The Production of The Search for Count Dante Continues.

The Search for Count Dante continues. People have been writing to ask the status of things, am I continuing with the film, have I been kidnapped by ninjas, attacked by the Black Dragon Fighting Society or any of their secret society associates?  

I have interviewed countless Chicagoans who were present and active in martial arts during the early sixties. and Life intercedes when it wants to in the midst of our endeavors. Films get made by sheer determination, not just because it is a good idea.

"Independent film makin' ain't easy, but somebody gots to do it." I won't bore you with the details except to say, this is a journey that is not over yet. I do need to clarify some things right off the bat. It has been a long haul making this film; the characters I have had to deal with have gone from bad to worse.
I have been insulted by Ashida Kim, the most notorius Ninja on the internet, highly insulted to the point that I made it clear I was not accepting this kind of behavior, even from a 65 year old Ninja. It 's like we are all back in high school. We had some exchanges on Facebook, Kim and another Black Dragon member who tended to be very disrespectful in that "I am going to kick your ass over the internet" so many flamers use going bacj to the days of old school bulletin boards. They have even told people I was now in bed with Green Dragon Society becae i don't want to hang out with the Black Dragons and tell the story they WANT me to tell. WTF? We are back in high school!!! This nonsense killed my appetite for any contact with these guys. especially after 3 years of Fall River Black Dragon crap in Boston Federal Court, I won. Controversy of every sort has surrounded this film from the very beginning. still I persevere. Why? It is a story I want to tellIt rises above John Keehan/Count Dante's meteoric moment and explores the social history of martial arts, race relations, Chicago's history and legacy as a well spring of Mixed Martial Arts in the early 1900s. All I want to do is finish this film, not become part of some late middle-aged martial artists angst and drama. Rank and notoriety seems to be what drives some people, while Dante eschewed the vagaries of rank as a useless indicator of fighting skills. It gives me pause. First of all, Sensei Doug Dwyer, a close associate of John Keehan once upon a time, wants it known he was never a member of the Black Dragon Fighting Society. He worked with Keehan from the early to mid-1960s and helped him start the World Karate Federation. He broke with Keehan when he became Count Dante and tended to his own school. He has made it known that he wants his name removed from all materials online regarding the Black Dragon Fighting Society. It is a small thing to ask. In the making of my film I inadvertently and maybe foolishly connected a lot of people together. People would find out who I had interviewed and asked for contacts. I seldom share my resources without the permission of the party involved. I connected Doug to people who are not so gracious with other people’s personal information. For that I am sorry. Lesson learned. Douglas Dwyer is a consummate and complete traditional martial artist of a caliber seldom seen today. He is a jocular man of good spirits, and this kindness is often misinterpreted and that is a shame. Playing him for the fool is not a good idea. Doug has been a good friend and advisor to me. He was there in the 1960s martial arts world and has the pictures, books, photos and documentation to back it up. His life has been dedicated to the ART in marital arts, and at his youthfully mature age, he can still make ya sit up and listen. I have had quite a few people come to me with stories about Dante and when we get in front of the camera, the false claims go away. It seems they realize that this becomes a permanent record of their words for the entire world to see and refute. My blog has been dredged to make up a history of the Black Dragon Fighting Society that includes someone named Senzo Tanaka and Frank Dux. Dux has acquired stories from my blog and from stories he has heard only to re-spin them to include himself as an active participant and student of John Keehan, when in fact he would have been 10 years old in Chicago. Senzo Tiger Tanaka was a character in the James Bond film, You Only Live twice. In none of his earlier writings has Dux mentioned Count Dante or the Black Dragon Fighting Society, why now? I raise these questions because Dux has used the internet to include himself in a history he clearly was not part of. My research is online and people who feel they can do with it as they will should get use to the fact if I see it "chock fulla lies" I will debunk how it is used as needed and take other actions deemed appropriate in a legal sense. There has been no proven association between the Kokuryukai and The Black Dragon Fighting Society. There are anecdotes and inferences, but none proven as of yet. My research goes all the way to Japan on this where it is still hard to get people to talk about this secret society. I have attained good resources on the presence of the Kokuryukai in the US but no direct link. I will reveal some things about this in the film. I have no opinion of Frank Dux as a martial artist, CIA operative, Kumite fighter, now most recently pioneer of MAA with a film dealetc, etc. It's a nice gig if you can sell it. What I do know is that his actions have been an affront. I challenge Frank Dux to come up with pictures showing he was here in Chicago at the age of 9 years or ten years old studying with Count Dante or credible witnesses who were students of John Keehan in the early to mid-1960s. How Frank Dux could have been in Chicago long enough to claim to have studied with Count Dante and never mention it until 2008 seems a but incredulous. Maybe he was sworn to secrecy? There were a lot of Franks around, it is a common name. Dux is not so common a last name. Unless I am mistaken, by the mid-1960s Keehan/Dante did not teach students below black belt. So Dux's claims of being in any of Dante classes stretch his credibility. As for him taking Count Dante's place in a death match because Dante died in 1975, well that strains the truth in all kinds of ways. Why did he not talk about this when he wrote the articles for Black Belt Magazine back in 1980? In all his writing and interviews, which have been far and in-between, he never mentioned Chicago or any association with John Keehan.

