by Ann Kennedy
On Saturday afternoon, producer Joseph Barbera, director Dick Donner. Bruce and actor Rockne Tarkington show up at Kim’s home in Chatsworth. Rockne is there because he was cast to play the part of the shipwrecked merchant mariner on the show. Kim, playing the part of Chongo, will be his sidekick.
This visit isn’t just a meeting during lunch: they are Kim’s guests for the weekend. They discuss the fact that Kim’s character won’t appear until the second episode. His entrance needs to be spectacular, exciting, and memorable. They talk about how this could be done, discussing the possibility of Chongo entering by performing a 350-foot slide from a mountain top. Dick Donner asks Kim, “Can you do it?”
Kim thinks, “Why not?” and tells them he can do it!
They decide that Kim will start the slide from the highest point of a mountain. The crew will run a cable down the mountainside and attach it to a tree. They will also have to rig a cable to a truck with a zipline that is attached to a metal chain. The stunt will be called The Slide for Life.
A few weeks later, the second episode of Danger Island is shooting on location in Mexico. Everyone and everything is in place for The Slide for Life. There is no rehearsal, and Kim has no safety harnesses strapped to his body. The cameras are rolling, and everyone on the set is in awe as they watch Kim begin his slide.
Everyone’s mood abruptly changes when Kim is halfway down the cable. The metal is burning on metal. It burns through 15 feet, and then the cable breaks in half.
Kim is halfway down when he hears everyone yelling at him, “Turn around, turn around! There’s a fire behind you!” Kim twists around to look behind him. Then he sees there is a blazing fire rapidly approaching him. His attitude becomes one of true grit. He’s determined to finish the slide, and he does, while the cameras are still rolling.
The producers got what they wanted on camera, despite the broken cable and the fire. Then, in post-production, a voiceover is added saying the phrase “Uh-oh Chongo” to the accompanying music. The phrase catches on and is chanted by audiences everywhere. Kids all over the country can be heard shouting “Uh-oh Chongo!” to their friends.
Chapter 20
A Stuntman’s Way of Life
Kim works all the time as a stuntman and a stunt double in national commercials, television shows and major motion pictures. He performs every day in the glamourous world of Hollywood.
One day, he may report to work to ride a horse, shoot a gun, or fight in an action packed-western television series. Another day he might be speeding on a motorcycle trying to escape a fiery explosion. He is doing more death-defying stunts and is starting to become a legend in his own right.
He is also in many of Charles Bronson’s films as his stunt double and stand-in. Charles Bronson plays the starring role of a vigilante in the “Death Wish” films. Kim is a dead ringer for Charles Bronson. He has the same look, similar build, and weight as Bronson.
Kim is not only Bronson’s stand-in and stunt double. He is also Bronson’s incognito impersonator. Whenever Bronson needs a break, or wants to get away from the public, Kim would put on Bronson’s coat and impersonate him while Bronson would slip away from the set.
Kim is active in Hollywood’s fantasy world, but he is always available to work as an instructor under the auspices of the California Branch of Nippon Jiu-jitsu. He enjoys instructing the young kids and teenagers the skills of martial arts. He also coaches them in balance, discipline, and self-control.
Kim’s students look forward to the time they spend with him. They are in awe of Kim’s black belts, skills, and credentials. They want to learn the martial arts and grow up to be just like him.
At the end of every class, Kim gives them a lesson. Today Kim tells them why it is important for them never to be a dare devil. He wants to instill in his young students the importance of safety procedures. He receives a lot of satisfaction knowing that he is reaching these kids. He only wishes that he could reach some of the adult stuntmen who behave like foolish dare devils.
Kim believes that some of the new stuntmen entering the profession are dare devils. They are not like the old-timers, who lived the real life of an experienced stuntman every day. Most of them were military veterans or ranch hands, hard-riding cowboys, rodeo riders, cyclists, circus performers or boxers. These men and women were highly-skilled and knew the importance of safety.
