By Ron Historyo
Manchester was built up out of a village and eventually almost 200 years ago it’s main church became a small Cathedral. In that area you had Chethams School and Market Street. Today there is a shopping complex and the area of Piccadilly. However the origin of Manchester is at the other end of Deansgate where a Roman Fort was built at Castlefield. This was a Garrison on the straight road to the bigger Chester. You can walk from one end to the other in maybe twenty minutes. Manchester is no London in size.
As we leave Deansgate at Castlefield you go first through Hulme, then Old Trafford which is part of Stretford. From an archiving point of view it was in Hulme that I gained a lot. I came across bills for The Russell Social Club, just off Stretford Road on Percy Street. The thing was, these were not Independents. I wish I could explain the exact workings of this venue, but I can’t. I will share with you what I know and maybe one of the old wrestlers will step forward and enlighten us.
For me it had to be a small branch of Wryton, maybe a sort of induction venue to get experience.
I say this because I was able to collect bills from 1957 to 1963 and almost always the referee was Martin Conroy. In 1961 Martin even wrestled a couple of times, but for example he was fighting a very young Abe Ginsburg. Then you might see Ginsburg fight Eric Cutler on another night, surely a well matched sort of experience building bout for two fairly equal young guys. I have also read that Chopper lived in that area and worked for a time at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Occasional referees were Jack Atherton, Stan Rylands and Ernie Derbyshire. You would find guys like John Foley and Colin Joynson, Vic Faulkner and Roy St Clair.
Martin Conroy could have told us many stories, few know that at 28 years old he even went to South Africa wrestling as early as 1932, sailing on The Carnarvon Castle from Southampton in July of that year. Those were the days of Irslinger promoting there.
Here was a man who had done it all.
Was the Russell Club Martin’s niche.?
Pretty much the whole roster was of a local flavour. I never spotted Billy Joyce or Billy Robinson though, but of course they were packing out Belle Vue. And for such a small venue, very few special visiting wrestlers.
Look below at the building that I think was the Russell Club at that time (it was rebuilt) and in the very first few months of his career Colin Joynson against seasoned vet Jim Mellor.
And of course this was not just wrestling, there was Bingo and Cabaret.
Whatever the truth about this place I have managed to unearth over 100 wrestling bills, usually Thursday nights and for much of the time weekly. Nice to pull this back out of the mist.
There was a bit of added spice for a while in Hulme. The Russsell club at Percy Street was off Erskine Street and on Erskine Street stood the Luxor Club. Yet another old converted cinema The Luxor.
This was very much a Cabaret Club. Allegedly owned by a Ginger Chilton, at this time it brought in stars like Chubby Checker and Gene Vincent. One thing was for sure, this was Independent and the promoters were local lads. Which ones I am not quite sure. Grant Foderingham, the Black Panther was a promoter in his own right with his own gym, but it was about this time that Danny Flynn and Fred Woolley defected from Joint Promotions to run their own business. The wrestling often clashed on Thursday nights.
I can’t tell you if there was any bad blood, but I will comment that Wrestling 55 years ago looks very healthy to me. Wryton on Friday night and Belle Vue on Saturdays and the Free Trade Hall. Wow.!!
Less than half a mile down the same Stretford Road, over the Trafford Boundary in Old Trafford was a venue I have never heard of. The Globe Stadium. At first I thought of Ted Beresford’s Globe promotions, but the area was wrong. It turns out the that the Globe was a cinema.
In fact the true history is that it was built as a tram shed in 1914 to house both trams and horses and was converted in 1937 to a cinema. Seems to me that it was very popular to use converted cinemas for wrestling. I myself experienced the Wryton and it was a nice size and a nice view sloping downwards, but the place had seen better days. The Palace Stadium in Bolton did not last long and by the looks of things neither did the Globe Stadium, but full marks for trying.
Travelling further down the road, I go between the two Old Traffords, Football and Cricket and arrive at Stretford. I heard about this venue from a friend and was so glad to find it. Originally a public Hall and became the Civic Theatre in 1949. But the real bonus in all this work is to capture a souvenir. How about Kurt Von Vidor below, a very early sighting of a man who went on to be a top TV Blue Eye.
And in 1961 an open air show at Longford Park.
After the journey along Chester Road past Stretford Civic you would eventually get to Altrincham which has already been covered in Altrincham Grappling, But by turning left at The Civic you go then to Chorlton.
In Chorlton was the Princess Theatre Club, the Palais de Danse, and now a nightclub converted yet again from a Cinema. This club was part of the Moss group chain of clubs and inside the Boxing ring was, I have read a permanent fixture, with comedians performing on it as a stage.
In 1963 Jack Beaumont (Belshaw) died after a bout in Chorlton at just age 45. I don’t know but I suspect that this was the venue. And a teaser here, Gerry Dorsey in the Cabaret above. I think older members will know the answer, but a few years later, for a while he was almost as big as Tom Jones, but his alias was far more complicated. The capture of the Princess Theatre Club bills is so nostalgic that I present Chorlton in it’s own gallery.
Finally on the journey south, into Stockport, I find the Empress Cinema and Ballroom in 1959. It was actually built in 1939 to seat 1400 and had closed in April 1959. What was it that all these cinema’s were closing in just these few short years. Part of the cinema was used to form a cabaret Club run by Manchester City footballer Keith Marsden. The other part of the building was for Jive Club and Bingo. After 1967 the club became the Poco a Poco club and casino. It looks to me as though the wrestling was squeezed in between the closure of the Cinema and Marsden taking over it. No wrestling was advertised in the following years. Probably another short lived opportunity.
Danny Flynn and Fred Woolley put some shows on at the Armoury in Greek Street. This was the barracks for the Cheshire Regiment, as with many drill halls and Roller Rinks you could get a few hundred people in.
So there are some Stockport shows in the Galleries and look out for open air shows at Edgeley Park, More Cinema’s with the Astor and the Plaza and the odd stray from Marple and Hazel Grove.
I end with a bonus Stray
Historyo
Wrestling Heritage 