Steve Viedor the absolute master for me. His smelling salts in his Royal Albert Hall bout with Gwyn Davies are a joy to behold: he even pre-planned his suffering! One youtube bout that continues to fascinate is McManus giving away several stones to Tornado Torontos. Torontos just crumbles and sells every little flick of Mick. Such a clear sign of an employee trying to ingratiate himself with the boss. It goes beyond what you describe, Norfolk Snake, and creates a realm of overselling.

I see in today's news that, in Derby, a young man has been stabbed to death by 11 assassins. R.I.P. His name: Dale Martin. I'm now wondering whether the police will find, Morrell, Woodhouse, Riley, Beresford, Rewyskow ...

Gee that Jack Dale travelled pre-war. And seemingly set up good relationships with the northern promoters. Great photo of him there. What gems of posters, thanks for sharing.

Haha, a Snakepit link to Dad's Army, then! Dame Mary Rand at her peak of 1966 fame was a wrestling fan. Nice when sports people embrace wrestling. Years ago we explored the mystery of Geoff Hurst who, in 1968, was billed in TV Times as the special guest on the tv wrestling. None of us could remember him appearing. So we contacted him, were ignored, and then insisted and got a reply from a third party say Sir Geoff knew nothing about it. All very odd, and I remain convinced there's no smoke without fire. Sir Percy Shaw, inventor of cat's eyes. Featured in a tv documentary. Just thinking in general as you mention the theatre of it all, Paul. I think I'll start a new thread...

Peter, you commented on the Rex Strong post, didn't you? Now the whole thing has disappeared. Weird.

Ron = Mustard! And the certain individual was undoubtedly Puffing Billy! (Nobody was happy with him, except perhaps McManus, in front of whom he absolutely wilted on tv, albeit two stones heavier.)

In 1977 the BBC OTD series dedicated an episode to the Pallos at home in Barnet. I had to laugh as Pallo chased a speedy rabbit around and quipped: "Mick McManus used to move that fast - but not any more."

Teeeest

TEST

The BBC

The BBC OTD series

In 1977 the BBC dedicated an edition of the OTD series to the Pallo family at home in Barnet. I had to laugh as Pallo chased a speedy rabbit around and said: "Mick McManus used to be that fast; but not any more."

The BBC's OTD in 1977 dedicated an episode to the Pallo family in their Barnet home. I had to chuckle when Pallo sees a rabbit darting around the place and quips: "Mick McManus used to move fast like that; but he doesn't now."

That's great, Paul, cheers! Work appraisal is central to most industries, especially the performing arts. Mick for a while at least was there putting together all these heavyweight bouts of wrestlers he had never faced...quite a responsibility. Back to Terry Rudge: I do recall he was very prominently featured in the Mick McManus Wrestling Book of 1970. He seemed headed fo the stars at that time; but by a year or two later his career had plateaued. It may well be that something "happened" and he was kept to support bouts if he couldn't be trusted to put over the bigger names who were twice his age. It also seems that Mick and Les were very very close.

Hi Paul, I don't know about Rudge and Les. But you were clearly one of those wrestlers who watched the other bouts. I recall Torontos, Czeslaw, Syd and Joynson were like this. Even though I saw McManus on countless bills live, I never ever saw him watching any other bout. Obvious really, he was getting ready during the opener; wrestled in the second bout; and was on his way out by the time the third had started. So my question to you is: how did he know what the wrestlers were like? How did he make his judgments?

Absolutely a troupe, isn't it, Ron? Basically the same eight that April week, with three local Scots to plug the gaps. So Dennison missed Monday and had to make up for it by working Friday, it seems. I do see the distances but these are still four neighbouring venues and it's quite brazen to have Kellett v Graham on consecutive nights. So the Masambula octet in November 1966 probably followed a similar but not identical route since the weekday in Wick changes. These 8 reek of tag! I bet the Aberdeen bill that week sees a couple of locals added to allow the Black Knights to face the Black Diamonds, Relwyskow held firm with his top price 15/6 in the 21 months of JP activity we can see in Wick, October '65 to July '67. He poached Wick from the independants and then relinquished it 21 months later. Maybe this tells us he did not in fact make money out of it, because he certainly persisted with lavish bills in Hamilton in the following years. Just look here with the cheapest seat 10/-, compared with half a guinea there ringside three years earlier: When the indies reclaimed Wick they reduced the top price from Relwyskow's 15/6 to 10/6. Makes you wonder how they made it pay. Interesting marketing decisions being made. Once you start on this, you never stop looking for patterns! Now I see that they were even more brazen the following 1968 evening with tag partners now becoming opponents: Dangerously sloppy, I'd say. Plenty of people would have read both Aberdeen's and Hamilton's local papers. Intriguing to scratch at the surface of the promoter's planning. Obviously hall and wrestler costs will affect things as well as the equally intriguing logistics: could Pallo and McManus risk being seen travelling around together?

You are right quite simply to marvel at how they managed it, Ron. Ok, they did their 25 minutes in the ring, but the whole achievement of getting there and back from England, even the north, would have taken over twelve hours. Not to mention the cost of it all. We have to imagine it was a sell-out every time. Pepi La Paque from Finland! How quaint. Presumably Pete or Jon.

Eurovision is upon us, but who can remember a time when the Song Contest played second fiddle to an even more popular Eurovision contest? 3rd September 1969 saw the Grand Final of Jeux Sans Frontières.  I enjoyed it but my brother became a patriotic beast to see the GB teams to do well. The Grand Final only took place every two years and this 1969 final made front page news  with its spectacularly controversial dead heat between Shrewsbury (UK) and Wolfsburg (D). In the run up to the final, it emerged that the Germans had a hammer thrower in their team, and he seemed like a shoe-in for all the strength events. As befits any town that cannot agree even internally how the team name should be pronounced, Shrowsbury stooped to underhanded skulduggery in recruiting a non-Salopian heavyweight team member from Blackpool. None other than Heritage favourite Rex Strong!

Eurovision is upon us, but who can remember a time when the Song Contest played second fiddle to an even more popular Eurovision contest? 3rd September 1969 saw the Grand Final of Jeux Sans Frontières.  I enjoyed it but my brother became a patriotic beast to see the GB teams to do well. The Grand Final only took place every two years and this 1969 final made front page news  with its spectacularly controversial dead heat between Shrewsbury (UK) and Wolfsburg (D). In the run up to the final, it had emerged that the Germans had a hammer thrower in their team, and he seemed like a shoe-in for all the strength events. As befits any town that cannot agree even internally how the team name should be pronounced, Shrowsbury stooped to underhanded skulduggery in recruiting a non-Salopian heavyweight team member from Blackpool. None other than Heritage favourite Rex Strong!