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04 January 1965
BBC television very carefully dipped a toe into the water with it’s first broadcast of professional wrestling since the 1940s. Not that many would have been aware of this historic occasion as the programme was broadcast on the recently launched BBC2 channel and only available in London, the South East and Birmingham to those who had invested in a new aerial and dual standard television set that could receive the new station broadcast on UHF 625 lines.
Scarborough promoter Don Robinson was asked to matchmake and promote show. Broadcast at 7.00pm the BBC promised, “An international competition of all-star wrestling from the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, where some of Britain’s leading wrestlers top the bill in a gala charity performance.”
Commentary was by Eddie Waring, a friend of Robinson’s from his rugby playing days. Mike Marino faced “Harlem” Jimmy Brown in the main event of the fund raising show for the Variety Club of Great Britain. Also on the bill were Dai Sullivan, Gori Ed Mangotitch, Judo Al Hayes and Jimmy Devlin
Devlin remembers the day well, “We all thought this could be the start of something big, and that we would not look back. I was on with Milton Clarke, and I remember we got very good money for the match. Normally I would get £5 a match but for the BBC show I was paid 21 guineas (£22.05).”
Following the success of the Southend show Don Robinson had high hopes that the BBC would award his company the rights to promote future shows for transmission. Robinson was the most successful of the northern independent promoters having presented shows at more than thirty venues including the huge Nottingham Ice Rink; Queens Hall, Leeds; and Edinburgh Ice Stadium. Headquartered in Westminster Bank Chambers, Scarborough, the company had recently expanded their promotional businesses into the south and shared the offices of Paul Lincoln Management in Old Compton Street, London.
Sadly, things don’t always turn out as we hope.
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