July 30 he has 52-nd birthday
Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, July 29 (THE GLOBE)
When is a muscle-bound Austrian megahunk with an accent thicker than a gallon jug of molasses as American as baseball, Mom, and apple pie? When his name is Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course. From the moment he arrived in the United States to compete in the 1968 Mr. Universe competition, the man once known among his body-building peers as the �Austrian Oak� started making his own American Dream come true. Raised in poverty by strict, yet loving, parents, Schwarzenegger was barely into his teens when he pinned his hopes on bodybuilding as his ticket to the top. Self-discipline and tireless training paid off in spades when he was crowned Mr. Universe at the age of twenty, becoming the youngest man ever to win the title. Just one year later, he was making movies, and not too long after that, he was making millions buying and selling real estate. All of these milestones were followed by U.S. citizenship; marriage to a Kennedy; a special appointment as a presidential advisor; and mind-boggling success as an actor with a stunning string of top-grossing blockbusters to his credit.
Born the second child of a police chief in Graz, Austria, young Arnold was raised in conditions the youth of today don�t even hear about from their grandparents anymore: he was fourteen before the Schwarzeneggers could finally afford to furnish their home with such amenities as indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, and a telephone. His chores began at 6:00 a.m. every day, and when those were done, Arnold and his brother were then required to perform fifteen minutes of squats and sit-ups before they were served breakfast. The boys were free to spend Sunday nights roaming about the town, which boasted a movie theater, among other amusements, but each was required to compose a ten-page essay about the evening�s activities upon returning home.
It was when he began lifting weights to train for the local soccer team that Schwarzenegger first sensed that he was destined for greatness. �When I was fifteen,� he recalls, �I had a clear vision of myself being onstage winning the Mr. Universe contest.� In 1968, he came to the United States to defend the Mr. Universe title he�d won the previous year, and was rudely welcomed with a second-place finish�perhaps the only setback of his entire bodybuilding career. But thereafter, he dominated the sport so thoroughly�he won four more Mr. Universe titles and six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles�that he retired after seven years because he felt he �wasn�t giving others a chance to win.�
Today�s athlete would have hired an agent and waited for endorsement contracts to come flooding in, but the tireless Schwarzenegger was out to build Rome in a day. He had scarcely come ashore when he landed his first starring role in a feature film, 1970�s Hercules Goes to New York, and he so impressed Lucille Ball during an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show that she handed him a plum role in the pilot episode of her new sitcom Happy Anniversary and Goodbye. By the time the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron had made him a national celebrity in 1977, Schwarzenegger was already driving a Mercedes Benz and living in a $200,000 home in Los Angeles.
Although he won a Golden Globe Best New Actor award for his performance in 1975�s Stay Hungry, cinematic success proved elusive for the genial Austrian giant; it was not until 1982 that he landed a starring part in a major feature. Schwarzenegger incarnated to a tee the title role of Conan the Barbarian. The landmark performance of his entire career came two years later, when Schwarzenegger collaborated with rookie director James Cameron on the science-fiction thriller The Terminator. Originally slated to appear as the film�s hero, Schwarzenegger convinced Cameron to let him instead play the title role, that of an emotionless, unstoppable cybernetic assassin�a �Steel Reaper.� Made on a barely-believable budget of $6 million, The Terminator yielded a financial bonanza. As for Schwarzenegger, he became a one-man action franchise in the wake of the film�s success, turning everything from Commando (1985) to Total Recall (1990) into box-office gold, and even displaying a surprising gift for comedy in the equally successful blockbusters Twins (1988) and Kindergarten Cop (1990).
Schwarzenegger�s box-office domination hit its zenith in 1991 when he re-teamed with director Cameron for Terminator 2, his most commercially successful film to date. He stumbled a bit with the 1993 action-comedy The Last Action Hero, and his fans were less than impressed with his turn as the world�s first pregnant man in Junior the following year, but Schwarzenegger made it up to them by getting back down to the business of blowing stuff up and kicking ass in True Lies (1994) and Eraser (1996). One of the elite few in Hollywood who command eight-figure salaries, Schwarzenegger has his pick of scripts. He most recently hit the big screen as the villainous �Mr. Freeze� in Batman & Robin. Though he has yet to commit to another role, Schwarzenegger has been mentioned to play characters ranging from Swiss archer William Tell to Spiderman nemesis �Doctor Octopus.� Other possibilities include roles in a Ridley Scott remake of I Am Legend and a sixth sequel to Planet of the Apes; Schwarzenegger may even go behind the camera in the near future, something he has done twice already for cable-television productions.
Valery LAPSHIN
ALMATY, July 29 (THE GLOBE)
This is a farewell issue of our newspaper. But don�t worry, dear readers, we are just going to have two weeks summer vacation!
We hope nothing can prevent our future happy cooperation with you.
But people are somewhat worried by Nostradamus� gloomy predictions for the end of the current summer. He and his nowadays� followers predicted that the current earthly civilization would perish in 1999, exactly in July or September. We safely lived over July and may be we will be able as safely to live over the whole of the predicted dangerous period.
