Q 13

PLAYBOY: You've stalked big game, watched aircraft engines burn and spent years training with weights. Wouldn't you agree that you've had a macho lifestyle?

Arthur Jones: It's silly, the connotation people try to put on macho. People who stand around on the beach flexing their muscles irritate me. I didn't wear short-sleeved shirts when I trained with weights.

Violence is not something to joke about. Toughness is fake. The real tough people in this world don't go around bragging about it. If you've been there, telling you about it is unnecessary, because you know. And if you haven't been there, you're not capable of understanding. If it's necessary to hurt someone or kill him in self-defense, you should do it and not worry about it.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Do you have an arsenal of excuses for sloughing off and not using your machines?

Arthur Jones: I've worked out, on and off, for more than 40 years. My lifestyle has been such that I haven't always been in a position to exercise. You lay off a day and it becomes a week, and one thing leads to another; and when you're working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, it's hard to get around to it.

But as soon as I got back where I could exercise, I would go back to it. You'll always go back, because once you've experienced life in good condition, you cannot fail to notice the difference. It's so superior; you have much more energy. I can work longer hours, require less sleep, shrug off slight illnesses better. You feel much better when you work out--and that doesn't mean six years: If you haven't made meaningful improvement in two weeks, you're doing it wrong.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Is there anything Nautilus machines can't do?

Arthur Jones: They cannot develop the female bust. They can develop the muscles underneath it. They can strengthen those muscles, and it will have an effect upon the bustline. But as far as the breast itself is concerned, they can do nothing for that.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: What attracted you to films and video? Did you feel that only Arthur Jones could do justice to the Arthur Jones story?

Arthur Jones: In the Forties, I was doing something that had never been done, something that no one believed was even possible at the time: capturing adult crocodiles. I made a trip to Africa and captured 189 of them in excess of 11 feet and thousands smaller than that, and I brought them back to this country. I made a film of that for my own amusement, with no idea that I would ever sell it. But I did sell it to ABC, and it was used and rerun many times and it became something of a classic. They asked me if I had any more, so I went back to Africa and captured gorillas and chimpanzees and made a film of that. One thing led to another and, eventually, I found myself making films full time. I did everything just short of manufacturing and processing the film stock. I designed special photographic vehicles and camera mounts and lenses and edited the films.

Altogether, I made more than 300 films, mostly for television. I had my own national series, called Wild Cargo. When we started Nautilus, we began making films for advertising and promotional purposes; and then, as more sophisticated electronic video equipment became available, we switched over to videotape.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: Your inventory of TV-production equipment appears rather large. Do you intend to penetrate the nation's living rooms with programming the way you've penetrated its gymnasiums with Nautilus equipment?

Arthur Jones: I'm going to try. I'm not greedy. I just want it all. We own the largest television-production facility in the world. It makes NBC's look like a shithouse. That's not my opinion, it's theirs. They've been here and left in a state of shock. I'm sure we own more video equipment, more electronics than anyone else in the world. Television is proliferating--new networks, direct-to-home satellite broadcasting, video discs and videotapes. The first thing all those developments will require is programing--massive amounts of it. So you've got to have production facilities. There's no surplus of them in the world. Today, you may have to book a facility six months ahead. You just don't buy that kind of equipment off the shelf. Some of it you have to order years ahead and it takes a long time to wire it up and get your people trained. By the time things really begin to happen, we'll be just about the only game in town.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Can you prosper in a field that has tripped up the likes of Freddie Silverman? Will we be tuning in Nautilus sitcoms before long?

Arthur Jones: Highly unlikely. I'm not uninterested in entertainment. Gordon Liddy and I have made a deal for a talk show; we're working on a pilot. We don't yet have anything we feel is ready to be released, but if and when we do, we'll release it. I hope I can bring people something of value that will be interesting, but it must have an entertainment component. Labeling a presentation educational is generally the kiss of death.

As far as competing with the networks is concerned, I wouldn't touch their type of programing with a ten-foot pole. Most of it is abysmal. But you don't succeed by attacking the establishment. You succeed by starting a whole new industry in a new direction; and, eventually, people follow you. But by then, it's too late: You're so far ahead, they don't even know what the hell they're trying to copy. Eventually, the networks will attempt to compete with me.

Intelligent people don't watch television very much, for the simple reason that there's nothing on there fit to watch and they have the brains to realize it. Wait till they have something to watch!

Q 19

PLAYBOY: So there is life for Arthur Jones after Nautilus and crocodiles.

Arthur Jones: My balls are not crystal. As far as I'm concerned, when I'm dead, it's over. There is no longer a universe; it doesn't exist and it never did. So I would like to live as long as possible and mind my own business and do things that matter--younger women, faster airplanes and bigger crocodiles. That's the bottom line.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: "Younger women" places first among that trinity. Would that be a reference to your 20-year-old wife?

Arthur Jones: Yup. Certainly is. I'm living one of my fantasies. Terri has obvious attributes. She would certainly be on anyone's list of the most beautiful women on the planet. People notice her. About three years ago, we walked into a restaurant in Las Vegas, and Terri was all spiffed up, of course--and you know how people glance around a restaurant when other people walk in--well, about 100 men stood up and gave her a spontaneous ovation. I don't think they even noticed me. Later that night, we went to one of the big shows, and there were 50 stark-naked women--no dogs--prancing around up on the stage, and half the male members of the audience were turned clear around in their seats looking at Terri: turning their backs on the 50 women on the stage! I take great pride in my wife's appearance. But I don't have her as something to show off. She's got a fine brain. She drives me, she encourages me, she gives me the motivation to keep doing things that perhaps otherwise I wouldn't.