Searching for Mick McManus

[Merfy]

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 merflerher@gmail.com

many thanks in advance,

Merfy

[Santerme]

Didn't he used to live on or near Bromar Road?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I'm sure he'll be all ears.

[woofmarkthedog]

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

[womanofdulwich]

i saw him coming out of the dry cleaners in the village a long time ago - i think it has now moved to croxted rd- his hair was jet black. you could always stake it out...........

[????]

He posts on here, he's a poor gambler

[Mick Mac]

Hmmmm......

I'll fight yee for your money ????sy boyo

I like to fight a real man - dont mind if they are called shirley - but haystacks and hedgers really make me mad....

[ruffers]

"The man they love to hate..."

I saw Marc 'Rollerball' Rocco the other day.

[HonaloochieB]

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.

[Jah Lush]

I don't know whether he still does but he used to live on Melbourne Grove.

[bob]

Saw him leaving the White Horse a few times very early 80's getting in to a jag and driving off.

Bob S

[computedshorty]

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.

[brum]

Nice anecdotes, CS!

[Jah Lush]

Interesting about the Laws. I knew a fews of them wrestled in the past. I think it was their brother Ron used to have a hardware store on Nunhead Lane until he retired at the end of the 80s. His son is a mate of mine.

[computedshorty]

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.

[Junegodden]

I was led to believe from a very early age he was my grandmothers cousin

[Michael Palaeologus]

World of Sport in the 1970s. Wrestling from various Midlands and Northern town halls, speedway and motorcross.

Formative moments in my life.

[PeckhamRose]

They regularly used to go down to The Oval in Cliftonville, opposite the old Butlins on a Tuesday evenings. My Mum and her Mum used to go see them all every other Tuesday night, and came home about 9pm absolutley hoarse!

[Mick Mac]

My Mum named me after Mick McManus, but I don't think he was actually my Dad.

[uncleglen]

Someone told me he did some antique dealing in the area some years ago now