May 1, 2022 • 75 mins
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Welcome to Grappling With Canada! Each month Andy "The Taxman" is joined by various guests to take a deep dive into the past of some of Canada's most influential, infamous and impressive Wrestling exports! Not a Canadian? Don't worry, no passport needed! The international connections of wrestling with and to Canada will surprise you!
In this months episode, The Taxman takes a solo deep dive into the life and career of Sky Low Low!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Support for today's program is brought to you by our good friends at Manscaped.
(00:06):
Keeping your gimmicks from sticking to one's legs is no laughing matter.
It takes proper hair removal, application of all specific concoctions, and a wee little bit of luck.
At Manscaped, they've created everything that a gentleman needs to ensure a comfortable and clean existence for your family jewels.
(00:32):
Curious what they have in store? Simply go to manscaped.com, enter the promo code GWC at checkout, and you will get 20% off your entire order.
And everybody's favourite, free shipping. Once again, peruse all the fine products at manscaped.com.
(00:56):
And when you go to checkout, type in my special promo code GWC for 20% off your order and free shipping.
Your balls and your partner or partners will thank you.
(01:37):
He's got him by the beard. Proud is saying yeah.
Yogan is saying no. Takes a whistle out of his blower.
(01:58):
He's going to stop on the whistle. Yogan says no.
Okay, Sky Lolo did not win it, but he would win a popularity contest anywhere.
(02:19):
1942. Just outside of Detroit, Michigan.
At the Willow Run Bomber Plant, the B-24 Liberator bomber is in heavy production.
One B-24 was produced every 59 minutes at its peak.
A rate so large that production exceeded the military's ability to even use the aircraft.
(02:44):
Such were the production numbers that it has been said that there was more aluminum, air crew, and effort that went into the B-24 than any other aircraft in aviation history.
But what does one of the premier aircraft, which ended up winning the skies in World War II, and a wrestler from Montreal, Quebec have in common?
(03:11):
Join us this month on Grappling with Canada as we take a look at the life and the career of Sky Lolo Lolo.
(03:41):
Hello everyone and welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
To Grappling with Canada. As with each and every month, I'm your host, The Taxman.
And I first want to kick this episode off by giving a big thank you to everybody who's been checking out to the program lately.
(04:07):
Our download numbers have been off the charts lately and it's been really, really nice to see for myself personally.
So I want to thank each and every one of you who have been checking out all of the flagship episodes and a few of the special episodes that we've been doing lately on the Grappling with Canada feed.
More on that in just a little bit.
(04:30):
If this is your first time to the program, welcome to Grappling with Canada.
You can find us on all major podcasting platforms such as iTunes or Apple Podcasts, whatever the kids call it nowadays.
Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or steal your favorite podcasts, you will find Grappling with Canada.
(04:54):
While you're there, especially on Apple Podcasts or iTunes, again, whatever the kids call it nowadays, if you could go ahead and leave a five star rating.
And a written review, I will make sure that that gets read on the next available podcast.
Gives you a nice shout out and it really does mean a lot in terms of getting this show some more eyeballs, if you will.
(05:18):
While we're talking about the back catalog, I want to thank everybody for checking out especially last month's episode on Chief Don Eagle.
Now, I understand that some of the subject matter was difficult to listen to.
A lot of it was very heavy, emotionally speaking, psychologically speaking.
(05:39):
So I want to thank everybody for having an open mind, first and foremost, and for appreciating the way that we kind of dealt with, we'll say the darker portions of that story.
The one thing with professional wrestling history, I find, and this is something that I've really tried to steer away from, is the heavy negative influence and negative connotation that many aspects of professional wrestling history seem to be portrayed in and around, we'll say.
(06:13):
It would be very easy for me to have gone and titled that episode last month something quite sensational considering the end of the Don Eagle story.
Obviously, I chose not to do that. I'm very happy with that choice.
And I'm very happy with the response that I've gotten from many new listeners actually to the program who were very pleased with kind of the way that we dealt with the subject matter.
(06:41):
So once again, thank you everybody for checking out that program.
If you are new to this one, if say last month was your first one, this is your second one, say this is your first one.
We have some tremendous episodes in the back catalog covering all kinds of professional wrestlers from Canadian history, such as Roddy Piper, George Gordienko, Gene Kieniski, Gail Kim, Stu Harden-Stampede Wrestling,
(07:06):
and the still reigning and undisputed champion of this program, our tremendous Ronda Singh episode.
So you can find all of those in the back catalog.
And once again, on any platform that you were able to leave a five star rating and a written review, especially on Apple Podcasts, because that's the easiest one for me to see,
(07:29):
it would be very much greatly appreciated. And at least you know that you will get a shout out on the next available episode.
Speaking of ways that you can find this program, you can also find us on YouTube.
YouTube.com slash C slash six sided podcast is where you can find the YouTube page for this show.
(07:50):
Eventually, I'll start moving into some form of video, maybe short clips or something like that.
But until then, you can also find the long form programs of this show on the YouTube page.
Eventually, I will also be putting up these special episodes.
Again, something I'm going to be talking about later on in tonight's episode.
(08:14):
And make sure that when you're on the YouTube page, you hit that wonderful subscribe button.
We are inching, crawling, dragging, slogging our way to a thousand subscribers.
So everyone helps and we are slowly getting our way to that wonderful thousand subscriber mark.
So thank you, everybody so far who has been subscribing to the YouTube page.
(08:39):
You can also find us on Instagram, Instagram.com slash grappling with Canada.
Go ahead and like all of our amazing photos on there, especially the ones where I had some fun with our April promotion
with the Cancer Society promotion that we had going on via Manscapes.
So that was a lot of fun.
(09:00):
I was very happy to be a part of that promotion and spread some word about testicular cancer awareness.
And that was a lot of fun.
And I really enjoyed it.
So once again, on Instagram, Instagram.com slash grappling with Canada or use that wonderful Instagram search bar search for grappling with Canada.
Come on in and follow us on there.
(09:24):
You can also like us on Facebook.
We have a Facebook page, grappling with Canada.
So go ahead and like that as well as come in, come on in, if you will.
That's a lot better, I think.
And join the tremendous conversation that we've been having on the Canadian Professional Wrestling History Facebook group.
(09:47):
So either Facebook.com slash grappling with Canada group, I believe is what it is, or use that wonderful Facebook groups search bar and simply search for Canadian Professional Wrestling History.
You'll find some great conversations, some great videos, some great newspaper clippings and a whole bunch of fun stuff on that group.
(10:09):
So come on in, have some fun and let's share in some Canadian Professional Wrestling History.
One of the things that I alluded to at kind of the top of this program is some special episodes that I've been doing lately.
I've been very fortunate to be showcasing some tremendous projects that are happening in and around Canadian Professional Wrestling.
(10:30):
You'll know that we had the Canadian History Archives folks on a couple of months ago.
That was a special episode.
I was also happy to be joined by Stephen Bell, the author of the Dynamite and Davey episode.
He was on for a special episode and the most recent one was involving Vance Nevada and his tremendous book that he's working on currently, Uncontrolled Chaos, Canada's Remarkable Professional Wrestling Legacy.
(11:00):
And that one is going to be a bit of an ongoing special.
We just released part one.
Part two will be closer to the show's or the book's debut and part three, maybe it'll be something like a follow up after the book is released.
So anyways, go ahead and listen to that episode if you haven't already.
Also, make sure you check the show notes of that episode to find out ways where you can get on the mailing list to secure your advanced copy of the book.
(11:30):
And this thing is going to be a masterpiece.
I can't wait. I was very pleased to be showed a little insight of what has gone into that book.
And for those of us history buffs who love numbers and love the true history of Canadian professional wrestling, this thing is going to be quite the treat.
(11:54):
And I for one cannot wait to to get that one on the proverbial bookshelf, if you will.
Also want to make mention there are a few ways that you can support the program today.
You can find links to support this program in the link tree available in the show notes of this program.
(12:16):
Available options are a direct PayPal link.
There's also a buy me a coffee dot com slash grappling where you can go ahead and buy me a beer.
It is thirsty work to produce these programs after all.
And you can also use the tip functions if you are on the good pods app.
So some ways to support the show.
(12:37):
Unfortunately, there is monetary costs associated with the show.
So any little bit helps. And if you make a donation, then very glad to give you a shout out on the next available program.
And last but not least, the official merchandise store grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com is where you can find all of those.
(12:59):
If you are listening to this on March for sorry, May 1st, because there is no way that you can.
Well, I guess you get listen to this March 1st of 2023.
Anyways, I digress a little bit.
If you are listening to this on May 1st or you're listening to this in the middle of the month,
chances are you are going to be able to go on to grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com and get all the show merchandise on sale.
(13:29):
I can't specifically say when the sale is going to happen, but nod nod, wink wink.
It's happening soon and I'm not telling you that stuff is going to be about half off.
And I'm not telling you that free shipping may or may not be part of the fun, we'll say.
(13:50):
So go ahead, pick up your show merchandise.
Hey, half price, who can beat it?
And the best part all proceeds from the classic grappling with Canada logo t-shirt are going to charity here in friendly Winnipeg, Manitoba.
So thank you again, everybody who's been purchasing some shirts lately and keep your eyes peeled, if you will, for that upcoming sale,
(14:19):
which may or may not be happening just around the corner.
But the reason that we're all here tonight, we're going to be talking about the life and career of Sky Lolo.
Now, this episode is going to be a little bit different because we've had some pretty heavy subject matter
(14:41):
essentially every episode of this season of grappling with Canada.
And I kind of wanted to lighten this one up a little bit, not because I obviously don't want to make light of Sky Lolo's career
or what his contributions were to professional wrestling, far from it.
But I do want to kind of highlight his impact and how he kind of changed the trajectory of professional wrestling,
(15:08):
especially when it comes to little people.
And obviously comedy is going to come into a big part of the conversation tonight as we kind of look what he did in the wrestling ring.
But I was also able to find out some very interesting information about his pre wrestling life.
(15:32):
And you may be wondering why I basically gave you the historical summary of the B-29 bombers at the start of the intro of this program.
We are going to explain that.
It's going to be a fascinating show today.
I hope you guys are going to learn a lot.
Like I said, it's going to be a bit of a departure from the real dark subject matter that we've been dealing with lately.
(15:56):
But nonetheless, I think that this is going to be a very fun episode and I'm really happy to have uncovered quite a bit of information in regards to Sky Lolo,
one of those almost forgotten, somewhat mythical people from Canadian professional wrestling history.
So before we get into that, I think we should set ourselves, set ourselves up.
(16:24):
Maybe I'll set myself up. Maybe I'll set myself up for a proper delivery.
Wouldn't that be something tremendous?
We're going to have a fun one tonight, folks.
Let's set ourselves up properly with some classic audio.
And what better way to get us in the mood of a little Sky Lolo than to hear from that himself.
(16:46):
So please enjoy this.
And on the other side, we're going to start getting into our conversation about Sky Lolo.
Our next guest, certainly one of the most extraordinary, weighing in at approximately 102 pounds, somewhere about there.
And without a doubt is one of the premier athletes in the World Wrestling Federation.
And with that in mind, also, I think you could state that this gentleman is without a doubt the greatest midget wrestler of all time.
(17:12):
Would you please welcome Sky Lolo?
You know Lord Alfred Hayes.
Nice to meet you again.
Great to be back.
Have a seat, if you would, please.
Thank you. Thank you. Oh, my God. This is better than a pie in the face, you know.
(17:35):
Well, speaking of that, yes.
The last time we saw you on TNT, you had a little difficulty, I think. You were, of course, with a ring bearer at Butcher Paul Vachon's wedding.
