Wrestling at the Rezza in the Tower Ballroom

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Date:1930 - 1939 (c.)

Description:There is no date other than 29th October but it is probably from the 1930's judging from other material in the same volume. Information on who these wrestlers were is difficult to come by on the internet but what we have found is this:
Tony Baer was at one time a Scottish heavyweight champion. Tony Mancelli was a British heavyweight champion. Leo Wax was an Australian wrestler who was also a welterweight boxer; he was born on 1st January 1905. His opponent, Phil Siki, was a West Indian. The wonderfully named "Black Butcher" Johnson was also from the West Indies and was apparently "a character". It is noted that he once stopped a fight between two wrestlers outside the Fanciers Club in Wood Street, Northampton.

Sam Rabin turns out to have been a highly acclaimed artist as well as a successful wrestler. Since his death in 1991 his paintings have sold at Christies auction house. In wrestling he won a bronze medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Jim Maloney is a bit of a mystery, the poster says he is Irish but the only wrestling Jim Maloney seems to be from Boston so perhaps they mean he was an Irish-American. Val Cerino doesn't come up on a Google search but other wrestling Cerinos do so perhaps they were a family of wrestlers.

All of this took place at the Tower Ballroom at the reservoir, a famous location for skating, dancing, music and, on this occasion, wrestling.

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Image courtesy of: Birmingham Libraries

Donor ref:Local Studies: Bham Scrapbook 21 (66/9020)

Source: Birmingham Libraries ,  Woodview Primary School

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