The Early Years
Joe D'Orazio was born on 27th July 1922 in Bermondsey, South London, of Italian parents. He was brought up in a very tough, working-class environment. In fact, two of his classmates were later hanged for murder, and five others became professional wrestlers. Joe was educated at English Martyrs Roman Catholic School in Walworth, attending school with Tony Scarlo’s father & Harry Geohegan who went on to become a fine wrestling referee. At 13 years of age, Joe was elected by his classmates as the youngest ever Captain of the School. Joe's best friend until his untimely death in 2003 was the South London Iron Man, and for many years Mick McManus's tag partner, Steve Logan.
Working Life
Joe's grandfather owned what many considered to be the best fish & chip shop in south London, and this is where Joe worked until the outbreak of the Second World War. During the Luftwaffe's horrendous blitz on London, before enlisting with the Royal Air Force, Joe worked as a member of a demolition squad knocking down bombed buildings in the City of London.
Military
The war meant the parting of the ways for best friends Joe & Steve Logan. Joe was to spend 4 years in the Royal Air Force air/sea rescue unit, while Steve was away with Montgomery's 8th army, but they managed to keep in contact by mail throughout the war, and afterwards renewed their old friendship.
Judo
On leaving the armed forces, Joe took up judo and Steve took to boxing. Joe joined the South London Judo Society, under the instruction of George Chew, and in just over a year, went from Novice to Black Belt First Dan. Joe and Steve were key members of the 4-man Judo team that took the Interclub Judo team title in 1948 at Chelsea Town Hall
Wrestling
Joe became a professional wrestler in 1948, closely followed by his old friend Steve Logan. Joe's cousin Mike Marino was already established in the wrestling business. Joe's first professional match was against New Zealander Russ Bishop in Poole, Dorset. Joe's abilities were quickly recognised, and he was soon in great demand by all the top promotors to wrestle on their shows. In 1950 Joe was made an honorary member of Gruppo Autonomo Lotta Giapponese and travelled to Rome for the presentation of his membership card. For 20 years he wrestled all over Britain and Europe. However, after several injuries, he decided to retire to 'avoid becoming an invalid for life'. His last professional bout was against the legendary George Kidd in Dundee in 1968.
Refereeing
Unable to shake off his passion for wrestling, which was in his blood, (see "A Wrestler's Lament", his 159th poem, below) - he returned as a referee, only to break his nose twice in the first six months. He persevered, and as in his earlier wrestling career, refereeing took him to many places, including Blenheim Palace, Olympia, Cafe Royal & Lyceum Ballroom (London), Paisley Ice Rink, Paris, Belgium, Big Top Berlin and Big Top Hanover, King Hussein Stadium Jordan and Italy. For 20 years Joe D'Orazio was resident referee at Royal Albert Hall tournaments.
Wrestling Friendships
Joe has made many friends in wrestling over the years. Despite their often fearsome, uncompromising ring image, wrestlers have a common bond and their loyalty and enduring friendships are admirable.
Acting
Joe became a member of Mickey Woods’ “Tough Guys Unlimited” stunt team. He did lots of film and television stunt
work, a highlight coming when he doubled for Hollywood star J Carroll Naish whilst filming the TV series “The New Adventures of
Charlie Chan”. He also stunted in "Camp On Blood Island" and "Terror Of The Tongs", and appeared in the film "Geordie". Joe worked
in Rome on "Quo Vadis" and was a gunslinger in the Wyatt Earp Show when it came to the UK from America.
Other television work included "King and Castle", "Flight through the Branches", "Young Charlie Chaplin", "Behind Justice",
"Radical Chambers", Story Board", "Rumpole of the Bailey" and more recently "London's Burning", "The Bill", Henry Kelly's early morning TV show. Joe was also the star
of one episode in a series presented by Humphrey Burton "The Age of Aquarius" (The Wrestling Poet).
On radio, Joe worked on the "Late Night Show" with Monty Modlyn, and was on the panel with Monty and Ann Shelton
which ended up singing a quartet of "My old man said follow the van ..." with "Miss Piggy". Up until then his role had been to answer
listeners' questions on wrestling matters.
Reunions
Realising that there was a need for a regular get-together of British Professional Wrestlers, Joe co-founded, with fellow ex-wrestler Tony Scarlo, the Wrestlers’ Reunion. This is held annually on the second Sunday of August in Wayne Bridges' public house in South Darenth (see the reunion page on this site). Now run by a committee, the reunion is flourishing, thanks to the hard work put in by Frank Rimer, Wayne Bridges, Tony Scarlo, Joe D'Orazio, Pat Roach et al. The reunion committee voted to make Joe D'Orazio their "Lifetime Chairman" from 2003.
Helping the handicapped, and painting
Joe is an accomplished artist/painter, selling at lot of his art work in exhibitions, and so was very soon recruited by the teachers of Crispin House, an adult training centre for the mentally handicapped in Bermondsey, where he worked full-time for well over a decade. He surprised everyone not only by teaching severely handicapped people to paint, but also exhibiting their work and selling a number of paintings. Joe's students have exhibited at South London Gallery, Gallery in the Park, Southwark, Stock Exchange, St John's, Piccadilly, Royal College of Art, The Art House (New Cross) and Southwark Cathedral. Joe is constantly asked by handicapped schools all over South London to give art lessons to their pupils. As if that is not enough, Joe is currently writing his autobiography.
Writing and Poetry
Joe is a successful writer of prose, In 1971, with co-author Pam Edwards, he wrote "The
Who's Who of Wrestling”. In parallel with his refereeing career, he worked in Dale Martin Ltd's publicity department (at that time, the
world's largest promoters of Professional Wrestling). His work included preparing the write-ups and programme material for all of their
shows, which in those days could often run to as many as ten per day! Joe also turned out a weekly column in "Business" and for
lots of local papers throughout Great Britain. Joe D'Orazio was researcher for the TV Times "Guide to Wrestling" and compiler of "The
Cover Men of Wrestling". He also supplied copy to "Wrestling Review", "The Wrestler Monthly", "Weekly Sporting Review and Show Business", "Smash",
"Ring Wrestling USA", "Tiger Annual", "Beano Annual", "The Royal Albert Hall Centenary Compendium", plus countless other publications. In early 2004, he was still
working on another four books.
He has had books of poetry published, and continues to write poetry. To date, he has written over 300 poems. Like "Ode To Mad
Hannah", his long masterpiece, many are deep, meaty and haunting. Some of his lyrics, inspired by his lovely Italian-born wife Tina,
are soft and touching. He says: "I never thought about poetry until I met her". His work is varied, ranging through odes to tramps and
meths drinkers, "Old Beppo the potter", an Italian resistance worker, Mick McManus, the Income Tax man and "Tell Them I Sleep".
Shakespeare is his favourite writer. He writes only to satisfy himself and says once he has the first line, the rest is easy.
Ideas come any time - even when he's buffeted between ring baddies. His pockets bulge with instant first lines scrawled on odd
scraps of paper. Joe firmly believes "The world would be a better place if we could all talk poetry to each other".
Many thanks to Joe, and to Tony Scarlo for their help with this feature.
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