Travel with the Best
Hacking the Hinge, new DVD by
Charlie Weingroff and Mark Cheng
Download the full Draper here newsletter
in printable, live-link, pdf format, here.
As promised, Laree was searching under some rocks for older interviews you probably didn’t see, and came up with this bit. She thinks you’ll like it, so here goes.
You toured with Elvis Presley and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Describe, if you will, your experiences of touring with these iconic figures.
I am proud of both occasions to come alongside such phenomenal characters in contemporary history, two unlikely kings ruling vastly popular domains with charismatic magnificence.
Can you imagine attending 20 Elvis Presley concerts in 20 different towns in 21 days? Many of you are thinking, “Are you nuts?”
These are spectacular sold-out events at large auditoriums with people -- mostly gals -- literally climbing the walls to get closer to the action. Of course, there I am, assisting the producer of an Elvis documentary (“On Tour with Elvis,” later to win an award), backstage, onstage and shooting up close, at major airports and remote airfields, chasing the Elvis crew on their bus, us in a rental car like the infamous paparazzi, cops frantically chasing the rental full of amateur paparazzi frantically chasing the Elvis crew on their bus, getting releases from the local color and making sure everyone in the documentary crew was alive and awake each morning to go to destinations often unknown until we arrived.
Alas, Elvis was kept apart from the concert’s backup crews and roadies and managers. He flew on his own jet and arrived each night at the venue’s secret-private-hidden-clandestine and well-guarded subterranean entrance by a limo brigade. The King was quickly escorted to safe accommodations until he leapt on stage 30 minutes later.
The rest was a wild, crazy and often moving ride. He tore the house down, as they say, everywhere he went. When Elvis and the band exhausted themselves, the curtains dropped and the announcer came to the mike with the immortalized words, “Elvis has left the building.”
I was invited aboard his aircraft where we shook hands and exchanged looks of physical recognition and rapport; that is, we were both physical people on the edge of our senses, and we identified.
I was asked at another time if I’d like to join his crew of friendly sidekick bodyguards. Nice place for an outgoing, single guy who’s head isn’t on sideways. No, but, gee, thanks, guys.
Arnold is another story.
We met in 1968 when he first touched the hallowed soil of America. He was aiming high, and I was shooting from the hip. Bodybuilding was his current thing and the bright-eyed Austrian was extremely enthusiastic. I was five years older, had done what I thought was enough in the competitive world and was looking (admittedly, not very far) for some kind of training contentment. As I revealed earlier, my ambitions simmered on the backburner.
Bodybuilding was growing in those days from a size small to a medium, and large was not very far ahead. Today, it is outgrowing triple extra-large and we’re all standing around waiting for it to burst. How big can bodybuilding and the bodybuilders get, we wonder. The same curiosities stirred our imaginations when Lee Haney stood on the posing platform before thousands of stunned and screaming spectators during the late ’80s, where he humbly received his Mr. Olympia crowns.
I ignored the growth, but was eager to join Arnold when asked to travel to Hawaii for some bodybuilding exhibitions. There we spent a month goofing around with a New Zealand promoter who was planning a six-month tour of the western Pacific.
Never mind the details; let’s just say it put Arnold and me through some extraordinary experiences with dear friends, Mits and Dot Kawashima, and two sweet young lads, 9 and 11, who were entrusted (abandoned) to us for safe keeping by the... um... crooked promoter, who mysteriously left town the day after our Mr. Hawaii Islands Show, without saying goodbye, and for good measure leaving us with a bad reputation and thousands of dollars of debt. And his two kids.
Men do not stand side-by-side one another under such stressful circumstances without getting acquainted. Throughout the weeks we swam, ran the beaches, trained, slept and ate, did laundry, partied and hiked the island of Maui. Ya gotta love Hawaii and its people. After apologies and arranging legitimate care for our young buddies, we pooled our resources ($1.67 between us, and one Draper credit card), and crawled home for some refuge.
Arnold and I did some trans-European and trans-US travels in 1970. These were heavily competitive times, and things were rushed and fatiguing and complex. Your paths cross and you hit high-fives, have breakfast here and there -- London or New York -- and are off again. You remember times doing dips between the wings of an aircraft and leg-ups on the tarmac, while waiting for the pilot of a small private jet to arrive and take you and your companions from New York to Columbus for the Mr. Olympia, your companions consisting of Boyer, Franco, Zane and Arnold.
You remember encouragement from the big Austrian Oak just when you needed it most, and his big laughter when the battles are hot. It’s good to have somebody covering your back. You learn simultaneously how to do the same.
Yeah, if you’re gonna travel, travel with the best. That’s what I always say.
Dave*****
Take a trip over to our
Musclebuilding Q&A Blog
... where Dave allows us a peek into his email outbox.
Did you sign up for Dave's expanded email yet?
It's free, motivating and priceless!
We'll also send you a link to Dave's free
Body Revival Tips and Hints e-report with your confirmation notice.