Wally Jay spent: Jay family (Bernice, Alan, Alberta, and Antoinette), personal interview by the author, March 24, 2012. Also Bernice Jay, personal interviews by the author, September 18, 2012, and October 13, 2014; Alan Jay, phone interview by the author, January 3, 2015.
Alan Jay explained how the luau event was originally conceived one night in the Eagle Avenue kitchen (circa 1952) by Wally, Mark Egan (who was the founder of the Hawaii Visitor’s Bureau), and Walter Napoleon, as part of an effort to start a Bay Area Hawaiian club. The luaus were originally a way to raise money for the club, and in time the parties grew into a very large community event. The martial arts connection to the luaus grew over time, starting in the late fifties.
“All right, Wally”: Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012.
In the frenzy: Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012.
Even in the bustle: Jay family interview; Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012, and October 13, 2014; Alan Jay interview.
After her celebrated: http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/music/Pages/syllabus.php?route=courses.php&course=5, accessed January 23, 2013. Lena Machado was the Ella Fitzgerald of the Hawaiian music scene. Wally Jay would regularly book top-notch island talent for his luau events. The anecdote about her performance at the World’s Fair is typically included as part of her biographical information, such as the one linked here.
Better yet for Wally: Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012; Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011.
Leo Fong drove: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014. Also Fong interview, February 3, 2011, and December 17, 2014. The luau event stands out in Fong’s mind as the first time he ever encountered Bruce Lee. Fong, a Methodist minister, cites Jesus Christ and Bruce Lee as the two big influences on his life.
James Lee held a beer: Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011.
A favorite among: Ralph Castro, personal interview by the author, February 10, 2011; Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012. James Lee’s breaking demonstrations at Wally’s luaus were legendary among Bay Area martial artists. Ralph Castro was among the many partygoers who vividly recalls how James would set up a stack of bricks and ask someone in the crowd to pick the one he should pinpoint with his strike. Then he would strike the stack, and upon destroying them all, James would step back, scratch his head, and say humorously, “Whoops, I made a mistake.” He would then set up a new stack and strike again, but this time only destroying the specific brick in the column.
The gathering in Colombo Hall: Accounts of Wally Jay’s luau come from personal interviews with the Jay family, March 24, 2012; Bernice Jay, September 18, 2012; Leo Fong, February 3, 2011 (phone), and October 24, 2011; Novak interview, March; Ralph Castro, February 10, 2011; George Lee, January 8, 2011; Allen Joe, June 18, 2014; Willy Cahill, August 20, 2014; Alan Jay, January 3, 2015.
He spoke for some: Castro interview.
“The kid is tough”: Novak interview; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014.
Parker explained: Novak interview; Dave Hebler, phone interview by the author, December 12, 2014.
Leo Fong arrived: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
A 260-pound: Novak interview; also Ching, “Great American Great Grandmaster.”
As the island revelry: Fong interview, October 24, 2011; Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012.
Bruce Lee ignored: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, October 24, 2011, June 3, 2014, and December 17, 2014; Novak interview; George Lee interview.
Leo Fong, on the: Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“How could you”: Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
By the time: George Lee interview.
But by 1964: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011.
As a result: Novak interview; George Lee interview; Allen Joe, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014; Castro interview; Fong interview, October 24, 2011; Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011; Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014. Leo Fong likes to point out that prior to Bruce Lee being cast on The Green Hornet, his circle of friends in Oakland was actually rather small.
“a dissident with”: Joe Cervara, phone interview by author, February 14, 2014. Cervara attributed this quote to T. Y. Wong. The sentiment is a very succinct bit of insight into how Bruce was regarded with the established martial arts community in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
“The real significant”: Al Tracy, phone interview by author, August 26, 2014.
By the spring of 1964: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, vols. 1 and 2.
He would drop out: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 57.
He would marry: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 18–19.
He would travel: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 57.
And before the year’s: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 52–53.
Standing on that stage: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 70–71.
Furthermore, his big challenge: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 53–54.
Bruce Lee’s demonstration: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011; George Lee, personal interview by author, January 8, 2011; Novak interview.
“There is no way”: Fong interview, October 24, 2011; George Lee interview. See also Tommy Gong, “Jeet Kune Do,” in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts of the World, 479.
“Classical methods”: Fong interview. See also Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 43, 479
A disjointed atmosphere: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011; Novak interview.
“The techniques are smooth”: Fong interview, October 24, 2011. See also Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 49.
“scientific street fighting”: Cadwell interview.
Finally he gave: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011; Novak interview; George Lee interview.
“a big football”: Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“Now let’s do it”: Fong interview, October 24, 2011; Novak interview.
Fong took stock: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011; Novak interview.
Lau Bun quietly: James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014; Doc-Fai Wong, personal interview by the author, February 2, 2012; Dino Salvatera, personal interviews by the author, June 20, 2011, and November 7, 2011.
At sixty-eight Lau Bun: Kem K. Lee Photograph Collection, 1927–1986, Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley, copy in possession of Dino Salvatera. Descriptions of Lau Bun’s appearance at the time as well as subsequent descriptions of Portsmouth Square are drawn from the extensive visual record left by longtime Chinatown photographer Kem K. Lee, as found in his archives at the University of California, Berkeley. Lee actually photographed Hung Sing in early 1959, showing a formidable looking Lau Bun with his equally tough-looking senior students in the Brenham Place studio. Dino Salvatera, the current Sifu of Hung Sing in San Francisco, also has an extensive collection of photographs of Lau Bun and his students that dates back to the 1940s.
“the Heart of Chinatown”: Philip P. Choy, personal interviews by the author, December 20, 2011, and March 30, 2013.
Through the many: Dino Salvatera, personal interviews by the author, June 20, 2011, November 7, 2011, and December 19, 2012; Wong interview; Sam Louie, personal interview by the author, February 1, 2012; Adeline Fong, personal interviews by the author, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014; Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014; Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014.
The wisdom of his: Garvey, San Francisco Police Department, 74. Herbert P. Lee had been sworn in just two years earlier (1957) as the first regular Asian member of the SFPD. There are, however, accounts of Chinese Americans serving in the force’s auxiliary ranks back in the 1940s (Garvey, San Francisco Police Department, 74) See Dillon, Hatchet Men, 2–3, for consideration of the original policing dynamic of Chinatown.
In a wider sense: Choy interviews, December 20, 2011, and March 30, 2013; Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, and November 7, 2011.
If a curious social: Choy interviews, December 20, 2011, and March 30, 2013.
With more than twenty-five: Wing Woo interview; February 26, 2014; Tracy interview.
They murmured stories: Wong interview; Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, and December 12, 2012; Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, and June 28, 2011; Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; Wing Woo interview. Lau Bun’s proficiency with the straight sword was well known and factors into many recollections of his abilities. As a young teenager Doc-Fai Wong was drawn to studying with Lau Bun on the prospect of straight-sword training. The killing of the rat in the dark comes specifically from Adeline Fong, who conveys the story not only with great detail but almost as the by-product of an entirely different anecdote. The incident occurred while she was alone with Lau Bun in the Hung Sing studio. So as a young teenage girl, his request for her to turn off all the lights greatly alarmed her. She was then relieved to realize he was only hunting the rat.
Not that Lau Bun’s: Wong interview; Sam Louie, personal interview by the author, February 1, 2012; Leo Fong interview; Wing Woo interview.
Young arrivals to Chinatown: Wong interview; Salvatera interview, June 28, 2011. Doc-Fai Wong, for example, experienced this dynamic of how native-born Chinese children would discriminate within the neighborhood against newcomers. He arrived in Chinatown from China in 1960 as a young adolescent and quickly had local kids ganging up on him after school: “They scared the hell out of me all the time . . . so I knew that I had to learn to protect myself.”
In that underground space: Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, and December 12, 2012; Leo Fong interview; Wong interview; Louie interview; Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, June 28, 2011, and December 19, 2012.
This softer side: Louie interview; Wong interview; Adeline Fong interview, June 28, 2011; Salvatera interview, June 28, 2011.
Standing beside them: Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, June 28, 2011, November 7, 2011, and December 19, 2012; Wong interview; Louie interview; Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, and December 12, 2012; Leo Fong interview. Like his straight sword mastery, Lau Bun’s insistence on rigorous horse-stance training was well known and factors into numerous recollections by his past students. (Dino Salvatera compares Lau Bun to Pai Mei, the legendary master of many kung fu tales and movies, who trains Uma Thurman’s character in the second Kill Bill film.)
Lau Bun continued: Wing Woo interview.
The area’s native people: “First Peoples of California.” See also “Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.”
The Spanish arrived: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 23.
Shortly after Mexico declared: “The families of Richardson and Leese were the only households between the Mission and Presidio” (Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 24). Dillon, Hatchet Men, 4.
Even as Montgomery: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 25–28.
Events in the spring: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 27–28.
By the mid-nineteenth: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 31–33; Chang, Chinese in America, 12–17.
From Havana to Johannesburg: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 31–33; Chang, Chinese in America, 12–17. “But the greatest outflow of the Chinese occurred in the nineteenth century: between 1840 and 1900, an estimated two and a half million people left China. They went to Hawaii and the United States as well as to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, the West Indies, South America, and Africa” (Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 32).
The region, through its: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 15–20. Also The Scramble for China by Robert Bickers is an excellent source with extensive detail on Canton’s history as China’s international trading point.
and by 1850 was suffering: Lai, Chinn, and Choy, “History of the Chinese in California,” 11–14. The first chapter of Iris Chang’s book The Chinese in America provides a thorough, vivid, and accessible account of the turmoil within nineteenth-century China.
With stories trickling back: Lai, Chinn, and Choy, “History of the Chinese in California,” 9.
“golden romance”: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 80, quoting an 1852 article in the Daily Alta California.
By 1852 over twenty thousand: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 79. Also Chang notes, “Although the Chinese came from the most populous nation on earth, at the time of the gold rush perhaps fewer than fifty of them lived in the continental United States” (Chinese in America, 26).
The Chinese who arrived: “During the 1850s, some 85 percent of the Chinese in California were engaged in placer mining” (Chang, Chinese in America, 38). See Chang (46) on the topic of the Sacramento Street enclave; also Lai, Chinn, and Choy, “History of the Chinese in California,” 10. In Hatchet Men, Dillon points out in his first chapter that other Chinese enclaves existed in San Francisco, most notably a fishing village along the Bay near the mouth of Mission Creek (where AT&T Park is located today).
particularly after massive fires: Dillon, Hatchet Men, 4. See also Bagwell, Oakland, 19.
In light of the widespread: See Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, chap. 3 (“Initially, the Chinese were welcomed in California”) as well as Choy in the early sections of San Francisco Chinatown. In Hatchet Men, Dillon’s first chapter, “The Era of Good Feeling,” also provides articulate detail. All three offer numerous anecdotes and local newspaper quotes. The Mark Twain quote is also cited by Chang, Chinese in America, 39.
At the federal level: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 22.
In 1852 Governor John: Dillon, Hatchet Men, 6.
“Born and reared under”: Nathaniel Bennett, quoted in Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 80.
