Here’s My Captain Lou Albano Anecdote

In 1985 an attention-starved New York state senator held a hearing on banning pro wrestling. I criticized the ignorance of the senator, whose name was Abraham Bernstein, and I testified with my line on the need for toothful regulation of this industry.

I also persuaded Bill Geist of The New York Times to write a humorous column about the sideshow. The piece was later collected in Geist’s book City Slickers.

Geist called the then-World Wrestling Federation and got a phone interview with its greatest manager and moutpiece of that era, Captain Lou Albano (who died yesterday at 76).

Albano told Geist that he didn’t attend Senator Bernstein’s hearing because “some of these politicians have brains the size of dehydrated peas.” (I think Geist got it wrong: Albano used to say that Jimmy Snuka “had a brain the size of a dehydrated beebies,” and added, “If you put Jimmy Snuka’s brain in a parakeet, the parakeet would fly backwards.”)

Lou also said he was well aware of the state senate bill. “I keep abreast of the issues,” he said. “My favorite TV show is ‘Face the Nation.'”