Evening star., 1933-03-26
DEPRESSION LIKELY
| TO END MAT WAR"
Promoters Face Real Prob
lem in Scarcity of New
Talent for Customers.
BY FRANCIS Z. STAN.

A LTHOUGH the boys who live
~ by the fret OF their brows
n and the muscles in their
torsos can't see it that way,
wrestling promoters of the East
are beginning to realize the
phrase lin union there is
strength" contains more truth
than poetry.
Despite diminishing gate receipts not
wholly the result of the economic de-
preston, bank holidays, etc. rival
wrestling trusts, facing a shortage of
grapplers, stubbornly refuse to declare a
truce and end the war" which almost
year ago split in twain the biggest
mat wheel in the country-the Jack
Curley syndicate.
AS result, Eastern promoters, many
OF them independent Of trusts. are con-
fronting a real problem.
THESE promoters will agree a coali-
L tion of the warning wheels" or
trusts would aid matters consider
ably. The number Of wrestlers approxi-
mateiy would be doubled and new faces
would dot programs each week. How
ever, it appears no immediate armistice
Is In prospect from the battling bands.
For few months after the war"
broke out last year each faction went
merrily on its way. Each contained
a champion" or manufactured one,
and a fine supporting cast surrounded
the title claimant. But the inevitable
repetition of the combinations finally
Is becoming boring to the fans, grave
10 the Wrestlers and still graver to the
promoters.
Joe TURNER, veteran local promoter,
found himself like many other
promoters, forced to book the same
matmen week after week, especially in
the headline matches As a result a
good deal of criticism has been di-
rected at the former world middle
weight champion by the fans. For a
time there was rumor Of the Curley
band replacing the Londos wheel in
washington, but Turner denied this.
There are fewer wrestlers in the
bunch championed by Jim Browning
declared Turner, than those appear
ing here now. We'd run out Of new
faces in no time"
Turner, however, has gone to the
mat with the booking agents. The
veteran matchmaker made a trip to
Phllaoelphla last week, witnessed the
Quaker City show, formed matches in
his mind, and demanded the wrestlers
necessary. He got them-Kampfer.
Marshall, the Dusek brothers, etc.
John CONTOs of Baltimore has gone
several steps farther than Joe.
Contos is risking enmity on the
part Of both groups-the Curley-man-
aged clan and the Londos-championed
lrust-by announcing he will book
wrestlers Of both groups on the same
night.
Turner, however, obtained the prom
lse OF the higher-ups in the Londos
wheel to send the best in the circuit
to Washington, which relieves the sit
uat1on, temporarily at least.
Ultimately, however, what few new
top-notchers have been held out" on
Washington will, like their predecessors,
have worn out their welcome even as
the Grobmiers, Judsons, ETC. Fast as
college foot ball heroes have been de-
veloped into wrestlers. they cannot be
manufactured fast enough to feed the
anemic ranks of the Curleyites and
Londosians, as well as the mere North
ern group headed by Paul Bowser.
Most foreign importations quickly lose
their appeal.
But little more of this economic de-
preston, caused by a depression among
the grapplers themselves, may yet con-
vince the pachyderms there Is strength
in union.