Ski Hi Lee

I have some photos of him working in the pub, but they are a bit sombre, especially if you remember how he looked as a wrestler.

I also read that Bernard, it was part of his act.

No you're not Bernard. That and eating glass.

Am I the only one on this site, who read about Ski Hi Lee having darts thrown at his bare back ?

What fantastic comments. I didn't see Ski Hi Lee. I knew the name and wanted to see him. I hadn't realised he worked in England so much. Thanks everyone.

The news from Ron Historyo that Ski Hi Lee died in Westminster appears to sadly confirm the view, around at the time, that he was working in a Pimlico pub as a barman in his final days.But it is good to know that Tony Cassio remained in contact with this troubled man.

On a lighter note I was intrigued to see that wonderful poster for the Granada Woolwich that when Ski Hi partnered the good Doctor is a USA via GB tag match- Judo Al Hayes was partnered by one "Docker" Don Steadman. A rare occasion when one of my favourite "heels" of all time, played a "blue eye"!!

"Ag Pleez Deddy" was written by the folksinger and satirist Jeremy Taylor, as Saxon Wolf states above, in 1961. This was when Taylor was living and teaching in South Africa before he returned to England in 1964 due to his work (he was a staunch opponent of apartheid) being banned there. He found a welcome in the folk clubs and satirical venues in the UK and I met him, very briefly, in 1975 after a folk club gig in South Shields. It would therefore suggest that this fight did take place and Sky Hi Lee did tour South Africa during the time mentioned.

It's a great thread, to be sure, combining the very best of so many mambers' contributions in terms of posters, links, memories, geneology, memories and interviews - not to mention some invaluable differences of opinion. Bill is right, Ski Hi Lee was a show, to see: we shouldn't hope for too much more.

The thought of Jaws being Ski's son is irresistibly appetizing, and visually compelling. But is there a shred of evidence - beyond the obvious? I did some rummaging on the internet for Richard Kiel's father, but drew a blank.

If we want to be cynical, Jaws sprang to fame in 1977, 3 year's after Ski Hi Lee's death. But I suppose he was nevertheless an actor in the sixties, even if not world-famous.

I'd say wrestling at age 58 was perfectly feasible, as a show. An appearance. Others went on much longer. Maybe Dale Martin did just decide he was too immobile and had to go.

Do thank Ms Cassio Junior on all our behalves and tell her that we are lapping it all up. Also that I got her dad's autograph!

He did what what was expected of him.Remember it was a show and not a shoot

Yes, but his style was exactly as Victor reported.

Great tip from Bill Smith about youtube.

Ski Hi for me was very similar to Jim Moran (gargantua)

Ski Hi Lee appears in the words of a song from the early 1960's, from South Africa called "Ag Pleez Deddy" (Afrikaan for "Oh Please Daddy"), about a young lad who wants to go and see local Wrestler, Willie Liebenberg take on Ski Hi Lee, but his Dad won't take him.

Someone who grew up listening to the song, as a lad, mentioned it on his blog, as he had no idea who the two characters were, until he researched it. He then had a few people contact him with more information. I am not saying this is all true or accurate, but thought it might add a bit more information.

Selected cut and paste below, from 2006.

Sky-Hi Lee

Ag pleez deddy won't you take us to the wrestling we wanna see an ou called Sky-Hi Lee When he fights Willie Liebenberg there's gonna be a murder 'coz Willie's gonna donner that blerrie Yankee

From my previous entry about Jeremy Taylor's song, I researched these two names and found they were real wrestlers in the 1950s, and Willie is actually a friend of Jeremy's and is now a sports coach (though he must be about 70).

Anonymous said...

He did not have giantism/gigantisism. His death was not as a result of his physical size. He died on a surgerical table.

Jonquil said...

My great aunt said that she went with her husband to see Sky-Hi Lee fight in Fort Wayne, Indiana once and her husband said that he was his first cousin. She said they spoke to him after the fight. My great uncle was born here in the US in Indiana. I was wondering where you found the info that said Sky-Hi was born in Canada - I can't seem to find anything else about his life. Thanks!

