When Arnie came to town
A fascinating photo of Hollywood royalty in Sunderland has emerged.
The black and white image shows a young Arnold Schwarzenegger enjoying a night out at the former Rococo nightclub – now Grannie Annie’s – at Roker.
The man who would go on to be the biggest movie star in the world before swapping showbiz for politics as Governor of California, visited the region when he was first starting out.
The photograph is thought to have been taken in the late 1960s when Arnie came to the North East to stay and train with Chesterle-Street bodybuilder John Citrone, after the pair became friends while competing in Mr Universe in 1965.
He was just beginning to make a name for himself and John remembered a few people had been taken aback to find him enjoying a drink on Sunderland seafront.
“There had been pictures of him in the papers so people couldn’t believe it was him when we turned up,” he told the Echo in 2016.
The photo has been unearthed by Sunderland documentary maker Rob Kilburn, who runs the Tyne and Weird Facebook page and YouTube channel.
“We make documentaries and we were looking to do one on John Citrone a few years ago,” he said.
“I was looking into Mr Universe – it is amazing how many Mr Universes are from the North East.
“There are a couple of others as well as John.”
Rob was taken aback when the new photo appeared on Facebook out of the blue about three years after he had approached people he thought might be able to help his research.
He said: “I just reached out at the time to various people at the time.”
The owner of the photo had only just installed Facebook Messenger years after Rob had sent the message and saw the request.
Rob is not surprised they are so few pictures of the Austrian Oak’s Wearside stay in circulation.
“He was not that big then,” he said.
“He was young, he was a bodybuilder, he was not making films.
“He was not someone you would take a photograph with.
“It’s lucky we have that one photo of him.”