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Since 2007 Wrestling Heritage has celebrated the best (and sometimes the worst) of British wrestling, with one notable exception. Female wrestling has been neglected through the years despite being a popular part of the sport for many years. Whilst names that include Mitzi Mueller and Klondyke Kate are well known female wrestling goes back much further than the 1960s. More than 150 years ago The Newcastle Daily Chronicle of July 19th, 1867 announced “The Great German Troupe of Female Wrestlers Has Arrived.” On 6th February, 1880 the Durham County Advertiser reported a wrestling match at Moorthwaite between a man and a woman, nothing in the world is new. The woman cross-buttocked her opponent and dislocated his shoulder.
Indian newspapers reported a wrestling match between two women on 23rd February, 1876, which “entertained a crowd of admiring spectators.” It was said that the police attempted to interfere but received “undignified treatment” from the two women and allowed the match to continue.
Reports of female wrestlers could be found around the world in the late 19th century – Europe, India, America, and Japan. British press reported the death of Champion female wrestler of the world, Hattie Leslie of New York, in October, 1892. In the 1880s female wrestling was popular on the stages of Paris, and became a part of the entertainment in British theatres and music halls in 1902. Challenges and reports of matched were included in the pages of the Sporting Life, but the popular press were quick to condemn, “PITIFUL, DEPLORABLE, INTOLERABLE” was the headline of the Dundee Evening News, whilst London’s Daily News declared, “WOMEN WRESTLERS; A DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE.”
Heritage member Peter recalled, “A few years ago the magazine History Today had a photo of two women wrestlers at a fair in Aldgate Oxford taken in 1910! “
Unsurprisingly female wrestling was included on some of the 1930s tournaments, though did remain something of a novelty. Women wrestling, advertised as Catch as Catch Can style, was staged at the St James Hall, Newcastle, on 27th March, The “Imperial Troupe of Lady Wrestlers” were applauded when entering the ring in their woollen bathing costumes. The show went ahead without protest, in contrast to protests leading to cancellation of women wrestling in Hull and Middlesbrough. Home Secretary, Sir John Gilmour, said he was not yet in a position to say whether legislation to ban women wrestling was necessary but assured the House he would give the matter very careful consideration.
Women wrestlers competed at the Leeds National Sporting Club for the first time in March, 1934. The two matches, fought under Catch as Catch Can rules, were reported to be conducted in a sportsmanlike manner and were neither unseemly or incongruous. Doreen Slattery (Wigan) beat Lily Fox (Scotland) by two falls to one, and Betty Green (Lancashire) beat Marjorie Murnum (Belfast) by two falls to nil. Newspapers reported that all four contestants were young and slim! The reaction to the women wrestlers was favourable enough for two more to appear the following month and reportedly showed a good understanding of wrestling.
On September 12th, 1934, two women wrestlers opposed each other at Lane’s London Club to contest the English Ladies title. Two thousand fans paid to watch Ivy “Blonde Tigress” Russell, who worked in domestic service , and Peggy “Brunette Bearcat” Parnell of Westminster, who worked in a drapers shop. Ivy the Tigress, weighing 9 stones and outweighing her tiny opponent by 2 stones, won the match after 9 minutes.
In 1938 Londoners at the Devonshire Sports Club, Hackney, were introduced to the novelty of female mud wrestling, unfortunately reported by a national press that neglected the orthodox aspects of the sport. This was the signal for London County Council to act. At the beginning of December, 1938, the London County Council Entertainments Committee announced that women would no longer be allowed to take part in public wrestling matches in London. There were no plans at that time to ban other wrestling matches.
With the introduction of the Mountevans rules in 1946 and the formation of Joint Promotions in 1952 it was deemed there was no place for female wrestlers in the new post war sanitised world of professional wrestling. Well that’s what they would have had us believe. Post war attempts by disapproving councils to eradicate female wrestling failed to succeed and the ladies continued to entertain, often in private clubs to circumnavigate council restrictions on public performance.
These days, and for many years now, female wrestlers have been respected as an integral part of British wrestling. That’s not always been the case. As Eddie Rose commented, “There was a lot of resentment against the girls from certain promoters and a minority of the public and media in the ’60s. I never encountered a female wrestler on a Joint Promotions show but did so many times on “Indys.” All the girls I met trained hard and gave of their best and generally enhanced the shows. They had a much wider variety of moves than the ‘Divas’ presented on American TV. The glamour was there, too!”
The names that we most readily remember Mitzi Mueller, Paula Valdez, Ann Barton, and Sue Brittain encountered many of their hardest contests outside the wrestling ring. They were amongst the 1960s pioneers who struggled to overcome prejudice and chauvinism and establish female wrestling as an accepted and legitimate part of British wrestling.
Those defenders of public morality the Sunday newspapers, who made money from those they zealously attacked, were soon on the offensive. “Sickening!” Proclaimed The People in March 1963 after talking to promoter Jack Jefferson, but apparently not bothering to actually watch a public exhibition of the spectacle. The same newspaper, and same reporter, returned a few months later, proclaiming “This has gone too far.” Again the journalist did not appear to have watched a public match but did talk to Mitzi Mueller in training. Mitzi soon put him right; telling the reporter in no uncertain terms that there was nothing degrading about wrestling, that it beat working in an office and earned her good money.
The public did not agree with the custodians of our moral well being. They flocked to female wrestling matches whenever the opportunity arose. Yet the adverse publicity did have an effect. Around the country councils took note of the negative press and some refused to grant permission for female matches to take place. Sometimes permission would be granted and then rescinded nearer the date. It was a difficult time when many became discouraged.
Promoters such as Jim Lewis and Jack Jefferson took to staging matches in clubs which were exempt from the rules. Inevitably the will of the public had it’s way. Theywanted female wrestling, times were changing and by the 1970s female matches were much more commonplace. Yet as the battles were won the war was not.
London County Council had banned female wrestling during the war. When the Greater London Council was formed in April, 1965, one of the first acts they passed was to continue the ban on female boxing and wrestling hey had introduced in 1938. These guys knew how to bear grudges.
After being prevented from wrestling at the Manor Baths, Southwark, in 1977, Sue Brittain and husband Ron Farrar took the council to an industrial tribunal on the grounds of sexual discrimination. Sue won her case in June 1979. A few weeks later, on 23rd August, Sue Brittain and Jane St John wrestled the first female match in a London public hall since before the second world war. In the 1980s the popularity of female wrestling reached new heights, arriving at another milestone on 24th April, 1987, when female wrestling was staged at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time. Mitzi Mueller had won the battle of the 1960s and husband Brian Dixon promoted her farewell appearance, allowing her to win the battle of the Royal Albert Hall when she and Rusty Blair defeated Klondyke Kate and Nikki Munroe.
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