Well known for bring… well known
After receiving a snub from a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, one man is determined to see his face in more newspapers and magazines than the big man himself
“I am trying to set a record as the most profiled person in the world, in newspapers and magazines because of something Arnold Schwarzenegger said to me in 1968.” Not something you hear everyday and something you would probably put down as wishful thinking. In reality, this is a quote from Roger Field, who actually is one of the most profiled people in the world, with a record of 860 publications from 58 different countries (in addition to this one). Arnold told him he would always be a zero and just to prove him wrong, Field is on a mission to enter the Guinness Book of World Records and get back at the Terminator but also with a little help from Bond, James Bond!
Field met Schwarzenegger in 1968 during his summer break from college. “My mother rented an apartment in Munich for a few months and I went to stay with her. I lifted weights in those days and went to a gym nearby to ask if I could train there. That’s where I saw a picture of Arnold on a muscle magazine cover, he was already Mr. Universe back then. The gym owner told me Arnold was working at another gym as a bodybuilding trainer and that he was looking for someone to teach him English because he wanted to emigrate to the States. The gym owner phoned Arnold for me and I took a taxi over there. I taught him English and he let me train for nothing.” He still remembers seeing Schwarzenegger for the first time. “He was wearing a red check shirt and was huge, bigger than anyone I had ever seen but he gave me his trademark gap-toothed grin.”
Field and Schwarzenegger became friends and would often take rides in the Terminator’s car. “He was very nice but he drove like a lunatic,” Field says. “I would always sit in the back and once got out at a red light after he did a U-turn in front of oncoming traffic in Munich while showing his biceps off out of the window and yelling at pedestrians. But I’m sure that he drives better now.”
When not chasing newspapers and magazines from around the world, Field is an inventor, following his training as an industrial engineer. “I am an inventor by profession with over 100 patents,” he explains. “My latest invention is a movie camera and film system that doubles the picture quality of 35mm film pictures.” In an attempt to promote and get funding for his new project, Field is enlisting the help of various James Bonds. “I trained at Edward Bolton’s gym in London, where Sean Connery trained, in 1964. I claim to be the only person to have trained with both the Terminator and Bond,” he says. He has already received a letter from Sir Roger Moore, wishing him good luck and is hoping to get more feedback when he visits Tinseltown and gets a helping hand from his cousin Henry Winkler. Yes, that’s The Fonz.
Perhaps one of Field’s best-known inventions is that of the folding guitar, an invention Carlos Santana, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger all responded to with enthusiasm. The guitar even got Field a Designer’s Choice Award and a nod from Sir Paul McCartney himself in a magazine article. A keen guitarist, Field spends hours playing and boasts of being the first guitarist to play through the sound barrier on a Concord flight, in 1987.
It was Field’s teasing that provoked Schwarzenegger into saying the inventor would amount to nothing. “I would tease him for not being able to pronounce the word ‘the’. He would say ‘durr’ and get upset, saying that he would become a famous movie star and I would be nothing.” The governor of California receives a copy of every interview Roger gives and now knows that that isn’t completely true.
