The Coming of Jackie Part 1
It took a long time for Jackie Chan to get traction in America, mostly because in the late ‘70s the West wasn’t ready for kung fu comedy. We still wanted our stars in the Bruce Lee mold. Despite some attempts to break him into the USA in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, it would be the ‘90s before Jackie crossed over. But there were people who saw the signs early, and one of them was Neva Friedenn. Today and tomorrow, we’ll be talking about Friedenn’s encounters with Chan because we didn’t didn’t have a lot of room for her in the book, and she’s fascinating.
A booker and distributor who started Unifilm International after leaving Condor Films, Friedenn has an amazing history in Hollywood. The below quotes are taken from our interview with her:
“I was in Hollywood on North Ivar Avenue and I was naive about the genre. I hadn't yet met any New Yorkers from the martial arts movie business with their famous cynical disclaimer about their films, ‘We don't smell 'em, we just sell 'em.’
“So I was at work at Condor Films about a week after having met the challenge issued by Ben, my most lucrative booker-buyer for exhibitors in Southern California — ‘What kind of new piece of s**t do you have for me this week, honey?’ — by actually going to a downtown Long Beach theater where I'd had a triple combo playing. I'd stayed for two and a half hours of amplified kicks and punches administered by fighters with bizarre appearances and mysterious fist and stance fixations. The experience had added visuals to my previous indistinct impressions of the Chinese historical periods and conventional story patterns used in kung-fu films.
“A second stranger showed up at the unlocked office door, knocked briefly, and edged inside for a look around. His name was John Ladalski., and he was fresh in L.A. from Hong Kong where he'd been doing actor and stunt work as an ‘evil Westerner’ in kung-fu movies. He was about 30, had an athletic but not muscle-bound build. He was curious to see which Hong Kong producers' films were getting U.S. theatrical releases through Condor Films. I showed him ad slicks and posters to answer the question. And I asked him what was happening in Hong Kong.
“Ladalski told me there was a new thing, and it was a big thing…and it was sparked by a new star who was destined to sell more tickets worldwide than any other martial arts star: He told me about comedy kung-fu and Jackie Chan.
“I gave him such a gobsmacked look, He laughed at me, said if I needed convincing I should track down Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Drunken Master, and Fearless Hyena at the Chinese language Kim Sing theater in L.A.’s Chinatown.”
Ad for Fearless Hyena in New York City.
“I took Ladalski's advice to the letter. Seeing the madly talented, and wacko first three Chan films set me on an equally wacko mission to try to acquire the U.S. rights to Chan's films from the '70s. I knew a fellow named Aaron who had successfully launched an IPO in the retail sector, and he was willing to try to help me find the capitalization for a new company based around the old Chan films and, if possible, first-run Golden Harvest product.that could provide an ongoing level of quality while low-budget American-made action product ultimately intended for the small screen provided competition for theatrical playdates in the oncoming first video boom.
“On my crazed new mission to get the early Chan pictures, I met James Hong, David Lo, son of Bruce Lee's and Jackie Chan's producer-director Lo Wei, Roy Horan, Seasonal Films' sales manager and also actor-producer who knew all the HK business lore, from how Raymond Chow gained access to top performer talent for his 1970 start-up of Golden Harvest to why neither Lo Wei nor Roy's Seasonal Films boss was willing to sell U.S./domestic rights to a Chan title for less than $300,000 at that point, Ng See Yuen, legendary producer and Seasonal Films boss…Willie C.K. Chan, Jackie Chan's manager, and — for a three-and-a-half-hour interview during which I tried to figure out which of the '70s Chan films would perform best in our domestic market while the new star hilariously pantomimed the fight scenes from them — Jackie Chan himself.
“Needless to say, I never acquired any of the '70s Chan product, but I cheered from the sidelines when Roy Horan arranged with Serafim Karalexis to do a theatrical release of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow in the New York area in the early '80s.”
Above, we’ve got a gallery of images from the press kit for that release of Snake in Eagle’s Shadow which was released by Serafim Karalexis as Eagle’s Shadow with a poster by famed comic book artist, Neal Adams.
Tomorrow: more on Neva & Jackie.
Serafim Karalexis’ trailer for EAGLE’S SHADOW.
A TV ad for the release of EAGLE’S SHADOW that aired on the Channel 5 Drive-In Movie.