George Raymond Wagner, known to the world as Gorgeous George, is a name that does not ring as loudly as Muhammad Ali or James Brown.
This flamboyant professional wrestler left an unforgettable mark on both sports and entertainment.
His outrageous personality and inventive approach to showmanship set the way for Ali and Brown’s proud self-promotion.
George Wagner was born on March 25, 1915, and raised in simple surroundings in Butte, Nebraska. He spent his childhood on a farm near Phoenix, a village in Holt County, Nebraska.
His family later moved to Waterloo, Iowa, and Sioux City before settling in Houston, Texas, when George was seven.
Due to financial constraints, George dropped out of Milby High School in 1929.
To help his family survive, he held odd jobs while continuing to develop his athletic interests at the local YMCA.
He first started wrestling at the YMCA, often challenging his friends to matches.
Wagner started his professional wrestling career in the late 1920s in carnivals, where the winners received 35 cents.
His natural talent and charisma quickly caught the attention of Morris Siegel, a major regional promoter. By 17, George made a name for himself as a gifted amateur wrestler.
In the late 1930s, George married Elizabeth “Betty” Hanson in a highly publicized in-ring ceremony.
Around this time, he read about “Lord” Patrick Lansdowne, a wrestler who fascinated audiences with his aristocratic persona.
George was inspired to create an identity that would challenge wrestling’s theatricality.
Gorgeous George Became Famous For His Elaborate Costumes
By 1941, Wagner had been reincarnated as “Gorgeous George,” the platinum blonde curly-haired wrestler with his gold-plated bobby pins (“Georgie Pins“) and over-the-top personality.
His ring entrances were showpieces, with red carpets, rose petals, and valet Jeffries, who would carry a silver mirror and spray Chanel No. 5.
Gorgeous George’s big break came with the advent of television, which brought wrestling into American living rooms.
His first nationally televised match on November 11, 1947, sent him into national fame.
The “Human Orchid” – George, in all his dramatic pantomime and incredibly garish costumes-was arguably the first wrestler to wholly utilize television for stardom.
Entertainment Weekly later included this moment as one of the top 100 televised acts of the 20th century.
Behind the theatrics, though, Gorgeous George was a pretty good wrestler.
He captured his first title in 1938, the Northwest Middleweight, and later the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Championship.
During his career, he faced big sports names, including Enrique Torres, Don Eagle, and Lou Thesz.
However, the most famous part of his career came on March 12, 1959, when he faced long-time rival Whipper Billy Watson.
George expanded his reach outside the ring by investing in a turkey ranch in Beaumont, California, and a cocktail lounge in Van Nuys called “Gorgeous George’s Ringside Restaurant.”
Gorgeous George’s Flamboyance Didn’t Just Revolutionize Wrestling; It Inspired Cultural Icons Across Other Fields
In 1961, 19-year-old Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, met George while he was doing a radio interview in Las Vegas.
The boxer was immediately impressed with George’s brash self-promotion and later borrowed a similar approach to build his persona.
Ali’s signature taunts, confidence, and big personality owe much to the wrestler who once said, “It’s not how you fight, it’s how you look.”
The “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, also identified George as a prime source of influence.
In his autobiography, I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul, he said he took many of George’s mannerisms to help himself create one electrifying stage persona.
Even Bob Dylan was deeply influenced by George. In his book The Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan recounts how he met Gorgeous George in person and how the encounter formed his artistic approach.
In the early 1960s, George was diagnosed with Liver Cirrhosis, which made him increasingly ill.
He was made to retire and lived his remaining years in obscurity.
On December 24, 1963, he suffered a heart attack and died two days later at the age of 48 years.
Though his life was cut short, the legacy of Gorgeous George lives on.
To him, wrestling was not all; he was a trailblazer who erased the line between sport and entertainment.
His influence on Muhammad Ali and James Brown ensures his spirit lives on in these legends’ bold, charismatic personas.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Wagner was married twice, first to Betty Hanson and Cherie Dupré.
- Gorgeous George had three children; they adopted two children and one biological son, Gary George.
- George’s grandnephew Robert Kellum, known as “The Maestro” in WCW, also wrestled “Gorgeous George III” in the USWA.
