Through The Shattered Glass

by Jeanie Clarke

  As he pleaded with me to change my mind, I knew I couldn’t allow myself to be hurt by him again. It was not a decision I had taken lightly, as I had tried to make a stable home for my daughter. However, it soon became obvious to Jade that her mother was deeply unhappy.

  I left the apartment, and Billy was waiting for me in his car with Jade. I remained silent as we drove to his apartment.

  My relationship with Chris, which had lasted almost five years and taken us across the world together, had come to an end.

  Once I settled into Billy’s apartment, he did everything he could to make me welcome, and really took me under his wing. Realising that I couldn’t drive, he immediately set about teaching me, and arranged some lessons with an instructor. He also knew that I craved financial independence. As a foreign citizen with no green card of permanent residency in the States, my work options had been restricted.

  Without hesitation, Billy offered yet another solution to help me, suggesting that I marry him.

  It was another selfless act from him. He knew that if I married an American citizen, it would allow me to remain in the States, and enable Jade to stay in the same country as her father.

  Thinking of my daughter, I accepted his proposal. We visited the local Registry Office to arrange a date for our marriage in the summer of 1983. Passing my driving test, he also surprised me with an unexpected gift; a brand new Chevrolet Camaro. I was touched and it moved me to tears. I was so happy.

  Billy Jack provided a generosity that I was not used to, and I felt humbled to be valued so dearly by him.

  But a caring spirit was in his nature. After meeting his father, a blind man who lived alone, it was obvious that Billy would do anything to provide comfort to the people in his life.

  Gradually, I realised that Billy viewed me as much more than a friend, and I became drawn to his sensitivity. I felt safe around him.

  Our friendship had progressed into a very special bond, and we became lovers.

  Although mutual attraction and companionship had led to our intimacy, Billy and I started to realise that we each wanted different things in our lives. We remained on good terms but we both knew that there was not the love required to sustain a lasting relationship.

  Slowly, we drifted apart. By Christmas, I returned to England.

  Billy and I continued to talk, and he was now looking to move to Tampa, to wrestle for Championship Wrestling from Florida. He asked if I wanted to return to the States, and offered to fly me to Florida.

  We knew that our relationship was over, and he sourced an attorney for our uncontested divorce.

  With our short romance running its course, I will always feel indebted to Billy. We remained amicable and I would forever hold his friendship and selflessness dear to my heart.

  At a time when I had lost so much faith in myself, he really built my confidence and gave me the greatest love of all; the gift of freedom.

  As a parting gift, Billy arranged for me to stay at an apartment in Tampa Bay, and secured a six-month lease for me while I searched for work in Florida.

  The beaches and climate of the state reminded me of California.

  I secured a job as a make-up artist at a department store and settled into the Florida way of life right away. Through my work, I made lots of new friends and would regularly go out for dinner with them.

  After a while, all the unhappiness from my time in Portland faded away.

  Gradually, I felt happy and free, enjoying the relaxed lifestyle of the Sunshine State.

  After the lease on the apartment was up, Chris offered to look after Jade for a while so I could find a new residence. At the same time that I had left Billy to return to England, Chris had started to wrestle for a promotion in Dallas.

  As a temporary measure, I moved into The Hall of Fame Inn, a hotel that was a famous haunt for many wrestlers. It was right next door to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football grounds and some of the players stayed at the hotel.

  I started dating one of their star players, Danny Spradlin, and I became good friends with Steve Courson. We would often hang out by the hotel pool or go clubbing.

  One night, we went out to the local nightclub called Confetti, and by chance we bumped into the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair who was in there partying. I had met Ric a couple of times when he’d been wrestling in Portland and he recognised me. Within seconds, he had a drink sent over to me. He then sent another. And he sent a few more after that.

  I rarely touched alcohol but that was one of the few times I did, and I got extremely drunk. Somehow, I staggered back to the hotel and felt extremely sick. I do remember Ric phoned my room afterwards. He must have been calling to make sure I was okay, as he was keen to check up on me.