By the way, if I may interject this, how is Mr. Vachon getting along with his bride?
Well, I'm going to tell you, he's been having a little problem.
(17:57):
So soon?
Alfred suspected that they were going to have some problems.
Yes, yes. I think they had a few things that came out unsuspected.
Really?
And now they're going through some things, you know, to find out if they're real truth or not.
I see.
Sort of a scandal, then.
Oh, yes, yes. It's pretty hard on Mr. Vachon.
(18:20):
Well, I bet it would be hard on the butcher, but also hard on the bride to a certain extent.
I mean, butcher at 300 pounds certainly creates unusual problems, I would suspect.
Well, yeah, I would say, I agree with you. I agree with you with that.
But with me, I was lucky I got out alive.
(18:43):
Alright.
I lost the ring.
It was a mess. Let's take you back. I'd like to take you back to some videotape footage.
Sky Lono, the ring bearer of the special Butcher Paul Vachon wedding. Let's go to the tape.
Now, before we get any further into tonight's program, I should make some clarifications regarding terminology.
(19:05):
Now, I'm under the impression that the term midget has a negative connotation to some people.
So when I'm speaking personally about topics covered in tonight's program, I will use the term little person.
However, if I'm reading quotes, specific quotes from Sky Lono and others, or quotes from literature,
(19:33):
which we're going to get into a little bit later in the program tonight, and they use the term midget,
that's what's been accepted by those people, especially those given the quotes.
So I just wanted to make that clarification before we get any further.
I'm not saying the term to be divisive or to use it in a derogatory term,
(19:56):
but I do want to make the point of clarification that because it's clearly not my term to use, if you will,
that if I'm speaking from my own thoughts and research, I'll be using the term little person.
The other term you're going to be hearing is from people specifically related to Sky Lolo and Sky Lolo himself.
(20:21):
So I just want to throw that out there before it becomes any more of a confusing mess
or any kind of an extenuating circumstance in regards to the program tonight.
Marcel Gauthier was born July 21st, 1928 in Montreal, Quebec.
(20:44):
He naturally was one of the greatest little people wrestlers of all time,
who performed under the name Sky Lolo, a little bit more of that later.
He stood at three foot, seven inches, making him the smallest superstar in WWE history,
a distinction which he still holds today.
(21:05):
He has numerous accolades to his names, including the induction to the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum Class of 2002.
He was Pro Wrestling Illustrated's PWI Midget Wrestler of the Year in 1975.
He was the NWA World Midget Champion. He was the inaugural champion, actually.
(21:28):
He was inducted into the Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame in the 1995 class, and he was a Midgets World Champion two times over as well.
Now, before his professional wrestling career, he did serve some time working on bomber airplanes.
This is why at the beginning of the program, you heard me talk about the B-24 Liberator heavy bombers that were assembled in the United States of America.
(21:59):
Now, it's been widely reported that Sky Lolo, Marcel Gauthier at that time, had a career fixing and working on rivets in bomber planes.
What's not entirely clear, and I've tried very hard to research this fact, so what I'm about to get into is a little bit of conjecture.
(22:24):
However, I'm like 90% sure that this is what the actual story is, and I have some corroborating evidence to back it up.
Now, I'm very happy to be proven wrong if this is not the case, but from everything that I can research, read, find out, and then piece together and corroborate, this seems to be the most likely explanation.
(22:50):
Now, starting in 1942 and continuing through the epic World War II airstrikes, if you will, the Willow Run Plant just outside of Detroit, Michigan, was essentially the crown jewel in terms of turning out to the B-24 bombers.
(23:11):
Now, this plant was tasked with turning out essentially, and they ended up doing it one bomber every hour. I think they ended up setting a record of turning out one bomber plane every 59 minutes, which was naturally an incredible feat.
However, this feat was on the backs of mostly women and little people who were brought in to help. Now, let me explain a little bit further.
(23:38):
Now, most of the men were gone fighting off in the war in World War II, conscription, I should say, ended up happening.
So, a lot of the men were sent overseas to either fight or to rebuild or repair planes on the front lines.
So, what ended up happening at the Willow Plant is they ended up essentially bringing on women, people of color who would usually otherwise be excluded from this type of work, and little people who they specifically sought out and hired from across North America.
(24:14):
This brings us to the connection between Montreal and Detroit, not just a wrestling connection as we've established and explored and discovered in various topics that we've discussed specifically even last month.
During the Dawn Eagle episode, Jamie Greer brought up some excellent points about the corridors between Montreal and Detroit. Well, here's another one.
(24:45):
Now, essentially, they were bringing in little people to work in the tight enclosed spaces on these B-24 bombers, specifically riveting in the wings. And this is the one portion of the Marcel Gauthier story, the Sky Lolo story that I can cooperate 100% is that he did work on riveting airplane wings in World War II.
(25:13):
Based on how they were recruiting and the Willow, it should be mentioned as well, and I know I'm kind of getting off track here a little bit, but I do want to extrapolate this a little bit further, is that this Willow Run bomber plant was run by Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company.
Now, he was a notorious, we'll say, cantankerous person. I think he was in his 80s at this point, and he did not want the plant to slow down at all period. And he set the goal, like I said, of one B-24 bomber an hour on the hour.
(25:51):
And he was very cutthroat, we'll say, in his ways of going about that. And like I said, he specifically sent out recruiters all across North America to find little people to do these types of jobs.
Riveting in wings, installing insulation and heat shielding, essentially all of the small space work that needed to be done on these planes but could not be done by the women that they were bringing in.
(26:21):
So it's fascinating that, and this ends up being almost a forgotten part of World War II, because I had no idea, to be quite honest, that little people were such a big part in this portion of the aviation aspect of World War II until I started doing the research on this project.
Now, naturally, it is possible that Marcelo Gochia was sent to a different plant, although I find that hard to believe because at this point in time, the only other plant was in California.
(26:54):
Now, they ended up branching this plant, the Willow Run plant, off into separate plants. Once they kind of streamlined how they were building these planes, they ended up kind of carpar-metalizing how they did the process, right?
They could now build most of it here, ship it down to Texas, reassemble it there, and away you go.
So it's possible that he also worked there. Again, this is all conjecture.
(27:19):
And if somebody had some definitive evidence on what he actually did and where he did it, I'm more than happy to run a retraction on this program.
But by everything that I've been able to ascertain and research throughout this fact, and the fact that Ford was specifically going up to Canada, Toronto and Montreal are two of the biggest cities that are listed in all the research that I found, leads me to believe that this is the production facility that Marcelo Gochia worked at during World War II on bomber planes,
(28:01):
which I think is absolutely fascinating. Just the fact that, again, these tendrils that we keep running across in terms of Canadian professional wrestling history, the dichotomy between Toronto and Detroit, from Montreal to Detroit, from Montreal to Ohio, as we discussed last month as well,
(28:27):
especially with the amount of indigenous people that were going back and forth. It's just one of those things that the more I come across it, the more it's extremely fascinating to me, the more I'm much more happy to be exploring it.
Now, to keep in line with our continuation of supplying some classic audio, this clip I actually found exactly illustrates what I'm talking about. This is a clip from, it's one of these American propaganda clips, you know, like the yes we can kind of clips,
(29:04):
but it shows, and you'll hear how instrumental little people were to the war effort, specifically on these planes. So I'm going to play this clip. And on the other side we're going to continue the story of Marcelo Gochia who would end up becoming Sky Lolo. Please enjoy.
(29:26):
Every effort, no matter how small, will help lick the enemy. Migeon pitch in on warplane production. Their abbreviated standard is ideal for crawling into wingtip sections and other parts where working space is at a premium.
(29:48):
At Newark State Brewster Plant, the little pucks in overalls do a man-sized job inside the huge wings of flying boats.
Small wonder that the little fellows are in great demand today.
(30:11):
Little man, you really had a busy day.
In order to talk about the wrestling career of Marcelo Gochia, we also need to discuss the birth of midget professional wrestling, which ended up starting in Montreal. Now this information comes directly from Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screwjobs, the tremendous book from friends of the show Pat Leprade and Bertrande Bair.
(30:44):
Now they go on to say in that book, most accounts of history of midget wrestling in North America say that Jack Bertrande started the entire thing in the 1940s. But the truth is that it began even earlier.
Gerard Phillips was actually responsible to a large extent for midgets becoming wrestlers. Sometime in 1947 or 48, Paul Downing, who was a police sergeant in Montreal, was one of the wrestling promoters in the Atwater Market.
(31:13):
Phillips sold tickets, wrestled there, and took 25% of the promotion's gate.
The shows took place on Tuesday evenings, but on Sundays, the wrestlers went to the ring and practiced. There was one interesting lone spectator each Sunday.
We practiced Marcelo Gochia. A midget came to the ring and started picking a fight with other wrestlers, he said. Quote, bring out the midgets, I'll beat them. This didn't fall into deaf ears, Phillips remembers.
(31:43):
One day a friend of Phillips, Roland Reed, a former amateur wrestler who trained at Lausia Saint-Jean Baptiste, introduced him to someone. That's when I met Jean Roy. He wasn't a midget, but rather a short adult.
Wah was training at the Loisaires, I'm sorry, I'm probably butchering that, my French is awful, and Phillips took the opportunity to invite him down to the Atwater Market.
(32:09):
I convinced Paul to give them a tryout on Sunday during the practice. After having practiced together, it worked, Phillips relates.
So, during the next show, Gochia climbed onto the ring to challenge anyone in his weight class. Wah, who was sitting in the crowd, accepted.
We advertised the match as Le Voix Populaire and Les Mongales Matin, two newspapers, Phillips remembers.
(32:34):
We usually drew 500-600 spectators, but on this occasion we drew around 1600.
Taking place in 1948, this was the first midget wrestling match on record according to Phillips. More on that a little bit later.
In my opinion, this was the first midget match in North America. Then Raymond Sabois, another midget who heard about the match, showed up and expressed his interest to be part of the promotion.
(32:59):
The match is scheduled either two midgets against regular sized wrestlers, or three midgets against two regular sized wrestlers.
Now, shortly after this, around 1949 is when Jack Breton's role in the story began.
Breton wrestled against me in the Atwater Market, Phillips says. Having seen that midgets drew considerable crowds and he had already wrestled in the United States, he decided to start his own midget wrestling tour group.
(33:27):
He realized that things go far, Phillips said. And even though Breton wasn't the only promoter associated with the earliest days of midget wrestling, he paid the midgets well while making a lot of money for himself.
Now what makes the story more interesting is that Gauthier, Waugh, and Sabouin became famous but under other names.
(33:49):
Obviously, we know that Marcel Gauthier went on to become Sky Lolo, Jean Ra became the Tiny Roe, and Raymond Sabouin became Pee Wee James.
Sky, Tiny Roe, and Pee Wee James were part of the first crew of midgets, Gino Brito says. Brito remembers precisely how his father worked.
(34:12):
He sent four guys on the road with four midgets each. There was always six midgets on the road. At some points there was even 24 midgets.
Now we're going to talk a little bit more about the wrestling career of Sky Lolo.
Now Little Beaver was the man who he would wrestle most often. And as a matter of fact, it was undoubtedly the best and longest rivalry in the Montreal territory,
(34:36):
although it took place more often than not outside of the provinces boundaries. They even wrestled each other in front of Queen Elizabeth II and King Farouk of Egypt.
Now there's an interesting tidbit that comes up in this conversation, which we're going to circle back to later on in this episode.
Sky didn't like it when other wrestlers were successful because he didn't want another wrestler to take away his spot. But with Beaver it was different.
(35:03):
He realized the crowds were bigger and he was ultimately going to make more money for himself, Gino Brito says.
