WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 Welcome to another deep dive. Imagine turning 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:05.700 on your television on a, well, a Saturday night 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.339 in 1950. Okay, I'm picturing it. You tune into 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:11.060 the local wrestling broadcast and you are immediately 00:00:11.060 --> 00:00:13.599 confronted by the most disticable, arrogant, 00:00:14.060 --> 00:00:16.760 rule -breaking villain in America. The ultimate 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:20.160 bad guy. Exactly. He's wielding a cane. He is 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.579 blinding the fan favorite hero while the referee's 00:00:22.579 --> 00:00:25.359 back is turned. And he's getting absolutely pelted 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.480 with garbage by a furious screaming crowd. Wow. 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:30.920 Just a total menace. A complete menace. You go 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:33.299 to sleep thinking this man is a danger to society. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:36.060 Now imagine waking up on Tuesday morning, walking 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:38.200 down the steps of your local city hall and calling 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:42.880 that exact same man Mr. Mayor. It sounds completely 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.359 impossible. I mean, the level of cognitive dissonance 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:47.700 required to pull off that kind of dual existence, 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:50.159 it just doesn't compute with how we typically 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.399 understand public figures. It really doesn't. 00:00:52.579 --> 00:00:54.299 But we're thrilled you're joining us today, because 00:00:54.299 --> 00:00:56.420 we are looking at a life that entirely shatters 00:00:56.420 --> 00:00:59.359 the concept of a linear, predictable career. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:01.780 We're diving into the biography of Ralph L. Barry. 00:01:02.009 --> 00:01:04.450 better known to millions of furious wrestling 00:01:04.450 --> 00:01:08.109 fans as Wild Red Berry. Right. And our mission 00:01:08.109 --> 00:01:11.510 for you in this deep dive is to dissect how severe 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:14.370 physical and life constraints can actually breed 00:01:14.370 --> 00:01:17.730 genius level creativity. Right. We want to uncover 00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:20.010 the bizarre duality of a man who mastered the 00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:23.930 psychology of mass hatred while simultaneously 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:26.670 navigating a completely beloved, respectable 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:29.930 civic life. To really understand the villain 00:01:29.930 --> 00:01:32.650 that Barry became in the public eye and the politician 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:35.969 he was in private, you have to look at the grueling, 00:01:36.209 --> 00:01:38.450 unforgiving environment that built him. Oh, absolutely. 00:01:38.549 --> 00:01:41.349 Because this is a story of survival before it 00:01:41.349 --> 00:01:43.230 is a story of entertainment. Think about the 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:45.750 environment this guy grew up in. Born in 1906, 00:01:46.030 --> 00:01:47.590 and he drops out of school at the age of 12. 00:01:47.730 --> 00:01:50.310 12 years old? Yeah, 12. He is immediately sent 00:01:50.310 --> 00:01:53.030 to work in a coal mine in Kansas. And he isn't 00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:55.349 doing this for pocket change. He's doing it to 00:01:55.349 --> 00:01:57.560 support his family. including two younger siblings. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.280 Which is just heartbreaking. It is. That is a 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:02.239 childhood that ends before it even really begins. 