One more reason to ponder why, despite billions in official Cancon funding no one in this country has ever made a film about the Hart family and Stampede Wrestling- the genesis of WWF/WWE. I was at Stu Hart’s funeral and the entire wrestling world was there - Jim McMahon, Hulk Hogan, China, the Hart clan of course. But in Canada we prefer to fund existentialist angst
However - I don't see the author saying that they were or weren't German. The article simply says that the name was given by Hart to Adkisson. What we do know is that they lived in Texas, and the name Elrich came from the senior's wife's maiden name - so probably had German in the family tree at a minimum, but I don't think there's any further proof than that. Why does Adkisson have to be German for wrestling to be real? (I don't understand the point you're trying to make here.)
If you are a old enough and remember watching professional wrestling in the 1950's and 1960's, wrestling had its "good" guys and its "villains". In the 1950's there was still easy memories of the Second World War. Hence some of the "bad" guys had or were German wrestlers or German named wrestlers. If memory serves me right, at the time, there were also a few "bad" Japanese wrestlers. As time marched on some of the "bad" wrestlers were Arab or had Arabic sounding names. World politics did play a part in the wrestling scene back then. Some of my favourite wrestlers at the time were Whipper Billy Watson, Yukon Eric and Pat Flanagan. Supposedly they were all Canadian wrestlers and they all took on the "good" guy persona while in the ring. Each of them had their own personal submission move. For Whipper Watson he would grab his opponents by the arm and swing him around the ring and 'Whip" his opponent into the corner of the ring posts and his opponent would fall to the ground, whence Watson would fall on top of his whipped victim and the referee would count "one, two, three" and Whipper Watson would be declared the winner. On the other hand Pat Flanagan's submission move was called the Mule Kick. I will let your imagination run wild as to how Flanagan's submission move was applied. In the 50's and 60's, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto would be packed to the rafters with fans out to see their favourite "good" guy wrestlers and the always necessary evil villain opponent.
With all due respect to the author - who writes well, and whose other articles on the Line I have enjoyed - I didn't pay a subscription fee to read movie reviews. If this is a mark of what the Line editors consider to be a slow news week, then fine. I would prefer the Line stick to its usual high standard of commentary on Canadian political affairs, which is hard to find elsewhere, and hence worth paying for. Movie reviews are not that.
We like to mix things up. Will these be a regular feature? No. Will we have others in the future? Almost certainly. Why? Some combination of the readers probably benefitting from the occasional palate cleanser and your editors ABSOLUTELY benefitting from the occasional palate cleanser.
I grew up in part on summer Saturday afternoon tv wrestling during down-time between chores on my grandfather’s farm, although in the 1960s / early-70s I was familiar with Fritz, Hulk Hogan and that lot, so just ahead of the rest of the von Erich clan. And of course Rush was a major source of my musical pleasure (along with Blue Oyster Cult, also featured on the video short). So this featuring of the CANCON element to the film makes this a great supplement on my subscription. Keep ‘em coming!
One more reason to ponder why, despite billions in official Cancon funding no one in this country has ever made a film about the Hart family and Stampede Wrestling- the genesis of WWF/WWE. I was at Stu Hart’s funeral and the entire wrestling world was there - Jim McMahon, Hulk Hogan, China, the Hart clan of course. But in Canada we prefer to fund existentialist angst
God help us. The writer is telling us the Von Erich's were not German? What's next? That wrestling is not real?
https://discover.23andme.com/last-name/Adkisson genetically speaking, Adkisson is not necessarily a german name. (Though 22% of people with it are either French or German in heritage.)
However - I don't see the author saying that they were or weren't German. The article simply says that the name was given by Hart to Adkisson. What we do know is that they lived in Texas, and the name Elrich came from the senior's wife's maiden name - so probably had German in the family tree at a minimum, but I don't think there's any further proof than that. Why does Adkisson have to be German for wrestling to be real? (I don't understand the point you're trying to make here.)
If you are a old enough and remember watching professional wrestling in the 1950's and 1960's, wrestling had its "good" guys and its "villains". In the 1950's there was still easy memories of the Second World War. Hence some of the "bad" guys had or were German wrestlers or German named wrestlers. If memory serves me right, at the time, there were also a few "bad" Japanese wrestlers. As time marched on some of the "bad" wrestlers were Arab or had Arabic sounding names. World politics did play a part in the wrestling scene back then. Some of my favourite wrestlers at the time were Whipper Billy Watson, Yukon Eric and Pat Flanagan. Supposedly they were all Canadian wrestlers and they all took on the "good" guy persona while in the ring. Each of them had their own personal submission move. For Whipper Watson he would grab his opponents by the arm and swing him around the ring and 'Whip" his opponent into the corner of the ring posts and his opponent would fall to the ground, whence Watson would fall on top of his whipped victim and the referee would count "one, two, three" and Whipper Watson would be declared the winner. On the other hand Pat Flanagan's submission move was called the Mule Kick. I will let your imagination run wild as to how Flanagan's submission move was applied. In the 50's and 60's, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto would be packed to the rafters with fans out to see their favourite "good" guy wrestlers and the always necessary evil villain opponent.
With all due respect to the author - who writes well, and whose other articles on the Line I have enjoyed - I didn't pay a subscription fee to read movie reviews. If this is a mark of what the Line editors consider to be a slow news week, then fine. I would prefer the Line stick to its usual high standard of commentary on Canadian political affairs, which is hard to find elsewhere, and hence worth paying for. Movie reviews are not that.
We like to mix things up. Will these be a regular feature? No. Will we have others in the future? Almost certainly. Why? Some combination of the readers probably benefitting from the occasional palate cleanser and your editors ABSOLUTELY benefitting from the occasional palate cleanser.
I grew up in part on summer Saturday afternoon tv wrestling during down-time between chores on my grandfather’s farm, although in the 1960s / early-70s I was familiar with Fritz, Hulk Hogan and that lot, so just ahead of the rest of the von Erich clan. And of course Rush was a major source of my musical pleasure (along with Blue Oyster Cult, also featured on the video short). So this featuring of the CANCON element to the film makes this a great supplement on my subscription. Keep ‘em coming!
If you think this is just a movie review, you need to read the column again.