The Real John Wren

[buckstopswithbucks]

Frank Hardy's 1950 novel Power Without Glory, later made into a television series by the ABC, promoted the view of Wren as a gangster with political influence in the Labor Party whose crimes included blowing up the home of a policeman tracking his gambling interests.

The novel and TV series conditioned my view of Wren. Then, at a match at Victoria Park in the late 1980s, I heard former Collingwood captain and totemic personality Lou Richards open up about Wren. ''They only went after him because he was a Catholic,'' exploded Lou. He went on to expound a view I have since read elsewhere that Wren only did what the Protestant potentates in the city did. His crime was he was from the wrong side of town. He was from Collingwood.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/collingwood-shows-heart-over-krakouer-20120302-1u8k2.html#ixzz1ny0CeU29

[TurkishPie]

martin flanagan is a quality journalist

[Piesnchess]

I have the tv series on dvd, its very good, and have read the book. Theres little doubt wren was fairly ruthless in his business and gambling interests, and his conduct could be a bit shady at times, but compared to todays corporate crims he was very mild. He loved the Pies with all his heart, and he used to give out large amounts of money to players who played well on match days, guys like bobby rose and lou himself did quite well out of him. ! Wren was a real Collingwood personality of a hundred years ago, working class and poor, who built an empire based on gambling and sport, though very rich, he never forgot his roots thats for sure.

[watt price tully]

It's a great article - goes back to Wren & how Flanagan admires Collingwood for looking after its own.

Starts from Krakeour & ends with Wren.

That's a great quote from Lou:

''They only went after him because he was a Catholic"

[perthmagpie]

I can attest to Wren's generosity. Just before WW1 my grandfather was renting a terrace house from him in Turner Street, across the road from the forward pocket at Vic Park at the Yarrawonga Falla end. My Pop lost his job and could't pay the rent. He wrote to Wren explaining his situation. Wren wrote back waiving his rent and actually put money in the envelope to help him. Not long after that my Pop decided to join the AIF and sailed off to Egypt and eventually Gallipoli. From that point on my family all became staunch Magpie people. My aunty has a copy of Wren's letter.

[Hiss]

[jack_spain]

Did Wren vote Labor?

[roar]

^^ Of course he did! He was a Collingwood man, not some fop from brighton.

[raymond35]

Remember people:

We are all toothless
we are all unemployed
we all vote labor
we are all ferals

and watch out anyone who suggests otherwise

[RudeBoy]

Wren was a complex character. I've always viewed Wren as having both good and bad traits. Five generations of my family lived in Collingwood and they had close contact with Wren. In fact, when Frank Hardy wrote his famous novel 'Power and Glory', closely based on the life of Wren, he got a much of the information from my family. I still have a first edition of the book signed with all the real names of characters.

My Great Grandfather, after making some dough on the goldfields, owned the Yarra, Bendigo and Town Hall hotels on Johnston street, but he was a chronic gambler and lost the lot to John Wren. My Pop was himself an SP bookmaker in Collingwood, who had to leave town in a hurry on one occasion, after falling foul of Wren's henchmen.

Make no mistake, Wren was a loyal Collingwood person all his life who never forgot his working class roots and was known for his local philanthropy. However, he was also a ruthless businessmen who also used corrupt control of the local Labor Party and his influence in the Catholic church, to pursue his own political and business interests.

It is true that the establishment - largely Protestant - was disdainful of this working class upstart, who was a Catholic as well. However, let's not overly get sentimental about him. The real heroes from Collingwood at that time were not the Wrens of this world, but rather the actual working class heroes, who worked in boot factories, breweries, textile plants, on building sites, doing harsh work in terrible working conditions and living in slums. My mum's family lived in a small slum with packed dirt floors. Many of these people devoted their lives to building trade unions to fight for better working conditions and better educational opportunities for their kids.

My auntie Thelma, who died this week aged 86, worked in a textile factory from the age of 14 and at 16yrs, she became the youngest ever person elected on to the executive of a trade union. These are the the real heroes of Collingwood. John Wren was not one of them.

[buckstopswithbucks]

[Hiss]

[buckstopswithbucks]

Ha ha.. Oh I get it now.. ok ok

Hiss is our resident grumpy old man reminding us how he used to have to walk barefoot through 5 miles of snow to get to school every morning and how everything has gone to crap in a handbasket today

[The Prototype]

[Pied Piper]