Tag: Dave Brown

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91

Andy Kaufman and Lance Russell

It’s a terrible day for fans of Memphis wrestling. Lance Russell, a longtime program manager for WHBQ and one of the most beloved wrestling commentators in the history of sports entertainment has died. In 2014 the man known to heels coast-to-coast as ol’ Banana Nose, talked to The Memphis Flyer about King Lawler, Memphis wrestling, and playing himself in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. This is a reprint of that interview with lots of links.

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91 (5)


Memphis Flyer: You and Dave Brown were the eye of this colorful, chaotic storm. Calling wrestling like it was any other sport during the glory days of Jackie Fargo, Tojo Yamamoto, and Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Andy “the clown” Kaufman. Can you even go a day without talking to somebody about wrestling?

Lance Russell: Well, it’s easier down here [in Florida] than it was when I lived in Memphis. When I wasn’t talking in person to some fan about wrestling, I was talking on the telephone. Somebody was always calling. You know, people say, “Boy, whatever happened to the good old days of Memphis wrestling?” Well, I can tell you Memphis wrestling is just as alive as it ever has been.

You’d be the one to know.

My son was looking at his computer a couple of nights ago and found where somebody had made a list of people who were involved in wrestling as promoters or wrestlers or managers or referees and even announcers. And they have them ranked by age. My son said, “Did you realize that in the United States you are the fifth oldest person involved in wrestling that is still alive?” When I got up the next day I said to my son, outside of wanting to kill you, I was amused all night long. I didn’t sleep, but I was amused.

I suspect that makes you a go-to resource, having seen wrestlers from so many territories and having also worked for Turner Broadcasting.

I can tell you as a director of programming for WHBQ in Memphis for all of those years, I’m not proud of the fact that I didn’t put an edict out that there will be no erasing of tapes from Talent Party or wrestling or any of those kinds of things. We erased everything. And sometimes we would record on the same tape two weeks in a row. We kept telling ourselves we were saving money.

You know Vince McMahon is getting ready to program Memphis wrestling on the network he started so he’s trying to pin down all the programs. And, in Memphis, everything we ever had in terms of tapes is all just blasted asunder. Jerry Lawler ended up with the biggest quantity of tapes. Jimmy Hart, a wrestler and wrestling manager who worked with Vince McMahon in New York after he left Memphis, ended up with a lot of tapes. People pay good money for them too, and now Vince McMahon wants to broadcast Memphis wrestling every day.

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91 (4)


Why are people still fascinated with Memphis wrestling?

I’m gonna tell you, Memphis was absolutely totally different than any territory in the country. I eventually went with Turner Broadcasting, and when I went there and I ran into guys from the East Coast and West Coast they’d say, “All you clowns in Memphis spend more time making jokes than anything else.” And we did, because it made people happy. They were tickled to death to look forward to some of the foolishness that went on. And we were proud of it. It was good entertainment.

You and Dave Brown had great chemistry.

What made Dave and I different was the programming. The different matches that we booked. The different characters that were made up. Like Kamala the Giant, who is from right down in Mississippi and was very popular all over the country. I hired Dave to work in television. Dave was an all-night radio jock for WHBQ, and I knew him as a person and liked him very much. Anyhow, he questioned wrestling. I said, “Man, if you want to work in television, you will learn more in two months of wrestling than two years of anything else.” So he took a chance, and he was great. Dave and I also agreed on one thing you never talk about in wrestling. See, I was a wrestling fan, and I had been ever since the days when I grew up in Dayton, Ohio and worked in the auditorium as an usher. I never wanted anybody to say to me, “Hey, I’m going to win in the third fall on this match.” I don’t want to be a stiff actor saying some lines, I wanted to call things as I saw them in my face for the first time.

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91

No matter how over the top it was, it was completely alive. Anything could happen.

We had great matches too. But in the meantime, we didn’t mind tickling your funny bone. We’d have a guy or a gal shaved bald right there in the middle of the ring.

