Elvis' unfinished Karate film 'New Gladiators' from Sept 1974

[elvisfan1958]

love this ! thanks for posting ! 

[zxingzxing]

Elvis was an instructor in the Pasaryu Karate Association under Master Kang Rhee, and served with such Karate greats as Master Rhee, who had been a Korean Grand Champion, and Bill Wallace, World middleweight Karate Champion.

[zxingzxing]

Elvis and Karate by Master Kang Rhee

Elvis trained with the other students in a regular training session. Classroom discipline was so strict that Elvis was allowed the same freedom of training as the ordinary students without the usual press from adoring fans. Elvis was awarded 7th Degree Black Belt in 1973 by Master Rhee and on occasion had the opportunity, himself, to test and promote students of lower rank.

[akrocuba]

Did anyone notice Bill "Superfoot" Wallace!!!????

[eggnoy]

his karate is ultra fancy too! 

[flores1450]

many ways to kick someones' ass I only know one way ..... Pull the trigger I heard that in a movie a longtime ago

[neville411]

this was nice to look @ because he was allways moving just to see him like this was nice

[1wolfiesLady]

LOVE how his hair curls at the back of his head!!! <3

[kenstasia]

LOVE IT!

[averyshakyproduction]

Yes but it is very very poor quality, see the actual DVD release . . . . .

[king60]

It's amazing to look back at the the way karat"self defense" moves were taught in the 70's. I started in 1976 and still practice today but thank God we are all much much more realistic about things now. If I were to try and defend myself against an attacker using ANY of the moves Elvis uses in this film I'd be dead or close to it. It's actually hilarious to see him act as though he was some kind of a bad ass and Red's punches are even funnier. How things have changed!

[HanSomKan1]

Did sound come with this? I would love to hear what he says

[MrOpbtg]

I dunno with u guys, what I couldn't help but notice is when Elvis entered d room & approached each of the ladies as well... whatta stroke of a master to greet & kiss so cool just like that.... he really is the king...

[bodean137]

ONLY ELVIS could add bell bottoms to his Karate outfit and still look so cool!! haha

[momajean47]

this is good video

[momajean47]

Can you tell me what year Elvis got his black belt in karate

[jennytmaher]

@momajean47 He got his first black belt in 1960. He started his training in 1959 under Juergen Seydal. Travelled to Paris on leave in January 1960 to train with Tetsuji Murakame. Received his 1st degree black belt on 21 July 1960. My source is the booklet that comes with the DVD this is taken from, called "Elvis Presley Gladiators" ISBN 0-7786-2913-9 if anyone is interested in checking it out.

[Kimindigo]

@jennytmaher ( dyslexic )..,,so it tok him 1 year to get black belt ha ha..he has no black belt,,he could gett anything he wanted,,even black belt even tho he was terrible bad in karate,if he had black belt then i am a grand master from mars with black belt 100.0000 times...he had only black belt in singing and melting women heart.

[jennytmaher]

@Kimindigo The person who first taught Elvis is Hank Slomanski. Google him. Check him out on Wikipedia. War hero. Martial Arts expert. Ordained minister.

Chuck Norris had this to say...

. And as far as his martial arts abilities, he truly was pretty impressive, flexible and tough. He may not have been a Bruce Lee, me or other notables in the field of professional competition, but then again have you ever heard about any of our singing careers?

Probably not 7 or 8, but Black Belt.

[GetDamage]

I judge people by their ability to apply the techniques they learned. I'm not sure what everyone here was watching. In my opinion, I thought he was pretty good, and I like this video because he shows the passion he has for karate.

[dtstone24]

As a practitioner of Shito-Ryu Karate Do (shodan), I find this offensive and a gross misrepresentation of the art. Ascension in rank encompasses and takes into consideration ALL of your lifestyle choices. Based on his lifestyle and rank, I think that speaks volumes of his sensi's lack of judgement, intutition, and respect for the art. The blind following the blind. Who cares about respecting Japanese martial arts, it's the King, how dare I? How indeed..

[SPIDADEB1]

So if Elvis was given 7th Dan as honorary, what rank did he ACTUALLY achieve?...

