DCP109 – The Fabulous Moolah

The Fabulous Moolah — World Women's Champion

NWA Women's Champion Portrait — Original Ditch-Cat Photo Print

Bio

There has never been anyone quite like The Fabulous Moolah.

Mary Lillian Ellison — born in South Carolina and destined for legend — became a fan of wrestling after her father took her to shows as a young girl to cheer her up after the passing of her mother. She could not have known then what was coming. Kayfabememories

She began her career outside the ring as one of wrestling's first female valets — dubbed "Slave Girl Moolah" by promoter Jack Pfeffer, she was an alluring presence at ringside for competitors including the gruesome Elephant Boy and the United States Champion, "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. But the ring was calling her name. Kayfabememories

In 1956, she outlasted 12 other ladies in a battle royal for the vacant Women's Championship of the World — and then held that title for the next 28 years. Twenty-eight years. The championship belt she carried was iconic in its own right — featuring Moolah's own portrait on its center plate, it later became the original WWF Women's Championship. KayfabememoriesMidatlanticwrestling

She became the first woman inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995 and is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. In 1999, she became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's Championship at age 76. IMDbIMDb

This photograph captures Moolah in her prime — purple robe, championship belt cinched around her waist, that unmistakable smile that said she knew exactly who she was and what she'd built. An original Ditch-Cat Photo print, straight from the negative. There is only one Fabulous Moolah.