“yet vote at the same polls”: The quote appeared in the Alta California of May 13, 1851, featured in Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 33.
“A disorderly Chinaman”: Chang, Chinese in America, 39.
This honeymoon proved: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 35–37; Dillon, Hatchet Men, chap. 1, “Little Chinatown.”
“In 1852 the Chinamen”: Testimony from San Francisco resident John F. Swift, November 10, 1876, from the Report of the Joint Special Committee to Investigate Chinese Immigration, published in 1877. Dillon uses this quote in Hatchet Men, 54.
By 1882 Congress had passed: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 34–40; Chang, Chinese in America, chap. 8; Dillon, Hatchet Men, chap. 2.
Just a few years later: For a summary, see Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 34–40. For greater detail, see Chang, Chinese in America, chap. 9.
Among the ranks: Lau Bun’s early history—as well as the preceding material on Yuen Hai—is based on Wong interview; and Salvatera interview, June 20, 2011, November 7, 2011, and December 19, 2012. See also Judkins, “Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (5)”; Doc-Fai Wong, “Great Grandmaster Lau Bun” and “Remembering Lau Bun.”
He set up a legal: “The fire destroyed much of the city, but most important for the Chinese, it destroyed city birth and citizenship records. The loss of these municipal files allowed many immigrants to claim that they were born in San Francisco, not China, thereby enabling them to establish U.S. citizenship. . . . A Chinese immigrant who managed to convince the American government that he was a citizen could then return to his homeland and claim citizenship for children born in China. Or he could tell American authorities that his wife in China had given birth to a son, when in reality no child had been born, and then sell the legal paperwork of the fictitious son to a younger man eager to migrate to the United States” (Chang, Chinese in America, 146–47).
In an incident: Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, June 28, 2011, and December 19, 2012; Leo Fong interview; Louie interview; Wong interview; Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014; Tracy interview; Wing Woo interview. There are many versions of the Lau Bun immigration agents story. While it typically varies in detail, the general tale is consistently the same. The only dissenting version I have heard came from James Wing Woo, who asserted that Lau Bun had killed a Japanese man who had stolen his wallet in Los Angeles, and he was subsequently wanted by the local authorities.
The event made: Judkins, “Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (5).”
It also caught: Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, and November 27, 2012; Wing Woo interview.
The tongs were modeled: Chang, Chinese in America, 80–85; Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 118–19; Dillon, Hatchet Men, 23.
In its early years: While there are many accounts of the nineteenth-century Tong Wars in Chinatown, Dillon’s Hatchet Men remains one of the most comprehensive.
Yet as anti-Chinese: Dillon, Hatchet Men, xii–xvii.
On the morning of April 18: See Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 40–42; Chang, Chinese in America, 145; Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 163–66; see also Davies, Saving San Francisco.
City leaders perceived: Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 165.
The leaders of Chinatown: see Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 43–46.
as one sociologist pointed out: This is from Rose Hum Lee in 1942: “Wherever the Chinese are it has been possible to count the variations in the ways they can earn their living on the fingers of the hand—chop suey and chow mein restaurants, Chinese art and gift shops, native grocery stores that sell foodstuffs imported from China to the local Chinese community and Chinese laundries” (quoted in Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 251).
However, in a mind-set: Salvatera interviews, June 20, 2011, June 28, 2011, November 27, 2012, and December 19, 2012; Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014; Leo Fong interview; Tracy interview; Wing Woo interview.
He had sent them southeast: Wing Woo interview.
“Boys,” he said: Wing Woo interview.
It had been almost three: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 30. See also Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 35.
“become famous in America”: Vincent Lacey, phone interview by the author, February 10, 2011.
The voyage across the Pacific: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 30; Gong, Bruce Lee, 15; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 35; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:14–16.
his fellow travelers took turns: Photograph from Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, unpaginated.
he had been deeply introspective: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 35. See also Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:14–16.
The years that transpired: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 27–30. Gong, Bruce Lee, 15–17; Ben Der, personal interview by the author, February 12, 2014.
His present trip to America: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 31–35. Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:3–4.
His apartment, on the lower: Gong, Bruce Lee, 249–50; Der interview, February 12, 2014. See also Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, “Walking Tour Map.”
“The Largest Chinatown”: Morin. “31 Beautiful Photos.”
Bruce knew before Mr. Quan: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 21; Der interview, February 12, 2014. See also Lee Family Immigration Files, interviews with Lee Hoi Chuen and Grace Lee.
In the autumn of 1939: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 3–4; Gong, Bruce Lee, 7; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:1; Lee Family Immigration Files.
Mr. Quan explained how the: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 150–51. Also Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 76–77; Der interview, February 12, 2014.
Yet his own relationship: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 7, 30.
rich tradition of the Cantonese: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 150–51; Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 90–95.
The article displayed the face: “Four Words Win a Trip”; Chinese Historical Society, Glamour and Grace. See also Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 192–96.
A published poet himself: Ben Der, personal interview by the author, April 2, 2012. Der expressed frustration in losing a copy of Mr. Quan’s book, which had been personally inscribed to him.
Mr. Quan was referring to: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 152. For a longer history, see Morgan and Peters, Howl on Trial.
The Lion’s Den, one of: Dong, Forbidden City, USA; Robbins, Forbidden City.
The neighborhood may have been: Lai, “Short History of the Chinese Media.”
One of the city’s two: “Giants Win—in 2nd Place.”
The Giants had arrived: Pace, “George Christopher, 92, Dies.” While researching photos in the Kem K. Lee archive at UC Berkeley, I came across images of a massive parade that the city had staged for the Giants to officially welcome them to San Francisco.
Ironically, Mays had gone: Rosenbaum, “S.F. Fans Can Boo with Best of ’Em.”
“And this,” he explained: Lee Family Immigration Files; Der interview, February 12, 2014; Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, “Walking Tour Map.”
It was a handsome building: Lai, “Chinese Hospital”; Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 158–60. See also “Chinese Hospital.” Sadly, the city of San Francisco failed to preserve this building during recent renovations. As the Associated Press reported, the hospital was one of ten historic sites lost in 2013 as cited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The new building is rather lackluster in comparison.
“Your parents lived here”: Lee Family Immigration Files; Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee; “Walking Tour”; Der interview, February 12, 2014.
Hoi Cheun was performing: Lee Family Immigration Files; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:1; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 4.
“The true meaning of Bruce’s name”: “Biography.” However, a more personal reason exists for the name Jun Fan. When Bruce was born in San Francisco, his mother was by herself in the Chinese Hospital since her husband, Lee Hoi Chuen, was in New York with the Chinese Opera group. She chose the name Jun Fan since baby Bruce would be her protector while in San Francisco. So Jun Fan means “Protector of San Francisco”; see Gong, Bruce Lee, 4.
At the Chinese hospital: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 4.
The American name would later: Interview with Lee Hoi Chuen, from Lee Family Immigration Files.
Bruce would be entirely unaware: Gong, Bruce Lee, 8.
Before departing the United States: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 9. For more on the life and career of Esther Eng, see Golden Gate Girls. On the history of the Grandview Film Company, see Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema.
Most surprising to Mr. Quan: Der interview, February 12, 2014. See also interview with William Cheung, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 91: “On the first day, after he did the lesson he said to me he’s going to make Wing Chun or Chinese Kung Fu a common name on households. I said to him, ‘What? And how are you going to do that?’ Because he had a vision and also he was experienced in movies and so on. When you have something good you can make it worldwide.”
The “Father of Modern China”: “Father of Modern China.”
“China’s George Washington”: Sharman, Sun Yat-sen.
While in exile during: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 46–50; “The future of China was plotted right here in Chinatown” (204–5). For a fuller account, see Lai, “Memorable Day 70 Years Ago.”
Bruce was familiar with: Ho, Tracing My Children’s Lineage, 139–40.
For many other residents of: Philip P. Choy, personal interview by the author, March 30, 2013. See also Anspacher, “Madame Chiang.”
After many decades of: Choy interview.
Madame Chiang had traveled: Li, Madame Chiang, 193–237. You can listen to her 1943 address to the U.S. Congress at http://www.history.com/speeches/madame-chiang-kai-shek-addresses-congress#madame-chiang-kai-shek-addresses-congress.
In San Francisco her tour: Anspacher, “Madame Chiang,” 1. See also Li, Madame Chiang, 223: “As she headed west her receptions became grander and grander, as each city tried to outdo the last. In San Francisco she was escorted into the city on a navy ship with Coast Guard cutters flanking it and a fire ship throwing out water displays. Tens of thousands of residents lined the streets. . . . The local Chinese community put up ‘a hell of a fight’ to get her to go to Chinatown, and in the end she went.”
Although she never spoke about: Li, Madame Chiang, 244.
From a more behind-the-scenes: Li, Madame Chiang, 217–21.
However, this change in perceptions: “Unnoticed Struggle.”
In San Francisco the Chinese: Choy interview.
Recently, the city of San Francisco: Garvey, San Francisco Police Department, 74.
Nationally, Hiram Fong would soon: “Hiram Leong Fong.”
just as Daniel Inouye: McFadden. “Daniel Inouye.”
As they walked back: Der interview, February 12, 2014. Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, “Walking Tour Map.”
the altar within the Kin Mon: From the personal files of Warren Chan.
Wong Tim Yuen sat in: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011; Warren Chan, personal interview by the author, November 12, 2013; Dean Kimball, phone interview by the author, February 22, 2013.
The name of his school: Kimball interview; Warren Chan, personal interview by the author, November 12, 2013; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:88–89.
Although he was almost: James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014. Woo points out that T.Y. was also highly proficient in the obscure Bear Style of kung fu.
On the wall behind him: Kem K. Lee, Kem Lee Photograph Collection; Chan interview, November 12, 2013; Joe Cervara, phone interview by the author, February 14, 2014.
Leong Tin Chee spent many: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung Fu, 1–2; Dean Kimball, phone interview by the author, February 22, 2013; Cervara interview; personal files of Warren Chan.
He studied under Leong: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung Fu, 1–2; Kimball interview; Cervara interview; personal files of Warren Chan.
Later, during the Japanese invasion: Gilman Wong, personal interview by the author, May 15, 2015.
Upon arriving in San Francisco’s: Wing Woo interview.
students of Kin Mon smiling: Personal files of Gilman Wong. See also Wong and Lee, Chinese Karate Kung-Fu, i. Students of Kin Mon appeared on the Home show on January 15, 1955. Still images from the broadcast show four of the students performing in the school’s distinctive black jing-mo uniforms on what looks to be a “Chinese opera–themed” episode. A large Buddha statue is used as a decoration in the background, and an elegantly dressed woman plays a Chinese yangqin (traditional dulcimer). T.Y. doesn’t perform but is seen in a suit and tie while his students are being given exaggerated makeup for the performance. Later Arlene Francis presented them with a plaque to commemorate the performance. I have searched far and wide for a copy of this episode (having contacted NBC, Arlene Francis’s son, and many others) with no success.
More recently, he began collaborating: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung Fu; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:11–12; Warren Chan, personal interview by the author, November 11, 2013; Greglon Lee, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014.
