Elvis presley appears in a giy in a small photo on the cover of the current Maxim magazine. (I saw it at the bookstore.) It's part of a 33 trivia facts about him article, and another or the same picture appears in the article itself ("Fact: Karate helped Elvis' dance moves" or words to that effect).
Elvis.
- Thread starter arnisador
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sammy3170
Guest
He learnt from Ed Parker who bodyguarded him for a while.
Cheers
Sammy
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Kong
Guest
Elvis was promoted to 7th dan by Kang Rhee, the site says Karate, but Rhees ma backround seems to be mostly in the Korean arts.
http://www.elviskarate.com/
http://www.elviskarate.com/
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sammy3170
Guest
Originally posted by Kong
Elvis was promoted to 7th dan by Kang Rhee, the site says Karate, but Rhees ma backround seems to be mostly in the Korean arts.
http://www.elviskarate.com/
and apparently to 8th degree by Ed Parker but from what I can gather he didn't go through the same type of training as your regular belts would have. He was the king but ranks like that are insulting to the martial arts.
Cheers
Sammy
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Kirk
Guest
Elvis was a qualified kenpoist black belt .... the 8th was honorary.
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Eraser
Guest
Hey there..
Do any of you have a video clip of Elvis practising MA...
or know of links that have em..
I would really appreciate this..
Thanks in advance!!
Do any of you have a video clip of Elvis practising MA...
or know of links that have em..
I would really appreciate this..
Thanks in advance!!
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Kirk
Guest
Supposedly very litte footage of it exists. There's quite a few
stills out there, but not much video. The guys who made The
New Gladiators claim to have 16mm footage of Elvis doing kenpo,
but it's not released yet :shrug:
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Rob_Broad
Guest
Actually Parker sent Elvis to a real hard *** instructor to earn his first degree Black Belt. His logic behind it was if he could survive the Sarge then he was worthy of the rank. Elvis was quite the accomplished Black Belt, and could go with the best of them. Elvis having Parker as a friend and bodyguard enetitled him to certain privileges such as many private sessions with SGM Parker but you can't attend group classes when touring the country.
Elvis was passionate about Kenpo and was promoted through the ranks for his knowledge and contributions to the art. There is no real qualifiactions after 4th degree and degrees after that are based on abilty, time in rank and contributions to the art. Elvis did just that, he introduced Kenpo to millions of his fans.
Ladies and gentleman Elvis has left the building.
Rob Broad
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According to the Journey, Elvis' 8th was NOT honorary, it was legit.
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sammy3170
Guest
I totally disagree with that. I guarantee that 99 out of 100 Elvis fans would have no idea what martial art Elvis did let alone seek it out and participate. I've no doubt Elvis was passionate and was physically able but what promotion did he do. He did about as much for American Kenpo as he did for promoting healthy eating habits.
Just my thoughts
Cheers
Sammy
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Kirk
Guest
Check the net, there's quite a few sound bites out there of Elvis
talking highly of kenpo. Back when he was studying, it was BIG
news. Elvis wore suits with the kenpo patch on it, and had a
guitar with a kenpo patch on it, which made a LOT of people ask,
"what's that?". I totally disagree with your statement.
Mr. Warrener says that there is an old magazine or newspaper article which says that there was only 1 instance of Elvis doing martial arts "for real" (as in, in class or something) ever shot on film and it is this footage that Mr. Warrener has and has not released.
Apparently it was shot during a demo in Tenessee and there are still from that day floating around in places such as a deck of Elvis playing cards that I have. Elvis never reviewed the footage and it was not very good apparently and for these reasons Mr. Warrener has not yet decided what to do with it.
I think I got that right. I'll dig for my source and post a link if I find it.
:asian:
I think you are missing most of the point, Sammy.
Before Bruce Lee ever shot a movie.
Before Chuck Norris got $1million for doing a karate film.
Elvis did karate in the movies in 1964's Roustabout.
http://members.tripod.com/beyondthereef__1/tigermanpics.html
Elvis had a tremendous impact on Martial Arts in America, as Mr. Parker forsaw, and it can be traced even up to Walker, Texas Ranger.
At the link above the page also mentions Hank Slomanski's and his interesting role in checking out Elvis' martial arts prowess. I think it goes to an article alluded to earlier by Rob Broad but I didn't follow the link before I posted this.
Also, Elvis got his 8th from Ed Parker in Las Vegas on the same day that Dave Hebler got his 7th and Tom Kelly got his 6th.
There is a pretty good discussion of Elvis and Kenpo in The Journey which is available here with and without an interview tape I shot in 1994:
http://www.akfkenpo.com/homecomingbundle.htm
I'm not saying Elvis could take Mr. Kelly, but again, the Journey goes over this pretty good and the Slomanski story is worth reading if it is the one I think it is.
:asian:
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sammy3170
Guest
No worries. I will just agree to disagree on this one. I would say a hell of a lot more people took up American Kenpo after seeing The Perfect Weapon than Roustabout. Maybe due to the limited amount of American Kenpo(it is growing) that is practiced here in Australia we don't benefit from any publicity the king may have done.
Also regarding Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris they made their names as martial artists before they entered the entertainment industry, Elvis took it on as a secondary interest. I actually have an unedited copy of an interview Mr Parker did with the Australian version of Hard Copy. He talked a lot about Elvis and the book he wrote of his days with Elvis and not one word is mentioned about Elvis' training. If he was so outstanding why wouldn't this be mentioned.
Just my thoughts
Cheers
Sammy
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Kirk
Guest
Ya got me! I have no idea. As a matter of fact, I have no idea
as to the validity of my statement, I'm just repeating what I was
told/have read. You have more evidence to support your
argument than I do! :asian:
Thank you Sammy,
I didn't mean to say that Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris did martial arts because of Elvis, I'm just saying that they may not have gone as quickly/firmly into the entertainment industry if Elvis hadn't been there first.
I also am not saying that Elvis was better at Kenpo than he was at entertaining. Mr. Parker even makes this point in his book I think. But in the interview Mr. Parker would get the most mileage about talking about what Elvis was good at and letting peoples interest draw them to Mr. Parker and Kenpo.
I don't think we disagree too much. I think Elvis was probably a good Black Belt like Mr. Parker said, and that he did all martial-artists/actors/entertainers a favor with his efforts, but again, he was not as good as Tom Kelly I'm sure, and Mr. Kelly was only a 7th.
If you weren't in Australia I'd ask about you sending me a copy of your Mr. Parker interview.
:asian:
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Kirk
Guest
Me too! *drool*
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sammy3170
Guest
It doesn't go for that long, maybe 20 minutes where he just talks about Elvis' generosity and what life on the road was like etc etc. With Frank Trejo doing forms in the background. Not that special but nice to have just the same.
Cheers
Sammy
K
Kirk
Guest
Given how rare footage like this is, it sounds very special to me!