[empireuniverse]

To think that Red West, Dave Hebler, and Sonny (didn't see him in this footage) would write a "tell all" book about Elvis only a couple years after this.

[TenteixSaigo]

The Chuck Norris of Rock N Roll.

[kenpoman100]

@omurchu12:I actualy do TAEKWONDO(just like elvis did with master Kang Rhee)and i did JU JITSU for 13 years so i know about martial arts buddy-i will NOT bother commenting on your rather nasty and arrogent comment against Elvis presley as people like you who cant resist bad mouthing Elvis are NOT Elvis fans and not have the right to even mention his name!-why did you upload this for??-my TKD master has watched this after i copied him "GLADIATORS" DVD and said elvis was proper MARTIAL ARTIST.

[omurchu12]

@shawent pity he was so shite at it

[shawent]

@omurchu12 He wasnt .

[paulietrev1]

@omurchu12 what make you an authority on what good karate is ? ermmmm ???

[stewiedog01]

They should have let Red West do some kick butt moves in ROAD HOUSE instead of Sam Elliot...that would have been cool.

[ELVISAPLOVER5]

I've often wondered what Elvis' feet looked like( i don't like ugly feet)lol..Damn he had sexy feet!! love you baby!! xxoo

[ELVISAPLOVER5]

Elvis is the BOSS...such a sexy and beautiful man!!! Elvis Always Baby!! xxoo..wishing all Elvis Fans a very Merry Christmas & a very Happy & Healthy New Year..filled with Elvis and loved ones!! xxoo

[charlotte946]

this is a fantstic upload, thank you so much, how sad we never got to see the whole project, thanks for sharing the part you were able to edit, great job

charlotte

[annieparadowska]

F A N T A S T I C!!!!!!!

[paulietrev1]

ELVIS RULES..MISS YOU ELVIS , YOU ARE STILL THE KING

[GeorgeStrait1986]

Very nice

[TrueLight55]

“As a student of the martial arts, Elvis was one of the best. He was physically strong and his technique was excellent ...he was also a Master Human Being. He demonstrated love and respect with sincerity and humility. Elvis taught me more than I taught him.”

--Master Rhee

[elvis3813]

ELVIS IS THE KING!!!!!!!!!!!

[Soagui]

wow.i love elvos and i love karate

[mrmasterlee1]

Dear averyshakyproduction, Where do I send my >mO. Im ready to buy it now! I was "unaware" there was a film, it's my understanding it was never made. Is there more? please do tell thank you :)

[averyshakyproduction]

Its on Amazon, Elvisunlimited and EPE's site take your pick been out about 12 months . . . .

[mrmasterlee1]

This video has some good footage of the KING doing M.A. But I wish the supplier would have left the music out. I wanted to hear E explain the Techniques in his own words. I recognized Red, Bill, and Dave, I wonder were there any other notables in the video? Anyway Enjoyable over all, Thank You! averyshackyproduction

[averyshakyproduction]

The music makes it a more pleasurable experience, i recommend you get the DVD but be warned the audio is barely audible cus the sound was captured poorly in 1974 - the camera crew made a right hash or it.

[tcbcharger]

@averyshakyproduction i have seen clips elsewhere witht eh original sound left in any chance you could put the same video up again but with the original sound its not to bad and id love to hear it

[averyshakyproduction]

@tcbcharger : The music makes it a more pleasurable experience, i recommend you get the DVD but be warned the audio is barely audible cus the sound was captured poorly in 1974 - the camera crew made a right hash or it.

[Alant15]

@mrmasterlee1 As well as Bill Wallace (isn't he nicknamed Sugarfoot?) Elvis' stooges in this film are Red West and his step brother the 'ever truthful' David Stanley. Don't know who the other stooge is unless it's the piano player who Linda Thompson was allegedly having an affair with, David Briggs.

[bigpimpinmma]

@Alant15 superfoot

isnt that him in the background?

