The Rassler

I am very excited to announce that the library will be hosting a reading by local author Gary Howard! Gary has written a book called The Rassler from Renfrew: Larry Kasaboski and Northland Wrestling Enterprises. The book is about old-time wrestling in the Ottawa Valley during the depression. Here's a little blurb about the book:

The Rassler from Renfrew

For half a century, old-time wrestling and the Kasaboski name went hand-in-hand in the Ottawa Valley. Especially Larry Kasaboski, who followed his older brother Alex into the ring during the Depression years of the 1930s, then turned his talents to promoting. Life-long fan of the sport, Gary Howard, shares his enthusiasm for the early years of show wrestling and Larry Kasaboski in his book The Rassler from Renfrew (General Store Publishing House, 154pp, $19.95).

In the decades after the Second World War, Northland Wrestling Enterprises staged fights in arenas up and down the Valley and throughout Northern Ontario, pitting passions against loyalties for the likes of Benny Trudel, Bill Curry, Don "One-Man-Gang" Evans, the Parks Brothers, Frankie Hart, Terry and Ronnie Garvin, and Gorgeous George Grant. Young Gary Howard, and just about every other sports fan in Pembroke, never missed a match during the weekly visits to the old Mackay Street Arena. And when big names like Whipper Billy Watson and Gene Kiniski were on the bill, well, it was like being on television. It was the same from Smiths Falls to Schumacher, Renfrew to Rouyn-Noranda throughout the Golden Age of show wrestling, the 1950s.

Gary Howard applies a fan’s passion and a historian’s attention to detail to his writing, while personal interviews and rare archival photos bring the past alive. The result is a comprehensive and engaging look at a sport that is equal parts athleticism and showmanship, and at the man who was among the most respected by wrestlers all over North America.


So if you like wrestling or local history, make sure you don't miss Gary at the library! He'll be reading from his book (of which there will be copies for sale) on Wednesday April 16, 2008 @ 7pm.

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