Scott Radley: The improbable-but-remarkably-true story of Hamilton’s Pepper Martin
How do you properly tell the story of a Hamiltonian whose mother died in the deadliest fire in this city's history leaving him to live with his bootlegging father until he joined the navy at 16 only to be kicked out when they discovered he'd lied about his age which brought him home to play for the Tiger-Cats where he was exposed to pro wrestling which led him to be introduced to acting by the grappler who played Oddjob in Goldfinger" - only after nearly going into the prophylactic business with the Mob - and eventually earning a role that allowed him to beat up Superman?
In other words, how do you tell the story of Pepper Martin in a few inches?
You can't.
It seems very far-fetched that a guy from Hamilton could have gone and done all the things that he did," says wrestling writer Greg Oliver who knew Martin for nearly two decades.
It seems even more unlikely that people around here might not know the story of the man who died on Friday at 85. Because it's wild.
We'll pick up the tale in 1944 when Martin - Howard Martin then - was just seven. He kissed his mom goodnight and watched her and his dad leave for the Moose Hall on Wilson Street for a night of dancing.
While they were enjoying their evening, an arsonist set fire to the stairs, trapping everyone inside. His dad wrapped his wife in drapes to protect her and tried to help her out a window to safety. But as the panicked crowd shoved toward the opening, he fell out instead, landing in a tree. She died in the flames. One of 10 victims that night.
It impacted his entire life," says Penny Lane, the co-author of his autobiography.
Yes, that's her real name.
His dad wasn't a kind man. He ran a cafe and dance hall in Freelton and would bootleg liquor out the back, but Martin was eager to create distance and move on. So at 16, he joined the navy. At least until they discovered he'd fudged his birth date on the forms and sent him home.
That led to football. Which led to a stint with the Ticats. Which eventually led him to Al Spittles' legendary gym here in town. The place where Billy Red Lyons, Reggie Love, the Sharpe brothers and many other star wrestlers of their day trained.
Suddenly he'd found his calling.
He sort of lucked into it," Oliver says.
Martin's first break came when some little people and a wrestling bear were headed out on a summer multi-city tour and he was hired to get the eclectic ensemble from town to town and appear on the card. After changing his name to Pepper (at the urging of wrestling legend Fritz von Erich who insisted Howard" wasn't exactly intimidating), he spent the next two decades working the circuit from Detroit to Texas but largely in the Pacific Northwest.
He won championships, blew out his knee, was stabbed by a fan and even broke his back in the ring. Which was bad yet it led to his next big break.
While injured and doing commentary on televised matches, he was hooked up with a contact in the acting world by his wrestling buddy Harold Sakata, who played the hat-throwing, sculpture-decapitating Oddjob in the James Bond movie. Long story short, Martin found himself at a party in Hollywood drinking all night with actor Lee Marvin. The two struck up a friendship and by 1968, Martin was carving out a new career on screen.
Over the years, he appeared in dozens of films - including The Wrecking Crew" with Sharon Tate just months before she was murdered by the Manson Family - and over 200 TV shows including The Rockford Files," Emergency," I Dream of Jeannie," The Mod Squad," Mission Impossible," Starsky and Hutch" and The Incredible Hulk."
But his most memorable moment came as Rocky the truck driver in Superman II" when he beat up Clark Kent only to find himself on the receiving end later in the movie.
I was the only man who ever beat up Superman and lived to brag about it," he quipped to the Los Angeles Times a few years ago.
There's so much more. Enough to fill that autobiography he wrote with Penny Lane. All 572 pages of it. Shrapnel of the Soul and Redemption" it's called. If it sounds heavy, there's a reason.
While his life was undoubtedly memorable, it wasn't easy or without warts. There was the loss of his mother, rough times with his father. In the autobiography, he tells of infidelity and substance abuse.
(His) life was marked by violence, controversy, physical pain, and emotional suffering," says the review of the book on Amazon.
He even battled eye cancer that required a prosthetic replacement. Of course, there's a story with that, too. His new eyeball was made by the same guy who made fake eyes for Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Falk.
Ultimately, his story became one of redemption, as his book suggests. In the second half of his life, he became a man of faith and his heart changed, says his daughter, Terry Pitts. He earned forgiveness from his wife, who he'd met as a teenager at his dad's cafe in Freelton and lived with for 65 years until the cancer he'd been battling finally took him.
It's a remarkable story. Yet Oliver says it isn't as well-known as it should be. Which is undoubtedly the case. Many reading this have probably never heard of him before.
Question is, is it true? All the stories and anecdotes and tales? All the famous names and connections?
Absolutely yes, Pitts says.
You just can't make it up."
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com