NEWCASTLE!-LATEST ONE FOR BERNARD-1950!

We have covered Lord Blears quite a few times over the years (that rhymes!), Bernard being the only poster on here to see him live, from memory.

Lord Blears story is one of those that could be used as the script for a film, and I think that a lad from a working class background in Greater Manchester, to end up living in Hawaii, and making a ton of money along the way is really uplifting.

I originally thought He was from Manchester, but in fact his birth place (I have since found out) is closer to Wigan, no wonder he became a wrestler!

In Dynamite Kid's book, "Pure Dynamite", Lord Blears is no longer wrestling, but acts as a paid agent for Shohei "Giant" Baba and his All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion. It seems that Baba would make contact with a Wrestler, and if it looked like they could do business, he would ask Lord Blears to make all the arrangements. I think I have read the pay off for Wrestling in Hawaii, when Lord Blears was involved, was very generous, and let's face it, if someone said "do you fancy coming over to Hawaii for a few weeks?, wrestling for 20-30 minutes a night, some TV work, and the rest of the time is your own, to do what you want.....", well I for one would have jumped at it!

Here is what I ended up saying to Bernard in early 2019,

"....Lord Blears was from Manchester, Bernard. Very interesting life story, including escaping the Japanese within an inch of his life in world war two, wrestling (while on shore leave, for spending money) in the USA (New York I think?), ending up living in Hawaii and became huge in the world of surfing, as well as Wrestling..."

Died at the grand old age of 92, in Honolulu.

Here are Blears and Layton 1953 and 1954 California.

In an email from James he added

"Blears tag partner was another self ennobled Lord Athol Layton. Blears was apparently defeated by Thesz in a h/w world title match in Australia.

A generous man, in his surfing commentaries he would heap as much praise on a girl who had come fifth in a school competition as he did on a man who had won a major title."

No problems at all MM or James. Splendid additions from MM and a great authoritative post from James. Thanks for taking the time to post it James. May well find it's way on to a Blears page.

Thanks MM. You shouldn't have made me upset Hack.

Now he will never look for articles that I posted years ago.

Lord Blears was a household name in Hawaii, where he hosted the wrestling TV shows and was known as "Tally Ho" Blears. His children were famous surfers there too.

Main Mask, you should have read this week's newsletter before posting. Of course Bernard remembers him.

I think the best part of his career was in USA.

Blears was an Olympic class swimmer who put his talent to good use in the war . Every year on 29 March James Ranicar Blears, who elevated himself to the peerage as Lord James (sometimes Jan) Blears, ate a tin of peaches. It was, he said, to remember the first food he was given by the crew of an American vessel when rescued after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine

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Blears was born in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester on 13 August 1923. He learned to wrestle at the Manchester YMCA and appeared in the professional rings during the early years of the war wrestling as a Norwegian.

He enlisted in the Merchant Navy in the war and became a wireless officer. On 26 March 1944 he was serving as second officer on the Dutch vessel Tjisalak when the ship, sailing from Melbourne to Colombo, was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-8. The survivors were taken prisoner and roped together and Blears later recalled that their captors then began beheading the crew and passengers one-by-one. ‘Two Japanese officers were waiting for us, one with a sword and the other with a sledgehammer. I was going to drown rather than let them behead me. When these guys came at us, I kicked with my foot and pulled my hand out (of the rope) right away and stopped the guy and dived off the submarine and dragged Peter Bronger with me.’

Blears swam for some hours to a wrecked lifeboat and with four others he was attempting to sail to what was then Ceylon when they were rescued by the SS James O Wilder three days later. Unfortunately Bronger did not survive. Ariizumi, the captain of the submarine, committed suicide when Japan surrendered. Blears was awarded a medal for bravery.

A dropkick specialist he appeared as the villainous Lord Blears with his manager an old school friend Leslie Holmes winning various tag team titles. On a tour of Hawaii he settled there and began to promote and commentate on surfing

He appeared in a number of films and television dramas including episodes of Hawaii O-5 and Magnum P.I.

There is an obituary of him in The Times.