R.I.P. Joe Hyams

[sanjuro_ronin]

Joe Hyams, Best-selling Author and
Martial Arts Pioneer, Dies at Age 85

Joe Hyams (June 6, 1923 - Nov. 8, 2008)

Best selling author of Zen and the Martial Arts -and numerous other
books, Hollywood insider, and veteran martial arts enthusiast, Joe
Hyams passed away, of natural causes, on November 8, 2008.

During his long entertainment career, Joe Hyams was the Los Angeles
Bureau Chief and Hollywood columnist for the New York Herald
Tribune and also actor Humphrey Bogart's best friend.

Joe Hyams took up fencing lessons in the 1950's and through those
classes he met film music composer Bronislau Kaper. In 1958, Kaper
introduced him to Ed Parker, who was teaching Kenpo in the weight
room in Beverly Hills Health Club. Mr. Hyams became one of Ed
Parker's first private students and also one of Mr. Parker's first
black belts.

Joe Hyams was the first person to introduce Bruce Lee into the
Hollywood community. He helped Bruce Lee, with whom he trained
privately get a foothold in Hollywood during Bruce's struggling
years. Mr. Hyams trained with Bruce Lee for two years, and when
Bruce left for Hong Kong to pursue his film career, he suggested
that Joe learn from Jim Lau, who trained him in Wing Chun.

A thorough treatment of Mr. Hyams life and times is being prepared
by his protégé, martial arts writer and editor John Corcoran.

http://www.martialinfo.com/joe-hyams

[sanjuro_ronin]

Just fond that out over on the DBMA forum.
I have a couple of his books.

[Dale Dugas]

Prayers to his family and friends.

He was a guiding light in the MA field.

[GeneChing]

I never met Joe in the flesh, but I certainly engaged his writing. He was a pioneer.

sanjuro_ronin, I'm taking the liberty of moving this to the main forum and fleshing out your thread title a little more.

[Three Harmonies]

Bummer. RIP.

[D-FENS]

Aw man, this really bums me out. Zen in the Martial Arts was the first MA book I ever owned, and the one that got me into all this stuff to begin with. RIP mate.:(

[Blacktiger]

Love that book and still pick it up every now and then -RIP

[sanjuro_ronin]

I never met Joe in the flesh, but I certainly engaged his writing. He was a pioneer.

sanjuro_ronin, I'm taking the liberty of moving this to the main forum and fleshing out your thread title a little more.

As you wish My Liege.
:D

[GeneChing]

Props to you sir, for busting out the story here a day before it hit the newspapers.


Joe Hyams dies at 85; former Hollywood columnist, bestselling author (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hyams12-2008nov12,0,5945566.story)
By Dennis McLellan
November 12, 2008
Joe Hyams, a former Hollywood columnist and bestselling author of books ranging from biographies of Humphrey Bogart and James Dean to a popular tome on Eastern philosophy, has died. He was 85.

Hyams, a longtime Los Angeles resident who moved to Penrose, Colo., three years ago, died of coronary artery disease Saturday at a Denver hospital, said his wife of 14 years, Melissa.

A former West Coast bureau chief for the New York Herald Tribune who once was married to actress Elke Sommer, Hyams covered Hollywood as a syndicated columnist from 1951 to 1964. He then continued chronicling Hollywood for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook and other magazines for several more years.

"He was a Hollywood insider," movie producer David Permut, a longtime friend, told The Times on Tuesday. "Everybody knew Joe, and he knew everybody. He was a great wit, a great guy."

The author of more than 25 books, Hyams tapped his insider status in many of them, including the biographies "Bogie" (1966), "Bogart & Bacall: A Love Story" (1975) and "James Dean: Little Boy Lost" (1992), written with his son Jay.

He also wrote the Hollywood-set novels "The Pool" and "Murder at the Academy Awards."

Among his other books are "Flight of the Avenger: George Bush at War"(1991) and, with Tom Murton, the 1969 nonfiction book "Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal," on which "Brubaker," the 1980 movie starring Robert Redford, was based.

