, Nebraska in December 1950 and February 1956 as Gorgeous George.

For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.beatricene.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.