Dead Man in the Ring: Part Four

“Agile” Andre Anderson had defeated Fairbury native and pro-wrestling pioneer “Big” Wayne Munn in a boxing match. His refusal to throw the match led to his murder. It also led to the creation of a literary classic. By Gordon Hopkins The Legacy of “Agile” Andre Anderson Andre Anderson was a family man, war veteran and athlete, just beginning on a path that could have brought his fame and glory when his life was cut short at the age of 35. That could have been the end of his story, but he had one more posthumous contribution to give history.Boxing has sparked the imaginations of some of America’s greatest literary writers, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oats and, most especially Ernest Hemingway. It is unknown what Hemingway’s opinions of professional wrestling were. There seems to me no mention of the sport in his oeuvre. Today, if you try to Google Hemingway and wrestling, all you will find are a hundred or more posts about the 1993 movie, “Wrestling Ernest Hemingway.” On boxing, however, Hemingway was quite effusive. He was a fan and even boxed himself. According to the Hemingway Home Museum, he once said, “My writing is nothing, my boxing is everything.”Hemingway was also quite familiar with organized crime, having reported on it during his time as a newspaper man. So, it is quite likely the great writer was aware of the fate of Andre Anderson when he wrote one of his most famous short stories, “The Killers,” first published in 1927 in Scribner’s Magazine.It features Hemingway’s perennial protagonist, Nick Adams, having a meal at a diner when the story opens. A couple of ruffians arrive, intent on killing a boxer. Nick and the diner’s other occupants are trussed up in the kitchen while the homicidal pair await their quarry. The boxer never arrives and Adams is eventually freed and he locates the boxer to warn him. The boxer is already aware there is a price on his head and seems strangely uninterested in saving his own life. There is no reference to organized crime and no explicit explanation for why the men wish to kill the boxer, although the implication is clear. “The Killers” is a prime example of Hemingway’s “less is more” philosophy. Hemingway swore the tale was not based on the murder of Andre Anderson. He seriously undercut that claim by naming his fictional boxer Ole Andreson. “The Killers” became a movie in 1946, featured the debut of Burt Lancaster alongside Ava Gardner. Hemingway famously detested most film adaptations of his work but he actually liked “The Killers.” The part of the movie that is Hemingway’s story is faithfully adapted but really only makes up the very beginning of the movie. The rest is an original story, a film noir mix of insurance fraud, double crosses and a femme fatale (Gardner, obviously). If nothing else, Hemingway’s addition to the legacy of “Agile”Andre Anderson gave it a longevity it might not otherwise have had. In the end, that legacy is all that remains of a man who deserved better.

Alan Mussman

The End of the World (Wide Web) As We Know It

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