Cowboy Jack Cassidy

I'd forgotten to share this unusual clipping of Cowboy Cassidy training his daughter Kerina:

I worked on Jack's shows for a good number of years; he had so many around Manchester my home town. I well remember bouts versus Ian Wilson, Mark Wayne, Roy Fortuna, regular referee Dai Glynn and so many other local lads. Good days remembered with love and pleasure. Eddie Rose😍

I am one of Jack Cassidy's daughters and used the name of Patti McGoohan. Sadly older sister Kathleen aka Hellcat Haggerty died in 1999. My younger sister Christine (Chrissy) aka Lolita Loren (2nd person to use this name) also died young as did youngest brother Jimmy who never wrestled but was involved in the business. I am writing a small piece about my life in wrestling and it was good to read all the posts. Thank You All.

Jack's guns scared the living daylights out of me the first time I saw him.

Jack Cassidy did so much for charity and even holds , I believe , the distinction of promoting the last ever wrestling at Belle Vue.

Yes long after the Kings Hall had finished Jack sneaked in and promoted this show.

Just adding some Jack Cassidy items from Dave Cameron's collection:

Jack Cassidy was the dominant character in Manchester as a wrestler and a promoter and I wrestled for him many times. He ran the club scene and several halls and many us worked on his shows several times a week for a good number of years. He knew his way round the ring, too! He was as tough as they come and mixed all kinds of skull duggery with his technical skills. We all held him in respect and with affection. Eddie Rose.

His Daughters also Wrestled as RON Says!-Here's One of Them Topping The Bill

On My Original Poster For a WEST COAST Promotions Show!!

MAIN MASK

Here's a few photos of Cowboy Cassidy from the 1954 Spanish press.

I remember seeing Jack on an inde bill, and i was seconding. Whereupon his opponent upended him and sent him crashing down on top of me. I was much younger then and just shrugged it off !!

That's a mystery solved....many thanks

As we mentioned a few weeks back the old forum (which is hidden) will eventually be removed by the web hosts (they are removing the forum function from all their sites). As you know we have always given great importance to members' memories and have transferred some of the best topics to his forum. At present we are archiving the R.I.P. Topics on the old forum.

What has all that to do with this thread?

Well, the name Jimmy Thompson was mentioned on one of the adverts it was wondered whether this could be Jack's son or a figment of Jack imagination.

Well, we've just come across this post from Eddie Rose on 10th July, 2014

Jimmy Cassidy, R.I.P.

Jimmy was the son of Jack Cassidy and worked with his dad for many years

helping arrange and put on wrestling shows all over the north west. He

was also a wrestler and, even though he never attained the same stature

of Jack Cassidy, he was one of those unsung heroes of the ring that

helped the evening along with a sound and steady bout that kept the

audiences entertained.

He was a cheerful lad with a big smile and a good sense of humour and

always willing to do you a good turn if needed. He had been a taxi

driver in south Manchester in recent years. He will be much missed by

family and friends to whom we send our condolences.

Eddie Rose

Cowboy Jack went into the 1980's and was still doing tag with his mate Streiger.

Too many Tiger's for me to guess who this Jimmy Thompson was . Great anecdotes Paul , I owe Jack Cassidy a lot as I went to very few other Independent shows other than his. It was a different atmosphere.

The fact that I did do some of these shows has helped me understand the Industry better.

The bottom line was people could make money doing small shows.

Nobody ever did challenge my estimate of a 1957 debut year for Jack.

Cassidy what a character dunno where to begin couple of things been mentioned he was very early obn billed under another name I'm struggling to remember,however on turning up to a show in Rochdale Jimmy Thompson was billed I was amazed to find it was a black lad from Manchester nickname tiger.Another time billing include the outlaw doctor death and masambula,the outlaw was from wythenshawe Dr death from Atherton and I expected Ezra to be the massam tribute as he'd long since finished after the Preston accident I was gobsmacked to see a very slow almost frail Massam work that night.Cassidy hated the joint set up never quite new why but I believe he was too much the loose cannon,I thinkGraham said he was intimidating he could be indeed,went round city centre pubs with him and boy did he know some interesting characters,the clientele of the Robert Tinker one of his pubs were straight out of Shameless.Hebdid the labour club circuit as a promoter and him and streigher both in their fifties in cut of denims a pair of superannuated peroxide blondes still struck fear into the crowd with a glare.Good old Jack treated us well and paid good money the Openshaw cowboy who wasn't keen on horses what a character indeed a friend of Andrew Grimes from the M e n wanted to write a book about Jack now that would have been a good read.

The first time I met Jack was in 1963 on a bill in Morecambe. He was billed against Dominic Pye. In the dressing room before the show started, he was showing some of us his six-guns loaded with blanks and some tricks that he would do on his entrance in the ring. Very impressive for us young wrestlers.

Cheers

Jack turning out again for another charitable cause. Interesting venue.

I did some shows for Halton British Legion. Two bouts before the interval, several games of bingo in the interval, and then two more bouts. I remember Jackie Pallo getting quite impatient as the bingo games took place. He was on top of the bill and had opted to drive home afterwards so knew he had a lengthy drive ahead of him. The club secretary entered the dressing-room with a tray of sandwiches for us all and Pallo said, "How long is this bloody bingo going on for?" to which the secretary said, "Until we've taken enough to pay your bloody wages."

Just before our Time Graham there was a nightclub scene in Manchester. Some of the Manchester wrestlers did it , Bingo , Cabaret, stay late , even wrestle at two clubs in one night. Jack's mates Streiger and Carpentier were very much into this.

The Zebra Kid on the above show was Sean Regan.

Cassidy did many shows for charity; I even did one or two. But these shows were provided for a set fee so, in many ways, safer than just hiring a hall, paying the wrestlers and hoping to cover the cost from whoever turned up to watch.

