Ep. 363: The Lapsed Funk - Birth of the Funker Part 1

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The best podcast for start to close Fallen Sicket pos Terry Funk died August
twenty third, twenty twenty three. Wrestling Fans trimply Elapsed Fans moue Elizabeth found
loss, But how much did we lose when we lost? The Funker a
former w LAY world champion, the only man to win the strap after his
brother did sure, middle aged in crazy moonsalting maniac in the extreme obsessed nineties,
of course, a little ting storyteller, a wrestler who amazingly bridged the
Luthez and Kevin owens eras a rollicking promo who went there every single time,
check check check. As Dave Meltzer put it brilliantly, Terry Funk's career had
many forms. He was the son of a wrestler and promoter, a college
football player, a local young baby face stud athlete used to attract women fans,
the master of the chain match, the brother of the world champion,
a star heel in Japan, the world champion in an era where few could
ever get the chance to hold the belt. An actor, a husband,
a former husband, a husband again, a pro motor, a booker,
a booking agent, a stuntman, a Hollywood movie fight choreographer, not to
mention other fights he'd choreograph, a key figure in major wrestling war, a
student, a teacher, a mentor, a friend of so many, a
father, a crazy man, a completely sane man, someone with amazing perspective
on both wrestling and life, who often could see the future before anyone else,
or see stardom in people nobody else could, and an aging hardcore legend.
Elser also said, there is no way you could ever write his complete
story remains to be seen. How about we lost and Terry Funk something more
rarefied a lifelong wrestler who actually aged gracefully despite never really having to leave the
ring, who never felt like he was pathetically trying to freeze himself in time,
cling to a look that and a persona that mother nature began to make
a mockery of a wrestler of unparalleled vintage who somehow never seemed like an anachronism
in any deck in which he worked. A sage wrestling mind just as interested
in what was around the corner as what was in front of him, A
sense of the value of home in a gypsy business, a wrestling stalwart who
knew nothing but the business his whole life, but managed with his late wife
Vicky, to raise a family that didn't end up in the business, reprieved
from the rigors his career most vividly illustrates, and that so few dynasty families
in the business can resist the allure of When I think about Terry Funk,
I think about reading his book when it came out in two thousand and five
and being so moved by the sweep of it that I wrote the following column
for the Wrestling Observer website, which was published in January of two thousand and
six. Milzer, this is me. Yeah, oh wow, I wrote
at for Dave site for this my first Wrestling Observer dot com column. It's
tempting to write about the issues of the day in professional wrestling, what to
do about the John Cena backlash, what ww should be doing to avoid a
flat WrestleMania, what Tenna needs to be doing with sting, etc. I
could discuss that stuff all day long. But I just finished reading Terry Funk's
book, and I can't help thinking about more than wrestling. It's that good
of a read. Funk's book is about the truth of professional wrestling, saying
that all the way back then. Boss probably just got off the phone with
you when I wrote that line, because probably did, and you can't speak
the truth without getting a little philosophical. Funk has seen them all. There
is not one top name in wrestling that doesn't appear in this book, and
they won't and they don't merely appear. Funk has had real, vivid encounters
with some of the most legendary characters in wrestling. It's almost uncanny how many
different stars from different eras in countries he's bumped into and bumped four. As
n WA champion in the seventies, Funk toward every major wrestling market in the
country except New York. He spent plenty of time there during two WWF stints.
He headlined all Japan for a decade, and his name still resonates there
today. Abstracted larger than life characters like Andre the Giant and Giant Boba come
to life in the book. Funk's road stories are second to none, including
the funniest roy I've ever heard of, perpetrated by Killer Carl Cox on Hitchhikers?
Have you heard that one? Just as quick aside? No. So
what's great about this rib is it's not cruel to anyone but the wrestler who
does it him to himself, which I think is just lovely. So what
he'd do is when the crowd craze of the seventies hit, he would go
down, you know, the highways when hitchhiking was still a thing, and
he would sort of pull up to somebody and pretend that he was going to
step to them or somehow intimidate them. Killer Carl Cox was a scary looking
with a fucker well I would imagine with the name like that. Yes,
So he steps to him like he's gonna, you know, try to kidnap
him or hurt him or harm him. I forget the whole pretext, but
the whole idea is Carl Cox walks up on this stranger at the side of
the road and acts like he's going to hurt him, and then suddenly looks
at him and goes, wait a minute, do you know karate? You
know karate, don't you? And he starts backing up like the total stranger
is doing something to signal to Carl Cox that he is intimidating and that he's
skilled, and wouldn't you know it. By the time Carl Cox is running
back to his car in the shoulder of the road, this complete stranger is
doing full Bruce Lee high yahs on the side of the road. Oh that's
money. Sometimes it feels like funk I wrote delves into a period of his
career and then moves on too quickly, but it's only because he's got so
much to tell. He's had such an amazing career. Scott Williams, Funk's
co author, who in an aside, also bossed, we should note,
also passed away in twenty sixteen at the age of forty nine, which is
quite sad, does a terrific job writing the book in the cadence of Funk's
voice. I know from shoot interviews and the like the Funk is a colorful,
high minded storyteller. I suspect Funk probably did most of William's work for
him in that respect, but the books so plain spoken that I was making
profound realizations, not just about the wrestling business without realizing it. I'm incredibly
jealous of Williams for both having the chance to soak up Terry Funk's life story
and also for having the ability to give it back to us in the same
way Funk would have if we were hanging around his living room. Funk deliberately
stepped away from the business shortly after his wife, Vicky left him. Funk's
father had died, and he consumed his every day trying to keep his dad's
Amarilla wrestling territory afloat. His wife had had enough, so Funk took a
long, hard look at himself and decided to put his life's work on hold
to save his marriage. He refers to this point in his life many times
throughout the book. This book is about a man who's done it all in
professional wrestling, yet and just enough proportion to maintain perspective. It's a story
of a wrestling grade who realized there's more to life before it was too late.
Most wrestlers i've read books about, with the perhaps the sole exception of
mc foley, who emulates Funk in so many ways, ditch their family and
ignore their physical well being while their careers are on fire. They lived to
deeply regret it. And Ric Flair's book, he balances nearly every story about
his glorious escapades with a somber note about how his family was sitting at home
with him the entire time. That's random. He'll be here as well,
one of many to pay tribute in our forthcoming series, But now a somber
note from Flair every time about how his family was sitting at home without him
the entire time. The lesson as much as you love the business, it
will never love you back as much. Funk realized that, Yeah, now
you might know what I meant when I said this book is about much more
than wrestling. The final chapter an epilog of Funk's books are stunning and really
give you a sense of why so many in wrestling put him on a pedestal.
It builds like a twenty oh one Kaiji Mudo All Japan match. When
it starts, you're not sure you're seeing anything out of the ordinary, but
when it's over, you realize you were building toward dramatic finish. All along,
Funk drives home every key lesson of his career in these last two chapters.
The clarity of his vision on wrestling is stunning. Funk makes predictions about
where the business is headed that are second to none. His case for why
shoot fighting will overtake pro wrestling in the United States and eventually morph into a
work version of itself is an eye opener. Around the turn of the twentyth
century, wrestling became a hundred percent work for a reason. Realism is easy
to sell as a work. For that same reason, Funk says fighting will
become worked and the McMahon's will probably have a lot to do with it.
Now. Did he say this before w w E and UFC essentially became the
same company. Yes, he can do. We stand here today with that
having just recently been consummated weeks after the passing of Terry Funk. Yes we
do, we do. Are we noting it here on the lapsed fan?
Yes we are. Yes. Indeed, these predictions, mind you I wrote
are coming from the same guy who knew that Mince McMahon would do with national
television before virtually anyone thought it was even possible. These predictions are coming from
the same guy who has managed to stay afloat in the business as it has
undergone radical changes in forty years. If there's someone in wrestling who knows what
he's talking about, it's Terry Funk. Wrestlers live adrenaline charged lives, bright
light, screaming fans, full arenas, But when they sit down to reflect
and write in their careers, most leave us with the same refrain, I
wish I had spent more time with my family. Yes, for all the
excitement, the humdrum of home is what they long for the most. This
may seem counterintuitive to young wrestlers or young people in general who are on the
rise in living fast. But you're an idiot if you don't heed the lessons
of Terry Funk, who seems truly happy after all is said and done.
Even if you're not a wrestling fan, Funks is a book worth reading.
But if you are a fan, I can't tell you how much more you
can get out of it, as long as long as he explains how wrestling
works and you know what wrestling is, and stuff like that to me,
like I'm an idiot, I'm fine. There's plenty of that, and how
he actually balances it beautifully, all right, It doesn't beat you over the
head, would like this book is for someone other than a wrestling fan.
It's like, listen to me, wrestling fans, I know that you know
me, and these are the pratt falls to avoid. This is what wrestling
teaches you are the primrose paths in life, not just in wrestling. Funk
had seventeen more years to live after that book was published. His uniquely prolific
ring career, which started in nineteen sixty five and for all intents and purposes,
ended in twenty sixteen, when just days after a hurning is surgery and
against doctor's orders, he flew to New York to make a promised appearance for
Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore promotion, which is a tribute group to ECW,
the promotion that truly lionized Terry Funk in a way that helped fans finally see
him in the same light that his fellow wrestlers did. Funk couldn't work the
corner and get physical as plan that night, as the surgery was exhausting him
after meet and greets, and he decided to catch a flight home early,
but he did take the mic before he did that for a quick, wistful
word to the crowd on hand. I've known glad you tell me he yell
out here tonight. I don't want to get out of this, Damn Mary.
I want to say that because I'm known. If I get out of
here, you where to hear or her be back. And I want you
all to go right. And it's very important to me that I have my
people, Tommy and all of the guys that I've been around. I'm here,
They're my they're my family. You have something that's what I want.
This I'm parent of me in so serious and so now the book is closed.
We're here yea. On the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast, Terry Funk is
gone. No more comebacks, no more last last matches, no more wisdom.
You say that, Yeah, I should have waited a couple more months.
I'm kicking out of the casket, Cactus. I'm not dead. Well
that's actually true. Hey wait, I'm not dead yet, Cactus. Terry,
it's too late. They're playing taps. Yeah, exactly, you've son
of a bitch. And so naturally, there's a lot to do here at
TLF right, a lot to revisit, a lot to discover from Tokyo to
Amarillo, to Philadelphia, to New York, maybe to South Africa Saint Louis,
a lot to learn about why and how wrestling is so damn addictive to
Terry Funk and to the fans. So, for the next little while,
in an opened end, open ended, I should say, special report,
TA left does stand for the lapsed fan. Yes, for the next little
while, tia left stands for the life of Funk. There we go.
Left stands for the legacy of Funk. He left stands for the lessons of
Funky. TLF is simply elapsed Funk. There you no good for nothing eggs.
Second, Dawn, we are because we love it that way? Were
you with that way? And I have this wonderful gut feeling that I've had
it all my life. When it's time to go, I think it's now
it's time to go. All right, one Birth of the Funker. There
we go, Boss Terry Funk. We've covered a lot of his career,
about Helen a Cell and Great American Dash eighty nine and his cinematic exploits like
paradise Ality alongside Sylvester Stallone, Frankie the thumper he was. We should start
with, how did you become aware before perhaps we even met, of Terry
Funk Jesus? And where were you at on Funk initially the first time you
saw him? And how is your sense of the man of involved? As
we've we haven't taken this kind of plunge yet, but we've gotten a good
flavor of why he's so fondly remembered, you know. So it's weird the
first time that I can honestly say that I remember watching so. First of
all, I know for a fact that I had seen Terry Funk wrestle,
because I've seen some of the old WWE stuff from you know, like whatever,
what are the wrestling you two? He's in that's right then, and
stuff like that. I'd seen it, I knew his name, but honest
to God, the first time that I can really remember having a conscious memory
of him is as James saw Charlie that. Yeah. And I think there's
a lot of people in that bucket, or at least the ECW run the
year before that, that are fans today, and that was their first exposure
to Terry Funk. And if it wasn't for the WAYCW presented Terry Funk in
and around the first pay per view Barely Legal, which of course we've done
in the archives and we're beyond the mat shot a ton of legendary footage which
I don't know. Something tells me we'll get around too. I wonder just
see, you know, his career was such a fits and starts and spurts
and different parts of the world that really he really wasn't one place long enough,
with perhaps the exception of all Japan late seventies early eighties, where everyone
could say this is a legend, like this guy's been here long enough that
we can't appreciate this is a motherfucking legend. You had to have almost like
great resources to be able to string together tape of all the different places where
he made an impact, all the different territories. They didn't, you know,
these territories didn't talk to each other. He wasn't he wasn't on TBS.
He wasn't a national Georgia championship guy that the whole nations saw. He
never really got on Vince's TV before nineteen eighty six or eighty five, so
it was kind of like people didn't realize. I don't think that Terry Funk
was this fucking all time until like the nineties, which is so amazing considering,
like I said, he started his career in nineteen sixty five and was
NWA World Heavyweight Champion in the seventies. That's crazy now. I'm sure people,
of course at that time knew that he was a standout performer and one
of the best in the world. But I think your answer was exactly what
I was hoping for, really, in that you can't forget how dialed in
that attitude era was in terms of you know, eyeballs on wrestling that came
and went and probably just had a fleeting impression of this guy as Chames saw
Charlie and then later on he dropped the panty hose over his face and was
playing old Terry Funk for a couple of months. Yeah, I mean they
even called him Terry Funk for a while, even as he was James saw
Charlie, like they they they remember, because I remember them saying, like,
James saw Charlie is Terry Funk, which I kind of threw me for
a loop because well, wait a minute, is he James saw Charlie or
is he Terry Funk? Well? What the fuck? Why does he just
come out as fucking Terry Funk? But I really, yeah, Like it
was like it was one of those moments for me in that era. And
I've talked about this before where where when when people would show up on WWE's
door, who I remembered, who I recalled, It was like, oh,
yes, like it was like the war was being one. Yeah,
well for him what was interesting because he came in when they were definitely losing
the war, right exactly. But for me, when a guy like that
came over, it was like yes, yes, oh I see, So
it was sort of like a return a return volley like we're not dead yet,
yeah, or bring it, We'll bring in a new guys. Well,
that was one of Funk's things. I mean, Terry Funk, of
all the things he's going to be remembered for, on par with few others
ever could come into a territory and figure out a way to get over and
figure out a way to make the people that laid eyes on him in that
territory want to come back to see more. No one was ever better at
coming into a town, lighting it on fire and then riding off into the
sunset in terms of saying the right things on promos, doing the right things
in physical angles to make you feel like, no, this is one I
pretty much have to see. Yeah, And that was fully on display,
of course in eighty nine in his series with Rick Flair, the best few
to that year with some of the best matches we ever saw the eighties,
and we've talked about and covered, of course, the nineteen eighty nine Great
American Bash, which had a War Games match on it, so it was
part of Art of War Games, but Flair and Funk headline, and we've
since covered Flair vers Steamboat at Wrestle War Flair wins the title back from Steamboat,
one of the all time classics. And then after the match, Funk
enters the ring in a suit because he was a judge. He was just
there sort of like a distinguished guest, a retired legend. And by the
time that pay per views over, you have to see Terry Funk versus Rick
Flair. He just showed up on the fucking earlier that night as a judge,
and he gets on the mic and he starts taking personally Rick Flair's little
jabs about how he's been off in Hollywood and he's got to get to the
back of the line of contenders. I mean, what if his range in
that moment, in that angle, I mean, how did that graduate your
sense of Terry Funk from you know, remembering only Chaine saw Charlie. I
mean, it was it was It was magical. It was an amazing moment.
I'd heard a lot about that moment, but I'd never I'd never seen
it. I've never seen it before. We watched it, and it was
tremendous. It was such a it was such a you know, because he
comes across as as the lovable, you know, veteran type. You know
when throughout the whole show, and then and then you sit there and you
wonder, like, where does the guy have the balls to ask like the
champion? Yeah, you know after he fucking like what's he doing? Like
why are you doing that? Man? Like calm down, like, let
the guy have his moment, then talk to him about it afterwards. And
then Kanye West getting on stage when Taylor Swift won the it's like, DUDEO,
but but but but it would let you have your moment? But but
but yeah, right, exactly perfect stuff. And it's kind of like playing
off that whole dynamic and life where you know, like if if someone you
don't like and you do something for them, expecting that to be kind of
like a little olive branch, but you also kind of in the back of
your head are expecting them to not be as appreciative as you hoped, so
you can just double down on your hatred for them, like a see I
told you so kind of moment. And that's what he does with Flair.
He gets that onto the wrestling screen by like being a guy who is trying
to show like, you know, sort of over the top respect and deference
to Rick Flair after he has this great title win, and then it's almost
like a he he had no he knew that Flair was going to be pissed
off that he was, you know, butting in, but he acted like
he was righteous in having cause to attack Rick Flair like a vicious, fucking
animal. And that's a great heal. That's a great performer in wrestling.