Little Beaver's character, which was an Indian look, was so popular that it made it easy for Sky, who looked old even at a young age, to be a heel.
Sky is actually often referred to as the father of midget wrestling, a statement substantiated by Little Brutus who says that Sky paved the way for others.
(35:28):
He wrestled on many cards at Madison Square Garden after 1957 when the New York Athletic Commission lifted its ban on midget wrestling.
Like the other wrestlers in his division, Sky went all around the world.
A quote from Gino Brito, My father took them to Japan, Europe and everywhere in between.
Very often promoters presented midget tag team matches, most probably because four men always seemed to be traveling together.
(35:55):
In the 1950s, Sky's regular partner was Tiny Rowe. In the 1960s, it was Fuzzy Cupid, while in the 1970s it was Little Brutus.
In singles competitions, one of Sky's act was to offer $100 to any midget who could beat him two out of three falls.
In 1975, he won the Midget of the Year award given by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in addition to finishing second the following year right after Lord Littlebrook.
(36:24):
More on him a little bit later.
Sky was known for being quick in the ring, for having an excellent dropkick and for the famous ability to stand on his head without falling.
He was also very strong and fearless, which played tricks on some people.
While he was in Chicago in 1973, signing autographs after a show, there was a guy harassing a girl he knew.
(36:48):
At one point, the young man touched the woman's breasts, yelling, You don't wear a bra!
Seeing her an opportunity to help a lady in distress, Sky stopped the signing, went towards the young man who obviously didn't take him seriously.
That's when Sky punched him below the belt, asking, You don't wear a jock? Tremendous!
(37:09):
Now near the end of his career, he wrestled for the McMahons from 1981 to 1987.
In 1982 in the WWF, he worked his last feud, which was a series of tag team matches against his sworn enemy, Little Beaver.
He called it quits in the Maritimes, and his last recorded match dates to July 1988 in a tag team match with Bob Crawford.
(37:33):
Now not only was he known in the WWF for some of his tag team matches, but obviously as part of the Mad Dog Vishaw wedding
fiasco, if you will, that you heard a clip of earlier on in this episode.
I highly suggest that you can go on YouTube and you can search for that video. It's pretty funny stuff.
And that's a little bit of the comedy aspect of professional wrestling.
(37:56):
I know that comedy and wrestling today is a hot button issue.
However, the way that Sky Lolo presented it in clips like that, in clips of his time in stampede wrestling,
it was fun and it was taken fun and people enjoyed it.
On the flip side, I've seen some very intense matches that he had in the 1950s especially,
(38:23):
where he is laying it in with the other Little People wrestlers and it's quite extraordinary to watch.
I had mentioned that he is well known for his dropkick.
If you have not seen Sky Lolo wrestle in a serious match, I highly suggest it.
And yes, his dropkick is quite incredible.
(38:46):
Now I was very fortunate to be given Sky Lolo's entire match history from friend of the show Vance Nevada.
Obviously you would be very familiar with Vance from our Roddy Piper part one episode,
as well as the special episode last month on his upcoming book, Uncontrolled Chaos,
(39:09):
Canada's Remarkable Professional Wrestling Legacy.
Now I had alluded to when Sky Lolo's matches started and when they ended.
So his first match ever was, or first documented match ever, was February 25th in Saint-Jérôme-Quebec versus Mickey Langeois.
(39:34):
Now his last match ever was in 1988, actually July 22nd of that year in Amherst, Nova Scotia where he lost to Farmer Brooks.
Now all in all, throughout his entire career, and this is the number that I found especially astounding,
Sky Lolo ended up having 807 documented matches.
(40:00):
He ended up wrestling essentially in five decades, the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and the 80s.
Really incredible stuff if you go to think about it.
Now I'm going to play a little clip of Stu Hart telling a fun Sky Lolo story.
And on the other side, I'm going to read some quotes from Sky Lolo himself,
(40:25):
which I think is going to shed some light on himself as a person,
some of the struggles that he encountered, obviously being a little person in a big man's world of professional wrestling.
And I'm going to read some anecdotes from other authors who had experienced and explored the story of Sky Lolo.
(40:48):
So please enjoy this classic wrestling audio.
And on the other side, we're going to get into some tremendous Sky Lolo quotes.
(41:21):
And I'm going to read some of the quotes from Sky Lolo.
(41:45):
Now in the last segment, I was speaking about some Sky Lolo comments and quotes
(42:14):
that I wanted to get into the program tonight, which I'm going to right now,
as well as some outside opinion and observation regarding Sky Lolo.
Now this is something that has come from multiple sources.
However, I feel like the source that I'm going to use later on in this segment kind of sums it up properly.
(42:38):
But I digress.
Now this quote comes from a newspaper clipping.
It's quoted as Sky Lolo, probably the most famous midget wrestler ever.
Sky boasts that he held the Midget title for 30 years and wanted to retire with it.
Quote, I had great matches against Little Brutus, Little Beaver and Frenchy Lamont, he remembers.
(43:05):
Today, at the time of this article, Sky and his wife lived in suburban Montreal,
where Sky spends most of his time watching television.
Yeah, I love news like 60 minutes and 48 hours, he says.
I also have a very large collection of old movies that we watch.
Now this is another newspaper quote that I came across titled Outstanding Midgets Signed Fraternity.
(43:35):
Quote, The veteran who is most recognized as the most phenomenal athlete of all time
and the midget wrestler who is generally recognized as the strongest man on a strength for weight basis
in the entire world would come to the Northwest for the annual wrestling stampede tournament of champions.
(43:58):
The veteran is Sky Lolo, the mighty little man who brought a new dimension to the math sport back in the 1940s
when he hit the headlines with the uncrowned King of Midgets.
Today, after 40 years of activity, he is still going strong and is a major headliner in the sports at which he was a pioneer.
When he comes to Northwest in early July, he will be returning to rings and arenas where capacity crowds
(44:25):
saw him many decades ago in classic boats with Little Beaver and other greats of the midget division.
While Sky Lolo is regarded as a remarkable example of physical durability,
his opposite number at the present time is equally remarkable for his feats of strength that he has exhibited in recent months.
(44:47):
He is Frenchy Lamont, who grew up in Chacune, Meek, Quebec, but now makes his permanent home in Calgary,
where he treats wrestling as a hobby while proving himself a capable everyday worker in the industrial and business world.
The powerfully developed Lamont, in demonstrations of his strength, has often lifted two fully-grown heavyweights simultaneously,
(45:13):
as well as performing other feats of strength.
So you can see this classic wrestling buildup of old school versus new school in Calgary, which I think is absolutely tremendous.
And this one that I really want to get into deep, it's on assignment by journalist Steve Farhood.
(45:39):
Now I'm not familiar with which newspaper specifically this article comes from,
so if someone could share some clarification with me, obviously send those tweets to
at6underscorepodcast or shoot me an email at6underscorepodcast, but I want to read this article because I think it kind of encapsulates
(46:01):
some of the trials and tribulations, some of the aspects of Sky Lolo's career that we've been speaking about throughout the duration of this program.
So I'm going to read this pretty well verbatim and then on the other side we're going to get into some more conversation about Sky Lolo and his career.
(46:25):
Not many of us can say we do something better than anyone else in the world.
I feel I'm a pretty good wrestler, but not the best.
That title belongs to the guy who's two desks down with bloodshot eyes and the breath that travels around three zip codes.
Some people are the best at trivial things, fixing a typewriter ribbon, making paper airplanes, whistling for taxi cabs.
(46:53):
Maybe these things aren't too impressive and they certainly won't make anybody millionaires, but there is an undeniable pride in knowing that you're number one.
In Montreal, I spent some time with someone who is unquestionably the best at what he does.
Sky Lolo, the greatest midget wrestler in the history of the sport.
(47:14):
Sky has seen it all in a long, wonderful career.
He has been a champion.
He has been a failure.
He has been a rule breaker and a scientific star.
He has been treated like a hero and he has been ridiculed by insensitive fans because of his unfortunate handicap.
(47:35):
The man is a battler.
And after a brief retirement, he has decided to come back.
Quote, wrestling is my life, Sky said while we were enjoying a beer at Thursday's, a popular watering hole.
A long, long time ago, when I was a young man without direction, wrestling gave me a reason to go on, an identity.
(47:59):
Since I stopped, I've felt sort of lost.
I have enough money to live comfortably, so I'm not going back for that.
It's just the thrill of climbing through those ropes, the thrill of defeating an opponent, the thrill of victory.
For Sky, all too often his successes in the ring were necessary to erase the embarrassment and humiliation that he constantly encountered in public life.
(48:28):
Look, he said, his voice suddenly deeper and more serious.
God plays favorites.
I could look at my being a midget as his little insult, but I don't.
I was born with tremendous strength and quickness.
Not everyone who has natural athletic ability.
(48:49):
If I were 5'10 and just an average guy, do you think I would have come as far as I have?
I had to ask the next question.
I didn't want to, but I had to.
I had to know.
Tell me the truth, Sky, I said.
If you could start it all over again, would you have rather been born 6' tall?
(49:12):
Tears filled his sensitive eyes.
He tried to hide them, but I knew he noticed.
He raised his beard mug to his mouth, took a long swallow, and spoke softly.
Here I am sitting on a bar stool, facing you, and my eyes are level with your belly button, he began.
(49:35):
You think I like that?
I've taken a lot of abuse over the years from guys that I wanted to cold-cock, and as big as they were, I'd know I could have laid them out too.
But I stayed back and took it.
Being who I was, I had to.
(49:56):
Guys would come up to me and start petting me and asking me if they could take me home as their pet, stuff like that.
I'll never forget one time, it was after a boat in Chicago.
I was with Fuzzy Cupid, and we were midget tag team partners at the time.
We went to ride a car, and the attendant tells me to wait us a few minutes.
(50:20):
Then he comes back with one of those toy matchbox cars and tells us to hop in and take a test drive.
He was laughing all over himself.
Fuzzy and I just looked at each other and walked out.
But for all the insults, I can honestly say one thing.
I have never felt uncomfortable in the arena with the other wrestlers and the fans.
(50:45):
Andre the Giant, Edward Carpensier.
Those guys have been my best friends for a long time.
And the fans have been marvelous.
Sometimes I think I'm coming back just for them.
They appreciate me for what I am.
A hardworking athlete and a champion.
I have never had any trouble from any of them.
(51:10):
Sky took another swallow of his beer, and then we were both quiet for a while.
He was thinking.
Thinking about his past.
And his future.
And I was thinking about how much better we were all off with a man like Sky Lolo in our world.
And I truly think that that article really encapsulates the career and the life of Sky Lolo.
(51:40):
And really the reverence that a lot of fans had of him, especially during the career that he had in professional wrestling.
But it's something that I would hope that wrestling fans nowadays would take the time to go back and look at somebody like Sky Lolo.
And really appreciate what he brought to professional wrestling.
(52:03):
And obviously the history and lineage of especially Canadian professional wrestling.
So there is one more passage that I wanted to read in this part of the Sky Lolo story.
That comes from Pain and Passion, the History of Stampede Wrestling, written by friend of the show, Heath McCoy.
(52:25):
And I know that we've quoted quite a few wrestling books tonight.
They're all tremendous.
And I highly encourage everybody to pick these up.
Because not only are they tremendous wrestling books, but there's so much passion, so much information, so much reverence,
specifically that goes into these books that they deserve to be owned and read by multiple people.
(52:50):
But I'll get off my soapbox a little bit and just read a passage from Pain and Passion.
The drive was treacherous, and when the wrestlers finally reached their destination, testy as hell, they went to the hotel water and hole for a few cocktails.
