The Worlds of Singapore

After reading an article, I happened to remark to Cliff about the various "Worlds" in Singapore.

For the uninitiated, the Shaw Brothers, Run Run and Run Me, who had built a movie empire with cinemas up and down Malaysia and Singapore, also bought into a number of amusement parks in Singapore.

The three main ones were New World, Great World and Happy World which was later renamed Gay World. These parks had various different forms of entertainment. There were dance halls where a young lad, far from home, could pay for a few dances with a hostess, a market, cinemas and a stadium where various entertainment events took place. You would find strongmen performing as well as wrestling matches and boxing matches.

In the late forties, around 1948, Cliff used to know the Shaw Brothers and even appeared as a wrestler called "The Black Muckel". He used to rehearse with friends and they used to chat during the matches taking turns to pretend to be in trouble. Later, he briefly tried his hand at boxing but stopped quickly having discovered that it was a far more serious affair. "You could get hurt boxing"

Update : It was Cliff's friend who wrestled as "The Black Muckel" Cliff can't quite remember his name exactly (He claims it was a long time ago) but it was something like "The Yorkshire Terror". In wrestling you took turns to submit but one or two were stubborn and refused to give in. One took too long to submit and ended up with one of his toes going black - and in the end it had to be amputated!

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