METROPOLITAN THEATRE Paddington

What about film of the unmasked Doctor Death?

What about a full 1962 PLM bill on video:

complete with Zollie taking his idiosyncratic thows on his feet.

The show is the one featured on The Wrestling Game.

The one fly in the ointment is that it is not The Met but the ABC Harrow. Nevertheless, with the usual Lincoln names and an enthusiastic packed house, we can imagine the same atmosphere at The Met.

10/6.

Agree , a very special piece of history and maybe this thread is another example of one that could sit in the archives here for future reference.

Tons of content and contributions.

I noticed that on the July 29, 1961 bill, Doctor Death claims to be undefeated in 1,000 contests. MM you'll have to count another 1,006 from there on.

And Bob is Robert. Bob only for wrestling. Funny old world.

What a magnificent dressing gown the Doctor had.

Yes MM, Bob had a decent career. A smaller roster works well for some.

Here is a bit of fun...........Doctor Death met Bartelli.

Yes , I think because he was in the world of entertainment , he came to the conclusion that there was a place in it for wrestling. There was money to be made.

WE have pushed on and learned more about Doctor Death than ever before. Probably no earlier than summer 1959 ( end of summer even) and pretty much finished into 1966.

I often wondered what all the fuss was about but he clearly enchanted many , some so much so that his shows were wrestling at it's best and not Dale Martins.

I have about 20,000 bills collected now , some great collections and it's been a very good year for new stuff. The Metropolitan stands out as almost definitive with only an odd bill missing.

What worked really well for Lincoln is that the timing was "Peak Golden Age"

RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,

You have probably cracked it

Yep, as that was the only the sixth show Ron tells us it looks like Lincoln was in at the start. From what I've heard there was good co-operation between Lincoln , Kidd et al, and DeMarto, so he may have had help but looks like this was Lincoln from the start.

Picking up on James comment. I'd always believed Lincoln left Joint and started up in opposition just because he was fed up with the way he and others were treated. That could have been the case but looking at newspapers for 1957/8 mentions of Paul Lincoln are mostly regarding his musical connections. One says he is an "ex wrestler." Maybe his motivation for leaving Joint was that music was more important at the time and once he'd set up that business he returned to wrestling as an independent. Just a thought that the transition to the opposition may not have been quite as simple as previously thought.

You have probably cracked it Ost. The bill above is the sixth show since the opening so it looks open and shut. He could of course have had partners , but I concede he must have been there to start it all at the Metropolitan. He gained real momentum that year.

Also, here's the August 13, 1960 handbill I mentioned previously. Having looked through Ron's 1960 gallery there are quite a few earlier cards. But you can see Lincoln's name is used:

Two handbills from 1959. They look very similar, but only one mentions Paul Lincoln:

Got a few other things on Lincoln. Although we don't normally take much notice of info on bills , I have one that seems to be bang on. 1963 and four years as Doctor Death.

His company it seems was started early in 1961.

I think we are forgetting Lincoln's other life as a jazz promoter arranging cross-channel ferries and riverboat trips and running the Two IIs. As for seeking finance from his friends he, Hunter and Hayes and, I think, Bob Anthony owned the Cromwellian gambling club at which Wayne Bridges worked. Which came first chicken or egg?

And if we look again at the earliest Dr Death Bill. Here we go again the initial Metropolitan regulars are here.

George Kidd and Eddie Capelli are here up north in Liverpool.

It is as though whoever promoted this show went on to open up the Metropolitan

And it leads me again to think that maybe Shirley did not work for Lincoln and so went missing from the Metropolitan after Lincoln took over.

Speculation of course.

The Carl Von Braun tip came from Jim Craig. I thought it must have been important enough to have been noted on an otherwise run-of-the-mill independent card.

I have a handbill from the Curzon from this timeframe with Doctor Death on it. I think when I first posted, it was suggested DD might have been Buddy Ward. But now it looks like it might have been Lincoln. I'll dig it out again when I get a chance.

Hi Ron, I think that your idea on Cyril Peters was right.

At Newcastle he was normally billed as Knowles Peters.

July 9th was for sure when the Metropolitan started. I have found a feature.

It did not say who the promoter was and the article pushed two wrestlers in particular with statements.

George Kidd had a big part in the feature and the other was Cyril Peters

Kidd then was on the 9th and 16th July shows

Capelli was on the next two shows,

Cyril Peters was on once in July and again in August ( I take it he is Cyril Knowles)

Dr Death was on the third show.

2,000 in ten years sound more like it Ron, but not as Dr Death. He arrived in England in 1952. I find him first working for the opposition in March, 1958, not necessarily one of his own shows. As Main Mask has shown he continued using the Paul Lincoln name when he first went across. That Liverpool bill of Ron's seems the earliest evidenced sighting so far. Ray has the Doctor two weeks earlier, Hull (12th), with Kidd,Capelli and D'Orazio on the bill. Remember I said Lincoln credited Kidd with the DD idea and that his earliest masked appearances were on Matsport (Kidd, Capelli, D'Orazio). I don't think we can rule out Matsport as promoters at the Metropolitan.

I think Paul Lincoln might have had 2000 matches in ten years.

I also now think that he did not have his own promotion when Dr Death was invented.

I also think he must have started in 1959 as the papers would be picking him up like I did with Von Braun which I had no idea about so many thanks to Ost and would love to know how he knows this.

Finding the Doc being beaten by Ken Joyce for me is massive.

Remember I proved that Portz beat Kendo in Stampede in order for Nagasaki to give the belt back to come home.

Always these things are kept quiet.

Going back to the Metropolitan , I do feel a bit unsure if Lincoln was the promoter right in the middle of 1960. It could be an illusion as so many of his mates were not there then but soon were to join him. But did he need those mates to actually take over the Metropolitan , did he need their financial back up.

There is time yet for someone to come up with some extra angles to untangle this.

Big Task that ANGLO!-In Early 1962-DOCTOR DEATH 'Stated' that he had Fought

2006 Matches!!

MAIN MASK

Forget the pinch of salt, tech on the pound size packet of SAXA.

We know we can't believe a word of what we read or were told, and this is obviously utter nonsense.

If Dr Death had fought 2006 matches by early 1962 he would have had to wrestle three times a day, every day of the year since the beginning of 1960.