Rich Landrum Passes Away

Sad to report that Rich Landrum passed away quietly back on August 14. Rich is fondly remembered as the host of Jim Crockett Promotions' World Wide Wrestling syndicated wrestling show from October 1978 until early 1982. He was 77 years old.

Long time Richmond, Virginia fans will also remember Rich as the ring announcer in Richmond throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, introducing matches at the Richmond Fairgrounds at Strawberry Hill, the old Richmond Arena, and at the Richmond Coliseum.

His broadcasting career began in local radio and television in Richmond. He got his break in wrestling when attending matches at Strawberry Hill in 1971 with family and friends and the regular ring announcer didn't show up.  Promoter Joe Murnick asked him to fill in that night. Murnick liked him and began using him as his regular announcer from that point forward.

Rich Landrum interviews Ricky Steamboat on the set of World Wide Wrestling, circa 1978.

He replaced "Truckin'" Tom Miller as host of Wide World Wrestling in October of 1978. Jim Crockett had WRAL build a new set for the show and renamed the program World Wide Wrestling and Landrum debuted as its new host. 

After moving TV production from WRAL in Raleigh to WPCQ in Charlotte in the late summer of 1981, JCP balked at the ongoing expense of flying Landrum in from his home base in Richmond VA every week and asked him to begin driving it. Rich was unhappy with that arrangement which led to his eventual departure from the company in the early months of 1982. David Crockett assumed host duties of the show at that point, eventually joined by Tony Schiavone in 1984.  

Johnny Weaver and Rich Landrum

Landrum will likely be remembered best by fans for his on screen partnership with co-host (and legendary pro wrestler in that area in the 1960s and 1970s) Johnny Weaver. Landrum dubbed Weaver "the dean of professional wrestling" and the moniker stuck, and the two had great chemistry hosting the show together for several  years. 

Obituary on DignityMemorial.com

OTHER LINKS
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WRAL Studio Page
WPCQ Studio Page
Rich Landrum related posts on the Studio Wrestling website

Worlds Collide: Championship Wrestling and ACC Basketball

"Gypsy Joe, nay, not even Jim Austeri, was ever the villian that Bob Lakata was when he hit a free throw for Duke to send the game into its first overtime." - Ronald Green, Charlotte News

By Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you grew up watching wrestling on TV on Saturday afternoons in the 1960s through the early 1980s, you knew full well the havoc traditional sports programming could cause with the schedule when they ran long, with basketball games going to overtime and baseball games going to extra innings.

On January 11 during the bleak midwinter of 1958, Jim Crockett was to debut his brand new live pro-wrestling show on WBTV channel 3 in Charlotte. It was a major development for promoter Jim Crockett to be able  to promote his local cards through the relatively new medium of television. Wrestling from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Texas had been a successful staple of national television in the 1950s, but this would be the local Crockett crew for Charlotte. 

Charlotte News sports writer Ronald Green wrote about that big news in the local paper in the week before. You can read that article in our earlier post here: "Championship Wrestling" debuts in Charlotte (1958)

The show, hosted by WBTV personality "Big" Bill Ward, did indeed debut on Saturday, January 11, but not at 3:45 that afternoon as originally scheduled. ACC Basketball got in the way. And then there were Spanky and those poor Little Rascals that got in the way, too.

In another Ronald Jordon column recently uncovered, the Charlotte News told the story. Read that entire article below for all the details.

The afternoon ACC basketball game between Duke and NC State ran long when Duke center Bob Lakata and forward Jim Newcome sent the game into two overtimes respectively. WBTV producer Gene Burke watched as the double-overtime contest threw his Saturday afternoon programming schedule into chaos, delaying the debut of "Championship Wrestling" and then, with wrestling running over, bumping the popular kids show "Little Rascals." 

It may not seem like much now, but one can imagine the stress producer Gene Burke and wrestling promoter Jim Crockett were under that afternoon with the debut of local pro wrestling on television. It was nice to read Ronald Green's positive nod to the production at the conclusion of the article.

As always, thanks to Mark Eastridge.

* * * * * * * * * *

ACC Basketball Note: Duke went on to win the ACC league championship that year finishing 11-3, a game ahead of second place NC State. Forward Jim Newcome, mentioned in the article above, went on to play in the NBA.

Promoter Paul Winkhaus (JCP/Greenville SC)

PROMOTER PAUL C. WINKHAUS

Winkhaus was the promoter in Greenville SC and surrounding area

for Jim Crockett Sr. in the 1950s through the early 1970s.

 

Edited E-mail to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway from longtime

Greenville SC wrestling historian Don Holbrook

Yes, I knew Mr. Winkhaus well. He was indeed Crockett's man in Greenville. He also handled Columbia, Asheville, Anderson back then and did a few other cities around here from time to time like Greenwood at the ball park and others. He was already up in years, we are talking late 1960's for a reference point here. He lived in Matthews North Carolina, outside of Charlotte and he was originally from Ohio I think. He told me that he was a sports writer for a newspaper somewhere before he got into wrestling. One thing I remember was how creative he was at writing press releases that he would send over to the newspaper here in town to go along with the ad they ran every week for Monday nights card.

