Ringside Rosie, etcÎÞëÊÓƵ¦
The inspiration for this article is a program on WPXI-TV years ago that featured professional wrestling from a set in the studio.
On second thought, professional wrestling is just a contributing factor.
It’s probably more about my dad’s fascination with studio wrestling and the professional wrestling shows that were mostly on early NBC.
I won’t pose an opinion on the validity of pro wrestling as a sport; but, the matches were exciting enough to my dad that my mom wouldn’t let anything near him in the living room deadlier than a rolled up newspaper.
We had TV fairly early, even though it was a small screen, and of course black and white. Dad went through a host of progressively more sophisticated antennas, culminating with one that could be rotated from a controller in the living room.
Dad enjoyed the few available half hour detective stories, especially Roscoe Karns as “Rocky King, Detective,” but he gave his heart to studio wrestling.
He loved everything about the events. He would cheer on the heroes with the studio audience, (even the ones painted on the backdrop), and bellow out criticism at the villains. He revered the locals, Bruno Sammartino, Johnny DeFazio, George Steele and Gorilla Monsoon. He especially loved the hero status of Chief Don Eagle. If Dad had stood in judgment of any unlucky villain that beat up Don Eagle, he would send him immediately to face the firing squad.
Along with the characters that provided excitement and violence in the ring, a few regulars in the live audience gained a measure of fame with ringside histrionic gestures and shouts.
One character dubbed “Ringside Rosie” was, in fact, at nearly all of the weekend broadcasts. Rosie, (not her real name ) was familiar with all of the wrestlers and they played to her cheers and catcalls. She also at times got “mic time” to air her criticism or praise.
Announcer, and himself a Pittsburgh celebrity, Bill Cardille kept the banter going and devised stunts to create more entertainment in the show.
He once appeared as a masked super villain and slapped the referee around until a wrestler ripped off his mask and “exposed” the animated broadcaster.
Other lesser known local celebs got some early TV air time but Ringside Rosie was probably the most well known outside of the studio. The stars of studio wrestling became well known as professional wrestling made easy cannon fodder when network programming expanded the venue. The most notable local figure might have been Bruno Sammartino, who looked like something an artist would draw if you asked them to create a superhuman.
My dad dove into the deep end of professional wrestling, and swam the length of the pool.
He followed the broadcasts as matches were hyped from Chicago and New York. The Pittsburgh persona became national names as bigger and more violent episodes were aired on network. Tag teams brought even more mayhem to the exhibition. Some matches would end with the destruction of the ring and several metal chairs. Thankfully, our Fada TV survived.
Dad was never an ardent enough fan to collect wrestling paraphernalia or get tickets to studio or any other wrestling matches. I think watching the matches, the antics of Rosie, Chilly Billy and others and the very obvious overacting of the performers provided relaxation and stress relief to a guy who was on 24/7 call, and rarely stopped working long enough to eat.
Roy Hess Sr. is a retired teacher and businessman from Dawson.