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Demolition Jack
The wrestler on the tag rope looks like a man who is enjoying himself. He’s Londoner Jack Langton who by day demolished buildings and by night demolished wrestlers.
Jack worked around London and southern England in the 1960s, wrestling for various independent promoters as well as promoting his own shows in Dulwich, Cheshunt, Croydon and Swanage, with future stars that included Steve Grey and Johnny Kincaid cutting their wrestling teeth on Jack’s shows. The poster above is of one of Jack’s shows in 1967 after he took over promoting at the Cheshunt hall from Paul Lincoln Management.
Jack was a heavyweight who could mix it with the best. Apart from singles contests he often tagged alongside his regular partners, the Billericay farmer Tiger Ed Bright and the popular Londoner Len Britton. Two very contrasting partners which is testimony to the versatility of Jack.
As a well known London celebrity Jack was asked to open many events, including fetes, and raised a lot of money for various organisations including Chase Farm Hospital. Those who remember It’s A Knockout will remember the piano smashing contest with the objective of feeding the pieces through a small hole. This was a popular feature at many of the fetes and we are assured Jack was always keen to take part and often turned out the winner.
Jack was friends with numerous television and radio personalities and youngest son, Jamie, recalled the day his dad’s Bentley door opened only for On The Buses star Reg Varney to call, “Come on son, hop in.”
Another friend was British middleweight boxing champion Johnny Pritchett. Never one to miss an opportunity to promote his demolition business Jack enrolled Johnny Pritchett in a photo shoot with the two men demolishing a staircase.
On occasions Jack would take his sons to watch him wrestle. Whilst they enjoyed meeting the wrestlers son Jamie told us that as a six or seven year old he didn’t really understand what was going and did get upset. Older brother Melvyn felt a bit more confident and on one occasion clambered into the ring to help dad!
Jack Langton may well be a name unfamiliar to quite a few of our readers. But he was one of those men who did his bit, and in his case quite a bit more, to make wrestling great. Promoter, trainer, wrestler Jack Langton was a man to respect.
Jack David Langton was born in north London on 7th June, 1924, the son of William and Ivy. Father William had also worked in the demolition business. It was a physical job that helped keep him fit for the evening job, wrestling. Leaving school at fourteen Jack got a job working for a corn merchant and eventually following in his father’s footsteps.
Jack Langton died in Enfield at the far too early an age of fifty-nine on 5th January, 1985.
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