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ALL CHANGE AT BELLE VUE-1956-1957!

in Memories of the Old Days

Well My Beloved KINGS HALL-BELLE VUE-MANCHESTER was Truly the MOST Iconic of

All the BRITISH Wrestling Venues in The U.K.!!-Why?

Apart from being a 6,000 Seat Stadium-Purpose Built for Wrestling and Boxing!- it was also

Part of a Huge Complex Leisure Centre that Included a Fun Fair-A Zoo-Speedway-Side Shows

and Many More Various Attractions-Such As The Ghost Train and The Log Flume and The

Fun House with its Hall of Mirrors!

A Family Must Go Place on a SATURDAY Nite-I used to take Girls Most Weeks!

Following-On from KATHLEEN LOOK's Wrestling Promotions in the 1930's along with

ATHOLL OAKELEY-A New Incarnation of Promoting The Shows began in JANUARY 1945

under the Aegis of DICK and JESSE ROGERS-and it was to Run for 12 Years in all!!

Famous for its 'Signature' either RED/WHITE or BLUE/WHITE Coloured Programmes

JESSIE and DICK 'THE DORMOUSE' Put -On Some Great Bills Featuring All the Top

Wrestlers of The Day!

But Sadly in DECEMBER 1956 Their Time as Promoters came to an End!

And from JANUARY 1957 a New Era Started under JOINT PROMOTIONS!

Below I'm Sharing My Original Programme for The Final Ever ROGERS's Show!

Coupled with One of My Original DM Programmes for 1957!

Times Move On-Don't They??

From 1957 Special Flyers were Included within Programmes!

See Below also One of My Originals!

Also See Below a Selection of Some of My Original BELLE VUE Programmes from

DICK and JESSIE's Early Days Promoting Wrestling at The KINGS HALL!

MAIN MASK

18 comments

18 Comments

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

Feb 03

Dick the Dormouse after 1956

adrianpollard.shangri-la

Feb 03

KATHLEEN LOOK Left BELLE VUE in Late 1939 and ATHOLL OAKELEY Left and

Started Promoting at MANCHESTER's FREE TRADE HALL after her Departure!

In 1940 Thru the First Half of 1941 TRAFFORD PARK was being Regularly Bombed

by the GERMAN Luftwaffe-and the Risk of 'Stray' Bombs was High!

Before JANUARY 1945-there doesn't seem to have been Continuous and

Co-Ordinated under Any Aegis Wrestling Promotion(s)

So while The ROGERS' might well have been Involved I Think it was More

'Sporadic' than 'Cohesive'!

It may have Improved Later in the War Years when the GERMAN Threat to The

Docks/Canal/Infrastructure 'Receded' as the Enemy was More and More Forced to

Commit Resources to The EAST!!

I Disagree with HACK Regarding Programme 'Annotations'-I have Hundreds of Same!

On My DECEMBER 1956 Programme it Clearly States That DICK ROGERS is

'Opening Elsewhere in MANCHESTER'!-Obviously Involving Wrestling-Otherwise

This 'Comment' would have been Irrelevant to the Programme Entirely!!

Also Note The Original Owner's Annotation Regarding SONNY WALLIS'S Death-

which was of course Accurate as to the Cause!!

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

Feb 03

The 1940 shows were not Dick and Jessie Rogers.

Here is another name in the mix.

Wrestling was on every week from April into August 1941 , but unfortunately we don't have the bouts. Here are some examples of various formats in the way that it was advertised.

Edited

The Ost

Feb 04

Replying to

thanks Ron! I will still need to get all those dates to add to my listings.

Peter

Feb 13

Replying to

Very decent of him to provide an"adequate" bus service

The Ost

Feb 02

Great thread guys and some great questions being asked.

I have the following gaps in my Belle Vue listings:

No shows between 11 August 1939 and 27 September 1940.

No shows between 12 October 1940 and 21 June 1941.

No shows between 23 August 1941 and 8 November 1941

I have also found the odd occasion where they ran a third time in the week. Must have been doing solid business for that to happen.

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

Feb 02

Some late 1941 and a couple earlier. One of my pet hates , for much of the year advertised as Wrestling tonight

Scarce in 1940 and one show , an afternoon show. Under Rogers Tenure it was a case of Spot the masked man. I don't think Bartelli or Ghoul ever did a show pre 57 , and by then I think too late for the Ghoul.

Hack

Feb 02

Kathleen Look joined Belle Vue in 1933, left in 1939, returned in 1941 at the request of Eric Spence who she married the following year. He died in 1947 and she went to work for Butlins in Bermuda.

Source: Manchester Evening News 11th April, 1949

adrianpollard.shangri-la

Feb 02

But have you Anything for BELLE VUE in 1941 RON?

This was the Year KATHLEEN LOOK's Husband Stopped Running The SPEEDWAY!

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

Feb 02

That find was just what I wanted Hack , I had always thought that Rogers took over from the Flamboyant Miss Look.

I had wondered because I have some examples from 1944 where there were a certain amount of expletives used to keep the advertising colourful.

Wonder who came up with the endless puns.

However After the 1930's the format was quite simple and low budget.

Click for bigger image.

And if Rogers was low budget , Belle Vue itself spared no expense in advertising their magnificent business. Much prefer this type of newspaper bill , but many weeks did not show which bouts were on. These , well I just love them.