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:06.019 And coal mining in the early 1900s was brutal, 00:02:06.299 --> 00:02:09.919 dangerous, suffocating labor. It instills a very 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:12.780 specific kind of worldview, you know? I can only 00:02:12.780 --> 00:02:15.439 imagine. When you're 12 years old, working in 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:17.659 the dark, doing heavy manual labor just to keep 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:20.460 your siblings fed, you learn incredibly early 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:23.240 that nobody is coming to save you. Right. You're 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:25.560 totally on your own. Exactly. If you want to 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:27.699 survive, you have to engineer your own way out 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:30.159 of the dark. There is zero safety net. And his 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.060 engineered way out was using his fists. He transitions 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:35.539 from the coal mines into the boxing ring. A slightly 00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:39.639 better kind of brutal labor. Barely, right? But 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:43.139 by 1923, he is a professional boxer grinding 00:02:43.139 --> 00:02:45.580 his way up the regional circuits. He even captures 00:02:45.580 --> 00:02:47.520 the Kansas State Middleweight Championship. So 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:49.900 he's got real talent. He does. He has finally 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:52.699 found his ticket out. But then total catastrophe 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.219 strikes. He suffers a devastating injury in the 00:02:55.219 --> 00:02:57.860 ring. He breaks his hands. And we aren't talking 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:00.259 about a simple fracture in one hand. He shatters 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:03.060 both of his hands. Both of them. Both. His ability 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:05.780 to punch is gone, which means his boxing career 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:08.939 is instantly, permanently over. That is just, 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:11.840 I mean, for a working -class kid whose entire 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:14.479 livelihood, whose only escape from the mines, 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:18.680 is tied to his physical ability to strike, losing 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:21.000 the use of his hands is a life -altering disaster. 00:03:21.180 --> 00:03:24.080 It's everything. Right. He has no formal education 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.819 past the age of 12. His one marketable skill 00:03:26.819 --> 00:03:29.539 has just been physically destroyed. Okay, let's 00:03:29.539 --> 00:03:31.780 unpack this, because this is where his genius 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:34.879 first starts to show. If we think about this 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:37.680 in modern business terms, his boxing career was 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:39.939 essentially a startup. Oh, I like that analogy. 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:42.860 You have a core product, which in his case was 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:45.659 his hands. He achieved clear market traction 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:47.759 by becoming the Kansas State middleweight champion. 00:03:47.780 --> 00:03:50.860 Makes sense. And then he experiences a complete 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:53.599 catastrophic failure of the core product. In 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:55.939 the startup world, when your core product fails, 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:58.580 You either pivot or you fold. And most people 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:01.020 in his position with zero safety net would have 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:02.780 folded. They would have accepted their fate and 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:04.840 gone right back down into the coal mines. Exactly. 00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:07.919 But what does Barry do? Well, the way he approaches 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:10.319 that pivot is a master class in understanding 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:14.199 market fit. He realizes his true market wasn't 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:16.439 a boxing fans. It was people who want to pay 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:19.439 to see a fight. Yes. So he decides to change 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:21.970 his industry to professional wrestling. Records 00:04:21.970 --> 00:04:24.069 show he was working the carnival circuits before 00:04:24.069 --> 00:04:27.629 his first official recorded match in 1926. But 00:04:27.629 --> 00:04:29.629 wait, he brings a massive constraint with him 00:04:29.629 --> 00:04:32.129 into this new arena, right? He really does. Barry 00:04:32.129 --> 