Gorgeous George was coming to Guelph. On Jan. 16, 1958, said the Mercury, the “prima donna of the prize ring” would be headlining an all-star wrestling card at Memorial Gardens. He would be doing battle with fan favourite Roy McClarity. Also on the card for that big event were the notorious tag-team, the Miller Brothers – Bill and Ed – who would be up against Farmer Boy and Joe Blanchard; while another Miller sibling, Dan, took on rugged Tony Baillargeon.
For Guelph fans of professional wrestling, this was a big deal, because Gorgeous George, one of the most notorious bad guys of the ring, was also one of its biggest stars. He was the highest-paid athlete in North America, and probably the most hated.
Long before wrestling fans cheered and jeered such heroes and villains as Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Randy “Macho Man” Savage, they thrilled to the exploits and dirty deeds of stars like Bobo Brazil, Fritz Von Erich, Gene Kiniski, Mr. Fuji, Yukon Eric, Sweet Daddy Siki and Gorgeous George.
The Gorgeous One, a.k.a. The Human Orchid, was a flamboyant, charismatic performer who was largely responsible for bringing outrageous theatrics to the wrestling ring.
Heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali would one day credit Gorgeous George with being the inspiration for his own boxing ring sideshow.
Almost everybody over the age of 10 knew “professional” wrestling was a scripted show.
Its ongoing storylines made it a type of violent soap opera, and Gorgeous George led the way in pumping it up to new levels of sensationalism. He was one of the reasons people turned on their TVs to watch wrestling, hoping to see him and nasty characters like him get what was coming to them.
In fact, Gorgeous George was coming to Guelph from Chicago, where he’d been headlining the TV broadcast of a wrestling program. A chance for Guelph wrestling fans to see him in person and not just on TV was not to be missed.
At five-foot-nine (175 cm) and 215 pounds (98 kg), George Raymond Wagner wasn’t especially big for a wrestler, but he sported a head of thick, platinum blonde tresses that was his pride and joy. As he once said in an interview, “I don’t claim to be the world champion, and I don’t say I’m the roughest wrestler in the world. But I am gorgeous.”
George would travel from venue to venue in the company of a “valet,” the most famous of whom was the beautiful Cherie Dupre. The star’s entrance could take longer than the actual match.
First, a red carpet was rolled out for him. The valet would precede him into the ring, spraying perfume George called "Chanel #10" (twice as good as #5, he said), and dusting things off with a little whisk brush. The valet would then insist on cleaning the referee’s hands with disinfectant before allowing him to frisk George for illegal objects.
“Get your filthy hands off me!” George would cry if the referee refused to cooperate.
George would stroll into the auditorium and climb into the ring to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance." He would wear an elegant robe (from a wardrobe of more than 80), often trimmed with fur or sequins, in the manner of the pianist and comedian, Liberace. The valet spread rose petals at his feet. George would admire himself in a silver mirror. Then he would pluck gold-coloured bobby pins he called “Georgie Pins” from his hair and toss them into the audience.
You didn’t have to be a wrestling fan to know who Gorgeous George was. He had played himself in a 1949 movie titled "Alias the Champ" and had been characterized in a 1952 Bowery Boys comedy movie called "No Holds Barred." George had even been the model for Ravishing Ronald, a character in a
Bugs Bunny cartoon.
In the ring, Gorgeous George was an unapologetic villain. He was a dirty fighter. He always had some kind of secret weapon hidden in his trunks that the referee managed to miss. His motto was, “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.”
The fans who packed Memorial Gardens that night got their money’s worth. In the first bout, Dirty Dan Miller had his hands full with Tony Baillargeon. Then he got some against-the-rules help from his brothers, and the ref called the match a draw.
Farmer Boy and Joe Blanchard might have trounced the Miller Brothers, but of course Bill and Ed pulled some villainous fouls behind the referee’s back. They were declared the winners while the audience booed.
Then it was time for the main event.
According to the next day’s report in the Mercury, George’s valet “atomized” the air with a potent perfume and then “fumigated” the referee with essence of orchids before the Gorgeous One tossed Georgie Pins to a few Guelphites. It didn’t take George long to follow his own advice and cheat to win the first fall.
That just seemed to make McClarity angry.
As the Mercury described it, Roy was “bouncing around the ring like a Mexican jumping bean. He quickly evened the count by subduing George with a double wrist lock. George, who was the villain of the piece, attempted to get his own back by gouging out McClarity’s eye with a conveniently located piece of cardboard.
The results were eventually the same as McClarity, incensed by this bit of skulduggery, laced George’s aloof profile with an assortment of drop kicks and had George out for the count with the same well-applied wrist lock that won him the first fall. For George, there were jeers. For his valet, Cherie Dupre, there were cheers; but then, there was quite a difference in builds.”
After his loss in Guelph, Gorgeous George went on to fight in other towns, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, always cheating. His most humiliating moment came in Toronto on March 12, 1959, when Canadian wrestling star Whipper Billy Watson beat him and then used a barber’s clipper to cut off those gorgeous locks like Delilah sheared Samson.
Soon after that, George retired to a poultry ranch in California. He didn’t get to enjoy it for long.
Gorgeous George died from a heart attack on Dec. 26, 1963, at age 48. His picture appeared one more time in the Guelph Mercury, on the front page.
