11/13/06
Now let’s get this office hour thing straight! Since Mitch Hartsey unearthed a picture (by Roger Deem I suspect) of Sam Muchnick leaving the office at the Warwick Hotel, most everyone has noted the placard above the door that said hours were from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
I guess there’s some truth to that. When it wasn’t a Friday through Sunday with a card at Kiel Auditorium and a taping at KPLR-TV, those were sort of our hours. Actually, "Wild Bill" Longson was usually in at 9 a.m. He liked to leave around noon for a daily card game, often involving referee Joe Schoenberger and other comrades from south St. Louis.
I toddled in around 9:30 a.m. and slaved away until 3:30 p.m. The key was to get across the bridge for Belleville comfortably before 4 p.m., thus avoiding rush hour.
Sam generally appeared by 10:30 a.m. He usually left for lunch by 11:30 with any of group from baseball scout Joe Mathes, scouts Don Lenhardt or George Silvey, baseball executive Bing Devine, sportswriters Bob Broeg or Bob Burnes, police Capt. Eddie Moran, or any of huge number of political, sports, and media figures. He’d get back by 2 usually and bail out at 3.
Oh, if it were that simple though! The office at the Warwick, or for that matter the Claridge, the Lennox, or the Chase, was really a spot to hold records, have meetings, greet fans occasionally and meet the public, keep the hotline 231-7487 code-a-phone machines humming, and – in my case – write the news releases, ads, and do proofs on the "Wrestling" news.
The telephone was the office. Before Sam arrived, he’d probably had a call or two. More likely, though, wrestling being a night time business, he would have a half dozen calls every night at home. I also got my share of calls. Many times Sam and I chuckled about our cauliflower ears coming from being on the telephone all the time, not from anything in the ring.
Wrestling also didn’t take weekends off, to the contrary! So the phones kept ringing with various gossip, deals, intrigue, rumors, and manipulations. Everyone wanted to know how well everyone else in the business drew at the box office. The business evolved around results and personalities, not typewriters and machines. Thus, the home phone rang and rang regularly.
Granted, there were plenty of calls at the office as well. Being there early was not necessary, though, because those who performed or had cards the night before were either asleep or traveling. There was nobody to talk to at 8 a.m. There were lots of folks to gab with at 8 p.m. or even midnight, especially for Sam with his added role in the National Wrestling Alliance and that added untold HOURS on the telephone for Sam. ("King Kong" Brody and I probably spent more hours talking after midnight then any other spot on the clock.)
When we had a card at Kiel, there was constantly a buzz at the office from noon on. At one point or another, "Wild Bill", Sam, and me would all take a break to eat. Everybody would move down 15th Street to Kiel (or out Highway 40 to the Arena.) Wrestlers would stop by when they checked in if they were at the hotel where the office was.
Booking decisions were made during the day. The hustle and bustle built the energy level for the evening. And, of course, I would be back after the card to make sure results were called to the media and the hotline was updated.
Saturday morning was final decision time for the next card and more, oh my still more, phone calls. I’d get home in time to spend the next dozen hours or so writing the "Wrestling" news.
"Wild Bill" would stop by the office Sunday morning before the television tapings, as I would to drop off the typed copy for our printer (a wonderful guy and excellent gentleman gone now – Al Steck) to pick up at the hotel desk. Then to the Chase/KPLR complex for "Wrestling at the Chase," all three shows. A quick stop at the office after. A hectic Monday, usually coming back Monday evening to finalize the proofs on the "Wrestling" news.
Ah, but then we got back in that nice groove.
Note one thing on that sign at the Warwick, where it listed Sam Muchnick Sports Attraction….a typo that should have added an "s," but Sam didn’t want to offend the Warwick management by telling them of the error. When Sam promoted the Harlem Globetrotters, or any other event, he did it alone. It was not the St. Louis Wrestling Club. It was Sam Muchnick Sports Attractions and I was hired as his publicity man. Hooray, another payday!
That Warwick was a neat place. So many memories! Probably that’s true for fans as well, as many congregated in the lounge off the lobby after a card.
Since Sam saved everything, we were jammed into three rooms…medium, small and tiny. I still recall near the end of our stay at the Warwick, the hotel was going downhill and a mouse ran through the office. Sam and I were a long way from big game hunters, so we stood carefully to the side as "Wild Bill" put out his cigar.
Then the great former world champion grabbed a yard stick, chased the little critter across the floor, battered the bugger senseless, picked him up by his tail, dropped him in the toilet, and flushed. "Ah, he won’t bother you anymore," said "Wild Bill" as he lit up a new stogie.
Each office had its share of history and tales to tell. The truth was, though, that the office really was the people. Bill Longson, luckily me, the people who passed through, and especially Sam Muchnick. Nobody could buy it; nobody could replicate it.
But, yes Mitch, those were the hours!