Lewis Montagna (born Luigi Montagna; May 16, 1887 – January 24, 1950), better known as Bull Montana, was an Italian-American professional wrestler, boxer and actor.[1][2][3]
Biography
Born in Voghera, Italy, into a poor country family — and at a time when Italy was a predominantly rural country — with limited prospects, at 19 years old, Montagna made the decision to move to the United States. He arrived in New York in 1906 and continued to do heavy work there, first in Connecticut at a stone quarry and then in a Pennsylvania mine. Having also practiced Greco-Roman wrestling since childhood, after a few years he entered the professional wrestling circuit (better known at the time as "catch as catch can"), taking the name of Bull Montana as a pseudonym. At the same time he also became a boxer, where in 1916 he was called to act as sparring partner for Jack Dempsey, then world heavyweight champion. Among his friends was Abe "The Newsboy" Hollandersky, boxer, wrestler and extra in the cinema, who according to some supported Montagna in helping him fly his autobiography in 1930.[4] In the early 1920s Montana often wrestled with his friend Jack Dempsey prior to some of Dempsey's larger fights to help entertain the press and spectators.[5]
Once he became wealthy enough, never having forgotten his origins, in 1922 he returned to Italy, finding his mother and staying for about a month. Despite his physical appearance and background as a wrestler, Bull Montana was always considered a gentleman for the kind and polite ways that distinguished him in his life.
In 1924, he met the dancer Jackie LaVerne, originally from Georgia, with whom he lived until 1928 when Montagna denounced her and had her arrested for hitting him on the head with a slipper. The woman was sentenced to 60 days in prison but she only served two as Montagna himself paid her $ 100 bail and asked the judge to overturn the guilty verdict and the prison sentence. The judge commuted the 2-year probation sentence and Montana permanently split from LaVerne wildly.
In 1929 he met Mary Mathews Poulson, a young widow of 23, with whom he was married on September 21 of the same year; the marriage ended in a divorce on August 21, 1931.[6]
