Jim Londos
Greek professional wrestler (1894–1975)
Christos Theofilou (Greek: Χρήστος Θεοφίλου; January 2, 1894 – August 19, 1975), better known as "The Golden Greek" Jim Londos (Greek: Τζιμ Λόντος), was a Greek American professional wrestler. Londos was one of the most popular stars on the professional wrestling circuit from the 1920s through the 1940s and the first immigrant to be an athletic superstar in the United States.
Early life
Jim Londos was born Christos Theofilou in 1894 in Koutsopodi, Argos, Greece as the youngest of thirteen children of Theophilos Theofilou and Panagoula Bimbos, though six died between the births of Londos and his next youngest brother. He worked on the family farm, tending to chores and was a middling student and not particularly outstanding young man.
At age 15, he emigrated to the United States with a cousin in search of adventure and to escape what he called his father's "stern" ways. He sailed for three weeks in steerage class aboard a steamship before landing at Ellis Island on October 10, 1909. He worked his way across the country by riding the rails. In Chicago, he shared an apartment with two friends from Greece and picked up his love of wrestling by watching amateur wrestling at a gymnasium in a resettlement complex. He also worked on a railroad in Utah before relocating to San Francisco, where his cousin lived.
Professional wrestling career
In San Francisco, Londos worked a succession of odd jobs as a railroad boy, an electrician's apprentice, and a bus boy.
The public source identifies “Jim Londos” as greek professional wrestler (1894–1975). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Londos, Greek and professional.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jim Londos” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.