1962 "police judo" article

Posted on: Fri, 03/15/2013 - 11:32 By: Tom Swiss

Our friend Sifu JB Jaeger from the Maryland Jeet Kune Do Athletic Club spotted this great piece from "The Art of Maniless": Don Draper Judo: Unarmed Self-Defense from the Mad Men Era. (Thanks to Google Books, the original Popular Science article can be found here.)

As I was browsing through some old magazines the other day, I came across a fantastic issue of Popular Science from 1962 that contained a feature on unarmed self-defense. The article was adapted from a book entitled Modern Judo and Self-Defense by Harry Ewen, a “police judo” expert. The best part of the multi-page article are the fantastic mid-century illustrations by Dana Rasmussen, featuring a well-dressed judo expert who looks like he might work with Don Draper when he isn’t throwing ruffians over his shoulder. Even the “thug” in the article is pretty dapper, proving once again that everything was just swankier back in the day — even the bad guys.

Below you’ll find step-by-step illustrated instructions on how to defend yourself from chokes, bear hugs, kicks, and knife attacks when you’re unarmed, all while still looking incredibly handsome. Enjoy.

Some pretty good practical goshin jitsu here. I'm always interested in portrayals of the martial arts and self-defense from the early 1960s and earlier, from before the big martial-arts boom.

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