00:04:34.709 was only five foot eight inches tall, and he 00:04:34.709 --> 00:04:37.889 weighed about 195 pounds. Hold on. In the world 00:04:37.889 --> 00:04:39.889 of professional wrestling especially, the gritty 00:04:39.889 --> 00:04:42.829 carnival -style wrestling of the 1920s that is 00:04:42.829 --> 00:04:45.500 unbelievably undersized is tiny. He is stepping 00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:48.300 into a ring against absolute giants, men who 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:51.139 weigh 250, 300 pounds. He can't punch them because 00:04:51.139 --> 00:04:53.139 his hands are ruined. And he certainly can't 00:04:53.139 --> 00:04:55.519 out muscle them because of his stature. So how 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:57.439 on earth does a five weight eight guy physically 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.910 survive against a 280 pound monster? By fundamentally 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:03.389 altering the physics and the psychology of the 00:05:03.389 --> 00:05:06.009 encounter, if you are physically disadvantaged 00:05:06.009 --> 00:05:08.509 in a system that explicitly rewards size and 00:05:08.509 --> 00:05:10.750 strength, playing by the rules is a guaranteed 00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:13.569 losing strategy. You just can't win. Exactly. 00:05:14.069 --> 00:05:16.670 Barry realized he couldn't manipulate a giant 00:05:16.670 --> 00:05:19.829 center of gravity using traditional holds, so 00:05:19.829 --> 00:05:22.170 he abandoned the rulebook entirely. You just 00:05:22.170 --> 00:05:24.449 threw it out. Completely. He went for the eyes. 00:05:24.670 --> 00:05:26.930 He used the ring ropes for illegal leverage. 00:05:27.250 --> 00:05:29.959 He hid foreign objects. He realized that if he 00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:32.240 couldn't outpower the giants, he had to outsmart 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:34.740 them, outpace them, and relentlessly out -cheat 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:38.120 them. So his physical limitations basically forced 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:41.579 him to invent a totally new methodology for success. 00:05:41.819 --> 00:05:44.300 Precisely. But cheating doesn't just win you 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:47.300 the match. It makes the crowd completely furious. 00:05:47.980 --> 00:05:50.639 And that furious crowd is what accidentally introduces 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:53.339 Barry to his true superpower, the psychology 00:05:53.339 --> 00:05:55.839 of hate. Yeah, if you can't beat the Giants fairly 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.160 and be the hero, you have to become the absolute 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:00.759 best bad guy in the room. Right. His defiant, 00:06:00.939 --> 00:06:02.980 rule -breaking actions made him one of the most 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:05.560 despised professional wrestlers of the 1930s, 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:07.879 40s, and 50s. What's fascinating here is that 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:10.819 he didn't shy away from the hatred. He systematically 00:06:10.819 --> 00:06:13.829 weaponized it. He leaned into the villainy so 00:06:13.829 --> 00:06:16.629 hard that it led to massive, tangible success. 00:06:16.870 --> 00:06:18.970 Oh, absolutely massive. Across his career, he 00:06:18.970 --> 00:06:21.629 secured more than 15 championship reigns. He 00:06:21.629 --> 00:06:23.949 held the National Wrestling Association's World 00:06:23.949 --> 00:06:26.910 Light Heavyweight Championship an unbelievable 00:06:26.910 --> 00:06:31.490 nine times between 1937 and 1947. Nine times 00:06:31.490 --> 00:06:33.730 is incredible. Yeah. He was constantly trading 00:06:33.730 --> 00:06:35.529 that belt back and forth with another wrestler 00:06:35.529 --> 00:06:38.800 named Danny McShane during this bitter multi 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:41.139 -year feud in Southern California. And he maintained 00:06:41.139 --> 00:06:43.839 this momentum despite enduring severe physical 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:47.480 setbacks. In 1947, he suffered a severe arm injury 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:49.720 and a massive infection that actually forced 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.100 him out of the ring for an entire year. Which 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:54.360 is a death sentence in that industry. Usually, 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:57.079 yes. A year off in that era usually meant the 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:00.480 crowd completely forgot about you. Yet he returned 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.120 and immediately captured major regional titles. 