[Alant15]

@bigpimpinmma. Yes, Superfoot that's right. I was close ;-) I had also heard that Elvis' Karate prowess didn't match the level he had acheived in the sport and that Kang Rhee had actually given him one grading after a little assurance by Elvis that he would try and clean up his act a little. I met master Rhee once in '87 and he was a real genuine guy. I didn't have the bottle to broach the subject though. In the big scheme of things though, does it really matter?

[qwkkllr71]

@Alant15 It is Bill "SuperFoot" Wallace.

[sabinoson]

Checking this out, because I saw the dvd "Elvis Presley's New Gladiators" for sale. Very interesting and obviously, an important facet to Elvis' personal life. Interesting to see a lot of the greats of American sport karate from the '70's also involved. Obviously, Mike Stone, but also Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. Checking out the dvd next week.

[larilin]

@tvrulesnation I've also always thought that the 6th and 8th dan were undeserved, but that doesn't mean he didn't deserve a black belt. Ed Parker has talked about him (after Elvis died) and praised him as a martial artist.

[larilin]

@tvrulesnation This is clearly unreasonable. He was a deserved black belt, and a good fighter. He proved himself in many fights, sometimes against multiple opponents (jealous boyfriends, assholes) in the early days touring the south, and he was likely a good blackbelt, but he probably didn't deserve a 6th dan ranking. And yes, his precision wasn't great but he had speed and lots of guts.

[tvrulesnation]

@larilin

Many street fight occur daily but half the fights aren't ''technically'' good they are the typical lunge attack & telegraphed moves (which Elvis shows blatantly too here ie untrained movement)

beating people in a fight is no show of your skill.

As for having speed & guts, same can be said for a footballer etc that they are fast & commited it doesn't mean though that they will be brilliant simply because they had guts & were fast.

[larilin]

@tvrulesnation In other words, you have no real sources. Ed Parker called Elvis "a damned good black belt" (after his death).

[larilin]

@tvrulesnation Ed Parker called him "a damned good blackbelt".

[MrWaynejohn]

@tvrulesnation firstly...thanks for being polite

you are judging elvis skills in 1974 and he is just showing off here [ you may want to hold judgement until you saw him say in 1959 doing karate ...yeah ? ]

bruce lee was a cha cha dancer who got lucky by exposing the art form first to a wider audience ...there were better before him and after but they did not sale out...thus a hollywood phony

[tvrulesnation]

@MrWaynejohn

As for B.Lee you do know Karate & Judo were popular in America long before the chinese arts from WW2 soldiers learning stationed in okiniwa, WC was the first chinese art to be introduced popularly by Lee but it wasn't like wrestling/boxing were the only known & practiced arts in America. Course there were better than him as the saying goes your only as strong as your biggest weakness, Lee provided a platform for well trained artists to expand their horizons through his JKD

[tvrulesnation]

@MrWaynejohn

JKD was a philosophy that borrowed heavily from eastern religions such as Hinduism/Taoism/Confuscism & buddhism, it wasn't anything new that he created nor was his meshing of styles as that has been done for hundreds of years. However he did help to popularise the idea, we can definitely agree that he was a freak of nature in terms of strength & speed for his size + for somebody who didn;t study human anatomy except from books rented he showed considerable skill in that field

[tvrulesnation]

@MrWaynejohn

His fighting skills are debatable yes, Lee detested alot of moves he was made do in films because he knew the weakness in the flashy moves he did choreograph to an extent his own fight-scenes but had to make it entertaining as any martial artist worth his weight knows ''keep it simple & concealed'' in a fight.

There are plenty of eye-held accounts of lee fighting in Hong Kong & sparrign with students in his own dojo, unfortunately not much video evidence.

[tvrulesnation]

@MrWaynejohn

But if anything Lee didn't sell out, the fact that he refused to open chain-dojos under his name showed exactly that. He knew he wouldn't be able to ensure quality over quantity & so kept it to his own class, He for the first 2 years of his life in America didn't charge to teach & when he did start charging for some income he would also go well past class-times to help students.

Whether you see him as a good instructor is your own choice as long as you have knowledge

[tvrulesnation]

@MrWaynejohn But don't call him a hollywood phony there was alot worse than him, i myself before studying into his life believed he was simply a movie-actor & not a martial artist but one that popularised the arts, he wasn't he was more than that however yes he is overrated & romaticised just like the likes of Elvis/Hendrix & all the popular greats in their respected fields.

