Did Andre the Giant once drink himself unconscious in Reading?

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The Associated Press
Andre the Giant dominated the wrestling ring during the 1970s and 1980s and often appeared in Berks County.
You ask Youker is a weekly feature providing answers to quirky curiosities of the Berks County area.

Q: Did Andre the Giant once drink himself unconscious in a Reading hotel bar?

Some men are literally larger than life.

Andre the Giant was one of them. Standing at 7 feet 4 inches and weighing 540 pounds, Andre was the most famous figure to emerge from the early days of the World Wrestling Federation.

For the WWF, Andre was a marketable talent, a raw mass of humanity that drew crowds. Wrestling fans who grew up in the '70s or '80s remember Andre the Giant and his exploits in the ring from watching TV on Saturdays.

But away from the ring, Andre, who died in 1993 at age 46, had some larger-than-life habits.

There's a story making the rounds on the Internet that Andre once drank 127 beers in one sitting and passed out in a Reading hotel bar. A few people have asked the Reading Eagle if the story is true.

It is, if you can believe another famed former wrestler. In her autobiography, Mary Lillian Ellison, a female wrestler known as "The Fabulous Moolah," gives an account in passing of Andre's adventures in Reading.

Andre was part of a regular cast of wrestlers who held monthly shows at the Hamburg Field House. They often stayed in Reading before matches.

There's no mention of which hotel or when the drinking incident occurred, but Ellison recounts that after Andre passed out, the hotel staff just draped a sheet over him because he was too large to move.

Ellison died in 2007, and attempts to find local witnesses to verify her story have proved difficult.

Although the Reading episode isn't verified, Andre's drinking habits are well known.

Tim Frankenfield - a native of Nazareth, Northampton County, who wrestled as "Judd the Stud" - remembers an incident following a match in Allentown in the early 1980s.

Frankenfield and a few friends were at a restaurant, where they watched Andre gulp down eight bottles of wine.

Despite Andre's fierce persona in the ring, he was a gentle giant, Frankenfield recalled.

"He was a good guy," he said.

Jim Myers, who wrestled as George "The Animal" Steele, traveled extensively with Andre in the 1980s. Myers did not recall the story in Ellison's book and believes many of the tales about Andre have taken on a life of their own.

Yes, Andre drank far more than an average man, Myers said, but he also did not have the build of an average man.

"What seems like a lot to you and me might not be to a giant," he said. "He drank a lot, but he was not an alcoholic."

Regardless of whether the 127-beer story is true or false, Myers believes it detracts from the person Andre was. He, and other wrestlers in the WWF, gave their all for their fans every match.

"We sold our bodies to entertain them," Myers said.

Is there something about the Berks County area that you're curious about? Pose the question to Darrin Youker at 610-371-5032 or dyouker@readingeagle.com.

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