RIP to Raymond Louis Heenan, better known to the world as the most evil and annoying manager in professional wrestling, Bobby "the Brain" (Weasel! Weasel!) Heenan. Heenan was one of the last of the true greats, from the days when pro wrestling was worth watching and paying money to see live. Heenan was one of the ebst improv performers you would ever find, as he delivered off-the-cuff promos and taunted crowds to the point that someone actually took a shot at him, in Chicago, at the International Ampitheatre, in 1975.



Bobby was raised by his single mother and grandmother and when his mother lost her job and suffered health issues, Bobby dropped out of the 8th grade and went to work at the local Indianapolis arena, where the old WWA promotion ran weekly shows. He went from carrying bags and jackets and helping set up the staging to managing, where he became the est of the best. Heenan was a guy who put "butts in seats," as they hoped to see the babyface finally get their hands on him and pummel him around, across and outside the ring. While working for the WWA he was promoter and star wrestler Dick the Bruiser's favorite punching bag. He famously worked for Verne Gagne's AWA promotion, out of Minneapolis, where he managed such greats as Nick Bockwinkel, Ray Stevens, Ken Patera, Jesse Ventura and a host of others. He and Bockwinkel were a tremendous pair, as Heenan got under fans' skins with taunts and insults, while Bockwinkel hit them with a vocabulary that would make Bennet Cerf stand in awe and a superiority that just made you want to plunk down hard-earned money to see him get battered. Bockwinkel was a true thinking-man's heel and was great as a world champion, in that role. Heenan just added to the heat, turning it into an inferno.

He joined the WWF as it expanded and was treated well by Vince McMahon, who knew money when he saw it. Heenan excelled as a manager, speaking for the heels who were strong on promos, famously managing Andre the Giant, at Wrestlemania 3 in front of a record (though highly inflated attendance figures, from the WWF) crowd, at the Pontiac Silverdome. He moved into a color commentary role and played off announcer (and shareholder) Gorilla Monsoon, which made for a great comedy duo. He eventually finished up at WCW, who paid him well and gave him healthcare, and allowed him to live closer to his daughter.

Heenan fought throat cancer and didn't give it an inch, even as it first affected his speech, then took his lower jaw and voice. Heenan looked like the walking dead, at public appearances; but, he wouldn't quit and still managed to have a great time and entertain fans, via mime and playful antics. Bobby took part in staged fights; but, he was a real fighter, whether it was to provide for his family, entertain a crowd, or just stick up a middle-finger to cancer.



Classic Bobby, from the days when he would be featured on the cover of wrestling magazines, covered in blood, after another beating.



Somewhere, in the great beyond, a crowd is chanting "Weasel! Weasel! Weasel!"

Bobby and Nick Bockwinkel, the finest pairing of the top performers in the business.



Bobby could rile them and hit the clever insults, Bockwinkel could talk over them and then work so smoothly in the ring it was like watching art. Ric Flair was a great champion; but, Bockwinkel carried himself like a champion, talked like a champion and had great matches with everyone and always made it look good. He was a wrestling heel, which made him seem even more dangerous than the brawlers, madmen, connivers, and sneak-attack cowards. He came at you straight on and beat you with skill. Heenan would add the little touches that made people really hate the duo.

As Dave Meltzer, of the Wrestling Observer, said, no better testament can be said for Bobby Heenan's talent than that he was the only manager ever used in St Louis, by Sam Muchnick, who controlled the NWA, in its glory days and who notoriously hated managers and gimmick wrestlers (unless they could work an athletic match and be believable).

RIP to the Raging Bull, Jake LaMotta, who was 95.

-M

Hefner was enough of a comicbook fan that he hired Jack Cole for Playboy and in fact, one of two of Cole's suicide notes was left for Hefner.

Additionally, I've heard that the Adam West Batman series got started when word got around that the old serials were being shown at his place.  Audiences would hiss the bad guys and cheer the heroes, suggesting not only that Batman being given a chance at television was a result of Hefner's influence, but the tone of the show as well.  Not sure if the story has any validity however.

RIP Hef

Very sad to hear of Hugh Hefner's passing. I remember my very first Playboy. I think it was September 87 and the playmate was named Gwen --and there was a Bond Girl pictorial.

What I had to say about Hef on Facebook.

R. I. P. Hugh Hefner.

Yeah...It really was about more than the pictures. Playboy published the likes of Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel García Márquez, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Margaret Atwood and Joseph Heller, to name a few.

He gave a forum for cartoonists like Kurtzman & Elder, Jack Cole, Jules Feiffer, B. Kliban, and Gahan Wilson again, to name a few.

Playboy may have had as much as anything to do with the continued relevance of jazz through the last half century.

And I can't even start on the interviews. The 1962 interview with Miles Davis. The 1965 interview with Dr. Martin Luther King. Playboy interviews were a documentary of the time.

I'm not sure there's a single individual who did more to shape the culture of the last half of the 20th Century than Hugh Hefner.

Rest in Peace.