I thought I was going to get killed one night in the Memphis Coliseum, when Jerry Lawler put up his hair and Bill Dundee put up his wife’s hair and Dundee lost. We had our own barber who was there to cut hair when necessary. He thought he was going to be killed. The crowd was incensed that Lawler had cheated to win and this vivacious young redhead was losing her hair. It’s hilarious when you stop and think about a situation getting that serious over what was actually a very funny incident.

But that’s the Memphis audience, right? It’s why the famous Lawler/Kaufman feud couldn’t have happened anywhere else.

You’re right about that. There was a kind of audience reaction that we had cultivated either on purpose or unknowingly. And this is the thing that attracted Andy Kaufman. As a kid, Andy would watch wrestling and he would see the bad guy: Just by raising his hand he could get this big reaction from the crowd. That power that wrestlers held captivated him, and he initially tried to get the attention of Vince McMahon’s father and his grandfather who, in addition to promoting boxing, also promoted wrestling. They said “What are you trying to do, make a joke out of wrestling?” Well, Andy ran across a guy who worked for the wrestling magazines and he said to check out the guys in Memphis, who will do anything. And they’re great show people.

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91 (8)

Even if the outcomes are known, this is unscripted stuff.

I got a big guy from Canada supposedly. He comes out there [to interview] and he says, “Jerry Lawler! I’m going to get him! I’m taking a blood oath!” And I’m the program director at WHBQ, so I say, “No, I don’t want any blood. Don’t be busting his eye open on television. We don’t want our audience to have to put up with that.” And this idiot has got one of these big double-headed axes, and he runs the blade down his massive arm and I’m sitting here looking at it, and I know that the camera is right on this thing, and all of a sudden here comes the stream of red right into the camera. I thought, “Oh my God, he’s cutting his arm open on television for crying out loud.” I almost had a heart attack.

[Let’s talk about] Jerry Lawler, the King of Memphis wrestling.

The superlatives for Lawler? I don’t have enough of them. But I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of wrestlers, and Jerry Lawler is a guy who is gifted in so many directions. I promise, I don’t owe him money or anything. I’m just telling the truth. He is the most talented guy in the business and people hated him in the East because of what he’s done in Memphis. I mean, he became a television host on Channel 5, and he was very good at what he did.

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91 (3)

And you recognized his skills right away.

When he was 15, his dad took him down to the auditorium every Monday for wrestling. We had no way to record the matches; it was too expensive at that time. So when Dave and I did the show, we’d have to just talk about what happened. Well, Jerry was a natural artist. He draws these 11″ x 14″ pictures on pieces of cardboard. He drew maybe the finishing move from a match or something. Then Dave and I could talk about the picture.

I found those pictures in my attic about five years ago. I’ve had them for 35 years.

You got to play yourself in Man on the Moon. That had to be affirming to have that Kaufman/Lawler feud become widely recognized as a big moment in pop culture.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve got several copies of it. Unfortunately they cut out some of my best scenes. That was fun though.

And what about the actual feud. Did you guys know you were making history?

We were all working. That’s what we did for a living.

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91 (6)

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer Lance Russell Dies at 91 (9)

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

When Dave Brown Met Batman.

It’s WMC weatherman  and wrestling host Dave Brown’s last day on the job. He’ll be missed for many reasons. In addition to weather reporting he was a disc jockey, and hosted local TV shows like Dialing for Dollars. But this is how your Pesky Fly chooses to remember him— moderating a squabble between Jerry Lawler and Adam West.   

When Dave Brown Met Batman.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Council Votes Final Passage of Ordinance to Remove Forrest Statue” …

If the state somehow managed to keep the statue from moving, what would stop the city from building something that encircles the entire statue, blocking the view of it from all sides, some sort of architectural monument built over the existing one? That would be a fun thumb in the eye, if state law somehow kept the city from being able to relocate the statue.

GroveReb84

How about some kind of large art installation celebrating gay rights surrounding the old Wizard of the Saddle? Maybe with lots of leather …

Packrat

Watkins Overton was a noted segregationist during his time as Memphis mayor. No way we should have our “crown jewel park” named after him. May I suggest “Zoo Overflow Parking Park” as an adequate replacement name.

