The New Gladiators | |
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Directed by | Bob Hammer |
Written by | Elvis Presley, Ed Parker |
Produced by | Don Warrener, Isaac Florentine |
Starring | Emil Farkas, Darnel Garcia, Roy Kurban, Ron Marchini and Benny Urquidez, and Ticky Donovan |
Narrated by | Chuck Sullivan |
Cinematography | Allen Daviau, John Hora |
Edited by | Isaac Florentine, Don Warrener |
Music by | David Crosby, Graham Nash |
Distributed by | Rising Sun Productions |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The New Gladiators is a documentary movie by Elvis Presley and Ed Parker centered on the fights of the United States Karate team in London, England and Brussels, Belgium. [1] Narrated by Chuck Sullivan, it was filmed between 1973 and 1974 but finally remastered and later released in 2002. The movie was financed by American singer and actor Elvis Presley, who began to practice karate during his duty years in the United States Army.
In 1974, George Waite presented the idea of the film to Ed Parker, Presley's karate instructor. In the film, Presley was playing the main role, introducing Karate arts divided in narration and demonstrations. Parker presented the idea to Presley, who subsequently liked the idea. [2] There was a meeting organized at Graceland, but no major details were arranged because Presley had to leave for travel to Las Vegas to perform on a show. The next morning Presley called Waite and sent his private plane to fly Waite and his wife to Vegas to complete the meeting. During the show, Presley extended a $50,000 check for beginning the production of the film. In 1977, after Presley's death, the movie was stored in a garage in West Hollywood inside the bed of a truck, along with other memorabilia objects. In 2001, the footage was found, restored, and later released on August 17, 2002. On August 16, 2009, Elvis Presley Enterprises released a new version of the film with extra footage of Presley in Karate training sessions. [3]
Elvis Aaron Presley, also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
Priscilla Ann Presley is an American businesswoman and actress. She is the ex-wife of the late American singer Elvis Presley, as well as the cofounder and former chairperson of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company that turned Graceland into one of the top tourist attractions in the United States. In her acting career, Presley costarred with Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun film trilogy and played Jenna Wade on the long-running television series Dallas.
Edmund Kealoha Parker was an American martial artist, actor, senior grandmaster, and founder of American Kenpo Karate.
Thomas Andrew Parker, commonly known as Colonel Parker, was a musical entrepreneur, best known for being Elvis Presley's manager.
Viva Las Vegas is a 1964 American musical film directed by George Sidney, choreographed by David Winters, and starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. The film is regarded by fans and film critics as one of Presley's best films, and it is noted for the on-screen chemistry between Presley and Ann-Margret.
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll is a 1985 memoir written by Priscilla Presley, with Sandra Harmon. In the book, Priscilla talks about meeting Elvis Presley, their marriage, and the factors and issues that led to the couple's divorce.
Elvis Presley has inspired artistic and cultural works since he entered the national consciousness. From that point, interest in his personal and public life has never stopped. Some scholars have studied many aspects of his profound cultural influence. Billboard historian Joel Whitburn declared Presley the "#1 act of the Rock era".
Harum Scarum is a 1965 American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley. It was shot on the original Cecil B. DeMille set from the film The King of Kings, with additional footage shot on location at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. Some of the film was based on Rudolph Valentino's 1921 movie The Sheik.
Jerome Charles Weintraub was an American film producer, talent manager and actor whose television films won him three Emmys.
Singer Presents ... Elvis, commonly referred to as the '68 Comeback Special, is an Elvis Presley concert special that aired on NBC on December 3, 1968. It marked Presley's return to live performance after a seven-year period during which he focused on his film appearances.
Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite is a concert starring Elvis Presley that took place at the Honolulu International Center and was broadcast live via satellite to audiences in Asia and Oceania on January 14, 1973. The show was presented with a delay in Europe. In the United States, to avoid a programming conflict with Super Bowl VII and Elvis on Tour which was playing in cinemas at the time, NBC opted to air a ninety-minute television special of the concert on April 4.
Elvis: That's the Way It Is is a 1970 American documentary film directed by Denis Sanders. The film documents American singer Elvis Presley's Summer Festival in Las Vegas during August 1970. It was his first non-dramatic film since the beginning of his film career in 1956, and the film gives a clear view of Presley's return to live performances after years of making films. The film was released simultaneously with Presley's similarly titled twelfth studio album, That's the Way It Is.
Elvis is a 1979 American made-for-television biographical film aired on ABC. It was directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell as Elvis Presley. It marked the first collaboration between Carpenter and Russell.
Elvis on Tour is a 1972 American concert film starring Elvis Presley during his fifteen-city spring tour earlier that year. It is written, produced, directed by Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
How Great Thou Art is the ninth studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Victor in February 1967. How Great Thou Art is a gospel album with slow numbers on one side, and fast-paced numbers on the flipside. The album earned Presley a Grammy Award for Best Sacred Performance, while it became a Billboard top 20 pop hit and it appeared on the Top Country Albums chart on the top 10.
This Is Elvis is a 1981 American documentary film about the life of Elvis Presley, written and directed by Andrew Solt and Malcolm Leo. It combines archival footage with reenactments, and voice-over narration by pop singer Ral Donner, imitating Presley's speaking voice. It was screened out of competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. The film grossed $2 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada, ranking #92 for 1981.
Joseph Anthony Tunzi is an American, Chicago, Illinois-based author, publisher, and producer. He has been described as "a renowned author from Chicago" and "one of the foremost authorities on Elvis Presley," authoring, self-publishing, and producing over 60 titles about Presley, amongst others, for the past 35 years. Tunzi has also compiled a massive photo archive, from which he licenses photographs of Presley. Tunzi is credited as an Elvis Presley Archivist Extraordinaire in the August 2023 Paramount+ streaming feature-length documentary, Reinventing Elvis: The '68 Comeback.
Viva Las Vegas is an EP by American singer Elvis Presley, containing four songs from the 1964 motion picture, Viva Las Vegas. It was released by RCA Victor in May 1964 to coincide with the film's premiere. The soundtrack EP made the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 92, the lowest-charting release of Presley's career to this point. RCA had not released a Presley EP single in two years; given the format's decreasing popularity in the United States and the disappointing chart performance of Viva Las Vegas, the company would only issue two more for the remainder of Presley's career.
Darnell Garcia is a former martial arts champion, author, actor and former DEA agent. At one stage in his martial arts career he was rated 7th in the United States. He had roles in the martial arts films Enter the Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Blind Rage and Enforcer from Death Row. In the 1990s, Garcia became embroiled in a drug and corruption scandal.
Elvis is a 2022 epic biographical drama film co-produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. It chronicles the life of the American rock and roll singer and actor Elvis Presley under the management of Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as Presley and Parker, respectively, with Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Luke Bracey in supporting roles.