andrenomi

Andre the Giant

Klaus Nomi

They're all over town. They're on walls, lampposts, buildings, construction sites, everywhere. They've also been dead for years. Who are these two characters?

Andre The Giant battles Hulk Hogan

Andre sought the WWF title for years but it was not until he turned rulebreaker and helped Ted DiBiase that he captured the gold by beating Hulk Hogan on Febuary 5, 1988.

Andre "sold" the title to DiBiase minutes later.

Andre's match against Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania III was when he passed the torch to Hogan as the most popular wrestler in the world. Andre allowed Hogan to beat him that night in Michigan. The place erupted after Hogan bodyslammed Andre (and hit his finisher, the"legdrop of doom." --ed.)

After Wrestlemania III Andre's health slowly worsened. Soon Andre's health forced him to only wrestle in tag team matches. Andre did capture the tag team title with Haku, but that was his last stint of glory in wrestling.

Andre's health continued to worsen until he died in 1993 while in France to attend his father's funeral. Andre was cremated and his ashes were spread across his farm in the United States.

Andre also made his mark in showbiz, starring as Mandy Patinkin's sidelick Fezzick in The Princess Bride in 1987.

We'll discuss the gentleman on the left first, because if he WAS still alive, he would likely crush my cranium like a grapefruit if I didn't.

From the Andre the Giant Tribute page...

Andre was born is Grenoble, France on May 19, 1946 to two parents who were both over 6 feet tall. His Bulgarian grandfather was a huge man who topped out at 7'8"! Andre suffered from acromegaly, which means his growth hormones were out of control.

Andre left home at the tender age of 14. When he left he was 6'3" and weighed 200 pounds! Andre worked at a furniture store in Paris until he was 17, at that time he was discovered by two wrestlers.

Andre came to North America in 1971 under the name Jean Ferre. He was only a moderate success in Canada. He then met a booker by the name of Vince McMahon Sr. Andre turned into a household name while in the World Wrestling Federation (known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation when he joined---ed.).

Andre vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts

I know what you're thinking. What can this possibly have to do with Forgotten New York?

Well, the iconic image of Andre The Giant has been popping up all over town for the past few years.

Sort of like those REVS vs. COST inscriptions appearing all over town in the 1990s. I still haven't found the explanation for those. But, a Forgotten fan from the Bronx points me to a site that has.

They represent the tip of the iceberg of an art project begun by Shepard Fairey in 1989. Andre, as well as a host of other images, have been appearing worldwide as an anarchistic statement for over a decade, as Fairey and his acolytes spread the gospel of "obeygiant." Well, maybe not in Afghanistan.

Let the Obeygiant project's originator, Shepard Fairey, explain it all for you at his website.

.. People are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail. The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker.

Because "Giant has a Posse" has no actual meaning, the various reactions and interpretations of those who view it reflect their personality and the nature of their sensibilities.

Often, Andre will be spray painted on a lamppost, like on 8th Avenue and 29th Street

Andre will sometimes appear with the Orwellian dictum 'Obey'. It's all an ironic lark.

I wonder if Andre himself ever heard about this?

See for yourself what it's all about at obeygiant.com.

In the vast universe of diverse and individual characters that populate the globe, I suppose you couldn't find more of an exact opposite of Andre the Giant than this guy, known to his friends and fans as Klaus Nomi.

Surprisingly, though, the former Klaus Sperber and Andre the Giant were from the same general part of the globe and were born about a year apart.

Nomi was a unique, theatrical and ultimately tragic singer and performance artist. His vocal range went from a deep baritone to tenor.

Born in 1944 in Bavaria, the German Alps, Klaus Sperber moved to New York City in the 1970s and found work as a pastry chef at the now-destroyed World Trade Center. Moonlighting as a nightclub singer, he met an early champion, David Bowie.

Nomi today is thought of as a radical interpreter of pop nuggets, though he was an avant-garde composer in his own right. His versions of Leslie Gore's "You Don't Own Me" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes" (a song tailor-made for him) have to be heard to be believed.

Bowie made a memorable appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1979, performing his hits "Boys Keep Swinging", "The Man Who Sold The World" and "TVC15", using Sperber as a backing vocalist. Soon, the rechristened Klaus Nomi started getting more prestigious gigs around town. Klaus released two albums on Bowie's label at the time, RCA, in 1982.

His story is a tragic one. At the height of his success, AIDS was beginning its onslaught; Nomi contracted it and passed away in 1983 at the age of 39.

Fame is not an easily predictable thing. Like earthquakes, it sometimes just happens and you never know where it will strike.

Klaus Nomi, in all fairness, was never a household name even during his heyday. But who knows, there may be a posthumous groundswell building.

Lampposts in the East Village are plastered with images of a young man in a dress, wearing Marcel Marceau-type theatrical whiteface, and gesticulating flamboyantly. It can be only one man.

Nomi.

erpietri@earthlink.net