L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano H is office has no sign, just a blank wall, a no-see- through entrance door, the perfect place for all the showbiz people who don't want to be followed by paparazzi. "I have many clients who are famous actors, people who come to see me from faraway places, and they don't want to be both- ered, so I try to be as invisible as I can" says Franco Columbu, former bodybuilding champion, actor and chiropractor in Westwood. Originally from Ollolai, Sardinia, Franco has won Mr World, Mr Universe, and, twice, Mr Olympia, the only Italian to reach such accomplish- ments. Upon entering his office, on the wall a large format silkscreen by Los Angeles-based Japanese painter Hiro Yamagata, portray- ing Franco at his best. "I left my hometown during the sixties and went to look for a job in Germany where I became a bricklayer. Germany did not only give me a job but also my best friend, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a bricklayer himself, with whom we became training partners and, when we both came to America in 1969 we began a bricklaying and patio business called European Brick Works, you can still see one of the walls we built in Santa Monica". "Our luck was the 1971 earthquake: Americans fixed fireplaces for 5 thousand dollars, Arnold and I did it for1 thousand! We got so much work we had to call friends to carry the bricks!". He smiles and starts talking about Italian Americans and our culture: "Italy is an old culture and we have brought it to America whom we have given art, the concept of family, passion, and good food". We are having lunch at Pastina, he calls the owner and friend Franco Catullo. "You have noticed how we have made French restaurants disappear?" continues Franco. "It has not been hard, our food had to be recognized not only because it is healthiest but because there is no comparison with every other cui- sine". Italians have brought food that has character, passion, fla- vor, and their role is very impor- tant in the American culture. Especially because Italian Americans have shown what family ties are. No need for a psychologist when you have family". "When I arrived in Los Angeles, in 1969, continues Franco, the area around Casa Italiana and the church was a Little Italy. I remember Nicola Masiello, who donated the famous Lupa to the Casa, Jack De Nove, Wilky Chung. The fact that we have lost our physical community as location has con- tributed to make Italian Americans less visible and we have to reassert our presence". Franco is still very attached to Sardinia where he goes back every year: "When I came here I had no family except for my friend Arnold (Schwarzenegger, editor's note), so you better work a lot otherwise your mind goes back to your family in a faraway land and sadness over- comes you. Have I ever thought of going back? Yes, sure, but after you are in Italy for a month you realize you don't belong anymore". "I found a way to stay in Sardinia for longer periods by filming movies I produced like Beretta's Island, Doublecross, Ancient Warriors". Franco Columbu's filmogra- phy is extensive starting with Stay Hungry in 1976 to Dreamland in 2011, landing roles in well-known movies like Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator, but maybe he is best known for the docudrama Pumping Iron where he plays himself. Franco, lifting weights, has not only been a bodybuiding champion but someone who has fun with unusual feats like blowing into a hot water bottle until it explodes or lifting a car so that he can park his. Thanks to the hot water bottle he set a Guinness world record: "It start- ed when I was 11 or 12 and my mom had an old hot water bottle she used for comfort in all situa- tions. Once she left the old bot- tle and I had the idea of making it explode so I started blowing into it with all the strength of my lungs and boom! It burst. Of course it was not my strength, but it gave me the idea!". Ideas have allowed Franco to continue his career not only as a trainer to stars like Sylvester Stallone, but also as a chiropractor and an author. Franco Columbu's Complete Book of Bodybuilding is like a bible covering all aspects from nutrition to training routines to posing techniques and injury treatment and prevention. "Most important is to have fun in life. I had so much fun bodybuilding when I was training. Having fun helps keep you young. Enjoy yourself while you train". Even today, at 75, Franco likes to go back to Gold's Gym and have fun training, sometimes with Arnold Schwarzenegger, friend of a lifetime, each of them best man to the other's wedding. On their 51 year of friendship anniversary, it is at Gold's Gym that they went to train and cele- brate with a great video posted on youtube. "It is for bodybuild- ing that I have recently been going back to Sardinia, because in 2016 they have started the Columbu Championship and where I have given speeches and contributed with my experi- ence". "Training is fascinating and I like to tell my students not only what to do but also what not to do" and while he is telling me about it we are interrupted by a Hollywood actor who walks in to be treated for an injury. I rec- ognize him, we shake hands, Franco introduces us by first name and I do as if I did not rec- ognize him. I think Franco is really the American dream turned reality. He started from a remote, rural area of Sardinia and ended up in Hollywood among glamorous people but he has remained very simple. Simplicity is also his secret for becoming a champion: "The brain has its own limited capaci- ty. If you want to become a world champion you must use your brain to train your body to the maximum using the most basic way of training. When you think too much about all the lat- est research, steroids, doctors, computers, and machines the DONATELLA POLIZZI Franco Columbu: Strongest Man of the Golden Era of bodybuilding brain gets sidetracked. It spends time trying to find answers. This does not help the body get in shape". Franco has a perfectly trim and fit body and I ask him how he nutritionally built and keeps his body in such great condition: "Having lived in Sardinia my first 20 years, I started with a very healthy diet and I have kept my original habits which I have modified to support my training. When I was a professional body- builder my diet was, for break- fast, 3 eggs, yoghurt, fresh fruit, and toast. At lunch a large serv- ing of fish, a salad, a glass of beer or wine, a small fruit and a slice of cheesecake. Since I trained in the afternoon, an hour before I would have yoghurt or fruit or cheese and fruit. At night I would have a meal like at lunch, sometimes a baked potato or a salad. If I was in intensive training, I would have a late snack choosing among yoghurt, cheese, sardines, tuna". And milk? "That is not part of a body- builder's diet". Best age to start bodybuild- ing? "Between 12 and 20 so you can be ready for championships at 25. You find champions in their late forties and early fifties but you can continue training until you are quite old because you go at your own pace: "People think that when you do bodybuilding you bulge and have trouble moving due to the large muscular mass. It is false, it is only fat that does not make you move! Just think that when I had to learn to pose for champi- onships I watched ballet perfor- mances, and what is more oppo- site than ballet to bodybuild- ing?!" Franco's career as athlete, actor, chiropractor and author is completed by his business ven- ture in the field of supplements and support of which the most famous are the Olympia tape, to alleviate muscular and joint pain, and vitamin and mineral supple- ments: "When I became Mr. Universe winner I never even heard of steroids. All was based on nutrition and training. Over time steroids have become very popular because they give tempo- rary weight gain and increase in strength so that training can be increased". As I am about to leave, he shows some of his prizes: Mr Olympia, Mr Europe, a prize from Sardinia, a photo with his parents, and the hand from Terminator. It's a long way from 227 Strand, in Santa Monica, where Franco and Arnold lived, to today, it's the American dream made reality: "This is the biggest difference between Italy and the USA. In Italy only few have the courage to follow their dreams and most end up following their fathers' footsteps. But that only gives way to mediocrity, because you can only become your best if you follow your inclinations. Visualizing where you want to be, how you want to be is funda- mental. The mind is extremely powerful, the body and reality will follow". A beautiful lesson. Franco Columbu was one of the greatest professional body builders of all time LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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