The interesting fate of the Fred Kohler Enterprises and other DuMont Wrestling Tape Libraries

For those that do no know, Fred Kohler was a wrestling promoter that ran Chicago and pretty much TV for the NWA back in the 40s and 50s. Although he did not create the first Wrestling TV program (that goes to Wrestling from Hollywood) but he definitely took advantage of the media format. Fred Kohler had a deal with the Dumont Network and had them show Wrestling from Marigold in which showcased stars like Pat O'Connor, Verne Gagne, Dory Funk Sr., Lord James Blears, and the list goes on, and became to be one of the most important wrestling TV programs historically. Also from Chicago and maybe from Fred Kohler's promotion could be Wresting from Columbia Park Arena
Outside of Chicago DuMont also had other wrestling programs such as Wrestling From Jamaica Arena (out of New York City), Wrestling from Sunnyside Gardens ( also from new York).

So with four shows of wrestling, how come we don't see a whole lot of wrestling from the Dumont Network or from Fred Kohler Enterprises. Well it's because only 10 episodes still exist from all of wrestling from the Dumont Network and only 4 are labeled wrestling from Chicago (and no one is sure which episodes from the 4 are Wrestling from Marigold or Columbia Park). However there is some good news after Dumont's demise Wrestling from Marigold did continue on WGN so episodes after the Dumont era may survived. But to get back on tack, what happened to the library itself, was it lost in a fire, was it destroyed for the silver? Well no, according to a hearing conducted by the Library of Congress, the Dumont Wrestling library and the majority of the tape library from Dumont sat in a warehouse. Then it got bought by someone and the owner had the library dumped in the East River in New York City, or in the upper bay by Liberty Island. That's right it's under water, an entire Television Network's tape library gone, except stuff that was already in the collections of Dumont Networks stars Jackie Gleason and Dennis James. No excavation attempts have been made to recover or restore the tape library, so whatever is left of the libraries is still under water, waiting to be rescued.

Link to what happened to the Dumont Library
https://web.archive.org/web/20070927072638/http://www.loc.gov/film/hrng96la.html