  After living out of a suitcase for weeks, I was finally able to move into an apartment which was at the other side of the Buccaneers stadium. As soon as I settled in, I got a visit from my mum, who I had flown over from England.

  I asked Chris if he would not mind giving me Jade now that I had secured a fixed address. He obliged, and his new girlfriend Toni Collins arrived at the airport to hand her back to me.

  Toni had been working as an assistant in the front office of WCCW and that’s where Chris encountered her. I only briefly met her but she seemed really nice.

  Although we had gone our separate ways, Chris and I were starting to talk quite regularly. He wanted to keep up to speed with how Jade was doing, and his steady work in Dallas meant that he could afford to see her more frequently. The distance had worked out well for us, as the animosity I had for him started to subside. Slowly, we became amicable again.

  By the summer of 1984, Chris rang me and started talking about a notion he had in mind for WCCW.

  He wanted me to perform as the female valet for a wrestler called Gino Hernandez. I politely declined the role; I was too busy having a great time in Florida with my job and new friends.

  I wanted to start a business, and I had already discussed the idea with my friend Kathy. We had both been working in the make-up industry, and agreed that we would branch off on our own and offer cosmetic services for models and events.

  We designed a logo and placed an advert in the local Tampa Bay paper for our new venture, which we decided to call The Face Place.

  For the next few months it went really well. We had several clients a day and were making great money by selling our products too. Within a short period of time, I was able to buy a gorgeous white 1984 Corvette.

  During the course of another telephone conversation with Chris, he said he was heavily missing Jade, and again asked if we would consider moving to Dallas. He said he could find me work in World Class and that he was really keen to run with an ex-wife angle.

  An angle is a wrestling storyline, and his pitch was for me to be introduced as the wicked ex-wife to set up an on-screen feud between Chris and another wrestler.

  The idea of involving females in feuds had been already been big hit down in WCCW a couple of years earlier when Jimmy Garvin brought his real-life wife Patti into the promotion to aid his valet, Sunshine, and named her Sunshine II.

  Garvin would later ditch the original Sunshine after she cost him the WCCW Television Championship. Patti was renamed Precious and the three ended up feuding, and Chris bought in to the storyline to even the sides up for Sunshine.

  This feud, which led to a number of mixed tag team matches, led to phenomenal business in the promotion and Chris was really keen to replicate its success.

  I told Chris that I was not really sure about returning to wrestling, but I agreed to move to Texas so that he could spend more time with Jade. There was nothing keeping me in Florida.

  By the end of the summer of 1985, Danny had been released by the Buccaneers and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals for the National Football League’s 1985 season. With his relocation to another state, our relationship faded.

  Once again, it was time to move. I was excited by the pioneer spirit of the Lone Star State, and
I was ready to take a trip.

  7 THE DALLAS TRIP

  Upon my arrival in Dallas, I went to visit Chris. He had since moved into an exclusive apartment on Lovers Lane, which was part of an expensive complex of condos that were built around a private swimming pool for the residents. I was looking forward to catching up with Chris, and properly getting to know his new wife, Toni. They had wed just nine months prior in Hawaii on 20th December 1984.

  I had no problem with their marriage; even though Chris and I were friendly, any romantic feelings that once existed between us had long gone.

  The first time I went over to visit them after moving to Dallas, Toni burst into tears and ran into the bedroom to cry. She was very insecure that Chris had just asked his ex-girlfriend and daughter to come and live in Dallas.

  When she finally came out of the room, with tears and mascara running down her face, I felt so bad. I could tell she was a really sweet, fragile soul.

  I reassured her that she had no need to think of me as a threat to her marriage with Chris. I was really happy for them.

