This Is Your Life: Jackie Pallo

Jackie PALLO (1926-2006)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Jackie Pallo, wrestler, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews as he was about to begin a match in a wrestling ring in Reading, Berkshire, from where the programme was then recorded.

Jackie, who was born above a boxing gym in Islington, London, was an amateur boxing champion as a schoolboy. However, his fascination with wrestling led to him becoming a professional wrestler in the early 1950s.

When ITV gave wrestling a regular slot on television on Saturday afternoons, Jackie became a household name and would later have a crossover career in show business, appearing in pantomime and playing small parts in film and television.

"Oh no, Jesus - you done me Eamonn, you done me!"

programme details...

Edition No: 357
Subject No: 358
Broadcast date: Wed 18 Apr 1973
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 17 Apr 1973
Venue: Wrestling ring in Reading
Series: 13
Edition: 23

on the guest list...

Trixie - wife
Jackie Jr - son
Tommy Trinder
Reg Gutteridge - cousin
George Sewell
Angel East
Jackie Mason
Peter Lee
Tony Donnell
Jack Dale
Lionel Blair
four unnamed 'seconds'
Ronnie Hilton
Joan Rhodes
Jimmy Savile
Nancy - mother
Bob Monkhouse
Les Kellett
Alan Colbeck
Steve Viedor
Mick McManus

production team...

Researchers: Martin Robertson, David McFarlane, Sarah Manwaring-White
Writer: Martin Robertson
Director: Margery Baker
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Life In The Ring

from flyweight to heavyweight

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Screenshots of Jackie Pallo This Is Your Life

Jackie Pallo recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, You Grunt, I'll Groan...

Mick McManus used to say to me: 'You've got to make up your mind whether you want to make wrestling or showbusiness your living'. There was truth in what he said, but it seemed to me that the two worlds were closely connected, and that there were people in the office who were frequently going out of their way to make life harder for me.

What particularly soured me was the story behind the This Is Your Life programme, which Eamonn Andrews sprang on me in April 1973. But J.J. knows a lot more about that than I do, so let him tell it in his own way.

'Well, naturally, I had to be in on it from the start [J.J. talking], and so did Dale Martin. Half the wrestling world had been sworn to secrecy, and I was working closely with Malcolm Morris, the producer, and his researchers. They'd done the whole thing, contacting everybody who knew Dad from the year dot, and they'd arranged to fly in people from all over the place.'

'Everything was set up to take place at the Fairfield Hall, in Croydon, where Dad was topping the bill, and Malcolm Morris had arranged to have the cameras in all the right places, so that it looked like the show was being filmed for 'World of Sport', and would go out on Saturday.'

'I couldn't believe it when I got a call from a shattered Malcolm Morris to say that Dale Martin had been on the phone to say sorry, but Dad wouldn't be available at Croydon as they'd switched him to perform at Aberdeen instead. Well, I went completely spare. I wasn't having Dad buggered about like that. I told Malcolm Morris that if he had any more trouble with the office he must let me know, and I would hire a hall and book the wrestlers myself.'

'I got on to the office and told them they must be off their bloody heads, that it had cost the TV company several thousand pounds to cancel, and that I would be very upset indeed if they decided to scrap the whole thing. Some idiot told me that you had to treat TV people like that, otherwise they would think they only had to snap their fingers to get people to do what they wanted. By that time I was practically eating the phone.'

'In the end it was done at Reading, about three months later. Dad was due to wrestle Adrian Street in the final bout, and as soon as the introductions were done, in nipped Eamonn Andrews.'

'Billy Dale was very cold to me at the party following the programme, but it was Dad's big night, so I said nothing. I was just grateful that the TV company had decided to go ahead. I didn't tell Dad what had happened until some time after.'

And when J J. told me, it did not make me any happier with the set-up.

On the night the show was screened, I had driven all the way to Perth for a show. I dived into a hotel and said quick, where's the TV lounge, as I must see This Is Your Life, 'cos I'm on it. I switched on, and Eamonn was just saying: "Jackie Pallo, this is your life" when a drunken Scot flopped into the seat next to me and bent my ear, at ten thousand decibels, all the way through the programme, between sips from a hip flask. He wouldn't shut up, and I can't lip read, so it was a bit like looking at a silent movie. Still, they tell me it had the highest rating of all the programmes that week.

Reg Gutteridge recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Uppercuts and Dazes...

I was utterly gobsmacked when I realised what was happening to me.... but more of that later. First, I have to confess that I was a cornerman twice before I topped the bill myself on what is regarded as one of the most popular ITV shows of all time.

On each of those two occasions I was a bit naughty because the 'victims' are not supposed to have any foreknowledge of what is about to happen to them. The producers are so strict about this that they have been known to cancel the show at the 11th hour when they discovered that their subject had been tipped off in advance.

My cousin Jackie Pallo was chosen at the height of his popularity as a wrestler when that game was all the rage on TV 20-odd years ago. Incidentally, he was known as Pallo simply because when he took up the 'grunt and groan' business, a family conference decided that Gutteridge was primarily a boxing name and we did not want it to be besmirched in the wrestling circus.

Now Jackie suffered from dyslexia to such an extent that his wife, Trixie, had to read his pantomime scripts and teach him the words. She also knew that he would be terrified if he forgot the names of any of the guests who were introduced to him during the show.

So with my co-operation, she tipped him off and begged me to keep mum. I was a walk-on guest and, as such, had to mark his card by filling him in on each guest as they came on.

Mind you, Jackie was a natural show-off so his acting skills earned him an Oscar-winning moment when it came to the 'surprise surprise' bit. The set was a ring at Reading where Pallo was performing and Eamonn Andrews slipped through the ropes while Pallo was facing his own corner pad waiting for the bell before turning and facing his rival.

When he turned to confront Eamonn and the famous red book, his phoney raised eyebrows even had me fooled.

Series 13 subjects