Midtown Mark

About Bianca Phillips’ post, “WMC’s Dave Brown to Retire” …

I will miss his calm approach to something everywhere else played to maximize anxiety. I hope his successors stand their ground to continue that approach.

Brunetto Latini

Good luck to Dave in his retirement. He will be sadly missed. He is a legend in Memphis. And Ron Childers will do an excellent job serving in Dave’s position. Many thanks to both of you.

Alina K. Kaiser

About Bianca Phillips’ story on the Steven Askew case, “Switching Stories” …

My question is: Why didn’t the cops run his plates and see what they could find out about the person in the car? I know from personal experience that a good-sized police department in Texas would not pull over anyone unless they could run wants and warrants on his car first. (I was the consultant called in to fix the wants and warrants problem.) That’s because they wanted to know if it was a person with no record, a dangerous criminal, if the car was stolen, etc., before they approached the vehicle. Had they done that, they could have determined he had no criminal record as well as a pistol permit, and maybe not banged on his window while he was minding his own business and sleeping in his car in a bad part of town.

He was found dead with a cigar in his hand, not a gun, and the last time I read about this, the gun was on the seat next to him, not in his lap. The cop who didn’t request that Askew’s gun to be checked to see if it had been fired, even after hearing the inconsistent statements from the cops, should not be investigating anything. The cops’ explanation has never passed the smell test, and still doesn’t. Maybe some day someone will write a book or make a movie about the Steven Askew case and get the attention it deserves.

GWCarver

About Alexandra Pusateri’s story, “Bus vs. Trolley” …

As chairman/founder of Citizens For Better Service, I have been a leading voice for bus riders for more than 22 years. While I do not dispute the argument of the Memphis Bus Rider Union on the subject of “buses vs. trolleys,” the trolley service is so inextricably tied to downtown Memphis that MATA has no other choice but to spend money on replacing trolleys. Without the trolley service, downtown Memphis will continue to suffer a financial crisis in which workers are laid off and businesses lose customers and will be forced to relocate or close.

MATA needs to streamline the current administration, cut administrative costs, and stay out of projects that have nothing to do with public transportation. MATA needs to listen to the concerns of bus riders, who are having a hard time understanding why MATA is investing millions of dollars in Central Station while they are riding on hot, overcrowded buses that take up to two hours to get to their destination.

Sadly, more funding for public transportation is not a top priority for the city or a major issue in this election season.

Johnnie Mosley

Correction:

In the Aug. 13th issue “Bus vs. Trolley” story, we printed that the trolleys cost $1.8 million. They cost $1.1 million. We regret the error.

Categories
News News Blog

WMC’s Dave Brown To Retire at End of August

Dave Brown

Action News 5’s long-time chief meteorologist Dave Brown has announced that he will retire on August 31st. Ron Childers, who has trained with Brown for 25 years, will take over the lead role on September 1st.

Brown is an Emmy Award-winning meteorologist with a 53-year career in radio and TV. He’s worked for WMC Action News 5 for 38 years. Brown says he began planning for his retirement three years ago.

“Three years ago, I met with our management team and told them that I was looking at retirement in the near future,” said Brown. “With their full support, we developed a plan that we hoped would allow a smooth transition. That plan moved into the next phase one year ago when I requested a much-reduced schedule. They agreed and we began the transition in which Ron Childers would take over the main weather responsibilities.”

Brown will continue to host special events for WMC and will continue in his role as chief meteorologist emeritus.

“Whether he was forecasting weather, keeping Jerry Lawler and the gang in line, or spinning records at the very beginning of his career, Dave Brown has been a leader and a friend to the Mid-South,” said WMC Action News 5 Vice President and General Manager Tracey Rogers. “I am honored to have had the chance not once, but twice to work alongside Dave. I can’t thank Dave enough for his service to the Mid-South and I am proud he will continue with the WMC Action News 5 family as we transition the leadership of the WMC Action News 5 Storm Team. Ron Childers has been training with Dave for 25 years and I am ecstatic Ron will be moving into the role of Chief Meteorologist as Dave continues his partnership with WMC Action News 5.”

