MY FAVORITE PERSONS IN THE BIZ 
FROM 70S AND 80S

Having been ring announcer, arena program publisher and publicist from 74 on, I've met many great wrestlers and promoters and thought I'd briefly mention some of my favorite people. Two great persons and my favorites are no longer with us. Terry Garvin, who wrestled in the 60s then promoted 13 towns under Shire in the 70s was a great practical joker and had a big heart. He lived, slept and 24/7 worked the wrestling biz. He was well-liked as a person and promoter.

Louis Dondero, a good friend of Pat Patterson's for many years, was also was fantastic. He too, promoted with Garvin. He had a great attitude and time spent with him was quality. He was a confirmed positive thinker (passed the courses) and one time he drove with Shawn Michaels & Marty Janetty when they were having disagreements as a tag team and wanted to split up; after the 3 hour drive from Tampa, Louis had them convinced that they should stay together and reminded them on all their  qualities. Dondero was on payroll with WWF for a while  as a "counselor." 

Louie Miller was a great person and hard working promoter. John Swenski didnt care for kids and I saw he was quite rude to many of the fans and lots of people didn't like him; I hate to say he was a terrible ring announcer though he never professed to be a good one. But I saw the good side of him and we always got along fine; after the territory closed he always called me every month to see how things were going. He never had a car and lived out of a room in a downtown SF hotel where he was a maitre'd; he carried a baseball bat with him on the bus "just in case."

Patterson was great; always had a good time and worked hard and was serious about the biz. Ed Moretti to this day is fantastic and I knew when I was announcing he would eventually break in. He too is from the old school which is a plus. Don Muraco I thought was a tremendous athlete and a good guy; I'd been to his cabin in Santa Cruz a few times. He loved surfing too and won several titles. He worked out with a few title winning bodybuilders in Santa Cruz (I wrote for bodybuilding mags then, too and did stories on them.)  More...