And the year Hack mentions 1942 with Dick on his own show.

Edited

Hack

Feb 02

Pathe News item of 1942 and the Rogers are in charge at Belle Vue

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/187366/

adrianpollard.shangri-la

Feb 02

Why Thank You Great Scribe!!

The Circus was Always On in the KINGS HALL in JANUARY Thru Early

FEBRUARY!

adrianpollard.shangri-la

Feb 02

Many Thanx RON!-This Saves Me a Job!

Programmes started Appearing for JESSIE and DICK ROGERS in JANUARY 1945!

Haven't seen ANY for them for The War Years!

It Looks Like WRYTON Took Over in Early 1957 as MARTIN CONROY became

The Referee!!

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

Feb 02

Replying to

Don't think Wryton ever had control of Belle Vue , although in my time Conroy was MC for many years. I always understood that the Northern Promoters agreed to share Belle Vue. Not sure if it was on a three weekly basis or just co-operation in providing wrestlers , seeing as Conroy proved to be such a good front man.

In my day , I Just looked upon it as Joint , and of course it was such a big venue , even Dale Martins sent up their men to enhance it. Marino the most , but I did get to see a fair bit of Mick and Jackie. Bruno was rare , I must say.

I have all the news paper adverts for Belle Vue 1940-1945 , in fact for almost all years. 40-45 are all of a similar format , cheap advertising. But comparing 40-45 and 45-56 , I don't see much difference.

For some reason Bartelli and Bomber Bates were not visitors. Pre Joint some wrestlers were forbidden by some promoters about their choice of Promoter to work for. I suspect Van Wurden was one such wrestler who got round this as The Green Asp. I did read somewhere about him being threatened over loyalty. Van Wurden did himself at Belle Vue from 1940. Not so sure he did The Green Asp there.

The Belle Vue Site was a business , they allowed people in to do Stock Cars , Speedway , they ran a Zoo , they had a huge pleasure fair. Who they got to do all these things was up to them. They even accommodated Rugby League Broughton Rangers who became Belle Vue Rangers before folding. They had Kath Look , Oakeley and William Bankier in for spells for the wrestling. It was their facility and we don't seem to know who was The FIxer/Booker for 1940 onwards. Dick the Dormouse was still wresting on those shows in the early 1940's and then took to being a Ref. There were a hell of a lot of Manchester based wrestlers doing perhaps as much as 3 or 4 shows a month at Belle Vue. Virtually no visitors , but it still packed out 100 shows a year to bring some cheer in the war.

I will pull out some bills for 40-45 and maybe we can spot if there was much variation.

Hack

Feb 02

Well, Ron beat you to it by finding the proof we need. Doug Relwyskow refereeing is the proof we needed Joint took over in February 1957. We can't depend on anonymous notes on programmes as proof, we've seen their unreliability time and again. Well done Main Mask, well done Ron.

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

Feb 02

Relwyskow must have opened 1957.

Below is the opening of the 1945 season.

I have never seen anything on exactly when Dick and Jessie Rogers took over.

There had been wrestling twice a week all through the war.

Edited

adrianpollard.shangri-la

Feb 02

Doh!-HACK-You are a One!

The DECEMBER 1956 Programme States That Wrestling will Return on 23RD

FEBRUARY 1957!-It does NOT State with The ROGERS Promotion!

Furthermore-in almost 60 Years of Collecting Wrestling Memorabilia I have NEVER

seen a ROGERS Programme for 1957!

Further Furthermore the DECEMBER 1956 Final ROGERS Programme CLEARLY

States that DICK is 'Now Opening a Place in MANCHESTER'-Obviously Elsewhere!

I Suppose-Just for you!-I'll have to Trawl Thru My Huge BELLE VUE Original

Memorabilia to see if I have a JOINTS Programme for FEBRUARY/MARCH 1957!

I merely Put-Up a 1957 DM Programme to Hi-Lite the Change in Format-

Rather than Follow a Strict 'Timeline'!

Hack

Feb 01

We've wondered about these changeovers for a while and you've done a good job here.

But, questions Main Mask...

You say that the Rogers era ended in December 1956 and Joint started in January 1957. But there was no wrestling in January 1957. The circus was in town. Belle Vue re-started on 23rd February. Your Joint Promotion programme is for August, so I don't see the relevance other than Joint running the show by August. I'm offering a Joint programme for April, so they were in charge by then.

The Rogers advert for the last December show said they would re-open on 23rd February.

How likely is it that the December programme from Rogers would advertise the programme of an opposition promoter?

Unless their departure was not planned. Your December programme has handwritten Dick the Dormouse for the last time at Belle Vue. Doesn't say as promoter. Could be as referee. And we don't know when it was written. Jessie was foremost as promoter, Dick as referee. It's not beyond credibility the original owner retrospectively wrote that this was the last time Dick refereed at Belle Vue. Jessie could have re-opened in February.

I'm not saying you are wrong Main Mask. Jessie promoted in December 1956, Joint in April 1957. Do we have evidence of who promoted in February and March?

Talk Wrestling Share your memories of British wrestling 1930 - 1988

ALL CHANGE AT BELLE VUE-1956-1957!

Talk Wrestling
Share your memories of British wrestling 1930 - 1988