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:05.459 Like what? Well, the Texas heavyweight championship 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:08.509 twice in 1949. the Central States Heavyweight 00:07:08.509 --> 00:07:12.230 Championship in 1952 and 1957, and the Arkansas 00:07:12.230 --> 00:07:15.170 Junior Heavyweight Championship in 1954. Wait, 00:07:15.230 --> 00:07:17.470 is it possible that being the bad guy is actually 00:07:17.470 --> 00:07:20.029 a smarter career bet? It really seems that way. 00:07:20.269 --> 00:07:22.209 I mean, I have to push back on our traditional 00:07:22.209 --> 00:07:25.509 idea of heroism here for a second. We are completely 00:07:25.509 --> 00:07:28.930 conditioned to believe that the hero gets the 00:07:28.930 --> 00:07:32.310 reward. The good guy who plays by the rules gets 00:07:32.310 --> 00:07:35.129 the gold medal. Right. The fairy tale ending. 00:07:35.689 --> 00:07:39.610 Exactly. But looking at Barry's career, his blatant 00:07:39.610 --> 00:07:42.149 disregard for authority, his constant cheating, 00:07:42.649 --> 00:07:45.009 that was the exact mechanism that led to him 00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:47.230 holding all those championships. If we connect 00:07:47.230 --> 00:07:49.370 this to the bigger picture, you are hitting on 00:07:49.370 --> 00:07:52.189 the fundamental economic engine of the entertainment 00:07:52.189 --> 00:07:55.509 business, specifically the bizarre world of professional 00:07:55.509 --> 00:07:57.930 wrestling. Okay, how so? It revolves around a 00:07:57.930 --> 00:08:00.389 concept called heat. Here's the reality of the 00:08:00.389 --> 00:08:02.970 business. Audiences actually need a villain much 00:08:02.970 --> 00:08:05.870 more than they need a hero. Really? Yes. The 00:08:05.870 --> 00:08:08.670 good guy only has value. He only draws money 00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:11.110 at the box office if the obstacle he's trying 00:08:11.110 --> 00:08:14.370 to overcome feels deeply unjust, frustrating 00:08:14.370 --> 00:08:17.170 and insurmountable. So the audience isn't paying 00:08:17.170 --> 00:08:19.009 their hard -earned money just to see a good guy 00:08:19.009 --> 00:08:22.410 win. They're paying to see the bad guy finally 00:08:22.410 --> 00:08:24.970 get punched in the mouth. Precisely. Barry understood 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:27.209 that the heel of the villain is the true economic 00:08:27.209 --> 00:08:29.550 driver of the show. That makes total sense. By 00:08:29.550 --> 00:08:32.370 being so thoroughly despicable by cheating the 00:08:32.370 --> 00:08:35.690 hometown hero out of a victory, Barry made himself 00:08:35.690 --> 00:08:38.529 indispensable to the promoters. He was quite 00:08:38.529 --> 00:08:41.029 literally monetizing the audience's anger. The 00:08:41.029 --> 00:08:42.870 angrier they got, the more tickets they bought 00:08:42.870 --> 00:08:45.210 for the rematch, hoping to see him lose. Exactly. 00:08:45.289 --> 00:08:48.529 That is brilliant. But there is a wild geographical 00:08:48.529 --> 00:08:51.230 paradox to his heat that I want to mention. He 00:08:51.230 --> 00:08:53.690 was a despised villain everywhere he went in 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:56.149 the country, except his hometown of Pittsburgh, 00:08:56.149 --> 00:08:59.259 Kansas. Oh, really? Yeah, there. He was incredibly 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:01.600 beloved. Which proves he wasn't just an out of 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:05.059 control maniac. He was exercising a deeply calibrated 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:08.460 level of control over his persona. He knew exactly 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:10.919 what each specific audience needed from him and 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:13.960 he delivered it flawlessly. That level of calculated 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:16.200 control becomes the defining feature of what 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:18.960 we could call his second act. Think about it. 00:09:19.059 --> 00:09:21.580 What do you do when all those miles on your body 00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:24.200 finally catch up with you? Bumping around a wooden 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:26.919 ring as an undersized guy against giants for 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:30.000 40 years takes a toll. It really does. When the 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:32.220 body gives out but your mind for the business 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:34.480 is sharper than ever, you pivot again. You become 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:36.559 the puppet master. And the transition was seamless. 