Somebody who even when they're losing their mind, has already given you a sense
of why they're doing what they're doing. And if you don't agree with it,
that's fine, but you have a sense. It's not just blind anglage
all the time. It's tremendous. This man a microphone and let him do
the rest. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be a highly necessary and
highly detailed accounting of the flash points and Terry Funk's amazing and ring career here
on TLF, and we're looking forward to it. A huge shout out to
all of the members of the Solar System who wrote in and helped orient us
in terms of what we must cover in Terry Funk's career. We're going to
be watching matches from his life and times as we go here, so it
won't be, you know, a deep dive segment where we do the matches.
It'll just be a rolling, continuous narrative, not unlike how we handled
TNH and how we handled some other like the Scott Hall Journey. To some
degree, those two guys over in Japan, where their fucking names are those
matches, Yes we're talking about Omego Coad. I guess sure, Yes,
those two guys over in Japan would certainly visit the Land of the Rising Sun
in this But yes, that's exactly what it's going to be. It's going
to be sort of a chronological march because there's no other way to do it.
You have to just sit down and say, all right, where did
he go next? Who were the key matches and key angles and key interviews?
Where did he go next? Key matches, key angles, key interviews.
We'll jump around the chronology just a little bit so that every episode has
kind of like a coherent theme to it. But we're really just going to
march and watch and take in and just let Terry Funk wash over us and
really not give a fuck about anything else until we're done. And it's going
to be very fitting and very much in the spirit of Terry Funk, because
I expect like always happens in journeys, but especially this one, that we'll
have a couple of moments where we feel like we're done, just like Terry
Funk did, and god damn it, there's going to be one more.
And there's going to be one more. There's so much footage to discover,
there's so much to see what we can on Earth that we might not even
necessarily have our hands on yet. But we've had some wonderful help from the
wider Solar System lining up as much tape as reasonably could be expected to have
on the front end of a journey like this. But as we go there's
just going to be things we learn about that we have to see, we
have to track down. It's going to be a great adventure, and by
the time we're done, nothing more will need to be said about the great
Terry Funk. Agree. That's our commitment to you. So we're going to
be watching the matches as we go, taking suggestions as we go to so
keep the lapsed fan at gmail dot com on the tips of your hot little
hands as we go, and as you want to weigh in with perspectives on
Funk that we might thread into the show. I'm sure we'll do feedback as
we go, as well as suggested matches and promos that we simply can't miss
as we march through the chronology. And again, like Funk's career, we're
going to write it like a rodeo steer and try to stay stable on the
thing. But we might get knocked off a couple of times because I'm no
rodeo clown. Oh god, I'm sure. So we're going to stay in
until we finish. That's all we can promise, And before we dive in
a special shout out, of course to the sponsors making the Lapsed Funk possible,
as well as all else we do here at Absolutely TLF. As we
know, Terry Funk had a long career romance with Japan and Japanese wrestling and
was one of the first to recognize the revolutionary appeal of Joshi Japanese women's wrestling,
and in that spirit and the spirit of lapsed serendipity, all of a
sudden, our friend Jesse and the promotional team behind a new wrestling promotion called
Tea I Like Chocolate. I think he knew that was coming. Behind a
new promotion called Die Kaiju Pro Wrestling came to us and said, hey,
we got to tell the Solar System about this new wrestling outfit we got we
want a taste of the Solar System, and so here we are. It's
right up tlf's alley. As it's inspired this promotion from comic books and both
American and Japanese pop culture. Are presented with the skeleton of a wrestling show,
using a mixture of local talent and international folks from Thailand and Japan.
The overall concept of the show, Die Kaiju Pro Wrestling is an invasion of
monsters and heels coming to Worcester. M Brother, exactly, what do you
know about the centrum? Brother? I mean, it's are you of all
the cities? I mean I'm not. It's not like the Holtster has any
you know, exclusive on Wooster. But I'm just wondering, dude, why
you have to ask Jesse, which I know you won't do. Terry,
what do you what do you? What do you say? Is she marriage
number four? Oh? I mean what a clown? I mean hashtag TNH
much Brooke doesn't go to the wedding. You're a clown. I go to
the wedding. Look at that Kaiju Pro Wrestling Worcester being led by a group
called this Uh this show again. Evasion of Monsters and heels coming to Worcester
being led by a group called the Kappa World Order Woosters in Massachusetts. By
the way, if you don't know what the funk we're talking about, which
it just occurred to me, yeah, you might not, So the Kappa
World Order. The Kwo characters originate from both Thailand and Japan Premis and are
making their American debuts on this show. It'll largely be baby faces defending the
city against the Kappa characters and other heels, and additionally, there will be
showcase matches including wrestlers like Shive Them from Thailand who is also making his American
debut on the show, how about Amy Sacara from aw and Choku Nakajima,
along with some colorful characters from the local independence scene. Instead of being a
parody, this promotion is going to be treating the monster characters as if they're
shoot monsters and they like to think. The ernest and straight faced portrayal will
help viewer suspend disbelief, similar to a Marvel show or a movie. So
this is Dikaiju Pro Wrestling Volume one, The Kappa's Walk among Us and it's
taking place at the White Eagle on Green Street and Worcester, Massachusetts on November
fourth, twenty twenty three, so plenty of time to make your arrangements and
get your tickets. November fourth, twenty twenty three, the White Eagle on
Green Street, TLF approved and Worcester. There is an invasion coming. The
Kappa World Order has declared America next for its territorial expansion. Also available on
TV Independent Wrestling Television, which is of course i WTV dot Live. You
can head over there and sign up if you can't be there in person.
And what'ster shive them from the setup. Thailand Wrestling Outfit is going to be
making his American debut. As mentioned, Vaney from Japan returns to America for
the first time in years in Shoku Nakajima. The one hundred and forty seven
centimeter Kaiju from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling will be an action as well, So
we want to thank heartily our friend Jesse over at Die Kaiju Pro Wrestling and
wish him all the best. November fourth, What sta brother, that's a
new one. Yeah, some TLF action sponsorship action from someone into business a
show plug that one hasn't come along yet, not at all. I'm a
fan of that, so do support and let him know we sent you.
And we'd also like to think, of course, our friends over at Tight
and Nutrition. You already know the story over there. Use the promo code
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Thanks for the support. Let's fucking get it because it's the Lapsed Funk.
You're damn right, and Boss Cinemat is playing no small part and paying a
full bodied tribute to Terry Funk. By the time this hits folks, years
gears have already been in motion. Yes, as to a pivot point on
Cinemat to acknowledge the fact that it's all hands on deck to salute Terry Funk
and create some definitive audio here on the tribute to tell the folks what to
expect on Patreon under the Cinemat. Well, let me tell you first of
all, you know what, I at the time, I thought Cinemat was
going to come out first before this, but obviously that's not the case.
Let me just say this, for those listening, my life get completely flipped
upside down in the last week and a half. For those if you're not
following on Instagram, you may not know. I recently booked an off Broadway
play and it has been just sucking up an incredible amount of time. But
one of the things that I did want to folk focus on is upcoming two
Terry Funk projects for sure, Beyond the Map and then and then so that's
that's coming. It's coming, and it's gonna be It's it's massive. I
mean, it's such a it's a journey. It's it's a journey on on
its own. Absolutely in a way it was. It was such an incredible,
an incredible thing to try to put together. And uh, and as
as we we will discover the movie itself and in no small part put together
by helped by Terry Funk. He was a big asset to the to the
whole film and also maybe something else come November. And I do want to
mention scary movie season. Unfortunately because of the schedule that I have right now,
Uh, scary movie season, I'm I'm I'm promising at least one movie
Scary movie season. I don't want to overpromise at this point. Yeah,
I want to say one because actually I do need to fit in one for
a reason that i'll you'll you'll find out down the line. But at least
one if I can get to it too. But it's just the way the
way it crumbles. This was a real, a real incredible opportunity for a
powerful, powerful, yet comedic play. And I will give you guys more
information as the as the time comes, but you can stay tuned for sure
beyond the matt coming sooner than later, that's for sure. Excellent update and
congratulations of course to the Boss. Here here's the solar system. We swim
in the same direction. Yes, you know, it's that simple. That's
why it's endured going on ten years now, is because we're here to win
together, not just to take take take mind, mind, mind, give
me, give me, give me, what can you do for me?
Like those folks that are around, and that's fine, and we're glad to
service them, but they can also go fuck themselves. We need fans who
say, you know what, Boss, get after it, will accept a
little less so you can have a little more. And that's just the way
it's going to be. You know, as as ascetic of an enterprise as
this is, as much as we have to be monk like in our dedication
to things that they're just they're just can't be. We can't put in enough
time to justify turning down opportunities like that. For the Boss, right there.
I mean, it's just it just I'll tell you, it was not
something that I planned on at all. It just it just ended up kind
of it didn't fall in my lap because it definitely was definitely I'd worked my
ass off to get it, but it was something I was not really expecting
at this at this uh point of the game. Right. Nonetheless, TLF
goes off Broadway. Well, you just showed a little bit of skin there,
which we like. Right, let's just put it this way. Not
the worst time to be on the mote tier over at Patreon, because just
like last November where we did an outing to the Survivor series in Boston,
something tells me that one's details are fully baked and available on Bossman's Off Broadway
show out that a little lapsed caravan for a select few paying members, for
folks that have demonstrated a higher fidelity to the solar system might might want to
be in and around New York on a particular day when yours truly and the
Boss see two it that it's a one of a kind, perhaps a VIP
like experience. We're not positive what we can wrangle or when exactly you want
to stay tuned because we can find a way to make this a win for
all of us. Oh yeah, absolutely, And I'll tell you you know,
they've already you know, people have already been thought already had to go
through that that miserable, that miserable process of Oh, I say, your
podcast, what's podcast about? Oh my god, Well, you know it's
about it's about fake athletic endeavors. What probably Yeah, if you don't want
people to be confused, you probably shouldn't say that. And uh, yeah,
you know so. But they but they know about the fans, so
it'll be it'll be. It would be pretty they know about the listeners,
they know about the solar system. Uh, they'll be it'll be definitely be
an amazing thing to just get the solar system completely up their ass to represent
to Pop to you know, you know, you know the story, the
pre and post, you know, opportunities that will have in the greatest city
in the world. So very excited to make that happen for the folks once
again. So stay very very closely tuned. And speaking of monk like dedication,
always need to tap tip the cap to our friend Haystecks Calhoun, who
continues to battle away on the Lapsed Archive Transcription Service. This is a digest
of complete transcripts of everything in the TLF catalog and it's just a one for
resource for the thighst heart of Lapsed fans and Haystacks and his team that he's
pulling together dedicated members of the Solar system to build this thing out, to
edit it down, to make it pristine. Needs your help. It's not
something a one man outfit can can keep going at the rate that's required as
we continue to pump out content. So do get in touch with him.
Laps dot scribes at gmail dot COM's the email address lapscd dot scribes as cr
ibes at gmail dot com, and I'm sure he'll be happy to put you
to work. But consider this right here and right now a top level tip
of the cap public approval. The labscribes is as official as it can be,
and we do encourage you to contribute to something that's going to be very
important. I think to our TLF next ten year celebration next year for sure,
as we want to have as systematic and efficient away to go back into
all that we've done and said as possible to highlight some of the great things
that have happened over the years and what means the most to you in the
Solar system. The mailbox remains wide open the lapst fan at gmail dot com
for any tlf X recollections, anything you want to say about why the show
means something to you, anything you want to say about the show in general,
any suggestions you might have. You can send us audio clips, you
can send us video, you can send us some writing as well. All
of it is to say that we're in a We're in quite a mood right
now, quite a festive mood. There is a lot going on, a
lot going on. It's like it's insane, rateful for it. And is
the leaves start to turn. I mean it's a little early, but I'm
pumpkin spicing. You're pumpkin spicing. Hey, they no, hit ain't too
early. They've been, they've been. I've been seeing them changing already.
It is this the fall of funk. Oh, it's the fall of fun
tlf the lapsed fall in many ways, actually it's the fall of funk,
isn't it? A fall of funky occurrences? The final fall of funk.
I just tell you, I write how excited I am for beyond the mat.
I mean, this is one that's been this is a bullet that's been
chambered for ten years as far as I'm concerned. Absolutely, when you think
of a show like The Lapsed Fan, you think beyond the mat. And
we have had several moments where we almost did it, yep, where almost
was the circumstances for such that we gotta we gotta pull something out of the
hat and this is going to be it. But man, when we realized,
like we're going to be dropping everything and reconstituting everything for the Terry Funk
tributes, it's like this is the time it was. And it was funny
too because because you know, there was a moment I even asked, I
said, you know, because because a couple maybe a year or two ago,
you would you would express interest in in in diving into beyond the mat
yourself like you usin show. Yeah, yeah, like you said you wanted
to really keep a hold of some of the main documentaries. And so I
even asked, I said, listen, I don't want to. I don't
want to. I don't want to. If you I'll do it, I'll
take it. I'll take the plunge. But I don't want to take it
away from you. If you've if you if you still want to, you
know, tackle this thing. What's been so brilliant about cinemat is you know,
and that's probably right the cusp of cinemat when I said that it's like
I just don't have to worry about a wrestler's movie career. Yeah, that's
true. For Terry Funk, that is a lot that I don't have to
do that. It is a lot actually, you know, there's He's covered
a lot of grounds. So it's also hard to too because I like to,
you know, knowing that there's other things down the line, I don't
want to blow my wad on on all of Terry Funk stuff. But you
know, again with the with Beyond the mat itself, there is some significant
input that he had in regards to the well, as we'll find the movie
doesn't happen without him, right exactly, in terms of making the contacts in
the business to get Barry Blaustein trusted enough to get all the access he did.
Yep. And you know, of course, going back to an Maillo
and in the fifty years of Funk Show and the Matchkin's bread Heart that's featured
and sort of like the way they kind of manufactured a retirement for the documentary,
I think, yeah, one way to look at it gives us so
much more of a rich texture of who Terry Funk is, especially in the
nineties. And you heard the fever sound bite there. That was the first
time I saw that was when Beyond the Mat came out and they sampled that
clip from nineteen eighty three all Japan Funk's first sort of big blowout retirement where
he screams forever at the adoring Japanese public after having what they thought to be
his final match in Japan. That's crazy. So we look forward to Beyond
the Mat, which will attack in a systematic, piecemeal way as well.
We're gonna have to change our way of working a little bit due to schedule,
but it's it's a beautiful bit of serendipity because it's just a kind of
project where we can do that and we don't feel, you know, compelled
to churn through show after show after show in massive sized chunks. We can
take our time, we can stop at nothing until the story is told the
appropriate way. That's our luxury, that's our gift to you and speaking of
gifts to us, with the leaves turning a bit oh yeah, with folks
kind of you know, a couple of tweets coming through like hey, guys,
how about this for the Christmas Show. We are reminded that it really
is never too early to start thinking about the Lapsed Fan second annual Christmas Show,
Yes, which will be if last year is any indication our first annual
will be recorded, you know, a month and a half before the holiday
itself itself hits and so gifts to your co chairman that we unwrap while recording
and react to while recording ought to be in your head if you want to
be part of the show, if you want to impress upon your co chairman
and create another magical moment for us and for the Solar system at large as
we make the holidays mean something, you want to remember the Lapsed PO boxes
the Lapsed Fan at seven ten Main Street South at seven one zero Main Street
South, PO Box one one nine, Southbury, Connecticut. That's s O
U T H B U R Y Connecticut zero six four eight eight and the
boss Man will be keeping tabs and I expect come November November one maybe to
get a picture from the boss of a completely filled backseat of a car with
packages for your co chairman from all over the world. That was so crazy.
I mean, that was a little ridiculous. We will, let me
be clear, we will not be disappointed if we get half of what That
was way too much and we didn't want to appear to be ungrateful, but
it was a lot to deal with. Okay, we are absurd the looks
on the faces of our families when we explained where all this came from.
And I'm like, you know, I got this, this this fucking mountain
of boxes in the basement. And my wife's like, what the fuck is
going what it was wrong with you? What's wrong with them? Right?
Right? No? No, no, what's wrong with me for accepting all
this shit? That's the thing. We don't have a choice, bet excepting
exactly, and it's a it's a brilliant thing. I still remember ripping open
tom at Tanacio's No Mercy in sixty four package with the old television, and
we ripped a match like never before. That happen, you know, keep
in mind, let's let's not forget too you know that happens, you know
when we record again, the the N sixty four is here, The N
sixty four is read O can't wait to see what you folks come up with.
But again, it's about that moment on the actual podcast where we react.
So you know, we don't need a thousand things. We even missed
some things. We got some gifts. We were so flooded with paper,
you know, wrapping paper and boxes and stuff that we missed some things on
the recording that we discovered afterwards. It's wild, so insane, So you
know, don't don't feel bashful about keeping it small. Just we need we
need something to react to and uh, and we know you'll come through.
