And yes, he could have been all three, or indeed none of them. But please bear with me, there’s a lot of ground to cover here.
Boxing
The background here is that I suspect that in the late 1930s to the 1940s, the Somerton Man ended up as some kind of criminal ‘heavy’ (e.g. a standover man, a nitpicker, etc). My aim was to try to work backwards from there, i.e. to second-guess what the Somerton Man was doing in the 1920s.
So, my initial stab in the dark was that he might have been an unsuccessful amateur boxer: so that’s who I went digging for. What I found in Trove was that boxing turned into a really big-time Australian sport around 1929-1930, which is when you see an explosion in the number of stadiums, promoters, fighters, and sports newspaper column inches devoted to boxing.
Naturally, because some of the the clothes in the Somerton Man’s suitcase had the name “KEAN” / “KEANE” on them, my starting point was Australian boxers who shared that surname. This yielded Reg Keane (who trained at Ern Miller’s Goulburn Street gym, and boxed in 1931-1932), Billy Keane (1932), Telegraphist Keane in the Naval Reserve Championships (1933) who I suspect was V. C. Keane (1930), H. Keane of the Olympic Club, etc.
All seemed unsuccessful enough to fit the profile: reporting the bout between Bill Collins and Reg Keane, the 8th Feb 1931 Sydney Truth noted:
“The time was mostly spent with Keane picking himself off the floor. When he had been deposited there the fourth time, Joe Wallis stopped the fight and crowned Collins.”
However, this whole line of attack felt generally quite unproductive to me. The sports papers of the day seemed more concerned with the quantity of blood on the canvas and how long the loser spent in hospital after being knocked out, rather than any human interest side.
For instance, the only things that typically got reported about non-superstar boxers are their weight (because of the different weight categories), and which round they won/lost in (presumably because punters gambled on these). So there’s not a lot of grist for anyone’s historical mill there.
As an aside, I don’t believe we know the Somerton Man’s weight. Do you think he would have been a heavyweight?
Wrestling – Jack Keane Sr.
Because boxing and wrestling were often promoted together, I couldn’t help but notice two wrestlers both called Jack Keane.
The (much) older of the two was John Joseph (‘Jack’) Keane, described as having been an Irish-style wrestler. However, not only was he much too old to be the Somerton Man, he was also much too deceased (he died on 27 Nov 1938, aged 74 years). He and his wife Agnes Maude Keane (who died on 10 Mar 1947), had four children, John, Rita, Josie, and Kevin.
Trove has a few articles mentioning Jack Keane Sr: I quite liked this one from 1936, which included this picture:
I briefly got excited by the idea that his son (John Joseph Keane Jr.) might have been a wrestler too. However, even though JJK Jr was roughly the right age to be the Somerton Man, it turns out that he was the Dulwich bookmakers’ clerk who lived with his wife Clara Maude Keane in Union St, Dulwich (yes, the same clerk I spent so long trying to track down), and who died on the 20th January 1941.
Wrestling – the other Jack Keane
There was, however, an (apparently separate) wrestler called Jack Keane whose name pops up in Trove’s tiny margins. For example, here’s a 28 Jun 1932 sport story reporting a bout between Jack Kean and Jim Moore (one fall each in three five minute rounds).
Note that the best-known Australian wrestler of the day with the surname Keane was V. P. (‘Vin’) Keane, who was the South Australian amateur heavyweight wrestling champion in 1931. Because of (what I now think was) a typo in one article, it took me a while to be sure that this Vin Keane was (a) not Jack Keane by another name, and (b) still alive in 1949.
However, between 1939 and 1941, the Adelaide Sport ran an overtly female-oriented sports column called “Verities of Victoria” or “Sayings of Suzanne“. These tried to present a gossipy, ring-side view, often looking more at who was in the audience (and what fashionable clothes they were wearing) than the poor bloodied buggers slugging each other in the ring. For example, the 13 Sep 1940 Sayings of Suzanne noted that “Vin Keane’s wife was wearing the newest and latest in pastel grey at the wrestling“. Which was nice.
