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Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling
Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s 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 Curley—a 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, Curley’s shows were selling out Madison Square Garden monthly. Ballyhoo chronicles his competition with the other promoters, as well as the lives of colorful athletes like “Strangler” Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch, the “Masked Marvel,” Jim Londos, “Gorgeous George” Wagner, “Farmer” Martin Burns, and “Dynamite” Gus Sonnenberg.
The narrative uses the life and career of Jack Curley—a 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, Curley’s shows were selling out Madison Square Garden monthly. Ballyhoo chronicles his competition with the other promoters, as well as the lives of colorful athletes like “Strangler” Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch, the “Masked Marvel,” Jim Londos, “Gorgeous George” Wagner, “Farmer” Martin Burns, and “Dynamite” Gus Sonnenberg.
316 pages, Hardcover
Published January 19, 2024
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151 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 11, 2026
Just an outstanding telling of the first 40 years or so of the pro wrestling business in America. While I've read lots of books and a fair amount of newspaper articles on this era (1890-1940), and even though I'd read Tim Hornbaker and Steve Yohe's books, I didn't fully grasp just how involved Jack Curley was in nearly every major event in the business during those developmental years.
Author Jon Langmead does an excellent job of tying together all the various threads into a compelling narrative of Curley's life as well as the machinations of both wrestling and boxing, and really the concept of promoting big sporting events in general. Curley's story is a nearly unbelievable web of alliances and doublecrosses, all in the name of pushing forward the scale of the wrestling business to make (and lose) lots of money.
Similar to both Hornbaker and Yohe's works, there is almost as much of the story told in the footnotes as in the main narrative, and all of that does an excellent job of fleshing out the story.
My usually annoyance applies as, once again, the story is presented as though the entirety of the pro wrestling business is wrapped around the world heavyweight title picture, casually ignoring the dozens of places with thriving wrestling circuits for lighter weight talent. Granted, it doesn't lend or take anything away from the story being told here, but it inadvertantly obscures a big piece of overall wrestling history.
Also, for those reading on Kindle, the main book is done around 61%. The rest is footnotes and bibliography, so don't feel you're not making progress, it's just the way Kindle handles footnotes and endnotes.
Author Jon Langmead does an excellent job of tying together all the various threads into a compelling narrative of Curley's life as well as the machinations of both wrestling and boxing, and really the concept of promoting big sporting events in general. Curley's story is a nearly unbelievable web of alliances and doublecrosses, all in the name of pushing forward the scale of the wrestling business to make (and lose) lots of money.
Similar to both Hornbaker and Yohe's works, there is almost as much of the story told in the footnotes as in the main narrative, and all of that does an excellent job of fleshing out the story.
My usually annoyance applies as, once again, the story is presented as though the entirety of the pro wrestling business is wrapped around the world heavyweight title picture, casually ignoring the dozens of places with thriving wrestling circuits for lighter weight talent. Granted, it doesn't lend or take anything away from the story being told here, but it inadvertantly obscures a big piece of overall wrestling history.
Also, for those reading on Kindle, the main book is done around 61%. The rest is footnotes and bibliography, so don't feel you're not making progress, it's just the way Kindle handles footnotes and endnotes.
April 17, 2024
Ballyhoo! is an entertaining gem, carefully researched and exceptionally well written. It focuses on the wildly colorful characters who populated professional wrestling in its early decades, from the late 1800s to the 1930s. Here you’ll meet Strangler Lewis, the Masked Marvel, the Golden Greek, and Gus Sonnenberg, the intense ex-Dartmouth football player who wowed audiences with flying tackles of his opponents.
The book’s main figure is Jack Curley, the sport’s most successful and longest-lived promoter. Although fans usually knew that pro wrestling matches were fixed, Curley steadfastly denied they were anything but authentic throughout his decades-long career. For Curley, Langmead writes, “the truth came into play only when it could no longer be dodged.” Even then, it didn’t matter much, since fans were more interested in being entertained than watching a genuine sporting event. Curley became so well known that a 1932 film featured a thinly fictionalized version of his notorious career. It was tellingly titled "Deception."
An observant and stylish writer, Langmead describes one wrestler as having a “chest like a wine cask.” Another possessed “an almost impenetrable Czech accent and the unusual talent of being able to walk on his hands.” Gus Sonnenberg “ignited when he entered the ring, burning as hot and bright as an arc light” as he charged across the canvas and hurled himself headfirst into an opponent, either flattening him or crashing through the ropes onto the floor. Langmead also has an eye for the choice quote. He notes one wrestler’s denunciation of a promoter so crooked that he’d “steal the cream out of your coffee.”
From Ballyhoo! you’ll learn the meaning of wrestling jargon such as “policeman” (a particularly brutal wrestler brought in to thrash another wrestler who was insufficiently compliant to a promoter) and “gasoline circuit,” the routes that cars full of wrestlers drove to reach towns so remote that trains didn’t go there. You’ll also learn a great deal about the trickery and easy corruption of the wrestling business, in which wrestlers were paid to lose and promoters hand-picked “champions” and then protected them from having to face serious challengers.
