The Life & Times of Rex Tarzan Richards
By
Viv Huskings
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Viv Huskings on Smashwords
The Life & Times of Rex Tarzan Richards
Copyright © 2010 by Viv Huskings
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
* * * * *
There are a few people I’d like to thank.
Bill Richards & Family for letting me spend an evening with them, gathering information, sharing their photographs and memorabilia of Rex.
Groundwork Caerphilly for giving me the time and belief.
Crosskeys Rugby Club, all the past players and acquaintances of Rex whom shared their stories, especially Dai Thomas who aided the première viewing of The Wild Women of Wongo.
Saint Catharine’s Church and the coffee mornings, where I spent some lovely times talking to all the O.A.Ps about Rex.
THE LIFE & TIMES of REX TARZAN RICHARDS
This is a story a truly amazing story of an unsung hero who over the past few months has become a hero of mine.
Let me first tell you how all this started. I have been working for the past eight months in two little villages called Crosskeys and Pontywaun. Set in the heart of Gwent, they now sit pretty between pine clad and green grass mountains. I say now as they have recovered their beauty from being squeezed amongst the blacken coal slag heaps of the mining industry. The rivers are clear, the trout can be eaten and the fresh linen washing can now be pegged and dried on the line without the threat of speckled dust.
My job title is rather long winded; I work for Groundwork Caerphilly as an Environmental Regeneration Coordinator. The purpose of my role is assisting the local authority and the community to spend grant money on environmental enhancements around the Parishes. Nearly 1 million pound is allocated, and with the guidance of the communities, we want to spend every penny of it in the right places, otherwise it goes back to Europe and these deprived villages will never see the likes again. Anyway part of the spend must go into Artwork and Heritage, this meaning remembering the history, depicting it through the workshops with schools, colleges and community groups. Thus given those who live and growing up in the area a sense of history, pride and ownership as some of the historic facts and ideas are incorporated into Sculptures, Murals and so on…
I met with a local historian called Graham Osborne, to find out what had happened in the past, he gave me all the normal mining and iron history, the disasters and hardships… You find it’s the same story in nearly every little town throughout the Welsh valleys. I was trying to focus more on the people, the characters, the heroes and legends; it’s getting so passé all the mining remembrances you see around the place, and tends to lend a sense of depressiveness. I feel it’s time to move on and give communities something different. Unfortunately the historian couldn’t help me, he said there wasn’t anyone apart from the Italian Café owner who made the most wonderful goats milk ice cream of any relevance in the area.
So I was stuck, until I spoke to my 83 year old Auntie Ivy about there not being anyone renowned or famous that had a connection with Crosskeys. I explained that all I really wanted was some juicy info to pass onto the artist’s that are involved in doing art commissions in the area. Aunt said ’ what do you mean, Tarzan was from
Crosskeys!’ I thought then my poor Aunt had succumbed to senile dementia! But she babbled on about some guy call Rex Richards.
Well I got into work the following Monday and done some searching on the Internet and to my disbelief I started to unravel in snippets Rex’s remarkable life. This guy was a championship diver, strong swimmer and fitter than a butchers dog. He played rugby for Wales and auditioned for a part as Tarzan in America! He didn’t get the part, but was offered a part in another production called the WILD WOMEN OF WONGO. His named also linked to his Nephew Julian Richards, who was so it says inspired into the film industry by his Uncle Rex. Julian was now a respected film director in his own right and produced a number of successful low budget horror films. He had also worked for Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks set up in America. The more I learnt the more I wanted to know, but there was very little to go on, I needed to investigate further! So I sent a few emails around to the connections I had made around the villages, in the hope someone could help enlighten me further.
Immediately Dai Thomas, a life long member of Crosskeys Rugby Club, contacted me. Dai could remember seeing Rex play. As a young boy he use to sell match programmes and can recall streams of women flocking to the ground just to see Rex play on the hallowed ground of the Pandy. Dai told me he use to make quite a bit of profit, as these groupies would ask if Rex was playing, when he said ‘yes’ they would be in such a rush to get to the best seat they wouldn’t wait for their change. Dai said Rex was won of his all time greats; he loved watching this larger than life character play. He knew about the Wongo film Rex made and had a few years earlier attempted to screen it at the club to celebrate 50 years since Rex got his Welsh cap. He couldn’t get past the film industry red tape in screening for public viewing. So unfortunately he had to cancel. I agreed that I would try and help him with this and asked him to try and find out if there was any of the Richards family still alive.
I had a few weeks before arranged an art workshop for a sculpturist called Michael Johnson; luckily he requested to work with the older generation, as he could learn a lot more about the history of the area. This would be a perfect opportunity for me to attend and ask questions. In the meantime, I carried on with the regeneration programme.
Then came the day of the workshop, Michael had been in touch with St Catherine’s Community himself and requested that the people attending bring along old relics from the past. When I had the chance I mentioned the name Rex Richards, the old people’s faces beamed with this name that was blasted from the past. All of them had fond memories and admiration for the way he played rugby, carried himself in society and also his physical statue. One lady told me she was absolutely besotted by Rex and use to melt when he came into her fathers Café every Tuesday night after training. Yes, it was the same café of the infamous goats milk ice cream. Anna the young Italian daughter was around 16 at the time, she said that she had never set eyes on anyone since who could come close in looks and body to Rex. Another man popped in and said that the women of Crosskeys were like bees round a honey pot when Richards was about. They use to flock to Pandy Park on a Saturday, not to watch the Rugby, but just to gaze in lustful adoration towards Rex. This gentleman was quite glad when Rex left for America; it gave him more freedom with the female sex. I was also told that Rex use to High Dive in aqua shows during the summer months and a few of the locals paid a trip to Bournemouth. When I asked if he had any family in the area, no one came forward.