As you can probably tell, I am very skeptical about these claims of his. Maybe I am wrong. I have not met one old school martial artist here who has ever mentioned a Frank Dux presence in Chicago, and we DO love our martial arts folklore here. Dux, as far as I know, ain't in it. In the making of this film I have learned that many people are desperate to be part of this chaotic legacy, in truth or falsehood. It is not John Keehan they pine for as much as the legend of Count Dante, a very real and talented martial artist who fell a little too far into his comic book ad persona.
The late Joe Lewis and I talke several times and tried to arrange an interview. I found him to be an absolute gentleman. I found his number in my cellphone the other day, We never arranged to meet due to his constant travelling and mine. but here is a clip of him talking about Count Dante in a clip I got from a writer in London.
Count Dante: Hands Like A Woman -Kickstarter from Floyd Webb on Vimeo.

Oh yeah, we had a Kickstarter campaign that we did not win. We will do it again learning from MY past mistakes. Watch for it!

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The new Count Dante iPhone app is  available in the iTunes store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/count-dantes-10-deadly-secrets/id474466210?ls=1&mt=8

For .99 you get 10 self-defense lesson and a histor of Count Dante and his contribution to Mixed Martial Arts.

Not bad for for less than a buck in the midst of a recession.

Jiu Jitsu adverts in Chicago in 1904

This advert is from the Chicago Tribune classified section, 1904, 35 years before Count Dante was born in 1939 and 64 years before his World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets was published Asian martial arts were already being touted as a self defense secret weapon.

By the time John Timothy Keehan is born in Chicago in 1939, jiu jitsu is almost a common word, used in contemporary speech and denoted awesome powers to disarm, wrap-up and break.

Getting Ready for the Rap Up!

Been months since my last post. Secret investigations require secrecy. With all the crap I got I decided to tone it down with the blogging. I felt like I was accomplishing little, and I could be better served with silence.

Yet there is value in a shared experience. I have had some crazy stuff happen and I have befriended some awesome people. Enough said about that.

Some of my work lately has been on early martial arts history in Chicago.

I will talk about that here in future. There was someone offering jiu jitsu lessons on 36th and State Street in 1908. That's of some interest to me.

Chicago has been a martial art city for a century. But what does that mean? This is one of the questions raised for me as I complete this documentary.

To talk about John Keehan/Count Dante outside the context of a complex social history and it's cross cultural relationships just seems a bit lazy.

I can still make it fun and respectful to the living witnesses and family members who have survived some of the seedier and horrible sides of the story.

