Andre the Giant Page #4

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are almost another

level of mythology

from the man himself.

Andr was certainly,

I mean, one of,

if not the greatest drinker

that ever lived.

I, myself,

saw him almost every night

drink 7,000 calories'

worth of alcohol.

Say 20 to 25 beers,

maybe four bottles of wine,

usually several mixed drinks.

Brother, I was with him

one night when he drank

106 beers.

106!

Yeah, that's

Andr the Giant, brother.

Andr was a big drinker

after the matches.

Most wrestlers would, like,

maybe have a six-pack,

and Andr, the minimum

that he would ever have is 24.

Okerlund:

He liked the wine.

He'd have them bring

in a case to start the day.

A case of wine.

We go to this hotel,

I mean, drinking and drinking

and drinking,

and all of a sudden,

oh, it's time to go to bed.

And then we get close

to the elevator,

Andr drops.

And the manager of the hotel

says, "Well, what are

you gonna do?"

I say, "Call AAA, that's all

I can tell you."

I was there. I wasn't there

for the drinking,

I was there the next morning

in the lobby

where he's still sleeping

on the floor.

Nobody could keep up with him.

I don't care who you were.

Ric Flair:

Timmy White probably got

to know him the best.

I don't know

how Timmy White's alive.

They had a pool going on me

in the locker room

when I was gonna drop dead

from running with the Giant.

Before I met Andr,

I was doing the merchandise

and helping set up the arenas

and doing all sorts of stuff.

I wasn't up to speed

on wrestling protocol

in locker room,

the way you act.

The only people that set foot

in the locker room

are the wrestlers

and the referees.

Everybody else can knock

on the door, they don't come in.

Man:

Well, that's everything.

Hey, the f***

are you doing here?

I'm like four days on the job.

I thought, "I'm in.

I'm one of you guys."

I walked into

the locker room,

and there's Andr

sitting there,

playing cards

with Tito Santana.

Tito, I saw him put his head

down like, "What is this guy

doing?"

And he said,

( imitates Andr )"Get out."

So I said,

"No, no, no, no,

I work for you guys."

"I said, get out!"

He pushed the table away

they were playing cards on

and he got up, and I went,

"Oh, my God,"

and I ran out the door.

But Andr and I got

to know each other.

We became best friends.

Vince said, "Andr's requested

that you travel with him."

I said, "No problem." He said,

"Really?" I said, "Yeah!"

And then we were off

and running.

It was his big smile,

his sense of humor,

which was a little bit warped

sometimes, but made me laugh.

Man:

Compare your hand with Andr's,

will you, please?

You're a big man,

Lord Alfred.

Oh, my goodness!

Where did you go?

Andr just loved to laugh.

He just loved that.

Andr so enjoyed flatulence.

When he passed gas,

it was-- it was an event.

Flatulence,

that was his trademark.

And he had a real knack

for lifting his left leg.

I would see him go into

the launch position

and I'd say,

"Oh, my God, here it comes."

You never heard anything

like it.

It sounded like, you know,

like a deep roar kind of thing.

It would rumble.

( makes rumbling sound )

( imitating deep,

loud flatulence )

The sound of Andr

takin' a fart?

Well, they were loud.

Big man, big fart!

He loved to get you

in an elevator

and cut one of those

long 30-second farts

that sounded like skin

was flapping together.

( imitates farting noises )

I remember every once in

a while we'd charter a plane,

but to see the pilots almost

like somebody gets smoke

in their eyes,

I'm like, "You're gonna wreck

the plane, Andr.

You can't fart like that

in your pants."

And the pilots would be,

"GD this, F that,

I'm never getting

on this plane again."

Because of

his incredible size,

because of the era

that he lived in,

everything about him

is mythology.

The wildest, most outlandish

stories are what takes hold

in the public consciousness.

You could say anything

about Andr

and people would believe it.

You know, his...

the ring on his finger

is bigger than your wrist.

"Oh, really? Okay."

You could believe that.

This belongs

to Andr the Giant.

This is his ring,

and I kid you not,

I can get all three fingers

in that ring.

Beautiful ring indeed,

and thank you, Andr.

I used to say to people

that Andr has 82 teeth.

And they believed it.

I said, "Yeah, and it's kinda

like when you see his teeth

they're not real big

but they're like rows of teeth

like a shark behind him."

"No kidding!"

Larry Henning told me

when I first met him,

"You know he's got two hearts

and two rows of teeth."

And I believed him!

So I always catch myself

to try looking...

Every time Andr talked

to me,

I'd be looking

for that second row of teeth!

I said, "He couldn't have

two rows of teeth,

I could never seem them!"

The two hearts

I believed forever.

Okerlund:

Andr's life, in essence,

was one big traveling

road show.

300 days or nights

a year on the road.

I tell you,

I'm traveling so much,

last year I buy for $67,000

just in airplane tickets.

$67,000 just

in airplane tickets?

Announcer:

Where will you be traveling

in the near future?

You'll be going to

different countries, I guess.

Andr:

I'm gonna be between USA

and Canada for next month.

Then I go in Japan,

Australia, New Zealand...

Lawler:

He would be in Memphis

on Monday night,

have to travel 450 miles up

to Louisville, Kentucky,

the next day.

Then he would go from

Louisville to Evansville

the next night

and wrestle basically

for seven times

just in our territory

in that one week.

And then, he would hit

the road, you know,

to the next territory.

He may be in Florida

the following week.

Okerlund:

Think of all of the times

he went to Japan.

And international travel back

in the early days of his career

was not as slick

as it is today.

Lawler:

It had to be

an uncomfortable life.

There was no level

of comfort

for Andr when

he was on the road.

Talk Show Host:

That's right!

Hogan:

There was never a bed,

there never a knife,

there never a fork,

there was never a chair.

It was like if you had

to sit on baby furniture

your whole life

in a doll house.

I just remember

the 14-hour flights

from JFK to Narita

in Tokyo

that I knew he could not

go in the bathroom.

Those lavatories or whatever,

too small, he couldn't fit

in there,

so they have to draw

the curtain

and he would relieve himself

into a bucket

and then they'd bring it in

and dump it into the toilet.

But this is the type of thing

he had to endure every day.

( chattering )

Hogan:

When we'd walk through

the airports

if he got ahead of me,

I'd hear all the unkind things

that people would say

as he'd walk ahead of me,

"Oh, my God, look at that guy."

And it'd just break

my heart,

I felt like these people

don't even know this guy.

( chattering )

Okerlund:

They were making fun of him.

They perceived him as

a freak of nature.

And that hurt Andr

more than anything.

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