Lou Klein was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1916. Growing up, Klein was an amateur wrestler who in the 1930s with hoped to qualify for the Olympics. When
World War II broke out, in order to support his wife and child, he turned professional in 1942. In his early days he extensively wrestled in the Midwest region as a
junior-heavyweight. There he primarily competed in the
Midwest Wrestling Association. He defeated Johney Demchuk to win the MWA World Junior Heavyweight Title in 1948. He won the title again in 1953 defeating
Ed Francis. He was dubbed as the "Atomic blonde from Detroit". His first big break came in 1960 when he debuted in the north-east region of
Capital Wrestling Corporation (the precursor of the
WWWF/WWF/WWE). There he was teamed up with
Red Bastien as the Bastien brothers. They won the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship from the reigning champions
Jerry and
Eddie Graham (The Grahams) on a house at
New Haven, Connecticut on April 2, 1960. Lou and Red dropped
The Fabulous Kangaroos on July 21 at a house show. They won the titles a final time on August 8 eventually losing it back to the Kangaroos. After this he and Red went to the
Indianapolis region where they became 2-time
American Wrestling Alliance Indiana World Tagteam Champions. Lou also had success in
Big-time Wrestling(Detroit) where he was also a 3-time
NWA World Tag team champion. He retired from in-ring competition in 1977 after a career spanning nearly 4 decades. During his later days he helped in training many wrestlers like Art Neilson, Count Drummer, Jim Lancaster, Malcolm Monroe Sr., Rujet Woods, Sandy Parker and Tanya West. Lou Klein's Gym, called "The Doorway to Wrestling", produced many future wrestling stars. He died in 1979 from a heart attack. ==Championships and accomplishments ==