Background
Ed Lewis was born Robert Herman Julius Friedrich in 1890 in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, United States to a farm family.
(Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legend...)
Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legendary manager and promoter, Billy Sandow, were founding fathers of professional wrestling. The two men helped transform wrestling from local matches to traveling circus tours, with celebrity wrestlers, full cards and packed arenas filled with screaming fans. Feared inside the ring for his crippling submission holds, Lewis was respected outside the ring for his extensive knowledge of wrestling. In 1926 he and Sandow compiled their vast knowledge of physical conditioning, fighting and wrestling into an eight-volume collection, called the Sandow-Lewis Library. These books became instant classics and were instrumental in teaching the science of wrestling and physical fitness to generations of wrestling aficionados. Long out of print, copies of these individual volumes are hard to find and command such steep prices when they do surface that it is virtually impossible for wrestling or fighting enthusiasts today to own the entire collection. Now they can through this exclusive reprint collection from Paladin Press. Wrestling contains Volumes VI-VIII of the original series.
https://www.amazon.com/Wrestling-Sandow-Lewis-Library-Strangler-Lewis/dp/1581606664?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1581606664
(Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legend...)
Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legendary manager and promoter, Billy Sandow, were founding fathers of professional wrestling. The two men helped transform wrestling from local matches to traveling circus tours, with celebrity wrestlers, full cards and packed arenas filled with screaming fans. Feared inside the ring for his crippling submission holds, Lewis was respected outside the ring for his extensive knowledge of wrestling. In 1926 he and Sandow compiled their vast knowledge of physical conditioning, fighting and wrestling into an eight-volume collection, called the Sandow-Lewis Library. These books became instant classics and were instrumental in teaching the science of wrestling and physical fitness to generations of wrestling aficionados. Long out of print, copies of these individual volumes are hard to find and command such steep prices when they do surface that it is virtually impossible for wrestling or fighting enthusiasts today to own the entire collection. Now they can through this exclusive reprint collection from Paladin Press. Self Defense contains Volume V of the original series.
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Defense-Sandow-Lewis-Library-Strangler-Lewis/dp/1581606656?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1581606656
(Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legend...)
Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legendary manager and promoter, Billy Sandow, were founding fathers of professional wrestling. The two men helped transform wrestling from local matches to traveling circus tours, with celebrity wrestlers, full cards and packed arenas filled with screaming fans. Feared inside the ring for his crippling submission holds, Lewis was respected outside the ring for his extensive knowledge of wrestling. In 1926 he and Sandow compiled their vast knowledge of physical conditioning, fighting and wrestling into an eight-volume collection, called the Sandow-Lewis Library. These books became instant classics and were instrumental in teaching the science of wrestling and physical fitness to generations of wrestling aficionados. Long out of print, copies of these individual volumes are hard to find and command such steep prices when they do surface that it is virtually impossible for wrestling or fighting enthusiasts today to own the entire collection. Now they can through this exclusive reprint collection from Paladin Press. Physical Conditioning contains Volumes I-IV of the original series.
https://www.amazon.com/Physical-Conditioning-Sandow-Lewis-Library-Strangler/dp/1581606648?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1581606648
Ed Lewis was born Robert Herman Julius Friedrich in 1890 in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, United States to a farm family.
As a brawny, 200-pound farm boy at the age of fourteen, he left his Wisconsin farm home and entered his first professional wrestling match in Madison. He won the match and took the name Ed Lewis so that his parents, who did not approve of wrestling, would not know that was what he was doing. Two years later, in 1906, he was given the nickname Strangler by a reporter for the Chicago Tribune who thought Lewis resembled an earlier wrestler who went by that name.
Lewis, commonly referred to as "the Kentuckian" (he may have been born in the Blue-grass State), steadily worked his way up into the top rank of heavyweights until he was one of the four wrestlers picked to compete in a tournament to select the new champion after World War I. In a group with Earl Caddock, Joe Stecher, and Wladek Zbyszko, a Pole, Lewis had his first chance at the heavyweight title, but he lost to Stecher on November 3, 1919. This highly publicized match was a replay of an earlier battle between them on July 4, 1916, in Omaha, Nebraska, when Lewis and Stecher, the inventor of the scissors hold, lasted five and a half hours in the ring, perhaps the longest professional wrestling match on record. Lewis, whose forte was a nasty headlock that was so dangerous it was banned at one time by the Illinois Athletic Commission, met Stecher again at the Seventy-first Regiment Armory in New York City on December 13, 1920, and Lewis prevailed by pinning Stecher.