Most of the years Billy Powell was ring announcer, he actually worked for Winkhaus. Billy would walk in the back door about 15 minutes before show time and he and Mr. Winkhaus would go over the line up and any changes or announcements, etc.

I actually rode to the Anderson Recreation Center with Mr. Winkhaus a few times on Thursdays. There was a period of time he was running a show there every other week or so. This was before I was old enough to drive. He used to stop by the Greenville Memorial Auditorium on Thursday afternoons on his way to Anderson. He also would run the tape for Saturday afternoon television by the WFBC-TV studio over on Rutherford Road on some of the Thursdays. I can remember running it in to the lobby desk at channel 4 for him a time or two.

He was a nice old man to me, but he had a gruff sounding voice and back then wrestling was so believable that many of the folks around here would be on him the minute they saw him, complaining about the heels, one thing or the other. He was interesting to talk to and he would tell me wrestling stories and at a young age. I thought it was so cool to have this inside track on wrestling.

Mr. Winkhaus died not long after he retired. After his death, there was a short period I don't think they had anyone acting as local promoter. I can remember Johnny Ringley, Crockett's son-in-law coming down a few times, and once I remember Jim Sr. was here on Monday handling things. There may have been an interim along that time, I don't remember, but the next one I do remember was Sandy Scott. He actually lived in an apartment out on Wade Hampton Blvd. for a long while and ran the same towns Winkhaus did but also helped George Harbin with Spartanburg and more spot shows in Western N.C. Then Danny Miller came in when Sandy went back to the Charlotte office.

- Don Holbrook, Greenville SC

 

 Despite what the caption indicates, promoter Paul Winkhaus is on the LEFT,
Billy Powell is on the right.

 

 

Snow Cancellation and Holiday Announcement
Asheville NC 1970

 

 

The Passing of Paul Winkhaus

 

Paul Winkhaus died November 1974. He was ill for several months prior to that and could hardly walk the last 3 or 4 times he came to Greenville, so much so that he couldn't even make it down the steps to the dressing rooms to talk to the guys. So they had to send the referee upstairs to get the instructions from Winkhaus who was in a small dressing room on the main floor level. Mr. Winkhaus "resigned", moved to his hometown in Ohio and died shortly afterward.

I remember that he took great pride in the newspaper ads and the results and write ups. He was a former newspaper writer and had a great ability so that is why the ads and the write ups were so good. I used to see him at Greenville Auditorium in an outer office typing his materials for the newspapers. Asheville was one of his towns and he worked really hard to promote it. He was the main reason WLOS had such a good relationship with Crockett Wrestling.

- Don Holbrook, June 2012

The Voice of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling

Tribute to Bob Caudle

Studio Wrestling Interview: Video Tech Tom Gallagher from WRAL

Tom Gallagher worked in videotape at WRAL television from 1979 until 1982 and his adventures with the JCP wrestling crew that moved into the Raleigh studio "A" every Wednesday paint the most complete picture of a day at WRAL wrestling tapings that has yet been published to our knowledge.

Tom and I were introduced via e-mail and I asked Tom to share with us his role in the wrestling tapings. Presented below is Tom's recent letter to me regarding those memorable Wednesdays. 

 

- Dick Bourne, January 2009

********************************************

An Email From Tom Gallagher

Most of what I would contribute regards the technical nature of the show, from 1979 to 1982 when I worked videotape at WRAL-TV.

To orient you, the videotape room at WRAL was in the basement, near the corner below the “WRAL-5” message sign that can be seen behind Bob Caudle in a picture on the Gateway. The studio was on the ground floor, and the production control room was on the second floor almost directly over the VTR room.

Just about every Wednesday, wrestling would take over production at WRAL-TV after the noon news and, except for the six o’clock news, was about the only thing that would happen for the rest of the day. It’s pretty well documented elsewhere that the shows (World Wide Wrestling and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling) were taped in the evening, so I’ll deal with the afternoon session.

On Wednesday afternoons we produced the 2:20 commercials that followed the announcement “Let’s take time out for these commercial messages about the [World Wide / Mid-Atlantic] wrestling events coming up in your area.” This was the whole basis of the economics of these shows: stations got an hour of programming material that they didn’t have to pay money for, and the promoters got almost five minutes of commercial time to plug their local arena matches. ("Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling has been furnished to this station for broadcast at this time by Jim Crockett Promotions, in exchange for commercial consideration.") These spots ran at about twenty and forty minutes into the show. To sweeten the deal, there were commercial positions within the show that the station could sell to even make a profit, or maybe just pay the electric bill to keep the transmitter running.