But we don't want folks to get caught flat footed thinking they have more time
than they do, because last year we kind of weren't sure exactly when we
were going to sit down and record it, and when we realized it was
going to be so long before Thanksgiving, it was kind of like, well,
we should have maybe told people, especially international folks, that they don't
have as much time as perhaps they think. So it's never too early to
think about it. If it's not a one hundred degree outside, that's the
that's my mentality. It can be too early to decorate, of course for
Christmas, but it's never too early to start thinking about populating a list and
a gift giving strategy in my personal opinion. Agreed of agreement, So again,
the Lapsed po Box of the Lapsed Fans seven ten Mainstream South po Box
one one nine South Berry, Connecticut zero six four eight eight, and we
thank you so very much well. Our journey through Terry Funk's life and times
starts at a ranch, but not the Double Cross ranch that we've heard so
much about over the years as wrestling fans, though of course we'll get into
that, nor the flying mayor ranch boss the excuse me, what now?
A flying mayor ranch as in the wrestling hold slash, Yeah, horse,
that is what Terry Funk's father, Dorry Funks Senior called his property. And
Umbugger Texas the mayor rich Bugger. Umbarger, I think is how it's pronounced.
Oh, okay, hamburger. See apologies to all of my friends in
Texas. It's umba r g r. I suppose it's umbarger. I am,
I'm not sure how it's you pronounced that. Maybe it's umbarg You know
how those Texans are about the French pronunciation the dah. Yeah. But it
didn't start at the Flying Mare ranch either. It's not even that egg sucking
dog Dusty Rhodes's favorite, the Hidden Valley Ranch smothered on a thirty pound platter
of wings. Okay, for our story to make the fullest sense, you
have to go to a sprawling property. We started my computer and all this
shiit suddenly fucking comes up, like all these things, like you click on
a on a thing. I was gonna look up something quickly and then anyway,
my bad keep going. So again, it's not that egg sucking dog
Dusty Rhodes's favorite, the Hidden Valley Ranch smothered on the thirty pound platter of
wings, actually just smothering on a plate. I can tell you we're distracted
to get a pop for that one. For our story to make the fullest
sense. Also also regarding Dusty Roses wings, he's the fullest sense of all
quisine. He put it. He puts the stop and wing stop. But
for our story to make the fullest sense, you have to go. I
feel okay, by the way, making fun of Dusty Rhodes on a Terry
Funk tribute, So shut the fuck up. It makes all the sense in
the world. You have to go to a sprawling property along the rugged north
bank of the Canadian dan River, forty miles from Amarillo, Texas, or
should we say Amarilla, right as Terry funklin Amarilla is supposed to have apparently
come. The notion is, you know the Spanish word for yellow Amaillo,
which apparently there are yellow roses of Texas all over this part of Texas and
the Panhandle. There. That's where it comes from. So I guess Amarilla.
You can see how that might be a little closer to Emadrio than Amarillo,
but whatever. Amarilla is a city known to wrestling fans and the community
at large in Texas as Terry Funk's lifetime stomping grounds. You have to go
within those stomping grounds to the site of a ranch on a former ghost cattle
town property Ama, Texas Panhandle. North of Amarillo. A new kind of
community has grown up on the site of old Tascosa. Before the turn of
the century, Tascosa was a bristling cowtown, the capital of the Panhandle Plains
country. For Callahan's Weary of the Trail, Tascosa stood out like an oasis
in a dessert. Today, Boys Ranch occupies the site of old Tascosa.
New boys, eight hundred of them since the founding of Boys Ranch in nineteen
thirty eight, have come to the ranch and found a home there, something
they failed somehow to do elsewhere. The new boy comes to the ranch tufts
and cenical. More often the knotti's undernourished and scantily closed. The treatment is
the same for all the boys, from the reception of the train to the
eleven mile horseback ride from the station to ranch headquarters. Bus meet the ranch
of cal Farley, Yes, who, perhaps more than anybody else, caused
the Funks to be synonymous with this North Texas city of Himarillo, which,
according to Wikipedia, is infamous for its unpredictable weather patterns with massive temperature changes
on a daily basis, raging winds, devastating hailstorms, and northers which apparently
long periods of drought, late frosts, spring tornadoes, dust storms, and
floods, kind of like Terry Funk's career in wrestling. Cal Farley, Okay,
founded a ranch for wayward boys, as that clip just indicated, And
boys who you know, you know, come from a broken home. You
know the boys, men in delinquentin's face and reform school and needs to help
in hand. M back on our Texas bullshit love it, a man and
his life who can Hey, I love Texas. I'm making ahead. I'
where the fuck did that come from? I mean, of all the things
to say. Next, boy comes from a broken home, that a delinquent
his whole life and face and reform school that needs a help in hand,
a man in his life who can teach him responsibility and how to part his
hair and fish and shit. So here's a young man and they're really nineteen
fifties. Describing his time at cal Fartley's Boys Ranch, Patty, I'm Sammy
and I'd like to tell you a little bit about my home. It's not
just an ordinary house, but a real Texas ranch for kids who have no
real home of their own. We're almighty proud of it. It's America's first
boy's ranch, located forty miles northwest Memorial of Texas on the banks of the
Canadian River. On the side of it, it was a wild West town
out of tasks. Years go, Tascosa died and became a famous ghost town.
But it came but It came to life in nineteen thirty nine when cal
Farley, a successful businessman and a swell guy, started to Mark's first Boys
Ranch for kids like me. That's Cal as in cal Ripken and Farley as
in Chris Farley all right. He was celebrated for the way he built up
this community funded boys Ranch, which would provide the inspiration, in fact,
for Eddie Graham's Boys Ranch in Florida that we've talked about before. I had
noticed and was surprised to learn that Jay Edgar Hoover himself once praised cal Farley
for quote devoting his life to rescuing boys from the back alleys which led to
crime, and starting them along the road to stable citizenship. And he called
Boys Ranch a monument to the positive action of one man. That being,
of course, cal Farley and the ranch quote might be termed a blueprint for
crime prevention. First step and the new boy's orientation at Boy's Ranch is a
meeting with the founder of the ranch, Cal Farley, whose homespun philosophy is
give a boy a happy home, some affection, enough to eat, and
plenty of work, and he'll do all right. Often, the boy's faith
in society has been cracked. Before he comes to Boy's Ranch. Farley knows
the story before he hears it. No home, no one to care for
him, and perhaps a narrow escape from reform school. The boy doesn't care
to be preached to. He's told what's expected of him and that he's as
good, though no better, than anybody else around the ranch. And as
a potting message, Farley tells him, if you've been in any more trouble
than I was when I was a kid, you must have developed something new.
This is tremendous. This isn't the greatest thing you must have seen.
You must have seen something new. And you know it's hard. Yeah,
I see something new. I'm seeing something new right now. Yeah, welcome
to the world of cal Farley. Jesus. And you know it's hard to
show cal Farley something new because he had seen a lot. After all,
he was well before the founder of the Boys Ranch. A carne yes,
a worker, yes, he was a wrestler, yes yes. A son
of the Midwest, born in Iowan, raised in Minnesota, wrestling with other
chaps in Barns. Himself, the product of a broken home, was hardly
anonymous when he first rolled into Amarilla. In fact, he arrived with plenty
of hype. El Paso Harold, January twenty fifth, nineteen twenty two headline,
where Oh Where's cal Farley? El Paso awaits AEF wrestler. Do you
know what AF stands for? All Elite Fan? Yes? In nineteen twenty
two headline l Passo awaits all Elite fan wrestler Gabe All Elite faker No AF
was the acronym for American Expeditionary Forces, and that was basically the surge of
American troops that helped struggling Allied countries in World Wars one and two overcome.
How about the the the American What did you say was the E Expeditionary expedition?
Well X, how about exhibitionary fraud Fraud Department department? Okay, well,
when Cayl gets involved, perhaps the a F department. But this is
back when to get over you were a serviceman who now wrastled. Right,
that was a big thing. That was a big, baby faced thing to
have served your country. And now you're home to hook three quarter Nelson's and
take on all comers. As the piece here reads. In the Passo Harold,
where oh where is Cal Farley, the welterweight wrestler who will meet Matsuda.
That was Matty Matsuda, one of the earliest Japanese heels in American wrestling.
In a finish match, A finish match, I repeat a finish match
alight and Ludwig Borga is not involved. At Liberty Hall next Tuesday night,
Farley Farley is on his way. However, the managers of the El Paso
Athletic Association haven't heard definitely just when he will arrive. Meantime, Matsuda is
putting in hard training licks daily. The wily Japanese wrestler doesn't propose to be
caught napping by Farley or any other grappler in the game. Interesting stories continue
to find their way in print about Farley. Now Major SB Philpott, Provost
Marshal informs the supporting world that Cal Farley, AEF, was a member of
the sixth Engineer's Third Division under the command of General Robert L. Howzy.
This fact gives the El Pasos Soldier fans a sentiment till interest in this sterling
young performer man. To be a copyman in this day and age, you
just say he's over before he is yes, you just put a line in
the paper that says this man is beloved even though he hasn't even come to
El Paso yet. But here's a reason to love him, fans. I
honestly, this is what wrestling should be. Can't exactly do a rock and
roll musical vignettes to introduce guys back then, I suppose this will have to
do. This fact gives the El Paso Soldier fans a sentimental interest in this
sterling young performer. Farley is said to have the heart of a lion.
His experience in France on the fighting front gave him the courage to meet wrestlers
of all weights and classes. One of the most noteworthy things about his career
is that he has often gone out of his class to meet challengers. Cal
Farley, he is rolling into Amarilla, Boss, and he is a decorated
war hero, and he's coming to a town near you to challenge the best.
Ifore mentioned Mattie Matsudad died after match in nineteen twenty nine. It was
rather well known in El Paso, but I don't think as one of the
people. Vernina shouts out in the Wrestler and again the AEF the American Expeditionary
Forces was created to fill the need for troops in Europe, especially for the
weary British and French troops who've been fighting since nineteen fourteen. The AEF when
they first began, had a standing army of one hundred and twenty seven thousand,
five hundred officers and soldiers, and by the end of the war,
four million men had served in the AEF. And they also had a wrestling
team, as did all the other branches of the service, and AEF champions
would wrestled before packed houses of servicemen and traveled on personal appearances to entertained soldiers.
So I hope that line and that piece there in the El Paso Herald
was truthful about him seeing combat in France, because as far as I can
tell, he's wrestling and performing for everybody more than fighting, which is fine.
That's combat. I suppose it's fake combat, but it's combat now.
It wasn't a work. He was a shooter, but he's entertaining soldiers,
Kings, prime ministers and Sparley fent Farley pardon me. Spent his first few
months back home as the star wrestling attraction in a traveling show organized by the
American Legion. This fucking Carni bullshit brought to your town by the American Legion.
And he worked all over Los Angeles, included there's clips of him working
the la Athletic Club as part of his Galvarley. He's back from the barfront,
He's back from the phone freight, He's back from the trenches. And
how about heart. How's a direct quote, by the way, and it
was on the previously referenced El Paso shot that according to a book, We're
gonna sit here in a moment. Cal Farley first began to hear talk of
this place in Texas called the Amarillo Is. According to a nineteen fifty nine
book about his life and the founding of the cal Farley Boys ranch called a
shirt tail to hang to. It reads as follows, the only sizeable community
in the area Amarillo was Amarillo, so the Texan speculated it would soon become
the trading and center of the Plains cattle country. There was also talk of
rich oil strikes nearby. On his way to Minneapolis, so cal detoured by
the sprawling, lusty frontier town and decided, you know what, this would
be a likely spot to settle if I decided to go into business for myself.
He actually arrived in the summer of nineteen twenty three to play second base
for a Class D baseball team. He was also a pretty high level baseball
player, was Cal Farley, in addition to being a wrestler, and so
interesting it was traveling to play for a Class D team in this part of
Texas that led to him discovering Amarillo and the book reads. When he discovered
that Amarillo had never had any wrestling matches, Cal went to work in between
ball games. No wrestling matches, you say, I know all about that,
making plans to wet local interest in time for the winter season. Since
there were no professional wrestlers available in town, he was not yet ready to
play professional pay a professional to travel to wrestle here from Kansas or South Texas.
So Cal reverted to his early tactics. How do you draw a crowd?
He would offer, to quote, stand the biggest man in town on
his ear, Yes, come one, come all. And Inmarillo, the
railroad had arrived shortly after a county election in an eighteen eighty seven, freight
service was made available through the town, and Mailla began to boom. It
was a cattle marketing center. And that's what Terry Funk himself did. He
had a ranch with cattle and livestock on it, many of which were branded
with the insignia that he created of the Double Cross Ranch and registered as such
with the State of Texas. Because much like you register your property in the
property deed, you also register your fucking livestock property. Yes, and you'd
write double Cross Ranch on the form. Why not? So we have Double
Cross Ranch. So I think by the time this one's over, we need
to come out with our own like salad dressing called Double Cross Ranch. It's
gotta it's got a streak of mesquite, doesn't it. Oh? Yes,
yes, and there and there are also secret spices. That's correct. Well,
yeah, run the Razors Wrestling podcast with Jack and it's the Lapsed Fan
wrestling podcast. So the freight service getting started up in the rail being built
eighteen eighty seven gave rise to Amarilla becoming this this booming cattle town in a
place where you know, you would take your your cattle from all around the
Panhandle, South Plains, eastern New Mexico, even which would end up being
part of the Amarillo wrestling circuit that the Funks promoted for decades. They went
all the way up to Albuquerque, as a matter of fact, and even
in parts of Colorado. This was sort of like a hub for cattle ranching
and cattle selling and cattle enterprise. And they got the first post office in
eighteen eighty seven. So cal Farley is rolling into an Amarillo that is less
than what's sixty years old at this point in time, and you know,
sort of ripe for opportunity. No wrastling in town. Let's let's set up
our tent. You know how it goes. And there were constant promotional pieces
in the Amarillo papers of the time for cal Farley's every match and move.
He arrived with a tremendous amount of hype. I don't know that the kind
of biography of him that I read sort of sort of paints it is like
he just rolled in and solved this opportunity everywhere and just he happened to wrestle.
But it's like you read the papers and it's like everybody knew this guy
was coming. This guy came with a circus, this guy came with pomp
and circumstance, you know, what I mean, He's not just some anonymous
guy that I was just walking around. I was like, oh shucks.
He had a ton of hype behind him, and everybody wanted to know what
this AEF wrestler from the front lines of France and the battlefields that was capable
of. So when he got there, before setting up the boys ranch or
anything like that, he bought a tire service shop in town and tires for
cars, and he got extremely wealthy or at least for the time wealthy,
running this tire business in Amaillo, and he became well known. It's I
don't know, not unlike the furniture guy from the nine to eleven SmackDown episodes,
remember Boss, It's like the guy in town. Oh yeah, yep,
yep, and everybody knows his business and everybody goes, oh, cal
Farley's Cal Farley, Chris Farley, Mike Tyson, It's Steve Auston, oh,
Michael. So it's it's kind of a chem It's it's proving to be
a fertile ground for one cal Farley. Here Emmarello, and he's finding his
way around, and he's putting down stakes and he's putting up tents and He's
getting constant promotion. Every movie he makes is in the papers. He leveraged
the popularity and the resources that the tire business was giving him to create a
radio program which would come on in the afternoons in Amarillo that would plug his
his many endeavors and sort of bringing people from the community and you know,
to talk shop and to promote his wrestling matches as well. We've got a
pair of clips here that I've just shared with you, Boss, from newspapers
of the time. Read them in whatever twang you feel appropriate, I suppose,
but this should give us a great flavor of how cal Farley was talked
about and covered in the papers of Amarillo, Texas. And good is either
the matter which want to read first? Read the one without his head first?
Okay. Record breaking crown expect at the jam Metro Park when Reynolds defends
title against Kyle Farley, with over two hundred reservations made the first three hours
the ticket office was open this morning, Fred to Cost ticket sales manager.
The Farley Reynolds Championship wrestling match to be held at Metro Park June twenty second,
predicted one of the greatest crowds ever to attend a Matt Card in the
Southwest, will watch the contest. That's a lead, Okay. I was
taught that a lead in a newspaper story conveys facts in a very cold and
patterned way, especially when it's you know, it's a factual article. It's
not some like feature lead. It's not trying to draw you into a human
interest story. It's just to report that's three hundred tickets have been sold on
editorial, you know. And I'd like you to read again the entire single
sentence of this article. Seriously, Well over two hundred reservations made the first
three hours the ticket office was open this morning. Fred to Cost, ticket
sales manager at the Farley Reynolds Championship Wrestling managed to be held at Metro Park
June twenty second, predicted one of the greatest crowds ever to attend to Matt
Card in the Southwest. Will watch the contest. You know, journalism that's
fucking by the way, I want you to know, some people understand it's
a five line sentence, okay, in five line paragraphs, and it starts
with introductory clauses, and it's like exactly, it's it's it's it's it's by
the book, no question, friend to Coster Fred. This is Fred's Jim
from the Emerald, Globe Times. Hey, how many tick how many reservations
you got for the Farley Reynolds match? You just want to know what We'll
get some numbers here regarding Farley Reynolds. You know in that Championship Matt contest
you got going on there down and down at the Metro Park June twenty.
