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Show KAN K K. IAKIK 1 TtUOiAM S0T IDITOA f Lack of local klol in th iwaTrwcight clut hai timkrulrtrxlly ntnrd thtr tire I in. of-arwtling in tarn ar in Salt Lake Gty to the point that Promoter R. Vern McCullouj(h it thinking about turning his arena on Nintl South itrrct into a bowling alter or skating rink. Salt Lake Car has long bn on. of lha bft wrnUlng eitiei In th. country, and arena shows hart In tha past hava fraqu.nt!) drawn as many euitomers aa a lot of tha club, draw for th.ii tuajlinf programs In th. bi cilia! Such as Nw York, Phllad.l. phia and Chicago. Although tha palronace has fallen off her. lha pait few months, I do not believ. that the, people who uad to fill the arena week after week hava teased to cara altogether about VreiUinf. Instead, I believ. they hava been bored by lha kind ef talent paraded before them In recent months and would probably become enthusiastic patrons Sfain If better ahows wars provided. Meat of all, th. gam. her. a1! anothor Ural Idol suck as Ira Dora kjd I. k. lader McCallonfh's shrewd piv snwllon, Ira waa a mighty Imporiaal yhlcl. la carrying th. wrMtliag gam. bar. I. IU peak af praaperlly. Tra, his victories cam. with maooaaa ragalarlly, hot It Is aaoally Ira. that k. waa th. firobraad that kspt drawing the Cus-lomer Cus-lomer Ihroagh lb. dowrs. Half Ik. devout cam. U ae. Ira win. TV. .tkae half kpt turning aut wltb Ik. foad anllclpa. Ilea af being thor. .a .n. af tho. rare aecaslana whoa b. waa licked. It is significant that arena ihowi began to decline at the very time Ira served out his term of usefulness ai a headliner and passed into the oblivion that so rapidly envelops mou retiring athletes. Admittedly, the malpractices malprac-tices of the wreitling truit in overplaying their Hippodrome Hippo-drome tactics has had dulling effect on wrestling inter-eit inter-eit the country over, and Salt Lake Gty wai no exception. It is equally true, however, that wherever the promoters have had colorful performers to bill, their shows have continued to draw great crowds. This hai been especially true in southern California, where Vincent Lopez has kept packing the arenas. Another La pea, wk. would make Salt Laka City kls horn, abode, .amid ha th tarn, kind of a saviour fee lha iport kr. la ttak. A lot of feired kaads Save kooa tried la tkal capacity, but a. far boom f thorn kaa koea able t. step Int. Dora's shoo. Al Newman, Pat (TSbork.r, Via Hill aad D.I Kunkel hava all tried la vain. And of roar, a local star U Important far ethorwle. tw. good drawing carda must he Imported at deuble travallng .xpouae. Eva that aught ta h. hotter lhaa th. "ponay wis. aad pound fooll.k" practice, tkla aaaaoa which have kept th. aroaa trying la vala to draw with Inferior UleaL Newmaa aad O'Sbocker might hava doaa battae had thay aver koea abU U gat aut W Dora's shadow, hat they aover ' ault. gat lata th. apotlight thnaalv. Kcwnus aafee-tuaalaly aafee-tuaalaly had rry to snaxh upoa his hammerleck aad poopl sort af wrld f lha tarn, hold ack waak. O'Shach.r was caat as th. vUlala la aa many of his early appaaraaeaa tkat tho easterners never could make up tkalr minds ta ac-eepl ac-eepl him la aay different light, aad tha red-haired Goliath stovar eulte had tha versatility t make math af aa impr-aioa. impr-aioa. Hill haa h.a just another ordinary tauter. A good ; follow, but no color. Except for his lack of tonnage, Kunkel could probably prob-ably be the Moses needed to lead the game out of the local wilderness. Del is a clever workman. He knows the game thoroughly aid can really wrestle the old-fashioned orthodox way in addition to employing the new-fangled weapons such as the dropkick, the deathlock and the flying fly-ing tackle. Moreover, he's an ardent trainer and is invariably in-variably in condition to rough it up with his rivals. Despite all these fine requisites, he still is lacking in weight McCulIough hat tried hard to build Kunkel into a headliner. He has billed him at all sorts of fabulous t weights, around the 200-pound mark, booked him against 2 50-pounders and as final resort tried to establish him s a "tigerweight" champion. Through it all the public has refused to be kidded. The fans realize that Del was little more than a welterweight when he started, and for all his physical development, they don't consider him a bonafide heavyweight, even yet. This winter, the dapper lmpressario his looked at his dwindling crowds and worried everytim. he thought about the overhead on th. arena which is used only once a week. A bowling alley or skating rink, ha reasons, might be utilized Virtually aver day of th. week. H. might ba using tha arena splendid structure that H last la-st least twice a week for ring activities had ha not one been so unfriendly to boxing. In those days, ha regarded Hardy Down-Ing'a Down-Ing'a weekly boxing programs at tha old Hippodrome as com-peUlion com-peUlion that might detract from his Friday night wreitling shows. So after Downing and his associates had apent about a year In reviving the fistic game to the point that It waa ready to pay dividends, McCulIough bought them out, tried a few ring shows in his arena, figured that the money spent for their franchise fran-chise waa well spent protecuon for his wrestling- program, and permitted tha fight game to coma to an end again. I hava never ho.a able t. agree with him an that point. Ther. is some duplicatioa, at court., but generally th. fight and wrestling shows appeal I. a different group of people. I bell.v. both could hava prospered la Iba same house and . thereby Increased tha revenue aa the building that new Isn't doing ta well. Moreover, th. city would b. assured th. adult Interest sport program It aaw stands a chance of losing. |
