The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-08-12
.'''''- Today,s~.' ~.''''.'
 Sports Parade
By HENRY McLEMoRE

kOultcU EreSS SthM NOfrcSpOHUeHtD
 Des Moines, Ia.. Aug. .12. (UP)- This Is the story of Bob Fredericks, known to the wrestling trade as Ed (Strangler) Lewis.
 had to come to Iowa, where it's so hot the corn grows 24 hours a day, to hear it.
 got the story froW a resident of Lansing, Ia., a town of 1,500 citizens where the sheriff doubles in brass and buries the dead as undertaken.
 The "Strangler," who took a mill lion or. more dollars and the repu- tation as the finest workman of them all from the wrestling busi- mess, owes his success to a man you've never heard of.
 The man is Rudolph from Ger many" In 1911 the pride of Lans- ing was Rudolph. As an employe of Wolf's poultry house he enter tained the natives by standing on the street, bending his back, and allowing a 100-pound stack of salt to be dropped on his neck from the second story. Rudolph took the sack without a grunt. And with a smile.
 Then Robert Fredericks came to town. He didn't have salt dropped on his back, but he picked up bar rels of dressed turkeys as though they were the baseballs he pitched for the Lansing nine and 'hoisted them on freight cars.
 The citizens, after watching Rudolph from Germany and Fred ericks of Kentucky work, fell into two schools of thought. School, No. l said Rudolph of the iron back was the strongest man in the world. School No. said Bob Fredericks, who handled hundreds of pounds of poultry as though they were all feathers, was Samson doubled and redoubled.
 Bets were made. A night was set. The town opera house was hired and sharply at nine p. m. Rudolph and Bob came to grips.
 They wrestled five minutes. Then Fredericks, using reverse body and poultry hold. tossed Rudolph from Germany through the ropes and into the lap of a gentleman name, oddly enough, Ernie Gaun- itz, manager of the poultry house.
 For the next six months Freder- icks, who now had adopted the title of "Strangler" Lewis because his family objected to his scuffing the family name in the resin of the mat, threw all of 1owa's semi-pro candidates. His fame spread (he now was tossing 'em with head lock) and he went to Chicago to take on Doc Cutler. He threw the doctor into the mezzanine. much to the delight of the Lansing cus- toners who followed the progress of the match by telegraph.
 The Cutler match started Lewis on the road to fame. In this be- gotten era wrestling was on the level, and Lewis, because of his speed, strength and stamina, went to the top. Not long after this Lewis, drowned upon by the aid- timers, challenged Joe Pesek, his chief rival, in a Pullman car Tn Chicago.
 Without benefit of referee or gate receipts Lewis, natty in pajamas, tossed Pesek, who was Bernarr MacFadden's example of spinach and a proper love life. They nearly tore up the LaSalle street station before Lewis finished it with a.. yes, you guessed it-a headlock,
 Lewis became champion of the world a few years later when, af Dodge City, Neb., at Q Fourth Of July. barbecue, he subdued Joe stecher of the famed leg equip ment. They started wrestling at four in the afternoon, with the farmer customers betting their land on them. Darkness fell and the farmes, determined to wait for the one fall, turned on their model T headlights to provide illumination.
 Finally Lewis won and, in bar rage of bottles, oaths and assorted vegetables, escaped.
 Bob Fredericks, poultry picker, was champion of the world.
 Tomorrow your large-eared cor respondent will explain the value of corn-afd when say corn I mean on the ear and not in the bottle.
 Copyright 1885 by United Press)'