RODDY PIPER MEMORIAL TRIBUTE REPORT
- 08/26/2015 (10:43:41 pm)
- Bob Mulrenin
…
Piper Hollywood Memorial Event
A Moving, Family Affair
By Invited Attendee, Dr Mike
Lano([email protected])
Was honored to have been part of Monday's event at the historic Comedy
Store on Sunset Blvd along the strip in the western portion of Hollywood.
Drove the 8 hours to make the trip and was asked to bring down my photos of
Piper from 1975 to current. Had photographed his very first match in my home
base Los Angeles/Lebell territory in January of 1976 just months after Chavo
Guerrero arrived, followed soon by his legendary dad Gory. He debuted as a
bland baby face
and our area fans sadly had no clue who he was. That he had some history in
Winnepeg, Montreal, K.C. and Houston to name a few places. It was interesting
to hear RP's son Colt and daughter Ariel(budding actress herself in Hollywood)
say that Roddy's bagpipe instructor when he was a kid reassure him that he
didn't have to practice as hard as others around him. "He was already ranked as
the 3rd or 4th best bagpiper on the planet for his age and he was really worried
that he didn't seem to have to practice for hours on end daily like the others
who weren't as good as he was had to do. His instructor told him it comes
naturally to some, others have to work harder at it. So he was always great on
his bagpipes."
But
when he came into our Mike Lebell territory, sent to just work a few dates for
us(I was one of the long time ringside program photographers who also shot for
nearly all the newsstand magazines) by Houston co-booker Red Bastien and then
head up to either Portland(Papa Don Owen) or San Francisco(Roy Shire)
to work full-time; he didn't even bring his pipes into the ring that night. He
had a face/face "scientific" draw with the more famous at the time Tony
Rocco(who I believe was already making New Japan and Houston/Paul Boesch dates
of his own besides all his West Coast work in one of the openers. Our 22 man
battle royal was always the last match on the card, and Roddy was eliminated
fairly early in that main event.
But
within 3 days(at one of our satellite house show venues in San Diego) and most
of you know this story, our genius booker(after our absolute best bookers Jules
Strongbow with Charlie "Mr" Moto) Leo Garabaldi told RP to bring the
bagpipes, take forever to take off his kilt and infuriate the crowd. He saw
major young HEEL in kid Piper who had bleached blonde hair at the time, and was
skinny with backne. He was soon cutting helacious promos and Mike Lebell was
finally convinced after having told Leo to "leave him as a face." Piper would
stay nearly three years and within 1 1/2 years was not only main eventing at all
our venues including our crown jewel: the Olympic Auditorium, 18th and Grand,
Richmond RI9-5171 is the "number to call to get your tickets before we sell
out," but also for Shire at the Cow Palace along with his best friend at the
time in the late, great Lonnie "Moondog" Mayne who worked briefly for Vince Sr
in '73, managed by Albano. I can't think if anyone except touring attractions
like Andre, Calhoun, Dusty who could main event in two circuits at the same
time. And not just for one-night "pit stops" but on a regular, continuous
basis. It broke KF because Los Angeles syndicated Spanish Int'l Network SIN
Hispanic "Lucha Libre"(we had both this Wednesday night show taped at the
Olympic with mostly HIspanic commentary but also the other primo weekly show
mostly in English taped Saturdays at KCOP/TV 13 right off Fairfax near Hollywood
Blvd that ended in 1975 with Greg Valentine po'ing off KCOP brass by
over-promoting the Olympic Aud major shows after having been warned to "cool
it." I digress and sadly KCOP was history before Roddy could work these shows
with former major actor Dick Lane doing the commentary often with our top
ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Sr and Gene Lebell handling interviews.
Piper almost immediately seemed to go into
our main events and again, a nearly 3 year feud with the Guerrero family. Done
in stages to sell out the place: first with Chavo(losing his hair, putting on a
mask and pretending like he/Piper still had all his hair), Gory, Mando and
finally Hector(he lost his hair a second time to him). Soon after losing his
hair in yet another hair v hair match at the Olympic, Piper lost a loser leaves
town match to Chavo. He'd return the following week as "The Masked Canadian"
and not speaking at all. Lonnie Mayne, by then his heel tag partner, did the
talking. Back to our Syndicated 90 minute SIN show, it not only aired weekly in
NY, Miami, Boston but also on the top Hispanic tv channel in San Francisco and
the Bay Area. Which ruined KFabe and arguably and unintentionally began the
destruction of Shire's territory since fans would see them team in L.A. but baby
face Mayne was battling Piper by this point, at Cow Palace main events and at
some of their spot city towns like San Jose, Reno, Sacramento, etc.
