The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend

by Jeff Leen

Overview

The Queen of the Ring is the story of Mildred Burke, the longest reigning champion of female wrestling. In this in-depth account, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jeff Leen pulls back the curtain on a forgotten era when a petite midwesterner used her beauty and brawn to dominate America’s most masculine sport.
At only five feet two, Mildred Burke was an unlikely candidate for the ring. A waitress barely scraping by on Depression-era tips, she saw her way out when she attended her first wrestling match. When women were still struggling for equality with men, Burke regularly fought—and beat—male wrestlers. Rippling with muscle and dripping with diamonds, she walked the fine line between pin-up beauty and hardened brawler.
An unforgettable slice of Americana, The Queen of the Ring captures the golden age of wrestling, when one gritty, glamorous woman rose through the ranks to take her place in athletic history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802144829
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	07/13/2010
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey Leen is the assistant managing editor for the Washington Post’s investigations unit, where his work has helped win six Pulitzer Prizes. Also the author of KINGS OF COCAINE, the first book-length investigation of Columbia’s Medellin cartel, he lives in Maryland.

Table of Contents

1 The Match of the Century 1

2 Millie Bliss 9

3 Billy Wolfe 22

4 Wrestling Men 32

5 Becoming Champion 50

6 Building the Business 68

7 "Pulchritude on Parade" 86

8 Mat Mamas Maul for Millions 97

9 Billy Wolfe's Harem 114

10 "The Public Likes the Puss" 127

11 The Golden Age 140

12 Tragedy 162

13 A Bout with Nell 174

14 A Bout with Billy 191

15 A Bout with June 215

16 Millie without Billy 241

17 Billy without Millie 253

18 Mildred Burke Productions 265

Afterword: Millie's Girls 281

List of Billy's Girls 289

List of Millie's Girls 290

Acknowledgments 291

Notes 299

Editorial Reviews

…the literature of the grappling arts can be split into two weight divisions: heavy treatises analyzing the methodology of the half Nelson versus cotton-candy reminiscences of Spandexed superstars. Jeff Leen's fine new biography of the pioneering lady wrestler Mildred Burke, The Queen of the Ring, might be in a class by itself. It's a serious history of one of this country's goofiest pastimes…Queen is less Burke's tale than it is the rich story of the golden age of women's ring rivalries, and Leen unearths truckloads of wonderful details along the way
—The Washington Post

Mark Adams

In this intriguing biography, Leen (Kings of Cocaine) chronicles the life of “the queen of the mat,” Mildred Burke, women's wrestling champion and pioneer of the sport. Burke (1915–1989), along with her husband and manager, Billy Wolfe, are credited with having invented professional women's wrestling and bringing it to prominence: “Her muscles and his mind had made the industry of women's professional wrestling in America.” Their rise, fall and resurrection is a story as bizarre and titillating as wrestling's own carnival roots. The king and queen of “lady rassling” broke barriers despite a ban on women's wrestling in many states. Leen, managing editor for the Washington Post's investigations unit, deftly guides the reader through well-documented and researched accounts, which are culled from Burke's unpublished autobiography, interviews and numerous newspaper records. Leen writes: “Her speed and skill made her wrestling a thing of beauty in the ring, full of careful shifts of balance and swift and surprising combinations that turned the straining of muscle and limb into a ballet of grace and power.” Flavored with authentic speech and dedicated to accuracy, this biography is the tale of an underdog who triumphed. B&w photos. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The gripping history of a largely forgotten legend of wrestling. Washington Post managing editor Leen (co-author: Kings of Cocaine: Inside the Medellin Cartel, 1989) illuminates the murky history of women's professional wrestling with this sympathetic biography of Mildred Burke, the sport's greatest champion. Burke (nee Bliss) grew up in poverty and seemed resigned to a life in the margins, waitressing in a dingy cafe during the depths of the Depression-until her husband took her to a wrestling match. Something about the primal nature of the contest touched a chord in the unhappy young woman, and Burke wholly dedicated herself to a professional grappling. Her career began in earnest when she tried out for Billy Wolfe, a former wrestler who had begun to gather and train young women in the sport. Wolfe quickly realized her potential-she was lithe, strong, gifted with an innate sense of balance and fiercely determined-and she began to win matches, defeating some 200 men before establishing herself as the nation's premier woman wrestler, holding the world championship for nearly 20 years. Wolfe is both the book's villain and most compelling character, a cigar-chomping, diamond-flashing huckster whose genius for promotion and utter ruthlessness paid off in spectacular success. He was also an abusive womanizer, blithely cheating on Burke-whom he had married, presumably to better control her fortunes-with the young women in his charge, who understood that sex with him was the only route to success in their field. Burke remains a bit of a cipher, a mulish survivor abused by Wolfe for years before he effectively destroyed her career, abetted by the sexist mentality of the wrestling establishment.Equally tragic, and not a bit tawdry, was Burke's long-term affair with Wolfe's son, who would ultimately take part in her fall. Burke enjoyed a twilight resurgence when touring lady wrestlers proved popular in Japan, but the impression Leen provides is of a broken, badly used woman who ironically stands as a symbol of feminine strength and a groundbreaking figure in the history of women's athletics. Lean, harsh and lowdown, this bruising history leaves a mark. Agent: Gail Ross/Gail Ross Literary Agency

Kirkus Reviews

“In a class by itself. A serious history of one of this country’s goofiest pastimes...one senses that [Leen has] left no stone unturned in researching Burke’s story.”—The Washington Post

“An all-American story of a woman who rises above her downtrodden circumstances to make something of herself.”—Barry Gewen, The New York Times

“You won’t be disappointed…Leen has [Burke’s] story pinned to the mat.”—USA Today

“Leen can deliver gripping scenes…a rewarding read, an untold tale that completely deserves the telling.” —St. Petersburg Times

“Jeff Leen has made a fabulous contribution to the sports-history canon. The Queen of the Ring is a marvelous evocation of an era, and a riveting portrait of a one-of-a-kind American moll.”— Sally Jenkins, author of The Real All-Americans

From the Publisher