The WRAL Video Tape Room

The studio was set up with just the background flats; the ring was kept on the truck and set up during the six-o’clock news break. As you can see from the pictures, we had exactly four high-quality (“quadruplex”, or “quad”) recorders that used 2” tape. Only two of them had the modules that allowed electronic editing, the alternative being a razor blade and adhesive tape. Almost all the stations that aired wrestling did it from 2” tape (the exception was Bluefield, which used BVU ¾” tape). I don’t believe any station got the show on 1” BVH. Those were the days when VTRs weighed half a ton and cost a quarter-million apiece. WRAL was lucky to have four (FOUR!) 2” VTRs. Since only four copies of each show existed, and they had to be air-shipped on Thursday to get to the stations on Friday before the program managers went away for the weekend, there was no time to make copies of shows.

What happened to the tape reels was described as a bicycle wheel, or “the bicycle.” No, we didn’t send the shows out on the back of a bicycle! If you imagine Raleigh as the hub, and the various cities on the rim, the show tapes travelled up and down the spokes. I don’t recall the specific order, of course, but the show that aired in High Point, for example, would come back, have new commercials edited in, and get sent back out to Louisville, come back, get new commercials edited in again, and then be sent back out to Buffalo. After the first week, each show would air in only four markets (Bluefield would always get the new show on ¾”, which would make five the first week.) Each show might be airing each week, somewhere, for as long as a month or more.

Producing and editing the commercials is what happened Wednesday afternoon. We edited live-to-tape, which means that as the talent was promoting the match for a city we were recording on the tape that would go to that city. On the production side, the floor crew usually had the likes of David Gill, Leonard Peebles, Rick Armstrong, Art Howard, Tilla Fern, Kara Carite, and others. The control room had Ruth Miller or Joe Johnson on audio and, depending on the week, directors George Pemberton, Bob Gubar, Kevin Duffus, Bud Brown, Tom Lawrence, Pam Parrish (Pam Paris?), or Connie Goodman. I was all alone in VTR.

My job started during the noon news. Carl Murnick would bring down about two-dozen tapes. I would cue each tape to the beginning of the first 2:20 (two-minute twenty-second) commercial, then dismount both the supply reel and the take-up reel from the tape machine. In the wide shot of the tape room (above) you can see the last eight tapes for the day stacked on the floor. To make an edit, I would load a tape onto the machine, find the exact beginning of the commercial to be replaced by the edit, zero the tape time counter, and then rewind the tape about thirty seconds. From thirty seconds back, I would play the tape and make several mechanical and electronic adjustments to the machine, while watching the timer and counting-down to the beginning of the commercial so that the studio could cue the talent (Mr. Landrum or Mr. Caudle). There was a 2/3-second delay between when I pressed the “edit” button and the actual edit, so I had to account for that. As soon as the recording started, I would move to the second machine and load that tape, cue it up, and get ready for that edit--- hopefully before the first 2:20 commercial was done, because I had to have my finger on the button to end the edit recording, otherwise we would be recording over the show! After ending that first edit on the first tape, I would put that tape into fast-forward to get to the second commercial, move to the second machine and make the first edit there, move back and cue-up the first machine to the second spot while the second was recording, end the second machine and edit the first, cue up the second, end the first and rewind and take off and cue up a new tape, and so on and on.

Tom Gallegher on the job in the WRAL video tape room.

If it sounds complicated, it sure was. It was OK once you got used to it.

I would record the commercials to be edited into the shows recorded that night onto the 1” tape machine, and Carter Bing or Walter Armstrong would edit those commercials into the tapes before they were shipped.

About halfway through the afternoon, we took a break from production while the studio flipped the background flats around from the “A” show to the “B” show; yep, as folks who went to the studio tapings will attest, the only difference between the shows was which side of the background flats faced the camera! One side had “Mid-Atlantic Championship Wresting” on it, and the other side was “World-Wide Wrestling.”

As soon as we finished taping the commercials, everyone split for dinner or some other sort of refreshment.

As I mentioned above, the late Carl Murnick handled all the tape routing and shipping. Now, I can’t say anything about Elliot or Sonny Murnick or any of the Crocketts--- they hardly ever made it down to videotape--- but I’d give anything to work with the likes of Carl again. He always treated me well, and on the numerous occasions when I made mistakes he always took it good-naturedly, shrugged it off, and simply trusted me to do better in the future. Every week, he brought down a box of chicken and a corn-cob from the Church’s chicken down the street, and that was my dinner every Wednesday. I appreciated that more than he ever could imagine, because I wasn’t making very much working in TV and it would often be the best meal I had all week. When C&M eventually got their own remote truck I was urged to go after the tape job, but I had gone back to school and wasn’t where I could change jobs, but I was sorely tempted based on the good treatment I got from Carl.