So consider me back. Lots of surprising things have occurred. Old rivalries have softened, maybe even to the point of cooperation. We will see. I am open to anything that allows for the most accurate telling of this tale.

Back again, New Challenges, New Hurdles, Good Progress and Marvin Gaye

It has been 6 months since my last post. I have been continuing to conduct interviews, follow up on leads all in between day to day struggles of work and survival. The Search for Count Dante continues. Sorting out and vetting delusion accounts of his history is a big part of the job.

Why did I stop blogging. Vetting the delusion was one reason, especially after 3 years of court. Best of all reason - I was shooting and had become more obsessed with the footage I was getting and less inclined to blog. Plus there was work and Lord knows we need that these days. I am now going to make my flute hours blog time. I know I will not be doing my Eric Dolphy recital for some time now. :-)

I have a financial partner, in London.  He showed up right on time. Really good guy with both feet in the Mixed Martial Arts world in the UK.  He is a shrewd business sort. I like this dude. His involvement enabled me to upgrade equipment and get some very important things done. I got a respite and was able to reorganize some thing and get ready for the editor.  I have chosen an editor. I will reveal all at a later date.

After the Fall River/Boston Federal Court runnings got disposed of I thought I was home free. But noooooo...Dealing with the Dante story carries some heavy baggage along with it.  The sharks are gathering. There is a new chapter in the making of the doc and a feature film looms large in a not too distant horizon and . I have had about 5 production companies come to me about the feature film rights.What am I supposed to say?  I got a buy out price, but now of these guys wanted to talk money. Like I am 19 and just anxious to "be there." No, I want to finish this project free of those types.

People are free to do what they want and 2 of the people who approached me decided to do their own Count Dante feature project without me. As if I care. :-)

One guy tried to get someone I know, Bob Calhoun, to write a treatment for him so he could take it to the studios for financing. He declined out of his own sense of loyalty and also because he is a working writer with more than enough on his plate. He was writing his awesome tome, Beer, Blood & Cornmeal: Seven Years of Strange Wrestling. You wanna talk ready for film? There is a book ready for a feature.

Suddenly the new year bring a renewed interest in Dante. I got emails from people when Grindhouse actress Tura Satana (Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill) died. They asked me if I knew of any relationship between her and Dante. It was easily researched. By now I know enough nefarious characters to run this kind of stuff down and get great anecdotes as well.  I get emails from people about magic, and potions, rumors of Dante dying, shot in Florida instead of in his bathroom on North Sheridan in Chicago. I am clear and free of legal threats against my right to make this film as I see fit. I am without the constraints of covetous pretenders.  But I still find myself set upon by another level of sleaziness, that I guess, comes with the territory.

Like a long marching Chinese philosopher said, on a good day, "Let a thousand flowers bloom and a thousand schools of thought contend." I mean there are 4 Marvin Gaye projects going on right now. None are being produced in the US presently. The projects have been struggling. Then, along comes British director Julien Temple (Eternity Man, 2008) and he pulls a Belgian financing tax shelter and Luxembourg’s CIAV(audiovisual investment certificates) rabbit out of a hat, about the size of $8 million dollars, making a film about Gaye's days in Oostende, Belgium. In a self-imposed exile, Gaye made the album, Midnight Love while recovering from the death of Tammy Terrell, tax problems and general disillusionment. I actually ran into him down there on the docks when I got off a ferry one time as I was headed to Amsterdam by bus from London,  I think, in the early 80s. This is where one of the best music docs about him, was made.  Richard Olivier's Marvin Gaye: Transit Oostende, how I treasure that film. What a sublime exile he was able to experience. 

Right now my interest is in finishing this doc. I have the story now. And now that I have the story for the doc, I know what a feature film will look like.  I did not know a year ago, while I was in the middle of court. I had 3 companies hit me up and they all wanted some control over the doc as part of a financing package that has nothing to do with my need to finish the doc itself in order to define a cohesive story and maybe solve some of the mysteries and mythologies of this enigmatic character, Count Dante. Who needs those kinds of headaches, until cash is put to palm. No was forthcoming, only promises of headaches to come. I have seen it all before.