Now, Son, do you want the information? Are you just gonna read
a promotional copy to me? Or you already have everything need? Sounds like
everything you need their partner, And I'm a busy guy. I gotta I
got some fucking cattle coming into town. I mean, can you confirm or
deny that there will be that you already have two hundred reservations that were made
within the first three hours that the tickets were you know, the ticket office
was open. Well, son, let me check my log book where things
are written in pencil by hand. Hold on, and can you also confirm
that all these these people uh will be one of the that you confirm that
that it has been predicted that this will be one of the greatest wrestling crowds
every to attend to Matt Card. I'll tell you what, Fred, Can
I just read my lead to you and you just say yes at the end
if it's all sounds good to you. Oh and by the way, cal
Farley on that fucking fucking cal Farley. Yo, cal Farley. Scarcely the
announcement been made yesterday the about would take place in Amarilla. Then twe telephone
calls from all over the Panhandle. Came, Hi, is this the wrestling
office? Hi? Messr to Costers this wrestling office. I'm calling from Haraldford
and I just need to get to this Reynolds Farley match. Well, ma'am,
you called the cost it is the wrestling off. Well, ma'am you
called the right line. Ma'am, I don't mind telling you that you did
call the correct line. This is Fred to cost How can I be for
you, Fred, Fred, I regret to inform you that while in theory
these podcasts are about Terry Funk, it is indeed your fucking turn partner.
Well, Fred, I was hoping that there were some tickets available, Yes,
you were for the Matt content. Well, missus H. Jefferson,
that'll be twenty five cents and three cattle. Well, I don't know if
I have the twenty five cents, but I do have three cattle. I'll
tell you what. Just between me and you, I'll put you down for
him. I know you're good for it. Miss Jefferson, you've been a
longtime family friend. And with that the sound of the lead pencil on the
log book and perfect cursive. The best thing about old records, like a
town census from seventeen oh eight is the perfect cursive, my god. And
it's so like slanted, it's almost horizontal. Amazing. And of course everyone
knows the Costa would skim a little off the top that fucking cruby Amarilla Frestling
Office. How can I help you? There's Fred de Costa speaking. How
may I be of service to you, ma'am sir? The service you can
provide it's peel me off and admit one red ticket stuff to Reynolds Farley,
Well let me sounds like a name itself. Hi, my name is Reynolds
Farley. Will you stop calling here with your silly pranks. I've had enough
of that. Now you keep this up and I'm I'm not. Just head
on up to your neighborhood and pull out my revolver and shoot you in the
head. So it's Texas, It's fine, what the fuck right? Fuck
around? Find out. I'm tired of this, of this prank hogwash.
I might as well kick some keystro speaking of which, scarcely, scarcely,
had the announcement been made yesterday, the bout would take place in Namarolla.
Been telephone calls all up with the panic. I told you what happened.
What came into whose office? Go ahead, then tell phone calls from all
over the Panhandel came into the Costro's office and the cal Farley tire shop.
This guy's fucking office is in the tire shop. My god, it's all,
you know, conflict of interest. All that's all a ton offlict of
interest. That's Yankee talk. Well, hey, you know what it's like,
it's fake exactly. Some of the calls were for tickets, while the
majority we're asking for information about the Seaton arrangements at the park. Does that
mean Fred Now listen, I already bought my tickets. I just wanted to
know what how Seaton being arranged at Matjoe Park. Well, ma'am, I
mean people will be Well, we're putting one chair next to the other ma'am,
and that's all we can do. Well, you know, I'm not
meaning to crack wise here. We're gonna have the ring in the center,
and we're gonna have to, you know, see surrounding it, going back
in different rows and different sections. Dude, can I count you for one?
I'll take chocolate? Well the way do you put it like that?
Fred? Absolutely, you can put me down for two. She'll be in
with a fanning herself during the matches. I need one extra seat just for
my for my mitten. Okay, So I'm gonna get two, two tickets
for for for rattles Farley. I'm here for the fights there, Fred,
Oh shit, oh my god, cal Cal. I can't thank you enough.
Pal Caw the pal only Pal Farley, right, Yeah, I like
that, but in Pal Farley, that's good gives. Al Anderson, promoter
of the match, has made elaborate plans for seats for over ten thousand fans.
The ring will be set up over home base on the baseball diamond and
bleachers built up the three sides grand Steam Grandstand reserved. All seats in the
grand stand as well as the ring sides will be reserved over a thousand ring
side seats will be built around the ring. These will constitute the choice section
boxes in the game. The grand stand will rank will rank next to the
ring side seats. These boxes extend from one end to the other of the
grandstand seat and six persons eats. They will provide the best arrangements for those
who will attend about in parties. Farley demonstrated in his victory over Billy Hollis
Hollis last Monday night that he is in form but he but still he is
not satisfied with his physical condition. He will leave tonight for New Mexico where
he will romp and play among the mountaintops. Where's he going again? I
just bought a ticket to this thing. Well, to train, He goes
to New Mexico where he will romp and play. He has a tradition of
when he's training for the big the big fights, he goes and romps and
plays in the mountaintops. It makes perfect sense if you really think about it.
I'm trying. Farley hopes to add to his endurance by climbing mountains and
working out each day under the direct rays of the sun. Or Reynolds to
the mountains as well. Apparently remembering how closely he farmally came last year to
winning this title. Reynolds has made plans to train for the bout in Denver.
He too, will seek in the mountains enough work to get in the
best condition of the long and successful career. A ticket office phone and number
is blah blah blah, and the cost here or his aids will be on
the job from early morning to nine pm. No set time in the morning.
Just know that they'll be there early in from now until the day of
the match. Out of town fans may write or wired did the coster for
reservations and the phone number is four digits nine one two eight. That's how
old this is. Oh my god, So I mean dial Amarilla nine one
two eight. So Cal Farley buys a tire shop, sets up a wrestling
office in the back processing ticket calls while he's replacing tires. Work in the
fucking Metro park with ten thousand people there. Look, he's just a good
old boy. That's correct, what he is. He's a good old boy.
Cal, as noted in the aforementioned book. To maintain customer's lively interest,
Cal wouldn't run weekly adds in the newspaper devoted largely to kidding prominent Emillans.
He brought up car loads of fruit and vegetables as well from trucks coming
from Colorado and sold them at cost at his station. This guy is a
fucking hustler, man, Oh, you damn right, he is. Absolutely.
Every noon, every day at noon he'd have an hour on the radio
as well to to leverage. And he had a little stage also in the
back of the store, and the town was invited to come in and listen
to the broadcast. And it's what's that, I said, Jesus, this
is cal Farley of the ranch. And he had faced choice, according to
the book, a few years after he arrived in Amarilla, of either overcoming
his tongue, which was he had tongue tied bashfulness. He was a bashful
guy, as these articles i'll indicate in his many enterprises indicate the bashful old
boy pervert is what he is, and foregoing all participation in community life,
which was the backbone of a successful business. He had a decision to make,
would he overcome his bashfulness or not. But I would now like to
present to you the first of a recurring feature on our terry Funk tribute shows
are the lapsed Funk saga, the lessons of Funk. Yes, when something
comes up that I think illustrates something that Terry Funk either embodied or once phrase
particularly well in an interview or in a book or something like that, I'm
going to pause and share that with folks. And when I saw that one
of cal Farley, mister massive draw in Amarilla, perhaps the first big wrestling
draw in Amarilla, that one of his calling card qualities was that he was
a bashful gentleman, I immediately thought to something I heard Terry Funk once say
in a shoot interview about the very nature of bashfulness and wrestling. Yes,
and how despite what you might think with these rollicking, screaming sing song promos
of today, bashfulness was actually a huge asset in the wrestling business. These
are all attributes. I mean, you know, you don't believe it,
but bashful he's an attribute in wrestling as far as a baby face his concern
and a lot of people don't understand it. Oh you can't talk on TV.
Oh yeah, if you've got to drag it out of him, much
better yet, right, you know, everything comes from the art. It's
better than than than having somebody that's talking nine hundred miles an hour and this
and that, And I think that that's one thing that Japanese have looked at
and they've seen and they've brought out the real personalities of these individuals and taking
advantage of them. And I think America has been just pushed down their throat,
this arrogant type of a tough guy I deal at. I think that
there's a place in it for that, you know. And sure it's easier
to go to the other route. But once you get a guy over like
you do Jack Briscol, he's over for a lifetime, you know, and
still talk to people. People still talk about Bruno, Sam Sam Martino.
There's a guy you had to pull a word out of them, isn't that
true? Yeah? Where are the bashful baby faces? Where have they all
gone? That's true? Just a wonderful insight there from a guy who saw
real money drawn for ten years on the back of a baby face, not
you know, a two year run, and and it just I don't know
it. Just as soon as I saw the word bashful, I was like,
that is gone in wrestling. It is very true, and we'll learn
as Terry Funk interacts with opponents like Jack Briscoe, how far that can go
in the promo battles, and and Terry Funk himself played bashful in his early
career as well. Yeah, yeah, I imagine that he did so.
Cal Farley was, you know, in addition to all of the things we've
said, also kind of a popular guest speaker. After returning from the war.
He would go around and do talks and presentations about you know, fighting
in foreign countries and all the different exotic lands he saw. And I was
reading about this and it kind of sunk in with me. It strikes me
as an interesting point on war, you know, especially a war that was
the scale of World Wars one and two. So many people from so many
little pockets of this country come back to their hometowns, and they can regale
these local yokels with tales of probably let's say, specious authenticity right about the
places they've been and the wild things they saw, and the monuments and the
people and the cultures. And not to diminish the service of these greatest generation
fighters, but you have to think the huckster is truly in his element in
a backdrop like that, right, we're talking about dude. If cal Farley
is a carny, carnival barker and he's out here, you know, spinning
yarns and selling tickets and moving product, do you think he's being a hundred
percent truthful when he talks about his experiences on the battlefront. No, I
mean, far be it from me. He's a fine man than anybody who
would impentage the integrity of cal Farley is not a friend of mine. Nobody
wants to know. You know, there's not a man in the world I
know that would make up the fact they've gone to war and we're talking about
battlefield, we're talking life and death. Nobody makes that up exactly, not
a real American like well, calf Farley, b Ashley, old, bashful
old boy from the from the warfront. He's just a good old boy,
bashful boy from you know, back from the from the from the front,
a bashful boy who apparently toured the circuit wrestling, drawing crowds, doing a
radio show and telling his story on a speaking tour and challenging any man in
town and throw him on his head. Bashful indeed, that's right. But
in terms of Amarillo, according to a shirt tail to hang to the book
about the founding of the Boys Ranches. The oil boom in and around Amarillo
and the Texas Panhandle faded into a routine operation by a few major companies.
It left in its wake a crime wave because there had been an influx in
the area of families and then an exodus of families as well as some of
the job opportunities dried up in the industry consolidated, and it says many couples
who would flock to the towns here joblessness and split up as the father drifted
on seeking work elsewhere, leaving the mother and the child behind. So deserted
workers, deserted mother's pardon me, picked up what they could for work,
and children were oftentimes in the area of Himrillo, according to this book,
left unsupervised in the alleys and backstreets wow of the city. And so juvenile
delinquency had been steadily on the rise, and back then juvenile delincolns who was
handled pretty plainly. You just sent boys to reformatory schools where they basically were
never heard from again. And it was this sort of this sort of dead
end that cal Farley sought via the Boys Ranch to present an alternative two.
The book reads Cal, who reached as many boys as he could individually,
the service station began thinking about a program which would reach hundreds and fill their
aimless hours with activities which would contribute to their physical well being as well as
helped keep them out of trouble. In late nineteen thirty three, Cal was
invited by an ex gospel singer named Galloway to speak on athletics before a little
club of boys that he had found in Pleasant Valley, which is a suburb
of Amarillo. While Cal was there, Galloway explained that he was trying to
establish some sort of a club for the boys of Amarillo which would be similar
to one that he had seen an operation by the police of Washington, DC,
which provided an athletic program for the sort of boys whom scouting does not
reach, boys from poor homes who were likely to slip into delinquency. This
tradition continues today. You know, you'll see like city police departments, they'll
have like you know, they'll be like police athletic leagues. Have you must
have heard of those? Like? Sure? You know, it's basically a
way to give wayward youth in the city, you know, something to do,
organized sports, organized activities, as opposed to, you know, trying
to entertain themselves on streets. And so it's very much out of that tradition
that the idea, apparently according to this book, for the Boys Ranch is
sparked. So Cal gets to work, and while on a very small scale
with just one building to work with, again, there are there are a
lot of delinquents that were just hanging around the tire shop and stuff that he
kind of got to thinking, well, you know, if I'm kind of
given these kids something to do in a place to be, now, why
can't it be formalized. He opens the Cal Farley's Boys Ranch in Amarillo in
March nineteen thirty nine with just five boys housed in an old county courthouse,
and that served as the first headquarters of the institution, and the ranch from
there began to grow and grow. But when there was an article published about
the Boys Ranch in the Saturday Evening Post that completely exploded interest nationally in this
boys Ranch in Texas, readers digested a piece and so on everybody was playing
catchup, and then MGM purchased movie rights Get out of Here to the story,
of the Boys Ranch. It's the nineteen forty six film called simply Boys
Ranch. Sounds like could be something else, and it's I did not watch
it, but it's sort of it's just a story set in the Boys Ranch.
It's not so much about Boys Ranch. It doesn't depict cal Farley or
anything like that. It's just a story set there. But with all of
this attention and selling movie rights to his story, and he's able to sell
the tire business is that Boys Ranch takes off for three quarters of a million
dollars in the thirties, okay, and all of a sudden cal Farley is
flush with national attention, a sprawling Boys Ranch business that you know, it's
not like the kids pay to be there, are They certainly don't have any
money to do that, and the families don't really either. But through charitable
donations, through community support, he's able to fund the operation. You know,
everybody is sort of like, how can I help? I love this
cause it's basically like a nonprofit that I'm sure it was quite profitable. And
by ten years the ranch, through full steam two years of head down work
from cal Farley, had grown from its original six kids in a courthouse to
a full fledged home in school for seventy five boys. It had dorms,
a mess hall, a gym, staffhouses, a school building, a non
denominational chapel, and had a permanent water system in water towered had a thousand
feet of sidewalks laid by the boys who lived there as a matter of fact,
in a fourteen hundred acre farm, so the boys could raise their own
stock and feed and train their own stock. They had their own newspaper on
site. They even eventually grew so much that they had their own school district
assigned to them by the state of Texas. Boys Ranch is kind of like
a town. Now. It's not just a part of it. It's not
just in Amarillo, it's Boys Ranch, Texas. Wow. No ship,
that's crazy. It becomes a whole, the whole ecosystem, so to speak.
And and it's pretty amazing as this, you know, idea just takes
off and catches catch a steam and catches fire. But in this growth,
a crisis was brewing. Brother, This is a lot, a lot to
deal with, a lot to handle, a lot of boys to corral,
you know, I mean, these are not the most well behaved to folks
and so it could often be difficult. Cal Farley found too really set conditions
such that he had any ended level of control. So we read now from
the aforementioned a shirt Tail to Hang to the book about cal Farley and the
founding of the Boys Ranch, and a chapter entitled the Crisis. Yes,
the biggest danger of any project like Boys Ranch is turning it into a construction
program instead of a home. I was so busy running over the country drumming
up money so that we could get adequate buildings begun, that I almost let
the whole thing blow up under my nose. Farley said. Personnel had always
posed a worrisome problem to Cal. He could and did find able dedicated teachers,
but the problem of finding superintendents who could survive physically the strain of twenty
four hour day on call duty while simultaneously serving their multiple responsibilities and keeping with
Cal's concept of a home was difficult. There were men who functioned beautifully so
long as there were only a dozen boys to look after. There were men
who liked their work but whose wives were unhappy living at the isolated ranch.
There were men who were too lazy for the demanding job. And there were
men who were not stern enough to handle this side of reform schoolboys. At
one time, I considered men with previous experience in boy work, commented Cal.
But that proved to be my worst mistake. The sort of men the
boys liked and needed were strong, fair men's men, not a boy man
who was trained to take them on an hour's hike while Mamma played bridge,
okay, Cal. When Cal was traveling around the country promoting funds for his
new housing program, because he was so bashful after all, a week superintendent
let the big boys get out of hand. Cal returned from a trip to
the West coast to find the older boys in a state of revolt and a
group of them threatening to throw the superintendent in the river. Brother, it
is a situation that demanded immediate action. So he comes back to complete chaos
here. I mean, these kids have taken over the ranch and they're going
to throw the boss in the river. One I'll see that problem. That's
relius, Yes, I know, yes, it sounds good to me.
So what happens when interests aren't kept in mind? One revolution or mass runaway
would mean that Cal would never again be able to win public support for his
project. Yes, Cal realized he had made a serious mistake, not only
in the choice of superintendent, but in overriding his own safety rules for had
brother. Oh boy, will there be a double cross at this ranche?
