With Ron Historyo
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In those early days of the 1930’s there were a cluster of great Wrestlers brought in from overseas, simple networking, credit taken by Atholl Oakeley and his friend Henry Irslinger. At the start we simply did not have enough high class wrestlers of our own to fill the shows.
According to Oakeley’s own book he was inspired by a friendly tussle on his own lawn with a friend of Irslinger, Benny Sherman. After half an hour Oakeley was bettered.
When could this have taken place?
It looks pretty plausible to me because Ben Sherman had been in England in 1930 and sailed from Southampton on the Balmoral Castle to South Africa on the 28th November before the first Oakeley/Irslinger wrestling. Sherman was a young man, only 22 years of age, in fact the same birth year as Bert Assirati (1908).
Unlike some pioneers, not that much has been written about Sherman so as a historian I thought I would have a go. Not by any means a complete biography, but from an amateur base I will do my best.
Often billed as Canadian as well as American it would seem that Alaska was the birth place but the family seemed to move to Oregon. I managed to pick Benny up age 19 in 1927 in the newspapers wrestling and by 21 he was the USA Middleweight Champion.
His stop over in England was brief because he left the USA a few weeks before he was in England with a destination of South Africa. I have a press report with some background to back this up.
Irslinger, almost twice Sherman’s age had already wrestled in Australia and was to spend much of the 1930’s decade between England and South Africa.
In early February 1930 Benjamin Franklin (Buster) Sherman beat Henry Irslinger, the world’s middleweight champion, on points in South Africa, in a bout with fierce wrestling.
Maybe this was when Sherman had met Irslinger and was the catalyst in his move to Europe. However it would seem to me to be non title as Irslinger dropped the title to Walter Miller. Sherman and Louis Pergantes were both in the mix and Sherman got a draw with Miller when he got his shot in April of that year.
Eventually Sherman must have been champion because in August of 1931 he dropped the title to Bob Myres in a 2-1 twelve rounder in Johannesburg. In the early days Sherman did a stint here in England (left, Blackpool, August 1932) . In the spring of 1932 he crops up challenging Heavyweight Champion Doug Clark, allegedly having beefed up from eleven and a half stone to thirteen four. This was meant to be a money spinner either at Leeds or Huddersfield, probably outdoors.
You never know with wrestling, but if it was so big and went ahead, then why can I not find it? One guy who did get the chance to go with Sherman in April 1932 was Cordite Conroy in London. Sherman putting up, no doubt, a kayfabe £500.
The next report I find is that Clark v Sherman will be at Belle Vue Manchester for a stake of £500 each. After two months there was a scene at Belle Vue where Clark entered the ring during a Sherman match in June 1932 to issue a challenge. Seems to me they were either doing this all over the country or just simply could not get it on.
Pure showmanship, but I’m not so sure it ever happened if the papers are anything to go by. I would have thought a complete miss match because of the size difference. Sherman was fairly short and stocky, fairly strong, very skilled and pretty tough. But for me never a heavyweight.
One thought to keep in mind is that Doug Clark at that time had several matches against “The Mask.”
Who was “The Mask” ???
As a matter of interest, not on youtube but if you google Ben Sherman v Jack Pye Footage you will find a one minute film of them fighting. This was an extremely early Jack Pye and was from a match in London in 1932.
There were moments in that footage that show Sherman to be quite brilliant. It may be that Sherman and Pye worked a lot of bouts together. It ain’t like boxing. For sure they fought in a 1932 show at Blackpool where the bill was changed. Sherman did not fight Reginsky and Jack Pye was the replacement.
The bill (left) is what I am talking about and the result a draw.
Also they had a match in in Paris on September 14th 1932 where Pye and Sherman met, promoted by Geoff Dickson. By the time they worked in Paris it would have been all well practiced.
I am unsure if Sherman took a break and came back, but in the summer of 1933 I find him at Nottingham, a place where Oakley and Irslinger pulled the strings
Typical of wrestling though, The Golden Hawk on the bill had to be replaced by Harry Brooks. Six of the wrestlers on the bill are on the picture below. Benny Sherman is second from the left. As can be seen from the picture he is a fair bit smaller than Sam Rabin “TheCat” on the far left.
Another opponent for Sherman in England was the impressive looking Black Tiger who was better known as Black Eagle, in fact Robert Adams, who had a magnificent physique and went into acting.
Ben Sherman again set sail from Southampton, on the Warwick Castle bound for Cape Town. More time was to be spent there with Irslinger.
In February 1934 there was mayhem in Johanessburg with a wildly enacted fight between Sherman and Irslinger that enticed the audience to get involved as well. The end result was a DQ win for Sherman. Following the match the City Council banned All In wrestling.
So it seems that All In Wrestling was having the same problems in South Africa as it was having in England and in particular in the capital. If I have done my research correctly then Sherman was not to come to England again until 1939 and if not in South Africa then where was he? The simple answer was that he returned to the USA. I have some evidence of his busy schedule here in 1936 in Reno Nevada.
I also know that in late 1937 Sherman was back in South Africa, this time in Durban, showing his wild bout with Herbie Parks. So wild that there were reports of women fainting in the audience.
In early 1939 Ben Sherman was back in England, still only a young man of 31 years, but this was to be his final time with the war coming.
Box Office billing at Belle Vue probably at the hands of Oakeley and Miss Kathleen Look was typical of this last flamboyant tour. Sherman was carrying the Worlds Light Heavyweight belt and a great match it must have been with Carl Van Wurden. A 2-1 win for Sherman.
It was in the summer of 1939 that another discovery was made at Liverpool.
With a script that Black Mask had been unbeaten for nine years he had a spell at Liverpool. Black Mask in Black tights, for a few months had built up an unbeatable persona at Liverpool against the likes of Tony Mancelli, Herbie Parks and Heinrich Muller with a £20 bet. Another stipulation was below 185Ibs in bodyweight.
Putting up a wager of £20 Black Mask bet that nobody could hold him for six rounds. Jack McLaughlin of Canada did and Sherman unmasked. This took place on 14th July. All this under the William Bankier banner was made into a trilogy with McLaughlan going after Sherman’s belt and getting it at Liverpool Stadium on 28th July with a 2-1 win.
On 25th August they built it up to a final return grudge match but Sherman could only manage a draw with McLaughlan who held the belt.
Of course Bankier may have managed all this change in championship because Sherman was returning to America, setting sail on the American Trader from London to new York on the 6th of October 1939. Sherman had been residing in Beckenham in Kent. War was on now in Europe and for the moment the USA were out of it.
Could the Black Mask have been the earlier “Mask” that Doug Clark fought ????
So often these overseas pioneers had the skill to carry off being a masked man. Carl vanWurden as The Greeen Asp and Louis Pergantes as Mr X spring to mind.
So there we have it. Two tours was Benny Sherman’s contribution to the early days of British Wrestling. I do though have some more to tell about what happened next.
Sherman’s American career went on for a long long time, matching that of Jack Pye and Bert Assiratti. From 1940 he was in the USA wrestling. He was in Hawaii in the later 40’s. For a time he was Doc Sherman. He also wrestled as The Mask.
It was only natural that he turned to refereeing, but still turned out for a grapple.
In 1953 Sherman did a short stint for Stu Hart in Stampede Wrestling. The statistical sites have Sherman working as late as 1959 but I have actually found him wrestling as late as 1963 as well as refereeing.
In 1954 Sherman had a run as The Mask in Texas and I have managed to track down the bill where he was unmasked by Otto Kuss. The Show was in San Antonio.
Ben Sherman died in Albuquerque in 1981.
Historyo
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