Answering Ost , I saw a few fake Dr Deaths and none were proper heavies , nor were they much good. Did not see Ted Beech either , and get the impression that he played the part well and may also have claimed to be the original. As far as I know , I don't think Ted Beech was a full heavy. Correct me if wrong. Yes Anglo , particularly for the south , Lincoln whipped up a storm , even came to the Free Trade Hall in Manchester and promoted for a while. Old Heritage enthusiast Chris Newman certainly was impressed with the Good Doctor. Non of us saw Green Asp van Wurden who was reputed to have been a "Great" and I have to say , it looks like Naggers , Bartelli , Ghoul and Lincoln should be the top four. We were so close for many years to not getting the face of Bomber Bates , long run , never unmasked and then copied. For me Zebra kid makes up five . Nice that we can still debate all this with some enthusiasm after all these years.

And when you think about it, Dr Death(Lincoln) was quite a small Window compared to other masked men. Maybe we have over rated him in the fans version of history. He even came out top years ago on this site. I hold my hands up , he was nostalgia for some. I never saw the real one.

Of course it was arranged, I think Bert's common trick was to charge head down and miss going through the ropes. If he got back in it was a quick body slam and press or failure to beat the count. Read a few reports like that.

In 1965 he lived with Jackie Gaston at Penwern Road Earls Court. No trace of either of them dying in England. Electoral rolls confirm spelling Kalman Gaston. My guess is that he moved on. No marriage found here either , if they were indeed man and wife.

My own feeling is not a massive difference. I think in the group photo he is posing more , pulling in the stomach a bit , expelling a bit of air to keep it tight. The other photo much more of a close up so not easy to judge. I don't see a massive transformation in size.

But what is confusing is that Guy Mitchell was passed off as brother of Don , who was brother of more famous Dennis. Passed off below as one of a famous family , the Cleethorpes bill shows three Mitchells on one bill. So I am not saying anything except that the whole thing is a mystery.

Some more here from Dingwall..In 1965 , was this some sort of a Joint Promotions effort at a big outdoor stadium or has someone managed to borrow some Joint Stars. It's a big stadium too , a capacity bigger than the town itself. 1966 Continental Matchmakers and 1968 Cape Promotions.. back at the Town Hall.

I agree Anglo , what has been written , that has become legend , is what happened. There can be no other explanation. I have Peter Preston going south again in the middle of 1970. He went down to Kent quite a lot then , but from what I can see not to London. 1971 he is at Kings Lynn and Bristol.

Looks to probably be a genuine Australia visitor. Mid 1952 to mid 1954. Full blown heavy and sometimes billed from Tasmania. They had him beating Alan Garfield below at Dundee.

Interesting that once Preston had this one under his belt , the ability to conjure up sensational scripts for him soon began. Here in Hull he gets to tag with Adrian Street in a match at Hull , but dirty Preston gets disqualified for punching , leaving Adrian against the Cortez brothers who then proceeded to beat up Street.. Peter Cortez goes on to make Street submit to a single leg boston. This was pre Hells Angels days when Steet's regular partner was Tony Charles. The following month , a fight to the finish with Bert Royal at Newcastle , indeed finished for whatever reason as a No Contest. Peter Preston was now in the Big Time. And yet by April a strange case of the truth when Preston was billed as the man who got a draw with McManus. Was that after a reprimand by the Joint promotions Disciplinary Board and an Air Brushing of History.

These were the two matches featuring Robinson. But what else did he do. Was this just a set up to show off Baldwin.