  In one of the adjacent apartments lived a girl called Vicky, and Chris had organised for Jade and I to stay in her spare room. Chris also had a spare bedroom where Jade could stay when she had time with her dad. It worked out really well that we could both share the responsibility of raising Jade.

  With Chris and Vicky offering to provide childcare for Jade, I resumed my work as a makeup artist in a freelance capacity.

  As for Toni, she quickly accepted that I wasn’t in Dallas to rekindle a dead romance and we started to bond as good friends.

  Terry ‘Garvin’ Simms, former WCCW wrestler: “I will never forget the day I met Jeanie, because it was both a shock and an eye-opening experience at the same time. I had moved to Dallas to wrestle for World Class in the 80's, and had been invited to the home of Chris Adams (who I had been wrestling every night for the previous two weeks). I'd been told that Chris' wife was easy on the eyes, so when the graceful lady with the beautiful face and knock-out body opened the door and greeted me with a British accent, I thought to myself "Easy on the eyes, my ass! She's stunning!" Imagine my surprise when I walked in and was introduced to someone who could have been a sister to this lady and was told this is Toni Adams; the woman I'd just met was Jeanie Clarke! Both Jeanie and Toni were sweet women and very close friends. I thought I'd entered the Twilight Zone (and didn't care if I had!) because Chris was not home and I had a chance to sit and talk with two beautiful women for hours.”

  It was not long before Chris and Toni asked if I would like to go to one of the World Class events.

  Chris really hyped up the show, so that Friday night I headed to downtown Dallas to find the Sportatorium, the legendary home of World Class Championship Wrestling. The Sportatorium was the least glamorous place you could find, and not the place you would expect to find the most high-tech of wrestling television tapings.

  It looked like a rustic and beat-up white asbestos-clad barn, and it had a very distinct smell which was reminiscent of an old gym. But when the fans started arriving, the venue became truly electric. They were so intense; a loyal group of followers who went each week to the matches and helped create such a special venue. The octagonal dome of the Sportatorium captured the acoustics and made it an incredible environment to be inside, amplifying the loud volume of the die-hard WCCW audience.

  World Class was so different to anything I had ever experienced before. It had an energy to it that cannot be described, and its popularity was not limited to the weekly shows. The promotion had a major television deal to syndicate its programming across the country, and into international markets.

  Bobby Fulton, former WCCW wrestler: “WCCW was an amazing company, it was a first class promotion and the Von Erichs were just so over with the fans and the rest of the talent was so strong, it was a great company to work for and was a highlight of my career. I’d say it was perhaps the hottest place that Tommy [Rogers] and I, as the team The Fantastics, got over in.

  I also think it was one of the very first worldwide companies, we would be seen on TV in Japan and Israel and would do tours over there too. Because of how strong and how well thought of WCCW was it really gave a lot of guys the opportunity to tour overseas. But we also expanded right across the US too. I remember we went all the way up to Massachusetts and we sold that out, and then through to Chicago where we did the same. People would know about us before they knew about wrestlers in other promotions, because of how strong WCCW was.”

  The company’s success was due to the efforts of a strong roster of stars. It boasted some truly great names, but the most revered of all were the famous Von Erich family.

  Behind the scenes, the promotion was owned by Jack Adkisson, the ageing patriarch of the family who was known to fans as Fritz Von Erich. On-screen, the product was anchored by his sons, who had all excelled in athletic competition before turning to pro wrestling.

  The Von Erichs seemed to live a royal existence in Texas. They appeared in television commercials, and featured on all sorts of popular merchandise; from posters and T-shirts to even their own board game. Their likenesses seemed to be everywhere and they were mobbed wherever they went.

  As the beloved hometown heroes, the Von Erichs would face a rotation of dastardly heels to keep the WCCW faithful glued to the product. Chris had originally joined the company as a wildly popular hero, but had since betrayed the Von Erichs when there was a requirement to freshen up its main event scene.

  When I arrived in Dallas, Chris was working in a tag team with our mutual neighbour Gino Hernandez.