Also, as I mentioned above, the tape job was a bit complicated and, when I first started, I was a bit slow. So slow, in fact, that we’d finish the afternoon session after five-thirty, a bad thing since they had to move the cameras back over to another studio to do the six-o’clock news. (WRAL had three studio cameras. At $65,000 a pop, most stations only had two. Field cameras for ENG and EFP were about the same price.) A late finish was not desired by either the client or the crew, to put it mildly. After a couple of weeks of late wrap-ups on the promos, the wrestlers decided that enough was enough and deputized Gene Anderson to take care of the problem, which was me.

Gene came down to the tape room, which you can tell from the pictures had a pretty low ceiling, and proceeded to impress on me how desirable it was for me to do a bit better in my job. I don’t remember what he said, but I can tell you that it was the most inspirational, motivational, sensational talking to I have ever heard. I was scared witless. I just knew the cane he carried was going to impact me somewhere (it never did.)

 

Over the next week, I carefully laid out plans, practiced my editing, reviewed my plans again, practiced editing some more, and did a whole lot of praying that it would be enough.

 

By the following Wednesday, I was one of the best VTR guys on the East Coast.

As weeks went by, I got even better, which led to some eventual mischief. You probably noticed that the 2:20 promos started out the same way --- Rich Landrum giving the where and when for the local arena shows--- and the wrestlers would amble into the shot for a few moments to shout threats of violence at their opponent in that town (who was likely sitting on the bleachers a few feet away munching on some chicken.) All the while, Rich stood there holding the microphone. As a matter of fact, Rich had to stand there through all those 2:20 promos, and the only break he would get was between promos, while the studio and control room waited for the guy in VTR (me) to set up for the next edit. Well, I got things so fine-tuned that I all but eliminated the pause between promos; Rich would be lucky to have ten or fifteen seconds to rest his arm, and forget about stepping out from under the lights (still quite warm, back then!) We got the rhythm going, and before you knew it Rich had been out there continuously for about forty-five minutes without much of a break at all. Finally, HE had to ask the entire production to stop so he could take a break. I can’t remember what I said, but I’m sure it was some wise-butt remark.

Anyway, sorry Mr. Landrum. You just have to know, some of those other guys were bigger than you, and they wanted me to do things as fast as could be done!

- Tom Gallagher, January 22, 2009

The credits roll at the end of another edition of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.

Copyright © 2009 Mid-Atlantic Gateway • Photos courtesy of Lee Collins. Photo (from newspaper clipping) of Carl Murnick courtesy of David Bullock.

Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in January 2009

Johnny Weaver and Bob Bruggers make an Impact on A Young Man at WGHP

FROM THE GATEWAY MAILBOX: A LETTER TO THE GATEWAY FOLLOWING THE POSTING OF OUR WGHP STUDIO TELEVISION FEATURE

I spent many days at the TV tapings at High Point, and I got to know a lot of the guys, at least as well as a little kid that was star struck could. Two of my earliest memories are from those tapings.

Charlie Harville and Johnny Weaver at Channel 8

I never had a dad around, and even as a very young man I was already showing signs of going down a bad road. I was fighting and telling lies. My mom saw where this kind of thing could lead. Well one day after we went to the tapings at WGHP, she went to Johnny and talked to him for a few minutes, then she called me over. I was in awe. The studio was empty other than us. Johnny was sitting on the ring near were the seats were and I was standing there next to him looking up at my hero. My mom had let him in on my acting up, and he asked me what was going on. I really don’t remember what I said, more than likely not a lot, people that have known me for a long time would be shocked that I was ever at a loss for words, but I was then. I do remember that he asked what I wanted to do with my life, and I said with out a moments thought that I wanted to be a wrestler. He smiled and said if I acted right at home and did not give my mom problems, and did good in school, that he would one day teach me how to wrestle.

Well I thought of that many times in my life after that. I ended up only being 5'8", so I never did call him on it! But I have no doubt that it changed my life. I did stop telling lies, and tried to be a good person, and I to this day try my best to live a life where I help people. In just a few minutes he became my role model, and I will never forget that.

Then one day when we went to the taping, there where no seats left. I remember being upset that we would not be able to see the show, but then the coolest thing that could have happened to a kid happened. We ended up sitting with the wrestlers. 

There was a small room that led into the studio. After the people were in there seats the guys would come in and sit there waiting for their matches. The guys were talking, and sitting around. I was looking at the monitor seeing the show, and then someone sat next to me. I looked over and it was Bob Bruggers. He said hello and talked to me for a bit. I asked him about himself, and then he told me that he had played football for the Dolphins. WOW! That just blew me away. 

Growing up in High Point we had no teams around, and the team that I loved was the Dolphins. This was near the end of the tapings there, around 1974 I think. After a few minutes he went out and did his match. I can not even tell you how cool it was to sit there and watch him walk away and then he was on the screen in front of me. I was yelling for him to do well. I remember the guys getting a laugh watching me get so into it. 