Langmead also dissects the paradoxical allure of pro wrestling in spite of its obvious fakery. By 1937, he writes, the sport had been “exposed, embarrassed, belittled, and mocked in every newspaper in the country.” Fans nevertheless were more passionate than ever. They loved the spectacle of seeing their beefy heroes defeat strutting, arrogant villains and thrilled to the increasing aggression and dangerousness of ring antics. They paid to see matches for many reasons but, as Langmead notes, “a desire to witness an evening of honest athletic competition was almost never one of them.” Indeed, the most fanatic devotees worried that matches weren’t fixed, that they were instead watching an authentic struggle. A writer for Esquire called such fans “inverted suckers.” Langmead rams home the point with an anecdote about a match in which a wrestler actually died in the ring of a heart attack. Thinking the lifeless man was only acting, the fans went bananas, yelling “Fake! Fake! Get up and wrestle, you bum!”
The book’s main figure is Jack Curley, the sport’s most successful and longest-lived promoter. Although fans usually knew that pro wrestling matches were fixed, Curley steadfastly denied they were anything but authentic throughout his decades-long career. For Curley, Langmead writes, “the truth came into play only when it could no longer be dodged.” Even then, it didn’t matter much, since fans were more interested in being entertained than watching a genuine sporting event. Curley became so well known that a 1932 film featured a thinly fictionalized version of his notorious career. It was tellingly titled "Deception."
An observant and stylish writer, Langmead describes one wrestler as having a “chest like a wine cask.” Another possessed “an almost impenetrable Czech accent and the unusual talent of being able to walk on his hands.” Gus Sonnenberg “ignited when he entered the ring, burning as hot and bright as an arc light” as he charged across the canvas and hurled himself headfirst into an opponent, either flattening him or crashing through the ropes onto the floor. Langmead also has an eye for the choice quote. He notes one wrestler’s denunciation of a promoter so crooked that he’d “steal the cream out of your coffee.”
From Ballyhoo! you’ll learn the meaning of wrestling jargon such as “policeman” (a particularly brutal wrestler brought in to thrash another wrestler who was insufficiently compliant to a promoter) and “gasoline circuit,” the routes that cars full of wrestlers drove to reach towns so remote that trains didn’t go there. You’ll also learn a great deal about the trickery and easy corruption of the wrestling business, in which wrestlers were paid to lose and promoters hand-picked “champions” and then protected them from having to face serious challengers.
Langmead also dissects the paradoxical allure of pro wrestling in spite of its obvious fakery. By 1937, he writes, the sport had been “exposed, embarrassed, belittled, and mocked in every newspaper in the country.” Fans nevertheless were more passionate than ever. They loved the spectacle of seeing their beefy heroes defeat strutting, arrogant villains and thrilled to the increasing aggression and dangerousness of ring antics. They paid to see matches for many reasons but, as Langmead notes, “a desire to witness an evening of honest athletic competition was almost never one of them.” Indeed, the most fanatic devotees worried that matches weren’t fixed, that they were instead watching an authentic struggle. A writer for Esquire called such fans “inverted suckers.” Langmead rams home the point with an anecdote about a match in which a wrestler actually died in the ring of a heart attack. Thinking the lifeless man was only acting, the fans went bananas, yelling “Fake! Fake! Get up and wrestle, you bum!”
March 26, 2024
Just finished the newly released 'Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling,' by Jon Langmead. It's undoubtedly one of the best serious historical books on the subject I've ever read.
In a nutshell, it is the untangling of the tangled mess of how professional wrestling in America formed in the last fourth of the 19th century. Then the evolution of when it was real, then mostly real, then sometimes real, then never real, then, "Oh, it got real when we didn't mean it to," and eventually (towards the end of the 1930s) to basically the same wrestling we still knew and loved in the 1970s and 80s.
It's written in a way that 1) I think would be an interesting read to any fan of American history, regardless of if they were interested in wrestling, and 2) these various characters (and there's a lot of em) come across not as relics of some long ago America, but as real people that we can relate to - even if they've been gone 70+ years. Fantastic stuff. 🤼♂️📚
In a nutshell, it is the untangling of the tangled mess of how professional wrestling in America formed in the last fourth of the 19th century. Then the evolution of when it was real, then mostly real, then sometimes real, then never real, then, "Oh, it got real when we didn't mean it to," and eventually (towards the end of the 1930s) to basically the same wrestling we still knew and loved in the 1970s and 80s.
It's written in a way that 1) I think would be an interesting read to any fan of American history, regardless of if they were interested in wrestling, and 2) these various characters (and there's a lot of em) come across not as relics of some long ago America, but as real people that we can relate to - even if they've been gone 70+ years. Fantastic stuff. 🤼♂️📚
January 26, 2026
Ballyhoo is tremendous fun. Jon Langmead brings the shadowy, fascinating early world of professional wrestling vividly to life through the career of its key architect, Jack Curley. Set during wrestling’s transition from legitimate catch-as-catch-can contests to full-blown spectacle, the book captures a time when promoters, power brokers, and performers were inventing the business on the fly.
