RIP 2018
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The NYT obit:
Bruno Sammartino, Durable Champ in WWE Hall of Fame, Dies at 82
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Unlike many heavies on the pro wrestling circuits, he was a soft-spoken, gentlemanly connoisseur of grand opera, especially Verdi. And for one who had bench-pressed 565 pounds as an amateur, he was relatively small: under 6 feet tall and a trim 260 or 270 pounds, with bulging pectorals and biceps and a big head. He looked tiny beside giant rivals like Haystacks Calhoun, who topped 600 pounds.
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In February 1961, Sammartino body-slammed Chick Garibaldi to the canvas at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. Garibaldi did not get up. The referee stopped the match and determined that Garibaldi was dead. A medical examiner later said he had suffered a heart attack. Sammartino was stricken with remorse for months.
Sammartino himself almost died, of a broken neck, when Stan Hansen, in a match in New York in 1976, dropped him on his head. Sammartino spent weeks in a hospital.
Sammartino did not dispute that professional wrestling matches were fixed. But he bristled at suggestions that he had ever taken a fall and said his injuries were proofs of his honesty.
“I would be a fool to tell you that there was no fixing,” he told The Washington Post in 1980 as his career wound down. “You ask if wrestling is for real? Well, I think my own body answers that question. I have broken more bones than any of the others — my neck, my collarbone, both arms, wrists, knuckles, all of my ribs, my back. A hairline fracture of the kneecap. My jaw has been wired and rewired. It’s incredible to think people would fake that.”
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@salacious-crumb said in RIP 2018:
The NYT obit:
Bruno Sammartino, Durable Champ in WWE Hall of Fame, Dies at 82
[...]
Unlike many heavies on the pro wrestling circuits, he was a soft-spoken, gentlemanly connoisseur of grand opera, especially Verdi. And for one who had bench-pressed 565 pounds as an amateur, he was relatively small: under 6 feet tall and a trim 260 or 270 pounds, with bulging pectorals and biceps and a big head. He looked tiny beside giant rivals like Haystacks Calhoun, who topped 600 pounds.
[...]
In February 1961, Sammartino body-slammed Chick Garibaldi to the canvas at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. Garibaldi did not get up. The referee stopped the match and determined that Garibaldi was dead. A medical examiner later said he had suffered a heart attack. Sammartino was stricken with remorse for months.
Sammartino himself almost died, of a broken neck, when Stan Hansen, in a match in New York in 1976, dropped him on his head. Sammartino spent weeks in a hospital.
Sammartino did not dispute that professional wrestling matches were fixed. But he bristled at suggestions that he had ever taken a fall and said his injuries were proofs of his honesty.
“I would be a fool to tell you that there was no fixing,” he told The Washington Post in 1980 as his career wound down. “You ask if wrestling is for real? Well, I think my own body answers that question. I have broken more bones than any of the others — my neck, my collarbone, both arms, wrists, knuckles, all of my ribs, my back. A hairline fracture of the kneecap. My jaw has been wired and rewired. It’s incredible to think people would fake that.”
[...]
82 is an incredible innings for a pro wrestler
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Lois Lane aka Margot Kidder
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12051515
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A couple of obscure departures in the last week, but interesting in musical history.
Glenn Snoddy - Pioneering Nashville recording engineer and the inventor of the ‘fuzz box’. Changed the sound of R&R guitar for good.
Roger Clark - FAME and Muscle Shoals session drummer from age 16. Played on probably 50 odd major hit albums. -
I have read several books over the years about Hollywood and rock n’ roll during the free-love cocaine-fuelled era of Los Angeles during the 1970s that frequently mention Margot’s pad as Party Central.
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Damn. Awful , only 61
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“Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” by Anthony Bourdain
The late chef’s 1999 essay about working in Manhattan restaurants. “Gastronomy is the science of pain,” he writes. “It was the unsavory side of professional cooking that attracted me to it in the first place.”
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The late chef’s 1999 essay about working in Manhattan restaurants. “Gastronomy is the science of pain,” he writes. “It was the unsavory side of professional cooking that attracted me to it in the first place.”
He was certainly the first 'celebrity chef' (he wasn't a celebrity until after writing) the laid bare the reality of how kitchens work.
Marco Pierre White had done a warts and all TV series before Kitchen Confidential came out but that was only showing the heated environment and abuse, not the food 'trickery' or truths. He got a lot of shit for it at the time as he smashed the wall of mystery that others had always adhered to.
Even now, TV shows display these gleaming sparse unhurried kitchens led by calm head chefs who may occasionally swear. There's no drug addled dish pig in the corner that may disappear at a moments notice. No career commis chef that spends their days/nights getting shit from above for everything they do, never any steaks dropped on the floor. -
Stuff
