if you’re curious, this is how I gathered my memorabilia:
If anybody is interested, I can talk about my pre-teen years and how I found out about by fascination with female fighting, but I’d need to go back to 1965… It begins with two women pro wrestlers on TV, in black and white, on a Saturday afternoon at my uncle’s house. But for the purposes of this thread, let’s fast forward to the early 70s when I was about 13 or 14 years old. Here’s how it went down…
I’d save every penny of my measly allowance, and when I had enough money, I’d go to the local book store and browse the mainstream wrestling magazines, just in case I’d find something, anything, related to female wrestling. I would sometimes buy one for 75 cents if there was something I liked. Then, I’d start seeing the odd magazine with a picture of female wrestling on the cover (examples below). I would not even browse it. I’d grab it, buy it on the spot and literally run home to see what that article was about. And then… What’s this? Female wrestling companies with sexy girls, advertising the sale of pictures and movies, in my magazine (examples below). Holy shit!! Now I need five bucks and a stamp to order this stuff, like now…. Gotta ask dad for a raise in my allowance.
Picture this: I’m about 13 years old, in my bedroom secretly cutting out clippings from wrestling magazines. I’d place them on the bed, and figure out which one I could afford ordering this week. Then, once I had enough money, I’d go to the post office to buy a 5 dollar money order, stamp and envelope and would send it away pronto. I had to wait weeks, if not months for my stuff to arrive. Drove me nuts…. We lived in the country between 1969 and 1975, so the mail was delivered in our mail box at the end of the laneway. Every day during the summer, there I was, the skinny kid checking for new mail. When I saw the little flag raised on the mailbox, I’d take my scrawny legs and run up to the box all excited. What? No mail for me… Oh man?!! There goes the rest of the day, down the crapper… But if a Curtis Dupont or California Supreme envelope arrived, you’d think I won the lottery.
When I had to go to school, I’d obviously miss the odd mail run, and I remember getting caught at least once, by whom else but my mom. She had picked up the mail and said something like “Hey, what’s this girl wrestling stuff in an envelope addressed to you?” This is still a bit unclear in my mind as I almost passed out. My face turning beet red, hands sweating profusely, and I think I said something like: “Uh? What? I dunno. It’s nothing mom. Ah. Um. Er. Must have been sent to me by mistake. Hey, I’m just a kid. Why would I order stuff like that? Here mom, let me get rid of it for you.” Not… If she threw it in the garbage, I’d pick it out, take it to my room and hide it with the rest of my “stash” in the closet, under my box of Hot Wheels. Then I’d order more stuff. Once some of these companies had you on their distribution list, they’d start sending you regular updates. They didn’t know or care whether or not the recipient was a 13-year old kid. I just kept ordering more and more material and the letters with pamphlets, booklets, catalogs, just kept rolling in for several years. Girls my age? Who cares? I got my little wrestling fantasy world going full bore with sexy women. Well, until I reached 16 anyway…
As a side note, I should add that for the longest time, I was a huge fan of Raquel Welsh (check out her fight in the1966 movie, One Million Years B.C., then we’ll talk). I had three large posters of her in my bedroom, one in her One Million Years B.C. outfit (Google it…), one in a yellow bikini and another wearing a bikini that was patterned with the USA flag (her Myra Breckenridge era I believe). I still have them rolled up in my basement, in perfect condition, after 40 years. In 1972, she starred in a movie called Kansas City Bomber where she played a roller derby star. There is a fight in that movie between her and her teammate rival, at night, in the grass, that I loved. You could barely see them, but that was irrelevant. All that mattered was that Raquel Welsh was fighting. I bought the DVD last year just to bring back some memories, but watching it today doesn’t feel at all the same as when I was 14. We grow old, our standards change and besides, there are no limits to today’s wrestling/catfighting world compared to 40 years ago. As I’m going through my stuff in the basement, I recently found a scrapbook that I had kept with tons of clippings on Raquel Welch, including Kansas City Bomber stuff. That was my world then… And if you really want me to talk about my pre-teen years, let me know - they also involve Diana Rigg (anybody remember the Avengers?) and fantasies about my best friend’s mom wrestling other women.
Anyway, when we moved back to the city in 1975 it got tricky, but I somehow managed to keep my secret obsession almost intact. I got a part-time job as a parking attendant when I was about 15 or 16, and was able to rent a post office box. So I was able to start ordering more expensive stuff, like the 1965 “Girl Wrestling” magazines (you could buy many “back issues” of magazines in those days) a couple of reel-to-reel 8mm movies from Judell DuLong’s Amazon Club, the odd booklet or picture set and that’s it for the 70s. In the 80s, I had more income, so I bought three editions of the AMFEM Female Amateur Wrestling directories, several BETA and VHS tapes and most of the “porn” type magazines (Catspats, Cavalier, Claws, etc.) that I’ve been showing you in this thread.
So, I’ll stop there and call this part 2 of my “early years” (age 13 to 16) of discovering and exploring my obsession, with the help of wrestling magazines and clippings that I’d send out. Like I said earlier, part 1 (age 7 to 12) starts with a black and white TV wrestling match, then got a boost from my fantasies about my friend’s mother and it just kept going from there. Those were the days…
Cheers,
Wrstlvr
