Book Review: THE QUEEN OF THE RING - Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend

Mildred Burke - Female Star in the Make-Believe World of Wrestling

She’s not a household name today, and never really was one, even in her heyday, but as Jeff Leen explains in “The Queen of the Ring,” Mildred Burke was the dominating figure in women’s wrestling for 20 years, “its Babe Ruth and its Jackie Robinson.” When she died in 1989 at 73, the Associated Press obituary reported that Burke had been women’s wrestling champion from 1936 to 1955, that she had won more than 5,000 matches against women and more than 150 against men. Mr. Leen says that at one time she earned $50,000 a year, as much as Joe DiMaggio, though everyone involved in professional wrestling lied about the money, just as they lied about everything else...More?

source: nytimes.com