The Mighty Milo

by Phillips Rogers

Fred Anspach, an amateur wrestler who worked in a supermarket, had a funny customer. The customer was a Greek waiter, five-foot-three and about as broad, egg-headed, a guy who bought apples, bananas and lettuce and lived on this diet. But when Fred made a date with his customer for a little friendly wrestling at the “Y” gym, he learned that, although Milo Popolagos looked fat, he was immensely strong and could wrestle like old Milo of ancient Greece. Maybe he’s the greatest wrestler in the world, Fred thought … Here’s the story of Milo as told by Fred Anspach with the best literary flourishes a youth with a limited education can think of. What does it matter if the flourishes turn into malaproprisms? Fred gets across, with Ring Lardner-like raciness of speech, the fantastic, humorous and human side of the grunt-and- groan industry. It’s all here — the weekly club engagements in Baltimore, the “rassle royals” in mud or molasses, and finally, the TV wrestling shows that today are so popular with the ladies. Here too are lady wrestlers, and a strip-tease actress who catches Milo’s eye, and Betty Jane Blane who objects to Fred Anspach’s wrestling but, like a woman, changes her mind. The Mighty Milo gives an authentic picture of wrestling and answers the are wrestling matches on the level? It gives you characters for whom you will develop an affection even while you are smiling at their mastodonic antics. And it gives you that fine expansive feeling that only warm, genial humor can produce — and the author of The Mighty Milo is genial, warm and humorous. Phillips Rogers is a well-known novelist with a string of book club selections and successes who occasionally uses a pen name. A few years ago, he put forth under the name of Phillips Rogers a novel, Stag Night, that made a hit both in hard-covers and in soft-cover reprint. Under still another name, Phillips Rogers was once a professional wrestler — he still coaches a little — and he knows whereof he writes when he takes you into the dressing-rooms of his gladiators.

120 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 1954

About the author

Pseudonym of Albert E. Idell.

Reviews

[Jason Presley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read. Very much of it's time, and skirts the edge of giving away the whole game of wrestling without quite doing it.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top marks for both the storytelling and characters. (Full disclosure, I'm a fan of old-time rasslin'.)

Notes:
Read the 2019 reissue by CrowbarPress.com
(The 1954 original was 191 pages, this is 120. Page reduction due to from reformatting, or condensation?)
Jazzy red and yellow cover art, numerous original cartoons used.
Some of dad's opponents make appearances: Frank Sexton, Primo Carnera, John Pesek.
Also guys he shared a card with: Dick Shikat, Bull Montana, the Angels (French & Swedish), Gus Sonnenberg, Man Mountain Dean, Ed Don George, Jim Londos, Little Beaver, Ten-Minute Tony Galento (Dad was called Wild Bill Zim, Zimovich, Buffalo Bill, Chuck Wiggins, Man from Mars, etc)
9 ... Milo’s vegetarian diet
17 … liniment and witch-hazel ... Breathing fresh air. (Bernarr Macfadden inspired?)
23 … true love laid (corny pun)
24… nose lying over on its side
25 … Shikat (His wife was killed in Columbus car wreck)
31 … wet appetite (pun)
33 … stag smokers ... good buildup for the match
52 … pass (pun) ... “Versus” as a noun
65 … paper = unpaid seats
Antiquated terms, methods:
---basket on wheel = grocery cart
---markup prices on grocery bags
---17, leather running track
113 … “taking” television, instead of producing