The reason this gets interesting is that the 19 Jan 1940 Sayings of Suzanne noted that:
“Jack Keane, who used to wrestle in a mask, saw somebody else taking the punishment for a change and Jimmy Bartlett aired yet another fancy shirt, buttercup yellow this time.”
So, if we are to believe the Adelaide Sport’s ‘Suzanne’ (and why not?), Jack Keane had in fact been a masked wrestler. But… which masked wrestler?
Masked Wrestlers in Australia
Yes, there were a fair few masked wrestlers pounding Australian canvases in the late 1920s and 1930s. Yet even by 1933, people were starting to tire of the gimmick, and there were calls to outlaw the use of masks in the ring.
Regardless, the first (and most famous) of these was Walter Miller, who was billed as the “Masked Man” and the “Masked Marvel”. Born in Poland (as Josef Banaski?), he had wrestled in America for some years, but following an injury moved out to Australia to keep wrestling while regaining his form. He was eventually unmasked in 1929.
Other American masked wrestlers active in Australia around this time included:
- The “Black Panther” (Frank Sexton)
- The “Red Shadow” (Leo Numa)
- The “Mysterious Ghost” (????)
- “Tarzan the Fearless” (named after the Buster Crabbe film; and no, I’m not making it up).
Australian masked wrestlers included Ossie Norman of Sydney (“The Masked Wrestler”) and Terry Morrison (“The Masked Man” and “The Masked Marvel”). Interestingly, Terry Morrison – who had also been a heavyweight boxer – later found himself in court in connection with an auto parts deal that went bad (he described himself to the Court as a “prospector”, though he seemed more like a somewhat self-defeating private detective along the lines of Jim Rockford).
So, which masked wrestler might Jack Keane have been? Though it is no doubt incomplete, my (self-compiled) list of Australian masked wrestlers from this era has only two names remaining: “Steel Grip” (who only seems to have wrestled once) and – my personal favourite – the “Masked Singing Wrestler“. And no, I’m really really not making this up.
Here’s the Queenslander’s account of the Masked Singing Wrestler’s fight from 22nd October 1936:
At the Bohemia Stadium on Saturday night, Bob King and the “Masked Singer” met in one of the fastest and most gruelling wrestling matches that have been seen for months. Having sung two ballads, the masked man divested himself of his dress suit to reveal a well-trained athlete in orthodox trunks. He kept his mask on. He gained two falls in the first four rounds—a Boston crab and an octopus. King gained falls in the fifth and seventh rounds, with a back-slam and body press and a variation of the Indian death lock. The end came in the eighth round, when King threw himself at his rival, who jumped clear for King to dive out of the ring on to his head. He was unable to continue, and the masked man got the decision.
We do know a little bit more about him:
The masked singing wrestler, who has returned from the South, is a pleasing type with plenty of personality and highly developed mat ability. He has defeated many opponents in a spectacular manner, while critics have praised his rendering of operatic airs.
“The Masked Singing Wrestler” is said to be the possessor of a glorious tenor voice and is also claimed to be one of the greatest leg wrestlers at present in the game. He is tall, and of sinewy, muscular build.
And, on one occasion when the bout was delayed because of bad weather:
Special entertainment will be provided for patrons at the Allenstown Theatre tomorrow night, when a variety entertainment, to take the form of an Irish Night, will be presented. The popular masked singing wrestler has been engaged and will render popular Irish airs. Those who have heard this artist’s splendid voice over the air and elsewhere need no further introduction to his exceptional ability.
The Masked Singing Wrestler was briefly unmasked, but not identified:
Still not satisfied, he [O’Brien] raced across the ring and made an attack on the singer, who, caught in a surprise attack, had his mask ripped from his face. Few, however, were able to catch a glimpse of his features for he covered his face with his mask and hands, and made a hurried exit from the ring.
To summarize, we know that the MSW was a tall, sinewy wrestler from the South: and that he had a fine tenor voice and a penchant for operatic airs and Irish folk-songs, along with excellent mat work and leg work. He may even have sung on the radio.
Perhaps surprisingly, there were plenty of singing wrestlers at that time. My strong suspicion is MSW was not Jack Winrow or Russell Scarfe or the baritone Sam Burmister or Terry McGinnis or Tony Sanga or Pat Fraley but Al Costello, whose many years of poor luck in the wrestling business finally seemed to be turning around in 1948 (according to this story).
