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Desperately Seeking My Mummy
By Martin Campbell
One of the most memorable pictures on UK wrestling posters in the 70s was of the Masked Mummy.
Bits of bandage dangled menacingly around his body and his Hammer Horror body moves on his way to …. and inside … the ring established him as a gimmick grappler who could really pull it off.
But before this there was another Mummy (probably one of many of which I know nothing) and I only saw him once. Once seen never forgotten.
I’m taking you to March 1966, and to Wisbech Corn Exchange. Norman Berry and Shirley Crabtree were having a rough old time establishing their promotion business and had turned to my mate Jack Taylor (the Accrington Jack) for help in terms of advice and workers.
They started promoting at Wisbech after Dale Martin pulled out following half-full halls and bored fans. They charged in with women wrestlers who pulled in punters, but the spectacle wasn’t a great success in terms of entertainment so their second show had to be a bit special.
This is where the Mummy comes in. Remember this is 1966. A full four years before Allan Turner got into the ring for the first time, which was against Johnny Winter, and even longer before he took the Mummy hood. He was 6ft 4inches and 17 stone, so that also rules him out as Twentieth Century Promotions’ Mummy. Their Mummy was no midget, but not that big.
In 1966 in the States, Benji Ramirez was using the Mummy gimmick, but Berry and Crabtree were in no financial position to ship over someone who was battling the likes of Lou Thesz in 1966, so that rules out Mr Ramirez, too.
I’ve no idea who this Wisbech Mummy was, but he didn’t stint on the frills. He was carried to the ring in a wooden coffin which was then propped up in the corner.
After a suitably dramatic pause, the lid opened and out stepped the Mummy. Swathed in bandages (which didn’t hang all over the place) and wearing a white mask.
His opponent that night was Mid-Heavy champ Ray Glendenning, a seasoned pro who got the first fall in the third round, sparking the Mummy’s attack on the referee and an attack on the Mummy by a spectator.
In round five Glendenning flew from the ring never to return and the Mummy strolled darkly back to the dressing room. Job done. It was great night for the fans, although the women wrestlers in the previous show had been so disappointing the crowd this time was well down.
So that was that. The Mummy never re-appeared in the locality, and the next time I saw the Mummy on a poster was in the 70s when Mr Turner resurrected the role. I’ve scoured magazines and programmes and for the life of me I don’t know who this Mummy was. Given the coffin and all the palaver that went with it, this clearly wasn’t a case of shoving a mask on someone at the last minute. This was a well-used routine. But I still can’t find any other booking for my Mummy.
All info, guesses or inside knowledge welcome.
(Martin Campbell 2022)
Page added 13/11/2022
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