Little Black Book and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson)

WHILE DWAYNE JOHNSON savours the high life as the star of a new Disney epic, known as The Game Plan, life wasn't always a thrill. Not by a long shot.
In fact, this one-time defensive end for the national champion, Miami Hurricanes, tried out for the Calgary Stampeders in the 1990s and failed miserably.
Before reading the latest review of the new flick, I started thumbing through a Little Black Book on my bookshelf. It's called The Rock Says ... with Joe Layden and published by Judith Regan, who has become a notorious name with her involvement in the O.J. Simpson book, If I Did It. That script now reads, I Did It, and benefits Ron Goldman's family.
Chapter 7 opened with these words: "It's a hot summer day in Calgary, Alberta, and we're standing behind a seedy motel, the kind with flashing neon lights and hourly rates. There are four of us, big guys, athletes, and we're stomping around in other people's garbage, trudging through flies and maggots and half-eaten fast-food dinners, in search of a prize. We find it beyond the Dumpsters, a pile of discarded mattresses ten feet high ... After a while I find one ... I take a deep breath, hoist it onto my back, and walk toward the truck that will deliver us from this little corner of hell. My teammates are still foraging, and as I watch them I can't help but think ... "We're professional football players. I can't believe we're doing this. It's so embarrassing."
While I've bypassed some of the seamier descriptions of Johnson's misadventures, you get the picture that life didn't always have a perfect Hollywood ending.
When Johnson was bypassed in the NFL draft, he opted for the CFL and despite hearing the meagre salary of $30,000, he told his agent, "Let's take it. I'll go up there and kick some ass."
Then reality stepped in when he realized the opposition -- one was a CFL veteran, an all-league lineman, and the other was a Nebraska standout Kenny Walker, who was also the first deaf player in the NFL, according to that Little Black Book.
Shortly afterwards, then Calgary coach Wally Buono (now the B.C. Lions boss) gave Johnson a choice: Either come back the following year or work out with the practice team, which paid about $175 (U.S.) a week.
Ouch! How the mighty had fallen.
That's when the story for a decent "used" mattress came into being in a less-than-luxurious apartment, across from McMahon Stadium, which he shared with three other practice players.
In addition, to that "glamorous" lifestyle of sleeping on those mattresses, Johnson remembers the food menu consisted of "gallon jars of cheap spaghetti sauce"and eating pasta. He was later cut by the Stampeders.
It was at this time that Johnson realized that pro football wasn't really in his future and he started to daydream about wrestling. After all his father, Soulman Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, had been in the business. In addition, his heritage included his uncles, The Wild Samoans Afa and Sika, Superfly Jimmy Snuka and cousins Samu and Yokozuna.
During his Calgary stint he became acquainted with the late promoter Stu Hart and his wrestling sons, Brett, and the late Owen Hart, and the infamous Dungeon in the basement of the Harts' home.
But when he lost out with the Stamps, he headed for Florida and pursued the family business and went through a series of name changes from Flex Cavana to Pidlaon Rock, Rocky Maivia to, finally, The Rock.
Besides his extraordinary rise from dingy arenas to superstardom, Dwayne Johnson has evolved on the movie screen from the The Scorpion King to what has been called a "lovable lug" in The Game Plan.
There's also talk of him playing Captain Marvel/Black Adam in Shazam next year.
In the meantime, if all else fails, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) can fall back on a degree in criminology and physiology he received from the University of Miami.
JUST SOME ADVICE (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): Al Capone once said, "You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone" ... And from Alfred Hitchcock: "There's nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever" ... And in the words of the late J. Paul Getty: "Rise early. Work late. Strike oil."
FINALLY FROM THE 'I DIDN'T KNOW THAT' LIST (Courtesy The Book Of Lists): Famous Men Known By Their Mothers' Maiden Names -- William Arden (Shakespeare); George Ball (Washington); Frank Buchar (Mahovlich); Abraham Hanks (Lincoln); Stephen Pillsbury (King); Mick Scutts (Jagger).