People of Alabama: Sam Tenenbaum Jr. of Mountain Brook
By Tamika Moore
May 10, 2021
Sam Tenenbaum Jr. of Mountain Brook is an opera singer who once wrestled under the name "The Great Kaiser." (Tamika Moore / People of Alabama)
What is something people wouldn’t guess about you just by looking at you?
“I’ve had two careers. The one that they might not think that I would be involved in is that I’m an opera singer. I trained for opera in college. I’ve done quite a bit of cantorial singing at different synagogues in the area. I’ve done two operas. Presently, I do some performing in different events with my accompanist, Steve Pennington. He’s been a very valuable asset to me. My other career is that I happened to be a professional wrestler for many years here in Birmingham. I performed under a mask as “The Great Kaiser,” the masked Austrian wrestler. I used to wrestle just about every Monday night at Boutwell Auditorium. I had maybe a 35-year career in wrestling and kept up my singing on the side. The movie “Stay Hungry” with Arnold Schwarzenegger – I only knew him briefly, but I used to work out some with him – he says, ‘You should wrestle under a mask and maybe call yourself “The Great Kaiser.” You’ll get more attention.’ That’s why I went under the mask. I used to sing Edelweiss from “The Sound of Music” before I wrestled, and I still sing and perform at different events. That’s pretty much a synopsis of my career.” – Sam Tenenbaum Jr. of Mountain Brook.