To him, Captain Lou, as he was known during the second half of his career, was simply Dad. “He (Albano) was an amazing guy who marched to a different beat,” said Carl Albano, 65, during a recent telephone conversation.Ĭarl Albano knew who the real Hall of Famer was. Photo by John Arezzi.īut this was only one side of a manager living out of his suitcase, from his Carmel, New York home - an hour’s drive to Manhattan. 7, 2013: Albano hams it up in ‘The Super Mario Bros.Handsome Johnny Valiant alongside Captain Lou Albano. 14, 2009: Captain Lou Albano passes away at 76 That attitude throughout this book makes it different than many wrestling books and a fan friendly read. He chooses to look at things through rose-colored glasses. He may not be a fan of what the WWE has become today he refuses to harshly bad mouth Vince McMahon Jr. While you can make some assumptions of people he has a lesser opinion of than others. Lou does not talk bad about anyone in the book. If you are looking for dirt, look somewhere else. After reading this you come away with not only a much more informed view of Captain Lou Albano’s career in and out of the ring, but also that of nearly every person that played even a small part of his life in wrestling. The last 10 pages are an Albano family album, with a selection of family photos ranging from the 1970s to today.Overall Captain Lou Albano: Often Imitated and Never Duplicated is a well chronicled - albeit shortened - look at one of the most famous wrestling managers of all time. He seemed to put the same zeal into his post WWF work that he did in his heyday in the 1970s and ’80s. Lou not only crossed over into the music world with Lauper but also with the band NRBQ who would later record the song Captain Lou.Īlbano goes from his WWF days into his indy wrestling career and his television and movie career that followed. There is a chapter on Albano’s relationship with rock star Cyndi Lauper (who wrote the foreword for the book) and his role in the birth of “rock ‘n wrestling.” Albano never will shy away from taken credit from everything from selling out Madison Square Garden as the manager of a foe of Bruno Sammartino, to discovering Hulk Hogan for Vince McMahon Jr. promise to take care of all his old loyal buddies like Gorilla Monsoon and Arnold Skaaland. Lou also defuses the tale that on his deathbed Vince Sr. Lou also defuses rumors or wrestling folklores on everything to the New York ban on masked wrestlers, which in fact was only a Madison Square Garden ban that dates back to January 1916 when The Masked Marvel nearly won a tournament there by beating some of the wrestling world’s best while having his identity hidden under a mask (he turned out to be a hooker named Mort Henderson). He seems to have something good to say about everyone he has managed be it The Valiant Brothers and Wild Samoans, who dominated the tag scenes with Lou at their side, or someone like Iron Mike Sharpe, who most fans recall as a glorified jobber,Only briefly does Albano touch on his drinking and tells of his on-going firings by Vince McMahon Sr. He gives you short back-stories on each wrestler, often their real names or other gimmicks they used previous to coming under his managerial control. If he mentions he wrestled Bruno Sammartino on Jin Pittsburgh you can be sure he did.Īlbano goes through each of his protégés one by one, both singles and tags. Lou seems to have been a very good record keeper (or his co-author did). A chapter is dedicated to the early beginnings of Capitol Wrestling as he reveals the behind the scenes dealings of Vince McMahon Sr. His wrestling career is covered from his early days to his tag team with Tony Altomare as the Sicilians. Like every subject in this book, he covers it in a few pages or less. Unlike many wrestling biographies, he doesn’t spend 50 pages giving you the humble beginnings of his life. The book, published by Gean Publishing and co-written with Philip Varriale, is punctuated by great photographs many never seen by wrestling fans before.Ĭaptain Lou takes you through a very short look at his career (under 200 pages) but what is there is very fact filled.
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