The hulking Novak was: Novak interview. See also Gene Ching, “Great American Great Grandmaster.”
“All martial arts under heaven”: “History of Shaolin Kung Fu.”
Located along the Songshan: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 9–12. Shahar’s work is widely regarded by academics as the key scholarly work on the history of the Shaolin Monastery.
Tang Hao was a Chinese historian: Kennedy and Guo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 38–60. See also Judkins, “Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (12).”
The early folklore attributed: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 11–17.
“the symbolic crossing point”: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 13.
The martial arts, as the story: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 69.
Tang Hao dismissed much: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 42–48.
Shaolin military activity: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 21–22; phone interview with Ben Judkins, August 23, 2014.
ritualistic black magic: Shahar, Shaolin, 37–42; Ben Judkins, phone interview by the author August 23, 2014. As Shahar writes in the conclusion to chap. 2, “the connection between monastic martial practice and the veneration of Buddhist military deities can be traced back to medieval times. It is likely that as early as the Tang Period Shaolin Monks beseeched the divine warrior Vajrapani to supply them with physical strength. More pertinently, the Buddhist guardian provided the monks with religious sanction for violence.”
Later, when Shaolin did earn: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 55–67; Judkins interview.
Qi Jiguang was a celebrated: Gyves, “English Translation,” 9–15; Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 128–30. See also Matuszak, “‘Practical Isn’t Pretty.’”
Beginning in 1560: Gyves, “English Translation,” 9–12.
Over the course of his: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 128–30; Gyves, “English Translation,” 9–15.
These skills would be: Gyves, “English Translation,” 9–11. “Hand combat, Qi Jiguang argued, could be used for troops’ training. The experienced general was well aware that bare-handed methods were useless in the battlefield. He suggested, however, that they were not without merit in instilling courage. Moreover, bare-handed practice was a good starting point for armed training” (Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 130).
“The popularity of the unarmed”: Judkins, “Book Club.”
Historians refer to it: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 173–75. In the conclusion of chapter 6, Shahar writes: “Shaolin monks were probably fascinated by the medical, religious, and philosophical opportunities that were opened by the new empty-handed techniques. The synthesis of martial, therapeutic, and religious goals has been a primary reason for the popularity of hand combat both in its native land and in the modern West. If modern hand combat is not only a fighting method but also a system of thought, then it is not surprising that its evolution was partially spurred by intellectual developments. Late Ming syncretism provided a philosophical foundation for the integration of bare-handed fighting and daoyin calisthenics, permitting Daoist mystics to explore Buddhist-related martial arts and allowing Shaolin monks to study Daoist gymnastics.”
Yet away from the elite: Judkins interview. See also Robinson, Bandits, Eunuchs, 2–11: “Coercive force by the government and illicit violence in society were a very real part of everyday life in Ming China.”
Throughout history the Chinese martial: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 7.
During the early 19th century: Judkins, “‘Fighting Styles’ or ‘Martial Brands’?” Abbreviated for clarity with permission by the author. The original text runs as follows: “During the early 19th century (before the market reforms of the Republican era) China had a huge number of local fighting styles. Most of them were very small village or family affairs. A lot of what they did actually focused on militia training, opera or banditry. Many of these styles did not actually have names, though there were some notable exceptions. Why did so many of these pedagogical systems lack names? They were not studied so much as a particular ‘style’ of fighting (or in the case of opera, acting). They simply were fighting (and acting). Later in the 19th century as the demand for martial instruction increased, and the number of reasons it was pursued diversified, it became necessary to market these skills on a broader scale than had been undertaken in the past. Names and shiny new creation myths began to appear as the fighting techniques of the previous generation were increasingly repackaged as a ‘martial commodity.’”
Just as the Bodidharma: Shahar, Shaolin Monastery, 181.
“The goal of most martial arts”: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 34.
“invented tradition”: Judkins interview.
For Wing Chun: Wing Woo interview.
It was in an era: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 38–60. See also Judkins, “Tang Hao.”
“as many sacred cows”: Judkins, “Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (12).”
“some ruthless and self-proclaimed”: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 49.
and the fact that people: Judkins interview.
A few audience members: George Lee, personal interview by the author, January 8, 2011.
“The showmanship, not the killer”: Cheung, “Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong Years.”
In the summer of 1959: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:17; Ben Der, personal interview by the author, February 12, 2014; “Harriet Lee’s Reflections on the Dragon,” from Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, unpaginated.
Not far from the stage: George Lee interview.
“Any chance you’ll come back”: George Lee interview.
“What style were you doing”: George Lee interview.
Located along China’s southern: Lai, “Guangzhou to Hong Kong.”
“barren island”: British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, quoted in Carroll, Concise History of Hong Kong, 15: “Although he would go down in history for later dismissing Hong Kong as little more than ‘a barren island with hardly a house upon it,’ Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston declared his intention to seize Hong Kong.”
would experience a huge influx: “In 1849 after gold was discovered in California, the first shipload of Chinese laborers came through Hong Kong, en route to the United States. By December 1850, two thousand Chinese had left China for California. Between January and June 1850, some ten thousand tons of shipping were loaded or partly loaded in Hong Kong and shipped to the western coast of the United States. With this growth of overseas trade also came new Chinese labor and talent. . . . From 1853 to 1859 the Chinese population of Hong Kong rose from approximately forty thousand to around eighty-five thousand, even with mass departures during the Second Opium War” (Carroll, Concise History of Hong Kong, 29–30).
The place that developed: “Mega Cities Hong Kong.”
Hoi Cheun and Grace: Lee Family Immigration Files; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 3–4; Gong, Bruce Lee, 9.
They had arrived home: Carroll, Concise History of Hong Kong, 115–19.
The occupation that followed: Carroll, Concise History of Hong Kong, 121–26.
The Le family weathered: Gong, Bruce Lee, 11.
With the passing of his brother: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 20–21; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 6–7.
After becoming smitten with him: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 3; Ho, Tracing My Children’s Lineage, 140.
Although raised in Shanghai: Ho, Tracing My Children’s Lineage, 136–45.
“final piece in the jigsaw”: Ho, Tracing My Children’s Lineage, 140.
Grace’s exact racial makeup: Lee Family Immigration Files. See Ho, Tracing My Children’s Lineage, 140, for specifics on Grace, though the entire chapter on Ho Kom-tong (136–45) is worth consideration.
Grace and Hoi Chuen’s first son: William Cheung, interviewed in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 88; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 20; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 4. “Bruce had many nicknames, but his family called him Sai Fong or ‘Little Peacock’ a girl’s name. This was to fool the Chinese gods into thinking Bruce was a girl because they might be jealous that the family had a second boy and take him away” (Gong, Bruce Lee, 9).
With the 1949 victory: Carroll, Concise History of Hong Kong, 135–43. “From 1946 to the mid-1950s, approximately 1 million people came to Hong Kong from China—an average of almost three hundred people per day” (140).
“a wasteland of an island”: Carroll, Concise History of Hong Kong, 135.
As Bruce’s childhood friend Hawkins: Cheung, “Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong Years.”
This environment contrasted starkly: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 6; Der interview, February 12, 2014.
mo si tung, meaning: Gong, Bruce Lee, 9.
Later, the sum total: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 22–31; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 11–12.
In the Kowloon section: Der interview, February 12, 2014; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 13–14; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 26; Cheung interview in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 89.
Bruce exhibited a tough: Cheung interview in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 89 In Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 26–31, she quotes Bruce’s brother, Robert: “You didn’t have to ask Bruce twice to fight.”
Many of Bruce’s classmates: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 13–14; Cheung interview in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 89.
The combined impact of Japan’s: James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014; Stanley Henning, “The Martial Arts in Chinese Physical Culture, 1865–1965,” in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts, 29–30.
Ip Man arrived: Ching and Heimberger, Ip-Man, 25, 33–34. See also “Yip Man.”
Economical, swift, and direct: Cheung, “Bruce Lee’s Mother Art”; Taky Kimura, personal interview by the author, March 19, 2014; Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 49; Gong, Bruce Lee, 9–10.
The folk history attached: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 17.
Ip Man’s approach: “Yip Man”; Gong, Bruce Lee, 10.
Bruce had taken up: Cheung interview, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 89–91; Gong, Bruce Lee, 10–11; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 14, 20–21; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 27.
“Upstart”: “Yip Man.”
“fighting crazy”: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 14.
“Everyone wanted to be”: Cheung, “Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong Years.”
A core practice: Cheung, “Bruce Lee’s Mother Art”; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 18–19; Kimura interview.
They responded by pointing: Cheung interview, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 90; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 26–27. See also I Am Bruce Lee.
In training now with: Cheung interview, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 89–91; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 30–31; Gong, Bruce Lee, 10–11.
With the colony housing: Ben Judkins, phone interview by the author, February 17, 2014; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 22–26.
“As he taught us”: Cheung, “Bruce’s Classical Mess.”
This facet of Bruce’s: Cheung, “Bruce’s Classical Mess.” Beginning in November 1991, Hawkins Cheung produced a series of essays for Inside Kung Fu magazine on the topic of growing up in Hong Kong, and his time learning Wing Chun under Ip Man with Bruce Lee. I highly recommend these essays for their detail and insight into Bruce’s formative teenage years as well as the atmosphere of Ip Man’s school. For example, as Cheung explained on the topic of real fighting experience: “Back in the 1950s, Yip Man trained us to fight, not be technicians. Because we were so young, we didn’t understand the concepts or theories. As he taught us, Yip Man said, ‘Don’t believe me, as I may be tricking you. Go out and have a fight. Test it out.’ In other words, Yip Man taught us the distance applications of wing chun. First he told us to go out and find practitioners of other styles and test our wing chun on them. If we lost, we knew on what we should work. We would go out and test our techniques again. We thought to ourselves, ‘Got to make that technique work! No excuses!’ We learned by getting hit. When you are in a real fight, you find out what techniques are good for you. Just because your technique may work for one person doesn’t guarantee it will work for you. When you test your techniques on someone you don’t know, you experience a different feeling than when training with your friends. If you discover through your own experience, it’s much better than relying on another’s experience.”
His sister Agnes notes: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 25: “Bruce’s sister Agnes says, ‘He began to get into more and more fights for no reason at all. And if he didn’t win, he was furious. Losing, even once in awhile, was unbearable for him.”
This deep-seated drive: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 30–31; Ben Der, personal interview by the author, March 19, 2014; Cheung interview, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 90; Gong, Bruce Lee, 13–15.
Bruce also thrived: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 9; Gong, Bruce Lee, 7–8.
He could be gregarious: Der interview, February 12, 2014; George Lee interview; Vincent Lacey, phone interview by the author, February 10, 2011; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 27.
“He was a little hyper”: Der interview, February 12, 2014.
Fellow students assert: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 27–28; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 31.
Popular urban mythology: “Interview with Robert Lee”; Greglon Lee, phone interview by the author, February 15, 2011.
Whatever the specifics: Cheung interview, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 97. Cheung asserts that it was Ip Man who finally got their names cleared from the list.
With high school graduation: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 31, 35.
