By Oleksandr HONCHARUK, The Day
There are thick volumes written and a host of legends told about rock-n-roll
king Elvis Presley. By the time of his death on August 16, 1977, he had
sold 500 million record, and this figure doubled seven years later. No
one before him managed to do so. He starred in 33 films, earning $1 million
for each, and a television program with his participation, broadcast throughout
the world in 1973, drew an audience of one billion. Even the coverage of
US astronauts' landing on the moon did not win such a share.
Once, a Kyiv-based Olympic champion and prize-winner in the javelin
Viktor Tsybulenko told me about his meeting Presley in the Interclub at
the Sixteenth Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956. Addressing athletes from
all over the world one evening, this good-looking and easy-going singer
managed to agitate the audience so much in a matter of minutes that even
athletes famous for their composure and coolness literally went crazy and
began to smash the furniture.
But very few of those who enthuse about his music today know that there
also was a different Elvis Presley, who devoted about twenty years of his
life to karate. Two black belts testify to this extraordinary man's high
skill. They speak volumes to the initiated in this martial art.
While kung-fu king Bruce Lee never sang in films, the rock-n-roll king
Elvis Presley always showed his mastery in karate, both in the movies and
on stage. During breaks in his recitals, he would demonstrate various techniques,
assume a quaint fighting posture, and cut the air with a series of crushing
blows.
Elvis took an interest in the martial arts in 1958, when he was doing
military service in a tank division at Fort Hook, where he witnessed demonstration
bouts by judo masters. He became so enthusiastic that, a few months later,
came himself to the group trained by Juergen Seidel who taught karate-setokan.
Since then, he was virtually addicted to karate, and who knows, if fate
had not decreed that he would become the king of rock-n-roll, he might
have reached heights in the sport as well. Still, Elvis scaled unbelievable
peaks in this martial art, for in the whole world one could count on the
fingers of one hand the bearers of the eighth dan, among whom he
was.
The name of Presley was excellent publicity for all kinds of schools,
karate included. Training together with him were such stars as many-time
karate world champion Chuck Norris, boxing great Joe Lewis, many-time European
karate champion Domenique Valera, and others. However, Elvis did not like
strangers coming to the club; he also categorically refused to allow filming
and photography in the gym.
However, karate did not bring the great singer only pleasure and joy.
As Elvis admitted himself, karate was also to blame for the most unpleasant
minutes in his life, his divorcee. On her husband's initiative, the daughter
of a US Air Force Captain, Priscilla, whom he had met while serving in
Germany, went in for karate and, at the same time, became infatuated with
the future world kick-boxing champion Mike Stone, which in fact became
one reason for the divorce.
A very rich man (he left $46 million in his account at his death), Elvis
donated large sums of money for the development of karate. It is thanks
to him that many great masters came about, including Bill Wallace, also
known as Superfoot (he dealt all his blows with his left foot at a speed
up to 108 kilometers an hour).
Every year on August 10 thousands of people from all over the world
gather in Memphis, Tennessee, for Elvis Presley Memorial Week, the program
of which also features a three-day karate tournament. It is attended by
great masters, coming as instructors, referees, and guests of honor, who
once knew the brightest star of rock-n-roll. And on August 16, the anniversary
of the singer's death, they hand commemorative prizes with his initials
to the winners.
Unlike Elvis Presley, Belgian born present-day action movie star Jean-Claude
Van Damm took up karate when he was thirteen. The son of a florist and
housewife, the Wahrenburgs, after attending an Oriental martial arts club
for several years, was once sadly studying a impressive livid bruise on
his face and decided that he would also be loved by girls on stage (and
women proved to play an important role in his further career), and joined
a classic ballet troupe. And, let us make no bones about it, this was the
decision of a mature man. Here he learned not only to perform a nice pas-de-deux
with ballerinas but also jump high and do a split between two chairs, which
stood him in good stead when creating a romantic image onscreen.
He often recalls going to America and trying to break into the movies,
to which of course there is no street entry. But, paradoxically, the stubborn
Belgian entered the movies precisely from the street. Learning that producer
Menahem Golan was going to make the film The Bloody Sport, casting
for the leading role a doll-faced young man who could put to good use his
fists or, at worst, his feet, Van Damm waylaid the employer at a restaurant
exit and, instead of saying hello, lashed out at him with his foot master
stroke. The heel clad in a heavy sneaker whizzed a few inches off Golan's
face, and latter understood that if it had hit him in the jaw, he would
be able to eat only tapioca afterward. He was so impressed with what had
happened that he immediately signed a contract. So the young thrill-seeker
literally opened the door to filmdom by foot.
Another important factor that helped the Belgian very much to become
the creator of his own films is his unbounded imagination. He would tell
reporters and his new actor friends such tales about his achievements in
karate and at the professional kick-boxing championship of Europe (and
in childhood he fought every morning with a well-trained German shepherd
dog) that even the most inveterate liars and adventurers could only licked
their lips from envy. However, a doubting Thomas still arose: one of the
world's strongest kick-boxers Don Wilson, who began to dig into the star's
legendary past. As the experienced fighter expected, Van Damm was only
on record as attending ballet school, the karate group, and doing a friendly
match with another Belgian. But it was too late for these revealing facts
to affect the actor's popularity.
In February 1998 The New York Times newsmen dug up the fact that
the invincible Van Damm had been beaten up at the Scores nightclub. This
was done not by a gang of musclemen but one person, a certain Chuck Zito,
a bit actor, sometime stunt man, sometime Hell's Angels biker, and former
bodyguard of Van Damm, Mickey Rourke, Sylvester Stallone, and Charles Sheen.
So in real life, unlike in the movies, one punch in the jaw proved to be
enough to make the "great and invincible" lie down in the bar to think
over eternal values.
Moreover, when Jean-Claude rose and, stroking his chin, traipsed out
of the bar, a crowd of his admirers was already waiting for him. And, we
must do the film actor justice, they all got his autograph. Professionalism
comes first!








