Doing my research, i've come across a lot of materials from Paul Lincoln promotions (or Lincoln-Alexander promotions as was often printed), and rather than do separate topics about things I noticed or intrigued me, I figured best to make one topic where I can stick everything.
(I also have some very rare photos from the office itself, which I will share when I return from holiday)
But please, feel free to share your memories and info about this very popular and successful independent promotion and the wrestler behind it all.
Hi there, who can I speak to on this page about using one or two of these photos? Credited, of course!
The brilliant posters and programmes posted by The Ost, and thank you so much, are a reminder of what a shrewd operator Paul Lincoln was when he signed up with the Granada cinema chain. The bill for the Granada Kingston brings back a very happy memory of the only time I saw Alan Garfield team up with Brian Craig-Radcliffe - the Society Boy from Mayfair in a tag match. Society Boy rather belied his name as he was a real bruiser, although as I recall, rather lacking in wrestling skill. The pair were absolutely hilarious and would have been a tremendous hit if they ever made it to the television screen.
At Kingston they were eventually disqualified with victory going to two regular Lincoln "blue eyes" Bob
Kirkwood and Dave Larsen.
At least I believe it was that pair- it was sadly a long time ago!!
Can anyone remember Society Boy?
This is the latest Paul Lincoln card I have found to date, February 1975 in Guildford. If anyone finds anything later than this, do let me know.
Great stuff as always from The Ost
By 1969 though, the cards begin to look the same as other DM offerings in the area:
Then we go to what must have seemed like Bizarro world at the time, Lincoln programmes featuring all the names of Joint Promotions. Instead of Bob Kirkwood or Ray Hunter on the cover, now there's McManus & Czeslaw. However, the mixture of talent did make the shows look really good on paper (and i'm sure even better live):
A wonderful groundbreaking thread. You can't beat a genuine archive , what a collection.
Thanks for sharing
Great stuff, Ost, thank you.
Expanding Hack's point about Shirley's weight in 1965, similarly on that bill Johnny Saint was already Mr Wrestling. I would have said IMPOSSIBLE, just goes to show. Lincoln was clearly a visionary, copied by the rest.
Some of those 1966 and 1967 bills where DM and Lincoln talent merge 50-50 are just fabulous. I can remember attending at the Tooting Granada at the time but of course just thought is was all so normal. The tag match that went on till after 11 o'clock.
Those were great days, and through this thread we are unearthing so much more about what was going on - though still scratching the surface.
Disappointing to see Dr Death assisting the VIP from the ring - must have been a control freak.
The start of 1966, and the big development - Lincoln joins forces with Joint. This has to be a Holy Grail of TV wrestling footage today:
Fantastic photos Ost. Thanks.
Here are a couple more being passed on from Main Mask.
The flair and skill in promoting is clearly shown in Paul Lincoln's programmes. One segment which caught my eye was in the contest between Count Robert Duration and "Judo" Al Hayes, referee Max Ward would tolerate no interference from the Count's valet Firmin- really! I wonder what happened.
We're on Page 3, where the most revealing photos go, I guess.
Here you will find some very, very rare photos of inside the Lincoln office in the early 1960's. I don't believe these have ever been shared before. Dave and friend Brian Jones went to visit Paul & Ray Hunter at Lincoln HQ. Each one speaks a thousand words:
Many thanks to The Ost for bringing back such happy memories with the Paul Lincoln posters and programmes. The Lincoln promotions were in my view at the time far superior to any other, and achieved with a limited pool of wrestlers and no television coverage. This makes their success all the more admirable.
In those now far off days I always wondered in my youthful naivety how "Docker" Don Steadman ever got beaten as in the ring, he really was a very fearsome character.C'est la vie!
Another classic Dr Death action shot by Dave C, this time against El Medico:
Henri Le Mao here for Lincoln in 1961
Dr Death in 1967 - so just who was the promoter? Doesn't look like DM and Dr D had stopped by then, hadn't he?
But Marino is there. Fascinating entry.
More from 1964. We see a change in the style of programmes:
I wish we'd had that Edmonton entry when compiling the Top 100 Wrestling Posters a few years ago. I can't imagine the Wild Man of Borneo in an opening bout.
I would love to know what the other three "Main Event" bouts were on Halloween 1963.
The Ringside cover page would make a great quiz question to name all the faces. I'm stuck at one. Need to get out the magnifying glass ...
speechless, amazing info, as always, much appreciated.
As promised, here is a rare photo of Dr Death vs the White Angel (referee looks like Brian Maxine? probably isn't though).
Expanding out to Peterborough, where Lincoln partnered with Harry Joyce. Any relation to Doug & Ken?
Judo Al Hayes challenges Steadman. No mention of Hayes winning a Mid-Heavyweight title. I guess they forgot about it that week. Tomorrow I will post a picture of Hayes as the White Angel, Dr Death's great rival.
No rest for the wicked, the next day they were over in Dagenham with Quasimodo the featured attraction:
March 4, 1964 another Wrestling Spectacular at Tooting. I don't know if Lincoln was writing all this copy himself but the programmes were really wordy. It's also a rare occasion where titles are involved, with a MId-Heavyweight and a British Empire championship being used.
Great stuff, thank you.
Amongst all the exotic names, and our first Sumartran, my attention keeps getting drawn back to Young Robby. There he is in 1962! He was still an up-and-coming youngster 11 years later, according to Kent Walton.
And Roger Green: "The Ring Pacifist." What was that all about?
All in all, though, Lincoln had a rather small pool of talent and it's therefore a miracle that he managed to keep ringing the very few changes at his disposal to keep presenting bills at all these cinemas.
I mean, there were only so many times you could see him dwarfed by Rebel Ray - yet survive; or Docker Don v Flash Edwards.