As far as I can see plus some guessing , after Assirati had finished with Joint , it was sorted that Baldwin would be champion again as he had been whilst Bert was in Asia. But others got a go and there was a lot of swapping. Don't think Joyce got it until early on 1958 , but again it kept being dropped and won back. Baldwin seems to have dropped it by end of 1957. And of course within a few years Joyce and Robinson did their shows all over the country , just a good training workout for them. There were so many title matches that we could not possibly follow them all , nor make a real lineage , many have tried. I have no idea what happened with the European. Assirati had held it , but it seemed to have had a break here until it was convenient for Joyce to have it. It was a good script that for a while Robinson would have one belt and Joyce the other , then one of them got both , but many , many draws as well. A great seller at Belle Vue. Very hard to make sense of it all and maybe a shortage of those quality pictures that Ruslan seeks. I noticed recently that at one time Ernie Riley had three title fights for the light heavy championship against Billy Howes , in an obscure location , The Sankey Works Canteen in Shropshire. I think we would be amazed at the Creative writing that went into this industry. They could do anything , the news did not travel.

I agree with Hack May 1960 , also evidence on this bill here. "Television Parade of Wrestling Champions"

Here is Ernie Riley with one. I am sceptical that they took them home. I think the promoters had them for Photo opportunity , but I am guessing.

We have never sorted this , but Radak was billed as a Hungarian Masked Marvel.

Dick the Dormouse after 1956

The 1940 shows were not Dick and Jessie Rogers. Here is another name in the mix. Wrestling was on every week from April into August 1941 , but unfortunately we don't have the bouts. Here are some examples of various formats in the way that it was advertised.

Some late 1941 and a couple earlier. One of my pet hates , for much of the year advertised as Wrestling tonight Scarce in 1940 and one show , an afternoon show. Under Rogers Tenure it was a case of Spot the masked man. I don't think Bartelli or Ghoul ever did a show pre 57 , and by then I think too late for the Ghoul.

That find was just what I wanted Hack , I had always thought that Rogers took over from the Flamboyant Miss Look. I had wondered because I have some examples from 1944 where there were a certain amount of expletives used to keep the advertising colourful. Wonder who came up with the endless puns. However After the 1930's the format was quite simple and low budget. Click for bigger image. And if Rogers was low budget , Belle Vue itself spared no expense in advertising their magnificent business. Much prefer this type of newspaper bill , but many weeks did not show which bouts were on. These , well I just love them. And the year Hack mentions 1942 with Dick on his own show.

Don't think Wryton ever had control of Belle Vue , although in my time Conroy was MC for many years. I always understood that the Northern Promoters agreed to share Belle Vue. Not sure if it was on a three weekly basis or just co-operation in providing wrestlers , seeing as Conroy proved to be such a good front man. In my day , I Just looked upon it as Joint , and of course it was such a big venue , even Dale Martins sent up their men to enhance it. Marino the most , but I did get to see a fair bit of Mick and Jackie. Bruno was rare , I must say. I have all the news paper adverts for Belle Vue 1940-1945 , in fact for almost all years. 40-45 are all of a similar format , cheap advertising. But comparing 40-45 and 45-56 , I don't see much difference. For some reason Bartelli and Bomber Bates were not visitors. Pre Joint some wrestlers were forbidden by some promoters about their choice of Promoter to work for. I suspect Van Wurden was one such wrestler who got round this as The Green Asp. I did read somewhere about him being threatened over loyalty. Van Wurden did himself at Belle Vue from 1940. Not so sure he did The Green Asp there. The Belle Vue Site was a business , they allowed people in to do Stock Cars , Speedway , they ran a Zoo , they had a huge pleasure fair. Who they got to do all these things was up to them. They even accommodated Rugby League Broughton Rangers who became Belle Vue Rangers before folding. They had Kath Look , Oakeley and William Bankier in for spells for the wrestling. It was their facility and we don't seem to know who was The FIxer/Booker for 1940 onwards. Dick the Dormouse was still wresting on those shows in the early 1940's and then took to being a Ref. There were a hell of a lot of Manchester based wrestlers doing perhaps as much as 3 or 4 shows a month at Belle Vue. Virtually no visitors , but it still packed out 100 shows a year to bring some cheer in the war. I will pull out some bills for 40-45 and maybe we can spot if there was much variation.