Bruce walked along: Sam Louie, personal interview by the author, February 2, 2012; Der interview, February 12, 2014.While many members of the Chinatown martial arts community relate this story, this anecdote comes from the eyewitness account of Sam Louie, one of Lau Bun’s senior students of the time, and—after James Wing Woo—the most veteran primary source on Chinatown’s martial art history. Louie, a well-respected member of the San Francisco community who went on to become a very successful chef, relayed this story in an almost offhand manner without any passion or sense of embellishment. The entire incident jibes well with Ben Der’s accounts from this period: Der asserts that Bruce had first heard of Lau Bun from a patron in a bar on Jackson Street. Furthermore, it’s worth considering Louie’s take on Bruce Lee so many years later: “I really respect Bruce Lee. We worked hard. He worked harder.”
“When Bruce came to”: Louie interview.
“Don’t worry; if you lose”: Dino Salvatera, personal interview by the author, March 2, 2013.
Ip Man’s teenage students: Der interview, February 12, 2014; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014.
The room went quiet: Louie interview.
“Don’t bother”: Louie interview.
“Did your teacher”: Louie interview.
At the start: Dan Inosanto, personal interview by the author, June 2, 2014; Leo Fong, personal interviews by the author, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014; “Violent Repose.” See also Green and Svinth, Martial Arts in the Modern World; Smith, Martial Musings.
Their presence within: Doc-Fai Wong, personal interview by the author, February 2, 2012.
“the spirit of the lion”: Adeline Fong, personal interview by the author, December 3, 2014.
“Horse Stable Alley”: Wing Woo interview.
Far less a formal: Ben Der, personal interview by the author, April 2, 2014; David Chin, personal interview by the author, March 31, 2011; Wing Woo interview.
In 1939 the Chinese Consolidated: Hagood, “Choy Kam Man”; Wing Woo interview.
his arrival in San Francisco: Wing Woo interview; “Master Choy Hak Pang.” See also Hagood, “Choy Kam Man,” 35: “Though Choy Hok Pang taught no Americans himself, he carried on an extensive training program among the Chinese in this country, many who later became teachers. Because he nurtured the seed that spread it, it is Choy Hok Pang who must be remembered as the father of Tai Chi in America.”
While in Chinatown: Hagood, “Choy Kam Man”; Wing Woo interview. See also “Master Choy Hak Pang.”
Gerda Geddes was born: Ronnie Robinson, “Tai Chi Interview-Gerda Geddes.” For a complete bio, see Woods, Dancer in the Light, 2008.
“As I watched I had”: Woods, Dancer in the Light, 2.
“They did not seem”: Woods, Dancer in the Light, 143.
In the same culture: In a personal letter to Gerda Geddes at the time (March 4, 1957), now in Geddes family personal archives. Choy Kam Man not only acknowledged the insular nature of the Chinese martial arts but went as far as to urge her to teach tai chi back in Europe: “I indeed consoled for that you will consummation of my wishes for that you could to promote and to teaching of Chinese Shadow Boxing to your own people when and if you go back to England. As I have told you that there are still have many narrow mind Chinese Shadow Boxers and Chinese people as they’re never be teaching to foreigners, and when there are if have someone will does, then they may say his is a rebellious!”
Classes were in private: Woods, Dancer in the Light, 144–47.
The younger Choy’s martial: Jack Wada, personal interview by the author, March 26, 2015; Michael Gilman, personal interview by the author, December 8, 2012.
“disappeared”: Wada interview.
brief segment performing: Woods, Dancer in the Light, 158.
Geddes was routinely met: Geddes is quoted in Ronnie Robinson, “Tai Chi Interview-Gerda Geddes”: “Nobody had the faintest idea what I was taking about, when I mentioned Tai Chi.” See also Woods, Dancer in the Light, 158–59.
Interestingly enough, this: See Dunning, “Sophia Delza Glassgold.” See also Woods, Dancer in the Light, 192.
Meanwhile, the younger Choy: Hagood, “Choy Kam Man.” See also letter from Choy Kam Man to Gerda Geddes, dated January 18, 1959, Geddes family letters. Choy would have been about forty years old at the time of his return to the United States.
“Master Choy could fold”: Wada, “Master Choy.” Also Bob Cook, phone interview by the author, March 28, 2013. Cook is an interesting figure in this early culture, who, like Leo Fong, had trained with many different teachers at the time. After speaking with him for a while about a variety of different practitioners from the era, I finally asked him about Master Choy, to which he responded, “That guy was amazing! I had never seen anyone kick like that before. He was unbelievably good.”
Choy lived in a tiny: Gilman interview; Mark Small, phone interview by the author, March 26, 2013.
Within the neighborhood: Gilman interview; Robyn Silverstein, phone interview by the author, December 10, 2012.
A genuine glimpse: David Cox. “Mah Sek: The Odyssey of a Kung Fu Master,” Official Karate, Fall 1973. Also Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; David Chin, personal interview by the author, March 31, 2011; Wing Woo interview. Chin’s website also has a bio; see Lamia, “Grandmaster Mar Sik.”
“like a hard rubber ball”: Leo Fong interview. This quote comes from a fascinating story that Leo Fong related about Mah Sek. In 1973 Fong worked closely with Mah Sek for the profile article that ran in Official Karate. During the time they spent together, Mah Sek insisted that no one talk while they were driving in a car together because he had been in two horrible rollover crashes in his life. As Fong related: “Everyone else in the car had gotten hurt but him, because he would feel where the car was rolling and he would give into that and roll like a rubber ball. He was in two serious accidents but never got hurt. He came from the old . . . way old old school.”
His Iron Shirt: Chin interview; Leo Fong interview; Wong interview; Wing Woo interview.
Historically, martial arts: Judkins, “Through a Lens Darkly (17)”: “These individuals are maligned in almost all of the same accounts that record their existence. The idea of ‘selling one’s art for money’ is universally reviled in period accounts. Performers . . . usually get the brunt of this aggression.”
Bruce let Jesse Glover: Jesse Glover, quoted in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 21.
Glover was Bruce’s: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 35. Interview with Jesse Glover, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 20. See also Glover’s obituary in the Seattle Times, June 29, 2012: Vaughn, “Jesse Glover.”
Not long afterward: Interview with James Demile, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 27–29.
“deadly” Asian fighting techniques: Demile, “Evolving from the Darkside.”
“Bruce looked about as dangerous”: James Demile, quoted in Brewster and Buerge, Washingtonians, 421.
“You look like you”: James Demile, quoted in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts, 115–16.
“I felt myself being jolted”: Demile, “Evolving from the Darkside.”
“Hello? Is there anybody home?”: Demile interview, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 28.
More students soon followed: Taky Kimura, personal interview by the author, March 19, 2015. See also Thomas, Bruce Lee, 36–37; Halpin, “The Little Dragon,” in Brewster and Buerge, Washingtonians, 419–39. For Skip Ellsworth, see “Biography of Skip Ellsworth.”
At nineteen Bruce would: James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014; Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014.
The result was the most: This point seems to either get completely overstated or just entirely lost in the shuffle. Within the nuance of it, however, there are some really fascinating conclusions to draw. In looking at other Chinese martial arts schools in America circa 1960, you would be hard-pressed to find a class as racially diverse as Bruce’s in Seattle. For this reason many of the Seattle students like to joke that the class looked “like the United Nations.” In this regard Bruce Lee genuinely was a pioneering force of the Chinese martial arts in America years before he was famous via Hollywood (especially when considering that he was among the first—if not the very first—to teach Wing Chun in the United States). Furthermore, and perhaps more notably, as Bruce’s teaching in Seattle become more formal, he had a significant number of female students, which was also very rare at the time.
When Ruby Chow, the stern: Jesse Glover, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 24.
Bruce was settling nicely: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 35–42; interview with Ed Hart, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 23–24; Gong, Bruce Lee, 17–19.
“We were all dummies”: Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 49.
Open to drawing on more: Interviews with Taky Kimura (10–11), Jesse Glover (26), and James Demile (28–29), all in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon. In the interview Demile states: “There were two reasons Bruce modified his Wing Chun. First, was to beat his seniors in Wing Chun. . . . The second reason for modifying his Wing Chun was the Westerners were bigger and stronger than him and once they learned the basics of Wing Chun they could become a real threat to him. Bruce became very selfish in his personal training. He would explore efficient fighting concepts with different students, never really teaching everyone the same thing.”
At the moment, however: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 44–45; Gong, Bruce Lee, 18.
Glover knew of Yoiche’s: Interview with Jesse Glover, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 21.
The origin of their conflict: Interview with Jesse Glover, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 21
Standing in the yard: Interview with Jesse Glover, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 24.
“Let’s get this straight”: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:210–11. See also Kimura interview, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 12.
“Are you the teacher?”: Warren Chan, personal interview by the author, November 12, 2013; Joe Cervara, phone interview by the author, February 14, 2014; also a written account from the personal files of Warren Chan. This incident is well known among students of Kin Mon. Warren Chan was an eyewitness standing just a few feet away when it happened.
There is a notion: Gong, Bruce Lee, 60; Tracy interview. From the personal files of Warren Chan: writings on T. Y. Wong’s teacher Leong Tin Chee assert this notion as well.
In the courtyard: Interviews with Jesse Glover (21) and Ed Hart (27), in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 44–45; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 45. See also Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:210–13.
“drove his opponent”: Glover interview, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 21; interview with James Demile, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 31.
“The man took a long time”: Glover interview, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 21.
“eleven-second fight”: Kimura personal interview.
Bruce landed a multitude: Interviews with Jesse Glover (21) and Ed Hart (27), in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 44–45.
The brick breaking: Greglon Lee, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014; Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011; Al Tracy, personal interview by the author, August 26, 2014; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:78–80, 97–99. I should point out that I could not nail down where James Lee first learned his breaking technique. I asked numerous sources about this point, but nobody could say for certain. The general consensus, including the opinion of his son, was that he learned during his time in Hawaii.
His upper body was rugged: Photos from the personal files of Greglon Lee. Tracy interview; Allen Joe, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014.
testimony to the achievements: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:12. Greglon Lee, phone interview by the author, February 15, 2011.
A welder by trade: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:86, 109, and captions to the photographs; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 65; interview with Greglon Lee, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 100; George Lee, personal interview by the author, January 8, 2011. George Lee worked as a machinist at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for thirty-six years. Along with James Lee and Allen Joe, he developed a close personal relationship with Bruce. When Bruce relocated to Southern California, George Lee would build many of the devices and contraptions that Bruce conceived.
After dinners with: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:78; Greglon Lee interview, June 18, 2014.
Though an unlikely candidate: Greglon Lee interview, June 18, 2014; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:86, 91–92; Gong, Bruce Lee, 48. See also Zimmer’s articles: “Take Note, Grasshopper, of Kung Fu” and “How ‘Kung Fu’ Entered the Popular Lexicon.”
In short order, packages: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:91–92.
While considering a title: Zimmer, “Take Note, Grasshopper, of Kung Fu”; Zimmer, “How ‘Kung Fu’ Entered the Popular Lexicon.”
