Giant Haystacks is one of the biggest names (and bodies) British wrestling has ever seen, although it wasn’t just at home where he had his fans.
In fact, some of the most famous people in the world were huge fans of his. People like the Queen Mother loved watching him weekly on ITV on Saturday afternoons, although arguably his biggest fan was the legendary Frank Sinatra.
The iconic American crooner was, as it turns out, a fan of British wrestling and Giant Haystacks in particular – something the Englishman never kept to himself, just like his long, drawn-out tales about his friendship with Paul McCartney.
To discover the story behind Giant Haystacks’ bizarre friendship with Paul McCartney, click here.
Frank Sinatra Met Giant Haystacks And Admitted To Being A Big Fan
Giant Haystacks reckons Frank Sinatra was a big fan of his, during their one and only meeting backstage at a concert.
Before his death in 1998, Giant Haystacks spoke with Simon Garfield for his book “The Wrestling”. In it, he discussed meeting Frank Sinatra when he performed in London at the Royal Albert Hall.
Having wrestled there numerous times, Haystacks was familiar with the layout. He knew exactly where Sinatra would exit under the stage, so waited there until the performance was finished to meet “Ol’ Blue Eyes”.
Many times fans had seen Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks battling it out at the Royal Albert Hall, but now it was the English monster’s time to be in the audience.
As luck would have it, Frank Sinatra knew Giant Haystacks! When they met, the Chairman of the Board professed to have watched Haystacks wrestling on TV that day (we can infer the concert happened on a Saturday then), calling him and other wrestlers “the best entertainers” he’d ever seen.
“I went to see Frank Sinatra sing at the Albert Hall. Because I wrestled there many times I knew the way out under the stage.” Giant Haystacks said.
“I passed him in the corridor with his two bodyguards, and he said to me ‘Mr Haystacks, I watched you on the television this afternoon! I believe that British wrestlers are the best entertainers in the whole world!’”
It is a remarkable story. Now, we can choose to believe this wholeheartedly and say that not one mistruth came out of Haystacks’ mouth and this is exactly how it happened.
Then again, wrestlers are known for their generosity with the truth. Whether this story is an exact retelling of what happened remains to be seen.
Did it change over the thousands of retellings as Giant Haystacks travelled up and down the country to various wrestling venues? Most stories do. My initial suspicion is that Sinatra was not quite as big of a fan of wrestling as Haystacks made out.
Unlike other American stars like Elvis Presley, there is no particular record of him being a big fan back in the States.
He may well have seen wrestling that afternoon, noticed the six foot eleven, 500-pound behemoth backstage and passed off a comment about being the best entertainer in the world, just as he’d say it was great to meet any fan.
We’ll never know. With only Frank Sinatra, Giant Haystacks and two unknown bodyguards as witnesses, with at least two if not all four men now long dead, the truth will have to be the only telling of the story we have.
That’s life!