Lewis successfully defended his title against other opponents until May 6, 1921, when he was pinned by Stanislaus Zbyszko, the son of the great Wladek Zbyszko, at the Twenty-second Regiment Armory in New York City. They next faced one another in Wichita, Kansas, on March 3, 1922, when Lewis regained his title by winning two of three falls (two pins out of three). This time, Lewis kept the title for nearly three years, a remarkable feat considering the frequency with which he wrestled.
In the early 1920's, professional wrestling was considered just a notch below professional boxing in its interest to fans and in the skills involved. Large crowds assembled in such places as Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Madison Square Garden in New York to watch the top matches. Lewis appreciated the entertainment value of his sport as well as anyone did. His nickname, his willingness to be "the bad guy" for using the headlock (which was usually applied by getting his opponent's head in a viselike grip in the crook of his elbow), and his sheer size (between 230 and 260 pounds then) and strength made him a natural drawing card. Lewis inspired greater enmity in the crowds than any other wrestler of his time. Some observers thought the headlock was a form of torture that must be banned, like the stranglehold, to save the sport. Cries of "Kill the murderer" filled the air after victories won by use of the headlock, and Lewis sometimes needed police protection to leave an arena safely. As the object of so much emotion, Lewis could earn large guarantees while champion, sometimes as much as $125, 000 for a big match, and his career earnings were estimated at more than $4 million, most of which he squandered.
In July 1922, Lewis tried to capitalize on his title and drawing power by challenging the heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey to a "mixed match. " The rules, as explained by the would-be promoter, Lou Cutler of Wichita, would have put Dempsey with boxing gloves in the ring with Lewis, who could use his wrestling moves but could not punch. The match would have been of normal length for a boxing match (thirty minutes), but many of Lewis' bouts went over two hours. Despite a brief spurt of publicity, the proposed "mixed match" never was held. Lewis remained a major sports figure throughout the decade, and periodically his exploits out of the ring would receive coverage.
On January 8, 1925, Lewis lost his title in an upset when Wayne ("Big") Munn, a former star football player from Nebraska, won two falls out of three in Wichita. Lewis claimed he was fouled in the match and proved himself the true champion by defeating Munn in a rematch four months later in Michigan City, Indiana. Again, Lewis dominated the opposition while holding the title for three years. Stecher, whom Lewis had not faced since winning his first title in 1920, provided the opposition for a memorable match in St. Louis in early 1928, but Lewis kept his crown in a match lasting over two and a half hours. In 1928, Lewis announced that he would sail to Europe for a three-month tour, including exhibition matches, before returning for a farewell tour of the United States.
When he returned late in the year, there was a new man atop the wrestling world, Gus Sonnenberg, a former football star from Dartmouth who introduced the flying tackle into the wrestling repertoire. Sonnenberg, who is credited with beginning the change of professional wrestling from serious feats of skill, strength, and agility into showmanship, beat Lewis in July 1929 before a packed house at Fenway Park, but Lewis did not make 1929 his farewell year. He continued to wrestle regularly, and by late 1932 he was again declared champion when title-holder Jim Londos failed to agree to Lewis' challenge for a championship match.
In January 1933, Lewis retained his title by easily beating Jim Browning in Madison Square Garden, but just a month later at the same site, Browning upset Lewis. It was then noted that in the previous twenty years Lewis had lost only six times. Never again would Lewis be champion. He was still enough of a draw to earn two title matches in 1934--in a Mexico City bull ring against Browning and in front of 35, 000 fans in Wrigley Field against Jim Londos--but he was forty-four years old and unable to keep up with his younger opponents.
In 1937, Lewis returned from a world tour, called a press conference, and announced his retirement with some stinging commentary on what he termed the new style of "slambang wrestling. " Despite that farewell, he continued to appear in the ring from time to time until his final match in 1947 in Honolulu. Lewis appeared in a few movies in Hollywood, such as That Nazty Nuisance (1943) and Bodyhold (1950). He also tried his hand at ranching, operating a restaurant, and running a health club. Before his death in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he was blind and poor, yet content with his lot after becoming deeply religious. His place in sports history is minor because professional wrestling ceased to be a truly competitive sport, not because his achievements were ever surpassed.
(Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legend...)
(Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legend...)
(Hall of Fame wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his legend...)
Lewis was married to a physician from San Jose, California, Dr. Ada Morton Lewis, but they divorced in 1923 or early 1924. In March 1924, Lewis made front-page news when he locked his manager, Billy Sandow, in a Chicago hotel room while he married Bessie McNear. Sandow was reportedly opposed to having his star wrestler marry anyone while his career was going so well, and he had broken up an engagement the year before between Lewis and a Russian princess named Marie Travasiki.