“Hillbillies Cause Wrestling Riot”
One evening in 1942, two of the pioneers of women’s wrestling were involved in a riot at the Des Moines Coliseum – Mae Young and Elvira Snodgrass.
If you’re not aware of the women mentioned, I would be unable to do a full biography here, but I can give a brief overview. Elvira Snodgrass was a girl wrestler, as they were called, starting in the 1940s and retiring in the 1950s. She portrayed a hillbilly character throughout her career.
On the other side, Mae Young, was a girl wrestler who began wrestling sometime between 1939 and 1941, and she was involved in wrestling until her death in 2014. While it was not the character she played in her heyday, modern wrestling fans will remember her as the dirty old lady of the WWF’s Attitude Era, often alongside her great friend The Fabulous Moolah.
Both Mae Young and Elvira Snodgrass were, in the era this story takes place, two of Mildred Burke’s toughest opponents. Mildred Burke was the queen of wrestling from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, holding the World Women’s Championship that entire time.
Back to the night mentioned in Des Moines. Elvira’s husband, Elmer Snodgrass, first took on Big Boy Brown in a bout that lasted 13 minutes and seven seconds but was rife with interference from Elvira, who was armed with what the June 4, 1942, edition of The Des Moines Register calls “an old, long-heeled button shoe” and was even pulling her husband’s opponent out of the ring.
During the second fall of Elmer vs. Brown, Elvira charged at Mae in the press box, who was awaiting the bout between the women. From there all hell broke loose between the two male opponents, the two female opponents, and the referee.
The fight became what the paper called a riot situation where police and audience members had to pull everyone apart. Unfortunately, once the situation was quelled, Elvira used violence on the referee, which allowed her husband to take advantage of his opponent and win the third fall.
After the skirmish, Elvira and Mae wrestled that evening in a bout the Register stated was “a hodgepodge of wrestling, hair-pulling, stamping, kicking and punching,” so much so that the fighting ended up in the crowd much like the previous match, where, again, spectators and police had to get involved to break up the brawl.
Elvira’s husband had to come help his wife get her neck out of the twisted ring ropes, which Mae had done to punish the woman who had angered her this evening. Elmer’s interference even had fans yelling at the referee, causing him to pay attention to them as opposed to the interference happening in the women’s fight.
In the end, Mae ended up losing to Elvira in two straight falls after winning the first fall in two minutes after stomping her opponent into “apparent helplessness,” per the Register.
In a world now where we’re aware of kayfabe and storylines, it’s fascinating to look back at this short news story on the front page of The Des Moines Register over 80 years ago. This story details the heel team of Elmer and Elvira Snodgrass getting enough heat to create a riot situation in one match to then continue that heat into the main event, and I absolutely loved finding this snippet in the newspaper archive.