A woman in the bar patted medjit wrestler Sky Lolo on the top of his head.
(53:12):
Insulted, he left up and grabbed her by the throat.
That's it, the wrestlers are in town, laughs Glenn Ruhl, whose father told him the story.
As Stu recalled, the 3'8", 86 pounder went on a rampage, drop kicking both the woman and her husband.
(53:33):
Seeky grabbed Sky Lolo under his arms, and Sky was yelling at Sweet Daddy,
Put me down, put me down.
The little weasel tried to get away from Seeky and everybody was laughing.
The people he had dropped kicked on are there saying,
This is a bunch of nuts here.
Sky was on fire.
He was such a short tempered little devil.
(53:56):
Such drunken, violent outbursts were not that uncommon from the Montreal born little Atlas.
But Sky Lolo, whose bald head and taut face made him look like a pint sized version of the man on Mr. Clean container, was a big draw.
Touring from territory to territory with his baby face nemesis, the mohawk sporting little beaver,
(54:21):
The midget started to command up to 15% of the cards that they appeared on.
To Stu, they were worth it.
Midgets were a novelty attraction back then, and little beaver, and Sky in particular, gave the fans plenty of action and the billy laughs for their bucks.
With beaver struck Sky, the bald midget toppled end over end cartoon style, coming to rest upside down, balanced on his head like a wobbly bowling pin.
(54:51):
The life of a midget wrestler was tough and often sad.
Sky Lolo had a complex about his size that made him an angry fellow, especially when he was drunk.
He was a full time cruiser, constantly chasing women, but he had his heart broken many times by girlfriends who had made off with his money.
(55:13):
Despite his temper, Sky Lolo enjoyed cracking up the boys with his blunt sense of humour.
This part is my favourite by the way.
On the notorious Alaska trip, Stu decided to take advantage of the kitchen in his hotel room and cooked the men a dinner.
One thing the kitchen didn't have was a pot for Stu to mix the ground beef in.
(55:38):
Ever industrious, the promoter emptied a trash can to use.
Sky Lolo walked in, saw Stu's unsanitary methods and, taking a beer from the fridge, walked back to the party in the next room without saying a word.
That evening, as the wrestlers dug into the feast of cabbage rolls, plenty of compliments were directed at Stu.
(56:04):
Until, Sky popped up like a hardened spanky from the Little Rascals episode and said,
Guys, these aren't cabbage rolls, they're garbage rolls that remarkably caused a stir and much merriment. But the feast went on unabated, such is life, weird, wild and frequently unappetizing on the road.
(56:33):
What a tremendous passage and what an absolute diamond in the story that is Sky Lolo.
And reading stuff like that is something that you would never get from mainstream wrestling media, if you will.
(56:57):
It's the stories that nobody wants to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about how a hard life was on the road for a little person wrestler.
The abuse that they would go through. It's the same thing like in today's day and age, even with me too, right?
Nobody wants to talk about how hard it is for female professional wrestlers on the road.
It's one of those unspoken things. It's unsavory in the wrestling media.
(57:22):
So I appreciate reading stories like that that kind of gives the Sky Lolo story a little bit more context as well as a little bit more personality, if you will.
But there is one thing that came up in that story that I want to circle back to as well.
And that was the gait figure. Now in that book, it had come up that Sky Lolo and the other midget wrestlers on the card with him
(57:50):
would command up to 15% of the gait. Now this is something that I've substantiated through every single piece of wrestling history that I've come across.
Whether the matches were in Calgary for Stampede, whether they were at the Maple Leaf Gardens,
whether they were in Madison Square Gardens for the Tri-WF, for example.
(58:15):
Everything that I've come to read has told me that between 10 and 15% of the gait is what Sky Lolo and his partner or partners in the off chance that it was a tag team match or something like that.
Or even larger than that to be quite honest. We know from established facts in this story that the little people wrestlers often ran in large troops.
(58:49):
But regardless, that's what they commanded for the gait. So what does that mean for actual money?
Because that's the one thing that wrestlers are notorious for misdirecting. Either they've made a lot more or they've made a lot less.
(59:11):
Depends who you're asking. Depends what the situation is. But let's say for instance that we are in Maple Leaf Gardens for say.
Let's go in the 1950s. And let's go with about a 10,000 person house.
The gait there that night would be roughly 50,000 because ticket prices were kind of all over the place.
(59:39):
So when you figure it, you know the gait being about 50,000, that would mean that, and we'll use the amount percentage wise of 15%.
So 15% of 50,000 is 7,500. So let's further extrapolate that. Let's say that there were four little people on the card.
(01:00:05):
Let's say Sky Lolo, Little Beaver and throw in two others. So they're going to split that four ways.
That's $1,875 in the 1950s. Now let's further bring that up to today's day and age of money.
(01:00:26):
So if you would take inflation and the way that money grows over the years, now we're in 2022, that would wind up to $7,500 for one match.
That would mean that Sky Lolo in today's money made $7,500 for one match.
(01:00:51):
Why is that important? For this reason exactly. Sky Lolo wrestled over 800 matches in his career.
Now clearly we can't say that he commanded that amount of gait for his entire 800 match career.
His match career was longer than that. His drawing power was more than that in some situations.
(01:01:18):
So let's just leave it at a flat number of 800 matches and we'll leave it at a flat cap number of 1,875 per match, which in today's money equals $7,500.
That means that in today's money, Sky Lolo in his career would have made $3,000,000.
(01:01:43):
Think about that for a second. Sky Lolo, a little person from Montreal, Quebec, in a five decade long wrestling career in today's dollars, grossed $3,000,000.
(01:02:04):
If that's not incredible, I don't know what is. Absolutely phenomenal and absolutely the tip of the feather in the cap of the entire story that I've been alluding to tonight.
(01:02:25):
We often don't talk about numbers and money on this show, although maybe that's something I need to dig into a little bit more in depth, especially with some of the individuals, especially in this season's episode list of Grappler with Canada.
But anyways, I digress a little bit. I wanted to put that in there to really put into context what Sky Lolo specifically meant because literally without him, I don't see that any of this would have happened.
(01:02:58):
We're not even getting into the Mexican minis and what happened with the micro wrestling federation and guys in the current scheme of things like El Torito was a big deal with the WWF.
Hornswoggle obviously was a big deal. Going from WWF, he was an impact for a while. This is still an interesting market. I can't say it's viable, but it is an interesting market and it shows that if there's somebody who is engaging, we'll say,
(01:03:43):
that the sky's the limit and literally Sky Lolo hit the limit of what anybody would ever fathom in there while the streams could be accomplished from what he did as a professional wrestler and what he brought to the industry.
(01:04:04):
And I think that perfectly encapsulates why I wanted to showcase him on the program today. So before I get out of here for tonight, I want to play some more classic audio.
And on the other side, stick around because we have some important things to discuss on the flip side of this. Please enjoy.
(01:04:31):
In their never ending search for variety, the impresarios of the mat world don't overlook the smaller species of homo sapiens midgets have muscles too and they can be as mean as the tallest monster in the business.
Let's watch the dynamic duo of Shy Lolo and Billy the Kid face the fearsome twosome of red feather and brown pamper in a prestige match. Shy Lolo and Billy the Kid have been accused by their opponents of being two of the lowest characters ever to crawl across a wrestling match.
(01:04:59):
The brown panther is handling Shy Lolo in a menacing manner. Shy Lolo feels mighty low as the panther manhandles him around the ring. Then it's Shy Lolo's turn to romp and stomp.
Shy Lolo takes on red feather after taking the growl out of the panther. Shy Lolo says there's nothing as light as a red feather. He proves it by spinning him on his shoulders in bold fashion. The turn of events fails to tickle the funny bone of red feather. He launches a little mayhem of his own.
(01:05:44):
Red feather turns the tiring Shy Lolo over to the brown panther. The panther claws the little fellow like a piece of steak. Billy the Kid has finally ventured inside the ropes. Billy's been viewing the proceeding from a safe distance so far. Red feather wastes little time in orienting the kid into the act. Billy soon groggy from a rough going over. The kid reels around the ring while red feather contemplates making a human sacrifice out of him.
(01:06:13):
The kid comes through after almost being pinned. He throws red feather off his bruised and battered body only to be subjected to more punishment from the merciless warrior red feather. Shy Lolo saves the day. He spares the kid from further torment and pin this red feather.
(01:06:42):
The referee finally takes note and counts out the fall. Shy Lolo and Billy the Kid rack up a win over the brown panther and red feather.
Before we head out of the program tonight, just want to again mention our good friends and sponsors of the podcast, Manscaped. Manscaped has the full package that you need for your spring cleaning this year, the Performance Package 4.0. It's the only tool you need to keep your boys looking good and smelling like the fresh tulips that your partner wants.
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(01:09:21):
It's time to throw out your old hygiene habits and upgrade your life.
Now, I hope everybody enjoyed tonight's program covering Sky Lolo. It was a rare, very rare solo episode from myself, so I hope that everybody was able to get quite a bit out of it.
(01:09:44):
I want to thank contributors to the program vicariously. Heath McCoy with the quotes from Pain and Passion, the Tremendous Stampede Wrestling book, as well as good friends of the show Pat LaPrade and Bertrande Bear with the Mad Dog Midgets and Screwjob book.
Both are available on Amazon Books or wherever you buy, sell, trade, steal or barter your favorite books. I should quantify. In no way am I saying that you should steal books.
(01:10:24):
However, go on your way to pick those books up if you have not previously done so. They are tremendous looks into professional wrestling history.
Also, I want to thank wrestling historian and current still professional wrestler Vance Nevada for his information regarding Sky Lolo and the match history.
(01:10:47):
If anybody is interested in seeing visually speaking the match history and opponents of Sky Lolo, let me know. Shoot me an email to sixsidepond.com.
I'd be very happy to forward that on to you so you can see exactly what went on, where it happened and who it happened with. It's very interesting, obviously way more in depth than I could ever fit on a program like this month to month.
(01:11:21):
However, it is fun to see and like I said, if you are looking to find that information, I am very happy to provide it so get in touch and let me know.
As usual, you can find this program, Grappling with Canada, on any major podcasting platform whether that be Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, essentially wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or especially steal this podcast, you can find Grappling with Canada.
(01:12:01):
Once again, if you leave a five star rating and a written review, this part is very important, a written review.
I'll be very happy and glad to read it on the next available flagship program. So once again, that is most important on Apple Podcasts because for some reason, it skews whatever metrics and whatever gremlins are in the system and whatever.
(01:12:34):
So if you're listening to this and you got an Apple device, knock, knock, knock, talking to you. Leave a five star written review and you get a special shout out on the next available episode.
Other ways you can help support the program is the merchandise store, grapplingwithcanada.com or I should say grapplingwithcanada.threadless.com is where you can find the official merchandise for this program and once again, the classic Grappling with Canada logo t-shirt, that's the one with the globe and the Canadian flag.
(01:13:19):
All proceeds of that t-shirt specifically go directly into a fund and that will be donated to the Children's Hospital here in Friendly, Winnipeg, Manitoba. So pick up a shirt, support a good cause.
You can also directly donate to this program via links in the link tree portion, which you can find in the show notes of this program. There are ways such as the direct PayPal link. You can buy me a beer. Please, I'm thirsty.
(01:13:56):
You can buy me a beer at buy me a beer or sorry, buymeacoffee.com slash grappling. Then you can tell we're at the end of this program this week and you can also use the tip function on the Good Pods app. Say all of that five times fast. I dare you.
(01:14:19):
I also want to thank you know some people who have been very supportive and instrumental to the podcast lately. Those being the authors on the special programs that I've had on the special episodes of the program, namely Vance and Stephen, but also some people who have helped me immensely lately.