Born and raised in: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:7; Allen Joe, personal interviews by the author, June 18, 2014, and August 26, 2014; Greglon Lee interview, February 15, 2011.
Most notable: Joe interview, June 18, 2014; Tracy interview; Greglon Lee interview, February 15, 2011.
After school he took: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:7–9.
After returning to Oakland: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:7–9.
James eventually proposed: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:104–5. Personal interviews with Greglon Lee, June 18, 2014 and Gilman Wong, May 15, 2015.
The project proved: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; Novak interview; Greglon Lee interview, June 18, 2014; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:111. Leo Fong asserts that he was present when James stormed out of Kin Mon and has always said that the fallout was over just a few dollars. There are theories, however, that after witnessing T. Y. Wong’s children practice, James realized that he was being taught a watered-down version of the techniques.
Talking with his close: Novak interview; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:111–20.
As James would explain: J. Yimm Lee. Wing Chun Kung-Fu, introduction.
The two of them: Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014.
First, his brother, Robert: “Harriet Lee’s Reflections on the Dragon,” in Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, unpaginated.
Just recently, his friend: Bernice Jay, personal interview by the author, October 13, 2014.
If a more modern: Novak interview; Fong interview.
Allen Joe ordered: Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014. See also Gong, Bruce Lee, 47–48.
Allen had grown up: Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014. See also Gong, Bruce Lee, 47–48.
James and Allen had: Goldstein, “Jack Lalanne”; Finacom, “Jack La Lanne”; Allen Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014; phone interview with Elaine Lalanne, October 21, 2015; Gong, Bruce Lee, 50–52.
But for the East Bay: Franklin, “Ed Yarick Gym”; Yarick, “Steve Reeves I Know”; Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014; LaLanne interview; Gong, Bruce Lee, 50–52.
Later, after his service: Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014; Gong, Bruce Lee, 50–52.
Working on a second Scotch: Joe interviews, March 3, 2011, and June 18, 2014. See also Gong, Bruce Lee, 47–48.
“I was told about you”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
Bruce’s face lit up: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
“You practice Gung Fu?”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
“Yes, with Robert’s brother”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
“Come on, let’s”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
The two of them made: Joe interview, June 18, 2014; Gong, Bruce Lee, 47–48.
“Before we go in”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014; Gong, Bruce Lee, 47–48. “He then asked Allen to throw a punch at him, and when he did, he found Bruce lo sao-ing him (grabbing his arm) all over the place: ‘When he lop sao-ed me, he jerked my shoulder so hard that might be why my socket is still sore today!’ It was the beginning of a great friendship!” (Gong, Bruce Lee, 47).
Driving his black Ford: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:244, 251–53.
Allen Joe had returned: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
“James, the kid is amazing”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
Bruce and Allen had stayed: Joe interview, June 18, 2014; Gong, Bruce Lee, 47–48.
Two hundred years: Bagwell, Oakland, 15–20.
As San Francisco blossomed: Bagwell, Oakland, 15–20. “The price of redwood lumber skyrocketed. In 1847, it was $30 per one thousand board feet. In 1849, it $350 to $600 per thousand board feet. Fortunes were to be made in the redwoods, and miners came quickly back” (18).
Bruce continued south, anxious: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:251–53.
In 1868 Oakland: Bagwell, Oakland, 50–53.
At the time there was: Bagwell, Oakland, 60.
With the turn: Bagwell, Oakland, 178–79.
“There were those who thought”: Bagwell, Oakland, 178–79.
With the opening: Bagwell, Oakland, 189.
Aeronautics soon followed: Bagwell, Oakland, 197–200.
Amelia Earhart operated: “Leamington Hotel.”
By the 1920s the city: Bagwell, Oakland, 196.
The industry and job: Bagwell, Oakland, 232–42.
For Bruce the view: George Lee interview.
If James Lee was searching: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:251.
Juggling a variety: Gong, Bruce Lee, 17–19; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:102.
He was planning a trip: Phoebe Lee et al., Lee Siu Loong. This book, by Bruce’s siblings, is entirely focused on his 1963 trip home.
All that aside, Bruce: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:251; Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
On Monticello Avenue: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:254.
“how does this thing work?”: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:256; George Lee interview; Joe interview, June 18, 2014; Novak interview.
As the entire house: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 1:254.
James Lee and his colleagues: Bernice Jay, personal interviews by the author, September 18, 2012, and October 13, 2014; Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011; Greglon Lee interview, February 15, 2011.
“Bruce was smart”: Greglon Lee interview, February 15, 2011.
“Allen, the kid is amazing”: Joe interview, June 18, 2014.
It was getting late: Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011; Bernice Jay, personal interview by the author, October 11, 2014.
Bruce Lee jumped: Novak interview.
Bruce was down from Seattle: Novak interview; Bernice Jay interview, October 11, 2014; Greglon Lee, phone interview by the author, February 15, 2011.
The talk came packaged: Novak interview; Bernice Jay interview, October 11, 2014. “I can’t tell you the number of late nights that were spent with Ralph Castro, and Wally Jay, James Lee, Allen Joe, all those guys. Many late nights where they would go around the living room demonstrating things . . . ‘Hey get up, let me show you this one move’” (Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011).
“all just go out back”: Bernice Jay interview, October 11, 2014.
On the topic of kung fu: Novak interview.
On his feet now: Novak interview.
Bruce’s buddy Hawkins: Cheung, “Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong Years.”
Bruce explained how: Novak interview.
In time Bruce would exhibit: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011.
The conversations continued on: Novak interview.
On the subject of American: Novak interview. Numerous sources testified to Bruce’s great interest in American boxing and his admiration for these particular fighters (Robinson, Dempsey, and Ali). There is a great segment from the I Am Bruce Lee documentary that is worth watching on this topic; in it Dan Inosanto and Linda Lee relate that Bruce watched an 8 mm boxing film of Muhammad Ali backward to see how he could apply the moves from Ali’s left-foot-forward stance to his own right-foot-forward stance. “He studied these films meticulously,” explains Linda Lee.
“Dempsey was out for the kill”: Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014.
spurred Wally forward: Novak interview.
Prior to his jujitsu training: Alan Jay, phone interview by the author, January 3, 2015.
topic steered to the kid: Novak interview. Again, Bruce’s admiration for Ali surfaces in many interviews with people who knew him. Leo Fong, for example, can talk about this at great length.
Bruce held the present company: Cadwell interview.
Novak would have fit: Novak interview; also Gene Ching, “Great American Great Grandmaster.”
Bruce was also becoming: Bernice Jay interview, October 11, 2014.
In fact, when Wally’s: Alan Jay interview.
As Bruce was becoming: Cadwell interview.
Often over the course: Novak interview.
In 1922 British heavyweight: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
Starting in the mid-nineteenth: “Japanese Laborers Arrive”; Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, chap. 4.
In the social turbulence: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 42–46.
the Japanese would compose: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 132.
just before a new federal: “Immigration Act of 1924.”
“preserve the ideal”: “Immigration Act of 1924.”
Filipinos, who were exempt from: “Immigration Act of 1924”; “Filipino Laborers Arrive.”
All these migrant groups: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 164–66.
“Hawaii was the first great”: Dan Inosanto, personal interview by the author, June 2, 2014.
By the time that Morris: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
In seeking out a practitioner: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
During the late nineteenth century: Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore, 43. Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
During family financial turmoil: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
Living in the Hilo: Bernice Jay, personal interview by the author, October 13, 2014; Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
If there was a fighter: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
The fighting method: Skoss, “Jujutsu and Taijutsu.”
“the art of gaining victory”: Joseph R. Svinth, “Professor Yamashita Goes to Washington,” in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts, 50.
eventually employed to describe: Svinth, “Professor Yamashita.”
These methods—with their: Skoss, “Jujutsu and Taijutsu.”
Later, in an effort: William J. Long, “Judo,” in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts of the World, 127–32.
“all the nasty bits out”: Personal interview with the Jay family (Bernice, Alan, Alberta, and Antoinette), personal interview by the author, March 24, 2012.
Whereas the Chinese martial: Judkins, “Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (14).”
so much so that President: Svinth, “Professor Yamashita.”
In preparing for the Morris: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
On May 19, 1922: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
In 1926 Okazaki returned: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
Photos of his students: From the personal files of Bernice Jay.
Although the local: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
Okazaki always maintained: Bernice Jay interview, October 13, 2014.
With the Japanese attack: Edwards and Edwards, “Historical Perspectives.”
Born to Chinese immigrants: Jay family interview; Rick H. Wong, personal interviews by the author, September 25, 2014, July 8, 2012 and December 4, 2014; Inosanto interview; Bernice Jay interviews, September 18, 2012, and October 13, 2014; Alan Jay interview. See also “History of Small Circle Jujitsu.”
In 1950 Wally: Bernice Jay interview, September 18, 2012.
However, Wally’s evolution: Bernice Jay interviews, September 18, 2012, and October 13, 2014; Alan Jay interview; Wong interviews, July 8, 2012, and December 4, 2014; “History of Small Circle Jujitsu.”
“When we first came”: Alan Jay interview.
Wally became a popular: Wong interview, July 8, 2012; Alan Jay interview; Bernice Jay interviews, September 18, 2012, and October 13, 2014; Inosanto interview. From interview with Dan Inosanto: “Well . . . Wally Jay is kinda like my own personal hero.”
Wally would field criticism: Bernice Jay interview, October 13, 2014; Alan Jay interview, January 3, 2015; Wong interview, December 4, 2014; “History of Small Circle Jujitsu.”
“There was a kind of”: Inosanto interview.
“Are you ready?”: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:88; Ralph Castro, personal interview by the author, February 10, 2011.
Ralph Castro steadied himself: Castro interview.
Parker and Castro had: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:58–95; Castro interview.
the group all put on: From the personal files of Greglon Lee; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:81–82.
Parker began to warm: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:72–78.
Parker and Castro were both: Castro interview.
Castro had a tough: Willy Cahill, personal interview by the author, August 20, 2014.
In California his students: Barney Scollan, personal interview by the author, January 11, 2014; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014.
As a Bay Area: Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011.
Bruce was ready now: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:88; Ralph Castro interview.
“fist law”: Lee Wedlake, “Kenpo Karate,” in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts of the World, 49–55.
It is a broad: “Currently, kenpo is a dynamic martial art. A careful reading of the history of this art indicates that innovation and change are its hallmarks . . . a martial system as flexible and adaptable as the people who have embraced it” (C. Jerome Barber, “Kenpo,” in Green and Svinth, Martial Arts of the World, 259).
Kenpo’s origins in Hawaii: Bruce Juchnik, phone interview by the author, December 17, 2014; Al Tracy, personal interview by the author, August 26, 2014; “Origin ‘Ideas’ of Kenpo.” See also Barber, “Kenpo.”
Born in Hawaii, Mitose: Juchnik interview; “James.”
Parker and Castro learned kenpo: Castro interview.
He was known to be: Tracy, “Professor William K. S. Chow.”
“He was into full-on”: “In the martial arts . . . we teach people to respect themselves and others” (Samuel Alama Kuoha, quoted in Avent, “In the Martial Arts”).