How unknowing we were without the internet!
Always keen on a strong cover photo, hard to go past The Mighty Chang. Also note a strong supporting card of lighter weight wrestlers on this show:
Back to 1964, and this programme begins the hype for his next Wrestling Spectacular, importing the midget wrestlers (I believe from France, but not certain).
As I mentioned, Haystacks was on the cards many times, being Ed Bright from Billericay. Here's a card from 1962:
From the Main Mask vault topics collide with this classic Lincoln handbill featuring a couple of French imports
Jan 4, 1964 Lincoln promoted a Wrestler's Ball for fans. A neat bit of fan appreciation mixed with bait-and-switch hype. This advertisement uses a file photo of Ricki Starr & Connie Francis. Not sure if Ricki actually appeared or not:
In any event, they had a Wrestler of the Year fan vote, which was won by Bob Kirkwood. At this time, Lincoln started using the type of templated programmes that other independent groups used, this one branded WFGB. Here we see Kendo on the card, Lincoln having a Kendo & a Haystacks at times, but the ones who became household names in later years:
(I think I might have maxed out the amount of photos per page, I've tried to make a new post several times and it stalls out. Now it has deleted the whole thing.) EDIT: New page, so I'll try again.
A couple of weeks after the above came a "Paul Lincoln Spectacular" with a loaded card, lots of matches and each one hyped in some degree. It also seemed to be the rare occasion where a title of some sort was on the line. This one pitted Mike Marino vs Dr Death for Mid-Heavyweight Championship of the World, under "EWF Rules". Yet another organisation in this alphabet soup of officialdom.
Also from 1963, this classic yellow handbill, with a lot of well-known names to the punters:
I don't have facts, but I believe Lincoln's ties to the promotional networks were loose at best. Taking a look at this 1963 show from the Metropolitan (using the recognisable yellow half-fold front cover) we can note officials were to be appointed by the BWF. As we've seen he also worked some with the WFGB.
This is Shriley Crabtree wearing British Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship Belt...did Wrestling Federation of Great Britain have a champion?
Hi Ost. On the big Brighton bill, would Cyclone Sid Wakeling have been Cyanide Sid?
Did WF of GB have an actual titles and champions, or it was just a group of promoters who were running their shows in different cities?
One of the reasons Lincoln was able to give the establishment a good run for their money was by being able to attract top-name talent for his shows, both local and overseas names:
Back with a completely different style of handbill, Lincoln was always trying something new. Here he went for a text-heavy approach for a show at the Essoldo in Brighton:
We also have Ken Joyce facing Bobo Matu. Joyce the technical master, but unless Bobo was much lighter in those days this would look an improbable match.
A semi final there between Milo and Henri. Thank goodness Ruslan hasn't noticed that.
Doctor Death's weight is of ongoing concern. Seeing him here in a credible bout against Eddie Capelli is worrying. He was supposed to be facing Ray Hunter around the same time.
Great to see Leo Demetral featuring as late as 1959. Must have been quite a veteran at that point.
Young Robby as early as 1962!!! He must have been in short trousers.7
Joyce versus Capelli!
So many interesting points to study in thes enew programmes.
Have a good holiday Ost.
I'm still excited about your thread, but a bit less excited now that you've revealed the first programme was not a Lincoln show, but a Don Robinson one. This Wrestling Review was used by Wrestling Federation of Great Britain Members.
You ask about the affiliated WFGB members. The most complete list I have is:
Don Robinson Promotions (Wrestling Spectaculars Limited)
Cape Promotions (Danny Flynn and Fred Woolley)
International Promotions (Jack Taylor)
North Western Promotions and O’Shea Enterprises (Jack Jefferson)
Twentieth Century Sports (Norman Berry)
Northern International (Cyril Knowles)
Independent Promoters (Tommy Whelan)
Orig Williams
Paul Lincoln Managements
(Paul Lincoln's association with the Wrestling Federation of Great Britain was short lived due to the amalgamation of his business with Dale Martin Promotions in 1966).
The Wrestling Federation of Great Britain was not the same as the British Wrestling Federation, which was a few years earlier.
https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/wrestling-federation-of-gt-britain
https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/british-wrestling-federation
We did discuss the Lincoln transition to Dr Death some time ago. Didn't get too far. My earliest advert for a Dr Death September 1959, though Main Mask had a 1958 sighting.
https://heritagedocs.wixsite.com/talkwrestling/forum/memories-of-the-old-days/dr-death-debut
As for Terry Gibb ....
.... He seems a bigger mystery than Dr Death. I have a handful of matches for him, all around London, in 1959-60. I wonder if we knew him later under another name?
Unfortunately I didn't see any Paul Lincoln shows so don't have any actual memories.
Hi Ost, enjoy your holiday !
The thing that struck me,on your 1959 Granada bill (my era), was a name that I had never heard of, fighting for a world title.
I also note that the "sensational young" Terry Gibbs was also Northern Area title holder.
So I thought that I would look him up in the A-Z. No luck there.
Is this another promoter's fib? surely not.!
And that's where i'll leave things while i'm on holiday, but please feel free to add info, memories, programmes, bills, posters, photos, tall tales etc.
Things got so busy in 1962 he was running two shows a day within London:
What I think is neat is that there were different styles of programmes for different venues. "Ringside Review" was the programme for shows held at the Empire in Hackney:
In addition to the Granada theatres, he also held shows at the Metropolitan and Adelphi theatres.
By June of 1959, Lincoln has launched his shows at the Granada chain of theatres:
One thing i'd like to find out, is when Paul Lincoln the wrestler made the transition to Paul Lincoln the promoters. Here we have a March 9, 1959 card with Lincoln billed: