Fred Blassie

Fred Blassie (February 8, 1918 ? June 2, 2003), better known as "Classy" Freddie Blassie, was an American professional wrestler and manager born in St. Louis, Missouri who was a popular wrestling villain. He was a master at antagonizing the crowd, and inspired legendary animosity. He was also a 1 time NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion (Lately known as the NWA Wildside Heavyweight Championship). ==Childhood==

==Childhood==
Blassie's parents Jacob Blassie and Anna Blassie (ne? Sind) emigrated to the United States prior to the start of World War I and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Fred was an only child, which he claims is because he weighed 15 pounds when he was born and his mother didn't want to go through childbirth again. His father was abusive and an alcoholic, and Fred often had to take refuge with his grandparents whenever Jacob would beat his mother. His parents were continually breaking up and reuniting. At the age of 13, after his father hit his mother again, Fred threatened to attack his father with a baseball bat, but didn't do it and stayed with his grandparents again for six months until his mother asked him to return home. Throughout his life, Fred didn't touch alcohol after seeing what kind of person it turned his father into.

As a teenager, Blassie went to McKinley High School, but soon dropped out to go to work to help support his family. He got a job at a meat packing house, which his family hoped he would turn into a lucrative meat cutting job with the local trade union. However, he started boxing at Seward Community Center and won the Heavyweight Championship. He was more interested in wrestling, though, and would sneak into the matches whenever he could. He would often go to matches at Harry Cook's Gym to watch the hookers of the day lock up. As they began to recognize him, the wrestlers would teach him a hold here and there. His first wrestling match was actually a shoot fight which he accepted in order to impress a girl he brought to the show. Later, he began to get regular work wrestling at local carnivals. His cousin John Frank Holaus would often referee his matches.[1]

==Early career==
Blassie came up with his famous "pencil-neck geek" catchphrase early in his career to describe a fellow carnival performer known as "The Geek", who bit the heads off chickens and snakes. Blassie said that this geek had a neck like a stack of dimes, and that he was a real pencil-neck geek.

He soon got work from more established promoters than the carnies: Tom Packs in St. Louis and George Simpson in Kansas City. The more he worked in the business, the more the veterans were willing to let him learn more about the wrestling business and smartened him up.[1]


==Military Service==
After the United States entered World War II, Blassie enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater for 42 months. The war was a trying time for his family back home because of his grandparents' German heritage. They were often accused of being unpatriotic. In addition, he married a Jewish girl named Nettie Needles in California while on shore leave. He achieved the rank of Petty Officer Second Class before he was discharged.[1]

==Career==
Upon Blassie's return from the war, he was billed as "Sailor" Fred Blassie to capitalize on the wave of nationalism sweeping the country, but that gimmick was unsuccessful. He worked for Jack Pfefer, who he claimed would only employ people who looked like sideshow freaks at his shows, but whose wrestlers included Tor Johnson, who made movies with director Ed Wood, and Lillian Ellison, the Fabulous Moolah.[1]

==Georgia Territory==
In 1953, he worked in the Atlanta, Georgia territory for Paul Jones. While there, he won the NWA Georgia Southern Heavyweight Championship, who was generally first in line to challenge the NWA World Heavyweight Champion whenever he passed through the territory. It was also during this period of his career when he dropped his babyface gimmick and became a full-fledged heel. The fans consistently booed him because he was considered a "Yankee". He also bleached his hair at this time, as many of the other stars of the era did, such as Gorgeous George, Johnny Valentine, and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. He was often billed as "The Vampire" during this time for biting his opponents and filing his teeth during interviews and promos.[1]

==World Wrestling Association==
In 1952, Blassie moved to Los Angeles, California to work for Jules Strongbow. He grew to love California, and frequently returned there throughout his career to wrestle. He teamed with Billy McDaniel as the McDaniel Brothers, but when they went east, they were known as the Blassie Brothers.

In 1960, Blassie returned to Strongbow's promotion in Los Angeles where was a big star for the World Wrestling Association of southern California, drawing many fans to the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was so hated there that uniformed police officers were regularly brought in to protect him as he made his way to and from the ring.[2] He had main event-level feuds against stars such as the Destroyer[3].

On June 12, 1961, Blassie defeated the "Flying Frenchman" Edouard Carpentier in a best-of-three-falls match for his first WWA Championship title. On July 7, Blassie successfully defended his title against the former NWA Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz. During that same title reign, in a match against Lord James Blears a fan threw acid on his back, and he had to return immediately to the locker room to wash it off.

