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Release of First Official Bruno Sammartino Autobiographical Documentary
This is the first documentary officially sanctioned by Bruno Sammartino detailing the remarkable career of living legend himself. Bruno Sammartino personally recounts his early childhood in Pizzoferrato, Italy, during the occupation of the German troops during World War II. During this period, his mother hid Bruno and his siblings in the mountainside to escape capture. Fighting exposure and starvation, Emilia Sammartino managed to keep her small family alive until after the occupation was over. Having suffered tremendously from his ordeal during World War II, Bruno was not a healthy child. Underweight and having endured rheumatic fever, his health kept his family from gaining visas for two years until they could finally join his father Alfonso in America.
Bruno and his family lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Alfonso worked in the steel mills. Here Bruno and his siblings faced the trails and tribulations of learning a new language and new customs as well as struggling to make financial ends meet. Still suffering from the effects of illness and exposure, Bruno was an underdeveloped youngster in his new surroundings. Being taunted at school, Bruno and his brother Paul saved their chore money to purchase a Charles Atlas course to build strength. When a classmate introduced him to weightlifting as a means of strengthening his body, Bruno found a new method to improve his health.
Soon Bruno was competing in Bob Hoffman’s York Barbell summer picnics and competitions. Making impressive lifts for a young man of his age, Bruno was soon noticed by the Pittsburgh television celebrities and placed on the Bob Prince show to demonstrate the art of weightlifting and powerlifting. It was not long before Bruno was offered a position on the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, which he turned down for the more lucrative sport of professional wrestling. The additional money was greatly needed by his family which made his decision an easy one for Bruno.
Bruno’s professional history is well known and publicized as he wrestled throughout the world over the course of a quarter of a century. Through various interviews with wrestling personalities, commentators, friends and family members, Bruno details the struggle of maintaining a career in this volatile field while juggling a growing family and responsibilities to his aging parents. Through these interviews, the heartbreak and triumphs of a career destined for record books is brought to light as never before. As Bruno’s faith in the respectability of the sport waned, his determination to take a stand against steroid abuse, drugs and profanity became a major point of contention between Bruno and his promoters. After years of personal and professional turmoil, Bruno finally retired from the profession at the height of his career.
Despite repeated attempts to induct him in to the Hall of Fame, Bruno continues to turn down the accolade and the resulting financial gain as he will not compromise his original stand on the attitude of the promoters and other professionals of the sport. It is his greatest wish that the sport return to its former purity.
Bruno Sammartino celebrated his 70th birthday in 2005. Still maintaining both his health and fitness through a stringent daily routine, he continues to embody the title of Living Legend. To this day, Bruno credits the strength of character and family devotion of his mother as the reason for his success both personally and professionally.
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