It was a less-than-nuanced portrayal of homosexuality. Gorgeous George was an accepted fact of life, practically an institution-if he was swishy he was a celebrated swish. more importantly, the wrestler earned a star entertainer's immunity. Yet, amid the indignation the crowd worked themselves into over George's taboo behavior, they admired his daring too.
In his business any strong reaction was a good one homophobia was just another form of heat. George clearly invited the curses and shouts of "Queer!" and "Sissy!" directed at him, becoming a lighting rod in the arenas. And the audience response was sometimes beyond the pale: In Tacoma, Washington, the public safety commissioner investigated whether or not George was a threat to the public decency. But it was an act, George's biographer John Capouya said, that came with an ugly tinge.
Dylan, James Brown, John Waters, Liberace ("He stole my whole act"), and more, are inspired and influenced by one "Gorgeous" George Wagner.įor 12 years, George's was one of the leading acts in all of professional wrestling, especially in Los Angeles, where the cream of the Hollywood crop accepted him as one of their own.
Muhammad Ali will claim he learned his trash-talking from him. A Reader's Digest Poll will suggest he is better known than the President. He will be credited with introducing "camp" to the mainstream public. His impact will go WAY beyond the ringed circle and television. "I don't know if I was made for television, or if television was made for me," he will famously say. He will be credited with selling more of them than even Uncle Milton Berle. As historian John Nash explained, he didn't just star on television-he helped sell the medium to the masses: America had never seen anything like Gorgeous George. It was a flamboyant act, one that turned Wagner, a journeyman at best as a clean cut and serious grappler, into the biggest star of wrestling's television golden age in the 1940s. 5, it seems, wouldn't do for the Gorgeous one.
Clad in lace, chiffon and silk, pink silk at that, he had his valet spray a custom perfume to mask the smell of the "peasants" at ring side. Peroxide blond hair flopping comically, "Gorgeous" Wagner didn't walk to the ring as much as he pranced.