<nettime-ann> LOOPTOPIA: THE SEARCH FOR COUNT DANTE (Modified by Geert Lovink)

["Floyd Webb" <floyd@3to1studios.com>]

.
 Special Preview Screening of The Search for Count Dante,
 a documentary work-in-progress at LOOPTOPIA.
 http://thesearchforcountdante.com/html/looptopia5_11.html

 Friday, May 11, at the Project 3to1 Film Festival
 Fine Arts Building, 410 S Michigan Ave., Suite 421
Screening Times to be announced.

Contact: Floyd Webb
708-704-1482

In the 1960s and 70s, his scowl was unmistakable and his kung fu pose 
conveyed a menace that went beyond martial arts mastery. He called 
himself Count Dante and he claimed to be "The Deadliest Man Alive" in 
garish comic book ads and gruesome instructional manuals. While his 
name and title may have been more show biz than lineage, his drive to 
live up to his fearsome reputation left one man dead and a promising 
career in ruins.
        
  Count Dante's real name was John Keehan and he grew up in a posh 
section of Chicago. In the early 1960s he was one of the most 
intriguing figures in America's nascent martial arts scene. Bruce Lee 
and Chuck Norris were his contemporaries, but Keehan's appetite for 
self-promotion was greater than a movie star's. When he wasn't putting 
on karate tournaments, he was styling hair and courting Playboy 
Bunnies. He was one part "Black Belt Jones" and one part Warren Beatty 
from "Shampoo." He challenged Muhammad Ali, tested his hand speed 
against a quick draw artist, and kept an African lion as a house 
pet.      

But as the 1960s gave way to the 70s, Keehan could no longer separate 
himself from the macho marketing tool that he created. Rival dojos were 
stormed, the life of Keehan's best friend was lost and Dante became 
involved in the Purolator Armored Car Robbery in 1974 that netted four 
million dollars. Soon after the robbery, Dante mysteriously died and 
was buried in an unmarked grave.      

The documentary film "The Search for Count Dante" is filmmaker Floyd 
Webb's personal journey into the Dante legend. Webb explores how a rich 
kid from Chicago became the self-proclaimed "Crown Prince of Death" all 
told against the backdrop of social change during the 1960s and 70s and 
the emergence of martial arts in American popular 
consciousness.        

For this film, Webb has interviewed a cast of characters that is as 
colorful as The Count himself that includes karate champions, mob 
informants and trash talking tai chi masters. Count Dante's story is 
one that begins with the promise of athletic glory and ends with one of 
the most lucrative heists in the history of American criminal 
enterprise.

Interviewed: Attorney Bob Cooley, Ken Knudson, Jimmy Jones, Bob Brown, 
Ronald Duncan, Angelo Dundee, Nganga Tolo Na(Ray Cooper), British 
Science Fiction writer Robert Rankin and many others.

---

Floyd Webb
3to1 Studios, LLC
http://3to1studios.com
410 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60605
312-281-2288 office
708-704-1482 cell
 312-233-2780 skype

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