Langmead excels at portraying the era’s larger-than-life figures, from Frank Gotch to George Hackenschmidt, while also revealing the dodgy deals, rivalries, and territorial battles happening behind the scenes. As the story moves toward the foundations of what would become the National Wrestling Alliance, it becomes clear how modern professional wrestling was born.
Atmospheric, informative, and hugely entertaining, Ballyhoo is essential reading for wrestling fans and anyone interested in the origins of American spectacle.
Langmead excels at portraying the era’s larger-than-life figures, from Frank Gotch to George Hackenschmidt, while also revealing the dodgy deals, rivalries, and territorial battles happening behind the scenes. As the story moves toward the foundations of what would become the National Wrestling Alliance, it becomes clear how modern professional wrestling was born.
Atmospheric, informative, and hugely entertaining, Ballyhoo is essential reading for wrestling fans and anyone interested in the origins of American spectacle.
January 8, 2026
A great little historical account of the birth of "pro wrestling" as we know it in the early, early 20th century. The author certainly knows his stuff and the amount of research invested into the book is nothing short of exhaustive. Pretty much the only major downside to the book is that it ends far too soon; I know it's asking a lot, but I really feel like the book should've delved into the pro wrestling boom of the 1950s, but maybe he's saving that for the sequel? Regardless, "Ballyhoo!" is a gripping, entertaining book that should appeal to just about everybody interested in pop culture, business chicanery and the American experience as a whole. Ultimately, it's not just a book about the birth of professional wrestling — it's a book about the idiosyncratic things that are patently "American" in the world of entertainment.
February 15, 2026
Read in preparation for a piece I am writing on wrestling, one of my favorite reads so far in this project. It was really fascinating to travel through the foundations of the art through the focus on Jack Curley. I think Langmead really lays out well just how spontaneous the development of professional wrestling was, everyone was along for the ride. Some of the quotes pulled from the mouths of those involved and editorials of the time stunned me in how well understood the mechanisms were at the time. Well-sourced and well-documented rise of professional wrestling in the American world. Can't recommend enough.
March 27, 2024
A wonderful but short reflection on the history of American wrestling entertainment already everything it is today 100yrs ago with colorful performers, staged bouts, endless legal and popular arguments about its reality and of course sad tales of woe fit for Dark Side of the Ring.
I want a followup for the 40s and 50s.
Maybe a docuseries with curated matches.
Everytime we think we invented something in entertainment or we’re on a cutting edge we are generally wrong.
A fun read for folks both interested in wrestling and Americana.
I want a followup for the 40s and 50s.
Maybe a docuseries with curated matches.
Everytime we think we invented something in entertainment or we’re on a cutting edge we are generally wrong.
A fun read for folks both interested in wrestling and Americana.
July 6, 2024
Fascinating read
Heard Langmead discuss this with Jim Cornette on his podcast and knew I had to read it. Possibly one of the best books covering the rise of professional wrestling ever written. Many may not know the direct line from Jack Curley, whose biography centers the book, to pro wrestling as we know of it today. A colorful cast of characters come and go along the way. I highly recommend giving this a read if you are a pro wrestling fan or just love to see a colorful yarn be spun.
Heard Langmead discuss this with Jim Cornette on his podcast and knew I had to read it. Possibly one of the best books covering the rise of professional wrestling ever written. Many may not know the direct line from Jack Curley, whose biography centers the book, to pro wrestling as we know of it today. A colorful cast of characters come and go along the way. I highly recommend giving this a read if you are a pro wrestling fan or just love to see a colorful yarn be spun.
June 23, 2024
Reading in a time where the 2004 CM Punk/Samoa Joe hour-long Ironman match in an air-conditioned sportatorium is the standing bellwether for endurance, it has been nothing short of a thing to consider that there were guys of similar age in the early 20th century going six hours in humid ballparks illuminated solely by gaslight and police torches, to the sound of a dead crowd and their own strained gasps for a victory that was already determined the day before.
August 30, 2024
A wonderful piece of cultural history. The story of the creation of the modern entertainment of professional wrestling. Focused on the tumultuous 1920’s & 30’s and promoter Jack Curly it explains how professional wrestling went from a slow paced often boring sport into a dynamic, explosive form of entertainment. A must read for all wrestling fans and those interested in the variety of entertainment forms.
October 29, 2025
I had no expectations of liking this book. I only planned to flip through it after I saw the compelling cover on a library shelf.
Published by U. of Missouri press, I anticipated a dry, academic piece.
I was dead-wrong. This was such a fun book that I never would have planned on enjoying.
Published by U. of Missouri press, I anticipated a dry, academic piece.
I was dead-wrong. This was such a fun book that I never would have planned on enjoying.
July 19, 2024
What an awesome book. I can't imagine the hours of research Langmead had to put into this. As much of an accomplishment as a fascinating book.
August 14, 2024
Well researched and well written account of the pioneering days of pro wrestling. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history and inner workings of the business of wrestling.
January 27, 2025
Interesting info, but it is a bit dry to read.
September 16, 2025
A very well researched and (personally) surprisingly good read. I wouldn't describe myself as a wrestling fan, but I found the history/business/political aspects incredibly interesting.
November 25, 2025
more pls
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews