In my real career, besides being first a singer and musician, I have worked variously as a disk jockey, a carnival barker, a broadcast journalist, an answering service operator, a voice-over artist, a corporate trainer, and yes, on a few occasions, a ring announcer.
I have always used my voice to make my living. That was what I really had in common with Gordon Solie.
Solie's voice was the thing. That raspy growl that seemed to occupy a place somewhere in high register, but was in fact a very low tone, amplified and enhanced by his energy and enthusiasm. That voice cut right through all of the emotion and excitement of the moment so that the viewer was able to zero right in on the action in the ring and understand what was going on. Gordon explained it all as he went along, drawing the viewer into "the know", unlike any sports announcer before him.
So when I started reading this book, I was listening for his voice...and it is there. Gordon's voice speaks to us from every page...
Gordon's daughter Pam, and her husband Bob Allyn, have put together a wonderful book that every real wrestling fan will cherish.
My writing teachers always told me, "...write what you know." That would seem to be what Solie lived by.
Basically, what we have here are stories from his life. Despite appearances, I detected very little fiction in any of this. Little stories that might be made up, but I suspect are not, poems, observations, some witty, some profound, incisive character studies, the beginnings of a screenplay. About everything, some, but not all of it about auto racing and wrestling.
A one-and-a-half page story called "Big Daddy Steps Out" appears early in the book (page 36). It is a wonderful little portrait of a man trying to convince himself that he is not responsible for the fact that he is in the middle of a nasty divorce, at the same time demonstrating, by his attitude, what some of the problems just might be. In the last line we find that while he has been thinking about how he was going to stand up to his wife's lawyers, in fact he has been in the process of skipping out on the meeting he's supposed to be having with them. The subtlety of this little piece is a harbinger of what is to come as you continue reading.
Gordon Solie was obviously a born writer who practiced the craft all of his life...something else that he and I had in common.
Much of the poetry is quite good. Here's a little gem from the bottom of page 45, a two line poem called...
Copyright 2004 by Pamela S. Allyn
...and then there are the pictures! The Allyns could have simply published the photos and the captions and would have had a fine book. Most are images you have never seen and will see nowhere else. Family photos show the boy he was and the man he became. Publicity photos of legends and more obscure characters who must have impressed him. Shots of Solie with greats like Lou Thesz, Eddie Graham, the Briscoes, the Funks, etc. Snapshots taken at the track and in the ring. Wrestling and racing memorabilia. A veritable cornucopia for the discerning wrestling, racing, or Solie fan.
All of that, coupled with the skillfull prose and poetry of Mrs. Allyn's father, make this book a thing of beauty.
Copyright 2005 - Jump City Productions