Born into the Mormon: “Ed Parker Biography”; Darlene Parker and Antwone Alferos, phone interview by the author, June 18, 2015.
Parker arrived on the mainland: Parker and Alferos interview.
During the halftime: Broad. “Tribute to Ed Parker.”
He corresponded with Professor: Parker and Alferos interview.
“High Priest of Hollywood’s”: “Violent Repose.”
Over time his celebrity: Wedlake, “Kenpo Karate.” See also “Ed Parker Biography.”
Without many years: “Ed Parker Biography”; Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; Parker and Alferos interview; Dave Hebler, personal interview by the author, December 11, 2014.
He already had a small: Parker and Alferos interview; Tracy interview; Lee Wedlake, email correspondence with the author, June 27, 2015.
event that Parker was planning: Phone Interview with Dave Hebler, phone interview by the author, December 12, 2014; Parker and Alferos interview.
“the ultimate”: Leo Fong, phone interview by the author, February 3, 2011; Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011.
Fong had spent: Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011.
“radical overhaul”: “Timing.”
Fong practiced his main: Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“pah-pah . . . pah-pah”: Fong interview, October 24, 2011. I’ve noticed that the many martial artists I interviewed all seem to have their own sounds that they attach to recollecting certain moves or techniques. For Fong, “pah-pah” is one of the sounds he ascribes to combinations of punches being thrown and landed.
He had racked up: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
These odd hours: Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
At the age of fifteen: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011; Leo Fong, phone interview by the author, December 17, 2014.
The match was held: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and December 17, 2014.
The residents of Widener: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
“Population 92”: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
“Ching Chong Chinaman–kinda chant”: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
Later that day Fong: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
“The racism was so deep”: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
In addition to the regular: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and December 17, 2014.
the book Fundamentals of Boxing: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and December 17, 2014.
So walking home after: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014.
“a sliding right”: Fong interview, December 17, 2014.
Yet even with a record: Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
While Fong sparred with his: Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and December 17, 2014.
One would gain momentum: Bruce Lee, Chinese Gung Fu.
while the other would enjoy: Thomas A. Green, phone interview by the author, January 27, 2015.
After months of enthusiastic: Bruce Lee, Chinese Gung Fu; Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, vol. 2. Sid Campbell and Greglon Lee’s second volume mainly concerns itself with James and Bruce collaborating to publish Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense. Their book is likely the most thorough account of that particular history.
Somewhat uncharacteristically: Bruce Lee, Gung Fu. “Bruce intentionally wrote this introductory book about Chinese gung fu for those in America, which included very little of the wing chun gung fu that he had been practicing and teaching. The book illustrates a more basic, generalized approach and primer to the theories of gung fu, including much of the classical approach Bruce later criticized” (Gong, Bruce Lee, 48).
The book opened with: Bruce Lee, Gung Fu, 1–8.
He not only showcased: Bruce Lee, Gung Fu; Gong, Bruce Lee, 48.
Conversely, Secret Fighting Arts: Gilbey, Secret Fighting Arts.
“a book crammed full”: Gilbey, Secret Fighting Arts.
Gilbey’s book hopped: Gilbey, Secret Fighting Arts.
“an heir to a textile”: Gilbey, Secret Fighting Arts.
the book was a hoax: Smith, Martial Musings, 113–18; Green interview.
A World War II veteran: Smith, Martial Musings.
But the parody: Smith, Martial Musings; Green interview.
“What we were reading in”: Green interview.
the authors shared common: I should note that Robert W. Smith would have been appalled to be lumped together with Bruce Lee on this point. In fact, the quote, “So much of what passes for the fighting arts in America and Asia is bogus,” is taken from a chapter in Smith’s memoir in which he skewers Bruce Lee and his role in the prevailing perceptions of the martial arts. I could write a lengthy article on this topic, and ultimately I would conclude that Smith was unable to distinguish what Lee was doing on screen with what Lee was doing in the garage on Monticello Avenue in Oakland. By only considering the former and not the latter, I think Smith assessed Bruce incorrectly. After all, the quote cited above sounds remarkable similar to what Bruce was already saying in the early 1960s.
“So much of what passes”: Smith, Martial Musings, 342.
At the end of the year: Allen Joe, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014; Linda Lee interview. See also Gong, Bruce Lee, 49.
James presented Bruce: Campbell and Lee, Dragon and the Tiger, 2:230–31.
He had found a location: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 55; Gong, Bruce Lee, 22, 31–33.
Over the summer Bruce: Gong, Bruce Lee, 22. See also Phoebe Lee et al., Lee Siu Loong. This book chronicles Bruce’s trip back to Hong Kong in the summer of 1963. It is a thorough account of his time there.
With James Lee, Allen Joe: Joe interview.
City coordinators and police: “Chinatown’s Biggest Night”; “King-Sized Traffic Snarl.” See also Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
“monumental”: From San Francisco Examiner headline, February 23, 1964, A-1.
Both the Golden Gate: “King-Sized Traffic Snarl.”
In Chinatown police barricades: “Chinatown’s Biggest Night.” See also Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
SFPD patrolman William Goodwin: “Chinatown’s Biggest Night.”
The parade itself was: Kem K. Lee, Photograph Collection, 1927–1986; “Chinatown’s Biggest Night.” See also Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
“a combination of marvelous”: Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
Lau Bun’s Lion Dance: Kem K. Lee, Photograph Collection, 1927–1986.
T. Y. Wong and his squad: Kem K. Lee, Photograph Collection, 1927–1986.
careful to conduct their lions: Adeline Fong, personal interview by the author, December 12, 2012.
As expected, the Forbidden City: “Chinatown Parade Tomorrow.” For Coby Yee history, see Dong, Forbidden City, USA.
“A flower boat with”: “Chinatown Parade Tomorrow.”
However, the float briefly: Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
“ten saddened beauties”: “Chinatown’s Biggest Night.”
tempered by the steady stream: Kem K. Lee, Photograph Collection, 1927–1986.
star of the festivities finally: “Chinatown’s Biggest Night.” See also Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon”; Kem K. Lee, Photograph Collection, 1927–1986.
“Parade officials didn’t know”: Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
“Chinatown’s Greatest Night”: Ludlow, “300,000 . . . and a Dragon.”
“In Chinatown, it’s the Year”: Caen, “Phenomenal Week.”
On February 9 the Beatles: Margolis, Last Innocent Year, 139–42.
Bob Dylan had already: Marqusee, “Fifty Years.”
“the year that everything”: Margolis, Last Innocent Year, 266.
On February 25 Cassius Clay: Gallender, Sonny Liston, 104–76; Tosches, Devil and Sonny Liston, 185–203; Margolis, Last Innocent Year, 148–49.
defeating Floyd Patterson: Tosches, Devil and Sonny Liston, 157–67; Gallender, Sonny Liston, 63–97.
“the big Negro in every”: As quoted in Gallender, Sonny Liston, 89.
Somehow, Cassius Clay: Gallender, Sonny Liston, 104–76; Tosches, Devil and Sonny Liston, 185–203.
“I don’t have to be who”: Margolis, Last Innocent Year, 149.
“It is unthinkable that anyone would”: Caen, “Phenomenal Week.”
Within a year the federal: “Unnoticed Struggle.”
The rise of Chinatown youth: Bill Lee, Chinese Playground.
Furthermore, a series of new: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 57; “History of Fair Housing.”
As spirited as Coby Yee’s: Dong, Forbidden City, USA, 34–36.
local dancer Carol Doda made: Dong, Forbidden City, USA, 34–36.
Bing Chan opened his own: Dino Salvatera, personal interviews by the author, June 20, 2011, November 7, 2011, and December 19, 2012; Doc-Fai Wong, personal interview by the author, February 2, 2012; Sam Louie, personal interview by the author, February 1, 2012; Adeline Fong, personal interviews by the author, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014.
T.Y. had taken on Irish: Warren Chan, personal interview by the author, November 12, 2013.
Lau Bun was teaching Hawaiian: Louie interview; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014.
There was also a notable: Wing Woo interview, February 26, 2014; Ben Der, personal interview by the author, February 2, 2014; Paul Eng, personal interview by the author, May 16, 2014; David Chin, phone interview by the author, March 31, 2011; Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
“elegantly athletic”: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
He frequented the Ghee: Chin interview.
“the one-inch punch”: Leo Fong, personal interviews by the author, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014; phone interview by the author, February 3, 2011.
James Lee had put: Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 31, 2011; Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011; George Lee, personal interviews by the author, January 8, 2011.
Fong was still uncertain: Leo Fong interviews, February 3, 2011, and October 24, 2011.
George Lee, who had been: George Lee interview, January 8, 2011.
First, James announced: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
In deciding to move: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 57.
Initially James considered: Greglon Lee, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014; Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014. See also Gong, Bruce Lee, 46.
Taking a cue: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 57; Gong, Bruce Lee, 46; Linda Lee, personal interview by the author, April 20, 2011. At the end of 1963, Bruce and Linda traveled to Pasadena, presumably to see the Washington Huskies in the Rose Bowl. Bruce really wanted to visit Ed Parker. The young couple picked up James Lee, and while down there, Parker took them over to the Long Beach Auditorium and explained the current state of his plans for the tournament that coming summer. A photo from this visit shows Linda, Bruce, James, Ed Parker, and Ed Parker Jr. The back of the photo is dated December 30, 1963. I asked Linda Lee about this directly because it seemed like a mismatch from the date of the 1964 tournament.
Bruce talked for a bit: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“classical mess”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“explosive power”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
Bruce moved the coffee table: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“Bruce knocked him”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011; Barney Scollan, personal interview by the author, January 22, 2014. Leo Fong and Barney Scollan describe different demonstrations of Bruce performing the one-inch punch at James Lee’s house in almost the exact same manner. Scollan signed up with Bruce and James later that year but seemed to attend a similar sort of orientation meeting in the living room at Monticello Avenue. Scollan was actually the volunteer during this particular meeting. While the account from this chapter is from Fong, here is Scollan’s account. Notice the similarities: “I went through the air with the one-inch punch. In James Lee’s living room. We were skeptical, like, ‘C’mon, one inch?’ And he said, ‘Okay.’ So he moved the coffee table out of the way, and he had me stand with a pillow from the couch. And I was holding it like this, like in a football stance. And he went—whap. And I flew, hit the couch, the couch tipped over, and I was almost about to go through the living room window when my roommates caught me. I outweighed Bruce by like thirty or forty pounds. I don’t know how he did it. I talked to my old roommate recently, and I said, ‘You were there, weren’t you?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I caught you as you were about to go through the window. Two of us did.’”
As everyone settled down: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“Until the new school is ready”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
The few people in attendance: Novak interview; Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011; George Lee interview.
At the 1964 Summer: “Judo at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games.”
Ed Parker sought to: Chris Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts”; Darlene Parker and Antwone Alferos, phone interview by the author, June 18, 2015.
There had been a few: Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts”; Parker and Alferos interview.
“Chicago was a real mess”: Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts.”
Parker invited him down: Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 57.
“He (Bruce) was very”: Ed Parker, quoted in Thomas, Bruce Lee, 57.