(01:14:40):
Grade Maker Podcasts, Wrestling with the Truth, my buddy Steve out in the UK. Thanks everybody for your continuing support and also good friend of the show, Jacob at the Sunday Net ARR. Keep your head up.
So with all that being said, for myself the tax man, I will leave you as I usually do. Take care of yourselves and each other.
(01:15:11):
Good night everyone.
Support for today's program is brought to you by our good friends at Manscaped.
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(01:37):
He's got him by the beard. Proud is saying yeah.
Yogan is saying no. Takes a whistle out of his blower.
(01:58):
He's going to stop on the whistle. Yogan says no.
Okay, Sky Lolo did not win it, but he would win a popularity contest anywhere.
(02:19):
1942. Just outside of Detroit, Michigan.
At the Willow Run Bomber Plant, the B-24 Liberator bomber is in heavy production.
One B-24 was produced every 59 minutes at its peak.
A rate so large that production exceeded the military's ability to even use the aircraft.
(02:44):
Such were the production numbers that it has been said that there was more aluminum, air crew, and effort that went into the B-24 than any other aircraft in aviation history.
But what does one of the premier aircraft, which ended up winning the skies in World War II, and a wrestler from Montreal, Quebec have in common?
(03:11):
Join us this month on Grappling with Canada as we take a look at the life and the career of Sky Lolo Lolo.
(03:41):
Hello everyone and welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
To Grappling with Canada. As with each and every month, I'm your host, The Taxman.
And I first want to kick this episode off by giving a big thank you to everybody who's been checking out to the program lately.
(04:07):
Our download numbers have been off the charts lately and it's been really, really nice to see for myself personally.
So I want to thank each and every one of you who have been checking out all of the flagship episodes and a few of the special episodes that we've been doing lately on the Grappling with Canada feed.
More on that in just a little bit.
(04:30):
If this is your first time to the program, welcome to Grappling with Canada.
You can find us on all major podcasting platforms such as iTunes or Apple Podcasts, whatever the kids call it nowadays.
Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or steal your favorite podcasts, you will find Grappling with Canada.
(04:54):
While you're there, especially on Apple Podcasts or iTunes, again, whatever the kids call it nowadays, if you could go ahead and leave a five star rating.
And a written review, I will make sure that that gets read on the next available podcast.
Gives you a nice shout out and it really does mean a lot in terms of getting this show some more eyeballs, if you will.
(05:18):
While we're talking about the back catalog, I want to thank everybody for checking out especially last month's episode on Chief Don Eagle.
Now, I understand that some of the subject matter was difficult to listen to.
A lot of it was very heavy, emotionally speaking, psychologically speaking.
(05:39):
So I want to thank everybody for having an open mind, first and foremost, and for appreciating the way that we kind of dealt with, we'll say the darker portions of that story.
The one thing with professional wrestling history, I find, and this is something that I've really tried to steer away from, is the heavy negative influence and negative connotation that many aspects of professional wrestling history seem to be portrayed in and around, we'll say.
(06:13):
It would be very easy for me to have gone and titled that episode last month something quite sensational considering the end of the Don Eagle story.
Obviously, I chose not to do that. I'm very happy with that choice.
And I'm very happy with the response that I've gotten from many new listeners actually to the program who were very pleased with kind of the way that we dealt with the subject matter.
(06:41):
So once again, thank you everybody for checking out that program.
If you are new to this one, if say last month was your first one, this is your second one, say this is your first one.
We have some tremendous episodes in the back catalog covering all kinds of professional wrestlers from Canadian history, such as Roddy Piper, George Gordienko, Gene Kieniski, Gail Kim, Stu Harden-Stampede Wrestling,
(07:06):
and the still reigning and undisputed champion of this program, our tremendous Ronda Singh episode.
So you can find all of those in the back catalog.
And once again, on any platform that you were able to leave a five star rating and a written review, especially on Apple Podcasts, because that's the easiest one for me to see,
(07:29):
it would be very much greatly appreciated. And at least you know that you will get a shout out on the next available episode.
Speaking of ways that you can find this program, you can also find us on YouTube.
YouTube.com slash C slash six sided podcast is where you can find the YouTube page for this show.
(07:50):
Eventually, I'll start moving into some form of video, maybe short clips or something like that.
But until then, you can also find the long form programs of this show on the YouTube page.
Eventually, I will also be putting up these special episodes.
Again, something I'm going to be talking about later on in tonight's episode.
(08:14):
And make sure that when you're on the YouTube page, you hit that wonderful subscribe button.
We are inching, crawling, dragging, slogging our way to a thousand subscribers.
So everyone helps and we are slowly getting our way to that wonderful thousand subscriber mark.
So thank you, everybody so far who has been subscribing to the YouTube page.
(08:39):
You can also find us on Instagram, Instagram.com slash grappling with Canada.
Go ahead and like all of our amazing photos on there, especially the ones where I had some fun with our April promotion
with the Cancer Society promotion that we had going on via Manscapes.
So that was a lot of fun.
(09:00):
I was very happy to be a part of that promotion and spread some word about testicular cancer awareness.
And that was a lot of fun.
And I really enjoyed it.
So once again, on Instagram, Instagram.com slash grappling with Canada or use that wonderful Instagram search bar search for grappling with Canada.
Come on in and follow us on there.
(09:24):
You can also like us on Facebook.
We have a Facebook page, grappling with Canada.
So go ahead and like that as well as come in, come on in, if you will.
That's a lot better, I think.
And join the tremendous conversation that we've been having on the Canadian Professional Wrestling History Facebook group.
(09:47):
So either Facebook.com slash grappling with Canada group, I believe is what it is, or use that wonderful Facebook groups search bar and simply search for Canadian Professional Wrestling History.
You'll find some great conversations, some great videos, some great newspaper clippings and a whole bunch of fun stuff on that group.
(10:09):
So come on in, have some fun and let's share in some Canadian Professional Wrestling History.
One of the things that I alluded to at kind of the top of this program is some special episodes that I've been doing lately.
I've been very fortunate to be showcasing some tremendous projects that are happening in and around Canadian Professional Wrestling.
(10:30):
You'll know that we had the Canadian History Archives folks on a couple of months ago.
That was a special episode.
I was also happy to be joined by Stephen Bell, the author of the Dynamite and Davey episode.
He was on for a special episode and the most recent one was involving Vance Nevada and his tremendous book that he's working on currently, Uncontrolled Chaos, Canada's Remarkable Professional Wrestling Legacy.
(11:00):
And that one is going to be a bit of an ongoing special.
We just released part one.
Part two will be closer to the show's or the book's debut and part three, maybe it'll be something like a follow up after the book is released.
So anyways, go ahead and listen to that episode if you haven't already.
Also, make sure you check the show notes of that episode to find out ways where you can get on the mailing list to secure your advanced copy of the book.
(11:30):
And this thing is going to be a masterpiece.
I can't wait. I was very pleased to be showed a little insight of what has gone into that book.
And for those of us history buffs who love numbers and love the true history of Canadian professional wrestling, this thing is going to be quite the treat.
(11:54):
And I for one cannot wait to to get that one on the proverbial bookshelf, if you will.
Also want to make mention there are a few ways that you can support the program today.
You can find links to support this program in the link tree available in the show notes of this program.
(12:16):
Available options are a direct PayPal link.
There's also a buy me a coffee dot com slash grappling where you can go ahead and buy me a beer.
It is thirsty work to produce these programs after all.
And you can also use the tip functions if you are on the good pods app.
So some ways to support the show.
(12:37):
Unfortunately, there is monetary costs associated with the show.
So any little bit helps. And if you make a donation, then very glad to give you a shout out on the next available program.
And last but not least, the official merchandise store grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com is where you can find all of those.
(12:59):
If you are listening to this on March for sorry, May 1st, because there is no way that you can.
Well, I guess you get listen to this March 1st of 2023.
Anyways, I digress a little bit.
If you are listening to this on May 1st or you're listening to this in the middle of the month,
chances are you are going to be able to go on to grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com and get all the show merchandise on sale.
(13:29):
I can't specifically say when the sale is going to happen, but nod nod, wink wink.
It's happening soon and I'm not telling you that stuff is going to be about half off.
And I'm not telling you that free shipping may or may not be part of the fun, we'll say.
(13:50):
So go ahead, pick up your show merchandise.
Hey, half price, who can beat it?
And the best part all proceeds from the classic grappling with Canada logo t-shirt are going to charity here in friendly Winnipeg, Manitoba.
So thank you again, everybody who's been purchasing some shirts lately and keep your eyes peeled, if you will, for that upcoming sale,
(14:19):
which may or may not be happening just around the corner.
But the reason that we're all here tonight, we're going to be talking about the life and career of Sky Lolo.
Now, this episode is going to be a little bit different because we've had some pretty heavy subject matter
(14:41):
essentially every episode of this season of grappling with Canada.
And I kind of wanted to lighten this one up a little bit, not because I obviously don't want to make light of Sky Lolo's career
or what his contributions were to professional wrestling, far from it.
But I do want to kind of highlight his impact and how he kind of changed the trajectory of professional wrestling,
(15:08):
especially when it comes to little people.
And obviously comedy is going to come into a big part of the conversation tonight as we kind of look what he did in the wrestling ring.
But I was also able to find out some very interesting information about his pre wrestling life.
(15:32):
And you may be wondering why I basically gave you the historical summary of the B-29 bombers at the start of the intro of this program.
We are going to explain that.
It's going to be a fascinating show today.
I hope you guys are going to learn a lot.
Like I said, it's going to be a bit of a departure from the real dark subject matter that we've been dealing with lately.
(15:56):
But nonetheless, I think that this is going to be a very fun episode and I'm really happy to have uncovered quite a bit of information in regards to Sky Lolo,
one of those almost forgotten, somewhat mythical people from Canadian professional wrestling history.
So before we get into that, I think we should set ourselves, set ourselves up.
(16:24):
Maybe I'll set myself up. Maybe I'll set myself up for a proper delivery.
Wouldn't that be something tremendous?
We're going to have a fun one tonight, folks.
Let's set ourselves up properly with some classic audio.
And what better way to get us in the mood of a little Sky Lolo than to hear from that himself.
(16:46):
So please enjoy this.
And on the other side, we're going to start getting into our conversation about Sky Lolo.
Our next guest, certainly one of the most extraordinary, weighing in at approximately 102 pounds, somewhere about there.
And without a doubt is one of the premier athletes in the World Wrestling Federation.
And with that in mind, also, I think you could state that this gentleman is without a doubt the greatest midget wrestler of all time.
(17:12):
Would you please welcome Sky Lolo?
You know Lord Alfred Hayes.
Nice to meet you again.
Great to be back.
Have a seat, if you would, please.
Thank you. Thank you. Oh, my God. This is better than a pie in the face, you know.
(17:35):
Well, speaking of that, yes.
The last time we saw you on TNT, you had a little difficulty, I think. You were, of course, with a ring bearer at Butcher Paul Vachon's wedding.
By the way, if I may interject this, how is Mr. Vachon getting along with his bride?
Well, I'm going to tell you, he's been having a little problem.
(17:57):
So soon?
Alfred suspected that they were going to have some problems.
Yes, yes. I think they had a few things that came out unsuspected.
Really?
And now they're going through some things, you know, to find out if they're real truth or not.
I see.
Sort of a scandal, then.
Oh, yes, yes. It's pretty hard on Mr. Vachon.
(18:20):
Well, I bet it would be hard on the butcher, but also hard on the bride to a certain extent.
I mean, butcher at 300 pounds certainly creates unusual problems, I would suspect.
