Gerald Brown, who was part of one of the top pro wrestling tag teams of all-time, the first incarnation of the Hollywood Blonds, passed away yesterday at the age of 83.
According to Slam Wrestling, Brown was told six months ago that his heart was failing and there was little more they could do. He was visiting his daughter Tuesday afternoon and was found dead in a trailer he had lived on his son Rex’s property.
The Hollywood Blonds of Brown & Dale “Buddy” Roberts, real name Dale Hey, best known as a member of the Freebirds, were put together by Bill Watts in 1970. Brown was teaming with Dandy Jack Donovan for Leroy McGuirk and Watts’ promotion when Donovan broke his ankle. Watts had seen Hey work as a jobber in the AWA and thought he was a great worker, and brought him in for Hey’s first career push.
From 1970 until their breakup in 1977, Roberts & Hey, who added John Sutton aka Sir Oliver Humperdink as their manager in 1973, were among the top tag teams in the world. After being the top team in the McGuirk territory, they went to Montreal during the heyday of the All-Star and Grand Prix war, and were sought after from both sides which allowed them to cut some strong money deals. They were best known in Grand Prix Wrestling where they held the Tag Team titles four times. At the biggest live show ever in Montreal, they worked second from the top before 29,127 fans at Jarry Park underneath the Mad Dog Vachon vs. Killer Kowalski main event, as they defended the tag titles against babyface legends Bruno Sammartino & Edouard Carpentier.
During the heyday of the Florida territory in 1974, the Blonds & Humperdink were a major act, holding the Tag Team titles and were a really smooth professional team. They had great matches every night working with a variety of strong working babyfaces like Mike Graham, Steve Keirn, Don Muraco, Jerry Brisco, Bob Armstrong, Tony Charles and countless others. Later they came to California and were multi-time Americas Tag Team Champions.
Humperdink became such a star in Florida with the Blonds that he ended up staying there after the California run.
They had returns to places like Florida, Mid Atlantic, McGuirk’s territory as well as a major run in Tennessee for Jerry Jarrett without Humperdink before they went their separate way sin 1977 when Hey got a top singles push in Texas as Dale Valentine, the brother of Johnny, and was managed by Johnny.
Roberts was clearly the in-ring star of the team, but Brown understood how to do the effeminate act with him with the bleached blond hair and copying Gorgeous George mannerisms. Brown’s career continued through 1984, basically as a fixture in the Central States as a veteran star. He and Ron MacFarlane worked as a tag team and held the titles and later went to Florida under masks as the Alabama Chain Gang, with the idea they were two convicts involved in a robbery and were hiding from police.
Bill Watts said that Brown changed greatly after the Blonds team ended, going from a reliable good worker to someone with major substance issues. At one point Brown stalked Watts and police were called. After his career ended in 1984, he wanted nothing to do with wrestling.