The seed that blossomed into “American Gladiators” first sprang up among the iron workers of Erie, Pennsylvania. The games are the brainchild of former iron worker and professional arm wrestler Dann Carr, who ran a Pennsylvania sports center through the 1980s and ’90s. Sometime in the early 1970s, Carr had the idea to create a statewide event called the Hard Hat Olympics, which ran throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Enlisting the help of his sports center colleague Donny Plonski along with Elvis impersonator and promoter John Ferraro, Carr rolled out the first incarnation of what would become “American Gladiators,” a youth center fundraiser modeled after the gladiator events that once took place in the Colosseum with Rust Belt everymen as competitors.
The event was held 1983 at Erie Tech High School, allegedly with thousands of fans in attendance. But the performance-minded Ferraro had a wider vision, and with designs on pitching the whole thing to Hollywood, he added the theatrical touch of music and brought in a film crew. As Ferraro told Sports Illustrated, “It was almost like when you see the burning bush. I mean, I saw this thing. Even though I had only done the one small event in Erie, I saw what ‘American Gladiators’ could be.” Years later, Ferraro got the opportunity to make his big pitch, presenting the idea to Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. When Goldwyn suggested the idea was better suited to the small screen, the story almost began to write itself.
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