The Queen of the Ring
Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend
by Jeff Leen
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
In this in-depth account, 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.
“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
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 13, 2010 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780802199935
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780802199935
- File size: 2489 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 29, 2009
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.
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