Special Edition: Lipstick and Dynamite

On March 18th at the SXU Art Gallery, there was a showing of the documentary Lipstick and Dynamite. The film by Ruth Leitman, who attended the showing and took questions after, is about women wrestlers in the 1940s and 50s.

To be honest, I was unaware this culture had existed before I learned about this film. I knew there had been women wrestlers both now and in the past, but I didn't know about the whole following that the sport had had.

I feel that I learned a lot from this film. It is incredible all the things these women had to go through. Most of them used the wrestling circuit as an escape from broken homes and broken dreams. They then usually had to wrestle on the carnival circuit to get started. Once established or 'discovered' they would be signed with a manager. A lot of these managers turned out to be scumbags. They took large percentages of the girls' pay, treated them badly, and sometimes became involved with them. Then the women were forced to look their best at all times. Hair and makeup fixed and dressed to the T. They had to be presentable women,ruthless wrestlers, then presentable women once again. Some people had much disdain for the women wrestlers, others admired them greatly. After seeing this movie, I have joined the second camp. While I am not really a fan of wrestling, I found these women and their stories absolutely incredible and fascinating. The dramas behind the scenes and the culture suck you into this documentary that focuses on 6 legendary wrestlers : The Fabulous Moolah, The Great Mae Young. Gladys Killem Gillem, Ida May Martinez, Ella Waldeck, and Penny Banner.

The filmmaking itself was well done in my opinion. Leitman did a wonderful job of finding archival photos and videos and blending them with the footage she took of her interviews. She told the story of these women, she didn't just throw a bunch of images and ideas at us. I don't think it could've been done better.