I picked up Ballyhoo!: The Roughhouses, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling by Jon Langmead about a week ago, and I have been completely enthralled so far. If you have any interest whatsoever in the earliest days of American professional wrestling, I could not recommend this book more. It has been eye-opening as to just how much we have been misled about the earliest days of wrestling. The concept of "well, it was a pure sport up until (enter year here) and then it slowly morphed into a work" is complete rubbish. Even beyond that, the book outlines how modern concepts of professional wrestling, including "sports entertainment" itself (literally one promoter telling patrons in the 1910s that it was theater rather than sport) go back well over a century.
I could not recommend this book more, especially for lovers of the history of wrestling.
I could not recommend this book more, especially for lovers of the history of wrestling.
