I swear I am NOT making this up. One day travelling to Manchester in the mid seventies as the bus was stationary I saw a wrestling poster advertised, a welterweight contest. Do not remember who is opponent was....what intrigued me was it described Eddie Rose as the Jewish champion. Nothing wrong with that except I had never seen a wrestler defined by his religion?
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I remember Jo Anne Worley on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In" singing "Hava Nagila, hav two Nagila, hav three Nagila, they're very small."
When Mickey Gold wrestled for me I always introduced him as the Jewish champion. Copying TV names at the time was often done on the independent shows and I was one of many promoters in the seventies who billed Tony Francis as "Black" Jack Milligan (a memory he didn't seem to appreciate) but Mickey Gold, who was usually game for anything, drew the line when I suggested capitalising on his dropkick ability and billing him as "The Dynamite Yid".
Thank goodness you were never asked to prove it Eddie.
More recently, albeit outwith our normal sphere of interest, Barry Horowitz used to make his way to the ring to the strains of "Hava Nagila". Oy Vey.....
I've a confession to make: I am not Jewish. Jack Cassidy was running a show for a Jewish Charity at the Houldsworth Hall in Manchester, It featured a Jewish Tag Team of Micky Gold & Abe Ginsberg. Ginny was not available so Cassidy picked on me and billed me as Jewish so as not to disappoint the audience. The name stuck with Cassidy and other promoters for some time afterwards. PS I did work at the Chaim Weisman Centre in Broughton at the time! Cheers!
Lee Sharon was often billed as the Jewish Heavyweight Champion and I seem to remember he had the Star of David on the side of his wrestling boots.
It's a very old idea and they kept doing it through the decades.