The Fabulous Moolah: Total Scumbag

Hello Dwellers and Welcome to the Basement...

At one point in time... I had a great deal of respect for Mary Lilian  Ellison, aka The Fabulous Moolah... then I started to learn more and more about what kind of person she was.

On a recent edition of the 6:05 Superpodcast (http://605pod.com/) there was a segment called 'In The News with Jim Cornette' where the host 'The Great' Brian Last along with re-occurring guest Jim Cornette discuss old new articles that have ties to the world of pro-wrestling where an interesting story from Somerville, MA in November 25, 1956 popped up (Starts about 15:30 mark)

If you did not check it out, the article that was read was The Fabulous Moolah's 15 year old daughter Mary Carroll told police that her mother forced her to wrestle professional but did not pay her, a neglect warrant was issued for Moolah's  arrest (name at the time Lilian Pine) after she was forced to wrestle following a recent appendectomy in which she provided documentation that doctors advised against participating in future matches, in addition to a police officer being quoted as saying that Moolah hasn't supported her daughter for over 3-months, that Ms Carroll appeared on numerous cards with her mother and step-father, that she was licensed to wrestle in Maryland and North Carolina. Mr. Last and Mr. Conrette  go on discuss said article... and there being 'bad parents' in the world of wrestling is nothing shocking

However... when one looks into the fact that beyond this incident with her own daughter, The Fabulous Moolah cornered the marketplace on booking women's wrestling, demanded any female wrestler being booked by her only be involved with fellow pro-wrestlers, ordered any female wrestler that was trained at her camp to sign an exclusive contract with her, demand that trainees rent a duplex on her property, take well over 30% of any earnings the lady wrestlers earned, and if someone pissed her off, Moolah would prevent them from leaving her 'compound'. These tales were stated by trainees of Moolah WWE Hall of Famer Wendi Richter in a DVD shoot interview with High Spots (Source) , and Debbie Johnson who did an interview with Lady Sports in 2008 (Source)

And if that's not bad enough. Moolah would actually PIMP OUT the ladies that signed contracts with her, sending them to promoters to make sure exclusivity of bookings, the legendary Luna Vachon stated in 2002 that when she was 16 and training and Moolah's camp, Moolah sent her out to be photographed by an old gentleman... and this was in addition to Moolah shall we say 'taking physical advantage' of some trainees, according to Luna's aunt Vivan Vachon (Source) 

Then there is Moolah actually getting women fired from the WWF in the 1980s, specifically The Glamour Girls tag team (both members Judy Martin and Lelani Kai were Moolah trainees), by telling Japanese promoters that they were to win the WWF Women's Tag Titles from the Jumping Bomb Angels, even though Pat Patterson himself stated that was NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN, which lead to the WWF dumping Women's Wrestling. (

This is of course the tip of the iceberg.... but what really puts this over the top, is the story of Sweet Georgia Brown... and.... well you have to read it for yourselves folks cause there is no way I can summarize it: http://www.free-times.com/archives/baby-of-sweet-georgia-brown/article_e82fe915-fb49-5d12-8848-42750f5dc785.html

So yeah... in the history of pro-wrestling, Moolah is a total scumbag in my mind, and the more and more that I learn, the more I think the WWE needs to do the right thing and treat her like they do Chris Benoit, as in erase from history as much as possible beyond archive footage.