Retirement
In 1928, Zbyszko received a lucrative offer to travel to India and wrestle the Great Gama in a rematch of their bout from 18 years earlier. Despite both men now being well past their primes, the match purportedly drew 60,000 fans, who watched Great Gama defeat Zbyszko in just 40 seconds, leading many to speculate that Zbyszko was paid to do the job for Gama. Zbyszko then retired and actively scouted wrestling talent in South America, where he discovered acrobatic gymnast Antonino Rocca, whom he developed into one of the sport’s biggest stars. From their Missouri farm, the Zbyszko brothers also trained future legends Johnny Valentine and Harley Race; and in 1950, Stanislaus had a prominent role in the movie, Night and the City. Knowing that a key role in the film was a grizzled Greco-Roman wrestling legend, director Jules Dassin saids he "didn't want to pick an actor and train him to be a wrestler -- I wanted to do the opposite. I had never gone to a wrestling match, but I had an image of a wrestler from my youth." The wrestler turned out to be Zbyszko. Dassin said, "I was told he was dead, but it turned out he was alive and was a chicken farmer in New Jersey." He turned out to be "a beautiful, cultured, multilingual man" who looked like a graceful rock formation. During breaks in filming, Dassin would travel into town to watch experimental theatre; he later recalled that Zbyszko was the only other person who would tag along (the rest of the cast and crew balked at the invitation). Like the character he played in the movie, Zbyszko often complained of the industry’s evolution into a form of showmanship.
On September 23, 1967, Stanislaus Zbyszko died of a heart attack at age 88. He was cited by Strangler Lewis as one of the best legitimate wrestlers of all-time; and as a tribute, his surname was later adopted by contemporary star Larry Zbyszko.
Historians rate Zbyszko among the four greatest wrestlers of all time, they being 1) Frank Gotch, 2) Georg Hackenschmidt, 3) Stanislaus Zbyszko and 4) the Great Gama.
Read more about this topic: Stanislaus Zbyszko
Famous quotes containing the word retirement:
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—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
“He who comes into Assemblies only to gratifie his Curiosity, and not to make a Figure, enjoys the Pleasures of Retirement in a[n] ...exquisite Degree.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)