ELVIS & KARATE
ELVIS got interested in KARATE while he was in the Army.
He found a German instructor: JURGEN SEYDEL
and once a week he would come to ELVIS`s house in BAD NAUHEIN and give KING a lesson.
They would move all the furniture out of the living room and they would work out for a couple of hours.
ELVIS got very good.
The KING had many instructors over the years; but in MEMPHIS, KANG RHEE wasn`t just an instructor, but an ELVIS`s friend also.
In his shows, speccially when he used to sing "SUSPICIOUS MINDS",
Elvis did his KATA on stage with great openning movements.
Once in August 1974, Elvis gave a explanation of karate in a Vegas show... :"THERE
ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO KNOW THAT I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE ART OF KARATE FOR SOME TIME.
KUNG FU and KARATE ARE THE SAME THING. THERE`S NO DIFFERENCE, IT`S JUST AH, THE CHINESE
TERMINOLOGY is KUNG FU and JAPANESE is KA-RA-TE. "KARA" means "OPEN", "TE" means "HAND",... "KA-RA-TE".
SEE, I`VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 16 YEARS. I STARTED WHEN I WAS IN THE ARMY, in 1959.
I`VE BEEN DOING IT EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE EVER SINCE... FOR AT LEAST TWO OR SIX HOURS A DAY."
Our Thank You Very Much to the Special Elvis Fan
Aluísio Filgueiras Jr. for sending us the great
CD
Night Fever in Vegas including all these Karate explanations!
In our trip to MEMPHIS`1997, we RENATE and MARIA (Guta), met KANG RHEE...
(Renate and Kang Rhee)
and we were very emotional when we heard so nice and funny facts about ELVIS life, from someone who was
so close to HIM.
(Kang Rhee and Maria)