Oh my god, m l shure back shure abashing socian socian socia. Oh
bout trickling, trittling, tritling, cop tail, cop tail, cop tail,
cop tail, cop tail, cop tail, hop tail tail it tam
h watching watch passual causal worsh wsh f f f f f f f f
f f Yes front the Philothical and oh my god, m yes God,
yes he does m more more more mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
mmmm god m d I mean he looks just like Terry Funk. I mean,
Jesus, I know exactly, Jesus look at you, and Junior looks
nothing like Senior. And this guy just looks like he's gonna fucking hurt somebody.
Yeah, he looks like a dunk thinks, such a weird guy.
His wildest Terry was Dory to me is the creepiest one. I mean,
Dorry looks like he looks like like someone who is who's come on in their
raft. The deviltry included smoking, as in most homes across America, most
boys had smoked before they came to the ranch. Whether they did so after
they left was their affair, but Cal was determined in the interests of their
physical development to abolish smoking at the ranch, although not ribs, no,
no de brisket. Yeah. One mother once laughingly related to Cal how cute
it was of her boy to smoke when he was four years old. He
keeps reaching for cigarettes, so we just let him and blamed it. If
he didn't smoke it like a man and blamed iff. He just just go
for just you know, what are we going to do about it? Can
you believe this? The mother and that was happening back then, since it
was obvious that a number of the boys were smoking in secret, Funk announced
at the dining hall the first time many of you was caught smoking, you
will go dig up a tree and planted in the grove near the administration building.
That's a direct quote. Thank god they were there. You'll dig up
up a body and tell no one that's right. By midwinter, the superintendent
had a nice little grove of trees near his office, but when spring came,
none of the trees leafed out. Puzzled, he examined his grove more
closely and discovered he had dead logs with no roots sent out to dig trees
during the winter when the ground was hard. The smokers had elected to saw
them off at the trunks rather than dig up the roots, and then planted
the logs and holes at the grove. Funk, however, had kept a
detailed record of his smokers, and he called the boys in and ordered each
one to go back and dig up a real tree with roots. The boys,
however, had won a victory in one way. When they went back
for their trees, they were able to do the digging in soft, wet
spring ground. Warm weather meant new activities and new sources of devil. Although
Funk had successfully won round one and subdued the initial insurrection, he realized that
he must not relax his vigil Out in the football field. One afternoon,
he sent in a player that the star quarterback, a big tough kid,
did not like I know it at having to play with his enemy. The
star solved the problem by hitting the other boy in the growing with the football
so that he dropped out of the game. Wow. Funk demanded to know
what had happened. When he heard the facts, he ordered the quarterback off
the field. I don't care how good you are, Funk said sharply,
you're of no use to this team if you can't show better sportsmanship than that.
The boy, who would respect for Funk's physical authority, did not challenge
him at the moment. He trotted off the field without protest, but later
he spread the word among the other players that he was going to get me
a big knife and carve Funk's heart out. One of the boys, concerned
for the superintendent safety, warned him off the threat. Funk called the quarterback,
a strapping, black haired boy of seventeen, into his office. As
the range teenager walked in, Funk laid an unsheathed hunting knife across his desk,
with the handle toward the boy. I've heard you been telling the boys
you're going to carve my heart out, said crisply. We'll start carvin.
The boy's dark eyes shifted quickly from the open bladed knife to Funk's calm face.
His glance wavered as his eyes met the superintendents and he looked away.
I was wrong. The two became friends, and that moment explained Cal Dori
saved that boy. If he had been able to bluff the superintendent, he
would have been lost. It shows what we needed to handle our big boys,
A strong man that they could respect. A big teenage boy who was
in his most restless, troublesome period, whether he's at the ranch or living
in a private home, must have a man who can look up to.
Not a man that is hard on him, but a man who was strong,
someone he would like to imitate. Cal found the best boy's men.
The best boy's men for ranch work were men who were fair, sincere,
and positive in their decisions. You get men like that among football coaches who
are forced to handle tough, arrogant kids, among athletes, ranchers and farmers.
The Funk family, Dory, his slender, attractive wife Dorothy, and
his two sons loved their ranch life the most interesting period of my life,
Funk says today. When his first three months were up and Cal had not
yet located anyone in particular for the job, Funk decided to stay on a
little longer. Soon those few months had stretched into a year than two years.
You get mixed up with these kids, and time skips by. I
kept telling myself, I'd just stay a little while longer. Then the first
thing I knew, it had been three years. By that time, cal
had found a superintendent, John Nichols, who served for the following three years
and played an important part in the building program. Funk had to stop some
time, as both he and cal Well knew a wrestler has a limited professional
period. He owed it to his family while he was still in the prime
condition to return to the ring and save money for the future, which arrived
so quickly for the professional athlete. When Dory Funk had first come to the
ranch, there were seventy six boys living there. By the time he left,
it had nearly doubled to one hundred and forty. One hundred and forty
juvenile delinquent's boss on one ranch, I mean, good fucking luck O.
The barracks were full, the courthouse was full. Every inch of space was
taken and up. Then cal would call out and see, I got a
boy here, Dorry, I think we better take him. But mister Farley,
Dorry would protest, we're full up, we don't have the room.
That's right, Dorry Cal would agree, well, you make a point.
The next thing, Funk New Cal would appear at the ranch the next afternoon
with two new boys in his car. I know we're full, Cal invariably
apologized, but I just feel like we need a couple more. But you
can always make room for one or two more, or five or ten or
fifteen or you know. I got a whole a whole warehouse for what full
huh, I got a whole ware you know, I got a whole warehouse
full of boy. Of course, this guy owns a fucking warehouse too,
And I feel like we could fit a few more from there into the into
the delinquent category. Is that there's a category out there? Say it again?
It delinquent category. Category category better. The day that, the day
that the Funks packed up and left the ranch, according to Dory, if
that road had been one half block longer, I never would have made it.
Ranchers lined the road, waving goodbye. Many were crying inside the car.
My kids were crying, My wife was crying, Dorry said. Dory.
Funk was probably the ranch's favorite superintendent up until that time, primarily because
he shared fellow athlete Farley's sincere desire to salvage lost boys. During Funk's three
year tenure at the ranch, two cases had cropped up simultaneously, which had
caused both men much grief and constant anxiety. With one of these boys,
they were successful. The other is Cal's greatest regret. I think if they
ever did sadly, if they ever do a biopic of of Dory Funk,
I think they should have Frank Thryng play him. Frank Thryng Ticulok, well,
he's The later pictures are kind of a little weird, but you can
see some of them. Lad, he's a gentleman. How do you know
this guy? Oh my god, he's looking a ton of movies from like
the sixties and ship amazing especially Oh yeah, I see him here. Yeah,
this is like from the older ones, like totally nineteen fifty nine.
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Oh because yeah, I know, because
he's got that goatee and whatever this movie is. Yeah, was he Caligula?
What's what is this? Probably Mommy's Crotch or whatever it's called, mom
Amazing Mommy's Pussy one of the one of the real, one of the real
smash hits from Metro Golden Meyer of Golden Meyer in the fifties, Frank Capra's
Mom's Pussy, Mother's Pussy, starring cal Farley, cal Farley and Jimmy Stewart.
So not a dry eye in the house, is Superintendent Funk to you,
Thank you very much. Leaves the ranch after three years of proud service,
helping turn you know, a riotous, subversive and and really you know,
crazed group of young boys into a group that was set in line,
had the proper respect, and left cal Farley's boys ranching in much better shape
than he found it. Dorry Funk the strict disciplinarian, and so it was
all fine, right, huh yeah, of course, good old fashioned Texas
discipline. Those boys, they were just rebellious spirits of the prairie or whatever
the right of course, Boss. Read the link. Read the link.
Read the link. Read the link. Read the link. Yea the link.
Read the link. Read the link. It's the lapsed Funk. He's
the lapst Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack r. JP Sorrow. It's the lapst
Fan Wrestling Podcast. The Texas boys were beaten, abused, raped, Now
all they want is an apology. Wow, Oh, go ahead, read
it every word, all right. Steve Smith was just eight when his mother
left him and they were care of Al Farley's Boy's Ranch, a Texas institution
for at risk children. From the moment he got there in nineteen fifty nine,
the place didn't sit right with him. Quote. I cried probably more
than any boy that I know that came out of there, just homesick,
and I didn't take it very well. Almost immediately upon his arrival, Steve
was subject to the first of many beatings. For the following decade, he
endured regular and arbitrary violence at the hand of staff. He also had to
watch helplessly as his younger brother, Rick was beaten by adults until he couldn't
stand. Along with the physical punishment, Steve's pets were killed and his friends
were worked to the bone in atrocious conditions. Some boys, including Rick Smith,
were also sexually abused under the care of the ranch. The ordeal has
permanently damaged their lives. At the kitchen table and his immaculate home in the
Amaro suburbs, Steve, now almost seventy, goes through all of the details
of what happened to him without showing much pain. He's a tough man.
He served in the Vietnam War and was wounded in the line of duty,
and his piercing blue eyes only sprout tears twice. The first time is when
he describes how a succession of dogs he owned, all called boots, were
killed by staff members. And that beautiful pet cemetery that's depicted in those old
nineteen fifties films that we played sound from before. You know, the boys,
they were encouraged to have pets, but sometimes they got a little unruly
and it was tough to It was tough to keep him in line, and
we lost a lot of them, so tough to him in line. And
sometimes will you don't rip their fucking hatch off? What? What's the problem?
Col Steve? Col Steve a liar? Second dogs made the second from
his body with my bill fucking probably didn't do him much good in the final
analysis to insist on voice alteration and agreeing to the interview. It kind of
made him sound worse, didn't it. Listen, I don't want you to
use my real voice, Okay, you gotta use a fake one, all
right? What are you gonna do instead? The thick ship that sounds much
better? Rick Oh. The other is when he talks about what happened to
his younger brother Rick and how powerless he was to help him Rick Steve.
Rick Steves. No, No, he'd never find himself in a situation like
this, I mean, not accidentally. He'd be smoking a bowl in the
panandle He'd be on the rails with the cattle high as a kite, Rick
Steves. And is you know, wearing a fucking his his pastel blue polo
shirt and his fucking he pants and a and a backpack, fucking smoking a
blunt in fucking Texas. So you ran into him last weekend, I did,
Rick Steve and other and six other men. The Guardian spoke to named
staff members responsible for the abuse, which lasted from the nineteen fifties until at
least the early nineteen nineties. They say the abuse went beyond them and was
systemic, affecting hundreds of others who went through the ranch. They say,
Lamont Waldrip, that's a fucking name, a long serving superintendent, was one
of the worst abusers. Last month, at the behest of a wealthy donor
who wrote a check for one million dollars to build a new dormitory. The
ranch named the building Waldrip House. They Texas thumbs up. Yeah. The
ranch's curren CEO, Dan Adams acknowledged the weight of the accusation against Waldrip,
who died in twenty thirteen, but he said that other boys had had very
quote, very different experiences with him and admired and lacked him. For the
ivers who want to make the ranch accountable for the abuse, and having been
encouraged to break their silence after Steve Smith brought them together in a Facebook group,
this is an unbearable affront a wealthy a very wealthy ranch, and a
revolt. Cal Farley's Boys Ranch is accustomed to the generosity of well healed donors.
I guess they've been taught in ring psychology the baby faces, that's for
sure, but it's less used to having its reputation called into question. Almost
since its formation, the quote Christ centered but non denominational institution, yeah right
has been a byword in Texas for juvenile reform and a can do spirit.
There is no suggestion that there is abuse at cal Farley's now. Indeed,
there is broad acknowledgment, even from advocates for the men, that current practices
at the ranch are in line with the best in the sector. With a
hundred direct employees and five hundred and twenty six across its subsidiaries, it is
no small fish, and notable individuals from the ranching and oil industries queue up
to serve on its board. Checks like the one that funded waldrip House are
not unusual. The most recent publicly available tax filings show an annual income for
the ranch just north of fifty six point eight million dollars. About forty three
million of that came from contributions and grants. The ranch also parcels parcels of
owned parcels of land as far away as California. The ranch's founder, Cal
Farley, was a professional wrestler and Amarillo businessman. He had been a prominent
college athlete before he moved to Amarillo, where he gained prominence as the owner
of a tire shop. Throughout the nineteen thirties, he ran a sporting club,
the Maverick, which tried to channel the energies of troubled and abandoned boys
in the Panhandle. Eventually, he was gifted land in Tescosa, a ghost
town, by a local rancher so he could help set up a more permanent
home for the boys, but for all their organizational success, Farley and his
staff had no special training to deal with wayward children. In nineteen fifty the
superintendent was overpowered and thrown in the river by a group of boys who staged
an effective revolt, and for a brief moment they were running things to suit
themselves. Kinda left that out of the book, didn't they? Yeah,
right, the reason the superintendent was going to be thrown in the river.
In an otherwise laudatory biography of Farley published in nineteen fifty nine, A Shirt
Tail to Hang to, this moment is presented as a major crisis for the
ranch. The situation quote demanded immediate attention. One revolution or mass runaway would
mean that cal would never again, And when public support for his project faced
with a risk to the branches prestige, Farley replaced his superintendent with a professional
wrestler named This is just Unreal, Ladies and gentlemen. His real first name
m hm m M. I'm gonna read it, m m M. His
face and his son's face, save Mary. It's his first name, Dorn.
That's right. Funk's real first name was Dorrance. Dorrance. Doran's Funk
all right, stop sucking with me. What's your actual name? Son,
I don't have time for this. I don't have one. I don't have
anything. Officer, what's your real name? What's your what was your birth
name? I never had one. People just always called me Dory. Show
me your ID. Nope, I won't and I rippy hold on, screech
the brake so the Texas dust gets kicked up in the Panhandle. I don't
have one. Show me your ID, Nope, I'll bot It looks like
we're about to have a good Texas show down right here on the roadside.
Sure, I have just pulled you over for speeding, and I need to
see your license. That's the that's just the thing that won't happen. What
what are you? Please just give me if you're not step out of the
car. Please. I can't do that. Why why not? Why not?
Because you're gonna search me and you're gonna find my my wallet, and
I can't let you see my ID. The fuck, sir, Get out
the fucking car. I want to shoot your fucking face. Sir. You
can shoot my face, but I will not tell you my real name.
I repeat, I repeat. By the way, is this how they're teaching
the academy. Get out of the car, or I'll shoot your fucking face.
Not shoot you in the face, I'll shoot your fucking face. Lawrence
Dorrance funk, Dorrance funk. I think we're I think we're forgetting how it
was pronounced in the native German. Yes, my name is John's funka with
a little spots and freuders the land of German heads. Correct, my name
is John's funk. Much in the way of Schnitzel and bring off the family
the funka family recipe of Harshchnitzel. Show for sport from cowboy, from cowboy
boots to uh moccasins. One of those gun offul sandals called they forgot birken
Stocks. Yes, I bring it off as the family recipe for Schnitzerl,
as well as one famous Don's funk berken Stocks. Why exactly when you dressed
like a twenty four year old art school grad in Brooklyn, Okay, clarifies
at Bill Helm Donn's will ham funk the lapsed funkadun kind I come from.
It's a great city of Hamburg. So that is Dusty. What did what
did Terry get started? In the What did a Funk when the title was
it nineteen sixty nine. Actually, Dusty comes from both Hamburg and Frankfurt on
the head and Valley Ranch, no question, Dusty coach from especially on Memorial
Day. You like sucking dog. Right. If we're gonna channel the spirit
of Terry Funk, it's gotta be constant uncalled for shots at Dusty. Oh
my god, that's funny laps trivia. Where was we're in Germany? Dusty
Rhodes claim heritage Frankfurt, Hamburg or steak and Cheese. You know, as
I was preparing this, I'm like, oh, this is gonna be a
really somber part of the show. Boss. Boss is going to be reading
this horrow harrowing tale from the Guardian of neglecting abuse, and you know,
it's just gonna be silenced, like it's gonna be a almost like a church
like environment as he reads through these these harrowing details. And then you get
to the fact that Dori's real name was Drance And here we are like Harvin
Speederberg twos like I want you to take any four letter name with R y
and just do in. So Core is Corren's what's up? Corren's Graves on
the call. How about Torrence Wilson? Are you having this? How about
Colden's throw and named him after Dawrence don't function? I thought that would quite
cold and daddy Colden's baby. I mean, a fucking name with an ends
at the end. It's just it's just it's just ripe for for for fodder.
Oh well, yeah, are we not going to talk about Kevin Kevin's
brother Lawrence Culkin? Go ahead, bus, it's the lapsed fun bitch.
