Reviewed by: John Henderson

     This book is the story of Elvis’s journey through the Martial Arts as told by Mr. Wayne Carmen, U.S. Karate Champion of 1973.  Anyone who is a fan of Elvis and of course the Martial Arts will certainly find this book worthwhile.  While it doesn’t delve into the specifics of kata or technique or self-defense it does chronicle Elvis’s studies including those with Ed Parker’s Kenpo and his work outs with Mr. Bill “Superfoot” Wallace through his final training and his being awarded seventh degree in Pasaryu Karate (a form of Tae Kwon Do combined with Kung Fu) with Mr. Kang Rhee in and Elvis’s own formation of the T.C. B. Karate Association.

     It begins with Mr. Carmen giving a brief history about him and how through his Karate skills he came to know Elvis.  It gives a rarely seen insight into Elvis’s training and how he ha hoped to make a film called the “New Gladiators”.  Unfortunately this never came about but Mr. Carmen has found clips and put this together as far as it had gotten (another interesting addition to this story). While I don’t want to give too much away there are many interesting facts about Elvis’s dedication to the martial arts, for example his sponsorship of his friend Red West’s Tennessee Karate Institute and sponsoring and buying custom uniforms for the U.S. Karate Team.

     As a fan myself of both Elvis and, of course, the martial arts, I was captivated by Mr. Carmen’s story form page one through page184.  You’ll learn more about Elvis’s philosophies on Karate, Faith and Life his ups and his downs.  And as anyone who ever watched and Elvis concert or may have been lucky enough to actually see him perform live you can clearly see how his martial arts training flowed through all aspects of his life.