Jerry Lawler 'It's Good To Be The King' DVD Review: 17 Interesting Observations
14. The Artist That Would Be Known As King
To this day, Jerry 'The King' Lawler is one hell of an artist as that picture of Superman shows. Jimmy Hart recalls how Lawler's artwork would pop up all around Treadwell High, signed off with The King's own trademark signature. The King recalls how his mother's stories of how great an artist her dad was inspired him to pick up the drawing pencil. As a side note, Superman would play a huge part in Jerry's childhood. King idolised the character from as early as the age of five. He credits his love of superheroes as the reason he got involved in a business. He wanted to be and work with real life versions of the caricatures he used to look at in comics. While attending wrestling shows with his dad, Jerry would sit and draw what was happening in the ring. Word would soon spread of Lawler's obvious talent so the fans around him would start asking for drawings. Then, Lance Russell, the announcer of Memphis Wrestling, used Jerry's drawings to illustrate to the fans what had happened on the previous week's show. Lawler was now the designated ringside artist and had his foot in the door of the professional wrestling business. Before this, the King's artwork was proving to be so good that his high school art teacher saved a portfolio of his work without him knowing and sent it in to the University Of Memphis. King, being from a family that couldn't afford to send him onto further education, mustn't have believed his luck when he was offered a full tuition commercial art scholarship by the university. While at the university, Lawler's passion for wrestling was put on the back burner when he realised the wrestling team wasn't a serious one. The baseball coach doubled as the wrestling coach while there wasn't even enough members to put a team together. However, this didn't stop Lawler causing a stir the first time he turned up to wrestling training. While everyone else was wearing the customary singlet, Jerry turned up in the ridiculous mask shown below. Of course, all of his classmates got a kick out of it, while his coach certainly didn't.