What the fuck? Keep going? We've got something to learn about the reality
of the boys Ranch. Where's Dorance here? There it is? Yeah,
that's where you left off. I'm pretty sure with the professional wrestling named Dorrance
Funk, who turned to violence as a solution to the discipline problem with the
ranch. In a short Tail to Hang to author Beth Day rights that in
the wake of the revolt, Funk's immediate problem was to command their respect and
obedience. He would invite the big boys to work out with him on the
wrestling mat. Funk illustrated wrestling holes and techniques, and also managed to get
over to each boy the suggestion of potential power. After a round apiece with
Funk on the mat not, one of the leaders of the Embryo Revolution,
suggested they might throw him in the river. By the time Rick and Steve
arrived in nineteen fifty nine, there were about two hundred and fifty residents,
and Texas courts had taken to diverting young offenders out of the juvenile justice system
and into their ranch. Those boys were thrown together in dorms with others who
had never committed a crime but whose parents could not take care of them.
Next section labeled they made me run in front of horses. Ed Cargill lives
in New Mexico now after a stint in the army and some years of riding
motorcycles all over the Southwest. His name and cal Farley's, his time rather
in car Foley's overlapped with Rick Smith's. After years of living in what he
calls a paradise for adult abusers, he made repeated escape attempts. Each time
he was caught and punished. On one occasion, he says, Lamont Waldrop
delivered a punishment straight out of the old quote. I ran away on foot
and got about halfway to Amarilla when they caught me using a helicopter. Lamont
Waldrop and another staff member then took me ten miles away from the ranch and
made me run in front of all these horses all the way back. Anytime
I floundered, they'd hit me with coiled up rope or run over me with
the damn horse. Several of the men say that another escapee was dragged for
miles behind two horses back to the ranch again. One of the horses was
ridden by Waldrip. The man in question talked about the incident in a private
survivors group on Facebook, which was set up by Steve. His comments were
seen by The Guardian. Cruel punishment wasn't the only ordeal students had to endure.
Sexual abuse also happened, and Rick Smith says he was raped by another
boy while under the care of the ranch the way Steve tells that his brother
quote has been nervous all his life, like he was hiding something. Just
in the last year. He told me that when he moved into Maynard his
dorm, one of the bigger boys said he beat the hell out of him
if he didn't sleep with him, or no, he would beat the hell
out of him if he didn't sleep with him that night. He's had it
bottled up in him all that time. Cargill says that the wife of a
staff member was having sex with him and three other boys, in effect statutory
rape. It's only in retrospect he has come to realize how damaging this was.
Quote. I didn't realize how bad it was fucking me up, and
she was committing a fucking felony, he says. As for Steve Smith,
he recalls seeing a dorm parent make a boy to his penis out and hit
it with a ruler. Next section labeled he was screaming and begging and I
couldn't do anything for decades. The men say a culture of abuse prevailed at
cal Farley's. Martin not his real name, was sent to the ranch in
the early nineteen eighties aged five after being brutally abused and mutilated by his father
of that time. He says, if you want to know what it's like
to die over and over again and watch yourself die in the mirror, I
know that. On his first night at the ranch, an older male student
quote dragged me out of the bed and I went into the bathroom and he
basically stuck his dick in my mouth when he committed a minor infraction. Not
long after, Martin's female dorm parent ordered him to jump in a trash can
and scrub it in freezing weather. Quote. When you put a little kid
who's been tortured inside a trash can upside down and make it like a little
prison cell and have him scrub, you know, you got these tiny little
holes at the top, just a little little light in. You're scared,
you're freezing, you know. Cargill says that his dorm parent would also encourage
other boys to administer physical punishment. Quote. I saw him hit two boys
with his fist and then tell the rest of the dorm you better finish what
I started, or it's all gonna happen to you. So I watched,
and they literally beat these two guys half to death, and me and another
guy tried to intervene. We didn't get beat up as bad, but we
got beat up, Cargill says, quote their only crime is they were gay.
When that's not my place, which that's not my place to judge or
my place to punish. Steve Smith remembers his helplessness while his brother was beaten
mercilessly. Quote a staff member did it. I heard Rick screaming at the
top of his lung. So I ran down there. I looked into his
room and the guy was beating the hell out of him with a belt.
My brother didn't even have clothes on, just his underwear. He was screaming
and begging, and I couldn't do anything. Afterwards. Rick's nervousness at being
at the ranch led to a pattern of behavior that only led to more beatings.
Quote I pissed the bed till I was probably ten, and after that
they beat the hell out of me till I bled, he says. Bill
Varnado, who was there at the same time as Steve Smith, says,
quote, you really didn't have to get in trouble for them to beat the
hell out of you. There is normally, he says, quote they used
a belt, but as you got older, they used their fists on boys.
Joe Stroud, who was there in the nineteen eighties, says the ethos
of punishment at cal Farley's quote when all the way from how people treated themselves
down to how people treated animals to how people treat anything, it was a
culture of violence. It's not that I don't believe it, it's just it's
past Janet Heimlich, a former journalist, now runs a nonprofit in Austin called
the Child Friendly Faith Project. Through her work and in a book, she
has worked to expose religious groups that abuse children. Quote. I am always
in search of faith based organizations that are really great, she says. When
she first wrote about cal Farley, she used it as an example of best
practices in youthcare. She still maintains that currently cal Farley's appears to be in
keeping with modern and humane standards of childcare, and says they quote run a
flagship program for cutting edge child therapy. In twenty fifteen, after she published
a laudatory post about cal Farley's on her blog, Steve Smith left comments He
wrote about the constant abuse and the beating. Meeted out to Rick. Alarmed
by what she was reading, Heimlich got in touch with Adams the ranch CEO
quote. I asked, Ann, what is this guy? This is what
this guy is saying is true? Is what this guy is saying true?
He said, yes, but we're evolved there it is. Heimlich decided to
help Steve talk it out with Adams. Their first conversation was a two and
a half hour meeting on March twenty third this year, which Heimlich attended as
an observer via Skype. She observed that Adam's attitude to Smith was sympathetic.
Quote, we were both blown away with what Steve was telling us. Every
so often, Dan would reach out and touch Steve's shoulder. On April seventh
and eighth, the three of them met and Amarillo, first at a coffee
shop and then the next morning for breakfast. At this point, she started
to become concerned about how the ranch was going to deal with Smith's allegations.
Quote. I thought that meeting was his opportunity to say, here's what we're
going to do, but I was getting nothing from him. At breakfast,
she presented a draft letter suggesting the approach cal Farley's could take. These included
investigating allegations of abuse, setting up a fund for survivor's medical needs, and
ensuring that information on their website and then their marketing material was quote truthful and
not misleading. Adams, she says, was uncomfortable. Most of all,
he was resistant to the idea of going public with any of it. Quote.
He thought that involving the media would not bring the men the healing they
were looking for. She says At the SAY meeting, Adams told Heimlich that
the ranch was planning to name a new dorm after Lamont Waldrop for survivors,
She says it was a slap in the face. In conversation with The Guardian,
Adams acknowledged that abuses had occurred in the past, but also reaffirmed his
stance. Quote, I can't deny Steve or anybody else that are experience,
he said. When asked if the behavior of staff at the time sounded like
abuse, he responded absolutely, no doubt about it, but he stressed that
practices had changed, including the phasing out of corporal punishment, since he took
over in nineteen ninety six. I knew Lamont, and there are guys today
that had very different experiences with Lamont and admired and liked him in his early
days. I think he probably was way over his head in terms of knowing
how to deal with all those kids. Anytime you have a system that's scantily
staffed and not trained, abuse happens. Dude, don't don't try to fucking
rationalize his actions. Oh yeah, that's what he's doing, totally what he's
doing, Like, you can't do that, man, I'm sorry, don't
say that. It's because the fucking you know that. It's like then they
don't open the fucking business, or don't hire these fucking people, get people
who actually know how to do the job, or fucking train them properly,
like Dory Funk, right who we hope who? I don't know this Dory
Funk you're talking about. I know Dorance Funk. We're talking Dorance m Adams
has no plans to change the dedication of the new building. Quote. I
do think when it comes to honoring founders or former employees, that's a collective
thing that's bigger than me. It's not arbitrary. I think the apology can
be disruptive because I've got two hundred and sixty kids out there that we're working
very well with, and we have a lot of younger people whose experience has
been good at Boys Ranch, and a lot of families account on us.
I don't say it's hearsay, and I don't deny it. It's not that
I don't believe it. It's just that it's past. I want somebody to
stand up and say, hey, I'm freaking sorry. The men the Guardians
spoke to say they have carried the scars of this experience for decades, as
well as a sense that their lives have been misshapen by their time there.
Many talked about extensive substance abuse, suicide attempts, and incarceration among alumni.
Bill Varnado wants to be very clear that that they're quote not looking for any
monetary deal out of this. What we would like is an apology from those
people for treating us the way they treated us. Martin asks, quote,
what did boys Ranch take from me? I don't know my sense of security,
my sense of self, my sense of being comfortable in my own skin.
Arnold Well says he's not sure he's an end quote adapted person in adulthood.
Quote it got ingrained into me for a period of five years at violence
fixes everything, he says. Ed Cargill says, quote I want somebody to
grow a pair of balls, stand up and say I'm freaking sorry for all
the abuse. Rick Smith endeared. He is more concerned to talk about his
brother and the years it took from it took him to live down what happened
to him and to get past his drinking and anger. Quote. Let me
tell you, he's just so proud. He didn't let it get him down
because it was for a while and he overcame a lot. He was heading
for the wrong, wrong place. He's skeptical that they will ever receive an
apology. Quote, it's not going to happen because they are committed to the
hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank. They're committed to that, and
because of this lack of closure. He also doubts he and his brother will
ever get over it. Quote, Steve and I will die, We'll go
to our grave and I'll guarantee you it'll be one of the things we think
about when we take that last breath. How they got away with it boys
Ranch Jesus Christ twenty eighteen. The surviving members who coalesced around the aforementioned Facebook
group that article, by the way from the Guardian and would encourage you to
check it out and support the piece. After that came out, obviously shock
waves and the victims colester on the Facebook group and then formed a survivor's group.
The woman who's mentioned in the piece that kind of pulled them together,
who investigated abuse of kids, was helping organize it, and we'll hear from
her here but first, this is from twenty eighteen, a survivor's reunion from
cal Farley's Boy Ranch. I've never got mental any mental health through anybody,
and I just I don't know if I'll ever get it. But the screaming
and the whippon, I's something you never forget. My dorm parent was statistic.
He picked on the little kids. It was the small kids that were
really the target of the dorm parent to pick on and to tease until they
would cry, and then he would be able to rack him and put him
on restation. I would beat one time with over one hundred and fifty mixed
with a belt by five men. That night, I was taken to the
Vega jail and put in the Vega jail. I spent two weeks by myself
in the Vega jail, reading a Bible and letting my bruises. He cuts
hill before the people at the ranch saw it. I was sexually assaulted twice
while I was out there. The first person that's sexually assaulted me, he
made me and another person do things together. My brother was ripe when he
was ten years old, but he never told me until a few years.
I don't know about a year ago. That's been over probably fifty or sixty
years. He's had this buried in him, and it's awful sad when your
brother tells you something like that and he's had to live with it for all
these years. My father and two uncles spent ten years about Kyle Farley's and
it was something we didn't talk about growing on. I just knew that they
were tortured. My brother passed away a few years ago, but his whole
life was nothing but torment. And once I learned from the survivors what really
happened to him at Boy's Ranchet became crystal clear to me why he did the
things that he did. Over the years, I could never figure out how
my brother, who started out in Catholic school and was an altar boy and
a model student, decided that he would shoot dope into his veins every day
and be so silent, and we never knew what was going on. One
minute he would be okay. In the next minute he would be trying to
kill itself. How Farley's and my family, my uncle Greg bro Talk,
was a drug addic his whole life. He died behind the dumpster. My
arm went overdose, My surviving Uncle Bless it's heart. He's changed, but
he did what was done to him to me and my brothers, So the
abuse keeps going. We're all okay, had to be done, Jesus.
If we're gonna talk about Boys Ranch, we're gonna talk about Boys Ranch.
And it's it's part of it's part of Terry Funk's story, not just in
terms of his father being the superintendent to take over apparently from this abusive superintendent
who who's a behavior, according to the survivor, sparked a revolt, or
at least the chronology would indicate that. But Funk himself grew up on the
ranch, is described in the book in so many ways, first learning to
wrestle on the property, his family lived on the property in his earliest years,
and we'll get into a lot more of that. But as aforementioned,
you know, the survivors brought together for that reunion in twenty eighteen, clips
of it on YouTube, and the woman from the Child Friendly Faith Project kind
of explains here in an interview kind of what it would take to approach making
folks whole. The other thing that we're interested in doing is to try to
be a bridge between survivors and boys ranch to see if the institution could use
some of its many, many funds to help some of these individuals who have
some very desperate needs. So what it would take, I don't know.
There's probably a number. I don't need to talk about that, but it's
very clear what these folks feel like would be just recompense. And you know,
it has echoes of the Catholic Church stuff. And it was amazing to
me just putting in, you know, into the YouTube and stuff searching for
boys ranch abuse. Uh that it's it's all over the country. There are
different boys ranch the stories just like this at different boys ranches and so many
other cities and states. I was like, is this all cal Farley's And
it wasn't. It was it was boys ranches all over the place. And
I don't know, I didn't take time to count them, but it was
like a thing, a category of abuse, boys ranch abuse. I'm not
surprised. I mean, it's it's it falls right in line with that kind
of that that weird, that that weird sort of Yeah, I'm going to
generalize here. I don't I don't, I don't certainly lump all right,
these Christian organizations in there, But it seems like a lot of these kind
of these extremely strict Christian based organizations that they can have this fact. I
mean the church, you know, the Catholic Church alone. I mean,
Jesus Christ. I'm reading this ship and all I'm thinking about is is this
the Spotlight movie? Of course, you know, Like I'm just that's That's
what I'm thinking of that whole fucking time. Like I'm like, Jesus Christ,
this is exactly the same goddamn thing, just in a different, a
different you know, setting, but it's it's and look at that, it's
the same thing too. They're taking a taking advantage of these kids, who
are you know, of of lesser means, you know, that's that's who
who probably have. Again, this is an assumption, this is total speculation,
so you know, correct me if I'm wrong, But who have some
sort of like inferiority complex or some sort of definitely a chip on their shoulder,
definitely sure, or like a lack of of real stabilization. And I
don't mean that in a mental way. I'm just talking about in their life,
like having a life totally. The book does a pretty good job of
explaining, like a typical path to delinquency where it's like, right, you
just start not out of a sense of boredom, but almost out of a
sense of like, yeah, I guess boredom almost, But you're you're all
because you don't have a comforting home life. You just you're out there looking
for things to pass the time, and pretty much you start raising the stakes
in yourself. I'll steal this, I'll steal this, but then I'll do
this, And it's all, like you said, it's all a reaction to
not having any stability to return to. So what's the difference, you know,
like take your pick, the cops are chasing you or paw is chasing
you with a leather belt or wherever the fuck it is. Yep. And
and a key part of it to me is that the underappreciation or maybe a
blind eye was turned to it. For the fact that when you set up
in organizations like this, andra structure like this, it's it's a total h
it's a total like moth to the flame. And for for people who would
be abusive, like you're setting up an ideal place that someone would want to
come work if they have, you know, abusive tendencies, Right, for
for for someone that just wanted to beat the shit out of kids in the
fifties, I can't think of a better place to go to work than the
boys ranch, right, People that wanted access to young boys, couldn't think
of a better thing. Who's been pissed off at dad for a fucking fifty
years. Well, there's that too, right, And then they bring all
their ship and it's just like this vicious cycling, and and the righteous,
you know, bless them the ones that can break the cycle, because that
is, as that woman talked about, very difficult to do because it often
gets passed down. And it's just it's just such a I don't know,
I just I can't read this book the same after hearing all this, and
and that's why it's it's so damaging. But they're there's there's little hints throughout
the book, and I don't think they're mean. I don't think they're hints
intended by the author. But there's some really bizarre like descriptions of punishments that
would happen on the ranch that that are kind of like out of context almost.
I mean, they're just trying to like paint a picture of what it
was like on the ranch, and they never, of course accuse anybody about
right abuse. But there's a couple of moments in the book where all of
a sudden they're like not shying away at all from bringing home the idea,
which, of course, you know what, was much more accepted when this
book came out in the fifties that you know, corporal punishment can win the
day sometimes. Do you know what a gander is? Boss? And good?
Good for the goose, good for the gander. You know what a
gander is? I mean it isn't it like a a gander of geese?
Isn't that like the group of geese? Right? I think gander is a
reference to a geese of a certain gender, isn't it. I mean I
should have known before I asked you. I looked at it, I looked
it up, but I forgot it already. Uh yeah, gander is a
male goose. Here's just a quick snapshot of what I mean from the book.
