A major chapter of professional wrestling has ended.  Maria Bernardi, the First Lady of the Cauliflower Alley Club, has died. 

Though she had a long and successful career in the ring, she will always be remembered best for what she brought to the industry through the CAC.  And Maria was very proud of the role she played.

No one better exemplified the true spirit of “The Ring of Friendship” better than Bernardi, who served as the club’s secretary for three decades and ruled her post with an iron fist.  Without her fiery dedication, the CAC never would have become what it is today.   While founder Mike

Mazurki was the front man for the club, Bernardi took care of the less glamorous (though vitally essential) duties behind the scenes: handling memberships, paperwork, mailings, phone calls, etc.  Maria was the heart of the CAC, no two ways about it.

Born June 3, 1925 in Culver City, California, Maria was raised in and around the wrestling business.  He father, Nick Bernardi, was a local wrestler who would frequently bring his daughter to the training sessions.   Maria thought it was play and soon caught the bug, making her in-ring debut at age three!  Her father let her know that what they were doing in there was serious, hard work, and if she wanted to wrestle she was not allowed to cry, even if she did get knocked around a bit.  Maria learned the art of grappling over the course of the next nine years, training with her father and several of the local wrestlers.  Not only did she hone her skills as a wrestler, Maria developed her legendary resilience and moxie.

With the help of family friend (her godfather) George Romanoff, Maria was able to bypass the laws of the time and made her professional debut at age 12 in Jacksonville, Florida.  Since she was so proficient in the ring, she was able to overcome the obvious suspicion about her age – clearly everybody felt someone so natural in the ring couldn’t be so young.   

Because of her fierce nature in the ring and sturdy reputation, Maria was dubbed “The Tigress” by fellow wrestler Don Sebastian.  She was equally known for her shrewd nature out of the ring.  Maria spent several years working for outlaw promoter D. W. Van Vleet, learning the ways of the business, but after several years of being short-changed with payoffs, Bernardi became a tough independent contractor and tripled her income. 

As Maria told L.A. Style Magazine in 1988, “I fought like a dog for female wrestlers to make as much money as the men.  If you can’t call that woman’s lib, I don’t know what the hell it is.”

In 1948 Bernardi won her first major championship, the Italian Lightweight title.  She was a top contender for Clara Mortensen’s World Lightweight title, and when Mortensen retired from wrestling, a tournament was held to crown a new champion.  Maria won the tournament and the title in 1952 and retired, undefeated, in 1963.

Upon returning to her native Los Angeles, Maria learned about a club being formed by wrestling and movie star Mike Mazurki.   Mazurki explained that it was a way for retired combatants to get together on a regular basis and tell old war stories.  Intrigued by this notion, Maria signed on as the club’s secretary.  Her membership number was 3.

Bernardi took her duties as club secretary very seriously, becoming the “mother hen” of the organization.   If Mike Mazurki was the identity of the club, Maria (along with treasurer Art Abrams) was the backbone.  For several years the CAC met on a weekly basis at places like Baron’s Castle, The Masquer’s Club and the Old Spaghetti factory.   Corralling the eccentricities and egos of the business would be a tall task for anybody, but Maria was able to handle it all like no other.  If it weren’t for her grit and determination, a great deal of the club’s very essence never would have come into being.

In later years, with failing health, Bernardi resigned as club secretary while still remaining active on the board of directors.  She would frequently get local club members together, just as she would in the old days, more often than not at the Sportsman’s Lodge in Studio City, where the CAC held its banquets for several years.

In 1985, Bernardi became the first woman ever to be awarded by the Cauliflower Alley Club.   From the banquet program from that year: “As secretary for the club these many years, Maria has been one of the main reasons for the club’s success and notoriety.  The Tigress – loved by all friends and fans.  A champion!”

In her 40-plus years in the club, she only missed one banquet (the 40^th anniversary, held April, 2005)… and she would have gone to that one if her doctor didn’t prevent her from attending.   Maria spent the last year of her life in hospice, and died on March 21, 2006 after cerebral hemorrhage.

Maria always did her own thing, and made no apologies about being who she was.  A self-professed “tough old broad,” she was gruff and downright surly at times, yet underneath it all was a heart of pure gold.  Everybody who knew her understood and accepted this – she was just being herself – and nobody worked harder to create unity and goodwill than Maria did.

Maria was Maria, and to know her was to love her.  She was incorrigible, opinionated and as feisty as could be, and yet there was nobody more driven to help her friends in the wrestling business than she was. 

Maria’s whole life was dedicated to professional wrestling, and through her efforts with the Cauliflower Alley Club she was able to turn that passion into something that profoundly affected countless lives.

Thank you, Maria Bernardi, and God bless.

Maria arm wrestles Gene LeBell

Maria and CAC founder Mike Mazurki