<p>Some admirers have called Gene LeBell, a.k.a. "The Toughest Man Alive," the deadliest man on the planet. His wife says sarcastically, "He's just from another world." LeBell wears many hats, having grown up in boxing and wrestling gyms around the world and spending a lifetime studying many of the different martial arts. LeBell has won national judo championships, wrestled professionally for over 20 successful years, announced professional wrestling on television for 15 years, and refereed professional boxing and wrestling matches all over the world. The Godfather of Grappling tells the amazing story of this grappling master, who has also been a TV and movie actor and a top Hollywood stuntman for more than half a century. Featuring forewords by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Chuck Norris, just two of the many celebrities he counts as friends, and packed with dozens of photos and illustrations, The Godfather of Grapping is an inspirational tale sure to entertain fans of professional wrestling, the martial arts, movies, television, and just about anything else Gene LeBell has taken on during his storied career.</p>

The Godfather of Grappling

Biographies & Memoirs

Foon, George

Calhoun, Bob

LeBell, Gene

Kim, Noelle

Professionals & Academics

Valley Martial Arts Supply

Incredibly Strange Wrestling was the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican lucha libre. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its name. Christians fought lions, Ku Klux Klowns squared off against Hasidic Jews and Bigfoots and bears mauled hapless hippies in some of the most surreal grappling bouts ever staged. And if that wasn’t enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies and The Donnas provided the raucous rock and roll in between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Francisco’s South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Van’s Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong and Metallica’s James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) at ringside with the rest of the hell heads, boozehounds and tattooed party girls that made up ISW’s rabid following. Bob Calhoun broke into ISW as an untrained grappler and rose through the ranks to become one of the creative forces behind the subversive carnival. In his new memoir, Beer, Blood & Cornmeal, Calhoun delves into the ISW’s organized insanity with all of the dark humor that it deserves. It’s a story of urban misfits risking their necks for local celebrity in one of America’s most famous cities all told against the backdrop of the dot com boom and bust and an increasingly corporate entertainment industry. Beer, Blood & Cornmeal takes the highest tier of the music industry and sends it on a collision course with the lowest rung of the professional wrestling ladder. The threat of real violence is always lurking at the fringes of the fake fights as shows end in riots and wrestlers disturbingly become their squared circle alter egos.

Beer, Blood and Cornmeal: Seven Years of Incredibly Strange Wrestling

Arts & Photography

Music

ECW Press

<p>In The Murders That Made Us, bestselling author Bob Calhoun tells the story of San Francisco one crime at a time through the destination city's most violent and depraved acts.</p>

The Murders That Made Us: How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers, and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area

History

Americas

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Books by Calhoun, Bob