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Andre the Giant display to open at Rankin Museum

Posted: Mar 31st 2015 By: William R. Toller

A Giant exhibit will be coming this May to the Rankin Museum of American Heritage.

Gail Benson, curator of the museum, met with Jackie McAuley late Thursday afternoon to inventory an upcoming exhibit on the late professional wrestler Andre the Giant.

McAuley donated nearly all of the memorabilia for the display room. Two pictures from another contributor were mailed to the museum to be added to the collection.

She said she got the idea after seeing a message online from a man who said he had traveled to the small Richmond County town and couldn?t find any sign ? even in the museum ? that the wrestler had once lived there.

?And I thought, that?s just not right,? McAuley said. ?When people come to Ellerbe, there needs to be something to show that he actually lived here and was part of the community.?

Having been close to the Giant, she had a lot of his belongings and thought to herself, ?All this stuff is up in the attic?and it?s just going to the bad.?

So she called a friend and brought the items to the museum.

McAuley first met Andre in the ?70s, after being introduced by her then-husband Frenchy Bernard, a wrestler-turned-manager-turned-referee.

She recalled the story of when the French-Canadian Bernard first met the 7-foot, 4-inch Frenchman.

?He was lookin? at the doorway (of the dressing room) and all of a sudden it was filled with a body,? she said. ?For the next two weeks, they were inseparable.?

McAuley explained Andre?s history as Benson took notes on the items in the room, some already in display cases.

A WRESTLING GIANT

Born Andre Rene Rousimoff in 1946, the large young man was a furniture mover in Paris when he first entered the wrestling world.

His career took him to Canada, Japan and the United States, where he wrestled in several regional circuits.

While wrestling in Japan, he was officially diagnosed with acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland that resulted in his stature.

Included in the exhibit are a warmup outfit and a pair of size 26 red wrestling boots, along with a pink ring jacket, a black and gold mask and one of his iconic black wrestling singlets that he wore in the ?80s.

There is also a yellow one that McAuley said Andre got just to make rival Hulk Hogan ? who wore yellow ? angry.

Also on display will be a pair of huge rings, one of which the wrestler got in Detroit in 1987 while in town for Wrestlemania III, held at the Pontiac Silverdome. In the spectacle ? which held the indoor sporting event attendance record until 2010 ? Andre faced off against Hogan in an infamous main event where the giant was body slammed.

?Whatever the Giant didn?t want to do,? McAuley said, ?believe you me, he didn?t do.?

Several photographs of Andre throughout the years ? including some with his family ? will also be featured in the exhibit, as well as a picture drawn by wrestler Bret Hart and signed by many other wrestlers of the time that was given to the Giant as a get-well gift while he was recovering from a broken ankle.

Shortly after his death, Andre was honored as the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame.

At Wrestlemania XXX, the first Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was held, with the winner receiving a trophy featuring a statuette of the legend known as ?The King of the Battle Royal.?

ON THE BIG SCREEN

In addition to being a wrestler, the big man had a small acting career, appearing in several films.

His first U.S. role was as a bigfoot in the Lee Majors show ?The Six Million Dollar Man,? and he later appeared in a Honeycomb cereal commercial.

?Unfortunately, more people now know him from ?The Princess Bride? instead of his wrestling career,? McAuley said.

Hanging in a display case is a tuxedo Andre wore in the Blake Edwards film ?Micki and Maude,? starring Dudley Moore. In another case sits a handmade doll representation of Fezzik, a character he portrayed in ?The Princess Bride.?

McAuley said the doll was crafted by a woman in Ellerbe, but she could not remember her name.

?I had become convinced that if there ever was to be a movie, he should be Fezzik, the strongest man,? William Goldman wrote in the introduction to the 25th anniversary for his novel ?The Princess Bride.?

Goldman authored the book in 1973 and wrote the screenplay for the movie, released in 1987.