As an author, Hyams also worked in the 1980s with Chuck Norris on Norris' "The Secret of Inner Strength: My Story" and with President Reagan's son Michael on his "Michael Reagan: On the Outside Looking In."

Besides his reputation as a Hollywood chronicler, Hyams also was known as an icon in the martial arts community.

Hyams, who studied martial arts for more than 50 years, was the author of the 1979 book "Zen In the Martial Arts."

Melissa Hyams said the slim book "isn't really about martial arts. It's about life and philosophy, and how to turn a negative into a positive, how to defuse a situation by the way you handle it. That's what he'll most be remembered for."

Hyams was born Sept. 6, 1923, in Cambridge, Mass. Reared in Brookline, Mass., he was attending Harvard University when he enlisted in the Army in 1942. While serving in the South Pacific, he received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and later covered the war as a field correspondent for the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

After the war, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees at New York University and went to work for the New York Herald Tribune.

As Hyams wrote in his 1973 autobiography "Mislaid in Hollywood," his career covering the movie capital began in 1951 when the Herald Tribune sent him west to do an article on illegal immigrants.

As recounted by his wife Tuesday, Hyams was dropped off in Mexico by the pilot of a small airplane and made the border crossing himself with a group of illegal immigrants.

After he completed the story, his editor in New York told him that a room had been arranged for him at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

"Take a break," he was told, "and if you get a chance to interview any movie stars, go for it."

Hyams was sitting by the hotel pool smoking his pipe when he began chatting with a gentleman who asked him what he was doing in Los Angeles.

After explaining that his editor wanted him to interview movie stars, the man said, "How would you like to interview Humphrey Bogart?"

The man was Bogart's press agent, and the next day he took Hyams to Bogart's home.

The tough-guy actor was behind the bar when Hyams walked in.

"What'll you have to drink?" Bogart asked him.

'I'll have a Coke," Hyams said.

"The bar's open," Bogart said. "What will you have to drink?"

Hyams repeated that he'd have a Coke.

Leveling his gaze on Hyams, Bogart said, "I don't trust a journalist who doesn't drink, or a man who has more hair on his head than I do."

At that, Hyams pocketed his notepad and started walking toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Bogart said.

"Mr. Bogart, I have two things to tell you," Hyams said. "I don't drink, and a newborn baby has more hair on his head than you do."

To which Bogart said, "Get back here, kid. I like you."

By the end of the week, Melissa Hyams said, "Joe had interviewed Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra. And the newspaper [editor] said, 'I don't know what you're doing, but you're moving out there.' "

During his years in Hollywood, she said, "Joe made many, many friendships. He always considered Bogie to be his mentor there and the person responsible for giving him the opportunity to become what he was."

In addition to Melissa, his fourth wife, Hyams is survived by sons Jay and Chris; daughters Beverly Hyams and Dianne Byrne; stepdaughters Charisse Older and Kara Connor; and five grandchildren.

Instead of flowers, donations may be made in Hyams' name to Guide Dogs of America.

McLellan is a Times staff writer.
dennis.mclellan@latimes.com

[sanjuro_ronin]

Can't take credit for that Herr General, it was posted on the DBMA forum first.

[GeneChing]

But you *can* take credit for poaching that for us here, and that's all I care about. ;)

[David Jamieson]

Gene likes his articles poached.

I prefer broiling hot.

got any pics of broiling hotness SR? :p

[GeneChing]

...but we can discuss that elsewhere. I don't want to go too far off topic here and spoil the gravitas of this thread. You never know who's reading.

I just received a courtesy email from Joe Hyam's widow, thanking us for posting this thread. I was very surprised since this thread is fairly fresh. This was my reply to her:

From all of us here at Kung Fu Tai Chi and Tiger Claw, you have our sincere condolences. On a personal note, although I never met your husband, I have tremendous respect for his contribution to the field. Zen in the Martial Arts was a pioneering work, one of the first intelligent books on the martial arts published in America. He will be sorely missed, but his impact will surely live on.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Its very cool that what Mr.Hyams wrote appealed to both TCMA, as is the case typically here, and Full Contact MMA/stick fighters like the Dog Brothers.