The Milwaukee Journal – January 5, 1938
By Jack Cuddy
New York, N.Y. – I was sitting in a dressing room at the Hippodrome during a wrestling show and I said to the amazing man before me, “When were you born?”
“Wall – ah cain’t tell y’all perzactly, but paw says ah’ll be 31, come Feb. 27. ‘Course yuh cain’t depend on paw.”
I said, “But this is your right name on the program isn’t it?”
He squinted at the printing and said, “Ah cain’t read much. Why don y’all read it to me? – Yes, that’s the name alright. Daniel Boone Savage. But down on Shoapes’ creek in Boyd county, Kaintucky, all the neighbors calls me Leo, ‘cause that’s paw’s name. But I don’t like Leo.”
Gunny Sack Bathrobe
Daniel Boone Savage, a bearded fellow, was wearing light leather shoes, tight black trunks and a gunny sack slung over a big shoulder. Why the gunny sack?
“Wall, ah had a bathrobe once, but some city slicker stole it. Ah don’t like to traipse around nekked, ‘cause cold air give me miseries in mah shoulders.”
“I understand this is your first visit to New York? How do you like the big city?”
Daniel Boone, a big fellow who packs 245 pounds of somewhat flabby flesh on a 6 foot 5 inch fram, pawed at his beard and said,”’T’tell you the truth, ah don’t like Noo Yawk, ‘cause ah’m always getting’ lost an’ ah’m afraid ah’m goin’ tuh git into trouble up here. ‘cause ah don’ know city style scufflin’. Down in Kentucky, when ah scuffles ah just holds on ontil the other feller hollers ‘calf rope.’ They says ah cain’t hold on thataway up heah. So ah’s sorta perjiggered.
“Awful Easy Money”
The brown-whiskered hillbilly has been “scufflin’” as a professional “nigh on two, three yars.”
“Fust time ah got paid for scufflin’ was down in Kilgore, Texas,” he said. “Went down with a man who was takin’ some hosses. Ah paid 15c to see the scufflin’. Somebody didn’t show up. They asked me to scuffle. Ah did, an’ won. They paid me $1.67. Seemed like awful easy money tuh me. So ah been doin’ it, ‘tween times, ever since.”
Between what times? Well – it seems that Daniel Boone’s heart is not wrapped up in the mat. He gets homesick for those Kentucky hills and the old farm in Boyd county. So Dan and his beard return to the farm as soon as possible after every match.
Savage explains he can’t trust “paw” on the farm because “paw” has passed his seventieth “spell” and won’t listen to “maw,” who has passed her sixtieth “spell.” For example, “Ah shouldn’ta come up here nohow, ‘cause paw’ll be hittin’ out for town shortly with our terbaccer raisin’s. An’ the city slickers’ll take him again. Last time he went to Greenup he cum back with $32, an’ we all had hard eatin’ for quite a spell.”
Not Married, but Sparkin’
Daniel isn’t married, but he’s “sparkin’” a gal named Hilda Pickles on Shoapes creek. Are they engaged?
“Ah don’t know, but Ah’m claimin’ her,” he replied.
That is a quick portrait of Daniel Boone Savage, who admits to having wrestled in Los Angeles, St. Louis and Kansas City and to having played the part of the hermit lover in the movie, “Swing Your Lady.”
Is he a genuine hillbilly? I don’t know. If he isn’t, he’s a swell actor. Anyway he’s the strangest bozo I ever met in sports. Even stranger than Man Mountain Dean, who spent three hours one night telling me about his boyhood on Stone Mountain, Ga. Since then I learned that the Man Mountain was reared on New York’s east side.
Classic Wrestling Articles 