Well you know what happened in 1975 not long after that. When the plane crash happened, I was in shock. When I heard he was in that plane, I felt that my friend was gone. What a damn shame that was, but I will always remember him for the kindness he showed a little kid one day in High Point. 

I have so many good memories from that point in my life, going to the shows in Greensboro, and Winston Salem, and all over really. Thank you for starting this website. It is great to have these memories, and to know I am not the only one that really misses the days when the best show in the world was in my backyard.

- Michael Roach
February 2006

Jim Cornette Explains All About the TV Distribution Process for JCP in the 1980s

Crockett TV Production / Local Promos
Briarbend Driver, Charlotte, NC

Arcadian Vanguard

 

 

The following is a transcript from a brief segment of the popular "Cornette Drive Thru" podcast where Jim Cornette shed light on the process Jim Crockett Promotions went through to duplicate and distribute their TV shows in the 1980s, and also how they inserted the local TV promo segments each week. 

The discussion took place on Episode #261 of the podcast, about 55 minutes in:

"The way they duplicated their television shows, now this is primitive, but remember this is 40 years ago, and it is actually the way that, you know, small budget promotions operated like this in-house up until the times that the territories went away. 

Let's say we go to Gaffney, SC, on a Tuesday night and we'd do the syndicated television taping at the college gym there in Gaffney. It's 60 miles from Charlotte, so it's about an hour drive. They owned their own television truck, the NEMO truck - - National Electronics Mobile Operation. They'd drive the truck an hour down to one of these high school or college gyms around Charlotte. They'd set up the lights, they'd wire everything, they'd run the cables - - they shoot two hours of television: NWA Worldwide and NWA Pro. And that goes from 7:30 to 10:00. And each show they role live-to-tape, and, you know, they're gonna put a VTR in, they roll it in the truck. They leave black holes for the commercial spots and for the local promos.* 

Then they'd drive the truck back to Charlotte and they'd park it back behind the office at Briarbend. And they'd take the two master tapes in, and - - remember ol' Leonard? The guy that did the night-work there that alerted me that they were throwing away the entire film archive of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling when Turner broadcasting took over and bought everything.** Leonard would put the dadgum tapes on, and I don't know how many they could make at the same time, and this was the old one inch video reels, right? So you can imagine, you gotta unroll those and put them on the spool, and get 'em all synced up and everything. And then he would hit the button and they would make multiple duplicates of that master tape at one time. And then he'd do nothing all night but just run 'em back and copy the tapes over and over - - however many they could make at a time times however many, because Wednesday morning about 9:00, Gene Anderson would be in there with Jackie Crockett on the camera and all the top babyfaces and heels would come in and do local promos, from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 or 4:00 sometimes. And then you'd immediately hop in the car and drive three hours to Raleigh or go to the airport to fly somewhere, whatever the case. 

But, what they would do, honest to God, is they would sync the tape up for let's say Philadelphia, we got local promos to do for Philadelphia because we got a show coming up at the Civic Center. So whatever tape was going to the TV station in Philadelphia, they would reel it up to the exact point of the babyface interview segment that needed to be inserted and we'd record those interviews right onto the tape that was actually going to the TV station. And as soon as we did that interview then they'd jump ahead to the heel segment, you know, in between segments 5 and 6 or whatever, and they'd do the two minute and twenty eight second interview for them. 

The interviews were 2:28 because they left a second to get in and a second to get out, else wise they're rolling over program***, right? Once the Philly interviews were done, they'd stick it back in the case, put a label on it, and whether it was Klondike Bill or Bunk Harris, whoever that day wasn't going to get chicken at Price's Chicken Coop for lunch****, they would take the tapes to the bus station and put them on a bus to the television station in the city that was going to air it that weekend. 

So it went out on Wednesday evening and it got there on Thursday. A lot of promotions did this, they would put posters and fliers for sponsors in small towns, they'd put 'em on a bus in those days, they'd put the TV tape on a bus. And they used to have a thing called Delta Dash where before these overnight services were just common in every city in America, they would take it and put it in a box, and take it the airport and they would put it on a Delta plane. You could Delta Dash something for something like $99, and it would go on a plane, and somebody had to pick it up at baggage claim at the other end. 

But that's what they would do, they would roll these interviews into the actual tape to the TV station that weekend, there was no post production per se in terms of "OK we're going to shoot all these interviews and were gonna slate them and then were going to go back and insert them, blah, blah, blah." No, that's why the local interviews don't exist anywhere else except in tapes of the television program that aired in that specific market. 

So when you see these local promos with Tony Schiavone and the orange background or sometimes the blue background, they had and the chyron, 'Tonight! Charlotte! Tonight Greenville, Chicago!' or whatever the case from Crockett Promotions, that has to be off the actual air broadcast of that television program that weekend [that was taped at home by a fan on a VCR] because they didn't exist anywhere else."

