House of Deception - Pro Wrestling History Links

Getting Started in Pro Wrestling History::

Every serious student or enthusiast of professional wrestling as deceptive
entertainment should do two things: join the Cauliflower Alley Club and purchase
the back issues (starting with the most recent) of Scott Teal's publication Whatever
Happened To...?.

Scott Teal specializes in interviews with former wrestling stars and does an
outstanding job of preserving the oral history of a bygone era of show business,
giving the reader an intimate sense of what it was like to be a part of professional
wrestling entertainment during The Golden Age.

Wrestling Newsletters:

For insight into the deceptive elements of the pro wrestling business, we
recommend choosing the newsletters that offer the most interviews of former
Golden Age wrestlers, referees, and promoters.

An excellent monthly historical newsletter is Evan Ginzburg's Wrestling Then and
Now, which, in addition to its historical content, covers today's news and supports
the independent promotions.

Karl Stern discontinued his outstanding Dragon King Wrestling Newsletter but has
recently begun a new one, Karl Stern's Retro Wrestling Magazine, published online
exclusively for subscibers to Bryan Alvarez' Figure Four Weekly. You can get the
first issue as a free sample here.

Another good newsletter is Mike Rodgers' . For a
subscription, contact Mike at RATNW, 2470 SE Lewellyn, Troutdale, OR 97060.

Wrestling Blogs

Our favorite pro wrestling blog is penned by Richard Berger on The Fight
Network.com. Richard Berger is a freelance writer and editor with an extensive
background in professional wrestling and has a strong interest in what he calls "the
art of misdirection for entertainment purposes." You will enjoy his Perspectives on
Wrestling.

California Wrestling, Promoter Roy Shire:

Viktor Berry's An Illustrated History of Pro Wrestling in Northern California is a must
for anyone interested in Roy Shire's immensely successful NWA promotion of the
1960's and 70's. Vik Berry, like Scott Teal, is an amateur magician. From the
perspective of the magician, both offer some little known and fascinating insights
into the deceptive elements of the wrestling show.

Pro Wrestling Nostalgia:

There are a few very good wrestling nostalgia sites, including Scott Teal's
1wrestlinglegends.com, Gary Will's Wrestling History (Gary is another magician of
the pro wrestling world) and The Way It Was by Al (Percival) Friend "The Epitome of
Wrestling Managers."

Canada:

For the history of pro wrestling in Canada, start with Andrew Calvert's Maple Leaf
Wrestling and Gary Will's Canadian Pro Wrestling Page of Fame.

See also Greg Oliver's online Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame and read his excellent
book, The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Canadians, as well as his other books,
co-authored with Steve Johnson, in The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame series.

Video:

If you want historical wrestling DVD's and tapes, be careful. Some dealers will sell
you very poor quality. For the best quality, buy from Mark Nulty at Wrestling
Classics.com or others who have established a solid reputation.

Wrestling Midgets:

See our Midget Wrestlers page for the web's largest photo gallery of the Little
Wrestling Stars of the Golden Age.

Cauliflower Alley Club:

Click here to see our Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion Photos. Please

any
corrections or additions for the captions. The club's website is here.

Wrestler Artists:

Our Wrestler Artists page features works by Lord Carlton, George Gordienko, Ted
Lewin, Steve Strong, and Jim Bertz--with more to come. Please let us know if you
would like your artwork represented here at The House of Deception. This is a free
service.

British Wrestlers:

On the British Wrestlers page there are eighty-three photos, all from our collection,
of wrestlers who worked in Leeds, England, during the 1950's and 1960's and
another with over a hundred more pictures from our London wrestling collection.

There you will also find a link to John Lister's superb article, The History of British
Wrestling accompanied by photos from our archive, and a Kendo Nagasaki page with
unique photos of this enigmatic master of deception.

Allan Gordon has a new and ambitious project entitled the British Wrestling
Database. Click here to be directed to the Posters page. [Webmaster's note: this
site is apparently inactive at this time.]

Care and Preservation of Posters and other Old Paper:

To learn to properly care for your library and collection see The Library of Congress,
Caring for Your Collections and Preserving Works on Paper.

The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, hosted by
Stanford University, is a professional organization for conservators. Their Caring for
Your Treasures pages provide useful brochures, in PDF format, on conserving books,
photos and other paper documents.

Oldimprints.com (formerly Nineteenth Century Imprints) has a good primer on
identifying and authenticating the various types of prints as well as a useful reading
list on printmaking.

Related Sites:

Because the focus of The House of Deception is Golden Age history, we usually limit
our link recommendations to similar historical sites. If you want a broader, more
eclectic list of sites, try ProWrestlingHistory.com.