Kansas City teen "mails in" wrestling screenplay
By Sandy Stevens
ssmamabear@aol.com
Imagine learning to wrestle from a correspondence course and going on to become an Olympic champion.
Well, if Michael Simpson’s plans pan out, you won’t have to imagine this scenario. You’ll be able to see it unfold on the silver screen.
The 17-year-old has recently marked his own gold medal achievements by winning first prize for the best short screenplay at both the Austin and Houston international film festivals, two of the largest film festivals in the world. In fact, Houston’s WorldFest is the world’s oldest film festival. In the Austin competition alone, he bested nearly 100 others in the student category, which included high school, college and graduate student entries.
His story, “Worthy of Gold,” is the tale of his great-uncle, Peter Mehringer, a 1932 Olympic champion and Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
And yes, Mehringer learned to wrestle via the mail.
Michael, who will be a senior at Blue Valley High School in the Kansas City suburb of Stilwell, wrote his first script three years ago. “I’ve always wanted to make a professional movie, one that would be shown in theaters, so I thought if I wrote a screenplay, I had a chance of that happening,” he said.
He completed several screenplays before his grandfather suggested Mehringer as a subject. His interest piqued, Michael began researching his great-uncle’s life. “I got a lot of information from my grandparents, and (Mehringer’s) granddaughters sent countless newspaper articles that they had,” he said.
The most amazing information, of course, was that as a kid, Mehringer learned about wrestling from a mail correspondence course. He received a book titled “The Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture” after spotting an ad in a magazine.
“He just went to his barn and wrestled his brothers” in a family of 13 children, Michael said. “He really looked up to Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns.”
As a high school sophomore in Kinsley, Kansas, a small town near Dodge City, Mehringer served as the school’s wrestling coach because the football coach wanted nothing to do with grappling. The student-coach won his first state crown in 1928.
The Depression cancelled any trip the following year, but as a senior in 1930, Mehringer hitch-hiked to the championship, winning his second state title at heavyweight.
With a scholarship under his belt, Mehringer headed to the University of Kansas, where he excelled in both wrestling and football. A winner of three consecutive Big Six Conference crowns, Mehringer suffered his only college defeat, at the hands of Northwestern heavyweight Jack Riley in the NCAA finals.
Mehringer turned the tables on Riley in that year’s Olympic Trials, however. “ Pete pinned him two times in six minutes,” Michael said. “But the coaches decided that Riley would go as the heavyweight and Pete, as a light heavyweight (191 pounds).”
Mehringer came home from the Los Angeles Olympiad with a gold medal; Riley, with a silver.
An All-American in football, Mehringer played in the first-ever College All-Star game in 1934 and would earn a pro lineman’s top salary of $100 per game with the Chicago Cardinals and the Los Angeles Bulldogs.
As a movie extra and stunt double, he appeared in over 40 movies, Michael said. Mehringer played one of Ronald Reagan’s teammates in “Knute Rockne, All-American” and doubled for Bob Hope in “The Road to Zanzibar.”
“He got to be good friends with them,” Michael said.
A resident of Pullman, Wash., Mehringer died in 1987 at the age of 77. He was a retired engineer who designed and built the famed Sepulveda Tunnel adjacent to the Los Angeles International airport, his grand nephew said.
Although Mehringer’s college degree was in physical education, Michael said, “He also learned how to be an engineer from a book.”
Michael’s winning screenplay was just 15 pages long, but he’d actually begun work on a feature-length script before the contest came along. Normal length is 120 pages, he said, and he’s essentially reached that point.
“I have it all done,” he said. “I’m rewriting, just making it better every time.”
Championing Michael’s screenplay is photographer Richard Welnowski, who won an Emmy for outstanding achievement in special visual effects for “The Orchestra,” a made-for-television movie. Welnowski is also director of photography for “Lazytown.” “It’s the most popular TV show for kids.” Michael said.
Helping the teen fine tune his story is Sandra J. Payne, former head screenwriter for the TV show “Barney.”
A former soccer player and a 3.8 student, Michael researched wrestling on the Internet, and a teacher helped him understand even more. “I wrestled just one time in a friend’s basement,” he said.
Despite his lack of wrestling experience, however, Michael knows that the story of great-uncle Pete Mehringer is special.
“ Richard calls it ‘The Great American Story,’” he said.
