Toward a Natural History of Reinhardt Boys—Part 2

When I was about 7 years old, my brother—five years older than me—had many anxieties about his small stature. His biggest fear was that, while walking to Gaston, he would be attacked by a roving gang of hoods intent to rip the leather patch from the waist of his new pair of Lee jeans (James Dean wore Lee's in "Rebel.") I should be concerned too walking to Reinhardt—sometimes the gangs would just rip off your pants and leave you on the street in your underwear.



Our new television culture of the mid-fifties provided my brother with some remedies for his anxiety—wrestling moves such as the half nelson, the full nelson, the scissor lock and, most terrible of all, the stomach (or tummy) claw.



Of course, what better object on which to practice your wrestling abilities than on your weakling younger brother?

Before he would practice on me, he would have me join him in watching the weekly televised matches. Our heroes were Pepper Gomez and Lou Thesz. The bad guys included Duke Keomuka and the guy we learned the stomach claw from—I believe Killer Kowalski.

Click here for a clip from an early Pepper Gomez fight

And more info about Pepper Gomez and fifties wrestling, click here.