Arnold still loves the camera

LAST WEEK'S disclosure by The Times of an audio recording of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger musing in his Sacramento office about Republicans and ethnic blood-mixing produced condemnations, chuckles, a mea culpa, a California Highway Patrol investigation and questions about how staffers for Democratic challenger Phil Angelides managed to obtain it. But the real surprise about the recording was its format: It was only in audio.

When it comes to recording his meetings, his thoughts and his life, Schwarzenegger has long been a video man. While researching a book about his political career, I came across more than 100 videotapes of Schwarzenegger engaging in various political, public service and charitable endeavors. There were tapes of public speeches and private meetings from his time promoting physical fitness on behalf of President George H.W. Bush. Schwarzenegger's charitable work with after-school programs in Boyle Heights and elsewhere was recorded, as were some of his preparations for public office.

Angelides compared Schwarzenegger's taping to the infamous recordings of President Nixon. In truth, Lyndon B. Johnson and Dwight D. Eisenhower also taped private conversations. Such men -- and Schwarzenegger certainly considers himself a historically important figure -- tape with history in mind.

For Schwarzenegger, videotape has always been an essential professional tool, as important as a compass to a ship's navigator.

As a budding movie star, he secured videotape of his talk-show appearances and, with his publicist Charlotte Parker, dissected and analyzed them like a football coach, looking for flaws in his salesmanship.

For years, he has cemented friendships by making funny tapes of himself. One classic, recorded so his friend Warren Buffett could show it at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting, is a takeoff on "An Officer and a Gentleman," with Schwarzenegger as Louis Gossett Jr. and Buffett in the Richard Gere role.

George Butler's film of Schwarzenegger's workouts and life during the mid-1970s, first shown to the public in the 1977 movie "Pumping Iron," helped make him famous. After that, Schwarzenegger preferred to be filmed while promoting his book and the benefits of fitness across the country. In a tape on file in the library at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where Schwarzenegger lectured on fitness and earned his bachelor's degree, the future governor looks repeatedly into the camera.