I would like to offer you a very though mental game. Imagine for a moment that the famous prophet and World religions are not wrong with the predictions of the end of the World�
I wish you every success, dear readers, I wish you many, many happy years of life�but imagine a terrible thing�
�What would I do on the very last day before the end of the World?�
First of all, I would visit Spain, which is so dear and near to my. I would enjoy Spain dances with their vigorous drumming of heels against the wooden floor and with proud screamings that defy death�
Then I would head for France, the dream of my childhood. The French love freedom best of all, they would never tolerate any violence against their freedom-loving Spirit.
Now we Kazakhstani people are suffering from a terrible economic crisis. But would such a state of affairs ever take place in such a country as France, the country which proudly stated its commitment to Freedom, Equality and Fraternity? Never! Let us recall rather recent French strikes throughout the country which raged as a response to a cut of wages of French workers. The latter rose as one man to defend their human rights, the right to live decent lives. Nobody feared governmental repression, as, on the contrary is the case with other countries, Kazakhstan included. The entrepreneurs suffered great losses and quickly understood what people they are dealing with! The French create themselves and the appropriate governments which respect their rights. So French people are merry and open to friendship with everybody and they have reasons for it! �I would like to live and die in Paris�, said a poet.
�Having breathed to the full the air of freedom, I would further headed for Sweden, a wonderful country which peacefully created its wellbeing while other nations wildly fought each other in terrible wars. This country � without any Communist demagogy � has created at last something very similar to Communism�
I would gladly visited such laborious countries as Germany and Holland�
Oh, Holland is quite extraordinary country! Imagine, having built dams against sea waves, people thus created with their own hands half of the territory which lies below sea level! In case of huge meteorite strike on the Earth and subsequent huge tsunami, the country would immediately be flooded and totally destroyed by sea waters. A wonderful beautiful laborious country with its extraordinary humanism and racial tolerance would never exist any more. The safest and most comfortable for life country, as local characterize it�
And surely I would visit the United States of America, a country which realized a dream of ordinary people � to be the richest and mightiest nation, to be citizens of the World!..
And I would also visit many, many other countries of interest in my farewell imaginary flight all over the Globe.
But as I was born Russian in Kazakhstan, my soul would time and again strive to return to Russia and Kazakhstan, to Kazakhstan and Russia�
I strongly believe that human soul is immortal and no catastrophe as such huge one predicted by Nostradamus and World religions can destroy it. Humankind is immortal and such predictions may be designed to teach us to be kind and tolerant to each other and thus to improve our souls for future lives in other Worlds.
Death does not exist! Such is a Good, Gracious news given to us. It must unite people and make them more kind and near to each other. And may be God will have mercy on us all and we�ll not perish.
Having this in mind, we would like to part with you for awhile, dear readers. We love you and hope you love us too. We look forward to happily meeting you again. Read our newspaper and our journal The Energy of Kazakhstan. Buy the book by Daniel Gross �Greatest business stories of all time� in our Russian translation and let Lady Luck always kindly smile to you. Together we can make the World better and may be we shall not perish!
July 30, 1932 - The Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles, CA. The Games would revisit Los Angeles � and the same venues of the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Rose Bowl and others � in 1984.
July 30, 1956 - The phrase, �In God We Trust�, was adopted as the U.S. national motto on this day.
July 30, 1863 - Henry Ford was born (auto manufacturer: first assembly line production: the Tin Lizzie)
July 30, 1947 - Arnold Schwarzenegger was born (actor: Eraser, The Terminator, Predator, Twins, Conan the Barbarian, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies, Last Action Hero; married to Maria Shriver; 5-time Mr. Universe; part owner of Planet Hollywood restaurants)
July 31, 1845 - The French Army introduced the saxophone to its military band this day. The musical instrument was the invention of Adolphe Sax of Belgium.
July 31, 1955 - Marilyn Bell of Toronto, Canada, at age 17 this day, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
August 1, 1894 - George Samuelson and Frank Harbo completed a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean this day � in a rowboat! They landed in England, after having left New York on June 6th. We can think of easier ways to cross the ocean...
August 1, 1940 - The first book written by 23-year-old John Fitzgerald Kennedy was published this day. It was titled, �Why England Slept�. Later, Kennedy�s �Profiles in Courage� would become a best seller for the man who would become the United States� 35th President.
August 1, 1953 - The first aluminum-faced building constructed in America was completed this day. It was the Alcoa (Aluminum Corporation of America) Building in Pittsburgh, PA.
August 2, 1926 - The first demonstration of the Vitaphone system, that combined picture and sound for movies, was held at the Warner Theatre in New York City. John Barrymore and Mary Astor starred in the demonstration film for the new moving picture projector.
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, and V. Eifert�s works, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
From 21 July to 3 August
Tengry Umay Gallery. An exhibition of Yury Zobak. �Moony morning�. Drawing. Painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Closed on Sundays.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.