Arnie's LA Story: He Muscled In On The Old Beach

Eric Ellis, Venice Beach, Los Angeles

09/09/1996

When Arnold Schwarzenegger declared "I'll be back" in James Cameron's 1984 hit The Terminator, he may well have been referring to this notorious part of Los Angeles.

It was to Venice Beach that the 20-year-old Austrian emigre was drawn after arriving in the US in 1968. That was largely because it was home to one of LA's then few gymnasiums, Golds, where the past and future Mr Universe could flex his pecs in the New World.

A marketing degree and several Hollywood blockbusters later, Arnie and his bodyguards have parlayed his huge box office pull into property, and lots of it, just blocks from where he first conceived his American dream. Off the set, Schwarzenegger is the classic slum landlord, shrewdly buying up huge chunks of a down-at-heel, Bohemian neighbourhood - crack $US5 a hit - now emerging as a yuppie favourite.

Schwarzenegger controls a property, retail and entertainment empire, including a big stake in the Planet Hollywood theme chain, conservatively estimated to be worth $US500 million ($630 million).

Leaving aside a vast entertainment and commercial complex in Denver, much of Arnie's World stretches from the grubbier parts of Venice following Main Street, Ocean Avenue and the Pacific Coast Highway through middle-class Santa Monica beach to the wealthier climes of Pacific Palisades.

When Arnie arrived in Venice with $US20, limited English but muscles, Venice was an unremarkable residential district of beach bungalows, with the occasional artist or writer in residence.

Through the '70s and early '80s, the so-called "home boys", or black and Hispanic toughs, moved into the back streets. That transformed Venice into a Bondi or Port Melbourne with drive-by shootings, a place the flaky Beverly Hills set would sneer at, the sort of neighbourhood The Terminator would feel right at home in.

Schwarzenegger did. He knew the area intimately, learning it in his early US years as a masoner and bricklayer. With his huge cut from The Terminator's box office takings, Arnie stepped vigorously into the Venice property scene.

Today, Main Street on the Venice/ Santa Monica border, centring on Main Street Plaza, Arnie's flagship building and corporate headquarters, has become one of the most fashionable addresses in Los Angeles. And Arnie has ridden the wave up.

"I have a lot of respect for the guy, he's very savvy. They were snapping up everything for a while there." says real estate agent and Venice identity Suzy Franks, who has watched and occasionally profited as Arnie picked off his targets.

And at Main Street Plaza, a block from the original Gold's Gym where Arnie first pumped American iron, his tenants haven't got a bad word to say about the landlord who swings into work driving an ex-military Humvee, registration TERMINATOR.

"Steve," the portly manager of cigar emporium The Main Smoke told the AFR "Arnie's a great guy". The portlier manager of Nature's Grooming Boutique, a pet care centre, said "you couldn't ask for a better landlord".

"We haven't had a rent increase in here for a long time." she said. "He's a very cool guy. He's moved this area right up."

In Schatzi's on Main, Arnie's restaurant where he hosts a cigar night on Mondays, posters of his movies adorn the walls and apple strudel and wiener schnitzel feature on the menu.

Main Street Plaza could be in Pyongyang, a mall devoted to Arnie's Kim Il-sung-like personality cult. The foyer of the office building at his Oak Productions holding company is dominated by a mural depicting Arnie blasting away villains in Total Recall.

In the gift shop Y-NOT, Arnie T-shirts (logo - You'll Be Back!) and windbreakers, tote bags and Planet Hollywood jackets are on sale. Y-NOT store assistant Janice said Arnie was "a regular guy".

At the trendy Il Fornaio cafe, next to Schatzi, Arnie has a special coffee made for him. The goateed "barista" making lattes concurred that Arnie was a "regular guy". Where he isn't a regular guy is talking about his corporate empire.

A representative for Oak Productions said Arnie would be happy to be interviewed if the subject was his movies, but discussion of his business interests was off-limits.