Believe it or not, folks, the man pictured on your right, one of the most vicious professional wrestlers to ever climb into the ring, "Classy" Freddie Blassie used to live in Atlanta.  How brutal was he?  Well, he was sometimes known as "The Vampire" for his willingness to bite the flesh of his opponents.  In this photo, he is actually filing his teeth to a point to facilitate his barbarism.

Click here to see where Blassie lived in 1960.

Click here to see where Blassie lived in 1966.

We're proud to tip our cap to Freddie Blassie, King Of Men, who made his home in Atlanta in 1960 while wrestling in the southeast and again in 1966-67 while selling cars.  Selling cars?  Yep, it's true.  He'd gone into retirement after the loss of his right kidney.  The car salesman job didn't cut it for Blassie, though, and before long he was back in the ring beating opponents senseless and climbing to even greater levels of fame, especially after his relocation to the West Coast in the late 1960's.

His claims to fame are many.  In addition to holding various championship belts a total of 14 times and wrestling all over the world, he made occasional appearances on mainstream TV entertainment programs like The Tonight Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Dragnet and many others. 

In 1962, Blassie appeared on The Dick Van Dyke show in an episode called "The Twizzle."   Naturally, we have a couple of photos for you!

Photo credit:  Exquisite Mayhem: The Spectacular and Erotic World of  Wrestling by Theo Ehret (Tashchen Publishing)