Whenever a veteran stuntman suffered an injury, they knew how to temporarily fix their injury and endure their pain with a ‘deal with it’ attitude. Kim knows all the ways to ease his pain from an injury too. He also has a secret weapon that the other stuntmen do not have. His secret weapon is the ‘katas.’ He knows that the ‘katas’ ease the intense pain from any injury.
One day in 1973, he is working on the film Soylent Green that starred Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. During the shooting of the film, Kim is at the edge of a trench and helps another stuntman by pushing him out of the way of a moving truck. He did manage to give the stuntman the help that he needed, but in the process, Kim is hit by a truck and breaks his own back. It is a severe injury that needs immediate medical attention.
Kim is rushed to the hospital and then had x-rays taken of his back. After a doctor looks at the x-rays, he tells Kim that his back is badly broken. Without any hesitation, the doctor has Kim admitted to the hospital.
An hour later, Kim is sitting up on his hospital bed, with an IV inserted into the skin of his hand. Within thirty minutes, a nurse walks into his room. She tells him. “I will be making a mold for a cast for your back. I will be very gentle with you so that you do not suffer much pain. Your cast will be ready in one or two days. When you start wearing your cast it will alleviate some of the pain and help you heal.”
Two days later, Kim is wearing a cast. On the third day, Kim’s doctor comes into his room. He tells Kim that he must spend seven more days in the hospital. Then the doctor tells him in no uncertain terms that he must change his profession. He goes on to say that Kim can never perform death defying, dangerous stunts, or any other kind of stunts. Kim does not say a word as he listens to the doctor’s diagnosis. When the doctor finishes speaking, Kim demands him to get out of his room and not to let the door hit him on his way out.
Kim always knew the day would come when he would have to give up being a stuntman. He begins to think about the rodeo cowboys who rode horses and had to stop riding because of the injuries they received. Some were young men at the top of their careers and others had rode all their life. When their careers were over, most of them took menial jobs as stable hands to still feel a part of the only life they ever knew. They had nowhere else to go and they could not live any other kind of life. Kim is terrified because he knows that the same thing might be happening to him now.
Then Kim remembers some of the physicians in the VA hospitals who diagnosed him wrong. He reasons that this doctor may be wrong too. There were also other doctors at the VA who had a different diagnosis, which gave him an abundance of hope. He began to see his doctor as only one man that could also be wrong.
Kim goes to his window and looks at the clouds in the sky and begins to pray aloud to God. He promises God that if he can stay in the stunt world a little longer that he will not do the high-paying, death defying dangerous stunts anymore. He adds that he will only do ordinary stunts like fighting in bar rooms, martial art combat and jumping off six to eight-foot buildings instead of thirty-foot buildings.
Then he asks God that if it is over for him to give him the courage and faith to accept it and move forward on the path that he has chosen for him. Kim knows he must leave it in God’s hands, but he also refuses to give up doing anything about it. He asks God to find the strength and the miracle in himself.
The next night after his nurse leaves, he goes into his bathroom and shuts the door. He stands in front of the sink. He then grabs and holds onto the left and right edges of the sink with a firm grip. As he stands over the sink, he starts to breathe forcibly and rapidly.
He
knows that quick breathing increases oxygen blood flow, which will give him more power. Kim needs a lot of oxygen for what he is about to do. Then he uses his martial arts skills by contracting his diaphragm and chest, which will let him take any body blows better.
He roars, ‘ei, toh, ya! Then he viciously strikes his cast against the sink. Each time before he slams his cast against the sink, he shouts ‘ei, toh, ya!” He is using a battle cry shout, which is what a warrior does when he is ready to attack.
He is on a quest like a Ninja Warrior as he belts out long blood curdling battle cries. Then he turns his body around and stands with his back facing the front of the sink. His cast is beginning to get loose, but so is the sink. The sink is no longer a sturdy anchor; it is getting very wobbly. Kim does not want to take the chance that it gets loose from the wall.