I'll
see if Bob will allow me to post the text from my planned speech(there were way
too many speakers Monday after a lone bagpipe player played mournfully on the
stage of the main room to begin the event, then a mix of WWE's Piper video
tribute and tons of home movie footage along with some of my photos of Piper all
over the place from 1975 until he started in WWF for his permanent stay
beginning in '84 I think the year was. As nice a job as WWE did with that short
video tribute, it really just centered on his WWF '84 and beyond work in WCW,
etc. Like he hadn't accomplished a ton of magic in Winnepeg, Montreal, K.C.,
Houston, L.A., San Francisco, Portland, Mid Atlantic including Crockett booking
the shows for Tunney at Maple Leaf Gardens and of course when he finessed even
further in Georgia for Ole's GCW. His heel promos as Meltzer said were
outstanding in Charlotte but even more 5 star was his work as first national
heel color commentator alongside Gordon Solie and all the must-see-tv he did in
Georgia Championship Wrestling including the turn with his old friend Don
Muraco.
Planned to say something like "and for you
industry film and tv execs, it's comforting to know that RP had several projects
completed at the time of his passing with Straight Outta Saskatoon garnering $56
million over the weekend(drumroll). Then would go into serious mode the rest
of the speech about the WWE video that aired on RAW and was simply repeated on
Smackdown only focusing on his 1984 Piper's Pit, etc and beyond work(and that
was it with no mention since really other than them storming out a Piper special
edition magazine that should've been proofed(again, he started in Los Angeles
for us 1/16/76 and was NOT in Los Angeles at all in 1973 or at any time prior).
All the stuff he did from the time he debuted full time in or about 1984(not
the lone MSG '78 appearance where my shot of Piper was on the MSG program cover)
was ground-breaking, historic, superb. The Snuka Pit, coconut and feud. Really
all the Pits. And there would've been on War to Settle the Score, Rock n'
Wrestling Connection or Wrestlemania 1 without Roderick George Toombs heel aura
shining everywhere including all those major talk show appearances from the AM
Good Morning America type shows all the way up to the Late Night major talk
shows and beyond. Roddy never said no to doing any p.r. for Wrestlemania 1 or 2
and in a classic one, brought lovely wife Kitty with him back in '85.
WWE
fans(what they've named their "universe"), history fans of the biz, etc will
keep RP alive in their hearts by never forgetting him. Even when presented with
garbled "history." As Judo Gene Lebell who also taught Piper and later his son
Colt MMA moves and how to protect/defend oneself said Monday night "you never
die until you're forgotten. Roddy Piper will never die because no one will ever
forget him." Decades from now at wrestling schools around the world, greenies
will still be watching and hopefully studying tapes of him at work. "WWE may
want to move on thinking they paid their homage, but many fans won't allow it.
They'll continue to reflect on this shocking loss. Even TMZ and TMZ Live
continue to report on it and show footage of him today as I write this,
8/19/15.
Was
also going to mention yet another incredible Piper-ism. The close, lifelong
friendship/bonds he formed with others in the biz starting with the Hennigs or
at least initially Larry in Winnepeg(Curt later in Portland circa '79). Sure
there were tight bonds like Buddy Rogers, Billy Darnell, Johnny Valentine,
Johnny Barend, Ernie Roth/The Wiz and Magnificent Maurice in the grand older
territory days. But one didn't come across that often. Many of the boys(and
girls) were loners. Piper made lifelong friends early in his career with
Maurice and Paul Vachon in Montreal after the Winnepeg days(Tony Condelo his
initial trainer, promoter Al Tomko who recommended Piper allegedly to work some
for Verne Gagne because of Tomko's AWA ties. Piper was close to K.C.
promoter/later NWA prez Bob Geigel who he did jobs for before doing some in
Houston and really making a lifelong connection with promoter Paul Boesch and
booker Red Bastien. Bastien in turn referred him to his own lifelong pal in
former wrestler Leo Garabaldi who'd just taken over our book in Los Angeles. He
was hoping Leo would give Piper some dates for a week or so" as he was
ultimately sending Piper to either Don Owen(Portland) and/or Roy Shire(S.F.) for
long-term work. Instead, Leo "was so impressed with the kid," as he told me
"that I literally stole him and told him he was going to work instead for us
full time. That the other territories could wait."
In
Los Angeles, Piper again cultivated strong friendships with Gene Lebell of
course and workers Keith Frankes(later becoming Adrian Adonis) who Piper managed
and feuded with, then "Cowboy" Ron Bass(same) and of course his older total
mentor Moondog Mayne. Lonnie made sure his "protege" Piper finally made it to
San Francisco and the two were best friends until Lonnie died in that horrible
car crash, making trans between L.A. and S.F. since again, Mayne and Piper were
basically main event and top-tier guys for Shire and Lebell at the same time.
Piper became pals with foes like Dean Ho and Jimmy Snuka in S.F. and then as
much as he'd bloomed in L.A. and S.F., he really matured in Portland. He was
allowed a lot of latitude by promoter Don Owen who Piper at times nicknamed
"Papa or Pop." Where booker Leo Garabaldi and Gene Lebell had been initial
father figures in L.A. according to RP, "Don Owen really was the guy when I got
to Portland. I loved that man!" he told me. Piper also formed the same
life-long friendships there with Mean Mike Miller, Rip Oliver, booker/pal
Grappler Lynn Denton(RP did the intro for his new book BTW), Buddy Rose, Ed
Wiskowski, Dave Sierra and others. Flash to MidAtlantic and the birth of the
American "3 Muskateers" in Piper, Flair and Steamboat. Enough said. Those
three were absolutely close and I was happy to get shots of them together again
in San Jose and Santa Clara for the huge Wrestlemania weekend last March. Piper
had already met Don Muraco in L.A. in '76 before they did anything together in
either Georgia for Ole, or even Piper's brief time in Florida where he formed a
major bond with Kevin Sullivan too.
