Category Archives: Pop-culture

“Gentleman Jack” Gallagher Brings Umbrella Fighting to the WWE

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 27th December 2017 Mancunian pro-wrestler “Gentleman Jack” Gallagher is a rising star of World Wrestling Entertainment due to his (mostly) unflappable charisma, technical grappling style and distinctly Bartitsuvian umbrella-fu, as seen in … Continue reading

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“John Steed’s Sword-Stick”: an Umbrella Fighting Tutorial from The Avengers Annual of 1967

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018 Having already addressed the umbrella combat of debonair super-spy John Steed in general terms, our attention now turns to some of the specifics, as delineated in The Avengers Annual of … Continue reading

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Adam Adamant: an Edwardian Gentleman-Adventurer in Swinging ’60s London

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018 Popular enough in its day but almost forgotten over the past four decades, the mystery/adventure TV series Adam Adamant Lives! was intended as the BBC’s answer to The Avengers.  Both series featured … Continue reading

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Cane Vs. Sword (Sherlock Holmes, 2009)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 5th May 2018 The climactic fight between Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr. and Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), in which Holmes appropriately wields a cane against Blackwood’s devilish blade: For details on this … Continue reading

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In Memoriam: William Hobbs (1939-2018)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 17th July 2018 By Tony Wolf I’m sad to report the passing of William Hobbs, who was among the most influential and respected fight directors of the 20th century. He died on … Continue reading

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Bartitsu Mini-Documentary on the “Celebrity Antiques Road Trip”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 17th November 2018 A six-minute item on the gentlemanly mixed martial art of Bartitsu, as featured on a recent episode of BBC2’s Celebrity Antiques Road Trip and including demonstrations by the Manley Academy of Historical … Continue reading

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“I Look Forward to the Debate, Sir!” – a Bartitsuesque Fight Scene from “Q.E.D.” (1982)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 19th January 2016 Readers of a certain age may fondly recall the short-lived TV series Q.E.D. (also titled The Mastermind), which screened during the early 1980s. The show featured Sam Waterston as the eccentric former Ivy … Continue reading

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“Vice, Crime and Poverty: How the Western Imagination Invented the Underworld”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 16th March 2019 This new book by French cultural historian Dominique Kalifa explores the notion of the criminal underworld in Western popular culture, including the infamous Parisian Apache and London hooligan phenomena that fed – and were fed … Continue reading

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The Bartitsu Club as Imagined in “Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons” (2015)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 6th November 2017 In the 2015 graphic novel Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons, the Bartitsu School of Arms serves as the gymnasium and headquarters of a secret society of female bodyguards who protect the … Continue reading

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Baritsu in Denny O’Neil’s “Sherlock Holmes” Comic Book Adaptation (1975)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 9th October 2017 Famed comics writer/editor Denny O’Neil offers his take on the famous “baritsu” fight between Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty in these scenes from O’Neil’s Sherlock Holmes #1 (1975). At the end of … Continue reading

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