If you want to look into it yourself check out Dan Insonato a well respected kali artist or Chuck Norris (seen here)

[larilin]

@tvrulesnation Chuck Norris has expressed the utmost respect for Bruce Lee and his skills. When asked what would happend if the two had fought, he said "he didn't wanna go there and I didn't wanna go there" (I've seen the interview), and he has also reportedly said that had Bruce Lee decided to fight like himself he would probably have been a world champion.

[tvrulesnation]

@larilin

I'm confused why you're harping on about Bruce Lee, i respect the guy to the utmost, however i wouldn't say straight out that Lee would be brilliant in karate world champions. For one Lee although extremely fit & strong didn't train himself to fight under rules especially karate styles where generally head-shots weren't allowed which were a favourite of Bruces (alongside eyes).

I ain't doubting him but we can't really say for sure too many variables to properly assess

[larilin]

@tvrulesnation I'm not harping on about Bruce Lee, maybe there's a misunderstanding here. Only one of my comments was about Bruce Lee. And whether or not he would thrive with karate tournament rules is not really that relevant, the point is he was an awsome fighter. He was a boxing champion from Hong Kong, and he proved himself by winning real street fights - and he would occationally fight guys who would challenge him on movie sets. He was the real deal.

[tvrulesnation]

@larilin

at most will cause hyperextension in part of the neck muscles but will not stop an opponent (adreniline rushes + not fatal), typical hollywood flash move. basically that move has the exact same if not less as a boxers punch & as can clearly be seen boxers survive such.

5:36 gun/knife disarms relying on grappling utter rubbish, i do weapon orientated training it won't work, especially playing ''beat the bullet'' + again static combos.

Want me to continue?

[SuperGraceland]

elvis walks in kissess a few chicks do some karete domentration kicks some asses and walks out with the biggest fuckin trophy i ever seen in my life elvis is the king

[chrisdolbeare]

Speaking from my life and teaching martial arts for 32 years.......a black belt isnt always physical ability, but also mental and understanding how things work and why? The more you train to fight.....the less you want to fight! Best to all

[JohnKillrory]

@chrisdolbeare I agree..I hold the rank of SANSERU in Goju-ryu and Shodan in the art of Kempo

You learn to use the art so you do not have to fight. In the hour you need to use it it will work for you.

Only used in self defense.Both ARTS I took where traditional and old school. Anyone who does the art will tell you traditional is the way. You learn so much from forms to history.. I have done all forms of sports and Karate was the toughest out of all of them and the most rewarding.

[TCBrobban]

we wasnt terrible at karate...maybe not a black belt, but he practised very hard and should get some respect for what he did.

[irishbollix]

elvis had an infection on his foot during filming ... also elvis did not want to appear in the film rather he wanted to let the martial arts be the star while he narrated the film.

[lace36]

This is Awesome! Oh, How I wish Elvis could have practised his Karate with Me!

[tvrulesnation]

@knowingElvis

What a contradiction you're the one talking big & acting like a complete d*uchebag about this.

Mind me asking what styles you have studied & what not because its amazing how strife the internet is with ''expert martial artists'' who don't have the first clue, i'll gladly debate with you on techniques Elvis demonstrates that are pretty much common to every art & what is wrong with it.

[tvrulesnation]

@knowingElvis

If you want i can link you with people i'm in contact with who have studied martial arts for 20+ years of their lives (two of them study Karate styles & have been doing so for 30+ years, they can back up with precise detail on karate techniques & the sham ''black'' belt status Elvis held)

or we can keep debating about this with you being biased as a fan of Elvis & me being biased as a practicioner of the arts & get nowhere.

[RuthTCB]

Excellent video. Elvis loved Karate and was very skilled, due

to his dedication and hard work!! It's truly beyond me, why

people look up Elvis videos, then trash him. If you are not an

Elvis fan... why are you here? Quite simply... His fans don't

give a damn what you think!! Get lost.