Towards the end of the video they showed
with the Portland suburb, "house on the hill" home movies, Piper signing a song
about his WWF buddies was played and many were crying big time if they weren't
crying already. He sang about Snuka, Kimala, Hillbilly Jim, JYD and others.
That "if you don't jump off that top rope, you'll never know what you can
accomplish." There was also footage and stills of him with each of his kids
from when they were babies on. Just moving for any of us who knew him but
didn't really know the full family story because we'd never been to his famous
"house up on the hill in Hillsborogh, Oregon."
Those were the points I wanted to make.
That he was of course an incredible and devoted family guy as most already
know. But also a tremendous, dedicated life-long friend making those friends
in each circuit he worked. And that from the purported 1973 year to when he
finally went to work full time for WWF which WWE's video failed to show, Roddy
Piper had amassed an incredible body of work already. If he never even made it
to WWF in '84, he would've been a total legend for what he did in all those
territories preceding WWF, and not even getting into his few Japan tours. WWE
just didn't make those important points known other than being kind of vague
about an actual bond with Flair that nope, didn't begin in WWF 1991 or 92 when
they faced off nationally as hinted, but went all the way back to
MidAt/Charlotte/Crockett early 80's. And that while the WWE machine may have to
move on, hopefully fans won't forget about Piper. You can't just seem to say,
"hey, we did our tribute, he's gone. Let's move on to whatever PPV or Network
thing is upcoming or Divas, Tough Enough. Real human beings should hopefully
continue to think about Piper/Toombs and all he did for the biz. Keeping his
memory alive, again keeps him alive. And we haven't even gotten into his film
work(starting with They Liv & Hell Comes To Frogtown obviously) or
all his tv stuff(the aborted weekly Highwaymen show which would've been great
with Jesse Ventura-well, at least that pilot looked great) for so many shows
like Married with Children and the more recent Piper episode of It's
Always Sunny in Philadelphia that seems to replay almost weekly. Or
Lauper's great Goonies music video. Or Heaven forbid-the Hulk Hogan cartoon
show(I don't mean the current sex tape and racism one but the actual mid 80's
Saturday morning cartoon show. Or Piper on the Pee Wee Herman 1985 CBS prime
time special, Joan Rivers Fox late night show, etc.
RP
had a major body of work outside of the wrestling industry. So to see amongst
the first to arrive last Monday, his co-stars from They Live was great.
Going to ask that the family put that home movie with Piper singing to acoustic
guitar and harmonica online somewhere. What a treat that was!
MONDAY NIGHT, 8 PM: The organizers asked me
to arrive early and put my photos of RP up from 1975 to current, all over the
entrance way and answer any q's from arrivees, right from the front door
on(where 3 hired Bagpipe players played RP music with a ton of fans and
uninvited-in media having to just stay outside. I'd photographed the WWE HOFame
Red Carpet and of course Roddy and Kitty came right up to me when they
arrived allowing us to get great shots. Roddy's best friend, producer Mitch A
was right behind them as he's been the last nearly 35 years. We were told only
Roddy's actress daughter Ariel would probably be the only family member to make
it but Kitty, eldest child Ariel, son Colt("Dad told me, Mitch and several
others that we were his only friend when in fact he had many who
were devoted to him"), youngest daughter Falon Danika flew down! The only one
who couldn't make it out of their 4 kids was middle daughter Anastacia Shea who
was reportedly stuck back east going to school. The Toombs family was the last
to speak and each took a turn. Colt said his middle name was Baird after his
grandfather, and that he'd name his first born "George" after Roderick's given
middle name. Colt brought his new fiancé with him and she said a few
words.
I'd
remained close to Roddy from his 1976 days(having to drive him a few times from
the Olympic Aud to either LAX or Burbank Airports post L.A. house shows) and
besides Mitch A, Colt was usually by his side. So it's been a great experience
watching Colt and the other kids grow up and change each time I'd see them.
The Toombs arrived early and were ushered not through the main door where I was
welcoming attendees entreating, but through a private back entrance. I broke
away and spoke to them and they said this night, just last Monday 8/17 would be
far less stressful for them than the actual service itself back near their
Hillsborough, OR long time home on Tuesday 8/11 with the WWE's, Chyna, etc
attending. Colt remembered that when he was first thinking many years ago about
also becoming a wrestler and then perhaps an MMA athlete, Roddy called me to ask
me to send each month any/all of the Japanese wrestling and MMA newsstand
magazines like Shukan/Baseball Pro, KamiPro, etc that I also worked for as a
writer and photographer so Colt could study them. Colt said he was training and
I believe he said now wrestling for some major Oregon indies(not for Rikishi's
Knox-Pro group, as I certainly asked and where I thought he'd trained for pro
when he wasn't training with Gene Lebell). Told Kitty how devastated we all
were to lose RP.
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