 

Footnotes:

*This was the big revelation for me: I had always assumed the local promos were sent to stations on a separate tape that would be inserted into the local brodcast by the station like any other local commercial. 

**I'm assuming this actually happened when Crockett and Dusty moved the head office from Charlotte to Dallas in 1987 or 1988 and closed down Briarbend Drive, but perhaps the TV work Jim describes above continued in Charlotte at Briarbend after the move to Dallas until the sale to Turner in late 1988.

***It absolutely now makes sense why there was always this short time gap before and after local interview spots where you would see the show's logo or whatever and could hear the crowd noise in the background of the studio going back to those days. They left room for the local promo to be a second or two early or late when taped directly into the master tape. 

****George South was the one who first told us about the weekly Chicken Coop ritual back in the day, and how he along with Bunk Harris or Klondike Bill, would sometimes make the pick-up, earning more tips from the boys than he made wrestling at the time.

PODCAST INFORMATION

Visit JimCornette.com for complete information including links on both of his wildly popular podcasts on the Arcadian Vanguard Podcasting Network.

Timekeeper's Table, Greenville SC

Greenville Memorial Auditorium, circa 1970

Front Left to Right: Floyd Ulmer, promoter Paul Winkhaus, ring announcer Billy Powell, and timekeeper Wayne Hamby. Back left against wall: Don Holbrook.

(Photo: Gene Gordon / c. Scooter Lesley)

 

A neat little story about this photo. Scooter Lesley, who owns the copyrights to Gene Gordon's photo library, came across this photo and knew I was interested in the old local promoters, ring announcers, etc. I was interested in who the two other people in this photo were (besides Winkhaus and Powell) but Lesley didn't know. I hadn't paid much attention to the kid sitting at the wall in the background.

At Fanfest in Charlotte in 2013, I showed the photo to Don Holbrook, a good friend and Gateway contributor for many years. Don's mother worked at the Greenville Auditorium box office, and he spent many Monday nights there as kid in the 1970s. He even served as timekeeper occasionally. I thought maybe he knew who the others were in the photo.

"Floyd Ulmer (squatting at left) was a part time box office employee at GMA," Don told me. "He also went to Anderson and Greenwood for Mr. Winkhaus and sold tickets at those shows. Wayne Hamby (timekeeper at right) was John Hamby's son. They both did timekeeping, rotated I guess."

Then Don's eyes narrowed as he focused on the kid in the chair behind the table. "Oh my goodness," he said. "That's me." Don had the biggest smile on his face. Forty-three years after that photo was taken he was seeing it for the first time. That was a pretty cool moment.

I asked Don why the ring announcers table was in the back of the arena as opposed to ringside.

"The table was always in the back at in Greenville," he told me. "I can not say why for sure but one reason might have been Mr. Winkhaus walked with a limp and from time to time filled in for Billy Powell if he was on vacation or whatever. Winkhaus never got in the ring, made all announcements sitting at the table. Billy did go to the ring to intro each bout. The microphone cable had to be long enough for him to pull it to and from the ring."

 

 Mid-Atlantic Gateway contributor Don Holbrook in 2013 with the 1970 photo seen above. Don's right hand is pointing to himself in the picture, sitting behind the timekeeper's table at Greenville Memorial Auditorium.
(Photo: Dick Bourne)

 

Classic Roanoke TV Ad from 1962

A very nice newspaper ad for "Wrestling from Roanoke" airing live on WDBJ-7 from Roanoke, Virginia. The ad mentions the show's host, local Roanoke TV personality Hal Grant, and features a photo of former world champion Lou Thesz. Also featured is a stylized logo for channel 7 including the moniker "Best In Sight...Day & Night!" 

"Wrestling from Roanoke" (also known during that time as "All Star Wrestling") was a local production of WDBJ-7 in conjunction with promoter Pete Apostolou's Roanoke Sports Club. Apostolou was the man on the ground in Roanoke for Jim Crocket, Sr. out of Charlotte and ran regular cards in Roanoke and Lynchburg, as well as Salem and other spot-show towns around the area.  

Wrestlers would appear live on channel 7 at 6:00 PM for interviews and angles to set up the live arena show later that same night at the National Guard Armory, Roanoke Arena, or Victory Stadium, or in another one of Apostolou's towns.  

MORE ON HANS SCHMIDT

The TV main event on this particular Saturday evening featured national star Hans Schmidt against longtime southern star across many territories "Big" Bill Dromo. Hans Schmidt was in the middle of a long successful run for Jim Crockett Promotions. He battled on Greensboro cards against Antonio Rocca and Pat O'Connor in the spring and summer of 1962, culminating in a victory over O'Connor on July 5 in a Texas Death Match to win the NWA United States Championship.  He lost the title back to O'Connor a month and a half later on August 16, 1962. 