Boxer Johnny Coulon, Keehan/Dante's boxing instructor, looms large with me right now.  What a character. Yet another Chicago character. This is what I love best about what I am doing. It is an investigation into ALL of Chicago through this "ginger-headaed" Irish lad" as author Robert Rankin describes him. I have been unraveling mysteries for sure. Making sense of it all, the structure...the structure...that is what I am struggling with now.

Who knows what the future holds? I know, a completed well executed doc with a great soundtrack.
As for the coming war of the Dante features? Ya just never know what can happen and that is what makes the world an exciting place.  Heh, heh heh!!!

Forward...Bob Bartkowski Interview

Today I went to Oak Forest, IL to Lee's Academy of Kung Fu. I interviewed Bob Bartkowski. Bob is a WIng Chun practicioner I have know since I started the film. I met him, like I did so many people concerned with Dante, over the internet. Bob has a unique take on the martial arts. He is a true fanatic for all martial arts including boxing. His enthusiasm is contagious. He reminded me of the piece above and was talking about how much he loved it when we were prapring for the interview.

I am going to post an excerpt from his interview later.

We Were All Karate Kids: Part II: My Mr Miyagi's

In 1967, I lived in Ft Benning, Georgia where my father was an Airborne Ranger recently returned from Vietnam. I had been a victim of bullies, who demanded I conform to a pack mentality that excluded the love of books when I lived in the projects. I needed a magic bullet, Muhammad Ali boxing skills, something.

After months of watching martial arts in old movies from Mr Moto, Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock to the TV show, Secret Agent Man, I was hooked.  I was introduced to the practice of martial arts through the  books of Bruce Tegner and then, a masterwork by Mas Oyama called "This is Karate."  Some friends of mine and I would use Oyama's book as an instructional manual between nomadic special forces guys who gave us pointers. We perfected breaking skills and tensho kata. We sparred badly and had plenty of bloody noses and loosened teeth.

I put in practice on the base and with numerous people with "self-defense" training but my real practice began with my meeting with 16 year old Gregory Jaco in Chicago in the winter of 1967  when my father returned to Vietnam and my family to the suburbs of Chicago.

 This was my first  Mr Miyagi, a guy barely 2 years older than me. Tough, knowledgeable, charming, my mom would always ask about him years after meeting him. He was older than his actual age, a leader, a comedian, when he wanted to be, with a soft high voice.

He had come to my house through two local Maywood, IL friends,  It was the coldest day of the winter. Along with the diminutive Robert Tobias, who would periodically disapppear to study with Count Dante, we went out into the Chicago wind and worked out, Oyama style, barefoot in the snow. The steam rose from our bodies from the exertions. We actually sweated in sub-zero weather. Rob was the first person to show me the "Dance of Death." He could execute all of the movements in less than 20 secs, he was aiming for 15.

Jaco was an instructor before he became a black belt. He taught children in the Robert Taylor Homes for years. We were Explorer Scouts together. Some folks thought that was funny. But not for long. Jaco had the "Godhand." People would look down at his thick frame and walk away.

Jaco did not charge money, you paid for his classes with blood, sweat, respect and dedication. His school gave the most exciting breaking demonstrations, brick breaking, wood, bottles. The women in the class did everything the men did. He would use a samurai swords to cut through apples held in student's necks. He would throw Shuriken (ninja stars) at living targets including ME. Fear was my companion around Jaco, but I mastered it. He never hit me but I had to stand still. My fear would hurt me, not Jaco.

In the Robert Taylor Homes he trained up a crew called the Black Dragon Slayers. But they went rogue. Having driven out drugs dealers with their fearlessness and fight skills, some of them took the places of the defeated dealers. Jaco disowned them he started a new school, The Tornado School of Martial Arts.