So, if ‘Suzanne’ was correct, under what name did Jack Keane wrestle while wearing a mask? I still don’t know, but I’m trying hard to find out…
Clog Dancing
Finally: going off on a little bit of a tangent, I was intrigued by Jack Keane Sr.’s other hobby: statue pedestal clog dancing.
Though almost completely forgotten now, this was a very specific form of clog dancing that begin in 1866 and was in vogue for several decades. Pedestal clog dancers would do a clog dance on a raised pedestal, whilst doing their level best to keep their upper body as rigid as a statue. Some performers (such as Henry E. Dixey) would even white themselves up to more closely resemble a dancing statue:
Oh, and just so you know, Charlie Chaplin started out as a clog dancer, as did Victorian comedian Dan Leno, along with Wilson and Keppel (though not any of the Bettys).
And so I couldn’t help but wonder: what if the Somerton Man’s curiously shaped feet and overdeveloped calf muscles (that Paul Lawson noted at the time) were a result of his having been a statue pedestal clog dancer?
So, perhaps what the Somerton Man was doing as a young man in the 1910s and 1920s was some form of clog dancing? Feel free to disagree, but that would makes more sense than just about every other foot-/calf-related SM theory I’ve heard. Just a thought!
Not the Vin you mention above, but in digging some time back I found an article from the Southern Cross (a monthly Catholic paper in Adelaide) about a Vin Keane d2017. Looking him up again now (to confirm that he couldn’t be the same – and he can’t b1933), I notice exactly the same initials (V.P.). Gotta love a good coinky-dink, right?
I also have a niggling idea that there were a couple of JJ Keane’s that regular popped up in my trawlings of S&M (and John Joseph for JJ sticks out in my mind in particular) – so I’ll dig out if it is the guy in Dulwich, or whether there was another one (I’m vaguely thinking North Adelaide and Richmond addresses (for those playing at home with a map, geographically all 3 are one or two suburbs from Adelaide’s city centre, with North Adelaide being North, Dulwich being South East corner and Richmond being West South West)
Finally, you mention “Mysterious Ghost” as a masked wrestler from the US. He seems to appear on trove between 1936 and 1940 (not certain everything I’ve found is him, sometimes it just refers to “The Ghost”, and it’s also possible it’s a copy cat, I suppose), but is there any particular reason you ruled him out (it creates a neat US connection).
In particular there’s a 1936 article from Leichardt Stadium (a wrestling ring that I think was where Transit Systems Australia now has a depot near City West Link and Balmain Road – not to be confused with Leichardt Oval one of the home grounds of an NRL side (Wests Tigers?)) that explains “The ‘Mysterious Ghost’ ….is NOT Walter Browning”
And a later 1940 article: “Leichardt fans still remember ‘The Ghost’ another mystery man from the USA. ‘The Ghost’ was unmasked one night, but even then the crowd was unaware of the identity of the American”
Sound of hand smacking forehead …. Of course! The tools: perfect for clog repair, and the pencils for mapping out the intricacies of clog dancing on a confined space. The envelopes for mailing out performance flyers and the code may well be a Gaelic mnemonic for the lyrics of a song sung to accompany the routine. The missing socks? Research has shown that clog dancing is known to be heavy on sock wear so it’s not surprising that he had no spares … remarkably intuitive NickP. You may well be onto something here.
Milongal: yeah, I should have been more careful about the Mysterious Ghost. Looking beyond Trove, you can see that the Mysterious Ghost was unmasked in a Jan 1935 bout in Boston by Alan Eustace, and there are other bouts in Boston too.
I’m now on a wrestling history forum (of course I am), and will ask about the Mysterious Ghost there. (There are lots of American wrestling history books, not so many Australian wrestling ones).
Peteb: the Somerton Man’s feet and calves are almost certainly trying to tell us their story, even if we aren’t very good at hearing it.