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:39.139 He officially retired from in -ring wrestling 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:41.740 in 1965, but he had already seen the writing 00:09:41.740 --> 00:09:44.580 on the wall. He began managing other wrestlers 00:09:44.580 --> 00:09:47.519 years earlier, starting around 1958. Just staying 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:49.840 ahead of the curve. Always. And he didn't just 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:52.820 manage low -level talent. He managed major main 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:56.139 event stars like the Fabulous Kangaroos, Hans 00:09:56.139 --> 00:09:58.720 the Great Mordier, Bull Ramos. Here's where it 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:01.360 gets really interesting. The pairing that everyone 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:05.259 remembers is with Gorilla Monsoon from 1967 to 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:08.299 1969. Oh, an iconic duo. I want you to picture 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:11.840 this dynamic. Gorilla Monsoon is this absolute 00:10:12.009 --> 00:10:15.049 of a human being, a terrifying physical presence. 00:10:15.210 --> 00:10:17.210 And what does Barry do? He flips the script. 00:10:17.429 --> 00:10:20.330 He does. He implements a storyline where Monsoon 00:10:20.330 --> 00:10:23.750 is a mute from Manchuria. The giant cannot speak. 00:10:24.169 --> 00:10:27.149 So Barry steps in and becomes his sole mouthpiece. 00:10:27.230 --> 00:10:30.710 It's so clever. It is exactly like a modern PR 00:10:30.710 --> 00:10:33.470 spin doctor or a hype man in the music industry. 00:10:33.610 --> 00:10:37.389 He takes this massive physical specimen, completely 00:10:37.389 --> 00:10:40.809 strips away his voice, and lets the tiny, articulate, 00:10:41.149 --> 00:10:43.450 hyper -intelligent rule -breaker control the 00:10:43.450 --> 00:10:46.149 entire narrative. To understand why this was 00:10:46.149 --> 00:10:48.870 so effective, we have to talk about K -Fabe. 00:10:49.129 --> 00:10:52.190 In the mid 20th century, wrestling operated under 00:10:52.190 --> 00:10:55.450 the ironclad rule of kayfabe, which is the absolute 00:10:55.450 --> 00:10:58.110 illusion of reality. You couldn't break character. 00:10:58.470 --> 00:11:00.529 Never. If you were a villain in the ring, you 00:11:00.529 --> 00:11:02.350 had to be a villain at the grocery store. Breaking 00:11:02.350 --> 00:11:04.490 character could literally cost you your career. 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:07.879 Barry took his profound understanding of this 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:10.440 psychology, which he honed over decades of getting 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:13.100 booed, and applied it perfectly to Monsoon. So 00:11:13.100 --> 00:11:15.379 he gets to orchestrate all the hatred. He gets 00:11:15.379 --> 00:11:17.480 to rile up the crowd on the microphone. But when 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:19.399 the bell rings, the giant takes all the physical 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:21.559 punishment. This raises an important question 00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:23.720 about the genius of delegation and extending 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:26.580 your career shelf life. Barry figured out how 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:28.720 to remain the focal point of the audience's hatred 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:30.840 without having to take a physical beating anymore. 00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:33.500 It's the perfect setup. And it was incredibly 00:11:33.500 --> 00:11:36.559 successful. He helped lead Monsoon and Killer 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:40.899 Kowalski to the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.259 He even managed Monsoon in a massive sold -out 00:11:44.259 --> 00:11:46.679 feud against the world heavyweight champion Bruno 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:49.799 Sammartino. It's hilarious though that in 1969, 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:52.720 the very moment the crowd started to cheer for 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:54.940 Gorilla Monsoon, the moment he turned into a 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:57.500 fan favorite, he immediately dropped Barry as 00:11:57.500 --> 00:12:00.200 his manager. Because he had to. Yeah. It's like 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:02.559 Monsoon was saying, I'm a good guy now. I can't 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:04.879 be seen within 10 feet of this absolute menace. