PORTLAND WRESTLING STAR KURT VON POPPENHEIM

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[DG]

The first mention of Mr. Poppenheim in the local newspapers is in 1940 when he was wrestling under the name Jack Poppenheim (The Flying Dutchman), but he did not get much ink in the papers until he changed his name to Kurt Von Poppenheim in the fall of 1951 and became a villain in the wrestling world.

Oregonian September 1951
A good wrestler, Jack wasn't getting very far in the ring. "No Color", agreed the promoters. So he grew a Prussian mustache, put on a German Iron Cross (a family heirloom), and billed himself as Kurt Von Poppenheim, the Baron from Koenigsberg, Germany.
In a few weeks Poppenheim earned star billing and became one of the leading menaces on the Pacific Northwest grunt-groan circuit.

Kurt Von Poppenheim wrestled thru 1963 and then retired, but in 1968 ran for Mayor of Portland and receive 9% of the vote in the May primary election.