FROM BLITZ TO BUTLINS

GUMSHIELD TO GREASEPAINT
By Rocky Mason

There’s certainly no business like show business.   Everything about it is certainly appealing – but it is one of the toughest.

If you want to be successful you have to be prepared to fight your corner to get there. And no one echoes that sentiment more than Butlins Legend Rocky Mason

Having come through a tough childhood in war torn Britain, 1957 saw a young Rocky turn his back on a successful amateur boxing career when he became a Butlins Redcoat and was immediately bitten by the showbiz bug.

And in a career lasting 30 years, he rose from the rank of Redcoat Boxing Instructor at Filey to a successful career in entertainments -as a performer, a pivotal player in the Butlins Holiday Empire and a friend of the UK’s biggest stars.

If you worked at Butlins or was simply a holiday maker, then there was every chance you would have heard the name Rocky Mason.

He was an ever present figure amongst the campers fronting many of the shows and competitions at the numerous centres and hotels and a popular boss in the eyes of his employees, who “were always fortunate to have Rocky Mason” as their Ents Manager”

But his career came full circle taking him back to Filey as “Leisure and Amenities Controller”, running every amenity in the largest holiday camp in the world, ending in the closure of the Filey Camp in 1983.

Readers can relive Rocky meteoric rise through the ranks in his new autobiography published by Author House – and you will see that this is not just a story about 30 years of working at Butlins.

Gumshield to Greasepaint  covers all bases of Rocky’s eventful life, telling the story of his journey from his childhood wartime experiences, hiding in the air raid shelters to surviving the evacuation boy’s camps, battling against bully’s and illiteracy and getting to grips with noble art of boxing and a career that saw him lose 8 out of 87 bouts

We see how he copes with the trials of tribulations of doing his national services, the chance meeting through one of his boxing bouts with his soon to be mentor, Colonel Brown.

Then there are his adventures hitch hiking around the continent, sleeping rough, doing anything to earn what he could, from being a waiter to selling peanuts outside the legendary “Moulin Rouge”

Only then do you get round to his life changing years at Butlins

When Rocky, now 78 started to write this enthralling tale, he says at the start of the book that he could have asked a professional writer to pen his story and not only do in a fraction of the time it took him to put the research it  and a lot better.

But as Rocky puts it in the opening statement -this was his story and now one should tell it but him.   That is the way it should be. 

And the book is all the better for it

Some of the most popular biographies over the years like David Niven’s “The Moons a Balloon”  shows a similar personal touch highlighting his poor upbringing  and growing up to be a Hollywood Film Star.

As seen through the eyes of the man himself, the book chronicles the hardships of his life in great detail, with affection for the people around him.   Life may have been tough, but there was plenty to laugh about as well.

Therefore if you loved that book, then you are certainly going to love Gumshield to Greasepaint.   Once you pick it up you are not going to put it down and I guarantee that you will be smiling after the first 20 pages.

It is the story of a man who fought his way through adversity to a life that took him from the boxing ring to the stage. And he has not looked back since - untill now.

Note: Great book – TV Drama Producers would not go wrong gettng their hands on this as a well

Gumshield to Greasepaint is published by Author House UK Priced £10.99

To buy it click here