Jaco was always bugging people to help his students get uniforms, and we helped, even when we stopped working out with him. Jaco had a wild streak and a good heart. One of his son's and students, Wasulu Jaco, is also known as Lupe Fiasco, yeah, THAT Lupe Fiasco.

I did not see him that often after we became adults. But we always ran into each other somewhere, or I would hear of his adventures and he of mine. The tall baritone voiced Marshall is a painter and Clarence became a Chicago Policeman. The brilliant and itenerant Rob caught a case in the early 90s and is in the Illinois Penal system.

While Jaco joined the Army after high school and become part of the Green Beret Martial Arts Demonstration Team, I left the country to explore the liberation movements based in Dar Es Salaam. I was hanging out on a beach on the Indian Ocean in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania with Goju-Ryu master Shihan Namtambu Camara Bomani auditing his classes, struggling through their 5 mile runs every other day.

Funny how I found yet another teacher/brother of the same kindness and compassion continents away. He was way less wild than Jaco and very grounded. The perfect balance I needed at the time, being 22 and a bit freaked out by my journey though ten years of fighting for social justice in the good old USA. The revolution was winding down in the US, brothers had gone from Black Berets to 3 piece suits. Some of us answered the call of the international and went to West Africa, Many of us to Dar with the intent to led assistance t the fight against colonialism. A foolish few went to Jonas Savimbi in Angola. I am grateful for the people who taught me to think critically and at 22 to know better than to fall for bullshit.

Trained in Okinawa, Bomani was responsible for introducing Jundokan Gojuryu to Tanzania and Africa. He established the first ever Goju Ryu karate school in Dar es Salaam in 1973 and he founded the Tanzania Okinawa Gojuryu Karate Association. Bomani got married in Dar Es Salaam and lived like a Tanzanian, cooking on a small charcoal stove in a small ground level apartment. His students were Tanzanian, South African, from Umkonto Wa Sizwe and Mozambican members of Frelimo. Karate was all he did, and he had a class of 75-100 people whenever I was there, it seemed. Our Friday night social set was the kung fu movies at a theater by the docks.

He adopted me as a little brother and we would talk late into the night. Bomani was another teacher who "pulled my coat" to the snake oil salesmen and expatriate poverty pimps transplanted in the area.  I always got the last bus and had to walk 3 or 4 kilometers home on dark roads with the distant sounds of Congolese guitar coming from the numerous "dukas" along the way. Warned against the wahoonies (thugs) and mwezi's (thieves), I traveled with my nun-chakus bought at the Borkowski's martial arts store on 66th and Halsted in Chicago. When I last I saw Bomani In Dar Es Salaam he was sweating out malaria at home and I was very worried about him. He pulled through and I heard from him by letter when I got to London. That was in 1975.

I had not seen Bomani in 33 years. We reconnected over the internet 2 years ago, after Jaco died. I decided to look for him and found him. It was like we had seen each other a few weeks ago. We picked up, I got all the news and we made arrangements to meet when he returned from Ghana. Bomani passed the Summer of 2009 in Ghana and is buried there. I found out recently when I called him at his home in Seattle  a few months back. His son gave me the news.

Jaco died in 2007, I sought him out when I started shooting my film 5 years ago. I was looking for Robert Tobias. Jaco had been ill with diabetes and had come out of a coma a year before. He had since obtained a new wife half his age. Nothing kept him down. When I saw him last he was making plans for another school. An amazing group of people came together to honor his memory. We sat in a Church on the South Side of Chicago, with a minister, a muslim Imam, drummers, Saabar dancing and breaking demonstrations in his memory.


He was not rich, he was never a feature article in Black Belt magazine, he was never a big tournament fighter. To him, a point was knocking a guy out. He was sensei to thousands. And hundreds came to honor him. I found a quote from the Tao de Ching for Jaco and Bomani. This fits their spirits nicely.