Childers has worked for WMC since 1989. He first met Brown when he was a kid, and he calls the esteemed weather man a “legend.”

“I grew up watching Dave Brown,” said Childers. “One of my fondest memories is of meeting Dave when I was a young boy.  Little did anyone know at the time, that one day Dave would give this kid from Parkway Village an opportunity that would forever change my life. It has been a privilege to work alongside this legend in Memphis television for the past 25 years. He has been there for me on my days of greatest accomplishment and my saddest days. He is without a doubt one of the kindest and most genuine individuals that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. To now be in a position to take over the reins of a weather empire that he built is truly humbling. I can only hope and pray that I continue to live up to the standard that he has set and maintained for so many years.” 

Categories
News News Feature

Memphis Heat Redux

Memphis’ Wild Fire Wrestling is hosting “Long Live The King,” to celebrate the life and career of King Jerry Lawler, the man whose name is synonymous with Memphis wrestling. In addition to a meet-and-greet, the house will be full of local legends, including Handsome Jimmy Valiant, Superstar Bill Dundee, Brian “Grand Master Sexay” Christopher, The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Koko B. Ware, and other Saturday morning  favorites.

Best of all, perhaps, this event reunites wrestling commentators Dave Brown and the great 88-year-old Lance Russell.

Russell, a longtime program manager for WHBQ and one of the most beloved wrestling commentators in the history of sports entertainment, talked to the Flyer about King Lawler, Memphis wrestling, and playing himself in Man on the Moon.

Memphis Flyer: You and Dave Brown were the eye of this colorful, chaotic storm. Calling wrestling like it was any other sport during the glory days of Jackie Fargo, Tojo Yamamoto, and Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Andy “the clown” Kaufman. Can you even go a day without talking to somebody about wrestling?  

Russell: Well, it’s easier down here [in Florida] than it was when I lived in Memphis. When I wasn’t talking in person to some fan about wrestling, I was talking on the telephone. Somebody was always calling. You know, people say, “Boy, whatever happened to the good old days of Memphis wrestling?” Well, I can tell you Memphis wrestling is just as alive as it ever has been.

You’d be the one to know.

My son was looking at his computer a couple of nights ago and found where somebody had made a list of people who were involved in wrestling as promoters or wrestlers or managers or referees and even announcers. And they have them ranked by age. My son said, “Did you realize that in the United States you are the fifth oldest person involved in wrestling that is still alive?” When I got up the next day I said to my son, outside of wanting to kill you, I was amused all night long. I didn’t sleep, but I was amused.

I suspect that makes you a go-to

resource, having seen wrestlers from so many territories and having also worked for Turner Broadcasting.

I can tell you as a director of programming for WHBQ in Memphis for all of those years, I’m not proud of the fact that I didn’t put an edict out that there will be no erasing of tapes from Talent Party or wrestling or any of those kinds of things. We erased everything. And sometimes we would record on the same tape two weeks in a row. We kept telling ourselves we were saving money.

You know Vince McMahon is getting ready to program Memphis wrestling on the network he started so he’s trying to pin down all the programs. And, in Memphis, everything we ever had in terms of tapes is all just blasted asunder. Jerry Lawler ended up with the biggest quantity of tapes. Jimmy Hart, a wrestler and wrestling manager who worked with Vince McMahon in New York after he left Memphis, ended up with a lot of tapes. People pay good money for them too, and now Vince McMahon wants to broadcast Memphis wrestling every day.

Why are people still fascinated with Memphis wrestling?

I’m gonna tell you, Memphis was absolutely totally different than any territory in the country. I eventually went with Turner Broadcasting, and when I went there and I ran into guys from the East Coast and West Coast they’d say, “All you clowns in Memphis spend more time making jokes than anything else.” And we did, because it made people happy. They were tickled to death to look forward to some of the foolishness that went on. And we were proud of it. It was good entertainment.

You and Dave Brown had great chemistry.

