"The Beautiful Bambi Ball didn't have a face that could stop a clock. She had a face that could stop a Swiss watch."
These words came from the wrestler, The Golden Eagle and thinking back to my teen years, I would need to agree.
Bambi Ball a lucky her face was NOT her fortune.
Now she was a ncie enough person. She signed my autograph book, though she was a heel. She would pose for pictures with fans when they were lucky enough for her face not to crack the camera lens. She would carry on conversations with people while taking nervous drags off her cigarette outside the locker room.She was of course aware she was no glamor girl any longer so to speak and capitalized on it.
I had heard she was quite a looker when young, but when she drifted into Arizona in the 1970s, she could have passed for The Wicked Witch Of The West if someone had slapped green greasepaint over her.
Accounts have her wrestler for the old Tony Santos promotion in New England, for various promotion in Texas and even as far as Japan, so she was nos mall time grappler by any means. In Arizona though, she did no get that many actual matches due to a shortage of woman wrestler at the time. Often, she would simply wait by the locker room and interfere from out of the blue to help the likes of Jody Arnold, Ron Dupree and Chris Colt win their matches.
Princess Tona Tomah was eventually brought out of retirement for a feud with her which saw these two old war horses regally going at it. I believe it was the last hurray for both of them in the ring.
After she left Arizona, whatever happened to eh ranks along with the great mysteries of life such as the location of Jimmy Hoffa or Judge Crater.
If anyone has any data,. please add it in a comment.
As for her routine of a physically unbeauitiful person, male or female, taking on a nickname such as she used? That was and is as old as the hills. In 2011, it was still being used when a morbidly oevrwieght girl wrestler emerged on the scene, calling herself The Beauty Queen. Though she claimed to be every man's dream, she was physically more of a nightmare.
Not sure whatever happened to Bambi, but her routine lives on .
Just wanted you to know that Bambi Ball, better known to her family as Jeanetta Collins, was my grandmother. She was known first in her career as The Kentucky Wildcat and then later as Bambi Ball. After her wrestling career she was a nurse in Las Vegas. As a child I went and visited her in Santa Monica, CA. Later we spent almost every Spring Break visiting her in Las Vegas. Towards the end of her life she moved here to Texas to be closer to her kids and grandkids. She passed away in January of 2010.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the update. Your grandmother was a great performer.
DeleteShe was a beautiful lady, inside and out. I loved her, She was awesome. I assisted her with things she just could not do..She was very independent. When her son passed she asked me to come to his funeral and when I walked into the lobby she smiled real big and grabbed me up in such a big hug. She was TRUELY my friend. She told me many stories. At night when she couldn't sleep we would just talk, I loved her stories. She loved her family, loved being a nurse. She really loved her life in Vegas. She had the biggest heart ever! I didn't go to her funeral, I just couldn't. I still have the black and white 8x10 she autographed for me. She was 1 of a kind. I want to thank her family for sharing her with me. Susie
DeleteShe was my neighbor
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