Sly Stallone, Sugar Ray Leonard and Mark Burnett and Sylvester Stallone attended a news conference Saturday, March 13, 2004, in Las Vegas to promote The Contender.
Sly at the Arnold Classic
SZoner, Randy Rousseau, checked in with his EXCLUSIVE StalloneZone report of Sly at this year’s Arnold Classic! Here’s Randy…
I have been a friend of Tony Nowak since 1991. I tracked him down after seeing Stallone on a talk show wearing his orange and tan leather Planet Hollywood jacket. I just had to have one, and found out after flying to the first Planet Hollywood in New York that Tony was in LA, near me. Tony and I got together and have been friends for years now.
Tony has gone to the Arnold Classic every year for the last sixteen years and has a booth selling the Arnold Classic jacket. Tony has been friends with Arnold for over thirty years. Tony makes all of Arnold‘s outfits for his films and that’s how he got involved with Planet Hollywood and became friends with Sylvester Stallone and the other owners. (By the way Tony has said that Sly was the best always to work with on his different coats for Planet, he always wanted fun colors and to have fun with them some times paying over three thousand a piece.)
For the past five years my father and I have helped Tony sell the Arnold Classic jackets at the show in Columbus, Ohio. I have met Arnold many times there, but this year had a special guest that I or Tony had no idea was coming.
The show started on Friday and before the doors opened I went around looking at all the other booths that were out there at the expo and picked up a print of the show and flipped threw the pages and could not believe my eyes. There was a story in there about Sylvester Stallone coming to the show this year! I took this over to Tony, and he said he had no idea Sly coming. What a surprise!
My father came over and said, “Come look at this.” Up on a fifty inch flat screen was a promo spot of Sly working out and talking about fitness (he looked great in the promo wearing black work out attire). There were all these large pictures from Rocky IV and Demolition Man. ( Great body shots being that we are at a body building show and every single person at the show has a killer body) Then there was a banner that said ( “In my life, I have learned that success is best achieved by taking control, rather than standing on the sidelines. Now I want to teach others what I ve learned from a lifetime of taking care of my body through performance nutrition and exercise. That is why I founded INSTONE. Sincerely, SYLVESTER STALLONE Chairman & Founder”)
So to my disbelief not only was Sly going to stop by, but he had his own booth. You could feel the excitement in the air. There were about six men and women working his booth. They told me that Sly would be by on Saturday for about an hour. I went back to our booth and told Tony what was going on. I than called my wife back in California and told her the great news. She asked me, “Do you want me to send the picture of Sly that my cousin drew for you of Sly to sign”? and I said, “Please overnight it and I’ll see if I can get close to Sly to sign it.”
Over the years I have become good buddies with the security guys who guard Arnold. They told us this year they were left out because now that Arnold was the governor he would be bringing his own security. They also told us that Sly would be in about 10:30 am and he would NOT making any stops as he would be here for only thirty minutes.
On stage they were having the arm wrestling, and in walks the team of security. They come over to our booth and tell us the will bring Stallone by after he goes on stage. I go to the dock to check for my picture that my wife had overnighted and there it was, great timing. I took it back to the booth and showed it to the guys. Tony loved it and said, “put it here for me to get Sly to sign.” Tony asked, “what jacket do you think I should give him?” I said, “the Joe Weider one.” Tony picked the all-leather $1700.00 ONE AND THREE OTHER JACKETS TO GIVE TO HIS FRIEND.
I asked Tony, “when was the last time you talked to Sly” and he said when Sly was filming “Get Carter.” A few years had passed and I was thinking to myself how good does Sly know Tony? I was about to find out.
Then from the back door in comes the security and Stallone in the middle. They go to the back of the stage, and the MC talks about a special guest movie star that is into arm wrestling and made a movie about the sport. And very loudly said Sylvester Stallone. Sly thanked every one for the great welcome. Sly talked about making the film and then shook hands going of the stage, and back down to the crowd.
Sly came by our booth and noticed Tony. Sly turned and yelled, “Big Tony” and gave Tony a huge bear hug. I was standing right next to Sly. He looked fantastic. Tony said, “I have some jackets for you.” Sly said, “no you don’t have to do that, but thank you very much!!”
Than Tony said, “This is my very good friend Randy Rousseau and he is the biggest admirer you have!” Sly said, “Thank you. HOW YOU DOING?” and shook my hand. Then Tony said, “would you do us a favor and sign this?” and turned the Rocky portrait over. Sly said, “Wow! This is beautiful. Can I have it?” Tony said, “We will send you a copy.” Sly signed it and then I asked him to sign the yellow leather jacket for my company Sly asked, “are you sure?” and then signed it!
Then he took some pictures with all of us at the booth and spent a good amount of time with us. Sly then went on looking and greeting fans all over the expo. He finally went over to his booth spent around one there signing autographs and taking pictures with hundreds of fans! Sly was in the expo for over THREE HOURS AND FIFTY minutes. They were blasting Gonna Fly Now, and Eye of the Tiger. Sly spent more time at the Arnold expo in side the building with fans than Arnold has in the last sixteen years if you were to combine all the years together in just one day.
