by Chloe Landen
On April 17th, UT’s Department of Religious Studies, with support from the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University, welcomed Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara Dr. David Walker and DJ Tim Albro to the Harry Ransom Center for an interactive screening of Dr. Walker’s new documentary The Mormon Giant, which narrates the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through the lens of professional wrestling. The screening was an innovative and entrancing blend of a traditional academic presentation with a multisensory performance.
For nearly an hour, members of the audience were engaged simultaneously by the documentary film, a live narration by Dr. Walker, and Albro’s hypnotic beats. As the production unfolded, listeners became immersed in the story of Don Leo Jonathan, a second-generation professional wrestling star who rose to fame in the mid-twentieth century. Raised by “Brother Jonathan,” a professional wrestler notorious for dressing in traditional Latter-day Saint garb and sporting a Bible, the shadow of his father as well as Don Leo’s known personal faith quickly earned him the stage name of the “Mormon Giant.” Yet Don Leo diverged from the path his father carved. He did not adorn himself in traditional Latter-day Saint attire or flaunt scripture; his faith was largely indiscernible in his appearance and behavior. At best, he was ambivalent about the moniker he was bestowed, choosing instead to brandish his towering height of six feet and six inches and impressive weight exceeding three hundred pounds. Nonetheless, the label stuck, and, as Dr. Walker’s analysis illustrated, it had implications for the wrestling world and American religious history at large.
Professional wrestling ritually performs compelling moral dramas between good and evil, and these performances historically have often referenced religious characters to further distinguish ‘good’ and ‘bad’ religion within America. As the “Mormon Giant,” Don Leo’s wrestling matches invited fans to make a moral decision either to support or disavow the Latter-day Saint tradition, as represented in the ring, while concurrently acknowledging its presence and even at times welcoming Don Leo’s specifically Americanized version of Mormonism to the nation’s landscape. Dr. Walker’s narration invited the audience to consider what it meant for Don Leo Jonathan’s theology to be the defining characteristic of his performative wrestling. Why did wrestling’s consumers desire and at times demand Don Leo to be marked by his theology? How did the figure of the “Mormon Giant” fit within a broader historical impulse in wrestling to otherize religious outsiders?
After the screening concluded, a dialogue with Dr. Walker, Albro, and moderator Dr. Tracy Fessenden, the Steve and Margaret Forster Professor of Religion at Arizona State University, ensued. The conversation was then opened to the crowd, many of whom were UT undergraduate students of Dr. Chad Seales’ UGS course “Religion and Social Inequality.” Members of the audience asked questions ranging from how Dr. Walker chose what to include in the documentary and what to leave out, to how and why Albro decided upon certain tunes to accompany the film. The presentation received resounding praise from students and faculty alike, who were impressed by Dr. Walker and Albro’s exciting delivery.
About Dr. David Walker:
Dr. David Walker is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and a J. F. Rowny Chair in Religion and Society. His new documentary, The Mormon Giant, is a part of his larger research interests concerning the history of Mormonism in the United States. Dr. Walker is the author of Railroading Religion: Mormons, Tourists, and the Corporate Spirit of the West (2019), which received the Mormon History Association’s Best Book Award. Broadly, Dr. Walker’s work has focused on intersections of religion, settlement policy, technology, and popular culture in the long nineteenth century (c. 1780-1920).
About the Author:
Chloe Landen is a PhD student in the Religion of the Americas concentration within UT’s Department of Religious Studies. Her work specializes in U.S. Protestantism within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular interests in the social gospel movement, religious nationalism, and racial violence. She is currently working on a project examining the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) and the relationship between anti-lynching activism, religion, womanhood, and privatization of the death penalty.