He stops for a minute as he wipes the perspiration from his brow. Then he walks over to the bathroom tiled wall and continues a brutal, painful attack on himself. He hollers one last time as he smashes his back against the wall.
He is holding the large pieces of his cast in his hands. He did it! He broke the cast off his back. He leaves the broken-up parts of his cast on the floor. Then Kim picks up the hospital phone in his room and calls a friend to come and pick him up and take him home. His friend shows up in a motorcycle. Kim gets on it and waves good-bye to the hospital.
Gossip begins to spread like wildfire in the hospital and around Hollywood about what Kim did. Some people say, “He must be crazy to do what he did. Others say, “No, he’s not crazy. The guy is a Korean War hero. He must have been suffering from an episode of being shell shocked.” Others say, “He was a sergeant in the Army Rangers. I would not want to mess with any of those guys. They are a select group of soldiers like the Navy Seals.”
Kim does not go back to work on Soylent Green. After he heals, he goes back to work on many television shows and films. A few of them include: The Six Million Dollar Man, The Brady Bunch and Mission Impossible. Kim is also saving money and thinking about what he can do to take another path in life. The answer comes to him when he receives a telephone call from his old friend, Sensei Tadashi Yamashita.
Chapter 21
Trade Secrets
Kim has been talking to Yamashita for about an hour. They are discussing what the future holds for films about martial arts. They both agree that there has been an upward swing in people’s interest in these type of films because of Bruce Lee. He is credited as the first one to bring authentic martial arts performances to the big screen, and his films are extremely successful at the box office.
Kim thinks that the time for television programs and movies about martial arts is now. He tells Yamashita that it will be gigantic for a few years. He believes that he and Yamashita need to get in on it right away. Kim says, “You and I are both experts in the martial arts. We could form a company and get a group of the most highly qualified martial art experts to join us.”
He then tells Yamashita that he has a vision for a company. He says, “The company would go into the offices of Hollywood producers and show them exactly what needs to be done for a martial arts’ scene right there in their offices.” Yamishita likes Kim’s idea and agrees to join him to form a company called, Instant Action Coordinators, Inc.
Kim feels lucky and proud that his friend, Yamishita, wants to join him in this venture. Yamishita was born in Japan and raised in Okinawa. He was Japan’s youngest 7th Dan in history and an Okinawan Shorin-Ryu expert.
Kim is also a high-ranking martial artist with black belts in Shotokan, Aikido, and Jujitsu. He tells Yamishita that together they will be the unbeatable, dynamic duo. However, it’s not long before other top martial arts experts join their company.
A few of their company’s credits include The Thrill Seekers TV shows, and many episodes of ABC’s Kung Fu. During this time, Kim also starts a production company called, Stunt Action and Safety Coordinators, Incorporated. The company runs second unit productions for major motion pictures and television programs.
In 1974, Kim opens the Kahana’s Stunt School in Chatsworth, California. It is a modern facility with motorcycles, high towers, artillery weapons, air bags, explosives, and trampolines. His school gives stuntmen a place to practice what they know and to learn other kinds of stunts. He also stresses in his teachings the safety procedures necessary to perform all kinds of stunts.
His school is successful and two years later, he decides to expand his school. He opens a branch of his school that will be open to the public. He teaches high falls, horseback riding, high speed driving with cars and motorcycles, shooting, martial arts, explosives, and hand-to-hand combat.
Kim has been an active member of the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures for eight years. He also serves on the Screen Actors Guild Investigative Team and their Stunt Safety Committee. Hollywood stuntmen and stuntwomen must belong to the Screen Actors Guild. The other organization they can join, that is under the umbrella of the Screen Actors Guild, is Stunt Men’s Association of Pictures.
The veteran stuntmen always liked and respected Kim until they find out that he opened his stunt school to the public. They are angry that Kim has done this. They believe that Kim will be teaching their professional trade secrets to his students, who are not working on the sets of Hollywood films or TV productions.