Victor said...

I remember in the early sixties seeing the Huge..Sky High Lee wrestle in London...What a sight!..as I recall he stood over everyone..including a blond lady that appears to be aqainted to the wrestler as she spoke only in sign as if she was deaf..she got into the ring and started to throw quite a few darts into Sky's back and then gave him a couple of glass tumblers to chew on...All this before a match. I recall because of his size he didnt do much wrestling in the sense that he more or less slowly walked around the ring and left it to the other wrestler(cant for the life of me remember who) to make all of the moves. Iv never forgotten that wrestling match and through the power of the internet have found a lot more info on the wrestler Sky High Lee

Art Winters said...

In 1950 on a summer's evening, my father and I went down to Atlanta to see Sky Hi Lee wrestle. He was so strong that when the opponent was on top of him like a cross, Lee just pushed him up while his arms were straight and got up and won. A few days later I met Ski Hi at Venation Country Club. When he shock my hand his hand enveloped my hand and half of my forearm. He was big.

Anonymous said...

This is interesting to stumble upon, Ski Hi Lee is actually my Great-Grandfather. Not quite 6'7 290. but 6'3 270, so I now know where I got my size from.

Anonymous said...

Not so, he was 6'8, 300lbs, 54 inch chest 87 inch arm reach and was my uncle via marriage. Family rumour aka brother in law is he had a sister in Virginia or Tennissae, getting old, so thats a tad fuzzy.

As a young kid, I have one memory of him with long unbound hair sitting at a kitchen table with my dad, he had a very ferious look on his face and his fingers were punching holes threw his winter all wool cowboy phants, I was terrified and ran out.

He didnt say a word to me or I even think looked at me. I recieved one or two letters from him or his wife and a polaroid shot, before he died, I was trying to arrange a visit, he was cremated I was told in the UK.

Anonymous said...

I am amazed at the people coming out with information about Sky-Hi Lee. He was my paternal grandfather. My grandmother was his wife, Billie. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to meet him. Some say he was an ornery, miserable, horrible man, while others remember him far more fondly. The "anonymous" poster at 8:27pm (confirming his size measurements)...I'm fairly certain you are my father's cousin. So interesting the people you can find online. Should anyone related to Sky-Hi be interested in sharing your information/stories with me, my email address is oceyana4me@hotmail.com.

Yes, Ron, good point about concealing an age gap of 30+ years. And then probably created his own truth in Britain.

1910 does make sense if his dad was a famous cowboy. Less likely to have had famous cowboys around as late as the 1920s.

Since he was born in Texas, it would be hard to locate his birth record.

This is a hoot! His death was actually registered as Ski Hi Lee.

Going back to DJ Mask's newspaper article, it would again peg Ski Hi Lee to have been born as late as 1925.

My money is on Ron every time to be right, so it's interesting that the wrestler managed to outfox the courts, too. But that was part of being a wrestler, I suppose.

What did you think of the tag match, Bill? Interesting that the American commentator called in "Australian rules" tag match. But frankly I didn't rate it, limited array of action and for me, a very unsatisfactory ending. I dodn't think we see Ski Hi Lee in his best light here.

There is a good video on Youtube with Ski (billed as Rocky Ski Hi Lee) in a tag match with his partner against Reggie "Crusher" Lisowski and the Original Sheik...ends in mayhem with a double DQ

Here are the documents from Main Mask

Another splendid Paul Lincoln Flyer. Dave Larsen was on the first show I went to in Preston in 1965 then didn't see him again and then he went to France. He's certainly on my list of wrestlers that I would like to get in touch with Heritage. Bill Coverdale was more of a regular round our way. Judo Al I remember coming to Preston once, working for Morrell. The others I had to be content with tv, or in the case of Lee, DD and Dean not at all.

Dave Cameron was very good friends with Sky. He's told me a few hair-raising stories about the man over the years. The reason he stayed in the UK is that he got married to an English woman. Here's a neat shot of Dave & Sky from the early 60's:

Thanks Main Mask. Well, we had him pegged as a hell-raiser, looked like he lived life to the full right to the final bell.