My excuse is that I was in my early twenties and very much wanting to impress the wrestlers but, really, the following anecdote is quite inexcusable. I was refereeing and M.C.ing a show for Mark Wayne and, at the start of the second half, I relayed to the audience a hard luck story regarding a fictional sufferer (I forget the details) whilst the two seconds went through the audience with buckets as punters threw in their spare change. Quite a tidy sum was collected for said fictitious sufferer and Mark evenly divided the money between us all to add to our wages.

I ended up with nothing (which, on reflection years later, is exactly what I deserved) as Ian Wilson was, much to his annoyance, tasked with dropping me off in Handforth and demanded my share of the ill-gotten gains as taxi money.

Yes Jack effectively was exiled from the really big Halls for most of his career. Why exactly I don't know , but I think he did better going his own way.

But Jack still found good venues to work at.

Looks like a fund raising show.

And very late in the day back at a Giant of a Stadium when the game was starting to struggle.

But of course for Brian Dixon.

By now Jack was in his 50's.

Really interesting thread, I see these names so many times on the independent bills, it's great to learn more about the people behind them.

You have had a pretty interesting life Graham.

At his Swinton Shows, Jack would come out and introduce the evening as MC.

He would then perform later as a wrestler and maybe even again in tag.

But he always wished us an enjoyable evening and the shows were usually for charity. Chippy and beer afterwards,happy days.

I've nothing new to contribute about Jack Cassidy but, as Adrian has mentioned me on this thread, perhaps I could repeat an anecdote about Cassidy which I have shared previously.

Pontin's had two camps in Prestatyn in the seventies and Bobby Barron used to put on a lunchtime show at Tower Beach then a late afternoon show at Prestatyn Sands utilising the same four wrestlers. One week Cassidy and Carpentier were two of them and Jack kindly offered me a lift with Paul and himself between the two camps (Barron used to use me as his referee). There was security at the gate and normally we were waved through but there was a rather severe-looking lady on the security team at Prestatyn Sands who was a little more officious than her male counterparts. Unfortunately she was on duty the day Cassidy came a-calling and demanded to see his pass. Well, Barron hadn't passed on a pass to Jack so he had nothing to show. She told him that she couldn't let him through without a pass which was sent to all visiting performers and he told her that if she didn't let us through there would be no show that afternoon. She stood her ground and the argument toed and froed until she relented slightly (to her subsequent regret) and said, "Well, can you show anything to prove that you're a wrestler?" "How about this?" replied Jack. She looked in disgust then turned to her colleague manning the gate and called, "Let them through. They're obviously wrestlers."

Well back to the original question of when he turned pro.

I am going to take a punt on 1957 as that Photo I put on was Jan 58.

Odd bits that you google him what bits there are refer to Jack's War experience and then skate over time to state that he then turned pro and was often partnered with Streiger in tag.

It does not look to me that he wrestled anywhere near after the war. Streiger was boxing into 1957 and then turned to Wrestling. That would be a good estimate in my opinion.

However my opinion is there to be beaten and it just shows how little we do know of Jack. I assumed he had the four daughters and no sons , could be wrong.

Could well be a figment of his imagination. But could be Cowboy Jack's son. We hear of his daughter's wrestling but what about a son? Don't know, just an idea.

There was a Mustapha Nasser. He was George Thompson and had a couple of other names too.

Here he is in the A-Z https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/wrestlersn.htm

But he was about as likely to be King Farouk's Bodyguard as a fella living in a Didsbury council house was to be a cowboy.

If you do any rummaging around Ron I've usually seen him referred to as Jimmy Thomson, but occasionally Jack.

Talking of Tosh.....here is the thing. Eddie Rose said in his book that Jack would dream up wrestlers names when they turned up to work for him. Anything would do.

So above I showed Jimmy Thompson against Jim Hussey. Fair enough , we take it to be Jack.

The following year in 1962, no longer with Joint promotions , I have three examples of something weird going on. Jimmy Thompson is on bills with Jack. Looks like Jack must have dreamed this up. This Jimmy Thompson does not seem to have a career.

Same week at Glastonbury we have the same bill.

Our man Jack must be touring.

Note Jimmy Thompson of Old Trafford.

In August Jack is back in Glastonbury again with Jimmy.

Not so sure if Jimmy is ever seen again , could that be because he was a figment of Jack's imagination.

Joe Woodings from Woodville is a good one.

Tommy Logan as well and Mustapher Nassar is King Farouk's Bodyguard.

You're being too kind Ron. Its just tosh.

Pretty sure it was all a work of fiction.

I have a picture of Cowboy Cassidy in 1958 versus Al Hayes.

Cowboy Cassidy was wrestling in Cut Off Denims.

Don't think there is much about in the way of pictures of Young Jack.

Even an approximate debut year seems a bit of a mystery to me.

And yes , pro wrestling was a hard world.

Not Sure MM , because he did have friends like Streiger on his shows and he could mix it, but lots of his shows were charity work and I think he treated those he paid fairly. He seems to have left Joint very early and I am wondering if fundamentally he just did not like the promoters getting rich at the expense of hard working wrestlers. Just a feeling and observation on my part.

The guns were awesome , so loud and smoke too , a real shock the first time.

He was friend with Jim Hussey , I believe and on the face of it you would expect this might be him. (real name Jimmy Thompson)

Yo RON!-Think CASSIDY was 'Out-Gunned' in this PLAZA TYNEMOUTH Match

against The Notorious DOCTOR DEATH!!

When I went out for a Drink with GRAHAM BROOK Earlier in the Year-We talked about JACK CASSIDY-and from Memory I think GRAHAM was saying he found

him 'Intimidating'!!

MAIN MASK