OF BARBARIANS AND GIANTS

Here is a great shot of three icons of an era.

From left to right, it’s Wilt Chamberlain, Arnold Schwarzenegger and André René Roussimoff, more affectionately known as Andre the Giant.

This pic is taken from the set of Conan the Destroyer, where all three starred in the epic tale of everyone’s favourite Barbarian as he hacks and carves his way along the journey to finding his kingdom.

There is actually a funny anecdote behind this picture, as told by Arnold himself.

According to the Austrian Oak, what both Andre and Wilt liked to do to keep Arnold in his place was pick him up like a rag doll and pass him around between them.

Just so he would remember that they could put Conan in his place whenever they liked. Barbarian or not.

Well, as it happens, one of their favourite things to do together was to go out and demolish a local restaurant’s kitchen, eating everything in sight.

Andre always insisted on paying for everyone (according to Arnold, Will always “counted pennies” but Andre was extremely generous).

However, on one particular occasion, Arnold decided he wanted to pay for their meal himself.

He therefore made arrangements with the establishment so that they would bill him directly and not allow Andre to pay.

When Andre found out that Arnold had already paid the meal, he was so aggravated that he asked Wilt to grab Arnold and together, they both hoisted him up, carried him out of the restaurant in front of all the other open-mouthed patrons, and deposited him unceremoniously on the roof of his car.

Can you imagine two giants hoisting out Conan like a limp doll out of a restaurant?

The stuff of legend.

I hope you aficionados out there enjoy this pic as much as I do.

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