Cal had taken a pair of brothers during the first year of the ranch
operation, both of whom had been in trouble under the leadership of the younger
Jim, a bright, personable ten year old who was the guy directing traffic
quote unquote. When Cal first interviewed the boys, Jim, who apparently figured
that as long as he was going to the ranch, he'd better get along
with the boss, was all over Cal's lap. At the ranch, he
decided that Cook was the one to move in with. But at the community
public school, which he attended with the other ranchers, Jim got into an
argument during recess one day with a farm girl, and when words failed to
win his point, he hit her. The other ranch boys, conscious of
how important their good behavior was in a public school, held a conference to
determine what punishment would be appropriate for so serious an offense. There was an
old gander left over from the Bivens estate who was so mean he had once
broken the back of a puppy. All the boys were scared of the gander,
including Jim. The other boy's corner. Jim carried him out into the
yard, stripped off his shirt, and tied him spread eagled onto the ground,
steak him out with chords from his wrists and ankles. Then they put
a handful of corn on his naked chest and left him. By the time
the old gander had eaten all the corn Jim had sworn off slapping little girls.
Wow, normal, totally fine, absolutely not an indication of a wider
problem, not at all. Again, just amazing today. About three hundred
boys and girls live at Boys Ranch each year, according to their website,
girls, that is a good question. I don't have the exact year they
did at some point. It's environment for well, it's it's basically like a
private school campus. Now if you look at it, everyone's in uniforms,
they have like tasks like a camp more than it is a ranch. We're
one of America's largest child and family service providers, it says in their website
where Christ Centered five O one C three better believe they ain't paying taxes,
head quartered in a Marilla, provides residential programs and therapeutic services for at risk
boys and girls ages five to eighteen. Well, I can tell you we
definitely don't run a profit organization here. You know, it's definitely a nonprofit.
Can rest assured Judge that all contributions are tax deductible. All right,
we do not. I can tell you right now, Judge that we're doing
such good for the community, for the people of Texas that we are going
to take every tax deduction pross possible, exactly right, and you can too
by donating to us, we don't get taxed. But that's right. It's
to your tax advantage to keep this fine organization running despite you know we're running
into challenges as an organization. I'm sure you've seen some of the recent publicity,
and while it's unfortunate in our hearts bleed for the victims, at the
same time, it's the past, and we're here to ask for your donation
because we want to ensure a better future. I mean, think about it.
What's past is prologue, that's correct. Well, you don't want to
say that, do you, bud hold on, This media training has come
to a pause. I'm saying that it's the beginning and I we understand,
but you just don't say that. Okay, it's a pass this prologue that
means the abuse is going to happen again. I listen, I'm what there's
a new CEO in two weeks. No, listen, I simply will not
have you accused me of abusing any kids at all. That wasn't what I
was about to do. I've never done anything illegal and I and I do
I do resent the implication at the ogation that I have done illegal acts.
You know we have access not only to your convictions, but your arrests.
Right, you don't have to have been convicted for us to have access to
the list. You don't have You don't have access to anything. That's one
way to cope. But the fact that he's about to be made for four
prostitution arrests, I have, I have privacy, He says, you don't
have access to anything. This is where he ends up after saying the past
is prologued during the media training. Within like ten minutes, he's barking at
them, you don't have access to anything. You don't know a damn thing
you don't have. You don't even you don't know half the things that I've
done. Oh, here's a shovel for you to keep digging the hole.
Now you're putting yourself in. You couldn't get me out of the hole.
If I dug myself in there and buried myself alive. I will fucking destroy
well. I mean, he's the man for the job you got to give
him. That ain't nobody gonna throw him in the river. I will fucking
destroy you. He's fucking completely did a one eighty year. There's something like,
there's something so cringey to me about how like even those victims were calling
it cal Farley's, Like everybody knows it. It's cal Farley's. There's something
I don't I don't like how that puts like a soft veneer on something so
tough. You know, I totally agree. If you click on the website
under the heading what is Boys Ranch Approach to Discipline, that's what it reads.
We believe a child's challenging behavior stems from one or more of six universal
needs safety, belonging, achievement, power, purpose, and adventure. That's
six SARSA not being met. As such, we view these behaviors as an
opportunity for instruction rather than willfulness to punish. We understand there is a need
to provide both structure to limit the present behavior and nurturing to facilitate lasting change,
and a discipline or interaction must align with the development, with the values
contained in cal Farley's Model of Leadership and Service and all applicable internal and regulatory
standards. So what do those standards read? At the heart of every activity
offered at Boys Ranch is safety. Our first priority is assuring our youth feel
safe within the organization's programs and services. A sense of safety is vile to
a child's ability to reach his or her full potential as long as a child's
brain determines he or she is unsafe and needs protection from harm higher levels of
functioning, such as logical and rational thinking or beyond reach. Based on our
knowledge of NERD development, relational health, and the combined experiences of our staff
and residence, Boys Ranch strives to create an atmosphere of safety through appropriate levels
of supervision and an environment that meets needs and provides positive opportunities for instruction.
Feel better, boss, not at all? Okay, meets needs? They
meet needs, it says, if it feel a whole lot worse. Actually,
no, where does it say we do not hit the kids? Yeah,
nowhere does it not say we won't abuse them. That's fine, I
mean if just you know, I'm sure they don't. But why it's not
in writing, I suppose is it's almost like they reserve their right, you
know what I mean? Yeah, Well we do. We reserve the right
to abuse the kids if necessary. Do we reserve the right to hog tight
kids to the ground and put corn kernels on their chests so a duck can
eat the shit out of them. Let me tell you this, it's basically
on the record, I would tell you that I dismiss any sort of abuse,
no matter what the kind. I do not. Again on the record,
I do not. I do not condone violence. I do not condone
any sort of sexual abuse. I don't condone any sort of physical or mental
hazing of any kind. Off the record, the shooters should film. Come
on, RAF No we're not going No, We're not gonna let this Dan,
So, how does the hometown paper cover it? And Amarilla, Because
now that you know the Guardian, which is in the UK newspaper, came
out with this huge expose, the local folks that have, you know,
presumably a much warmer relationship with Boys Ranch, have to find a way to
cover it as well. So they're gonna lead with what the organization and Dan
Adams, the president and CEO at the time it is telling them. And
so here is some of the follow one back from twenty seventeen to the aforementioned
allegations, The Boys Ranch acknowledges apologizes for decades of physical sexual abuse from fifties
to the nineties. Officials at Kyle Farley's Boys Ranch acknowledged and apologize Wednesday for
decades of alleged abuse its facility northwest of Amarilla. Cases of physical and sexual
abuse a former Boys Ranchers residents who graduated from the early nineteen seventies through the
early nineteen nineties were alleged by an Austin advocacy group and reported by The Guardian,
a British newspaper quote, I'm very sorry as a man, as the
leader of this organization, and as an officer of the board of directors,
I'm sorry for any any kid who is mistreated or abuse at Boys Ranch.
Dan Adams, president of the CEO of kyl Farley, has told the Globe
News, but I am confident today the things that they have that have may
have happened then are not happening now, and if they do, they are
dealt with. Boys of the Ranch received severe corporal punishment and poor working conditions
and medical care, were raped or attacked by older boys and dormitories, and
engaged in sexual acts with female staffers. According to Child Friendly Faith Project,
nonprofit that works to expose religious groups that abuse children. Documents from the group
describe a boy's ranch, runaway, being dragged behind a horse back to the
ranch. No, not at all. It's it's being made to run in
front of the horses, dragged behind the final horse, boys receiving sometimes up
to sixty lashes from a belt, and a boy being struck in his exposed
genitals with a ruler. The group says it's gleaned the information from interviews of
alumni, some of whom reported struggles with addiction and mental illness, including post
traumatic stress disorder. The Guardian on Wednesday first reported many of the claims,
including on the record interviews and several former residents, including Amarilla residents Steve Smith.
They didn't keep us safe out there, Smith told the Globe News get
the lone Star Politics news. You can skip that straight to Smith, a
sixty eight year old Get under the Dome with capital coverage of the Texas legislature.
Get under the Dome, no comment. Smith, a sixty eight year
old sixty eight year old who was first arrived with the boys Ranch nine fifty
seven, said staff members beat him and repeatedly killed his pet animals. He
said brother Rick was raped by another boy while under the ranch's care. The
allegations bring a Black Clo out over cal Farland was a privately funded, faith
based residential community that has enjoyed being in big support from donors. The ranch
is open to at risk children ages five to eighteen and current supports about two
hundred and fifty boys and girls. It has its own Kay to twelve school
Boys Ranch Independent School District. When I asked if all the allegations were true,
Adam said, quote, I'll take them out their word. It wasn't
my experience, it was theirs. Just something. You know, that's that's
so perfectly phrased. I have yet to see, in deference to this guy,
the right way to handle this. What do you say? You just
say, it's awful that this happened, and I'm extremely sorry, and we
will work our best to learn from our mistakes and get better. I'm glad
he's stepping forward, the victim said, but we're asking for more. That's
your next quote right there, Because the apology was given. Look look,
look, you know yeah right. Smith had a lukewarm reaction to the apology.
I'm glad he's stepping forward, Smith said, but we're asking for more.
There's a number. Smith leads a Facebook group of other survivors that through
Child Friendly Faith Project presented Adams in April with a proposal of how to deal
with the past abuses. The proposal included boys Ranch issuing a public statement acknowledging
wrongdoing, the creation of a fund for survivor care, utilization of best practices
for abuse prevention, and a review of marketing material to make sure information about
the past is not misleading. Smith emphasized that he wanted the organization to stop
honoring past staff who played a hand in abuse. Kyle Farley is dedicated to
a new dormitory to LaMonte wall Drip. I mean, seriously, he didn't
even know as soon as a guy named wall Drip applied that. I mean
number one, he's trouble number two, Lamont. Why aren't we changing that
last name? Why aren't we getting a new surname? There? Pal like
wall Drip, Like someone's fucking with your pal. That's sure. I can't
pick his last name. Huh can't pick his last name? Yeah you can,
you can change it, brother. What As he runs through all the
people who he thought he knew their real names, and he realizes that he
doesn't have he doesn't have the dirt on him he thinks he does. I
thought Beefcake brother. That's his name, dude, what You're right, that's
one name he can't change. I'd like to change my last name, please,
city clerk. Well, I'm what I want to know, dude,
city clerk. I have a question, dude, why are people trying to
change my last name? Laugh? It's the shrif, Sir, they don't
have the authority to do that. I do only you can come in here
and do that yourself. Well, who says this, brother? Who says
that they don't have authority? Brother? What if they come in and they
think they have authority and you let them come through without authority? This is
that brother? Are you telling me that you don't have that authority? Brother?
Brother? Are you telling me you don't have the authority to stop the
authority? Can I talk to somebody who has the authority to change my last
name? Please? Brother? I want to make sure. I want to
talk to somebody. You know what. Here's what I want to have happened,
Dude. I want to change my last name brother today, so I
can prevent others from change my last name tomorrow. He shouldn't have said that
near him, but go ahead, A new dorma treat to Lamont Waldrip,
a former superintendent the ranch led to be one of the worst abusers. Spokesman
on Wednesday said the organization had no plans changed the name. Child Friendly Faith
Project took the allegations or a poort order with The Guardian in June after it
became a parent. Cal Farleys was not going to act in the proposal,
and Janet Ham, like the nonprofits founder and the former journalist, quote that
is not how I wanted to go. She said, I'm not Dan Adams
no. From the beginning that we wanted this to be more of a partnership
between them and the survivors. I was picturing me going up there and having
meetings with everybody and the survivors. I thought that would be important to Adams
to be involved in that way, so they could control the message along with
the survivors. I guess that was pie in the sky on my part.
It's such one of the ugliest things about these these kinds of situations. We
saw it with the church as well, Like the survivors groups like this,
you know, it's like they have to be such operators, you know,
they cut they it's like to get them to listen. It's like the only
the only thing they can do is threatened to go to the media. And
then it's from a certain points of it goes go ahead, no one's gonna
leave anyway, or at least it's like, you know, but it was,
but but but it was fifty years ago, it was sixty years ago,
like what you know, like whatever, man, go ahead, go
go to the fucking press. See what happens. The whole playbook came from
the church scandal in that, you know, eventually one hundred million dollars settlement
had to be paid. How much was it cheese? I don't even remember
now, let me see, I mean there are of course settlements all over
the world. By the time this thing spread, like you know wildfire eighty
five million, yeah, upwards of one hundred million dollars, and it caused
you know, just widespread closing of parishes and just all kinds of liquidations of
assets from the church to where you know, it just cut it down to
size so dramatically, to say nothing of how it affected attendance at church where
you know, they make revenue by people putting stuff in the collection plate and
everything, or just devastating financial impact and eighty five million dollars settlement. And
so if you're on the boys ranch side of it, undoubtedly all you're thinking
the time as lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, you know, like we're falling
into a trap if we do what they say they want us to do.
You're also thinking money, money, money as well. Absolutely, yeah,
you know, yeah, because this could be you know if they Oh,
it's so pathetic, it's so sad. I mean, like, listen,
it's a part of me, the brain side of me, which I rarely
use, says yeah, like, of course, financially speaking, it you
can't, you can't commit to this, but like the soul, the heart
is always like you can't. That's what I mean by how it's so messy
and gross. It's because like people have to eventually it becomes about everything but
what happened, and it becomes about like the law right, and like what
you can what kind of penalty they can be made to pay under the law,
and it becomes like a settlement negotiation. And that was that was one
of the big things about all all those abuses, as chronicled in Spotlight,
as there was all of these agreements where settlements were paid and wrongdoing therefore was
kind of acknowledged in the form of payments, and you know, you found
out if people were willing to like remember at the end of that that lawyer's
side like confirms for Michael Keaton outside the house that it's this is this is
the kind of agreement that I've been you know, putting together for dozens of
people or whatever the case is, to never talk about the abuse. And
it's like, well there it is, like this stuff is all papered,
like yeah, that's what did in like you know, a lot of the
hush money scandals around the election recently and everything. It's like eventually it comes
down to a lawyer, you know, putting putting down an agreement where it's
like you give us this, we won't talk about it, yep, or
you do all these things and if you don't, we'll go to the press
and you'll feel more pressured to It's it's it's very it's very all. It
gives the defense. It gives the doingzation that's being attacked so much cover to
blame lawyers for what you know, for the situation and like distract from the
initial harm, you know what I mean. Yep, it's it's it's really
and you have to wonder how much the victims, like you know, are
being pushed in a certain direction because they're not being formally organized. It's so
ugly. It's so ugly, but it's it's reality, man, It's there
must be a reckoning and here it is. Oh, it's fucking awful.
I first came into contact with Smith and the Facebook group after she authored a
blog post on twenty fifteen praising Boys Ranch for an advanced therapeutic model. Smith
commins on on the post, saying that there have been regular abuse the Ranch
and the two connected. Smith's Facebook group now has nineteen survivors. How Mac
said, these are the ones, These are the ones they have have found
us. It may grow after today. Adam said he had tried to work
with the group and good Faith and connect the survivors and with resources of the
Boys Ranch Alumni Association. He said he has offered to work with Smith to
review some of the history that is celebrated, and has also offered to show
Smith around the reformed Ranch. Corporal punishments had been phased outstarting in the nineteen
nineties, and Adams said various regulatory changes and new models of care have evolved
the field of childcare. He said he didn't want to initially make a public
apology because it would give children, families and donors donors. Oh fuck,
that's where he gets. That's where again it's the number also here, let's
he basically he could really just say this. He said he didn't want to
initially make a public apology because it would give forget children, forget families,
because it would give donors undo concerns. That's the concern, pal, Yeah,
that's children, not the families. It's the donors. Yeah, I
mean that's she's when you talk about these the nonprofit world, the guys sitting
in that seat, that's CEO. That's all he can afford to think about.
I'm about making excuse for him. I'm just telling you they just think
about donors all day and night. The only reason they have the job is
they're perceived to be good raising money, keeping donors happy, communicating with donors.
Being a face that donors who you know once a year when they're not
yachting. It's it's kind of funny. Why isn't the you know, so,
are you saying that the CEO is in charge of getting the donors.
