Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any old timers remember gorilla wrestling at county fairs?

As a kid growing up in the mountains of Virginia in the 40's & 50's the county fair was a big event. Most rural people didn't have TV's so entertainment was hard to come by. In addition to the rides & games of chance the side show was the thing to see. Each night volunteers would go into a cage with a gorilla (actually an orangutan)& tried to pull the critter down from the bars at the top of the cage. After sufficient blood letting by the volunteer the handler let the victim out of the cage. If you could pull the gorilla down from the bars you were paid $50 & if pinned $100. We would see guys parading around town with deep scratches on their faces & arms when the fair was in town. It was sort of a badge of courage usually developed after consuming a liberal amount of shine. One year rumors surfaced that a huge mountain man know as Whitey was coming to town to wrestle the gorilla. Whitey lived well back in the mountains with his woman(as a kid I wondered what that meant), hunted, fished, trapped, & had a small farm. Standing about 6'3' & a great hulk of a man Whitey had spent time in jail for putting the boot to many a man in barroom brawls. My dad & I visited the fair on Saturday night & sure enough Whitey arrived to have his turn with the gorilla. Whitey had built up his courage by drinking some shine with his buddies near the cage. Whitey always wore bid overalls sufficiently stained from storing chewing tobacco in a pocket, no shirt, & his trademark boots. As he entered the cage Whitey wrapped a t-shirt around his left arm & demanded the handler remove the muzzle from the poor orangutan. After lots of jeering the handler reluctantly removed the muzzle. Whitey moved toward the critter who wrapped his legs & claws around Whiteys left arm. Whitey then reached up & with his huge left hand grabbed the critter behind the neck & started to pull him down. After sufficient screeching the poor orangutan was pulled free & slammed to the floor. Whitey put his boot on the semi-conscious critters back & let out a Tarzan yell. The crowd went wild. Whitey was a local hero & wrecked several bars that night. Sad to say by the mid 50's civilization arrived in the Virginia mountains & gorilla wrestling disappeared.

my buddy ray davila putting a asswhooping on a bear back in the day.

Nice story, we had bear wrestling in out country fairs and of course "Fight the mask" but I was too young to participate.

I remember bear wrestling....I also remember some of my buddies and me sneakin in the hoochie koochie show....lol

The toughest man I've ever known used to do that stuff a lot back in the 60's. He played college football and picked up extra cash doing things like that a lot. He was one of my HS teachers and football coaches.

The guy is 72 now, long retired and could easily kick most peoples butt's 50 years younger. He still picks up extra cash working as a bounty hunter.

Didn't have animal rasslin but we had donkey baseball and even ostrich baseball.

Yeah, I Remember the monkey coming to the fairs around Western Pennsylvania when I was in my teens. Some of my older cronies gave it a whirl with all getting their lessons.

Never saw anyone do well.

Nope, never had that one. Do remember a tractor pulling contest between a John Deere and elephant, the elephant won.

Weight and Torque is all it is. The elephant got more power to the ground.

She sure did get more power to the ground.

Yes, And they were pretty friendly altercations unless one hit the [bleep] or whatever. Then the person would be tossed around the cage like a rag doll. Near impossible to whip something that can hang on with all four limbs.