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http://www.charleston.net/stories/081203/spo_12_thrash.shtml

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 
 
Wrestling with ideas 

As WWF creative director, local artist invented Undertaker 

BY MIKE MOONEYHAM 
Of The Post and Courier Staff 

His father created the Sertoma Football and Rotary Roundball charity
classics. His brother and sister created the philanthropic Charitable
Society of Charleston.

All Bill Thrash did was help create one of the most successful
characters in the history of sports entertainment.

"I came up with The Undertaker's name and designed his costume," said
Thrash, who served as creative director for World Wrestling
Entertainment (at the time known as the World Wrestling Federation)
from 1989-94.

"It's kind of like my claim to fame, since almost everyone has heard
of The Undertaker, even if they're not a wrestling fan."

  
GRACE BEAHM/STAFF  
Bill Trash, a Summerville native who spent five years as the creative
director of the then-Wolrd Wrestling Federation, holds an urn signed
by The Undertaker, one of Thrash's creations for the premiere
wrestling franchise.
 
Neither was the Summerville native when he interviewed for the job 14
years ago. But with a name like Thrash, he seemed a natural for the
wrestling profession.

"I didn't know anything about wrestling. I had heard of guys like Ric
Flair and Wahoo McDaniel out at the old County Hall, but I never knew
much about it."

Thrash doesn't understate his initial lack of knowledge concerning the
business. When he first interviewed for the job at the company's
lavish headquarters in Stamford, Conn., he was introduced to WWE owner
Vince McMahon, universally recognized as the most powerful man in the
wrestling industry.

"I shook his hand but didn't recognize him," Thrash said. "He seemed
kind of amazed that I didn't know him."

Thrash, though, obviously made a favorable impression with the mat
czar. He was called in for a second interview a week later and was
immediately placed in charge of a staff of five art directors, along
with a number of associates and freelancers. Since computer graphics
was still in its infancy, there was a great deal of hands-on work, he
said.

In addition to creating personalities and designing costumes for
wrestling characters, his responsibilities included creating and
designing television graphics, spots and sets, corporate brochures,
national magazine and television ads, trade show booths, billboards
and logos. He also directed studio and location photo shoots, and
configured a 34-station Macintosh and SiliconGraphics computer system
network.

It was pretty heady stuff for a 31-year-old, Southern-born,
Southern-bred artist with limited wrestling knowledge. But Thrash took
to it like a duck to water.

"There was a great rapport among the staff," Thrash said. "Every time
we did anything it was very competitive. Everyone was very talented,
and there were a lot of egos."

SPORTS AND BUSINESS FAMILY AFFAIR

Bill Thrash grew up in a close-knit Summerville family that had sports
and business as a backdrop.

As owner of T&T Sports of Charleston, Thrash's father, Rosser, was a
successful businessman and a bona fide sports fanatic. He was the
architect of several area sports-related ventures, including the
Palmetto Touchdown Club, the Sertoma Football Classic and the Red
Cross-Rotary Roundball Classic. The annual basketball tournament,
which began in 1993, has evolved into a spotlight event, raising
thousands of dollars for local charities and garnering national
attention for area athletics. The Sertoma event, which has raised well
over a million dollars for area charities, is celebrating its 33rd
anniversary this month.

"It's amazing how well both of them have done," said Rosser Thrash,
who has spent thousands of hours working to develop the events that
have become Lowcountry traditions.

It seems that sports has always been a big part of the Thrash family. 

"One of the happiest times of our lives was watching the kids when
they were participating," Rosser Thrash said.

Bill, the eldest of four siblings, agreed that sports has served as a
strong family bond.

His younger brother, Ben, played on four state championship teams in
baseball and football at Summerville High School and earned a football
scholarship to The Citadel. His oldest sister, Kit, was a cross
country star, and his youngest sister, Mari, was a standout swimmer.
Bill's uncle, Pat, was a local sports hero in Columbia who went on to
become a three-sport star at the University of South Carolina before
establishing the T&T sporting goods business in 1948 in the Midlands.

Rosser Thrash bought an existing store in Charleston in 1961 and moved
to the Lowcountry to run it six years later. At one time, he owned six
branch stores in addition to the main store at Rivers Avenue and
employed more than 70 people. Today's streamlined operation includes
one store and half as many employees.

"But business is better than it's ever been," according to Rosser
Thrash, who retired nearly two years ago and turned over the operation
to son Ben.

Bill Thrash also had his moments on the athletic field, although it
was established at an early age that art would be his ticket.

"He's been drawing since he was 2 or 3 years old," said his dad. "When
he was 3, my wife, Betsy, gave him a pencil and some paper, and he
drew a picture of a man sitting down in a chair. It was unbelievable.
We started giving him lessons early, and he's pursued it his entire
life. He took a correspondence course, and we had teachers in
Summerville work with him."