When I asked the group about his nickname Tarzan, many said that it came from a combination of his diving background, rugged looks and muscular physique. I left these lovely people a little wiser, but still was still intrigued to find out more.
A few days later I received a call from Dai, he told me he had been asking around and found out that Rex had a brother called Bill and he living in Newport, Dai had his telephone number, so I immediately rang, gave my background and arranged for us to meet up the following week, Dai was came along as a representative of the rugby club.
When we arrived Bill made us really welcome in his lovely home, situated in a very nice area of Newport. Firstly we explained our interests, knowledge so far and our aims, Bill offered us both a glass of wine and said he would start at the beginning.
In the 1930’s the Richards family lived at 1 Crown St, Maindee, Newport, which was then Monmouthshire now Gwent. Five brothers and one sister were born to the Milkman father and a business minded Mother. She was always coming up with ideas to bring extra money into the household, and invented and sold her very own wax furniture polishes to the surrounding neighborhood. Her scope later had effect on the rest of the boys, as some went on to successfully run their own businesses. Anyway, Rex was born on the 4th of February 1934. The mother was the boss of the house and kept the discipline, she had to with five boys running around. The boys were sent to Stow Hill School and actively took part in everything they could.
In 1938 a brand new art deco swimming pool opened just around the corner of the family home in Victoria Avenue. This was heaven to the parents, as scores of children flocked to find their water wings at the then state of the art pool.
The baths was a regular hang out for the Richards clan; they spent every spare time they had there, the main attraction was the three diving boards, the highest being 5 metres was Rex’s favourite after having caught sight of early Tarzan movies at the local Odeon, this was his release, he would shut his eyes at the top of the board and he could be in jungle diving of a huge waterfall. Under the guidance of Bill Cambrey who was the baths manager at the time and ironically eventually became a player and coach at Crosskeys RFC, the young Rex would spend hours perfecting his diving and making his physical stature stand out through the enduring exercise.
Then the fateful day came, a day, which sealed Rex Richard’s destiny and sculptured his dreams forever more, the aqua show arrived in Newport town!
Bill first gave me an account of what an aqua show was about in that era. In the 40’s & 50’s during the summer months, people would flock to all the seaside resorts around Britain. Each resort had they own lidos and open-air baths, normally on the promenade and near the tides edge. Aqua shows would tour all the major resorts and were the main attraction for the whole of the family; it had everything that a circus could offer in water. Clowns would make big splashes; there was singing and dancing, along with beautiful girls synchronizing swimming. To bring the show to a finale, the high diver was the man who brought the tense show to it’s climatic end, with his protruding chest and roar like a lion, people would gasped in frenzied excitement, awaiting the thunderous splash and safe return from the hidden depths.
When the Aqua show arrived in Newport, Rex and Bill were transfixed, this was their world, they were their hero’s and they quickly showed the shows cast the self-taught diving skills they had perfected. After seeing this, nothing was quite the same for the two boys, things changed, ambitions were instilled in both, Rex’s was the high diver and Bill was always the entertainer.
Once the show left town, Rex disappeared with it, without parental permission. He was soon tracked down and brought back by the police. No sooner home, he was gone again, then again, until after the fourth time his parents give up and granted him leave until the aqua season finished. He done another stint the following year, he also knew then that the seasonal diving shows in America lasted a lot longer and travelled throughout the vast country, but he had to put this on hold for a while.
Once he got home, Rex was called up to do his National Service and was enlisted into the South Wales Borderers, stationed in Crickhowell. He was then sent to Germany. Whilst in the army Rex got involved with every sport that come his way, this included swimming, water polo, boxing, rugby and also the beloved diving. Bill told me that when Rex went to try and join the diving team, the Sergeant Instructor took one look at his size and physic told him he was too big and there would be no water left in the pool. That was until Rex got up on the board, flew down with the grace of a falcon and glided into the water like a dolphin, making just a few ripples. It wasn’t long before Rex became the Inter Services Diving Champion. Inter Service meant he was the best out of all the armed forces, no one could come close to him when it came to diving. He also started boxing and was soon knocking people out left, right and centre. At around this time Rex reputedly fought and beat a Heavyweight boxer by the name of Dick Richardson, who was also from Newport. In 1960 Dick became the European Heavyweight Champion when he beat Hans Kalbfell by way of TKO in the thirteenth round. Dick went on to unsuccessfully fight the great Henry Cooper, getting knocked out in the fifth round on both occasions. This just proves what a great all round athlete Rex Richards was at this time, anything he tried his hand at he gave 100% and had the determination to be the winner.
Rex would proudly send his trophies and medals home to his Mam and Dad, who would adorn them along with the other boy’s achievements proudly on the mantelpiece and walls for all who visited to see! A regular visitor to the family home was Jack Woods, a wide boy, Arthur Daley sort of character, who done a bit of business with Rex’s mother. Jack had his fingers in many pies and apparently not just his fingers; one of his pies was that he was a scout for Crosskeys RFC. When he visited the house on this occasion, he noticed a picture of Rex on the wall; his eyes lighted up when seen how big, fit and awesome he had matured into, and immediately enquired to the mother when Rex was being released from his army service. He was informed that it finished that summer and Jack said he would like to have a chat with Rex about playing a bit of rugby for Crosskeys.