Signature wrestling moves such as the Oxford leg strangle and Ferris wheel finish initially brought Lord James “Tally Ho” Blears to Hawaii, but it was a booming British-accented voice rich in character that made him a household name here for 60 years.
The charismatic Blears provided the colorful soundtrack for the heyday of pro wrestling in the state in the 1960s and ’70s and went on to become “the voice of surfing” and water sports for another 30 years.
His remarkable life, which ended last month at age 92, will be celebrated in a memorial service Saturday at 11 a.m. at Makaha Beach.
Blears, a man with a twinkle in his eye and a hearty hand shake, was a natural entertainer and rarely without a story to tell.
“He was my hero, a very special man,” said longtime surf promoter Randy Rarick. “He did the commentary on the very first Pipeline Masters back in 1971 and all the big events on into the early 2000s,” Rarick said. “He was the voice of surfing and really got the crowd going. He used that wrestling parlance and a knowledge of surfing to really entertain.”
“Two things he loved were wrestling and announcing,” son Clinton said. Blears did announcing for the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, canoe races, you name it. He was so much in demand promoters in Australia would fly him in to do their surf meets.
Born James Ranicar Blears in the United Kingdom, he came to Hawaii in the 1950s as a touring wrestler on promoter Al Karasick’s cards at the Civic Arena. Adorned with a monocle over his right eye, a sweeping cape, walking stick and well-cultivated snooty accent, he was billed as “Lord Tally Ho.”
Along with winning a series of championships, he won a following and found a home. Living in Waikiki he learned to surf by trading wrestling lessons for surfing tips with the beach boys and eventually brought several, including Curtis “Da Bull” Iaukea and Sammy Steamboat, into wrestling.
Blears moved his family to Makaha, where all four kids became adept at the sport and two, Jimmy and Laura, became world champions.
“Even though he had that amusing ‘uptown’ British accent, his temperament and affability felt very comfortably at home in the Island environment. He was, somehow, a man from a faraway land who still felt like ‘da kine,’” Ed Francis, his partner in wrestling promotion, wrote in the book “50th State Big Time Wrestling!”
In time, Blears would prove to be a promotional genius making the “locker room interview” must-see TV on KHVH and KGMB to pump up shows on a circuit that included Bloch Arena, Schofield Barracks and the Neighbor Islands. His interviews with snarling Ripper Collins, usually against the backdrop of a row of lockers and ever-present poster for the upcoming card, were classics of the genre.
The more the Georgia-born Collins butchered Hawaiian pronunciations — turning Hilo into “High-Lo” and Maui into “MOW-Wee” — the more fans clamored for his head of peroxided hair on a platter.
Blears is also credited with coming up with the entry music — “Those Magnificant Men in Their Flying Machines” — for the popular Johnny Barend.
His most remarkable exploit, however, was freeing himself from captors on a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean during World War II. The merchant ship he sailed on as a radio operator was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. The sub took the ship’s crew aboard and then began executing them. Before guards could behead or shoot him, the 21-year-old Blears freed a hand, kicked away a captor and dove overboard. He dodged bullets until the sub went away and then swam toward the wreckage of his former ship and was eventually rescued by a passing allied vessel.
His rescuers fed him canned peaches and every year on the anniversary of his rescue he ate peaches in remembrance.
“He was one of a kind and will be missed,” Rarick said.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
