Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I know that Mick McManus, the famous wrestler, lives in the E Dulwich area, and I would be grateful if anyone who knows him would pass this message on.

I am doing some family history research for a client who I think may be related to Mr McManus, and his late daughter Kim Annette Matthews. If he would like to make contact with me he can reach me at [email protected]


many thanks in advance,


Merfy

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/12624-searching-for-mick-mcmanus/
Share on other sites

Well...


If you visualise this man; add a few stone, grey hair & glasses, maybe a walking stick


http://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/Shining%20Stars%20images/McManus%20shrine%20photos/McManus%20squat-small.jpg


..then you've got a chance of spotting him


( not sure IF he'll still be sporting the trunks though )


*Career after wrestling ( according to wiki-p )


He now works for Uxbridge based Anixter Wire and Cable distribution in public relations.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_McManus



W**F

I'm so pleased Mick McManus is still with us.

Saturday afternoons with Kent Walton's(?) commentary.

Certainly Jackie 'Mr TV' Pallo. Decidedly Kendo Nagasaki. There were a couple of tag teamers who had dark hair and dark trunks, The Logans, was it?

The Royle brothers, good guys I recall, wrassled in white(ish) trunks and the one outside the ring (dutifully holding onto the tag rope) would become outraged when the other 'tag' team cheated.

Especially when both of the 'cheating' team members got into the ring and whaled on the single brother.

My 7 or 8 year old self would be incandescent at the injustice of it all and would applaud when the exhausted Royle would manage to tag his brother, who would then proceed to vanquish the bad guys single-handed.

Great fun and probably the only times in my young life I felt close to my father.


Anyway Merfy, hope you find him, and Mick McManus if you read this thanks for many hours of great fun and entertainment, you made it look easy but I know it was hard collar.

An arm or leg?


To experience the true atmosphere of the Wrestling Ring the ones held in the Dulwich Baths were very good as the Pool was covered with a frame then sections of flooring boards covered over the pool, the Ring that was erected in the middle and every slam on the canvas vibrated through the high glass roof.

The bouts were by the promoters Dale Martin Empire.

One of the many regular wrestlers was Mick McManus. Here he was a man who was just as comfortable in the company of the great and the good, or mixing with the Beatles and other entertainment celebrities, as he was mixing it in our local wrestling halls. I remember a group of them singing together in a show.


Jackie Pallo had a feud with Mick as Jackie's wife used to sit ringside and if Jackie was being held in a lock he would blow kisses to Trixie, and Mick would mime him this went on for years of course the audience took it up.


Despite being overshadowed by his high profile tag partner many consider the Brixton hard man, Steve Logan, to be far more versatile and exciting than McManus..


There were the two local Law Wrestlers


Known mostly by the name College Boy Charlie Law started out as a lightweight, (he wrestled Harry Rabin for the British lightweight title in1943) moved through the ranks and was still entertaining the fans? as a heavyweight on Paul Lincoln shows in the early 1960s. Born in Dulwich, living in Peckham and later Surrey, Law worked mostly in the south, and was especially popular at Wimbledon Palais. Whilst the name College Boy may have been used by others most fans of the golden days consider Charlie to be the College Boy. He passed away far too early, aged just 55, in 1969.


Lenny Law known as Len Britain, the day job we were employed by the same company Waxed Papers of Nunhead Lane, he used to keep us entertained with his stories of last night, they used to all travel together in the old battered van to the venues, one night they had stopped at a Transport Caf? on the way back from Northampton.

Len was wearing a black high neck vest he put on a detachable white collar, and walked into the Caf? where the drivers were eating their meal and swearing and cursing in their normal way he looked like a vicar, He tapped on the table and they all looked up, he said "gentlemen can I ask you to moderate your language then I can bring in the members of my flock in for tea."

Of course they all became silent he then beckoned them to come in.

In they came, one with an arm in a sling, one with a crutch and many bandages and plasters on their faces, and real bruises. They hobbled to tables, the drivers realised they had been taken in and they laughed for a long time.


Len liked to pretend to be a bit of a pansy. A driver backed up the long alleyway that is now Banfields to the Paper Warehouse but it was lunch time and there were just a few of us sitting in the sun on the large rolls of paper. The driver tried to find the goods inward clerk to come out and unload a single roll of paper, but he was not there. Len said to him, save you waiting give us a kiss and I will take it off your lorry, as the roll was very heavy the driver said OK thinking it impossible as he would have to get the fork lift, Len lifted it in one go and walked off with it the driver did not wait for a signature or his kiss.


Mick Mc Manus used to go into the house facing the emergency doors of the baths in Crystal Palace Road I don't know who lived there.

I remember the shop Law Brothers near the corner of Barforth Road we used to use the cafe opposite but the row of shops have long gone, always a row of Waxed Paper lorries outside, as their yard was too small to allow them all in as others were unloading.

I mostly parked over night at the Sternhall Road Works.

  • 1 year later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • OP has perhaps inadvertently provided free advertising for Dulwich Gails
    • Staff get taxis in and out and get paid extra (which I think is x2). Some people like to work on Bank Holidays and others don’t. Some people actively avoid Christmas for personal reasons. Long live freedom of choice! 
    • Here is another article from the excellent Special Needs Jungle (SNJ) with tips for responses to the SEND conversation survey. Including shoe horning in EHCPs which they "forget" to ask a question about in the conversation. And living as we do in Southwark with the huge misfortune of 100% academy secondary schools, some thoughts on this and how unlikely inclusion in mainstream is within the current education landscape. Closing date 14 Jan 2026. And please consider a donation to the excellent entirely run by volunteers SNJ. In my view the government could save money by creating some smaller mainstream secondary schools for kids who can cope in primary school but not  with the scale of secondary, and need a calmer less busy setting. The funding would have to be different - it is currently on a per pupil basis which favours larger schools. But it would undoubtedly be cheaper than specialist provision, and the huge cost to individual children and families (emotional and financial) and to society. https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/tips-help-complete-governments-send-conversation-survey-law/ If anyone wants to take a radical step to help their struggling child, my tip is to move far away: these are the best two schools I have ever visited and in a beautiful part of the country. I only wish we'd moved there before it was too late for my son who had to suffer multiple failings at Charter North and then at the hands of Southwark SEND, out of education from February to October in year 10-11, having already suffered the enduring trauma of a very difficult early life, which in combination with ADHD made his time at schools which just don't care so very unbearable for all of us. https://www.cartmelprioryschool.co.uk/ https://settlebeck.org/ As an add on, I would say to anybody considering adoption, please take into account the education battles that you are very much more likely to face than the average parent. First you have schools to deal with, already terrible; then being passed from pillar to post within Southwark Education, SEND, Education Inclusion Team, round and round as they all do their best to explain why they are not responsible and you need someone different, let's hold another multi-agency meeting, never for one minute considering that if they put the child at the centre and used common sense they would achieve a lot more in much less time without loads of Southwark employees sitting in endless meetings with long suffering parents. It is hard to fully imagine this at the start of your adoption journey, full of hope as you are, but truly education is not for the faint hearted, and should be factored into your decision. You'll never hear from people who are really struggling and continue to do so, only from those who've had challenges but overcome them and it's all lovely. And education, the very people who should be there to help, are the ones who make your lives the most hellish out of everything your child and you face.
    • It’s a big problem all over London. I’ve seen it happen in Kennington and Bloomsbury in the last year. I think there has been some progress recently with some key arrests, but you do need to be very careful when walking around with your phone out, especially, as you say, if wearing noise cancelling headphones. Sorry you experienced this 
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...