Yeah, pretty much. An organization aboard of directors of a nonprofit would hire
a CEO based on his ability to attract donation to grow the organization. To
me, that that seems to be a confident of interest in terms of running
the establishment. Well, the CEO doesn't really run the establishment that they would
hire the staff to do that. The CEO would sort of sit at the
top of the organization, minding the finances of it. I mean, he's
not the CFO, but he's not too different. Again that that to me
seems like a conflict of interest. Yeah, the person you're thinking of is
someone else, like the director of operations. No, but you should have
somebody on top who is like the guy who on top should not should should
should not be in charge of of of of like you know, the money
stuff, because because then that just becomes like you just said, it becomes
the goal. Well, I mean, if the guy on top isn't in
charge of the money stuff, then the guy who is in charge of the
money stuff becomes the guy on top de facto. When we went to a
college, it was much the same thing. And I understand that's the way
that it is. And and and I get that. I'm just saying that's
not the way that it should be. Yeah, I know that it will
never probably change. Well, I'm saying that no matter who you put in
charge of the money, they become the boss. Like you just fine,
don't don't make the CEO that person may get to know. Yeah, that's
what I get it, And I get that this is the way that it
is. I just wish it wasn't that way. Yeah, yeah, it's
it's unfortunate. It's kind of like because to me that then it becomes then
then it's not even like in a weird way, I would have the person
in charge of the money and the director of operations of the of the facility
itself on equal ground in terms of like rank, and then you have somebody
over them who has to be like the judge, you know, who's like,
you know, the CEO has to be the person who deals with both
people and figures out what the best solution is. I think what you're describing
is actually how it how it works in terms of like the CEO as the
chief executive officer executing the mission of the organization. I don't know, it's
it's a weird thing. To get into. But you know, the board
is there to basically like Trump card, like you can petition the board and
say this guy's dipshit, and they can they can see two to the persons
removed. They they they they sit over the head of the CEO. But
when when the board gets together, where they look at the at the financials,
there's all kinds of other shit they look at that they pretend to care
about, but it's the financials they look at and they're like, you know,
are we are we bringing in enough to support the organization? You know,
do we have to make cuts? Do we have to change the way
we market what we do? It's it's it's but because it's a nonprofit,
it's not like everyone makes a less money puts it in their pocket. That's
expressly against like the tax laws. You have the privilege of not being taxed
so that you, in exchange, take the money you get from donors and
put it back into programs that benefit people. And if you can't demonstrate that
you're benefiting something besides yourself with this money, you'll lose your nonprofit status,
which, of course hardly ever happens. Hardly ever comes down on an organization
and says you're making a profit. Now go, you know, you no
longer have this privilege, particularly in the religious world, you know, because
you know, churches are tax exempt in this country. Everyone's cowards, everyone's
and so you know, a lot of Charlotte get drawn to the flame because
it's like, oh, no, tax free, Like that's kind of because
it's not like you can't get paid. It's not like you can't give yourself
a million dollars salary at the top of a charity. You just have to
make sure that, you know, in the final math of all the money
the organization takes in from donors, that just as much goes out in the
form of expenses to run the organization, like salaries and grant money to support
programs in the community or construction of a you know, in the case of
like a y construction of a new community swimming pool or a new basketball court
or a summer camp programming. So it's kind of a weird world in that
way, where like that tax advantage can attract people who are kind of slimy,
you know, kind of like oh, this is just a just a
cleaner way you know, to to make money into network and to get you
know people on the board who have companies that can provide contracts and would of
course they come in at the lowest bid, of course, because they're doing
it for the organization, because they believe in it. They're not doing it
to build a folio of consistent work with an organization by having the end that
would be inappropriate. But they also come in conspicuously as the lowest bid every
single time over a period of twenty years. But anyway, uh, yeah,
it's it's tough. It's a really it's a really weird part of because
it's not as simply it's not as simply like this, companies have to make
profit and that's it. Everybody knows what they're out to do. It's simple.
It's much more nuanced than that. When you talk about the tax exempt
and that religious thing is such a fast track way. It's like the Church
of Scientology, you know, their tax exempt They were like kind of the
last church to take it all the way to like the courts and win tax
exempt status by saying, like you know what it says on paper that qualifies
a church as a religious organization that doesn't get taxed. We meet all those
criteria, like fight me like we we we meet and it's like, okay,
you do, fine, go away, and it's like they don't pay
any taxes, so it's it's, uh, there can be there, there
can be some some interesting streams that get crossed. The whole world we're talking
about here, it's fucking crazy. Ah. And my main concern is that
as I felt like what those guys were asking for was to hurt your organization
at the expense of people that were helping. Right now, I don't understand
how acknowledging that that abuse happened, it doesn't happen anymore hurts the organization,
and I think it would have hurt us. It's gonna hurt it's gonna hurt
us. Are we gonna recover? Yeah? Well, you know, it's
like, dude, if there's some donor out there who's giving because they like
the way it makes them be perceived in the community to give, and they're
so shaky and so weak wristed that they pull their money just at the at
the hint of scandal, it's like, dude, like that's well more importantly
the price you pay is is Dan Adams fucking Lamont Walt's Yeah, And then
there's a ship like that too. It's strange, chummy and incestuous too.
I give him out of this place. And you fucking oh my god,
if you, if you fame my daddy, I don't wanna fucking kill you.
Fine, it's not a thread at all, honest, I'm loreen Waldrop.
I'm gonna fucking rip your heart out if he if you my so what?
You know what? My daddy was a rapist. My daddy was an
abusive so what whoa whoa? No one never kiss him a rape like Wait
a minute, what so what? That's fucking murder America. That's what it's
all about. He was the best guy around, My fucking daddy, tremendous.
You take his name off that fucking building, I'm gonna rip your heart
out. That's a big thumbs up. Isn't it possible to put that put
that name right on that building? Yeah, ain't gonna stop the march of
history, son, We've got We've got giants of the past to pay tribute
to. It doesn't matter what he fucking did. He made this play.
Yes, this is like them not taking Mula's name off the Battle Royal,
Right, right, I don't fucking I'm gonna fucking kill you, Danny Adams
actually running Dan Adams season, isn't you on earth side? Adam? I'm
confused anyway, go ahead, Well we take the name off. Oh,
I say, okay, Harry, because he didn't do that, so I
was confused. I'm after your ass fucker bribed. Well, I don't look,
I mean, I don't see any problem. I don't see any cause
for alarm. It's just the way the family is. And we've known this.
Okay, maybe they shouldn't have hired the superintendent who raised a daughter to
make those noises. My daddy was a good name. I don't Well,
maybe you know, a cynic might say there's red flags there, but I'm
not. He made me leave now, I'm a good lady. Keep Jesus.
Is there any scenario that we can't just branch off into, like making
noises into the microphone? It's I go on to this is Danny, this
is Dan Adams must have been a new piece of the paper. Ohreen Calfarley,
Californ cal Farley's Oh Jesus, H cal Farley is opened and uh nineteen
thirty nine and more than nine thousand youngsters have lived in the ranch. We
are in the Texas Panhandle and north of Amarillo, a new kind of commune.
He has grown up on the site of old Tascosa. Oh God.
The operating budget cal FOLS is forty three million dollars and his fundraising bud target
for this year is twenty five million. Christmas time it is important time for
the organization's fundraise and he noted Dan Adams noted. Adams said he notified board
members about the nonprofits proposal, which he called an ultimatum, and the decision
not to respond to the requests State Rep. Four Price? What the fuck
is going on here? What kind of names? What is happening? Hold
on? I need now, I need to look up four price his first
name? Four. It's fo you are Jesus Christ. It's okay, oh,
Jesus Christ. Representative price four price for Senate? For price for what?
Four price for Senate? I mean represented four price at fourth generation Texan
from I Amarillo has the privilege of serving as a result oriented voice for constituents
presiding eight Texas Panhandle counties. Carson, Hansford, Hutchinson, Limps, Lips
come More, Odd, Chiltree, Potter, and Sherman is three siblings three,
two, and one. Well another one on the way. Five.
In twenty twenty two, Price was re elected to a seventh term seventh term
in the Texas House of Representatives, where he continues to vigorously advocate for the
betterment of the Texas Panhandle. Second the tire lone star state. Let's advocate.
Four Who I could do this all day? How about having advocate for
yourself? Is that what you do? Yes? Right? He's on the
committees for Healthcare Reform, Select Natural Resources, and Public Health. This guy
what it's fine? Look at him? Proud public services. Four. Hello,
my name is four Price. I'm here representing the eighty seventh District of
Texas. Definitely, I am a normal a normal what individual say, because
normal people call themselves individuals all the time. I am a normal individual.
I'm definitely a normal individual, and I believe in Texas. I believe in
four. Oh my god, I mean, come on, really be four.
I mean this guy. If this guy escape kindergarten, yeah without being
renamed five? Oh oh, I see his name is Walter Thomas Price,
the fourth. Okay, four Price. I'm sorry, sir, I just
I couldn't handle the fact that the newspaper says your first name is four four
price. How about your for sale as well? Right? Absolutely fucking assholes
or up price is more like it. Right. An Emerald Republican and cal
Farley's board members let's go oh knew the allegations before Wednesday, he said.
Adams told the board that the Guardian story was being written and detailed the allegations.
Haimlich agreed that the Boys Ranch had cleaned up since the nineteen nineties and
emphasized that it still maintains a quote flagship model for child therapy, but in
a statement released Wednesday evening on behalf of the survivors, she expressed disappointment with
the apology. It's clear that cal Farley's Boys Ranch was wanting to do the
absolute minimum so that this issue and the survivors would simply go away, Haimlich
said. The last fan wrestling podcast with Jack n JP Sorrow's the lapsed fan
Wrestling podcast. There you have it, and you know it's one thing to,
you know, engage with the survivors and issue the apology that seems to
satisfy no one. But you better believe that waldrip name is staying on the
building and you better believe that after all of this negative publicity, that might
cause them tenner or retrench a little bit, be a little more bashful in
the spirit of cal Farley about tuting their own horn and beating their own chest
and singing their own praises. Maybe that no might take take a pause for
a little bit while people still have all these negative connotations in mind from this
amount of publicity. Maybe you don't want to, I don't know, release
during all this a tribute film about how brilliant and transformative the ranches. Maybe
you don't want to release a film called Edge of the World. Jesus said
in the Book of Matthew, a shepherd that has one hundred sheep, if
one goes astray, he'll leave the ninety nine and go after the one I
lost. That's what we do, having to release a film that sounds like
that. Boss. How about the non denominational Jesus thing we have the movie
is Lamont wall Strip walls Hero? What's his name? Waldrip? What wall
Drip? Sorry, Lamart wall Drip American hero God? Good Lamont Waldrop friend
to all lat Waldrop, not Lamarte Waldrop in abuse. This I mean Lamarte
Waldrop in I abused you and get away with it. Yeah, So they
released this soaring it's like one of those Christian films that like what's his name
from Growing Pains would be in you know what I mean? You're right right?
Oh, god fucking yeah. They's all of this publicity is like twenty
seventeen, twenty eighteen about the scandal and about the survivors. And in March
twenty nineteen red carpet premiere of Edge of the World, the first feature of
film length film about our life changing services since you know, the aforementioned nineteen
forty six film. It says, stories connect our hearts and minds, lifting
us to unbelievable heights or plunging us to the darkest pits of despair. Journey
stories, in particular, communicate the essence of our lives, our hopes,
dreams, fears, failures, and the discoveries that shape the road before us.
Edge of the World, the inspiring new story from director Randy red Road,
explores the personal journeys of a compelling group of at risk young people and
the coach who teaches them the power of perseverance even as he battles a deep
personal crisis of his own. It's a journey of trust, athletics, and
faith that will inspire audiences of all stripes with the edge of the world.
Red Road and Company tell a stand up and cheer story that will lift the
hearts of everyone who's ever faced a cross roads and through the impact of a
mentor faith leader or friend, reached the next milestone as a stronger, bolder
person. Not everyone approved of the making of this film. However, there
was actually a protest at that premiere tonight. The protesters say the film is
another example of cal Farley's Boys Ranch trying to cover up for decades of alleged
physical, emotional, emotional, and sexual abuse suffered by children in its care.
Many of them also called that film propaganda. Yeah nailed it, agreed
that'd be clear. These allegations don't directly implicate Dori Funk Senior in particular.
This is all apparently the predecessor, though the short Tail to Hang To book
did contain some passages that, yes, when viewed through the lens of these
allegations, do seem a bit weird. It talks about one kid named Jeff,
who had Judge deemed a psychopath their words, who was bright and clever,
and just knew how to manipulate and scheme to get what he wants.
And Jeff has always been in trouble or exactly, and you can never trust
the boy. I mean, the things he comes up with. You wouldn't
believe. The kids got more whoppers than Burger King. You would not be
able to keep up. The judge deemed him a psychopath, as a youngster
who was bright and clever and knew how to manipulate and scheme to get what
he wants. And when he couldn't stop stealing he wants, escaped to a
nearby ranch. And the book that I've been reading from said he spun a
yarn when he was caught about how his parents had been killed in a car
wreck along the highway, and he's coming to this doorstep trying to make his
way back home to Minnesota. And another time, after escaping Boy's ranch,
he told a lady who picked him up that he had contracted polio in a
visit to South America and did a convincing limp, and that the ranch daff
refused to give him adequate medical care. He told the woman, he just
keeps trying to run away, and you wonder why and of course he's framed
as just like a total, you know, a total manipulator. Here the
boys learned how to protect themselves against Jeff, the book reads, But Dory
Funk wondered if any good might possibly be accomplished by showing faith in the boy
rather than working on the prevalent assumption that he was up to trouble. When
Cal arranged a weekend fishing trip for all the ranchers down on the Gulf,
Dory decided to take the gamble and let Jeff go along, rather than play
safe and leave him behind at the ranch to circumvent the possibilities of Jeff's running
off and trends at stealing something or causing some trouble which would reflect on the
ranch. Always worried about reflecting on the ranch, aren't they he even in
the fifties. But the problem is it's always about that. Dory decided to
attempt to appeal to whatever latent sense of responsible that he Jeff might have.
Before the trip, he called him into his office. I want you to
do me a favor, Jeff, the superintendent said, confidentially, I have
received a tip that a boy is going to try to run away on this
trip, and I want you to watch him for me. Keep your eye
on him, and report to meet immediately if anything happens. Delighted with his
cloak and dagger assignment, Jeff tailed that kid so that he couldn't even get
a drink of water without finding Jeff alongside him. Like a real private eye,
Jeff made periodic surreptitious reports to the superintendent that being funk on his charge's
behavior. All through the trip, Jeff was so busy performing his duty that
he had no time to get into any trouble. But as soon as he
reached the ranch and his mission was accomplished, he grew restless, hid out
on the back end of a pickup truck, and rode into Amarilla. There,
he jumped the truck and began moseying around downtown looking for excitement. He
was standing on a midtown street corner when a woman alongside him stopped off the
curb. Stepped off the curb, it was nearly run down by a taxicab.
Jeff solicitously helped her back to the sidewalk. You should have that driver
thrown in jail, he told her. In fact, I bet you have
a good lawsuit against that cab company. Oh my god. Amazed at the
boy's precocious had I, the woman invited him to go to a drug store
and have an ice cream soda. As they chatted, Jeff told her he
lived out at Boy's Ranch, but when his new friend pressed him for details
of his life there, he finally admitted, with downcast eyes, that he
did not like it because they whip me all the time. The woman became
so indignant that you put in a call to the welfare office to register a
protest. The welfare office, which had previous preserved friendly, cooperative relations with
the ranch through the years, called Cal and reported what the woman had said.
Cal promptly went down at a drug store and caught them before they left.
He picked up his runaway and invited the woman to come out the following
Sunday to Boy's Ranch and see for herself how many beatings took place out there.
She accepted the invitation and drove out with her husband. At the ranch,
she requested Jeff to service their guidance. Since they were already acquainted,
Funk allowed him to go with them. A few days later, Cal met
the woman on the streets of Amarillo. Mister Farley she asked, did you
ever get that fishing rod and reel that I ordered for that sweet little blonde
boy. Cal's ears perked up apprehensively. You mean Jeff, Yes, that
was his name, the woman nodded. My husband and I were out there
on Sunday and he told us he didn't have a rod and reel, so
I sent one to him and care of your office. Then it was taken
out to him, Cal assured her. When he had checked all the details,
Cal approximately pieced together the following scene of how Jeff made his sail.
After he had shown his visitors to schoolhouse in the chapel in the old Courthouse,
Jeff herded them down toward the fishing lake, where some of the boys
were spending their Sunday afternoon. Along the footpath toward the lake, Jeff commented
wistfully to his prospects, the boys just love to fish. You should be
out here on a Sunday night. They were boys circling the entire lake pulling
in fish. Jeff sighed, it was obviously his friends. Turned to say
something. Since Jeff had given her the que she picked it up and came
through with the proper line. Jeff, do you fish. Jeff looked over
on the blue hazed heels. No, ma'am, he said in a sad,
small voice. His friend read her next line correctly. Why don't you
fish, Jeff sighed, I don't have a rod and reel. As soon
as the stores were open the next morning, and Amarilla the woman acted out
of the business, acted out the business that Jeff had silently assigned her.
She went to a hardware store and bought a fine rod and reel and shipped
them out to Jeff care of the ranch office. If Jeff had bothered to
write her a thank you note, cal might not have discovered the gift and
its implication. But when she asked Jeff if Cal, if Jeff had received
it, he had the tip he needed. I was certain that a sharp
operator like Jeff was no one time salesman, explained Cal. So as soon
as I heard about the rod and reel, I drove out to the ranch
and walked down to the lake and began hunting around in the high weeds around
the bank. It didn't take long to find Jeff's private cash, thirteen fine
rods and reels, which he was renting to other boys for a dime,
and evening. Jeff himself never went fishing. He didn't like fish. Yes,
I don't know. It's like this big passage about this kid that seems
focused on first and foremost discrediting the boy, before tucking in the thing about
they abused me all the time, Yeah, sandwiched between paragraphs about how he
can't be trusted and how he was a shyster and how he was a huckster
and how he was a hustler. I don't know, just kinda kind of
hard to read any other way after