Roger Deem
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Roger Deem was one of the most prolific professional wrestling photographer who ever worked the Midwestern territories. Based out of Jacksonville, Illinois, Deem covered mat action for many national and international magazines and publications between 1973 and 1982.
His primary success was generated at wrestling cards staged in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Kiel Auditorium and The Checkerdome under the promotional banner of Sam Muchnick's St. Louis Wrestling Club. He was also a fixture at the KPLR-TV studios where the famous "Wrestling at the Chase" program was taped.
Deem was well known throughout the Kansas City territory and the American Wrestling Association promotion. He is the only photographer to have been twice awarded the Photo of the Year Award by the Wrestling Fans International Association at its 1977 convention in Dallas and the 1979 gathering in Memphis, Tennessee.
An associate with Larry Matysik's Greater St. Louis Wrestling Enterprises, Deem retired from wrestling photography in late 1983. In 2004 he wrote a memoir of his days involved in wrestling entitled "St. Louis Snapshots: The Last Years of the Sam Muchnick Era".