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.960 Barry's personal brand was so toxic, so perfectly 00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:10.759 villainous, that it simply couldn't exist alongside 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:13.620 a hero. The dissonance was too strong. And he 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:15.960 embraced that toxicity with brilliant visual 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:18.159 gimmicks to ensure the crowd never stopped hating 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.500 him. Oh, the gimmicks were legendary. He carried 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:22.700 the signature cane, which he paraded around like 00:12:22.700 --> 00:12:24.899 an aristocrat. But the second the referee turned 00:12:24.899 --> 00:12:27.110 around. Boom. He wasn't afraid to use it as a 00:12:27.110 --> 00:12:29.889 weapon to hook an opponent's leg, but my absolute 00:12:29.889 --> 00:12:33.750 favorite detail is his wardrobe. He wore this 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:35.929 warm -up jacket at ringside that just said, I 00:12:35.929 --> 00:12:38.909 am right, emblazoned in huge letters across the 00:12:38.909 --> 00:12:41.250 back. Think about the psychology of that jacket. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:44.059 It isn't just a piece of clothing. It is a master 00:12:44.059 --> 00:12:46.960 class in agitating the human ego. It really is. 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.159 When thousands of people are screaming that you 00:12:49.159 --> 00:12:52.019 are a cheater, simply turning your back and displaying 00:12:52.019 --> 00:12:55.679 the words, I am right, is infuriating. It's so 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:58.580 condescending. It provoked such a visceral reaction 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:02.000 that when his team, the Fabulous Kangaroos, were 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:04.639 feuding with a group called the Scufflin Hillbillies, 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:08.100 their manager, cousin Alfred, actually had a 00:13:08.100 --> 00:13:11.129 custom jacket made that said he's wrong. on the 00:13:11.129 --> 00:13:13.850 back. I love that. Barry was so adept at generating 00:13:13.850 --> 00:13:17.149 conflict that he was organically creating merchandising 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:19.370 battles. Okay, so we have this crystal clear 00:13:19.370 --> 00:13:23.090 picture. He is an arrogant, cane wielding, rule 00:13:23.090 --> 00:13:26.370 breaking, trash talking villain who spends his 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:29.090 weekends inciting crowds to an absolute frenzy. 00:13:29.090 --> 00:13:31.370 Right. But this brings us to the final and frankly 00:13:31.370 --> 00:13:34.009 the most jarring part of this deep dive. The 00:13:34.009 --> 00:13:37.669 paradox of the man himself. When we peel back 00:13:37.669 --> 00:13:39.450 the curtain and look at the life he was living 00:13:39.450 --> 00:13:41.789 outside of the wrestling business, it is almost 00:13:41.789 --> 00:13:44.850 impossible to reconcile. The contrast is staggering. 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:47.549 While he was playing a hated menace in arenas 00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:49.389 and on television screens across the country, 00:13:49.809 --> 00:13:52.629 his actual day -to -day life was shockingly respectable. 00:13:53.169 --> 00:13:55.850 He was deeply embedded in diverse, community 00:13:55.850 --> 00:13:58.529 -focused civic duties. So what does this all 00:13:58.529 --> 00:14:01.669 mean? We have a guy who is blinding opponents 00:14:01.669 --> 00:14:06.049 with a cane on TV on a Saturday night. And then 00:14:06.049 --> 00:14:08.490 he is highly active in the political circles 00:14:08.490 --> 00:14:11.230 of Pittsburgh, Kansas. Very active. He was elected 00:14:11.230 --> 00:14:13.710 parks commissioner. He served twice as the acting 00:14:13.710 --> 00:14:16.330 mayor of the city. I genuinely have to ask, how 00:14:16.330 --> 00:14:18.690 is that even possible? It's hard to fathom. In 00:14:18.690 --> 00:14:21.090 the 1950s, a large portion of the public still 00:14:21.090 --> 00:14:23.690 believed wrestling was entirely real. If they 00:14:23.690 --> 00:14:26.070 saw him cheating and lying on television, how 00:14:26.070 --> 00:14:27.990 on earth did voters trust him to manage their 00:14:27.990 --> 00:14:30.370 city parks and their tax dollars? It requires 00:14:30.370 --> 00:14:32.549 an ultimate level of compartmentalization, both 00:14:32.549 --> 00:14:34.950 from Barry and from his constituents. We often 00:14:34.950 --> 00:14:37.190 