The Summerville High School graduate pursued his interest in art in
the Air Force, taking a job as a graphics specialist, and eventually
earned his degree in studio art at the University of South Carolina.
In 1989 he moved to Westchester County, New York, where he did graphic
artwork for various marketing firms. A headhunter ñ a professional job
recruiter -- put him in contact with the Connecticut-based wrestling
juggernaut. Thrash started his new job with the then-WWF in December
1989.

"Just in time to go to their Christmas party," he recalled. "It was a
big soirÈe out at some big hotel in Greenwich. I got to meet all these
colorful people and all the execs. It was quite the kickoff for the
job."

"It was quite a shock to me when he took the job," admitted Rosser
Thrash. "I'm not a big (wrestling) fan. I told him I hoped it was a
good job, and it turned out to be. He got a lot of good experience and
got to go a lot of places and meet some famous people."

Thrash's first major campaign with the company was a lofty one, as he
was assigned to help fashion the promotional machinery for
Wrestlemania VI featuring Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior on April
1, 1990, at the Toronto SkyDome.


THE UNDERTAKER IS BORN

Less than a year after taking the job, Thrash was called into a
meeting with McMahon and a group of front-office assistants that
included Pat Patterson, J.J. Dillon and Bruce Prichard. The goal was
to develop a new character that would be portrayed by Mark Calaway, a
towering, talented Texan who had just come off a stint in rival World
Championship Wrestling under the name Mean Mark Callous, and had
played an alien in a movie called "Suburban Commando" that starred
Hogan.

  
PHOTO PROVIDED  
Bill Thrash (center) with Sgt. Slaughter and The Iron Sheik.  
 
"This was actually kind of a fluke, because most wrestlers already had
gimmicks or names," said Thrash. "There were a couple that we massaged
or worked on as a creative team. This one was going to be special."

The character initially was to be managed by Prichard, who doubled as
the Jimmy Swaggart-based televangelist Brother Love. Realizing that
the gimmick needed to fit the religious tract, Thrash said he thought
the darkest angle to that would be the funeral home or mortuary, along
with, of course, an undertaker.

Although Thrash had not yet had an opportunity to meet Calaway, he had
seen photographs and tried to develop a visual picture of the
character.

"They exaggerated on stats for a lot of the talent, but not Mark,"
Thrash said. "He was a legit 6-8 and weighed 340 pounds. He was a huge
individual."

Conjuring up images of legendary character actor John Carradine
playing the part of an Old West undertaker in the movie The Shootist,
Thrash blurted out at the meeting, "How about Undertaker!"

As Thrash recalls, everyone seated around the conference table placed
their hands on their chests. After chewing on Thrash's suggestion for
a few seconds, McMahon slammed his hand on the desk, declaring,
"That's it. That'll do it."

The next step, said Thrash, was to work on character traits and
attitude. The following day, after doing some rough sketches, he
designed Taker's costume -- black trench coat, silver and black ascot,
Amish-style hat, gauntlet gloves, high boots, along with zombie-style
makeup. To give it that extra touch, Thrash ripped the sleeves off
with a razor. A fashion designer would later sew the costume after
researching the needed materials.

What Thrash didn't anticipate was a lawsuit alleging copyright
infringement.

"We got sued later because there was another tag team at the time
called The Undertakers wrestling for some small independent
organization. They were sort of punk rockers, while our Undertaker was
different, with the original character looking like he came from the
Old West. I was a little nervous at the time, but I guess the suit
must have gotten tossed out because we proceeded soon after."

The rest of the character development, said Thrash, fell into the
hands of the television production staff, which brought "The Dead Man"
to life, embellishing the gimmick, utilizing props and creating
storylines. Thrash gives the bulk of the credit to the powerful
promotional machinery of WWE.

"Most of the promotional aspect could be attributed to the TV studio
and the producers. They more or less massaged the character. And, of
course, J.J., Pat and Vince were all doing the scripts. They'd bring
out this big script book, and they'd have everything planned."

Prichard, however, didn't last long as The Undertaker's manager. Bill
Moody, a real-life licensed mortician who doubled as a wrestling
manager named Percy Pringle, was brought in to take Prichard's place.
The fit was a perfect one as Moody, with his squeaky voice, dyed black
hair and heavy make-up, perfectly complemented The Undertaker's grimly
dark persona. Moody, now billed as Paul Bearer, accentuated Calaway's
character by giving him an urn and creating a segment called "The
Funeral Parlor." The two would enter the ring via funeral march-like
theme music aptly titled "The Death March."

Thirteen years and several transformations later, the character still
survives, having taken its place among the most successful in the
history of the business.


WRESTLING WITH SUCCESS

Although Thrash didn't work directly with Vince McMahon, he found him
to be an alluring character himself. The thing that struck him most
about McMahon, he said, was "how together he was."