  Together they were known as the The Dynamic Duo, and were the most hated heels in the company. They would come out to the song Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood & The Destroyers, and flaunted their style and wealth to rile up the fans.

  Gino was so naturally gifted. As well as having great wrestling skills, he was a master of the microphone and was able to churn out amazingly cocky promos. Oozing class and sophistication, Gino used these qualities to back up the arrogant character he portrayed. He had a great fashion sense and always dressed so well, even in his workout clothes. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a little crush on Gino.

  After defeating their opponents, the Dynamic Duo had started a unique post-match ritual, giving their defenceless foes humiliating new hairstyles with a huge pair of scissors. This routine was used to set up a match with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich at the second annual Cotton Bowl Extravaganza on 6th October, where the losers of the contest would have their hair removed.

  That night, Chris and Gino were forced to taste their own medicine. After losing the bout, they had their heads shaved in front of a raucous crowd of 26,000 fans who all went wild as the pair’s locks were shorn.

  I remember sitting in Chris’ apartment after the match. Gino came over with a strange expression and glassy eyes and sat right next to me.

  “Feel my head, feel my head,” he kept repeating. He seemed in disbelief of his new crew-cut.

  Rambling incoherently, he would then just start crazily laughing for no reason. Soon, we all decided to head out and hit a nightclub that we used to frequent on Greenville Avenue. Gino asked if I would ride with him.

  He owned a Porsche, and started driving with reckless abandon, weaving in and out of the traffic and careering all over the road. We must have been speeding at 100 miles per hour on the way to the club.

  Within moments, he overtook yet another car without looking and went into his pocket to look for something.

  “Here try this,” he said, handing me a tiny piece of paper.

  “What is it?” I wondered.

  “It’s good stuff. I got it from Hawaii - just chew on it,” he countered.

  I shoved the piece of paper in my mouth. Gino uncontrollably laughed again.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll lookout for you,” he giggled.

  I had no idea what he was talking about, and I figure he didn’t either, but I had only popped it in my mouth
for a second or two.

  After about ten minutes, I still didn’t feel any different. I just figured it was Gino acting bizarrely in a drug-fuelled binge.

  We arrived at the club and made our way to the bar.

  Half an hour later, it happened.

  I just started laughing and laughing for no reason. I couldn’t stop and Gino started cracking up as well. So there we were, in absolute hysterics at absolutely nothing.

  “I have to use the bathroom,” I conceded.

  I didn’t get much of a response, as Gino was in a world of his own merriment. As soon as I put one foot in front of the other, it was like walking on a cloud. I was floating and couldn’t feel a grip beneath my shoes. This made him laugh even harder.

  Later Gino recalled that I shuffled over to the edge of the club with a look of sheer terror on my face and then walked to the bathroom, via a circuit of the whole club.

  Timidly and awkwardly, I motioned with my back to the wall as if I was creeping along on the narrow edge of a skyscraper.

  When I returned, Gino offered me a drink to make it better, but I quickly declined. I wasn’t going to trust his judgement any more that night as I was already so far out of it.

  He could tell I wanted to leave, so Gino drove me home. I was petrified, as the drive home was even more erratic than it had been on the way to the club.

  When we finally made it back to the apartment complex, I just wanted to go to bed. Unfortunately, I was buzzing so much I couldn’t get to sleep. I headed over to Chris and Toni’s as they had just arrived back from the club.

  They were so far out of it as well. Spaced out, Chris stripped naked and ran outside. He then hurled himself into the pool, splashing and shouting at the top of his lungs at 3.00am.

  Gino had never told me what was on that piece of paper. I later learned that we had all taken an acid trip.

  Despite the hard partying, Chris and Gino could turn off the excesses, and appear perfectly lucid once it was time to perform. The office had felt that the Dynamic Duo had peaked as a villainous duo, and wanted to create a storyline feud between the pair.