Thursday, September 24, 2015

Bruce Lee in Ed Parker's home



Per Ed Parker Jr. on his Facebook page these photos were taken in their family's home in Pasadena, their first home before they moved to the Las Robles home.

The little girl is Darlene Parker.

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(from the Striking Distance Facebook page 8-22-17)

Bruce Lee with Ed Parker during Christmas break of 1963-64, at Parker's home in Pasadena, California.

Bruce made good use of his semester break at the University of Washington to take a long road trip visiting martial arts colleagues along the way. Together with his new girlfriend Linda Emery, he first traveled south to Oakland to visit James Lee. Bruce and James had become close collaborators i...n the short time that they knew one another, resulting in the publication of Bruce's book (the only he would ever publish in his lifetime) - Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense.

Next it was on to southern California to meet with another recent colleague - Ed Parker. (Actually, Bruce had told Linda that they were traveling south to see the Huskies in the Rose Bowl, when really....that was just an excuse to visit Parker.) A kenpo practitioner who had emerged from the robust martial arts melting pot of Hawaii, Parker was a key figure in the burgeoning martial arts landscape within the U.S., and had plans for a major event in the coming year. In fact, while everyone was in town, Parker took them out to visit the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium.......the site for what would become Parker's inaugural Long Beach International Karate Tournament in August of 1964.

Parker's event would have a fateful significance on Bruce Lee's life and career.

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