discuss how knowledge is most valuable when it's 00:14:37.190 --> 00:14:39.730 applied across different domains. Barry realized 00:14:39.730 --> 00:14:41.750 that the underlying skill sets of a wrestling 00:14:41.750 --> 00:14:45.990 heel and a successful local politician are shockingly 00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:49.029 similar. Wow, okay. How so? Both require the 00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:52.100 ability to read a room instantly. Both require 00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:55.340 projecting unshakable confidence. Both require 00:14:55.340 --> 00:14:58.360 controlling a narrative. In the wrestling ring, 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:01.340 he tailored his charisma to generate anger and 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:03.700 sell tickets. Right, playing the bad guy. But 00:15:03.700 --> 00:15:06.399 in the political arena, he applied that exact 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:09.440 same charisma, softened the edges, and used it 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:12.200 to generate trust. handshake deals, and civic 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:15.399 pride. That is a staggering level of social intelligence. 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.340 To walk into a room, identify exactly what the 00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:20.779 audience needs from you, and then flawlessly 00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:23.240 become that person. It's a rare gift. And he 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:25.100 didn't stop at wrestling and politics. He crossed 00:15:25.100 --> 00:15:27.899 over into Hollywood. In 1953, he appeared in 00:15:27.899 --> 00:15:30.960 a 20th century Fox film called My Wife's Best 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.299 Friend. I didn't know that. Yeah. He acted on 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:35.600 the Abbott and Costello show in an episode called 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:38.559 Well Oiled. Though, interestingly, the credits 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:42.120 list him as Red Berry with an A. He even appeared 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:44.659 as a contestant on You Bet Your Life with grocery 00:15:44.659 --> 00:15:47.620 marks and won $1 ,000. He was also heavily involved 00:15:47.620 --> 00:15:49.779 in fraternal organizations in his later life, 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:52.159 becoming a very active Mason and Shriner. Which 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:55.519 are huge community pillars. Exactly. These are 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:57.960 groups fundamentally rooted in community service, 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:00.870 charity, and fellowship. The man who made a living 00:16:00.870 --> 00:16:03.990 getting pelted with half -eaten hot dogs by enraged 00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:07.049 fans was spending his free time organizing charitable 00:16:07.049 --> 00:16:10.710 works. His legacy is just as wonderfully weird, 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:14.350 diverse, and contradictory as his life. He was 00:16:14.350 --> 00:16:16.990 rightly recognized by his peers, getting inducted 00:16:16.990 --> 00:16:19.190 into multiple halls of fame. He definitely earned 00:16:19.190 --> 00:16:22.029 that. The Tulsa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1972. 00:16:22.700 --> 00:16:24.600 the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:27.460 in 1996, and the Professional Wrestling Hall 00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:30.879 of Fame's Pioneer Era class in 2010. All major 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.600 honors. But the legacy markers outside of wrestling 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.000 are what really make me smile. There is a local 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.019 softball field in Pittsburgh named after him. 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:41.259 That's amazing. And. Maybe the most unique tribute 00:16:41.259 --> 00:16:44.720 of all, a species of Echinopsis, which is a type 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:47.440 of cactus, was developed by a horticulturist 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:50.500 named Bob Schick and explicitly named after Redberry. 