In the days before TikTok, YouTube, television, and radio, folks in the U.S. were starved for entertainment. It was a happy day with a troupe of Vaudeville performers who rolled into town and put on a show. From the mid-1890s through the early 1930s, Vaudeville was king. Shows featured a collection of unrelated acts, including singers, musicians, dancers, and comedians. 

A colorized photograph of Bessie Gordon boxing one of her sisters in the early 1900s. (girlboxing.org)

Some of the shows, however, were a bit more bizarre than others. We are not talking about dancing dogs, trained bears, and acrobatic contortionists, although there were plenty of those. One unique Vaudeville act that was so popular it attracted the attention of Thomas Edison was the Boxing Gordon Sisters. Here is their story.

Boxing Was Big

In the 1890s, boxing was coming into its own as a sport, albeit a male-dominated one. Professional boxing matches were held across the country, and most of the audiences were made up of men. The audience often determined the winners. Some of the great boxers were revered as celebrities in much the same way we hero-worship sports figures today. But boxing was a man’s world. That’s what made female boxers such a novelty. 

The Gordon Sisters

Bessie Gordon gave a short boxing demonstration with a punching bag before she boxed against one of her sisters. (vancouverisawesome.com)

Not much is known about the early lives of the Gordon sisters. It is likely that Bessie Gordon, who also used the first name ‘Belle’, was the eldest sister. At the least, she was the leader of the sisters. The other Gordon girls were Millie, Alice, and Freda. We also don’t know whose idea it was to start a vaudeville act, but at some point, they did. Perhaps they needed money. After all, there were few jobs for women in those days. It could also be that they wanted to escape their home and travel around. Maybe they were hoping to find husbands on the Vaudeville circuit. One thing we do know is that they hit on an idea that got peoples’ attention.

Getting Paid to Punch Your Sister

The Boxing Gordon Sisters, as their act was called, usually featured Bessie Gordon as the main boxer. She started by giving a boxing demonstration with a punching bag. Then the audience or one of the other Vaudeville performers selected one of her sisters to join her in the ring. Wearing regular street dresses and boxing gloves, they would pound on each other as the audience cheered and rooted them on. The use of boxing gloves was notable. The male boxers in those days did not use boxing gloves. They fought bare-fisted. The Gordon sisters preferred to box with gloves.

They Were Terrible Boxers

Perhaps you are thinking that the Gordon girls were naturally gifted athletes who used Vaudeville as a way to legitimately participate in the sport they loved. That doesn’t appear to be the case. None of the girls were very good at boxing, even Bessie. They were not athletic and were not in top shape. They did not practice or spend their days training and working out. A few of the sisters could be described as plump. They just got in the ring and punched each other.