Evening star., 1962-08-26

A Session With
Toots Mondt
By MORRIS SIEGEL


Well have to provide some daytime summer racing
activity around here if want Toots Mondts company
Otherwise the grand old geezer will take his business else
where Like Saratoga where he's currently headquarered
Betting horses is Toots business Some under the
impression he's big in the rassin racket He's that
too but wrestling is only hobby with Toots. Horses
his real business However the way TootS operates he
has to work at his hobby to afford his business
Shenandoah Downs where they canter at night has
limited appeal for Mondt He goes there occasionally
only if there's daytime drop-off around Otherwise
he sticks to the New YorNew Jersey area where player
get faded by machine.
When it comes down to RECOMMENDING Toots can spot
guy two Joe Miller jokebooks Groucho Marks prepared
adlibs Jerry Lewis script and it's still Six two and
Toots will top em TootS secret is easy He doesn't i'm
provSe just tells stuff that's happened to him in the
70-odd years he's been kicking around.
If you want to grappe with Toos about rasslin he's
ready He pretty fair grapper himself back in the
days when they had occasional shooting match instead
of the current TVnSpired riots He knows all the holds
as he demonstrated here the other night following one OF
Vince McNahons shams at Capitol Arena.
Some boot asked the inevitable question: Is rassin
the up and up? That's dealing right down TOots alley
He not only rasd managed and promoted he even names
most of the hooks who pratfall on cue today.
'Ts raSsn' on the and up?" Toots chuckled. Lemme
tell you something, son. visited lots OF jalS In this
country in my time and I've lots of folks in there
Lawyers, doctors, businessmen all kinds. never seen
a rassler in jail. That answer you, son?"
The old days were good for Toots He the big
sachem of wrestling around Madison Square Garden which
staged weekly shows Jim LondoS the unbeatable Greek;
zybysko Jim Mcmillan, Ray sauer all the top dogs were
in stable Stranger Lewis whom TootS rassed
for the worlds" championship at least so times.
Nobody was concerned too much about what the
troops did did not do at the Garden each Friday night
that is nobody except Dan Parker the Mirror sports col
umnist Some viper in Toots outfit leaking Dan in
formation Reigously each Friday morning Dan would
print the results of the matches to be held that night
fer time
didn't exactly what to do about it. One of the Or
ganzaton suggested they doubecroSS Dan arrange
for the crmmages to out exactly opposite to what
he'd printed 1t the general consensus that this would
be the thing to do. Toots objected.
Never" he protested, don't do that We can't afford
TO- Cross Parker up? Forget it, we do that he'll never
print anything about any more He's the only guy pay
ing any attention to now" Toos won the strategic
showdown.
Toots has it pretty good, now He's got hand in the
local Mcmahon venture plus piece of several clubs around
the East plus another chunk of the profitable monthly
promotions. But it wasn't always So There were
times when TDotS and his vagabonds almost had
to get honest job.
He remembers when he was shilling for a carnival in
Montana years ago. Business terrible The little town
was in depression and nobody had money for carnvas
This didn't stop Toots for long He schemed dandy way
for the carnival to pop up with some
money They invited everybody in town to come to the
carnival free of charge.
Naturally Toots had gimmick. The feature of the
show clown who jumped off high board into
ring of fire TootS, who commanded the megaphone,
hustled the yokelS the board The fredver was
mounting the ladder and Toots telling his captive
audience all about the feat they were about
to see ON the house.
He interrupted his spiel with frantic announcement
AS hundreds of eyes craned skyward to watch the
diver prepare the leap Toots shouted through the
megaphone: Ladies and gentlemen" he said we've just
learned there pckpocke out here Please check to
see if your wallets and purses are all right"
The audience responded, teegraphing the location OF
their vauabes minutes later the diver had reached
the high board faxed miss twice three times
and finally plunged. Meanwhile the pckpocketS TootS
had cautioned the about had done their work. led
to the quarry by the spectators The haul good one
more than enough TooS troops to hit the road They
did quickly.
"You know" he unused, "Some folks thought those
pickpockets were there accidentally"