Kim is infuriated with them and does not understand their way of thinking. He believes everyone should be given an opportunity to learn. He wants to teach those who may want to enter the profession. His goal is to have them learn the skills, knowledge and respect for safety and the understanding of what it means to be a stuntman. He also wants to teach them why there is no room in the stunt business for reckless, egomaniac, daredevils.
Kim takes a lot of heat from some of the veteran stuntmen. Many of them shun him and others argue with him. He does not believe that he is giving away any of their trade secrets. He knows most of the veteran stuntmen learned their skills from the military, the rodeos, ranches, and as apprentices to veteran stuntmen.
Kim believes that the skills used by the Hollywood stuntmen should be taught to those who want to learn. He does not think that the stuntmen have any secrets that shouldn’t be taught.
He does not agree with their definition of the word, ‘secrets.’ He does not believe it falls in the realm of what a true secret means like the ‘Lua.’ The ‘Lua’ is the Hawaiian dreaded and deadly secret way of defense and combat, which has been in existence for hundreds of years. The secrets of the ‘Lua” were only taught to a select few.
Kim highly respects the Stuntmen’s Association and all the stuntmen. He has dedicated most of his life to the profession. He wishes that they would understand his point of view, but it looks like they never will.
There is mounting pressure from the veteran stuntmen for Kim to shut down his new branch of his school. He refuses to do it! He wants to keep it open to the public. He enjoys teaching and believes he is making a difference. He decides that he will not close the branch. His decision is confirmed for him when his stunt school becomes the only accredited stunt school by the California Department of Education.
He realizes that the only way to stop the controversy, ease the veteran stuntmen’s anger, and show his respect for the profession is to resign from the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures. After he resigns, he sighs with relief that his battle is over.
Through the years, most of the veteran stuntmen did come around. They began to see that the students from Kahana’s Stunt School, who entered the stunt profession were extremely knowledgeable, highly skilled, and not daredevils.
Chapter 22
PTSD
In 1983 and 1984 Kim finishes working on the films, The Man Who Wasn’t There and Exterminator 2. He’s always in high demand, but his life in Hollywood is not the same anymore. His children are grown up and are now adults. He has also been experiencing problems in his marriage.
Then he finds out that Orlando, Florida, is targeted by
Hollywood to shoot many motion pictures at their new MGM and Universal Studios. There are also other new major motion picture studios that will be coming to Orlando. A lot of the producers, directors and stuntmen in Hollywood are making the move to Orlando.
Kim decides to talk to Joan, his wife, about moving there. One night, he explains to her why a move might be good for them. She understands why he wants to leave Hollywood. She tells him to go to Orlando. Then she pauses and in a soft, monotone voice and tells him that it is time for her to make a change too.
She tells him that when he moves to Orlando that she will not be going with him. Instead, she will be moving back to Holland. Kim stares at her in disbelief. He holds her hand, looks deeply into her eyes, and tells her that he does understand her decision. Then he abruptly stands up and picks up his dog, Dino, off the couch.
Kim tells Joan, “I need to take a walk and get some fresh air.”
Kim carries Dino as he walks all night long. He cannot stop thinking that it is the end of their marriage. He believes that it is his fault that Joan is leaving. He hoped it would never come to this, but over the last few years all the signs were there.
As he walks, he begins to think about the Korean War. He was blind and diagnosed as being shell-shocked by the VA doctors. The old term ‘shell shocked’ is now called post-traumatic stress disorder. Kim knows his PTSD took a huge toll on his family. He believes that Joan and his children are also victims of PTSD because his actions affected them.
A week after his conversation with Joan, Kim runs into Matthew at a local saloon. Kim walks over to his old friend and sits on a stool at the bar next to him. Kim has worked with Matthew many times in Hollywood.
Matthew is a tall, redheaded Texan who is a few years older than Kim. Matthew and Kim have a lot in common. He, like Kim, fought in the Korean War, is a veteran stuntman, and is married with four children. They talk for about twenty minutes about stunt work. When their conversation shifts to the Korean War, Kim discovers something else that he and Matthew have in common.