Bruce was entirely disdainful: I Am Bruce Lee.
“organized despair”: George Lee, personal interview by the author, January 8, 2011. Bruce’s former Seattle student Pat Strong had a different way of phrasing it: “To Bruce, this kind of sparring was more a form of constipation” (quoted in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 47).
When Bruce arrived: Dan Inosanto, personal interview by the author, June 2, 2014. As Inosanto recalls, “Ed Parker gave me seventy-five dollars and said, ‘Make sure that he eats, and show him around the Long Beach area.’”
Slomanski had brought: Inosanto interview.
Inosanto studied for a time: Inosanto interview.
“I was completely flabbergasted”: Inosanto, quoted in Thomas, Bruce Lee, 58.
The night before the tournament: Inosanto interview; Barney Scollan, personal interview by the author, January 22, 2014.
Dressed in a black leather: Scollan interview; photographs from personal files of Barney Scollan.
“That one . . . is the only”: As related by Pat Strong, in Bax, Disciples of the Dragon, 44.
many observers in the room: Inosanto interview; Scollan interview. It’s worth noting that Inosanto says he was as impressed with this performance by Bruce—“in front of the black belts”—as he was with the one at the tournament the following day.
a seminal moment for: Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts.”
The turnout at the: Dave Hebler, phone interview by the author, December 11, 2014.
“It truly was international”: Hebler interview.
Bruce’s demonstration was slated: Gong, Bruce Lee, 54–56; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 56; Hebler interview. It’s worth noting that there is some discrepancy over Bruce’s slot amid the demonstrations. Whereas Dave Hebler asserts that Bruce was a minor presenter, most Bruce Lee biographers slate him as the final presenter and, as a result, a sort of headliner. It seems that Bruce did perform toward the end of the day, but whether his billing had “headliner status” remains unclear.
“My dad started the internationals”: Parker and Alferos interview.
There in Long Beach, Ed: Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts”; Parker and Alferos interview; Hebler interview.
Bruce took the floor: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 56.
Dressed in a black jing-mo: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 56.
Unlike his succinct: Scollan interview.
“Bruce was absolutely electric”: Cadwell interview.
“I had seen it all”: Richard Bustillo, quoted in Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts.”
Bruce performed the Wing Chun: Scollan interview; Inosanto interview; Gong, Bruce Lee, 54–56; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 56; I Am Bruce Lee. See also Trevino, “Bruce Lee Put U.S. Martial Arts.” There are some notable discrepancies in the accounts of what Bruce performed at Long Beach in 1964 versus later years.
“Although they were impressive, Bruce”: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 56–57.
he took the floor to: Scollan interview; Inosanto interview.
Bruce insulted a lot: Scollan interview; Inosanto interview; Clarence Lee, personal interview by the author, October 7, 2014.
“The prevailing attitude”: Hebler interview.
“kicking a guy in the nuts”: Scollan interview.
“He got up there and”: Scollan interview.
The horse stance is: Inosanto interview.
“of the classical mess”: Scollan interview.
“There’s stability, but”: Inosanto interview.
By contrast he then: Scollan interview.
“He said the individual”: Richard Bustillo, in I Am Bruce Lee.
“He was heavily into”: Inosanto interview.
This was a popular point: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011; Inosanto interview; Al Novak, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011.
“Back then, it was”: Leo Fong interview.
“Teachers should never impose”: Inosanto interview.
“There was a high percentage”: Inosanto interview.
“Guys were practically lining”: Clarence Lee interview.
Months earlier Scollan: Scollan interview.
“Bruce made a number of: Barney Scollan, email communication with the author, June 7, 2011.
Jay Sebring was the hair: “Jay Sebring.” See also “Jay Sebring Trailer.”
At Long Beach, Sebring: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 67; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 70. See also I Am Bruce Lee.
Sebring’s life was fated: “Jay Sebring.”
Not long after Parker’s: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 67; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 70. See also I Am Bruce Lee.
Not only was it Dozier’s: “The Man behind TV’s Batman.”
During haircutting chitchat: Thomas, Bruce Lee, 67; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 70. See also I Am Bruce Lee.
Barney Scollan couldn’t sign: Barney Scollan, personal interview by the author, January 22, 2014; Dick Miller, phone interview by the author, December 4, 2014.
“So, Bruce”: Scollan interview.
“That is why”: Scollan interview.
Scollan and his Berkeley: Scollan interview; Thomas A. Green, phone interview by the author, January 27, 2015.
“I would get into fights”: Scollan interview.
In this sense the growing: Green interview.
“There will always be”: Green interview.
“emphasizing practicality and renouncing”: Kennedy and Kuo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, 45. Interestingly enough, the famous Chinese General Qi Jiguang had also chimed in on this issue of practicality in the martial arts, writing, “The pretty is not practical, and the practical is not pretty” (see Matuszak, “‘Practical Isn’t Pretty’”).
“untouchable”: Scollan interview; George Lee, personal interview by the author, January 8, 2011.
George Lee remembers how: George Lee interview; Greglon Lee, personal interview by the author, February 15, 2011.
Bob Cook, a well-traveled: Bob Cook, phone interview by the author, March 28, 2013.
“a hand-grenade”: Bob Cook, phone interview by the author, March 28, 2013.
“Leo, are you serious, man?: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011.
“Yeah, Bruce, I’m”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
“No, Leo”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
A lot had happened in: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 16–19; Gong, Bruce Lee, 33.
In the coming weeks: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 51; Gong, Bruce Lee, 49.
In the wake of his: I Am Bruce Lee.
“This guy”: Gong, Bruce Lee, 56.
“We were both very excited”: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 71.
Bruce went back out: Dan Inosanto, personal interview by the author, June 2, 2014.
Originally known as the Mandarin: Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 76. See also Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 150–51.
The two venues were constantly: “The following theatrical decline reached bottom after the destruction of Chinatown in the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. But the theater scene gradually recovered in a rebuilt Chinatown and boomed during the 1920s and 1930s, thanks to intense competition between two theaters: the Mandarin at 1021 Grant Street and the Great China at 630 Jackson Street” (Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 76).
In 1931 the Mandarin: Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 76.
Mandarin Theater booked Bruce’s: Lee Family Immigration Files. There tend to be discrepancies concerning exactly where Bruce’s father performed while in San Francisco. Some sources cite the Great China (or, as it was later known, the Great Star), yet Lee Hoi Chuen’s immigration documents clearly cite the Mandarin as his place of employment.
The theater had deep: Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 77.
opera’s heyday in Chinatown: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 150–51.
In the week before: Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 82.
It was under Grandview: Kar and Bren, Hong Kong Cinema, 97–98. See also Golden Gate Girls.
the Mandarin Theater would shift: Choy, San Francisco Chinatown, 150–51.
Later Orson Welles: “The Lady from Shanghai.”
“The Most Beautiful Creature”: Paul Fonoroff, email correspondence with the author, October 22, 2014.
“Diana Chang’s voluptuous figure”: Paul Fonoroff, email correspondence.
Born in Hebei Province: Paul Fonoroff, email correspondence.
Diana made her Hong Kong: Paul Fonoroff, email correspondence.
In the fall of 1964 Diana: Paul Fonoroff, email correspondence; Inosanto interview.
Bruce was intent on seizing: Inosanto interview.
While neighborhood students: George Lee interview. “Harriet Lee’s Reflections on the Dragon,” in Tadman and Kerridge, Bruce Lee, unpaginated.
negative stereotype: Leo Fong, personal interviews by the author, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014; Al Novak, personal interviews by the author, March 3, 2011; Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, February 14, 2014; Joe Cervara, phone interview by the author, February 14, 2014.
evidence of lingering tensions: Mancuso, “Kung Feud?”
Indeed, it was T.Y.: Cervara interview.
T.Y. had published his: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung-Fu.
“Soft Hand Stunts”: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung-Fu, 103.
“Do not waste your time”: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung-Fu, 103.
“See, I Can Break”: T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung-Fu, 106.
Soon afterward, while compiling: Bruce Lee, Chinese Gung Fu, 88–97.
“examples of a slower system”: Bruce Lee, Chinese Gung Fu, 88–97.
In those pages James: Bruce Lee, Chinese Gung Fu, 88–97; T. Y. Wong, Chinese Kung-Fu. See also Mancuso, “Kung Feud?” For example, compare the rendering of the “pow chuie” punch in Bruce’s book on pp. 88–89 with the one in T. Y. Wong’s first book on pp. 100–101.
introduction of James Lee’s: J. Yimm Lee, Wing Chun Kung-Fu, introduction.
“Wing Chun has made”: J. Yimm Lee, Wing Chun Kung-Fu, introduction.
They had made a habit: Allen Joe, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014.
When one of these outings: Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014.
none were as incendiary: Leo Fong interviews, October 24, 2011, and June 3, 2014; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014.
Bruce started with a joke: Jeff Chinn, personal interview by the author, February 4, 2014.
“Unlike the Chinese”: Chinn interview; Ralph Castro, personal interview by the author, February 10, 2011.
Bruce motioned for Inosanto: Inosanto interview.
Diana Chang had sung: Adeline Fong, personal interview by the author, December 12, 2012; Inosanto interview.
Bruce worked through: Inosanto interview.
“classical mess”: Wing Woo interview.
“Why would you kick high”: Scollan interview.
“80 percent of what they are”: Tracy interview; Wing Woo interview. Both of these men identify this particular quote (including the “tigers have no teeth” sentiment below) as the deal-breaking line for much of the audience at Bruce’s Sung Sing performance. Interestingly enough, this type of quote surfaces again and again on the topic of Bruce’s public criticisms of the legitimacy of what was being practiced in martial arts schools at the time. For example, in Linda Lee’s memoir she makes a similar reference to this kind of sentiment, presumably referring to his Long Beach demonstration: “How could this individual have stood in front of the entire martial arts community in the United States and said that over 95 percent of what he saw and heard was utter nonsense” (Bruce Lee Story, 41).
“These old tigers”: Tracy interview; Wing Woo interview.
A cigarette butt was: Adeline Fong, personal interviews by the author, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014.
“Bruce was saying”: Inosanto interview.
“That’s not kung fu”: Inosanto interview.
“Sir, would you care”: Inosanto interview.
“You don’t know”: Inosanto interview.
“Would anyone else care”: Adeline Fong interview, December 12, 2012.
In the lower-left seats: Adeline Fong interview, December 12, 2012.
Sixteen-year old Adeline: Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014.
“When Bruce called Kenneth”: Adeline Fong interview, December 3, 2014.
Kenneth Wong ignored the stairs: Adeline Fong interviews, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014; Doc-Fai Wong, personal interview by the author, February 16, 2012; Wing Woo interview.
“Thank you for participating”: Adeline Fong interview, June 28, 2011.
Bruce signed off: Doc-Fai Wong interview; Wing Woo interview; Adeline Fong interview, June 28, 2011; Ben Der, personal interview by the author, February 12, 2014; David Chin, phone interview by the author, March 31, 2011; Greglon Lee interview; Tracy interview.
