Louisville's Greatest Show: The Story of the Allen Athletic Club

by John Cosper

Tuesday has always been Louisville’s night for wrestling. Ohio Valley Wrestling tapes their TV show on Tuesday, and Memphis Wrestling ruled the Louisville Gardens for decades. But 35 years before Jerry Lawler came to town, Heywood Allen presented Louisville with a front row seat to the golden age of grappling. The Allen Athletic Club ran every Tuesday night at the Columbia Gym on 4th Street, bringing Louisville fans a steady stream of the biggest names in wrestling for 22 years. Fans booed Wild Bill Longson and cheered heroes like Mildred Burke. They embraced the pageantry of Gorgeous George and thrilled to the terror of Ginger the Wrestling Bear. They celebrated hometown heroes like the Black Panther Jim Mitchell and jeered the dastardly Stu Gibson. They even cheered the Nature Boy Buddy Rogers while booing the great champion Lou Thesz! The Allen Club had it mud wrestling, ladies wrestling, tag team wrestling, alligator wrestling, and midget wrestling. They packed the Columbia Gym, the future Louisville Gardens, and even an open air arena every week with rowdy fans who weren’t above throwing seat cushions if they didn’t like what they say. They even presented live wrestling on television the week WHAS TV went on the air. Promoters Heywood Allen and Francis MacDonogh established a tradition that continues to this day. Tuesday night is wrestling night in the Derby City, and it’s all because of the weekly extravaganza that came to be called Louisville’s Greatest Show!

346 pages, Paperback

Published February 17, 2017

About the author

John Cosper is an award-winning writer from Southern Indiana and the founder of Righteous Insanity. He has written more than 2000 sketches and produced over 100 short films. He is the author of several science fiction novels, short story collections, and even kids stories.

John's film credits include the Fluffy trilogy, the Clive the Zombie puppet films, The Hauss Show, and award-winning short films Out of My Mind, The Telemarketer, Tolerance, and Bots. He's dabbled in noir, horror, and other dark realms, but for the most part he prefers humor and space opera to dystopian societies filled with moody teenagers.

Never one to stay stuck in one genre for long, John also writes about professional wrestling. He is the author of several wrestling histories and biographies, and he writes about wrestling's past and present on his blog www.eatsleepwrestle.com.

John's official website is www.johncosper.com.

Reviews

[Jason Presley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent follow up to "Bluegrass Brawlers" that focuses on the 20+ year history of the Allen Athletic Club from the 1930s-1950s along with all of the venues, wrestlers, promoters and other personalities that made the AAC so successful for so long. I hope Mr. Cosper has more wrestling books up his sleeve.