Each week we’ll take a step back into the history of Great Bend through the eyes of reporters past. We’ll reacquaint you with what went into creating the Great Bend of today, and do our best to update you on what “the rest of the story” turned out to be.
This week, we turn to the April 12, 1940, edition of the Great Bend Herald, which was a weekly newspaper from the 1930s and 1940s.
But first, a word about newspaper jargon: Out of the Morgue, to some might sound a bit morbid, but it is in reference to news jargon for a paper’s archive. After the daily edition is printed and distributed, a stack of the day’s papers usually makes its way into storage, and it sits there until it’s needed, often by some reporter who needs to do a little fact checking. It’s where we go to mine the history leading up to certain actions, or to get background on local officials, or to create a history column for the community.
Typically, when we create Out of the Morgue each week, we access our past editions on microfilm, either from our own collection or that of the Great Bend Public Library. It’s easier and, frankly, it’s less dusty, plus we get to get out of the office and interact with the nice librarians.
But, since the library is closed to the public for the time being, and because we rely on the library for its microfilm reader, we’ve been mining the morgue in our basement for the past few weeks to bring you this column. The Great Bend Tribune of today is the latest iteration of a string of newspapers that trace their lineage back to when Great Bend was first chartered in the early 1870s. While we have it all on microfilm, we also have a basement full of paper editions, bound by month or by year, depending on whether they were daily or weekly papers. Most are the Great Bend Tribune, or The Great Bend Daily Tribune. But, we also have some tomes filled with The Great Bend Herald, The Barton County Democrat and even a few of The Inland Tribune from the 1890s. Those old editions, still wrapped in brown paper, are tempting, but we haven’t dared to open them ... yet. If this shut-down drags on much longer than expected, we may just have to give in.
Wrestling at the Municipal Auditorium
In 1940, Great Bend’s Town Hall was not just the seat of government, but also where spectators met to watch wrestling matches. According to stories in the Herald, the matches were a weekly event, with wrestlers not only from Kansas to the ring, but also wrestlers from Southern and Eastern cities. The account of the match reported on in the April 12, 1940, edition is reminiscent of Bugs Bunny in a Looney Toons cartoon.
“Hans and Karol Promote; Semi-Final to Main Wrestling Event at Town Hall” stated, “Two clean-breakers, Karol Krauser and Hans Schwartz, turned their semi-final into the main event at the wrestling services Wednesday night in the Town Hall.
“They strove for an hour, even to put each other down for keeps but it couldn’t be done. Both were on their feet when Lawrence Holmes dropped his claw hammer on the gong.
“Thus their go ended in a clean draw, to the satisfaction of all and sundry.
“After their long, skillful struggle, neither had enough breath left to blow out a candle on a baby’s birthday cake.
“It was one of the best matches that manager Ben Taggart and his boys have brought to the Bend – and that’s quite a statement, as every fan knows.
“The architecture of these men is something beautiful to behold. Though Krauser is no graybeard, Schwartz is the younger by a good deal.
“Considering his youth against Krauser’s experience, Schwartz made a wonderful showing in point of quick versatility and strength.
“Soon after the match began Krauser caught Schwartzy with flying scissors and gave his ribs a cruel squeeze.
“Again and again Schwartz got up, but Karol slammed him back to the mat. This sort of thing went on for five minutes before the New York Blond broke away.
“Then Hans turned around and performed the operation known as the arm-stretch on Karol. Hans pulled on Karol’s left arm with both hands and pushing with both feet.
“Whereupon something happened that the human eye could scarcely follow. Suddenly Krauser switched positions and was doing the same thing to Schwartz.
“After the New Yorker got out of that one, the popular Pole clamped on something that may as well be called the cork-screw wrist hold, though you probably can’t find the term in any wrestler’s dictionary.
“At any rate, it is a wicked hold and it hurts. You expect to see the victim’s arm break out of its socket any moment. Still, nothing of that kind happened, although there was plenty of evidence of agony, no foolin’.
“Schwartz twisted out of it, however, and jumped Krauser for a scissors on the head. He kept Karol’s head in leg storage some time.
“Then the Pole jerked away and with his legs reached for a leg lock. He got it so successfully that the wrestlers literally tied themselves together, leg-wise.
“Well, you just can’t sit around on the mat all evening with your legs inextricably locked with another gentlemen’s legs.
“You crave less intimacy. So it was with Karol and Hans, but when referee Steve Brody tried to untie the knot they both yelled with pain.
“At length, the resourceful umpire, by removing the New Yorker man’s shoe and sock, unraveled the knot which was funnier to the fans than to the performers.
“Hans couldn’t get up immediately and Karol had to limp around the ring to restore his damped-up circulation.
By this time the contenders were pretty well spent, but neither was quite ready at any time to surrender. When the gong ended the match they exchanged hugs of mutual respect and from where your correspondent sat, those hugs looked real.”
According to one modern wrestling blogger, Crazymax Jack, Krauser was still wrestling in St. Louis in 1953!
Even in 1940, most considered professional wrestling fake.
According to Wikipedia, “Professional wrestling in the United States, until the 1920s, was viewed as a legitimate sport. This view did not endure into the 1930s, as professional wrestling became identified with modern theatrics.”
Air Hostess acceptance
On the other end of the news spectrum, a report of a former Great Bend girl being accepted into a new field of work was exciting news that fueled dreams and flights of fancy, so to speak, for other young readers, no doubt. Miss Pat Schulz, who attended Great Bend High School her junior year before going to live with her sister in Valley Center and finishing her high school career there, was back to visit the Great Bend family.
Her dreams of becoming an air hostess required patience and perseverance, the report stated, and she was not at all certain she would make the grade. But, after completing a nursing degree at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, she was granted an interview with the prestigious Trans World Airlines.
“Out at 1216 Frey Street is an attractive young woman who is happy because she is about to be ‘remolded’ into a TWA air hostess,” the report stated. “Remolded” is her own word for it. She says the TWA requirements for each hostess of the air are so rigid that no other word will do.
“Two and half weeks ago she passed her preliminary examination as a candidate for air hostess and on April 15 at the Municipal Airport, Kansas city, she will go to ‘ground school’ for four to six weeks of preparation before she finally dons her uniform and takes to the air.
“She will be given special instruction in ticketing, accounting, speech, poise, charm, grace and how to walk correctly.”
Before she was accepted for examination she and other candidates were carefully interviewed by TWA.
“Miss Pat is 5 feet, 3 3/4 inches tall and weighs 118, well within the specifications laid down by the airline. She is 22.
“Once of the requirements of the TWA air hostess is that she must be a registered nurse, in addition to all the other attractions.”
According to a piece at Slate.com, “The first commercial flights were turbulent and dangerous. Airlines primarily served mail routes and relied on male copilots – and sometimes male cabin attendants – to serve the occasional passenger. As airlines increased passenger service, they hired stewardesses who were registered nurses, skilled at calming nerves and tending to the airsick.”
TWA ceased operations Dec. 1, 2001, when it was acquired by American Airlines.