Blassie claims that he made Regis Philbin into the celebrity he is today. When Philbin had a late-night weekend talk show in San Diego, Blassie would routinely show up to yell at the audience, throw furniture, and threaten Philbin. In later years, Blassie also appeared on The Mike Douglas Show when Philbin was a guest host.

After regaining the WWA Championship from Rikidozan, Blassie lost the title two days later to the "Masked Destroyer" Dick Beyer. In 1963, Bearcat Wright defeated him to become champion, and it was quite a statement during the fight for civil rights that an African-American had won such a title. In 1964, "Dick The Bruiser" Richard Afflis defeated Blassie to become champion, and Blassie headed east to work for the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

Blassie returned to the WWA in 1968 just as promoter Mike LeBell decided to rejoin the NWA. In the early 1970s, Blassie "turned face", or became a good guy, since so many fans were cheering his famous antics. While there, he feuded with Soulman Rocky Johnson, The Sheik, and "The Golden Greek" John Tolos. One of his most famous feuds took place in southern California in 1971, against Tolos. The final match of their series took place in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and set new California records for both attendance and gate.

==Japan==
In 1962, Blassie had a feud with Japanese wrestling icon Rikidozan that established his reputation in Japan. After Blassie lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to Rikidozan in Los Angeles, the two had a rematch on live Japanese television. Many of the viewers were horrified by Blassie's treatment of their hero. One of Blassie's gimmicks was to file his teeth, and draw blood from his opponents by biting their foreheads. The sight of the Japanese legend covered in his own blood gave several viewers heart attacks, and some reportedly even died.[5]

Blassie divorced his wife after leaving on Christmas to wrestle in Knoxville. He claims he isn't sure if she knew of his philandering ways, but Blassie had repeatedly bragged of his infidelity to his ex-wife Nettie. As a result, of his three children Gary, Cheryl, and Ron, only Ron ever spoke to Blassie on a regular basis.

While touring Japan in 1965, Blassie met the woman who would later become his third wife, Miyako Morozumi, at a train station. However, later that year Blassie suffered from kidney stones and had surgery to remove them. While recuperating the following year, he sold cars and married a second time to a woman whose name Blassie claims to not remember.

In 1968, Blassie returned to Japan and was reunited with Miyako. When he asked for her parents' blessing, they were unsure of Blassie because of his reputation with Rikidozan and because he was 28 years older than her. However, he eventually got their blessing and took her home to the United States. They were married on September 30, 1968.[6]

==World Wide Wrestling Federation==
In 1963, Blassie feuded with Bruno Sammartino and Bobo Brazil. Behind the scenes, he befriended Gorilla Monsoon. He returned to the company in 1971 to challenge Pedro Morales for the WWWF Championship. During this stint with the company, he was managed by "Captain" Lou Albano.

==Management career==
Blassie retired from active wrestling in 1974, due to a California law that prohibited anyone over 55 from getting a wrestling license. Afterwards he became a manager in the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He performed for that promotion until his full retirement from professional wrestling in 1986.[1] There, he managed Nikolai Volkoff, Blackjack Mulligan, High Chief Peter Maivia, "The Crippler" Ray Stevens, Adrian Adonis, Jesse Ventura, Dick Murdoch, the Iron Sheik, King Kong Bundy, The Missing Link, Swede Hanson, Killer Khan, George 'The Animal' Steele, Professor Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Victor Rivera and Hulk Hogan.

Blassie also managed Muhammad Ali in his boxer vs. wrestler match in 1976 against Antonio Inoki.

==Music career==
In 1975, Blassie recorded voiceovers for the songs "Blassie, King of Men" and "Pencil Neck Geek", which were performed by Johnny Legend, featuring Billy Zoom on guitar. They received minor acclaim on the Dr. Demento Radio Show.

==Film career==
Andy Kaufman was enamored with Freddie Blassie and constantly hounded him to get him a spot in the wrestling card. Eventually, a movie of the two was filmed in 1982 at a Sambo's in Los Angeles called My Breakfast With Blassie.[1]

All three components ? Kaufman, Blassie and the movie ? were name-checked by American rock band R.E.M. in their song "Man on the Moon" from their 1992 album Automatic for the People. The song's subject matter involves Kaufman, and makes reference to "Mr. Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess."

In the early 1990s, the wrestler starred in a bizarro documentary directed by Jeff Krulik, titled Mr. Blassie Goes To Washington. In it, Blassie is picked up at the Washington DC airport by a limo full of young women, escorted around the nation's capitol, gives his opinions and confronts tourists. When meeting someone, he would ask where they were from, and no matter their response, he would reply with, "Oh, that's God's country!"