[tvrulesnation]

5:10 for eg, that would at most give you whiplash in the neck. What you're watching is the movie ''hollywood-fu'' moves of martial arts that just aren't practical in any fight (apart from the eye gouging & improper technique of backfist + forearm strikes demonstrated)

that twisting somebodys neck to ''break'' it is movie magic, the spine has to be turned another way in conjuction to pivot the neck past its 180 degree turning point in order to damage

[brendanbuyers2009]

Not to dampen anyone's spirits, but this is the month Elvis embarked on what many consider to be his most troubling tour. We all know the story about how f'ed up he was at the College Park, MD shows in Sept. 1974.

[brendanbuyers2009]

This is the first pro-shot footage I've ever seen of Elvis in '74.

[CSTANCHIK]

great action with elvis showing hecould defend himself. if he had known that his sprring partners ould eventually betray him as they did,things would have been different. somebody would have actually gotten hurt. cstanchik

[ELVISAPLOVER5]

Elvis is AMAZING!!! truely one of a kind...He not only has the greatest voice ever.. he kicked ass also..lolol.. ( i never talk about Elvis in the past tense,for he is alive in his fans hearts)..!!! I love You Elvis!!!!

[phyllisfiredwards]

I LOVEEEEEEE this video on so many levels!!

1. ELVIS ELVIS ELVIS!

2. It shows He was fit and Shows His 2nd love of art -Karate!

3. His wonderful actions and spiritual connection this gave Him!

4. His wonderful Smile and enjoyment!

5. That anyone anywhere.. Better not mess with THE KING!

[phyllisfiredwards]

Lordy what a Presence This man invoked! I mean it was effortless.. I'll love Him Til we met there on that Great Shore!! God I''ll be glad to see HIM Again!!

Love U! GREAT VID!!

[annieparadowska]

Thank you so much IF for sending me this fantastic video!!I loooove Elvis so much!

[dmljm2]

I Love the Way Elvis Reinvented Himself On Stage Putting Karate Into His Act ! Fantastic Video and Love The Song T.R.O.U.B.L.E. and the Other 2 Songs are great to. Thanks for Posting My Friend and Thanks for the share IfICould ! 100* Great Editing.

 TCB DANNY

[YRNGHFAN2]

LOVE IT!

[jangraceland]

Thank you my friend If for sending me this wounderful video. E sure did love Karate .

Honest to goodness when this man started something he gave it his all 100 percent and I don't think there was anything he put heart and soul in he didn't do well, and Lord have mercy he always

looked so doggone handsome when he did it. He was one beautiful man in more ways than one, because his heart was just as beautiful and handsome as he was , as well as the way he loved people

all people!!!!!

[phyllisfiredwards]

Mercy!!!!!! Looking Like Glory is right!! Thanks IF!!

Thanks Phyllis Love U!!

Many ***********

[EenterE]

5***** Awesome ! Would like to hear Elvis speaking too. Hope you show more.Must Favorite.

[annemaree]

Elvis loved Karate, starting from the Army days and was extremely good at this!

Really wonderful footage, love watching him demonstrate his great karate skills!

Thankyou for this great share IFICould2.

*allstars

[lilianmajbritt]

Great footage. Thanks a lot for posting. Very interesting.

10******

[Valerioschiavone]

Exceptional... really exceptional this video devoted to Elvis in which its professionalism is also seen in the martial arts... it was a true expert and you/he/she can be noticed him/it in the precision with which he effects the movements of Karate.

I thank my great friend IFI to have sends me him. This video is among mine preferred now.

I add 100000.......* * * * * * * * * * * +

Valerio

[IFICould2]

Elvis loved Karate with a passion and became very skilled in the art.. He had enormous dedication and worked very hard at perfecting his skills..There for becoming a effective and masterful component.. And still with all the charm of the gentleman he was..IF

[memphis77]

many thanjs for posting this i enjoyed it alot, agian many thanks.

[kenpoman100]

great dvd!-i ordered my dvd copy of "gladiators" and it finaly proves that Elvis wa real BLACK-BELT and proper martial artist...TCB