Warm Marble: Bruce Lee Re-visited

John Little (well known writer) and Mike Mentzer (bodybuilder) put out this fascinating article (read below) on who I still believe to this day was the most fascinating human who inspired millions. Bruce Lee had a lethal physique in his personal development. If you can get his volume# 4 book in the series of his life by John Little "The Art of Expressing the Human Body", get it. His workout schedules were interesting in his time when using weights was suppose to be forbidden in the martial arts, plus he was a self made scholar (you do not hear much of this on him) in which he read extensively his library of thousands of books. How did this man find the time to have done what he did is simply amazing.

http://www.mikementzer.com/blee.html

 

Bruce Lee was a lot smarter than people realized. He developed Jeet Kune Do, a variation of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He was the creative genius behind the show Kung Fu(but was not credited). He did not follow Chinese tradition, but he respected it. He was in great shape and was very flexible. He was humble, perceptive and wise. He had a beautiful spirit. There was no one like him.

 

You, as myself are indeed fans of this great man. Although I was too young at the time he was alive he has still been a great influence to me. I respect him more for teaching his first student when he immigrated to the United States, a black man named Jesse Glover when he was forbidden to do so by the local chinese community. He would eventually teach other non-chinese students the art of Gung Fu. He would marry a white woman (Linda) and was scorned for it in the chinese community. Racism rose it's head to him in Hollywood to steal his idea of a television show named "Kung Fu" about a chinese in the Old West, but the producers could not cast a chinese (him) in the role, because they felt a chinese star would not go over well in an American audience and that the Westerns would not accept a "China Man" kicking the hell out of the tough cowboy. Instead, they cast David Carradine ( a white man) for the role. Imagine what he could have done for the role had he played it with his skills. The most qualified man did not get the job in this case. Yes, I respect and admire the "Father of Mixed Martial Arts". Learn all you can from this young master. Sorry for the late response.

 

Gorath, why not you and I use this thread to bring up fascinating facts about Bruce Lee from his early life to his insights into unrestricted human combat in Jeet Kune Do. I can from time to time post something I have learned on him and you can do likewise. I have nearly 70 books in my personal library on him. Most of what I have has not been researched yet due to time. There is so much information available in those pages. I have just recently got the book by his best friend Taky Kimura on Lee's years in Seattle, Washington, "Regards From the Dragon Seattle". Since most of the stuff on this site is of no interest to me, perhaps this thread can be my respite from a crowded schedule I live by. What do you think.?

 

I recall the classic Batman episodes entitled "A Piece Of The Action/ Batman's Satisfaction, where Kato, sidekick of The Green Hornet and Robin. Batman's sidekick have their onscreen fight. It was said that at Greenway Productions, where Batman and The Green Hornet were filmed, the stars of both shows looked in on each others rehearsals to compare notes. Burt Ward said in his autobiography "Boy Wonder: My Life In Tights" that he was often asked if he was afraid of fighting Bruce Lee. He said he wasn't because he was a black belt in kenpo karate. And, that he lived in the same apartment building as Bruce(Bruce lived on the first floor and Burt lived on the second floor. Both shows are on dvd.

 

I am not as well-versed as you are. I am still a student trying to excel in all I can. But, I do like sharing information and memories of Bruce Lee and other martial artists. My memories were mostly from television. I remember back in the summer of '84, the USA Network and WNEW(Channel 5) in NYC would show martial arts films on the weekends. Those were the days. I have to read The Art Of War, The Hagakure and Bruce's books when I get a job. To be honest, Bruce Lee is second to Godzilla/Gojira. I love them both.

 

For your own research I will send you ten of the best Bruce Lee book titles from the collection I have in the next day or so. The first is "Bruce Lee and I: An Intimate Portrait by Bruce Lee's Training Partner and the Father of TaeKwondo in the United States" by Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. ISBN 1-931135-00-2, Quality Books Inc. You can order it through Amazon.

 

Read the biography on Lee in the discover box. This site has not been updated as you can see. His foundation is going through changes

http://www.bruceleefoundation.com