Well, yeah, I would say, I agree with you. I agree with you with that.
But with me, I was lucky I got out alive.
(18:43):
Alright.
I lost the ring.
It was a mess. Let's take you back. I'd like to take you back to some videotape footage.
Sky Lono, the ring bearer of the special Butcher Paul Vachon wedding. Let's go to the tape.
Now, before we get any further into tonight's program, I should make some clarifications regarding terminology.
(19:05):
Now, I'm under the impression that the term midget has a negative connotation to some people.
So when I'm speaking personally about topics covered in tonight's program, I will use the term little person.
However, if I'm reading quotes, specific quotes from Sky Lono and others, or quotes from literature,
(19:33):
which we're going to get into a little bit later in the program tonight, and they use the term midget,
that's what's been accepted by those people, especially those given the quotes.
So I just wanted to make that clarification before we get any further.
I'm not saying the term to be divisive or to use it in a derogatory term,
(19:56):
but I do want to make the point of clarification that because it's clearly not my term to use, if you will,
that if I'm speaking from my own thoughts and research, I'll be using the term little person.
The other term you're going to be hearing is from people specifically related to Sky Lolo and Sky Lolo himself.
(20:21):
So I just want to throw that out there before it becomes any more of a confusing mess
or any kind of an extenuating circumstance in regards to the program tonight.
Marcel Gauthier was born July 21st, 1928 in Montreal, Quebec.
(20:44):
He naturally was one of the greatest little people wrestlers of all time,
who performed under the name Sky Lolo, a little bit more of that later.
He stood at three foot, seven inches, making him the smallest superstar in WWE history,
a distinction which he still holds today.
(21:05):
He has numerous accolades to his names, including the induction to the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum Class of 2002.
He was Pro Wrestling Illustrated's PWI Midget Wrestler of the Year in 1975.
He was the NWA World Midget Champion. He was the inaugural champion, actually.
(21:28):
He was inducted into the Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame in the 1995 class, and he was a Midgets World Champion two times over as well.
Now, before his professional wrestling career, he did serve some time working on bomber airplanes.
This is why at the beginning of the program, you heard me talk about the B-24 Liberator heavy bombers that were assembled in the United States of America.
(21:59):
Now, it's been widely reported that Sky Lolo, Marcel Gauthier at that time, had a career fixing and working on rivets in bomber planes.
What's not entirely clear, and I've tried very hard to research this fact, so what I'm about to get into is a little bit of conjecture.
(22:24):
However, I'm like 90% sure that this is what the actual story is, and I have some corroborating evidence to back it up.
Now, I'm very happy to be proven wrong if this is not the case, but from everything that I can research, read, find out, and then piece together and corroborate, this seems to be the most likely explanation.
(22:50):
Now, starting in 1942 and continuing through the epic World War II airstrikes, if you will, the Willow Run Plant just outside of Detroit, Michigan, was essentially the crown jewel in terms of turning out to the B-24 bombers.
(23:11):
Now, this plant was tasked with turning out essentially, and they ended up doing it one bomber every hour. I think they ended up setting a record of turning out one bomber plane every 59 minutes, which was naturally an incredible feat.
However, this feat was on the backs of mostly women and little people who were brought in to help. Now, let me explain a little bit further.
(23:38):
Now, most of the men were gone fighting off in the war in World War II, conscription, I should say, ended up happening.
So, a lot of the men were sent overseas to either fight or to rebuild or repair planes on the front lines.
So, what ended up happening at the Willow Plant is they ended up essentially bringing on women, people of color who would usually otherwise be excluded from this type of work, and little people who they specifically sought out and hired from across North America.
(24:14):
This brings us to the connection between Montreal and Detroit, not just a wrestling connection as we've established and explored and discovered in various topics that we've discussed specifically even last month.
During the Dawn Eagle episode, Jamie Greer brought up some excellent points about the corridors between Montreal and Detroit. Well, here's another one.
(24:45):
Now, essentially, they were bringing in little people to work in the tight enclosed spaces on these B-24 bombers, specifically riveting in the wings. And this is the one portion of the Marcel Gauthier story, the Sky Lolo story that I can cooperate 100% is that he did work on riveting airplane wings in World War II.
(25:13):
Based on how they were recruiting and the Willow, it should be mentioned as well, and I know I'm kind of getting off track here a little bit, but I do want to extrapolate this a little bit further, is that this Willow Run bomber plant was run by Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company.
Now, he was a notorious, we'll say, cantankerous person. I think he was in his 80s at this point, and he did not want the plant to slow down at all period. And he set the goal, like I said, of one B-24 bomber an hour on the hour.
(25:51):
And he was very cutthroat, we'll say, in his ways of going about that. And like I said, he specifically sent out recruiters all across North America to find little people to do these types of jobs.
Riveting in wings, installing insulation and heat shielding, essentially all of the small space work that needed to be done on these planes but could not be done by the women that they were bringing in.
(26:21):
So it's fascinating that, and this ends up being almost a forgotten part of World War II, because I had no idea, to be quite honest, that little people were such a big part in this portion of the aviation aspect of World War II until I started doing the research on this project.
Now, naturally, it is possible that Marcelo Gochia was sent to a different plant, although I find that hard to believe because at this point in time, the only other plant was in California.
(26:54):
Now, they ended up branching this plant, the Willow Run plant, off into separate plants. Once they kind of streamlined how they were building these planes, they ended up kind of carpar-metalizing how they did the process, right?
They could now build most of it here, ship it down to Texas, reassemble it there, and away you go.
So it's possible that he also worked there. Again, this is all conjecture.
(27:19):
And if somebody had some definitive evidence on what he actually did and where he did it, I'm more than happy to run a retraction on this program.
But by everything that I've been able to ascertain and research throughout this fact, and the fact that Ford was specifically going up to Canada, Toronto and Montreal are two of the biggest cities that are listed in all the research that I found, leads me to believe that this is the production facility that Marcelo Gochia worked at during World War II on bomber planes,
(28:01):
which I think is absolutely fascinating. Just the fact that, again, these tendrils that we keep running across in terms of Canadian professional wrestling history, the dichotomy between Toronto and Detroit, from Montreal to Detroit, from Montreal to Ohio, as we discussed last month as well,
(28:27):
especially with the amount of indigenous people that were going back and forth. It's just one of those things that the more I come across it, the more it's extremely fascinating to me, the more I'm much more happy to be exploring it.
Now, to keep in line with our continuation of supplying some classic audio, this clip I actually found exactly illustrates what I'm talking about. This is a clip from, it's one of these American propaganda clips, you know, like the yes we can kind of clips,
(29:04):
but it shows, and you'll hear how instrumental little people were to the war effort, specifically on these planes. So I'm going to play this clip. And on the other side we're going to continue the story of Marcelo Gochia who would end up becoming Sky Lolo. Please enjoy.
(29:26):
Every effort, no matter how small, will help lick the enemy. Migeon pitch in on warplane production. Their abbreviated standard is ideal for crawling into wingtip sections and other parts where working space is at a premium.
(29:48):
At Newark State Brewster Plant, the little pucks in overalls do a man-sized job inside the huge wings of flying boats.
Small wonder that the little fellows are in great demand today.
(30:11):
Little man, you really had a busy day.
In order to talk about the wrestling career of Marcelo Gochia, we also need to discuss the birth of midget professional wrestling, which ended up starting in Montreal. Now this information comes directly from Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screwjobs, the tremendous book from friends of the show Pat Leprade and Bertrande Bair.
(30:44):
Now they go on to say in that book, most accounts of history of midget wrestling in North America say that Jack Bertrande started the entire thing in the 1940s. But the truth is that it began even earlier.
Gerard Phillips was actually responsible to a large extent for midgets becoming wrestlers. Sometime in 1947 or 48, Paul Downing, who was a police sergeant in Montreal, was one of the wrestling promoters in the Atwater Market.
(31:13):
Phillips sold tickets, wrestled there, and took 25% of the promotion's gate.
The shows took place on Tuesday evenings, but on Sundays, the wrestlers went to the ring and practiced. There was one interesting lone spectator each Sunday.
We practiced Marcelo Gochia. A midget came to the ring and started picking a fight with other wrestlers, he said. Quote, bring out the midgets, I'll beat them. This didn't fall into deaf ears, Phillips remembers.
(31:43):
One day a friend of Phillips, Roland Reed, a former amateur wrestler who trained at Lausia Saint-Jean Baptiste, introduced him to someone. That's when I met Jean Roy. He wasn't a midget, but rather a short adult.
Wah was training at the Loisaires, I'm sorry, I'm probably butchering that, my French is awful, and Phillips took the opportunity to invite him down to the Atwater Market.
(32:09):
I convinced Paul to give them a tryout on Sunday during the practice. After having practiced together, it worked, Phillips relates.
So, during the next show, Gochia climbed onto the ring to challenge anyone in his weight class. Wah, who was sitting in the crowd, accepted.
We advertised the match as Le Voix Populaire and Les Mongales Matin, two newspapers, Phillips remembers.
(32:34):
We usually drew 500-600 spectators, but on this occasion we drew around 1600.
Taking place in 1948, this was the first midget wrestling match on record according to Phillips. More on that a little bit later.
In my opinion, this was the first midget match in North America. Then Raymond Sabois, another midget who heard about the match, showed up and expressed his interest to be part of the promotion.
(32:59):
The match is scheduled either two midgets against regular sized wrestlers, or three midgets against two regular sized wrestlers.
Now, shortly after this, around 1949 is when Jack Breton's role in the story began.
Breton wrestled against me in the Atwater Market, Phillips says. Having seen that midgets drew considerable crowds and he had already wrestled in the United States, he decided to start his own midget wrestling tour group.
(33:27):
He realized that things go far, Phillips said. And even though Breton wasn't the only promoter associated with the earliest days of midget wrestling, he paid the midgets well while making a lot of money for himself.
Now what makes the story more interesting is that Gauthier, Waugh, and Sabouin became famous but under other names.
(33:49):
Obviously, we know that Marcel Gauthier went on to become Sky Lolo, Jean Ra became the Tiny Roe, and Raymond Sabouin became Pee Wee James.
Sky, Tiny Roe, and Pee Wee James were part of the first crew of midgets, Gino Brito says. Brito remembers precisely how his father worked.
(34:12):
He sent four guys on the road with four midgets each. There was always six midgets on the road. At some points there was even 24 midgets.
Now we're going to talk a little bit more about the wrestling career of Sky Lolo.
Now Little Beaver was the man who he would wrestle most often. And as a matter of fact, it was undoubtedly the best and longest rivalry in the Montreal territory,
(34:36):
although it took place more often than not outside of the provinces boundaries. They even wrestled each other in front of Queen Elizabeth II and King Farouk of Egypt.
Now there's an interesting tidbit that comes up in this conversation, which we're going to circle back to later on in this episode.
Sky didn't like it when other wrestlers were successful because he didn't want another wrestler to take away his spot. But with Beaver it was different.
(35:03):
He realized the crowds were bigger and he was ultimately going to make more money for himself, Gino Brito says.
Little Beaver's character, which was an Indian look, was so popular that it made it easy for Sky, who looked old even at a young age, to be a heel.
Sky is actually often referred to as the father of midget wrestling, a statement substantiated by Little Brutus who says that Sky paved the way for others.
(35:28):
He wrestled on many cards at Madison Square Garden after 1957 when the New York Athletic Commission lifted its ban on midget wrestling.
Like the other wrestlers in his division, Sky went all around the world.
A quote from Gino Brito, My father took them to Japan, Europe and everywhere in between.
Very often promoters presented midget tag team matches, most probably because four men always seemed to be traveling together.
