The death of Herb Kohl on Dec. 27 generated widespread positive tributes to his life of accomplishment: as boss of the eponymous family grocery stores which became a multimillion-dollar chain; as the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team through 29 mostly-losing seasons; and, of course, as the Democratic U.S. senator from Wisconsin from 1988-2012.
But there is a small part in the long life of Herb Kohl never mentioned in any obituary or eulogy: The entrepreneur-senator had a small role in the low-budget but iconic 1971 movie “Billy Jack,” which became a cult classic viewed and discussed to this day.
Actor Tom Laughlin, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and played football at the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University. In 1954, he was visiting his college sweetheart (and future wife) Delores Taylor in her hometown of Winner, South Dakota. Witnessing Indian reservations for the first time and seeing the mean-spirited treatment of native Americans first hand, a disgusted Laughlin closeted himself in a motel room and banged out on a manual typewriter a screenplay about Billy Jack — a man with Native American roots who had black belts in judo and karate and who battles injustice.
After more than a decade eking out a living on bit parts in movies (including "South Pacific" and "Gidget") and television, Laughlin finally parlayed Billy Jack into a film in 1967. By this time, he was a Green Beret just returning home from Vietnam and, in the movie "Born Losers," he takes on a fearsome motor cycle gang that is terrorizing a small town in Southern California.
Two years later, Laughlin had cobbled together enough money from small investors — roughly $100,000 — to bring his vision of Billy Jack to the silver screen. In the eponymous movie released in 1971, Billy Jack takes on corrupt politicians and police as well as local (and very stereotypical) bigots who are trying to shut down a hippie-themed “freedom school” in which Indian children and other minorities are taught to use their best personal talents (clearly based on the Montessori schools, which Laughlin and his wife strongly supported).
Coming before the films featuring martial arts greats Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, the fights in which Laughlin/Billy Jack subdues enemies with high kicks and swift karate chops (done mostly with Korean martial artist Hann Bong-Soo as his double) captivated audiences throughout the world.
At one point, the students from the freedom school, known as the “Other Ways Demolition Squad,” appear at a stormy meeting of the town council to make the case for their institution and why it should not be closed. Listed in the closing credits of Billy Jack as “co-director, Other Ways Demolition Squad” is Herb Kohl. It is difficult to pick anyone who looks like a younger Kohl in the crowd which includes as one of the Other Ways students Howard Hesseman, later famed as the disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever in WKRP in Cincinnati. And there is no sign of a “co-director” of the “Demolition Squad” anywhere else in the movie.
Wisconsin residents who were familiar with Kohl knew nothing about a role in Billy Jack.
“I had never heard that about him,” said Adam Schrager, veteran broadcast journalist on Wisconsin Public Television and storyteller at the newly-formed American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact.
“Interesting,” former Republican Gov, Scott Walker told Newsmax, “I had never heard of Herb Kohl doing anything in motion pictures. Is that the same person?”
It almost surely it is. Aside from “Herb Kohl” being a rather unique name, there apparently was a relationship — or at least an acquaintance — between the future senator and Laughlin. As former Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig, Kohl’s closest friend since childhood, told Newsmax, “Tom went to high school with Herb and me.” He was referring to Washington High School in Milwaukee, where Laughlin finished three years ahead of Selig and Kohl.
Neither Laughlin nor Kohl ever mentioned the senator’s apparent role in "Billy Jack," which would have been filmed as Kohl was just assuming the helm of his family’s grocery store chain and getting involved in Democratic politics. The two were both committed liberal Democrats, and before his death in 2013, Laughlin made two quixotic bids for president — in 1992 as a Democrat and 2004 as a Republican — on a platform of term limits, tax reform, and universal healthcare.
The legacy of Billy Jack lives on. The film that cost just $100,000 to make has so far grossed an estimated $50 million. American International Pictures reintroduced "Born Losers" in the 1970’s with the billing: "Back By Popular Demand: ‘Born Losers’ The Original Screen Appearance of Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack." Laughlin and wife Delores produced and starred in three more "Billy Jack" films, concluding with Billy Jack Goes To Washington (in which he is appointed to the U.S. Senate).
Liberal film-goers still hail the themes in "Billy Jack." The movie is enjoying a revival among younger libertarian audiences, who obviously like the way the hero protects others when government is corrupt and broken and prefers to be left alone.
It seems a good bet people will be viewing and discussing "Billy Jack" for a while. Perhaps one of them will spot Herb Kohl and determine just what he did in the movie.
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