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Review of Banner Days the Autobiography of Penny Banner
Karen Belcher
Editor, ProWrestlingDaily.com
In 1954, when legendary promoter Sam Muchnick wanted to recruit 19 year old Mary Ann Kostecki as a lady wrestler, his biggest hurdle was persuading her that there really were lady wrestlers. She finally believed him after he showed her photos of Mildred Burke and some others, and the legendary career of “The St. Louis Woman” Penny Banner began.
Penny Banner’s wrestling career spanned 23 years, from 1954 through 1977, and she didn’t lose a pin match during the last 20 years. She was the first AWA Ladies’ Champion. She held the USA and Canadian Ladies Tag Team Championships with Betty Jo Hawkins in 1955. She held both titles with Bonnie Watson from 1956 to 1957. Penny and Lorraine Johnson held the USA and Canadian Ladies Tag Team Championships from 1958 through 1959.
The beautiful but feisty blonde was one of the pioneers of Ladies’ Wrestling, helping to open up new states in a era when the laws had to be changed to allow women to wrestle in many places. State Sports Commissioners were concerned that Ladies’ Wrestling was just an excuse for a sex show, so when the girls wrestled they wore bathing suits that had been specially reinforced with surgical tubing and elastic for “safety’s” sake. Even an accidental slip could get a girl suspended.
Promoters warned their girls to dress and act like ladies when in public.
Billy Wolfe, the first man Penny worked for, insisted that his girls had
to wear high heels and dresses, plus furs if they had them, when entering
the arenas. In order to be approved by the Commissioners in new states
and open up more territories for the women, they had to gain respect.
The Commissioners were most zealous in their efforts to make sure that
Women’s Wrestling was legitimate. They insisted on the women getting
physicals before matches. Penny writes, We had to bring a paper with us,
stating that we were healthy in every respect. Before that, they insisted
on the girls having a “pap smear,” which was totally unreasonable.
The promoter, Leonard Schwartz, managed to get that ridiculous requirement
squelched fast. The very idea!
As pioneer of Women’s Wrestling, Penny’s career was full of firsts. She wrestled in the first ladies’ tag team match in Chicago, the first women’s match in Indianapolis, IN, the first ladies’ tag match in her home town of St. Louis, and was the first Women’s Canadian Tag Team Champion with Bonnie Watson.
In 1961, Penny became the first ever Ladies AWA World Champion after June Byers, then the NWA Women’s Champion was a no-call, no-show for their scheduled match for the NWA Women’s Championship. Promoter James Barnett decided to have a nine girl battle royal with all the women on the card, and the winner would hold the new AWA Ladies Championship.
This wasn’t a simple battle royal like the ones held today, however. Once the battle royal ended, they would start the second part - a series of single matches. That series started with a match between the first and second girls eliminated, then the third and fourth. The fifth and sixth would be in the third singles match. Then the seventh, eighth and ninth girls would wrestle the winners of those three singles matches.
The winners of those three matches were Penny Banner, Theresa Theis and Kathleen Wimbley. Those three women went on to a three way match that was lost by Wimbley, leaving Banner and Theis to go on and wrestle each other in the main event. Can you imagine anyone wrestling four matches in one night these days?
Reading Penny’s book, you get the feeling that you are sharing stories and gossip with an old friend. She tells us about the women she wrestled against - not just their ring techniques, but their spouses and children, and what became of them, if she knows. The road stories, such as the one about the time she and Betty Jo Hawkins were mooned by Don Colt and Ray Stevens while driving to Columbus, are hilarious.
We hear about her visits to the Hart Family home and some of the crazy goings on there. Ms. Banner also tells some of the sad stories of girls who died or were seriously injured. We hear about the times she was nearly raped, and the close calls while driving long stretches in even the worst weather.
Penny talks about her romances, too, including her dates with Elvis Presley. They made headlines in the gossip columns for a while, and Penny gives the juicy details. All I’ll say is that this is a must read for Elvis fans!
She tells how she met and fell in love with then referee, later wrestler, Johnny Spade (no, not the guy currently in WWE), to whom she was married for over 30 years. We hear of Penny’s love for her daughter Wendi, and how that love got her through the tough times ahead. We see how the marriage fell apart and experience her pain through the years of denial, and finally coming face to face with the truth.
Banner also talks about life after wrestling - her career in real estate, successes in the Senior Olympics despite a pinched sciatic nerve, and love for singing karaoke. She was inducted into the Cauliflower Alley Club and received their first Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, and later their Pioneer Award. Penny is one of the stars of the recent documentary, Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar.
My favorite kudo to Penny is this one from Bobby “The Brain” Heenan:
Penny could captivate an audience with her ability in the ring and with her beauty. In my opinion, Penny is considered one of the top hands in our industry and is also a great friend. I’ll tell you how good she is - I wouldn’t pay to see me, but would pay to see Penny.
Some excerpts from Penny’s comments on the state of Women’s Wrestling today:
My first impression when I watched WWWF or WWE was, “How nice (the promoter) treats his girls,” making stars out of them on national television. Then as his power grew and many years passed, I began noticing what a mockery it made of women and how they were being exploited in ways that never would have opened up a territory, state or town.
It’s sad to see what we fought to establish as professional women wrestling, a good thing done by good athletes, to now have it so exploited. I hear of the antics played out by two “old ladies,” as the fans call them making fools of themselves and looking more ridiculous each time they appear.
Some of the girls I’ve seen on the shows look like they would have great possibilities as a real professional but they’ve never been given a chance. They are being completely controlled by these scripted so-called matches. They are used only as a lure to draw paying customers to fill the deep pockets of the organization. Again I say, what a shame, what real shame!
Penny Banner loves wrestling, her friends and the fans, and that shines through in her entertaining and informative autobiography. She tells it the way it really was. This is the best book I’ve read about women’s wrestling, and one of the best wrestling books. You can order Banner Days from Penny's website at http://www.bannerdays.com.
Karen Belcher
(8/02/04)