?Andre, for me, was like the Pentagon,? he continued. ?No matter how big you?re told it?s going to be, when you get close it?s bigger. And Andre was bigger.?

The exhibit also contains posters from both movies.

BIG MAN IN A SMALL TOWN

McAuley said Andre was introduced to Ellerbe by fellow wrestler Dino Bravo and in the late ?70s, he bought a house built by Tommy Suggs.

Bernard and McAuley moved in with their friend in 1980 and helped him around the ranch ? named AFJ Ranch after the three of them: Andre, Frenchy and Jackie.

?Life at Andre?s house was normal,? she said. ?We worked hard to keep it that way, too. If you were a friend of Frenchy and mine you had to treat Andre normal or you did not come by when he was at home.?

According to McAuley, Andre usually slept late when he was home.

?Maybe because he usually did when he was on the road, maybe because he was always so exhausted when he finally got home,? she said. ?It was usually a long flight for him to get to Charlotte and then a long drive to get to Ellerbe. But the longer he stayed at home, the earlier he woke up.?

At home, McAuley said Andre was a breakfast eater, but not so much while he was on the road, going from show to show.

?Most wrestlers eat one meal a day and that would always be before 3 p.m.,?she said. ?He didn?t cook, but he instructed me on how to cook the things he could not get on the road: leftover spaghetti and eggs, cold pork roast and sunny-side-up eggs, and thick toast grilled with butter. He did not eat lunch, just nibbled on fruit and yogurt ? I think just to tease the dogs.

? (Andre) drank a lot of iced coffee and lemonade,? she added. He rarely drank wine before dinner. But when he chose to drink, he could really drink.?

She said he felt at home in the small town and could walk down to Dixie Burger without being hounded for autographs.

?They kinda treated him like a local,? Benson said.

?Doc (Dr. P.R. Rankin Jr.) and Andre just thought so much of each other,? McAuley added. There was even a custom-made chair for Andre at Rankin?s hunting club in Hoffman, she and Benson said.

On his ranch, Andre had Texas Longhorn cattle.

McAuley said he first became interested in the breed after speaking with an airline pilot ? who had a ranch ? in a bar during a layover.

?He came home and decided he wanted Longhorn cattle,? she said, adding that he bought the first of those from another wrestler, Nikita Koloff.

?He worked the cattle a lot,? she said, showing several photos of Andre riding his red Honda three-wheeler herding his Longhorns. ?Running them through the chutes, if the cow or horse struggled, all Andre had to do was touch them and they would be like a statue. Animals trusted him ? (especially) our large Rhodesian Ridgebacks and our miniature dachshunds.?

She said Andre also liked to work in the woods and the fields because it was what he grew up doing.

?He would saw trees and stack wood?run the bulldozer. He always wanted to feed the horses and cattle and felt we didn?t feed them enough.?

McAuley said life with Andre was normal ? until she had to take him to the airport.

?The last time I dropped him off at Charlotte, he was on his way to France,? she recalled. ?He wanted me to park the van and come inside. I told him I wanted to beat the traffic and get out of Charlotte. One of those moments?wish I had a do-over button.?

Andre died Jan. 27, 1993, in a Paris hotel room following his father?s funeral.

McAuley traveled to France to bring his body back to the states. He was cremated and his ashes were spread on the ranch.

Several former wrestling colleagues ? including Vince McMahon Jr., Hulk Hogan, ?Macho Man? Randy Savage and Ivan and Nikita Koloff ? attended his memorial service.

GRAND OPENING

Benson said the exhibit will open the evening of Tuesday, May 19 ? which would have been the wrestler?s 69th birthday ? from 7-9.

In addition to everything that?s already gathered, she said she is hoping to have a life-sized photo of Andre on a wall ?for people to walk up just get the feel? of how large he was.

?I?m a long way from finishing, but I?m getting there,? Benson said. ?I hope we can do it justice.?

McAuley replied: ?Anything?s better than my attic.?