By Sandy Stevens
ssmamabear@aol.com
Imagine learning to wrestle from a correspondence course and going on to become an Olympic champion.
Well, if Michael Simpson’s plans pan out, you won’t have to imagine this scenario. You’ll be able to see it unfold on the silver screen.
The 17-year-old has recently marked his own gold medal achievements by winning first prize for the best short screenplay at both the Austin and Houston international film festivals, two of the largest film festivals in the world. In fact, Houston’s WorldFest is the world’s oldest film festival. In the Austin competition alone, he bested nearly 100 others in the student category, which included high school, college and graduate student entries.
His story, “Worthy of Gold,” is the tale of his great-uncle, Peter Mehringer, a 1932 Olympic champion and Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
And yes, Mehringer learned to wrestle via the mail.
Michael, who will be a senior at Blue Valley High School in the Kansas City suburb of Stilwell, wrote his first script three years ago. “I’ve always wanted to make a professional movie, one that would be shown in theaters, so I thought if I wrote a screenplay, I had a chance of that happening,” he said.
He completed several screenplays before his grandfather suggested Mehringer as a subject. His interest piqued, Michael began researching his great-uncle’s life. “I got a lot of information from my grandparents, and (Mehringer’s) granddaughters sent countless newspaper articles that they had,” he said.
The most amazing information, of course, was that as a kid, Mehringer learned about wrestling from a mail correspondence course. He received a book titled “The Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture” after spotting an ad in a magazine.
“He just went to his barn and wrestled his brothers” in a family of 13 children, Michael said. “He really looked up to Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns.”
As a high school sophomore in Kinsley, Kansas, a small town near Dodge City, Mehringer served as the school’s wrestling coach because the football coach wanted nothing to do with grappling. The student-coach won his first state crown in 1928.
The Depression cancelled any trip the following year, but as a senior in 1930, Mehringer hitch-hiked to the championship, winning his second state title at heavyweight.
With a scholarship under his belt, Mehringer headed to the University of Kansas, where he excelled in both wrestling and football. A winner of three consecutive Big Six Conference crowns, Mehringer suffered his only college defeat, at the hands of Northwestern heavyweight Jack Riley in the NCAA finals.
Mehringer turned the tables on Riley in that year’s Olympic Trials, however. “ Pete pinned him two times in six minutes,” Michael said. “But the coaches decided that Riley would go as the heavyweight and Pete, as a light heavyweight (191 pounds).”
Mehringer came home from the Los Angeles Olympiad with a gold medal; Riley, with a silver.
An All-American in football, Mehringer played in the first-ever College All-Star game in 1934 and would earn a pro lineman’s top salary of $100 per game with the Chicago Cardinals and the Los Angeles Bulldogs.
As a movie extra and stunt double, he appeared in over 40 movies, Michael said. Mehringer played one of Ronald Reagan’s teammates in “Knute Rockne, All-American” and doubled for Bob Hope in “The Road to Zanzibar.”
“He got to be good friends with them,” Michael said.
A resident of Pullman, Wash., Mehringer died in 1987 at the age of 77. He was a retired engineer who designed and built the famed Sepulveda Tunnel adjacent to the Los Angeles International airport, his grand nephew said.
Although Mehringer’s college degree was in physical education, Michael said, “He also learned how to be an engineer from a book.”
Michael’s winning screenplay was just 15 pages long, but he’d actually begun work on a feature-length script before the contest came along. Normal length is 120 pages, he said, and he’s essentially reached that point.
“I have it all done,” he said. “I’m rewriting, just making it better every time.”
Championing Michael’s screenplay is photographer Richard Welnowski, who won an Emmy for outstanding achievement in special visual effects for “The Orchestra,” a made-for-television movie. Welnowski is also director of photography for “Lazytown.” “It’s the most popular TV show for kids.” Michael said.
Helping the teen fine tune his story is Sandra J. Payne, former head screenwriter for the TV show “Barney.”
A former soccer player and a 3.8 student, Michael researched wrestling on the Internet, and a teacher helped him understand even more. “I wrestled just one time in a friend’s basement,” he said.
Despite his lack of wrestling experience, however, Michael knows that the story of great-uncle Pete Mehringer is special.
“ Richard calls it ‘The Great American Story,’” he said.