formerkarateka

As someone who was not part of the business end of Villari's, I don't really know how they are organized, or what business arrangement Villari had with Mattera. It could have been a partnership-type organization, like accounting and law firms. In the latter, there are different levels of partners. So, maybe he got a cut of the overall busines, without necessarily being an equal partner. But, that is only speculation. Nobody ever went into detail about who owned what. The guy who ran our school never said anything about his arrangements with Villari organization. Was there a cost to buy a franchise? Did he pay a percentage back to the Villari organization? I don't know.

I don't recall hearing the name. The only other person given some credit was, as I said, William Chow. It is possible the name was mentioned and I just don't remember. It's been 30 years since I started. Also, as I mentioned, I was in the Villari system for about eight years, but I didn't have a "franchise". So, I was more a customer than a member of the "corporation". I was not really an "insider". Of course, 20-30 years ago, we didn't have Internet resources like this to research our system. All we knew was what they told us. In some ways, I guess it wouldn't surprise me if those people who start their own systems downplay the fact that they split from another. I imagine the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. don't spend a lot of time telling their folks that they have the same roots as the Catholics and Episcopalians.

Here's some history, from what I can remember, and I dug up my old rank certificates, which may help establish when some "events" occurred. First, I misstated when I started in martial arts. I might have said 1977, but it was actually earlier - 1975. I found some of my old certificates of rank, which provide some answers that my memory does not. They give a better clue as to when the name changed from USSD to Villari's and the style went from being called Kenpo to Shaolin Kempo. I received my 2nd degree brown rank in November 1979. That certificate says United Studios of Self Defense - Kenpo Karate. I earned 1st degree brown in April 1980. THAT certificate says USSD, but now SHAOLIN KEMPO. So the style name change occurred in early 1980 I made 1st degree black belt in December 1980. The certificate still reads United Studios. But, my certificate for 2nd degree black is from Fred Villari's. Not real specific, but the change in name apparently occurred in 1981 or 1982. From the time I started, Villari was the guy running the system. I don't know when I first heard Mattera's name, but if he (or anyone else) was a partner, it wasn't visible to anyone. In the beginning, we would start classes bowing to pictures of "the masters". There was one of Villari, and one of William Chow. Eventually, Chow's picture was gone. If Mattera was partner, it was not obvious. I find it interesting to read stuff about Villari and Cerio being partners. I'd never heard of Cerio until I started reading these forums recently. I've not heard the name Rudy Horn. That doesn't mean much, as I was not a dojo owner. I was mainly just a student. But I was around for quite a few years, and remember a few names of the "big names" in the organization. Some of the folks who were prominent in the organization when I was there are on my rank certificates. Most of my early certificates have a signature (a reproduction on the pre-black belt ones) by Villari as "President", and are hand-signed by Art Singer, as "Director". A couple are signed by Gerald Swanson, as "Director". I may have heard his name before this, but Mattera first appears on my rank certificates when I got to black. Both black belt certificates are signed by Villari as "Grandmaster 10th Degree Black Belt" and "Chairman of the Promotion Board". My 1st degree certificate is signed by Lawrence Mangone - 5th degree, as "Director". It is also signed by Charles Mattera - 6th degree, as "Senior Instructor". Also signed by a 3rd degree "Witness", though I can't quite make out the name. My 2nd degree black certificate is signed again by Villari, Fred Bagley - 6th Dan as "Director", and again by Mattera - 6th Dan as "Senior Instructor". It is also witnessed by John Fritz - 5th Dan. About the only other thing I can say about Mattera back then is we all heard he drove a Maserati. Hope this "history" is of some interest...

One other thing that happened while I was associated with the Villari schools, is they once referred to their style as Kenpo. Then it became Kempo. Always thought that was a bit strange. I never really understood the explanation. Also, when I started (around 1977), it was called United Studios of Self Defense. A few years later they changed the name to Fred Villari's School of Self Defense. Villari was always in charge, but I guess he liked seeing his name on the signs, or maybe someone convinced him that the formula worked well for Ed Parker. Mattera was still with Villari at the time of the name change, and a while beyond that. I didn't know until recently that he had left. But, apparently he liked the old name!

That was certainly true when I was involved. Actually, my instructor was not bad when it came to the "art". He just took advantage of a lot of us by getting us to teach for free. There were others I knew back then that I respected. I started training with a guy named Rino Tonelli, though I don't see any evidence that he is still teaching. As a black belt, I worked out for a little while with Armen Heroian, who runs a school in California. He was very good and intensely dedicated to the art. I would expect he is a great instructor. I do remember one guy who came out of our dojo who had his own Villari franchise, that got himself beat up in a bar. I'm not sure if his skills were weak or he was just really drunk. But, it was rather embarassing, because some people I know in the town where it happened had a field day with it. I forgot about green/brown, but that was part of the "new" ranking system, which apparently has not changed in at least 25 years. It did change when I was there, and it had the appearance of being a way to make a bit more money for the dojo. I had a regular private lesson student when I was a brown belt. I took him up through purple, I think. I stopped teaching regularly, because I didn't like being committed to teaching for free, and found a way to weasle out of it. My instructor gave me a hard time about it. But, I wasn't the only one. By the time I made brown belt, our dojo had several brown and black belts. There were at least 3 to 5 others teaching in addition to me and the owner. And most of the others were teaching more than me. I think he knew that he could teach more students and make a lot more money by getting "free" help. And he took advantage. Again, I think he was a decent martial artist. Just a bit of dishonest. It helped me as a martial artist to teach for free. But not him, of course. Thanks for the offer. Sometimes I miss it, but I've actually been out of MA longer than I was in. Started at age 19, quit at 29. Now I'm 50. Even if I had the time, I'm not sure my body could take it

As someone who was long ago associated with the Villari schools, and for the heck of it, "googled" Villari today, I find the discussions a bit interesting. I started as a student around 1974 in Massachusetts, and eventually got to 2nd degree black, before leaving in 1983. I've been out of martial arts ever since. Funny how you are all talking about it getting commercialized, because we thought that was the case over 20 years ago. I guess it can only be worse. When I started, the ranking system was white, orange, purple, blue, green, brown, black. Then, they introduced what I think was called a more chinese system, which added yellow, blue/green stripe. I don;'t know if the brown ranks expanded or not. But, we all grumbled that the reason for the change was that more belts meant more tests, and more tests meant more test fees. I don't know about other schools, but our instructor basically relied on slave labor. We (generally once we got to brown belt) were asked to "help out", and generally, helping out meant teaching for free. I spent many, many hour teaching. Never got paid a cent. Never even got a free lesson. I was told that teaching was a way for me to learn. When I say "help out", I don't mean I taught a lesson here or there. I had regular private-lesson students. And "private lessons"? Interesting term. When I first started, I thought it meant you had a one-on-one lesson with the instructor. But then sooner or later another student got added to your lesson. Sometimes a third. Sure, there are advantages to having someone to work with. But, the instructor didn't give us any discount. Did we pay half and a third with more students? Of course not. The instructor just made more per hour. I can't speak for many other instructors. Ours may have been a bigger cheapskate. I do know of a couple guys who seemed interested in the art more than the money.