POW – Sly and SZoner!
This week’s POW is of Sly and SZoner, Randy Rousseau!
– Craig Zablo
It’s All Relative
The March 8, 2004 issue of US Weekly features the above picture in a piece called “Stars’ Most Embarrasing Parents.” Along with Sly, the parents of Mel Gibson, Drew Barrymore, Brittney Spears and others are featured!
– Craig Zablo
Winner of the Week
The March 5, 2004 issue of Entertainment Weekly features the above item!
– Craig Zablo
Sly May Play Himself!
On March 4, 2004, Richard Johnson of the New York Post’s Page Six reported that “Sylvester Stallone may be stepping back into the ring. The mush-mouthed movie star — who is busy writing “Rocky 6” — may play himself in the upcoming biopic about former Great White Hope Tommy Morrison, who appeared in “Rocky V” and tested positive for HIV in 1996.”
Thanks to Tarek for the tip! – Craig Zablo
POW – “Get Carter”
This week’s POW comes from my personal collection.
– Craig Zablo
PS – This wee
This early update is due to the fact that I’ll be out of town this weekend. I’ll have more updates when I return, including pics from the latest issues of US and Entertainment Weekly!
StalloneZone History
The idea of the STALLONEZONE first came to me in the late 70’s! Of course it would have been a LOT different back then! At that time I was really into comic books, original art and fanzines (magazines created by fans which contained original art, stories, interviews, etc). My good friend, John Beatty was an aspiring comic artist and had started to develop contacts with other fans and pros as well.
John and I were going to do a comic fanzine and I talked about creating a fanzine that covered comics and movies. We even went so far as to layout the first issue and get art stats started. We never did publish it (but I still have some of the stats!) because John began to get work professinally and I was busy with college.
I revisited the idea in the mid 80’s and even published a couple of newsletters titled ZONE that were mailed out to friends. The emphasis was again on comics, art and movies. Of course SLY was covered in each issue!
The idea for a STALLONE periodical for his fans was always in the back of my mind and once I had access to the internet I became intrigued with the idea of a website dedicated to SLY. I was on AOL and they had an area that members could use to create simple websites with a point and click production. I was off and running.
When I first started the STALLONEZONE back in 1996, it was a one man operation. I did everything from finding news items, to scanning pictures, and designing the pages. You name it and I did it alone. The site was very basic at first and then I began to add the “bells and whistles” [animated gifs, flashing messages, scrolling headlines, etc.].
My good friend, John Beatty, was impressed with my web abilities and wanted to learn how to do all of these cool things. Needless to say, in no time John was the expert and with his artistic sense of layout and design, he was able to offer suggestions and solutions to my every question. John graciously designed logos, and pages, as well as provided the much needed technical support. John came on board officially as the site co-designer and technician.
My goal was to create a Stallone ‘periodical’ of sorts. A web “magazine” that fans could count on being updated ‘weekly.’ John felt that the best way to do this was to simplify the site and streamline the ease of use to the web surfer. John took my ideas and his sensibilities and through many give-and-take sessions, we developed the STALLONEZONE into what it is today… the most popular Stallone site on the web!
The AOL site was quickly becoming too small for the SZ! I decided that I would have to find another server in order to meet the needs of our plans for the SZ. Early in 1999 we switched over to Mindspring. Within six months Mindspring was too small! John and I talked about getting Stallonezone domained. In September of 1999 we did just that!
Although we have received news and photos from various sources over the years, one very talented Stallone fan named Ernest Resendes [A.K.A. “Jazzman”] began to send in scans of his original art as well as rare pictures from his personal collection. Jazzman did this repeatedly without request for payment or even credit [although we ALWAYS credit fans who send in items that are used on the STALLONEZONE.]. Jazzman became a regular contributor whose positive responses and upbeat attitude transcended the casual fan/contributor. John and I discussed the situation and decided that Ernest should be offered a role as ‘Associate Gallery Editor.” Jazzman accepted and became the third member of the team.
In June of 2000, rOb De Vera the creator of the very popular STALLONE tribute page, Souhpaw, decided to retire the site due to the time constraints needed to maintain Southpaw’s high level of excellence. rOb had always been a SZ regular and had in fact donated specifically made graphics to us over the years. rOb’s site was always given top billing in our STALLONE links section so it seemed natural to invite him to join the SZ creative team. rOb enthusiastically agreed!
Currently the four of us provide the bulk of the material that appears on the STALLONEZONE. Whenever others contribute we offer them a “byline” for their contribution.
We would also like to acknowledge all the people who post on our message-board. We appreciate their support.
We have no plans to expand our editorial staff [besides not many people are willing to work for nothing but praise!] but who knows what the future will hold?
POW – Are You Talkin’ to Me?
This week’s POW comes from Ernest Jazzman Resendes .
Thanks! – Craig Zablo
Sly An Under-Rated Actor
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Empire magazine has created their list of the ten most under-rated actors in Hollywood history. Sly came in at #9. While I wouldn’t agree with everyone on the list and could probably come up with a few others, I do agree that Sly is under-rated. The full list is posted below and you can read the entire article HERE. – Craig
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