Can't say that I know any professional wrestlers all that well.

On one occasion in the late 1940s I had been swimming at the downtown Seattle YMCA and was getting dressed in the locker room, and this huge guy came over and undressed and hung his close in a locker a few down from mine. I was a bit amazed at the size of the guy (about 6'7", 275 lbs or so, and built like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Big Brother). When he finished undressing and headed toward the swimming pool, I called to him.

"Excuse me," sez I, "but I just noticed that you're still wearing your wrist watch."

He glanced at his wrist, saw the watch, and said, "Oh! Thank you. Thank you very much." He had a noticeable accent. Italian.

Then he went to the attendant in the caged booth where one checked one's pocket fodder and valuables (wallet, watch, car keys, etc.) and had him put the watch in the bag with his other stuff. Then he thanked me again as he headed for the pool.

When finished dressing and picked up the stuff I had checked, I commented to the attendant, "My God, that guy is huge!"

"Yeah," said the attendant. "That's Primo Carnera. He's wrestling at the Civic Arena tonight."

Primo Carnera was better known as a boxer, but in 1946 he gave up boxing and became a wrestler. He also tried his hand in Hollywood and appeared in small parts in a number of movies. In 1954, I saw him again in the movie "Prince Valiant" with Robert Wagner, Janet Leigh, and James Mason. Carnera played the Viking tyrant Sligon who had stolen the "singing sword" from Prince Valiant. As I recall, he didn't have many lines, he just loomed a lot.

Apparently Primo Carnera's parents didn't have a whole lot of imagination. He was the first-born son. His brothers were named Secundo, Terzo, Quarto, Quinto. .  .  .

Primo Carnera clowning it up with Bob Hope on the set of "Casanova's Big Night."

Don Firth