It was a big deal for Schmidt to beat O'Connor, who was a former NWA World Champion who had lost that top honor to Buddy Rogers in Chicago just a year earlier. O'Conner was awarded the vacant United States Championship by the NWA board shortly after the match with Rogers, allowing him to continue to tour the NWA territories with a title, continuing as a big draw for the various alliance promoters. It was also a big night for promoter Jim Crockett, hosting a title change of such stature in his top city of Greensboro. 

Hans Schmidt (Wikipedia)

Schmidt also held promoter Fred Kholer's Chicago version of the United States title in the mid-1950s and was a star on Kholer's "Wrestling from Marigold" television broadcast that was on the national Dumont Network. He was one of the first major heels on televised wrestling cards in the United States in the 1950s. Known as "the Teuton Terror", Schmidt wrestled for nearly every major regional wrestling territory in the 1950s-1970s. 

WDBJ cancels Wrestling from Roanoke (1967)

In January of 1967, the popular "All Star Wrestling" show that aired live from WDBJ TV studios in Roanoke, VA, since 1960 was cancelled following an ugly on-air incident between wrestlers Ike Eakins and Luther Lindsey. The cancellation got a small mention by a snarky writer for the Roanoke Times. 

Six months later, promoter Pete Apostolu and Jim Crockett, Sr. were able to get a tape of the Raleigh-produced "All Star Wrestling" (taped at WRAL-5) on another local Roanoke channel WSJS channel 10. 

Roanoke had been without wrestling on local TV for roughly six months. Fans were delighted it was back, even if without the familiar voice of former host at WDBJ Hal Grant. 

Here are a couple of newspaper clippings mentioning the changes.   

WDBJ-7 in Roanoke cancels its long running and wildly popular "Wrestling from Roanoke" program in January 1967 that aired live on late Saturday afternoons since 1960. Some in the local media were happy to see it go. (January 7, 1967)

 

After six long months, fans were delighted when wrestling returned to Roanoke airwaves on WSLS channel 10. "Roanoke Sports Club presents Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" (hosted by Bob Caudle out of Raleigh) aired early Saturday afternoons beginning in July of 1967. Fans missed their local announcer Hal Grant, but soon grew to love Caudle, too.  (July 29, 1967)

Thanks to Mark Eastridge and Carroll Hall.

Studio Wrestling Interview: Mark De Castrique (WBTV Director)

2012 Mid-Atlantic Gateway Interview with
MARK DE CASTRIQUE
Early 1970s Director of Championship Wrestling at WBTV-3 

Image: markdecastrique.com

In 2012, I had the good fortune to have an email exchange with Mark de Castrique, an author and Emmy winning documentary producer who many years ago directed "Championship Wrestling" at WBTV-3 in Charlotte, NC. In this brief interview, Mark reflects on those Wednesday nights at the television studio with Jim Crockett and his crew, including sharing some good memories of host "Big" Bill Ward as well. 

- Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway

* * * * *

Mid-Atlantic Gateway: Thanks for taking the time to share with us, Mark. While at WBTV, what was your role there as it pertained to the Championship Wrestling show?

Mark de Castrique: I was one of the staff directors who regularly directed the Wednesday night tapings from June 1970 to December 1972. It was a lot of fun. "High drama."

Gateway: Do you remember in which specific studio you taped wrestling?

Mark: Championship Wrestling was taped in the large studio #2. The ring was set up by Crockett's people on Wednesday afternoon supervised by an old retired wrestler named Wally [Dusek] and we taped in the evening.

Gateway: Realizing this was 40 years ago, do the names of any of the wrestlers from those years stick out in your mind? Any particular memories about any of the wrestlers or things that happened during the tapings?

Mark: Some of the wrestlers on the shows I directed were also ones I had watched on Channel 3 as a kid. Rip (The Profile) Hawk & Swede Hanson, Johnny Weaver, The Great Bolo, Jerry Brisco, The Kentuckians, Haystack Calhoun, Homer O'Dell and his tag-team. Abe Jacobs and his patented Kiwi roll. You remember most wrestlers had their signature hold that guaranteed victory if they could just apply it.

Gateway: Did Jim Crockett attend any of the pre-show production meetings? Do you have any particular memories of dealing with him?

Mark: Big Jim attended all pre-production meetings. We would go over the format, I'd make sure I had I.D. slides for all wrestler introductions. We played it straight. I never knew who was going to win or what dramatic events would unfold. After our meeting, Big Jim would meet with the wrestlers in the dressing room. Big Jim was nice but all business when it came to the show.

Gateway: What are your memories of "Big" Bill Ward? Did you work with him on any other shows?

Mark: I only worked with Big Bill Ward on wrestling. He was easy to get along with and I remember his stock "action" phrases. "They're fighting like gladiators of old." "It's a Pier Sixer" (whatever that meant). "He's lower than the belly of a snake at the bottom of the Mariana Trench" (or bottom of the ocean). Usually used in reference to the evil manager Homer O'Dell. And, of course, Big Bill's signature sign off - "Hello to all the shut-ins" and "Be good sports wherever you go!"

