Despite writing about pro wrestling for more than 35 years now, there are still times where I go, Wow, I had no idea.
That happened when, through a Newspapers.com search for something else wrestling-related, I came across a syndicated comic strip in the newspaper with an entire storyline devoted to pro wrestling.
In 1946.
About women’s pro wrestling to boot.
BACKGROUND
Now, since the comic strip, Ella Cinders, ended in 1961, a mere decade before I was born, I knew nothing of the strip or the characters. There are some older comic strips I have explored that pre-date my birth, like the early Peanuts and Walt Kelly’s Pogo, but this one had totally escaped me.
Since we live in a world where newspapers have been crippled by the one-two punch of the internet and online advertising gobbling up revenue, it’s important to note how much that newspapers both mattered and therefore that getting a syndicated comic strip was a really big deal.
Some strips grow into something bigger than just the paper, like Peanuts, Garfield, For Better of For Worse, Calvin & Hobbes, which all became part of the larger popular culture, and others, like Dilbert were a part and then its creator Scott Adams got cancelled. There are companies, like United Feature Syndicate, that still distribute to the newspaper world, and the comics are usually available online as well. I still get a daily paper, and read the “funny pages” as they were dubbed, with Zits and Adam @ Home two of my current must-reads.
Colleen Moore in the Ella Cinders movie from 1926.
Ella Cinders debuted in 1925 as a daily strip, and a longer, larger Saturday/Sunday version came along two years later. Bill Conselman was the writer and Charlie Plumb the artist.
The name of the title character is a play on Cinderella (in case you didn’t get the reference!) and in the early strips, it’s about Myrtle “Ma” Cinders tormenting her step daughter, Ella, while favoring her own spawn, Prissie and Lotta. Ella’s kid brother, Blackie, proves to be her ally often.
A silent movie came out almost immediately, released in June 1926, with Colleen Moore as Ella and Lloyd Hughes as her beau, the beautifully named Waite Lifter.
In 1940, Conselman died, leaving Plumb to do the strip. In the timeframe the wrestling storyline takes place, August to September 1946, it’s Plumb and Fred Fox credited (and Fox would take over completely after Plumb retired).
The dreaded “Atomic Kiss” was the entry into the wrestling storyline in Ella Cinders.
THE STORYLINE
It starts out as “Ma” Myrtle Cinders feels threatened when a Hollywood starlet, Gloria Glimmer, kissed her husband, Sam Cinders, knocking him out briefly and giving him a fever. Ma dresses up to compete and kisses Sam, sending him to the doctor with a new record of a fever of 105.5° F (40.8° C).
The record kisses both make the newspaper and a talent scout shows up at Ma’s door. To prove her potency, Ma kisses him, and again, sent to the hospital, but this time the doctor realizes the fever is from the ribs she fractured on him.
The identity of the Masked Mangler was never a secret.
In the hospital, the talent scout suggests she call “Gruntan Grone” (which might be the greatest name ever). If you guessed he was a wrestling promoter, you would be correct. He quickly signs Ma to a contract, and so begins the brief career of “Masked Mangler, Lady Wrestler.”
Despite the mask, the newspaper sports section reveals her name upon her debut. Sam is embarrassed by his wife and reluctantly lets her meet his boss’ wife. That boss, Mr. Jordan-Smythe, threatens Sam’s job if Ma continues to wrestle.
“A woman is supposed to be a lady — not a barbarian,” tut-tuts Mrs. Jordan-Smythe. That causes Ma to lose it, and attack her boss’ wife, who gives as good as she gets.
Ma dismisses the threat to Sam’s job, since she claims she is making $1,000 a night — about $16,000 in 2024’s purchasing power!
Ella has an aha moment and realizes that Dynamite Daisy is actually Constance Jordan-Smythe, so her father keeps his job through blackmail essentially.
Constance explained the side hustle to her husband, Egbert. “I’ve done it for years, Egbert,” she said. “You never give me enough money to meet my social obligations, so I had to earn it myself! How do you think I got this cauliflower ear!”
Never trust a promoter named Gruntan Grone!
Sam and his boss try to figure out to get both of their wives to stop wrestling, and Ella suggests that “Muscle-Bound Minnie” could take them. Ella makes the call to Minnie, who arrives on the train, wearing a veil — including at dinner. She shows off her strength, breaking a coconut with her bare hands. Later, Ma does the same feat, teasing what is to come.
Every day people, including a priest, judge, painters and construction workers, all give their predictions on the big match.
Ella Cinders and her father make a wish.
Ma learns who her opponent is and reacts oddly.
As the main event takes place, the wrestlers are dressed identically, and the stipulation is that “the one who wins is to be given the privilege of tearing the mask off the other!”
We follow the match through a radio broadcast — which used to happen, youngsters — and returning to the action, Minnie wins but is also revealed to be Ma’s twin sister.
While that’s the end of the wrestling for both sisters, the storyline continues, and is seems that Sam once fancied Minnie, but ended up marrying Myrtle.
FINAL THOUGHTS
What is fascinating about this series of Ella Cinders strips is how it both joked about and celebrated women’s wrestling. Women aren’t supposed to be wrestling, dontcha know, but those that do are incredible.
There’s an unscrupulous promoter to boot.
If you are curious about seeing this whole run of Ella Cinders, drop me an email at goliver845@gmail.com and I’ll send you a PDF.