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:53.139 A cactus is an incredibly fitting tribute, isn't 00:16:53.139 --> 00:16:55.659 it? It really is. Prickly on the outside, engineered 00:16:55.659 --> 00:16:58.440 to repel people, yet entirely capable of surviving 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:00.679 and thriving in the harshest, most unforgiving 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:03.360 conditions imaginable. Perfect metaphor. But 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:05.660 amidst all this triumph, we also have to acknowledge 00:17:05.660 --> 00:17:08.539 the stark tragedy at the end of his life. A year 00:17:08.539 --> 00:17:10.400 and a half before his death from a heart attack 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:14.559 in 1973, Barry suffered a severe stroke. Oh man. 00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:17.319 And this stroke specifically inhibited his ability 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:20.230 to speak. Wow. Think about the cruel irony of 00:17:20.230 --> 00:17:23.869 that. For a man whose entire second act, his 00:17:23.869 --> 00:17:26.329 whole brilliant reinvention as a manager, was 00:17:26.329 --> 00:17:30.109 entirely based on his voice on being the articulate 00:17:30.109 --> 00:17:33.609 mouthpiece for giants to be robbed of that exact 00:17:33.609 --> 00:17:36.269 specific ability at the end of his life. That 00:17:36.269 --> 00:17:38.789 is deeply tragic. It is a heartbreaking final 00:17:38.789 --> 00:17:41.329 chapter, but it absolutely shouldn't overshadow 00:17:41.329 --> 00:17:43.589 the master class and adaptability that his 80 00:17:43.589 --> 00:17:46.289 years on earth represent. Look at the trajectory 00:17:46.289 --> 00:17:48.650 a 12 year old child laborer in a suffocating 00:17:48.650 --> 00:17:51.549 coal mine, a boxer who shatters his only tools, 00:17:51.950 --> 00:17:54.670 an undersized wrestler in a land of giants, a 00:17:54.670 --> 00:17:57.289 brilliant manager, a Hollywood actor, an acting 00:17:57.289 --> 00:17:59.829 mayor. That's an insane resume. He never once 00:17:59.829 --> 00:18:02.150 let a constraint define his ceiling. When the 00:18:02.150 --> 00:18:03.869 rules didn't work for him, he just redefined 00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:06.690 the game. He understood human nature perfectly, 00:18:07.069 --> 00:18:08.410 whether the people in front of him were looking 00:18:08.410 --> 00:18:10.890 for a reason to throw a chair at him or a reason 00:18:10.890 --> 00:18:13.990 to vote for him at the ballot box. He built a 00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:17.069 multi -faceted legacy by strictly separating 00:18:17.069 --> 00:18:19.809 the different masks he wore. It's a level of 00:18:19.809 --> 00:18:22.690 strict personal discipline that is almost unimaginable 00:18:22.690 --> 00:18:25.109 today. Which brings me to a final thought I want 00:18:25.109 --> 00:18:27.109 to leave you with as we wrap up this deep dive. 00:18:27.769 --> 00:18:30.650 We've just explored how Red Berry strictly and 00:18:30.650 --> 00:18:33.930 incredibly successfully separated his despised 00:18:33.930 --> 00:18:37.529 public wrestling persona from his respected buttoned 00:18:37.529 --> 00:18:40.220 up civic identity. Right. He put the mask on 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:42.299 for the arena, and he took it off before he walked 00:18:42.299 --> 00:18:45.220 into the mayor's office. And somehow, society 00:18:45.220 --> 00:18:48.619 let him do both. But think about our hyper -connected 00:18:48.619 --> 00:18:50.599 digital world today. Oh, it's so different now. 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:53.099 Everything we do is recorded, cross -referenced, 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:55.880 screenshotted, and blasted across social media 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:58.799 algorithms. Could someone successfully pull off 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:01.819 that level of extreme public duality today? That 00:19:01.819 --> 00:19:04.460 is a tough question. Could you be the nation's 00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:06.940 biggest, most toxic villain on a Saturday night 00:19:06.940 --> 00:19:09.940 broadcast and then be trusted as a parks commissioner 00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:13.279 on a Tuesday morning? Or has the era of the true 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.420 double life, that clean, impenetrable line between 00:19:16.420 --> 00:19:19.119 the different masks we wear, completely disappeared 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:21.500 forever? Something to carefully consider the 00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:23.859 next time you leave a digital footprint online. 00:19:24.250 --> 00:19:26.150 Thank you so much for joining us for this deep 00:19:26.150 --> 00:19:28.589 dive into the incredible, contradictory life 00:19:28.589 --> 00:19:31.230 of wild red berry. We'll leave you to mull over 00:19:31.230 --> 00:19:32.910 that question. Catch you next time.