Nick: Too young and far too pretty to be a retired old time boxer/wrestler in my experience. I’m with unmasked Peteb for once, who only forgot to mention the non cauliflowered ears and ravageless features, eye scarring &c…Move on I say, there’s less meat in this one than a bullet ridden T. Keane or Jimmy Keane the light weight hoop cum stable hand. Rack it mate, well meaning but not one of your better hypothesis.
milongal: a quick search revealed:
http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=10;t=005065
Leichhardt, NSW 11/01/1936 6 Round Match: Hardy Kruskamp def Mysterious Ghost (George Jenkins) dq
Brisbane, QLD 22/01/1936 Hardy Kruskamp def Mysterious Ghost (George Jenkins)
milongal: a slightly slower search revealed a thread devoted to the Mysterious Ghost
http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=005000#000000
* The Mysterious Ghost wrestled in Australia in 1936. He was billed as being 235 pounds (16 stone 11 pounds or 106 kilograms) and over six feet in height.
* The Ghost retained his anonymity but the real name of the wrestler under the hood was said to be George Jenkins.
* Jenkins also wrestled as the Mysterious Ghost in the US. Another Mysterious Ghost wrestled in Ohio in 1935. He was unmasked as Jack Wheeler, possibly Joe Wheeler of Texas.
Without knowing the degree of severity of his malformed feet, we don’t know if his efforts to walk normally resulted in his overdeveloped calves. I speak from some experience after working with cerebral palsy sufferers for over ten years.
Boxer, wrestler or ballerina; Believe what you will Peteb, but please refrain from further mention of so called malformed feet which were your own post mortem, pics for effect. Had there been such deformity, those who saw them in the flesh so to speak would surely have given details. I’m speaking about the pathologist who saw nothing of interest, though happy to talk about a groin to toe tan of some interest. Then Professor John Cleland who only made mention of well trimmed toenails which impressed him but stuff all else. Only Henry Lawson the amateur wrestler, pheasant shooter and bust maker, who met his subject in advanced stages of decay, mentioned the distinctive wedge shaped effect of the big and little toes. Perhaps he expanded on this some years later when interviewed by Clive Turner/Walker though that was likely under duress. One might also reflect on the fact that doctor Dwyer described upper and lower jaw front natural teeth for his patient which of course no prize fighter cum wrestler could have hoped to retain for long in such a profession.
Thanks NP. The 2nd thread is interesting, because the way the article reported it wasn’t Browning** I had the impression it might have been a set up (ie while they were interviewing Browning dressed in similar clothes to the ghost, the ghost was seen sneaking out with mask and all – it all sounds a bit convenient). But of course if he’s Jenkins then he can’t be Browning.
**the forum thread talks about Jim Browning (presumably not the anti-scammer on YouTube), whereas I thought the article had a WALTER Browning…
John Sanders. The physical effects of a lifetime of suffering cerebral palsy are difficult to see on a corpse and it takes a practiced eye to be able to discern what may have plagued the sufferer before his demise.
Peteb: The Mayo Institute says that if we avoid alcohol, tabasco and illegal drugs, we stand a good chance of not coming down with gonorrhoea, goiters, gout or even dreaded cerebral palsy, of you have some degree of expertise. Somerton man was a toe walker according to Harry Gold and GC (of letter Q fame), so you might just be on the money again with SM’s said CP affliction symtomology. So well spotted that man.
John Sanders. Cerebral Palsy is caused at birth, and usually by the incorrect application of head forceps in bringing a difficult child out of the womb, a process that damages the cerebral cortex.
Pete: Grey’s anatomy might give you a more comprehensive causal perspective on cerebral palsy, or better still get Byron to give you one of his well known complete evaluations on related how, when and whys of said malady. Duffers like us tend to be way out of our depth regarding onset, symtomology, term effects and the like; as noted in your simplistic, incomplete and misleading outline above…I can just imagine ‘Our lady of the snows’ your colleague, wondering wtf this has to do with ‘Was SM a boxer, wrestler, or a clog dancer?’. Some nice people might also be a little perplexed..
Fair enough, Johnno, but on with the show. Because that’s all it is.
Side show to be correct, bi-partisan Pete, but on with the motley as you say. Because that’s all it is…to some at least!….