Gateway: Gene Birke, who shared some nice memories about directing wrestling at WBTV on the website "BT Memories", has written that some at WBTV didn't like the association with wrestling and resented the high ratings it got. Would you consider yourself part of that group?

Mark: I think any resentment toward the program came from two fronts. WBTV Sports didn't report on the matches because they didn't consider it a sport. Big Bill Ward referred to them as Exhibition Matches to handle station concerns regarding their being represented as a competitive sporting event. The second negative view came from national advertisers. The program got great ratings, but ad buyers from New York and other areas outside the region looked down on it. This was before wrestling mania swept the country through pay-for-view distribution. Unfortunately, Big Jim didn't live to see the development of the huge national audience. I considered the production entertainment and enjoyed watching the antics of the crowd as much as what was happening in the ring.

Gateway: What other local shows did you direct besides Championship Wrestling?

Mark: Newscasts, Betty Feezor, Pat Lee Show, Country Style Roundup with future congressman Bill Hefner, Tommy Faile Show, Fred Kirby Show, and various special projects.

Gateway: You are a successful author now. How long after you left WBTV did you stay in the TV production business, and at what other stations? Were you ever involved with directing or producing wrestling at another station?

Mark: I am still in the TV production business. I left WBTV at the end of 1972 and worked for over four years as a director at the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. We didn't have wrestling. We had Congress and Watergate. I'd prefer wrestling where the good guys and bad guys were easier to spot. I returned to WBTV as manager of their creative department and then program director. I left in 1984 as a partner in a production company. In addition to writing my mystery/thriller novels, I do documentary and corporate video production. I feel fortunate to have been a part of local television when the stations did a variety of programs and were a reflection of all aspects of their communities.

Gateway: Mark, thanks so much for your time and walking down memory lane with us. This will be of great interest to folks who visit the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

See also: WBTV-3 Studio Wrestling History

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mark de Castrique is the author of several novels including his latest mystery/thriller "The 13th Target." He is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business and has received an Emmy Award for his documentary film work. He also has a pretty good memory when it comes to early 1970s pro-wrestling, and I appreciate him sharing some of those memories with us.

 

Visit Mark's website at http://www.markdecastrique.com/.

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Updates:

8/26/12 - Mark posted a link to this interview on his Facebook page, and there was some discussion there with his friends, including a question about any memories of audience regulars at the wrestling tapings, which elicited this funny response: "Tickets were in high demand and no one came week to week. Mostly church groups. I always thought it odd churches came to watch guys pulverize each other."

8/27/12 - Mark mentioned on Facebook that a secret of his past had been revealed with the Gateway interview. But we didn't out him; Mark had earlier mentioned his connection with pro wrestling in a 2010 interview with the Salisbury (NC) Post. From the article: Now based in Charlotte, de Castrique moved here in the 1970s and had a broadcast career with local TV stations. "This was before the days of cable. Local stations did everything. ... I once directed professional wrestling, did an entertainment show ..." From "Writer Goes from Broadcast to Book" - SalisburyPress.com. 

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Originally published August 23, 2012 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

 

The Lost Art of Great Ring Announcing

Legendary Joe McHugh introduces "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers

I have a fondness for many of the old-school ring announcers. They all had a a certain flair for the dramatic, and made the introduction of any match seem special.  The art of classic ring announcing went the way of the old smoke filled rooms that were the classic old venues in pro-wrestling.

One of my favorites might surprise you; the great Joe McHugh of the old W.W.W.F.

McHugh was a wrestling and boxing announcer going back to the 1950s, most famously with wrestling fans at the W.W.W.F. television tapings at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Agricultural Hall. When I first saw WWF "Championship Wrestling" on WOR-9 out of Secaucus, NJ in around 1981, I thought to myself, "Now THAT is a ring announcer."

This is an audio clip of McHugh introducing "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers at the Philadelphia Spectrum in the mid-1980s. I loved the way McHugh included the historical mention of Rogers being the only man (at that time) to have held both the NWA and WWF world titles. Those details mattered, and meant something to fans in that era.

The audio of that introduction is included here:

I always thought Joe McHugh and Raleigh's Joe Murnick (my favorite ring announcer of them all) were kindred spirits, at least in their ring announcing style, and both with accents of speech that clearly demonstrated from where in the country they hailed. They are both at the very top of my list.

(Edited from a post originally published January 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)

Ed Capral and Paul Jones on Wide World Wrestling

 

Host Ed Capral and U.S. Champion Paul Jones
on the set of Wide World Wrestling in WRAL TV studio.

Wide World Wrestling - Opening Theme (1975-1978)


Wide World Wrestling - Closing Theme (1975-1978)


 
Thanks to Craig at Wrestling Media (wrestlingmedia.ws) for the audio.