EARLY RAH MEMORIES FOR MR. ANGLO!!

A great source of interest for a young chap like me in the 50s were the secondhand magazine shops that always had loads of American boxing ,wrestling and bodybuilding mags. Ring always had a small wrestling section at the back.

Joe Robinson had a framed copy of the poster for his RAH match with Cadier on the wall of his Brighton gym. Joe always maintained that he and Axel worked a fall apiece and shot for the decider. As Joe is no longer here to defend himself I pass this on without comment. Anyway, the poster was a classic piece of Oakeley hyperbole with Cadier issuing a challenge to Rocky Marciano of all people. Wonderful stuff.

Good that you found Jim Elmo Lincoln MM!, by June of that year he was using the name, Paul Lincoln, didn't know he used "Elmo" over here.

Atkins fought Mitchel Gill even more than Clark , I guess they were both full of potential at that time.

Gill in Australia wrestled as Irish Mike McGill. It was years before he came home.

Great stuff lads!

Yes MM Atkins was one of Australia's big names. In 36/37 Doug Clark did his two tours and they had a couple of draws and Atkins won one near the end of Doug's time where he was happy to drop bouts for a good pay check, something he never did to an Englishman.

Atkins was tough looking guy , had a bit of a Gwyn Davies look.

Atkins could be billed Queensland, Canada or new Zealand where he was born.

Transatlantic travel was much, much smaller back in 1952, and I have no idea if US Wrestling magazines made it to our shores? (Ring Boxing and Wrestling, maybe), so it could be that a small number of people knew who Jospeph Mondt was, and perhaps that is why Oakeley decided to use the name of a real person, who may just be known to anyone who read the small print?

Doubt we shall ever really know, but all good fun.

I think:

Today we separate pro boxing and pro wrestling as two completely different sports.

Years ago, they were perceived by lay people as streams of the same umbrella sport.

Like the uninitiated today might consider ju-jitsu and kung fu.

Also, the art of being a promoter then, possibly now too, was being very shrewd in knowing what you could get away with and pushing it right to the edge.

The guy claimed, perhaps filled, the Royal Albert Hall. He must have had is finger on the pulse at that time.

The National Wrestling Association had all but disappeared by 1950, and no longer promoted any title matches. The National Wrestling Alliance had taken over in that respect, and the "Association" recognized the "Alliance's" champions as champions.

Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt was a former wrestler, turned promoter in the New York area and as far as I know, was never President of the National Wrestling Association, and former Boxer, Gene Tunney was never Chairman. He was trained by legendary wrestler Farmer Burns and was wresting in Carnivals, taking on all comers, from 16 years of age. He was credited with inventing the modern style of US wrestling, to invigorate the "sport" when crowds were dwindling, around 1920, and along with wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis and his manager, Billy Sandow, began making so much money they were nick named, "The Gold Dust Trio". Oakley was in the USA in the early 30's and I suppose he could have met Mondt at that point. Strangler Lewis was the Champ for that promotion, and Toots Mondt was the main trainer and the "Policeman" (i.e. the enforcer if things needed a firm hand).

Toots Mondt did set up his own business, "The Manhattan Booking Agency" in 1950, and he did claim to work with promoters all over the world, including "...the USA, Canada, South America, Australia, Mexico, South Africa, England, France and China...", but there is nothing to say this was true. He had also sold this business in 1952 and was acting as booker for other promoters.

His other claim to fame is that he was part of Capitol Wrestling, which broke away from the NWA in the early 60's to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which became the WWF and now WWE.

It doesn't really matter that Atholl Oakely made outlandish and incoherent claims; nor that he seemed to operate with a limited pool of wrestlers. He dutifully made every bout at Britain's premier boxing venue into an equivalently important wrestling contest.

We can clearly see that he lacked the systematic reliability and ongoing structure of Joint Promotions, and he also had plenty of rejigged bills. But his presentation has such sparkle.

We are all settled into the regularity of the MC and the referee being the officials. Sir Atholl had another official - the Abitrator. And what a surprise, he appointed himself to the role. We can only wonder what involvement of himself he wove into the controversies during the show.

He also creatively uses English championships, which went by the wayside soon after.

Could you please show detail of those officials of the BWA and NWA. It all looks so important.

Many thanks as ever for another delightful share, Main Mask.

Let's move Forward just a Few Weeks to Christmas Time 1952!

Atholl is Staging his CHRISTMAS GALA on THURSDAY 18TH DECEMBER 1952

and the Main Feature Bout is for The EUROPEAN HEAVYWEIGHT Championship

between TIGER JOE ROBINSON and GONZALES THE GORILLA!!

Below My RAH Programme Cover for this Christmas Show!

MAIN MASK