“I would like to let everybody”: Wing Woo interview; Adeline Fong interview, June 28, 2011.
In the coming weeks: Chin interview, March 31, 2011; Doc-Fai Wong interview.
Wong Jack Man sat down: David Chin, phone interviews by the author, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 2011; Doc-Fai Wong interview. It’s interesting to note that Doc-Fai was a busboy at the Jackson Street Café at the time, while Wong Jack Man was a waiter.
They were also joined: David Chin, phone interviews by the author, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 2011; Doc-Fai Wong interview.
“the sort of guy”: Personal interview with Dino Salvatera, December 12, 2012.
The group concerned itself: Chin interviews, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 2011. There is a general consensus that the note was fairly short and to the point. Al Tracy’s assessment of what the letter said is consistent with many other accounts: “Dear Mr. Lee, We understand you have a set of hands called Wing Chun Pai. We have a representative that would like to exchange hands with you.”
“try out”: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
Chin asserts that Wong: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
Others saw it as merely: Personal interview with Clarence Lee, March 3, 2011.
Among the more prevalent: Der interview; Leo Fong, phone interview by the author, February 3, 2011.
“I brought the note”: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
This started a back-and-forth: Chin interview, March 31, 2011; Leo Fong interview, February 3, 2011.
“the vibrating fist”: Leo Fong interview, February 3, 2011.
many began to consider him: Leo Fong interview, February 3, 2011.
The matter was settled: Der interview; Leo Fong interview, February 3, 2011; Chin interview, February 17, 2011.
“The day of the fight”: Der interview.
“It’s all going down”: Leo Fong interview, February 3, 2011.
Sam Louie recalls word: Sam Louie, personal interview by the author, February 1, 2012.
“It has nothing to do”: Louie interview.
By then the anticipation: Der interview.
James Lee bolted the door: David Chin, personal interview by the author, March 31, 2011.
Wong Jack Man had arrived: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
Bruce Lee stood facing: Gong, Bruce Lee, 58.
David Chin had driven: Chin interview, March 31, 2011; Ben Der, personal interview by the author, February 12, 2014.
“three sitting up front”: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
A well-respected tai chi: Chin interview, March 31, 2011; Der interview.
In the backseat: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
“only there to see”: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
Formerly an upholstery: Chin interview, March 31, 2011; Dick Miller, phone interview by the author, December 4, 2014.
“very unremarkable”: Miller interview.
“It was serious business”: Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011.
In time Wong Jack Man: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
“It was not a friendly”: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
“Shut your mouth”: Ralph Castro, personal interview by the author, February 10, 2011; James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014; Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014; Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.” This is the most notorious bit of dialogue that is typically ascribed to this incident, with some variation. The Wong Jack Man camp usually says that Bruce said it directly to him, along the lines of “You’ve been killed by your friend.” Ralph Castro (who says he spent the next day with Bruce and had the fight thoroughly explained to him) suggests this line was more expletive laced. Al Tracy describes it this way as well, saying the line was directed to Chin (and yes, that it was laced with expletives).
“As far as I’m concerned”: Linda Lee, quoted in Gong, Bruce Lee, 57.
At five feet seven and a mere: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
his opponent had arrived: Der interview.
At five feet ten and about: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
Wong had an unassuming and: Ming Lum, quoted in Wing, Showdown in Oakland.
Bruce, on the other hand: Der interview.
“Styles make fights”: “Styles Make Fights.”
As a practitioner of: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
“blinding speed and crushing power”: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
Conversely, Bruce practiced: Gong, Bruce Lee, 10–11; Thomas, Bruce Lee, 16–21; Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 27.
“dry-land swimming”: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011.
“close to a hundred of them”: Chin interview, March 31, 2011.
Both men had spent: Der interview.
Up until that very: Chin, interview, March 31, 2011.
“Step forward”: Chin, interview, March 31, 2011.
“If you get in”: Tracy interview.
Bruce sought to end: Gong, Bruce Lee, 57. Paul Bax’s interview with Jesse Glover is pretty telling on this theme: [Bax] “If you could pick the most important principle about fighting that Bruce taught you, what do you think it would be?” [Glover] “Close on the guy, and get it over with” (Disciples of the Dragon, 19).
Now in the late stages: Cadwell interview, April 20, 2011.
“I suppose I ought”: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 53.
Wong stepped into range: Chin interview, March 31, 2011; Linda Lee, quoted in Gong, Bruce Lee, 57; Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
he darted in and delivered: David Chin, phone interviews by the author, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 2011; Linda Lee, quoted in Gong, Bruce Lee, 57.
“He really wanted”: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
Bruce pressed in, anxious: Chin interviews, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 2011.
By Chin’s account: Chin interview, February 8, 2011.
The melee soon: Chin interviews, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 201; Linda Lee, quoted in Gong, Bruce Lee, 57.
“like an ax punch”: Chin interview, February 8, 2011.
“chain punches”: Chin interview, February 8, 2011.
“scientific street fighting”: Cadwell interview, April 20, 2011.
Northern expert known for: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight”; Der interview.
In then backpedaling: Chin interviews, February 8, 2011, and March 31, 2011.
“Do you yield”: Linda Lee, quoted in Gong, Bruce Lee, 57.
“From there”: Chin interview, February 8, 2011.
Wong Jack Man and his: Chin interview, February 17, 2011.
“After the fight, Bruce”: Cadwell interview.
“soundly defeated”: Cadwell interview.
“The day before, everybody”: Der interview.
There had actually been: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight”; Al Tracy, phone interview by the author, August 26, 2014.
However, that pledge of silence: Wing, Showdown in Oakland. When it comes to the issue of what played out in the Chinese press in the aftermath of the fight, Rick Wing’s book contains a phenomenal account of what ran in the papers.
This then opened: Wing, Showdown in Oakland; Tracy interview.
This then sparked: From the personal files of Arthur Chin, as translated by Janet T. Shih.
Before long it began: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.” As Dorgan puts it, “Due to the human desire to be known as an eye witness to a famous event, it is easier to obtain firsthand accounts of the fight from persons who were not there than from those who were” (“Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight”).
“Lots of people claim”: David Chin, phone interview by the author, February 8, 2011.
fight went for over twenty: Tracy interview.
Bruce slammed Wong’s head: Barney Scollan, personal interview by the author, January 22, 2014.
Wong had Bruce in: James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 2, 2014.
Bruce’s mother heard: Tracy interview.
classic Akira Kurosawa film: Rashomon.
For example, Ming Lum: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
Ben Der, on the other: Ben Der, personal interview by the author, February 12, 2014.
“like a panda”: Der interview.
“I’ve always felt bad”: David Chin, phone interview by the author, March 31, 2011. It’s interesting to note here that Ben Der (a childhood friend of Bruce Lee who was living in San Francisco at the time of the fight, and presently a respected Wing Chun teacher in Northern California who has taught for years) has some very vivid accounts of two other eyewitnesses of the fight: Ronald “Ya Ya” Wu and Chan “Bald Head” Keung. Wu had practiced Wing Chun with Der for a time, and Keung gave Der an extensive account of the fight one afternoon down in Y. C. Wong’s school during the late sixties. When I conveyed this specific quote from Chin to Der, he replied, “Yep, even Chan Keung said that to me too.”
The impact was as tangible: Linda Lee Cadwell, phone interview by the author, April 20, 2011. There is widespread agreement among biographers, close friends, and longtime enemies that the Wong Jack Man fight was a turning point in Bruce Lee’s career.
“bouncing around like”: Leo Fong, personal interview by the author, October 24, 2011.
James Lee had given Leo: Leo Fong, phone interview by the author, February 3, 2011.
“Bruce, you gotta get”: Fong interview, February 3, 2011.
He began formally developing: Cadwell interview, April 20, 2011; Dan Inosanto, personal interview by the author, June 2, 2014.
Bruce was resolved to: Gong, Bruce Lee, 57; Allen Joe, personal interview by the author, June 18, 2014.
The fact that the fight: Linda Lee, quoted in Gong, Bruce Lee, 57–58.
“My mind is made up to”: Gong, Bruce Lee, 84.
“this system is a combination”: Gong, Bruce Lee, 87.
“True observation begins”: Bruce Lee, “Liberate Yourself from Classical Karate.”
“He was popping right jabs”: Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011.
the opening blow that Bruce: Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
simply fleeing from him: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 53.
“the runner”: Bruce himself would use this term in letters to James and George Lee. Gong, Bruce Lee, 58; George Lee, Regards from the Dragon: Oakland. It should be noted that many people say that the term was not derived from the fight but rather originated when Bruce saw Wong Jack Man at the Jackson Street Café a few days after the fight. Purportedly, Wong Jack Man bolted upon seeing Bruce come through the front door. (Ralph Castro, for instance, recounts this with great enthusiasm.)
Wong Jack Man could only: James Wing Woo, personal interview by the author, February 26, 2014.
while Bruce lacked: Tracy interview, August 26, 2014.
In time the prevailing: Linda Lee, Bruce Lee Story, 52; Dorgan, “Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight.”
“It was never about that”: Fong interview, February 3, 2011.
“It’s very simple: the fight”: Tracy interview.
“I think that’s mostly”: Al Novak, quoted in Gene Ching, “Great American Great Grandmaster.”
“Have you ever heard”: Clarence Lee, personal interview by the author, March 3, 2011.
including Noel O’Brien: Warren Chan, personal interview by the author, November 12, 2013.
Clifford Kamaga in: Wing Woo interview, February 26, 2014.
T. Y. Wong had not only: Chan interview.
Ed Parker would often: Darlene Parker and Antwone Alferos, phone interview by the author, June 18, 2015.
The newest school: Wing Woo interview, February 26, 2014; Adeline Fong, personal interview by the author, December 19, 2012.
exclusion code was very: Dino Salvatera, personal interviews by the author, June 20, 2011, June 28, 2011, November 27, 2012, and December 19, 2012; Adeline Fong, personal interviews by the author, June 28, 2011, December 12, 2012, and December 3, 2014; Leo Fong interview, October 24, 2011; Tracy interview; Wing Woo interview, February 26, 2014.
Bruce himself dealt with it: Jesse Glover, in Rafiq, Bruce Lee Conversations, 24; Doug Palmer’s essay, in Phoebe Lee, Lee Siu Loong, 70–82. Palmer explains how while visiting Bruce in Hong Kong during the summer of 1963, he had to be coy around Ip Man and not let on that he was learning from Bruce. Then, he tells another story about a demonstration during a stopover in Hawaii on the way home that sparked some tension when spectators realized that Bruce was training a Caucasian.
By the end of the 1960s: Michael Gilman, phone interview by the author, December 8, 2012; Mark Small, phone interview by the author, March 26, 2013; Robyn Silverstein, phone interview by the author, December 10, 2012.
“There was a meeting out”: Michael Gilman, phone interview by the author, December 19, 2014.
Fillmore Auditorium before Grateful: Small interview.
“scared shitless”: Gilman interview, December 8, 2012.
only to find Choy’s opponents: Gilman interview, December 8, 2012.
Gilman asserts that Choy: Gilman interview, December 19, 2014.