(35:55):
In the 1950s, Sky's regular partner was Tiny Rowe. In the 1960s, it was Fuzzy Cupid, while in the 1970s it was Little Brutus.
In singles competitions, one of Sky's act was to offer $100 to any midget who could beat him two out of three falls.
In 1975, he won the Midget of the Year award given by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in addition to finishing second the following year right after Lord Littlebrook.
(36:24):
More on him a little bit later.
Sky was known for being quick in the ring, for having an excellent dropkick and for the famous ability to stand on his head without falling.
He was also very strong and fearless, which played tricks on some people.
While he was in Chicago in 1973, signing autographs after a show, there was a guy harassing a girl he knew.
(36:48):
At one point, the young man touched the woman's breasts, yelling, You don't wear a bra!
Seeing her an opportunity to help a lady in distress, Sky stopped the signing, went towards the young man who obviously didn't take him seriously.
That's when Sky punched him below the belt, asking, You don't wear a jock? Tremendous!
(37:09):
Now near the end of his career, he wrestled for the McMahons from 1981 to 1987.
In 1982 in the WWF, he worked his last feud, which was a series of tag team matches against his sworn enemy, Little Beaver.
He called it quits in the Maritimes, and his last recorded match dates to July 1988 in a tag team match with Bob Crawford.
(37:33):
Now not only was he known in the WWF for some of his tag team matches, but obviously as part of the Mad Dog Vishaw wedding
fiasco, if you will, that you heard a clip of earlier on in this episode.
I highly suggest that you can go on YouTube and you can search for that video. It's pretty funny stuff.
And that's a little bit of the comedy aspect of professional wrestling.
(37:56):
I know that comedy and wrestling today is a hot button issue.
However, the way that Sky Lolo presented it in clips like that, in clips of his time in stampede wrestling,
it was fun and it was taken fun and people enjoyed it.
On the flip side, I've seen some very intense matches that he had in the 1950s especially,
(38:23):
where he is laying it in with the other Little People wrestlers and it's quite extraordinary to watch.
I had mentioned that he is well known for his dropkick.
If you have not seen Sky Lolo wrestle in a serious match, I highly suggest it.
And yes, his dropkick is quite incredible.
(38:46):
Now I was very fortunate to be given Sky Lolo's entire match history from friend of the show Vance Nevada.
Obviously you would be very familiar with Vance from our Roddy Piper part one episode,
as well as the special episode last month on his upcoming book, Uncontrolled Chaos,
(39:09):
Canada's Remarkable Professional Wrestling Legacy.
Now I had alluded to when Sky Lolo's matches started and when they ended.
So his first match ever was, or first documented match ever, was February 25th in Saint-Jérôme-Quebec versus Mickey Langeois.
(39:34):
Now his last match ever was in 1988, actually July 22nd of that year in Amherst, Nova Scotia where he lost to Farmer Brooks.
Now all in all, throughout his entire career, and this is the number that I found especially astounding,
Sky Lolo ended up having 807 documented matches.
(40:00):
He ended up wrestling essentially in five decades, the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and the 80s.
Really incredible stuff if you go to think about it.
Now I'm going to play a little clip of Stu Hart telling a fun Sky Lolo story.
And on the other side, I'm going to read some quotes from Sky Lolo himself,
(40:25):
which I think is going to shed some light on himself as a person,
some of the struggles that he encountered, obviously being a little person in a big man's world of professional wrestling.
And I'm going to read some anecdotes from other authors who had experienced and explored the story of Sky Lolo.
(40:48):
So please enjoy this classic wrestling audio.
And on the other side, we're going to get into some tremendous Sky Lolo quotes.
(41:21):
And I'm going to read some of the quotes from Sky Lolo.
(41:45):
Now in the last segment, I was speaking about some Sky Lolo comments and quotes
(42:14):
that I wanted to get into the program tonight, which I'm going to right now,
as well as some outside opinion and observation regarding Sky Lolo.
Now this is something that has come from multiple sources.
However, I feel like the source that I'm going to use later on in this segment kind of sums it up properly.
(42:38):
But I digress.
Now this quote comes from a newspaper clipping.
It's quoted as Sky Lolo, probably the most famous midget wrestler ever.
Sky boasts that he held the Midget title for 30 years and wanted to retire with it.
Quote, I had great matches against Little Brutus, Little Beaver and Frenchy Lamont, he remembers.
(43:05):
Today, at the time of this article, Sky and his wife lived in suburban Montreal,
where Sky spends most of his time watching television.
Yeah, I love news like 60 minutes and 48 hours, he says.
I also have a very large collection of old movies that we watch.
Now this is another newspaper quote that I came across titled Outstanding Midgets Signed Fraternity.
(43:35):
Quote, The veteran who is most recognized as the most phenomenal athlete of all time
and the midget wrestler who is generally recognized as the strongest man on a strength for weight basis
in the entire world would come to the Northwest for the annual wrestling stampede tournament of champions.
(43:58):
The veteran is Sky Lolo, the mighty little man who brought a new dimension to the math sport back in the 1940s
when he hit the headlines with the uncrowned King of Midgets.
Today, after 40 years of activity, he is still going strong and is a major headliner in the sports at which he was a pioneer.
When he comes to Northwest in early July, he will be returning to rings and arenas where capacity crowds
(44:25):
saw him many decades ago in classic boats with Little Beaver and other greats of the midget division.
While Sky Lolo is regarded as a remarkable example of physical durability,
his opposite number at the present time is equally remarkable for his feats of strength that he has exhibited in recent months.
(44:47):
He is Frenchy Lamont, who grew up in Chacune, Meek, Quebec, but now makes his permanent home in Calgary,
where he treats wrestling as a hobby while proving himself a capable everyday worker in the industrial and business world.
The powerfully developed Lamont, in demonstrations of his strength, has often lifted two fully-grown heavyweights simultaneously,
(45:13):
as well as performing other feats of strength.
So you can see this classic wrestling buildup of old school versus new school in Calgary, which I think is absolutely tremendous.
And this one that I really want to get into deep, it's on assignment by journalist Steve Farhood.
(45:39):
Now I'm not familiar with which newspaper specifically this article comes from,
so if someone could share some clarification with me, obviously send those tweets to
at6underscorepodcast or shoot me an email at6underscorepodcast, but I want to read this article because I think it kind of encapsulates
(46:01):
some of the trials and tribulations, some of the aspects of Sky Lolo's career that we've been speaking about throughout the duration of this program.
So I'm going to read this pretty well verbatim and then on the other side we're going to get into some more conversation about Sky Lolo and his career.
(46:25):
Not many of us can say we do something better than anyone else in the world.
I feel I'm a pretty good wrestler, but not the best.
That title belongs to the guy who's two desks down with bloodshot eyes and the breath that travels around three zip codes.
Some people are the best at trivial things, fixing a typewriter ribbon, making paper airplanes, whistling for taxi cabs.
(46:53):
Maybe these things aren't too impressive and they certainly won't make anybody millionaires, but there is an undeniable pride in knowing that you're number one.
In Montreal, I spent some time with someone who is unquestionably the best at what he does.
Sky Lolo, the greatest midget wrestler in the history of the sport.
(47:14):
Sky has seen it all in a long, wonderful career.
He has been a champion.
He has been a failure.
He has been a rule breaker and a scientific star.
He has been treated like a hero and he has been ridiculed by insensitive fans because of his unfortunate handicap.
(47:35):
The man is a battler.
And after a brief retirement, he has decided to come back.
Quote, wrestling is my life, Sky said while we were enjoying a beer at Thursday's, a popular watering hole.
A long, long time ago, when I was a young man without direction, wrestling gave me a reason to go on, an identity.
(47:59):
Since I stopped, I've felt sort of lost.
I have enough money to live comfortably, so I'm not going back for that.
It's just the thrill of climbing through those ropes, the thrill of defeating an opponent, the thrill of victory.
For Sky, all too often his successes in the ring were necessary to erase the embarrassment and humiliation that he constantly encountered in public life.
(48:28):
Look, he said, his voice suddenly deeper and more serious.
God plays favorites.
I could look at my being a midget as his little insult, but I don't.
I was born with tremendous strength and quickness.
Not everyone who has natural athletic ability.
(48:49):
If I were 5'10 and just an average guy, do you think I would have come as far as I have?
I had to ask the next question.
I didn't want to, but I had to.
I had to know.
Tell me the truth, Sky, I said.
If you could start it all over again, would you have rather been born 6' tall?
(49:12):
Tears filled his sensitive eyes.
He tried to hide them, but I knew he noticed.
He raised his beard mug to his mouth, took a long swallow, and spoke softly.
Here I am sitting on a bar stool, facing you, and my eyes are level with your belly button, he began.
(49:35):
You think I like that?
I've taken a lot of abuse over the years from guys that I wanted to cold-cock, and as big as they were, I'd know I could have laid them out too.
But I stayed back and took it.
Being who I was, I had to.
(49:56):
Guys would come up to me and start petting me and asking me if they could take me home as their pet, stuff like that.
I'll never forget one time, it was after a boat in Chicago.
I was with Fuzzy Cupid, and we were midget tag team partners at the time.
We went to ride a car, and the attendant tells me to wait us a few minutes.
(50:20):
Then he comes back with one of those toy matchbox cars and tells us to hop in and take a test drive.
He was laughing all over himself.
Fuzzy and I just looked at each other and walked out.
But for all the insults, I can honestly say one thing.
I have never felt uncomfortable in the arena with the other wrestlers and the fans.
(50:45):
Andre the Giant, Edward Carpensier.
Those guys have been my best friends for a long time.
And the fans have been marvelous.
Sometimes I think I'm coming back just for them.
They appreciate me for what I am.
A hardworking athlete and a champion.
I have never had any trouble from any of them.
(51:10):
Sky took another swallow of his beer, and then we were both quiet for a while.
He was thinking.
Thinking about his past.
And his future.
And I was thinking about how much better we were all off with a man like Sky Lolo in our world.
And I truly think that that article really encapsulates the career and the life of Sky Lolo.
(51:40):
And really the reverence that a lot of fans had of him, especially during the career that he had in professional wrestling.
But it's something that I would hope that wrestling fans nowadays would take the time to go back and look at somebody like Sky Lolo.
And really appreciate what he brought to professional wrestling.
(52:03):
And obviously the history and lineage of especially Canadian professional wrestling.
So there is one more passage that I wanted to read in this part of the Sky Lolo story.
That comes from Pain and Passion, the History of Stampede Wrestling, written by friend of the show, Heath McCoy.
(52:25):
And I know that we've quoted quite a few wrestling books tonight.
They're all tremendous.
And I highly encourage everybody to pick these up.
Because not only are they tremendous wrestling books, but there's so much passion, so much information, so much reverence,
specifically that goes into these books that they deserve to be owned and read by multiple people.
(52:50):
But I'll get off my soapbox a little bit and just read a passage from Pain and Passion.
The drive was treacherous, and when the wrestlers finally reached their destination, testy as hell, they went to the hotel water and hole for a few cocktails.
A woman in the bar patted medjit wrestler Sky Lolo on the top of his head.
(53:12):
Insulted, he left up and grabbed her by the throat.
That's it, the wrestlers are in town, laughs Glenn Ruhl, whose father told him the story.
As Stu recalled, the 3'8", 86 pounder went on a rampage, drop kicking both the woman and her husband.
(53:33):
Seeky grabbed Sky Lolo under his arms, and Sky was yelling at Sweet Daddy,
Put me down, put me down.
The little weasel tried to get away from Seeky and everybody was laughing.
The people he had dropped kicked on are there saying,
This is a bunch of nuts here.
Sky was on fire.
He was such a short tempered little devil.