"A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.

A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.

Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn't reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn't waste anything.

This is called embodying the light.

What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man's job?
If you don't understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret."

-- lao tzu

Jaco and Bomani, like all good teachers understood this intuitively. It take special people to teach effectively. It takes care, love and compassion. The best teachers are extremely self aware. They become brothers and sisters to us and ,in many cases, surrogate fathers and mothers as well. This was Hamza Gregory Jaco and Nantambu Camara Bomani. HArd disciplinarians, soft hearts. Iron Hands tending gardens of youth, strengthening our roots, fertilizing our minds and energizing our spirits.

We were all "Karate Kids"

We were all "Karate Kids." Out of the tragic events of World War II came a renewed interest in the Orient. Conquered and maybe even bowed, the influence of Japanese and other Asian cultures would have as much influence upon popular American Culture as rock and roll for the rest of the 20th century. That influence would be martial arts.

Judo had been practiced in the US since before Teddy Roosevelt , who, like Vladamir Putin, was a judo black belt. In the 1950s, martial arts was appearing in all kinds of settings. Karate master Mas Oyama came to Chicago in 1953 and fought a bull to the death. Spencer Tracy, as a one armed WWII Veteran used karate to fight bigotry in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).

It was this generation who helped invented the American take on martial arts. It is this period, 1950-1975, that I use as a back drop for my documentary film, The Search for Count Dante. We were in awe of James Bond films, TV shows like Secret Agent Man aka Danger Man and I Spy. When the Green Hornet premiered in 1966, Bruce

Lee's character, Kato, would propel hundreds of thousands into Karate and nascent Kung Fu Schools.

With the premier of the new Karate Kid will there be a resurge of interest in martial arts films. Will all the middle aged guys like me get a saudade, a longing for the kung fu cinema of the 1970s and early 80s? I remember leaving the Kung Fu Stroll of 42nd street in NY, downtown Chicago with the McVicker’s Masters and then, when I moved to London in 1974, Midnight/All Night Kung Fu films at the Rio Cinema in Dalston. When I moved to Dar Es Salaam in 1975, Blaxploitation films like “Truck Turner”, would double bill with Kung Fu films like “Flying Guillotine” right across the street from Arab films like “Muhammad Messenger of God.” Crazy! I saw Black Dragon's Revenge aka "Death of Bruce Lee" with a cheering, screaming audience of teenage Tanzanians.

It is an amazing memory of true audience participation. A lot of the films were horrible, the martial arts mediocre. Bruce Lee and a few others were brief shining lights. But the shared social experience was absolutely unbeatable. Some of the audience beat on each at the McVickers and on 42nd street.

The memory is so strong that Sensei Kirk Haygood, a former usher at the McVickers Theater, and I are initiating Flicks of Fury, a monthly Xtreme Martial Arts Cinema Club, at ICE Theaters in Chicago. We start August 30, with a live appearance by Ron Van Clief, “The Black Dragon” and we will show his bio-pic, Black Dragon, the Legend of Ron Van Clief. Talk is being bandied about concerning getting actor, Soke James Caan, a real martial artist, and reviving his film, The Killer Elite for one of the screenings.

Ahhhh, to be 19 again and spending Saturday afternoons watching escapist films like Master of the Flying Guillotine, The Last Dragon, Snake in the Monkey’s Shadow, Mad Monkey Kung Fu.

These films would become the backdrop for the hip hop underground, from the acquisition of names, samples and dance. Wu-Dang Chuan is where Wu-Tang Clan got it's name and Ghost Face Killer is a character in the film Mystery of Chess Boxing.

There was a lot of discussion about the need to remake the Karate Kid. I am not getting into that. But the shared social experience of every bullied kid is a universal. Every generation has a need to see itself in a way that reflects their times free of their parents history, as they make their own stories.