NEW YORK, NEW YORK! Here we come - The Ladies of "Lipstick & Dynamite"
(retired) Fightin'  Female Lady Wrestlers!!!

I'm Penny Banner, the one  called the " St. Louie Woman."  When I
entered this career, I'd never so much as heard of women wrestlers. I didn't
believe such a sport existed!

I was a governess to three children - just minding my business - when
a call  came  from the president of the National Wrestling Alliance. He had
heard from a friend that I had studied  judo and could do 200 situps . That
interested him, so he asked me if I was interested in becoming a lady
wrestler. I was very hesitant.

Some of my career highlights are:  

* 1964 - Winning the First AWA Womens World Championship

* In 1997 I was awared the Lifetime Achievement award from the CAC

*  2004 - Publishing my  autobiography  "Banner Days," which is dedicated to
all of the women I wrestled from 1954  thru 1977. (It can be purchased on
http://www.bannerdays.com)

* 2005 - Participating in Lipstick and Dynamite is the epitome of my career
and I thank Ruth Leitmann for her vision in taking the time to create it.
This documentary is for all pioneer women wrestlers to be remembered for
their strengths and struggles;

* 2005 - Scheduled for induction into the Professional Wrestlings Hall of
Fame this coming May 22nd in Amsterdam, N.Y. http://www.pwhf.org

Since January, I am recouperating from a total right knee replacement and
training hard for this year's National Senior Olympic games to be held this
June in Pittsburgh, Pa.

I still love competition but my sports today are much easier on my
bones:  swimming, the discus, shotput and hammer throws.

Penny Banner Rules! In my opinion she is as good a wrestler as she is beautiful. And that is damn good. And from what I observed at the question and answering after the screening of the film "which I truly enjoyed" Friday night she is truly a beautiful person inside as well as outside. If it is possible can someone here send her my URL listed above web site as well as my e-mail listed above or if she has a direct e-mail address that I can e-mail her. I would like to ask her to dinner. She is stunning and I would like to get to know her if possible. Thank you. Yours truly, Vic Martino.

Hey Vic....so happy you enjoyed the movie and thank you for your nice compliments.....I hope you came up to me and took our photo together??? tsk tsk IF you didn't.
I posted my comments on the movie on my Forum at the url above. This was my first time to see it, and I liked it also..Again..thanks for the compliments..;-) Hope you had a nice and happy Easter.

Penny is an amazing, resilient person. She went through experiences that would have crushed a lesser woman and came out all the better for them. You might expect a certain coarseness in a lady wrestler, but there is none in Penny, "My biggest surprise was her lack of using any foul language either in person or in her book at " bannerdays.com." I would have expected some of that, but she didn't use any curse words. If some are in the book - I put them there for emphasis. The book is so good that it doesn't need to rely on shock value, and is a great follow up to this Movie.
If you can't see the movie, get Penny's book at www.bannerdays.com. I am still amazed, given the wrestling books out there, that nobody jumped on this one. Read it for hoots - and for heartaches, as well as triumphs.
Her editor,
Gerry Hostetler