What made Dave and I different was the programming. The different matches that we booked. The different characters that were made up. Like Kamala the Giant, who is from right down in Mississippi and was very popular all over the country. I hired Dave to work in television. Dave was an all-night radio jock for WHBQ, and I knew him as a person and liked him very much. Anyhow, he questioned wrestling. I said, “Man, if you want to work in television, you will learn more in two months of wrestling than two years of anything else.” So he took a chance, and he was great. Dave and I also agreed on one thing you never talk about in wrestling. See, I was a wrestling fan, and I had been ever since the days when I grew up in Dayton, Ohio and worked in the auditorium as an usher. I never wanted anybody to say to me, “Hey, I’m going to win in the third fall on this match.” I don’t want to be a stiff actor saying some lines, I wanted to call things as I saw them in my face for the first time.

No matter how over the top it was, it was completely alive. Anything could happen.

We had great matches too. But in the meantime, we didn’t mind tickling your funny bone. We’d have a guy or a gal shaved bald right there in the middle of the ring.

I thought I was going to get killed one night in the Memphis Coliseum, when Jerry Lawler put up his hair and Bill Dundee put up his wife’s hair and Dundee lost. We had our own barber who was there to cut hair when necessary. He thought he was going to be killed. The crowd was incensed that Lawler had cheated to win and this vivacious young redhead was losing her hair. It’s hilarious when you stop and think about a situation getting that serious over what was actually a very funny incident.

But that’s the Memphis audience, right? It’s why the famous Lawler/Kaufman feud couldn’t have happened anywhere else.

You’re right about that. There was a kind of audience reaction that we had cultivated either on purpose or unknowingly. And this is the thing that attracted Andy Kaufman. As a kid, Andy would watch wrestling and he would see the bad guy: Just by raising his hand he could get this big reaction from the crowd. That power that wrestlers held captivated him, and he initially tried to get the attention of Vince McMahon’s father and his grandfather who, in addition to promoting boxing, also promoted wrestling. They said “What are you trying to do, make a joke out of wrestling?” Well, Andy ran across a guy who worked for the wrestling magazines and he said to check out the guys in Memphis, who will do anything. And they’re great show people.

Even if the outcomes are known, this is unscripted stuff.

I got a big guy from Canada supposedly. He comes out there [to interview] and he says, “Jerry Lawler! I’m going to get him! I’m taking a blood oath!” And I’m the program director at WHBQ, so I say, “No, I don’t want any blood. Don’t be busting his eye open on television. We don’t want our audience to have to put up with that.” And this idiot has got one of these big double-headed axes, and he runs the blade down his massive arm and I’m sitting here looking at it, and I know that the camera is right on this thing, and all of a sudden here comes the stream of red right into the camera. I thought, “Oh my God, he’s cutting his arm open on television for crying out loud.” I almost had a heart attack.

This wrestling event is to celebrate Jerry Lawler, the King of Memphis wrestling. It’s been three years since his heart attack, and he’s getting back in the ring.  

The superlatives for Lawler? I don’t have enough of them. But I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of wrestlers, and Jerry Lawler is a guy who is gifted in so many directions. I promise, I don’t owe him money or anything. I’m just telling the truth. He is the most talented guy in the business and people hated him in the East because of what he’s done in Memphis. I mean, he became a television host on Channel 5, and he was very good at what he did.

And you recognized his skills right away.

When he was 15, his dad took him down to the auditorium every Monday for wrestling. We had no way to record the matches; it was too expensive at that time. So when Dave and I did the show, we’d have to just talk about what happened. Well, Jerry was a natural artist. He draws these 11″ x 14″ pictures on pieces of cardboard. He drew maybe the finishing move from a match or something. Then Dave and I could talk about the picture.

I found those pictures in my attic about five years ago. I’ve had them for 35 years.

You got to play yourself in Man on the Moon. That had to be affirming to have that Kaufman/Lawler feud become widely recognized as a big moment in pop culture.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve got several copies of it. Unfortunately they cut out some of my best scenes. That was fun though.

And what about the actual feud. Did you guys know you were making history?

We were all working. That’s what we did for a living.

“Long Live the King,” a wrestling tribute to Jerry Lawler, is at Minglewood Hall September 18th,  7 p.m.