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PWInsider.com is saddened to report the passing of Johnny Legend (real name Martin Margulies) at the age of 76 following complications of stroke and heart failure.
Legend was one of those esoteric personalities who had many chapters and rebirths over the course of his life, including many involving professional wrestling.
In 1982, Legend wrote and produced the film My Breakfast with Blassie starring future WWE Hall of Famers Andy Kaufman and Freddie Blassie. Designed to be a parody of My Dinner with Andre, the short film is built around an improvised conversation between the pair over breakfast. The film blends deadpan humor with absurdity, highlighting Kaufman’s fascination with performance, persona, and the blurred line between reality and satire. Legend's sister Lynn Marguiles has a small role in the film and became Kaufman's real-life girlfriend through the end of his life, with Courtney Love later portraying her in the Kaufman bio-pic Man on the Moon. One of Kaufman's final public appearances was for the film's premiere.
Lynn's announcement of his passing: "This is Johnny’s sister Lynne. I’m so very, very sorry to have to let you know that Johnny has passed away from complications of a stroke and heart failure. He was here at my home on the Oregon coast with me, my husband Lon Osgood and our 13 kitties, who Johnny adored, and they adored him. Lon and he were friends since high school, they started their band The Seeds of Time together. Johnny was 8 years older than me and of course I idolized him. Farewell to the Rockabilly Rasputin and as Johnny himself would say, Rest in Pieces. I love you my brother."
Legend, a pro wrestling fan in California his entire life, including the WWA where Fred Blassie ruled the scene, would go on to produce the Blassie novelty record single I Bite the Songs in the 1980s, featuring Blassie’s trademark raspy, menacing promo style in a spoken-word delivery over a primitive new wave backing, playing off his wrestling persona as a grotesque, confrontational heel. Legend also wrote the lyrics for the immortally great Blassie song Pencil Neck Geek..
In 1985, Legend was also involved with Rhino Records' compilation record Wrestling Rocks in a creative and curatorial capacity. At the time, Legend was associated with Rhino as a producer, writer, and pop-culture historian, and he helped conceptualize and assemble novelty releases that drew on wrestling’s theatrical and musical crossover appeal. Legend was heavily involved in the rockabilly music scene and was involved in countless records in the 1970s through 2000. Legend was also involved in several Rhino Home Video pro wrestling compilations released on VHS.
Legend worked as a manager for smaller promotions of the era, claiming to be the "number one manager of mayhem" and later co-founded Incredibly Strange Wrestling independent wrestling promotion that ran for a number of years in California. Legend and artist Michael Schmidt headed the promotion, which became well known during the tape trading era for blending professional wrestling with performance art, punk aesthetics, and deliberately absurd or transgressive characters. ISW events were held in nightclubs, warehouses and artspaces, reinforcing ISW’s countercultural identity. Wrestlers often adopted surreal, grotesque, or satirical personas, and matches emphasized shock value, and dark humor over athletic competition. ISW was chronicled in the 2002 documentary The Legend of Incredibly Strange Wrestling, which helped cement its reputation as a unique intersection of wrestling, outsider art, and underground entertainment. The group ran semi-regularly through 2007.
A lot of the talents and personalities who would go on to cement the early era of the California wrestling scene, including Dan Farren, Kurt Brown and a number of alumni from the now-defunct Slammer's Wrestling Gym worked for Legend. Future lucha legends, including Konnan, Psicosis and an underaged Rey Mysterio Jr. all worked for Legend very early in their careers. From PWG to David Marquez's UWN to Lucha Underground and Wrestling Society X, all of that in many ways came from the butterfly effect of Legend's interest and love for professional wrestling. His work was very much the start of building that foundation for others.
Legend had retired about 6-7 years ago and had moved from California to Oregon. Before settling down, he was a regular guest and vendor at lots of pop culture and horror conventions over the decades, where he regularly preached and pushed Mexican horror films, lucha libre and all sorts of other underground (at the time) forms of entertainment that pushed creativity and insanity to the max in stereo. He produced all sorts of low budget films, performed music and promoted concerts and wrestling combination shows. He was a true hustler in every sense of the world and there is no way there will ever be another in our lifetime.
PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to Legend's family, friends and fans.
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