"Who could forget him? Barrel-chested with that vest underneath, Vince
had a killer handshake and was very personable," Thrash said. "He was
very serious, very charismatic. His character on TV was in no way
indicative of how he was in real life. He's a little more easygoing
than he appears on TV. He was very open-minded about all the wild
stuff we would do. He was totally on top of all situations and was
great to work for."

Thrash also vividly remembers the extravagance.

"Vince had an executive office that overlooked Long Island Sound. It
had a great view. His office -- not the conference rooms attached to
it -- had leather walls and was simply awesome. We had a cafeteria,
and the first couple of years we got a free lunch if we stayed in the
building. He tried to get people to work more than they already were."

There was little time for anything else, said Thrash.

"There was always something going on. I'd have to come to the office
for meetings on Sunday. I cooled down my work schedule after I left.
But it was quite the experience."

Most of Thrash's ideas met with unanimous approval from the WWE
hierarchy. McMahon, especially, liked his work, especially the
intensity it conveyed.

Thrash also had a big hand in the launch of the World Bodybuilding
Federation (WBF), McMahon's failed foray into the bodybuilding world
and an ill-fated attempt to set up another pro bodybuilding group
which would rival the more-established International Federation of
BodyBuilders.

"I don't really want to claim that one," joked the 44-year-old Thrash,
"but it was really very exciting and we did a lot of serious
promotional work with it. We came up with characters for the guys just
like they were wrestlers."

Thrash, who helped groom the bodybuilders and set up their personas,
even went on surveillance to Weider events (named after bodybuilding
gurus Joe and Ben Weider) and got thrown out of one when he got caught
in the wings taking pictures. McMahon and his associates had initially
denied they had any designs on creating a bodybuilding federation,
saying that they proposed only to produce a magazine called
"Bodybuilding Lifestyles."

One of Thrash's favorite projects was a booth that he built from
scratch. The ICOPRO (Integrated Conditional Programs) booth made the
rounds at a number of WBF events and nutritional supplement trade
shows, including the three WBF championships held in Atlantic City,
N.J., Long Beach, Calif., and D¸sseldorf, Germany, along with the
Arnold Classics in Nashville and Las Vegas, the Terminator's annual
paeans to pumping iron.

The WBF was a bust, however, and the costly venture lasted only 18
months -- from January 1991 to July 1992.

"We were going to take better care of the talent and make it more
competitive and entertaining. But there was just no battling the
Weiders," said Thrash.

With the collapse of the WBF and McMahon and his company in the midst
of a steroid scandal and impending trial, Thrash said he thought he
could see the writing on the wall.

"It looked like it was all coming down, and things weren't going to be
very good. They (the federal government) were coming after him big
time, and my job security appeared in jeopardy."

Any regrets the senior art director might have had about leaving were
buried in the waist-deep snow of Connecticut.

"It was a great experience. I liked the people and I liked the work,
but it was time to move on."


RETURNING TO HIS ROOTS

The walls of Thrash's downtown Charleston studio apartment are
decorated with striking samples of his elaborate handiwork.

There are plenty of promotional posters and artwork from his wrestling
days, with figures such as Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart and The Ultimate
Warrior striking various dramatic poses.

Life isn't quite as hectic now, nor does it seem quite as exciting for
Thrash, nearly a decade removed from his experience on the fringes of
a business best described as a soap opera gone mad. But that's not
altogether a bad thing said Thrash, who has settled back into a
Lowcountry lifestyle that seems to fit like a glove.

He returned to the area in 1995 to work for a Mount Pleasant-based
marketing firm, later taking a job in the family sporting goods
business while teaching courses at Trident Technical College.

"He's really exceptional," said Rosser Thrash. "I don't know that
there's a better graphic artist in South Carolina."

Thrash takes pride in the fact that he comes from a community-minded
family.

The Charitable Society of Charleston, the brainchild of brother Ben
and sister Kit Thrash, was a spin-off of another fraternal club Ben
and some friends started called "Top Twenty." The club morphed into a
fund-raising organization that has given away more than $425,000 and
provided 19,000 hours of volunteer man (and woman) hours to 172
charities in the last 10 years. It has created a $70,000 endowment
with The Community Foundation that charities can tap for emergency
needs.

Thrash is currently working on his master's degree in advertising
design from Syracuse University, which boasts one of the top
advertising graphics programs in the country. He is still teaching
graphic design as an adjunct professor at Trident Tech, and works as a
freelance graphic artist for a number of Lowcountry firms and
organizations.

He's usually reluctant to bring up his wrestling past to new students.
Most, he said, simply roll their eyes when he throws out that bit of
trivia, tending not to believe that he once rubbed shoulders with
monsters of the mat.


--- Internet Rex 2.29