(53:56):
Such drunken, violent outbursts were not that uncommon from the Montreal born little Atlas.
But Sky Lolo, whose bald head and taut face made him look like a pint sized version of the man on Mr. Clean container, was a big draw.
Touring from territory to territory with his baby face nemesis, the mohawk sporting little beaver,
(54:21):
The midget started to command up to 15% of the cards that they appeared on.
To Stu, they were worth it.
Midgets were a novelty attraction back then, and little beaver, and Sky in particular, gave the fans plenty of action and the billy laughs for their bucks.
With beaver struck Sky, the bald midget toppled end over end cartoon style, coming to rest upside down, balanced on his head like a wobbly bowling pin.
(54:51):
The life of a midget wrestler was tough and often sad.
Sky Lolo had a complex about his size that made him an angry fellow, especially when he was drunk.
He was a full time cruiser, constantly chasing women, but he had his heart broken many times by girlfriends who had made off with his money.
(55:13):
Despite his temper, Sky Lolo enjoyed cracking up the boys with his blunt sense of humour.
This part is my favourite by the way.
On the notorious Alaska trip, Stu decided to take advantage of the kitchen in his hotel room and cooked the men a dinner.
One thing the kitchen didn't have was a pot for Stu to mix the ground beef in.
(55:38):
Ever industrious, the promoter emptied a trash can to use.
Sky Lolo walked in, saw Stu's unsanitary methods and, taking a beer from the fridge, walked back to the party in the next room without saying a word.
That evening, as the wrestlers dug into the feast of cabbage rolls, plenty of compliments were directed at Stu.
(56:04):
Until, Sky popped up like a hardened spanky from the Little Rascals episode and said,
Guys, these aren't cabbage rolls, they're garbage rolls that remarkably caused a stir and much merriment. But the feast went on unabated, such is life, weird, wild and frequently unappetizing on the road.
(56:33):
What a tremendous passage and what an absolute diamond in the story that is Sky Lolo.
And reading stuff like that is something that you would never get from mainstream wrestling media, if you will.
(56:57):
It's the stories that nobody wants to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about how a hard life was on the road for a little person wrestler.
The abuse that they would go through. It's the same thing like in today's day and age, even with me too, right?
Nobody wants to talk about how hard it is for female professional wrestlers on the road.
It's one of those unspoken things. It's unsavory in the wrestling media.
(57:22):
So I appreciate reading stories like that that kind of gives the Sky Lolo story a little bit more context as well as a little bit more personality, if you will.
But there is one thing that came up in that story that I want to circle back to as well.
And that was the gait figure. Now in that book, it had come up that Sky Lolo and the other midget wrestlers on the card with him
(57:50):
would command up to 15% of the gait. Now this is something that I've substantiated through every single piece of wrestling history that I've come across.
Whether the matches were in Calgary for Stampede, whether they were at the Maple Leaf Gardens,
whether they were in Madison Square Gardens for the Tri-WF, for example.
(58:15):
Everything that I've come to read has told me that between 10 and 15% of the gait is what Sky Lolo and his partner or partners in the off chance that it was a tag team match or something like that.
Or even larger than that to be quite honest. We know from established facts in this story that the little people wrestlers often ran in large troops.
(58:49):
But regardless, that's what they commanded for the gait. So what does that mean for actual money?
Because that's the one thing that wrestlers are notorious for misdirecting. Either they've made a lot more or they've made a lot less.
(59:11):
Depends who you're asking. Depends what the situation is. But let's say for instance that we are in Maple Leaf Gardens for say.
Let's go in the 1950s. And let's go with about a 10,000 person house.
The gait there that night would be roughly 50,000 because ticket prices were kind of all over the place.
(59:39):
So when you figure it, you know the gait being about 50,000, that would mean that, and we'll use the amount percentage wise of 15%.
So 15% of 50,000 is 7,500. So let's further extrapolate that. Let's say that there were four little people on the card.
(01:00:05):
Let's say Sky Lolo, Little Beaver and throw in two others. So they're going to split that four ways.
That's $1,875 in the 1950s. Now let's further bring that up to today's day and age of money.
(01:00:26):
So if you would take inflation and the way that money grows over the years, now we're in 2022, that would wind up to $7,500 for one match.
That would mean that Sky Lolo in today's money made $7,500 for one match.
(01:00:51):
Why is that important? For this reason exactly. Sky Lolo wrestled over 800 matches in his career.
Now clearly we can't say that he commanded that amount of gait for his entire 800 match career.
His match career was longer than that. His drawing power was more than that in some situations.
(01:01:18):
So let's just leave it at a flat number of 800 matches and we'll leave it at a flat cap number of 1,875 per match, which in today's money equals $7,500.
That means that in today's money, Sky Lolo in his career would have made $3,000,000.
(01:01:43):
Think about that for a second. Sky Lolo, a little person from Montreal, Quebec, in a five decade long wrestling career in today's dollars, grossed $3,000,000.
(01:02:04):
If that's not incredible, I don't know what is. Absolutely phenomenal and absolutely the tip of the feather in the cap of the entire story that I've been alluding to tonight.
(01:02:25):
We often don't talk about numbers and money on this show, although maybe that's something I need to dig into a little bit more in depth, especially with some of the individuals, especially in this season's episode list of Grappler with Canada.
But anyways, I digress a little bit. I wanted to put that in there to really put into context what Sky Lolo specifically meant because literally without him, I don't see that any of this would have happened.
(01:02:58):
We're not even getting into the Mexican minis and what happened with the micro wrestling federation and guys in the current scheme of things like El Torito was a big deal with the WWF.
Hornswoggle obviously was a big deal. Going from WWF, he was an impact for a while. This is still an interesting market. I can't say it's viable, but it is an interesting market and it shows that if there's somebody who is engaging, we'll say,
(01:03:43):
that the sky's the limit and literally Sky Lolo hit the limit of what anybody would ever fathom in there while the streams could be accomplished from what he did as a professional wrestler and what he brought to the industry.
(01:04:04):
And I think that perfectly encapsulates why I wanted to showcase him on the program today. So before I get out of here for tonight, I want to play some more classic audio.
And on the other side, stick around because we have some important things to discuss on the flip side of this. Please enjoy.
(01:04:31):
In their never ending search for variety, the impresarios of the mat world don't overlook the smaller species of homo sapiens midgets have muscles too and they can be as mean as the tallest monster in the business.
Let's watch the dynamic duo of Shy Lolo and Billy the Kid face the fearsome twosome of red feather and brown pamper in a prestige match. Shy Lolo and Billy the Kid have been accused by their opponents of being two of the lowest characters ever to crawl across a wrestling match.
(01:04:59):
The brown panther is handling Shy Lolo in a menacing manner. Shy Lolo feels mighty low as the panther manhandles him around the ring. Then it's Shy Lolo's turn to romp and stomp.
Shy Lolo takes on red feather after taking the growl out of the panther. Shy Lolo says there's nothing as light as a red feather. He proves it by spinning him on his shoulders in bold fashion. The turn of events fails to tickle the funny bone of red feather. He launches a little mayhem of his own.
(01:05:44):
Red feather turns the tiring Shy Lolo over to the brown panther. The panther claws the little fellow like a piece of steak. Billy the Kid has finally ventured inside the ropes. Billy's been viewing the proceeding from a safe distance so far. Red feather wastes little time in orienting the kid into the act. Billy soon groggy from a rough going over. The kid reels around the ring while red feather contemplates making a human sacrifice out of him.
(01:06:13):
The kid comes through after almost being pinned. He throws red feather off his bruised and battered body only to be subjected to more punishment from the merciless warrior red feather. Shy Lolo saves the day. He spares the kid from further torment and pin this red feather.
(01:06:42):
The referee finally takes note and counts out the fall. Shy Lolo and Billy the Kid rack up a win over the brown panther and red feather.
Before we head out of the program tonight, just want to again mention our good friends and sponsors of the podcast, Manscaped. Manscaped has the full package that you need for your spring cleaning this year, the Performance Package 4.0. It's the only tool you need to keep your boys looking good and smelling like the fresh tulips that your partner wants.
(01:07:20):
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(01:08:42):
Because if you're using your Lawn Mower 4.0 on your balls and your face, fellas, you are doing it wrong. And also, if you're sitting there looking like Grizzly Adams, you're also probably doing it wrong.
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(01:09:21):
It's time to throw out your old hygiene habits and upgrade your life.
Now, I hope everybody enjoyed tonight's program covering Sky Lolo. It was a rare, very rare solo episode from myself, so I hope that everybody was able to get quite a bit out of it.
(01:09:44):
I want to thank contributors to the program vicariously. Heath McCoy with the quotes from Pain and Passion, the Tremendous Stampede Wrestling book, as well as good friends of the show Pat LaPrade and Bertrande Bear with the Mad Dog Midgets and Screwjob book.
Both are available on Amazon Books or wherever you buy, sell, trade, steal or barter your favorite books. I should quantify. In no way am I saying that you should steal books.
(01:10:24):
However, go on your way to pick those books up if you have not previously done so. They are tremendous looks into professional wrestling history.
Also, I want to thank wrestling historian and current still professional wrestler Vance Nevada for his information regarding Sky Lolo and the match history.
(01:10:47):
If anybody is interested in seeing visually speaking the match history and opponents of Sky Lolo, let me know. Shoot me an email to sixsidepond.com.
I'd be very happy to forward that on to you so you can see exactly what went on, where it happened and who it happened with. It's very interesting, obviously way more in depth than I could ever fit on a program like this month to month.
(01:11:21):
However, it is fun to see and like I said, if you are looking to find that information, I am very happy to provide it so get in touch and let me know.
As usual, you can find this program, Grappling with Canada, on any major podcasting platform whether that be Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, essentially wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or especially steal this podcast, you can find Grappling with Canada.
(01:12:01):
Once again, if you leave a five star rating and a written review, this part is very important, a written review.
I'll be very happy and glad to read it on the next available flagship program. So once again, that is most important on Apple Podcasts because for some reason, it skews whatever metrics and whatever gremlins are in the system and whatever.
(01:12:34):
So if you're listening to this and you got an Apple device, knock, knock, knock, talking to you. Leave a five star written review and you get a special shout out on the next available episode.
Other ways you can help support the program is the merchandise store, grapplingwithcanada.com or I should say grapplingwithcanada.threadless.com is where you can find the official merchandise for this program and once again, the classic Grappling with Canada logo t-shirt, that's the one with the globe and the Canadian flag.
(01:13:19):
All proceeds of that t-shirt specifically go directly into a fund and that will be donated to the Children's Hospital here in Friendly, Winnipeg, Manitoba. So pick up a shirt, support a good cause.
You can also directly donate to this program via links in the link tree portion, which you can find in the show notes of this program. There are ways such as the direct PayPal link. You can buy me a beer. Please, I'm thirsty.
(01:13:56):
You can buy me a beer at buy me a beer or sorry, buymeacoffee.com slash grappling. Then you can tell we're at the end of this program this week and you can also use the tip function on the Good Pods app. Say all of that five times fast. I dare you.
(01:14:19):
I also want to thank you know some people who have been very supportive and instrumental to the podcast lately. Those being the authors on the special programs that I've had on the special episodes of the program, namely Vance and Stephen, but also some people who have helped me immensely lately.
(01:14:40):
Grade Maker Podcasts, Wrestling with the Truth, my buddy Steve out in the UK. Thanks everybody for your continuing support and also good friend of the show, Jacob at the Sunday Net ARR. Keep your head up.
So with all that being said, for myself the tax man, I will leave you as I usually do. Take care of yourselves and each other.
(01:15:11):
Good night everyone.
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