MAT TALES

THE WIBAUX BETTING SCHEME

Jim Londos may have inadvertently helped to break up a betting scam. In the early 1920s, Charley Rentrop, a familiar opponent, was working an “easy money” tour of North Dakota where he knocked off three locals on successive weekends in the city of Beach, on the Montana border.

 

Like a mat whiz, Rentrop then took on all three at once, coming out victorious and convincing the Beach betting sector that he could defeat anyone of his size at any time. Sheriff Bert Nelson of nearby Wibaux, Montana, a bitter rival to Beach, was in the crowd that night and decidedly suspicious of the outcome. When Beach bettors told Nelson they would back Rentrop against any foe, the sheriff announced he would take that bet because his crackerjack wrestler Jack Sandow would whip Rentrop. “Rentrop’s been tossing your farmer suckers in time limit grapples,” Nelson told them.

Only one problem. Jack Sandow did not exist. Nelson had gotten himself in a boastful pickle. Scanning a weeks-old San Francisco newspaper, he came across a picture of Londos.

 

This, he decided, would be Jack Sandow, a face unfamiliar in Wibaux and Beach. Nelson wired a guarantee to Londos who accepted and said he’d come to Montana the day before the match. In the meantime, the sheriff recruited an untrained farm boy to play the part of Sandow, inviting the public to watch him lamely work out, which only whetted bettors’ enthusiasm for Rentrop.

Nelson later told journalist Frank Hyde (coincidentally a mentor of this book's author) that he thought bettors from Beach would see the error of their ways and demand their money back once they saw the handsome, muscular ringer from California. But no one objected, so the match went on with the sheriff as the referee, five-gallon hat, six-shooter, and high-heeled boots in tow.

 

Londos won in two falls; some fans in attendance insisted that after an hour of action, Nelson patted his holstered gun and said, “I want a couple of falls and I want ’em quick.” Londos was “definitely not” in on the financial setup, according to Nelson and sportswriter Hyde, who checked and rechecked the story several times with the sheriff and financial winners and losers. “Londos could have beaten any grappler in the game then and he knew it, so Rentrop or Sandow, it made no difference,” Hyde concluded. Londos got a nice payday, the sheriff covered his expenses with the gate receipts, and the sportsmen of Beach learned a lesson.

 

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THE CAULIFLOWER ALLEY CLUB
 

It might have been the one trophy Jim Londos had not added to his collection. During his illustrious career, Londos held the famed gold Millionaire’s Belt, given to him in 1931 by the crème de la crème of the sporting world, a bronze world championship belt he won in South Africa, a silver loving cup emblematic of the Greek championship and even a live ram from supporters in Pennsylvania.

 

But it took the Cauliflower Alley Club to immortalize Londos in jade.

 

Ten years after he concluded a 45-year career on the mat, Londos was the first honoree of the Cauliflower Alley Club, which presented him with an impression of his cauliflower ear carved in jade. The tribute occurred on Jan. 21, 1969 at the Elks Club in Los Angeles, where the club sponsored an exhibition “smoker” of boxing, wrestling, judo and self-defense.

 

As columnist Earl Wilson of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner noted, a well-known actor-wrestler who was a mainstay of CAC handled the honors. “The Jade Ear Award will be presented to Londos by Al Baffert, who credits Jim with giving him his first cauliflower ear some 30 years ago. Rather sporting of Al, wouldn’t you say?” Wilson asked.

 

Londos was on hand to receive the trophy along with a who’s who of early CAC days — actor Mike Connors, football star Merlin Olsen, actor Broderick Crawford and boxer-actors Maxie Rosenbloom and Lou Nova. On the wrestling side, trainees of Mildred Burke squared off in exhibitions.

 

The Los Angeles Times reported that the 1969 “smoker” was the first in a series of CAC events designed to raise money for special causes. The club president then was “Bwana” Bob LeMaire, adventurer, explorer and a technical movie director. Mike Mazurki would soon take over from him and lead the fabled Wednesday lunches in a vaulted room with a Renaissance theme at Baron’s Castle restaurant where Londos, Jack Dempsey and Archie Moore were regular attendees.

 

Londos was again the featured honoree at the December 1973 Christmas benefit “smoker” event at the Elks Building. The list of attendees from wrestling alone included Lou Thesz, Lord Carlton, Count Billy Varga and Baron Leone. The event benefitted the Wilshire District Boys Club and some of the Kid Gloves boxers were said to have stolen the show.

 

Londos attended a Wilmington Bowl Alumni Night and Boxing Smoker put on by the CAC in July 1974 that featured a 10-bout card and a presentation to fighters who worked in the Wilmington Bowl. He also was part of a Dec. 14, 1974, amateur boxing card in San Diego Coliseum for Archie Moore’s Any Boy Can program and a teenage baseball team — Londos lived in nearby Escondido. By then, his health was declining and he died in August 1975 at 81.

 

In 1988, Mazurki offered his thoughts on Londos to a Petaluma newspaper. “Jim Londos was one of the greatest defensive wrestlers of all time, and he took advantage of every move. One mistake by his opponent, and the match was over with.”

 

Londos was a CAC Posthumous Honoree in 2021, held over from the postponed 2020 event. The multiple recognitions from CAC testify to his importance as a wrestler, and his glad participation was indicative of how highly he regarded the club and the men and women in it.