Someone like that could potentially be a bit of a handful in the ring, especially if he had been on the bottle before hand. Quite likely with all the hanging around wrestlers had to do.

The research here is great, good on Ron disputing the general wisdom.

But what we still seem to lack is any idea of what this fascinating man was really like.

Bob Kirkwood would know.

Ski Hi Lee (as Sky Hi Lee) appeared in three films, two French and one Indian (starring Indian wrestler Dara Singh and with our own Klondyke Bill in the cast as well).

It looks like Ski did at least a bit for Joint following the merger. DM kept him in with a safe Lincoln man. And there's our man Cassio.

Seems to me that Robert Leedy died in Westminster (1974) and his date of birth was 3rd February 1910.

That date of birth also seems to be way out from other wrestling websites.

Wiki have him as 9th Feb 1921Toronto

Wrestlingdata.com have him 9th feb 1924

My own source is the registration of death index.

He must have started late and worked until he was quite old.

Amazing Oakeley got hold of him , it smacks of Carver Doone.

Reported heights for Lee ranged from 6-7 to 6-11

That's interesting as that was the day of McManus v Pallo 2.

The full published bill can be seen on this page:

https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/mcmanuspallofeudpart1

Apparently Ski Hi Lee was in a TV bout against Mike Marino on Cup Final day in 1963. According to the Itv wrestling website this replaced one of the advertised bouts.

Here's a couple of bills with Sky Hi Lee from early 1962. Results from Streatham are available so he definitely made that shot.

Although, now I think of it, he was seen wrestling on the BBC Timeshift documentary. 23 minutes in and then for seven seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQmWal2Dus

Thanks Main Mask. So Ski Hi Lee passed away in the UK?

Never wrestled on tv, correct?

When you meet up with Les Prest and Jimmy Devlin at the weekend Main Mask ask them about Ski Hi Lee. I think of the north East lads Dicky Swales was the one that knew Ski Hi Lee best, but unfortunately Dicky's not too well and will not be in Blackpool this time.

Ski Hi also worked in a pub in London, I bet there was never any trouble in there!

Thanks for so much fast feedback everybody!

Great to revisit those Coventry bills, Ron, and to see dear Al Tarzo on Dale Martin bills. Coventry really was a world all its own.

So Ski Hi Lee had a 16+ year on-off UK career including work for Dale Martin! I hadn't imagined that 24 hours ago.

I am hoping that his rabble rousing made him too hot for Dale Martin to handle.

Main Mask is going to share the date of his death.

I remember seeing him at St James' Hall, Newcastle not long before I finished working there. Checking on Ray Plunkett's list of Newcastle results it was in February 1966 (not long after the wrestler's amalgamation) when he was disqualified against Farmer Johnny Allan. I can remember him arriving at the Hall along with a number of wrestlers travelling with Ernest Baldwin; he looked the typical American wrestler with his cowboy hat on and chewing on a long unlit cigar and a huge pipe sticking out of the top pocket of his lumberjack jacket. He was to appear twice more at the Hall before it closed in 1968. He actually was on television in some Friday night programme on ITV in a brief sequence as part of a circus troupe.

Ron notes the Albert Hall outing against Joe Robinson. They were both working for Oakley at the time and I suspect that they met a few times. Joe did tell me that he rated Ski Hi Lee as his best ever opponent, responding to Joe's judo back story and generally working well together.

I seem to remember that he was a bit of a drinker.

It was reported that at one time he had some darts thrown at his bare back.

Anyone else remember that?

According to the Daily Mirror Ski Hi Lee met Tiger Joe Robinson at the Royal Albert Hall.

Nov 27th 1952

Ski Hi was disqualified.

Best Promotions Liverpool Stadium 17th March 1961 versus Gwyn Davies

https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/apps/photos/album?albumid=16132337

Dale Martins Coventry Drill Hall March 11th 1961 Anglo versus Gwyn Davies

https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/apps/photos/album?albumid=16105747