55 years ago today

Bruce Lee put U.S. martial arts on the grand stage in Long Beach 50 years ago

(by Chris Trevino presstelegram.com 8-1-14)

Bruce Lee is the greatest martial artist of his generation. A movie star. A pop culture icon. A philosopher. A legend.

But all legends start somewhere. For Lee, that somewhere was Long Beach 50 years ago.

Lee took center stage of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium on Aug. 2, 1964, during the inaugural Long Beach International Karate Championships. For the next half-hour, Lee dazzled the thousands in attendance with unimaginable feats of speed and power.

Richard Bustillo remembers that day when he was a 22-year-old boxer and martial artist whose life changed forever.

“I had seen it all until I saw Bruce Lee perform with his philosophies, his concepts of martial arts and his speed and power,” said Bustillo, one of the last remaining original students of Lee. “I said, ‘Now this is something we have to learn. This is real martial arts.’ ”

Over the International’s 50-year history, Long Beach has hosted some of the sport’s greatest black belts from Chuck Norris to Joe Lewis and Lee again in 1967.

This year’s edition, at the Long Beach Convention Center this weekend, will be the International’s last under its current name and will take on a new identity moving forward. The International will conclude with a ceremony to honor the 50 year history and feature appearances from participants in 1964.

“It’s the proper way to say goodbye,” said Steve Cooper, the event’s promoter. “They want to come down memory lane one more time.”

Tournament’s genesis

Like Lee, the International itself was the brainchild of Ed Parker, founder of American Kenpo Karate. It was unlike anything ever seen — not only in Long Beach, but also the United States.

Lee took the stage, unassuming at 5 feet 7 inches tall and barely 140 pounds in his black Chinese kung fu jacket and pants. And after that summer day’s performance in the Auditorium, both Lee and Parker’s tournament became staples in the martial arts world and forever linked.

[The Long Beach International] kick-started martial arts all over, not just Bruce Lee,” said Bustillo. “It made martial arts popular.”

Going mainstream

Today, it’s impossible to drive anywhere in the U.S. without passing a martial arts school or finding a local tournament. But 50 years ago, the idea of a commercial school or a tournament was all but unheard of.

“In the ’50s and ’60s, martial arts was kept secret. It wasn’t something you could open a commercial school or talk about it,” Bustillo said. “When (Parker) opened up it kind of raised eyebrows to the traditionalist people. ‘Why is he exposing our martial arts?’ But it was very successful.”

Robert Trias’ 1955 Arizona Karate Championships is regarded as the first recorded martial arts tournament in the U.S., with Trias and John Keehan putting together the first national competition in 1963 at the University of Chicago Fieldhouse. A year later, Jhoon Rhee, the father of American Taekwondo, held the U.S. National Karate Championships in Washington, D.C. The Chicago and D.C. competitions were marred by inconsistency and disorganization.

In a letter printed in the September issue of Black Belt Magazine, titled “Disgusted at the National Karate Championships,” the reader outlined his account of the D.C. event, calling it the most “unorganized sports event I have ever seen.”

“If karate is to become a popular spectator sport,” wrote the reader, “much will have to be done to change the public’s mind and erase the impression that was conveyed at the 1964 National Championship.”

Parker was able to distinguish the International among the chaos and have it become a premier event in a sport that would quickly enter public consciousness.

“Chicago was a real mess,” said George Mattson, who was an official at both the Chicago and Long Beach tournaments. “Ed’s was the first notable tournament that was run in an organized matter. … It was the best run at the time and set the standard that followed.”

“That tournament was real special,” said grandmaster Pat Burleson, winner of the 1964 title in Washington. “You couldn’t talk about martial arts without mentioning the International in Long Beach.”

A legend is made

Parker was introduced to Bruce Lee by James Yimm Lee (no relation), a martial arts instructor in Oakland who befriended Bruce Lee and hosted his visits from Seattle. Impressed by Lee immediately, Parker invited to Lee to demonstrate his skills at his inaugural International.

Parker introduced Bruce Lee the evening before the tournament to handful of attendees of the black belt meeting.

“I thought he was too little to be so tough, but he was fast enough to make up for it,” said grandmaster Allen Steen on his first impression of Lee. The two later became friends. “He wouldn’t have been ranked in the top 100 fighters because we didn’t know who he was.”

“He was so small … you have to understand he was a nobody [then],” said Mattson, the tournament official. “But he was somebody Ed Parker kept saying, ‘You have to meet this guy.’”

It was a statement backed up the next day during his time on stage.

“He just blew everyone away,” said Bustillo. “When he spoke that whole auditorium was quiet. You could hear a pin drop.”

Impressive technique

Lee demonstrated blazingly fast techniques while explaining his philosophies on martial arts to the packed Auditorium audience. He demonstrated forms and his famous two-finger push ups. But the climax came during Lee’s crowd-pleasing one-inch punch demo on volunteer Bob Baker, sending him toppling into a chair. (Baker was said to have told Lee not to do the demonstration again as he was forced to miss work due to the “unbearable” pain in his chest as a result).

“They went crazy. They had, well no one had, never seen that kind of exhibition,” said Bustillo. “Nobody wanted him to leave the stage. They wanted to see more of what he could do.”

Spectators, celebrities and show business VIPs filled the Auditorium. One was legendary celebrity hairstylist “Hollywood” Jay Sebring.

A week after the International, Sebring was styling producer William Dozier and mentioned Lee’s performance. Dozier found film of the International and invited Lee to Los Angeles for a screen test, eventually landing himself the role of Kato in the “Green Hornet” series.

The remainder of Lee’s arc is well known: His Kato role catapulted him into a movie star through his legendary films in Hong Kong and later Hollywood. His death at the age of 32 in 1973 only increased his status as a icon in the following decades.

After watching Lee’s demonstration, Bustillo’s life was changed. He immediately wrote Lee, who returned to Oakland, asking how he could learn from him. Lee wrote back, inviting him to the orientation for Lee’s new school to be opened in L.A. Two years later Bustillo became Lee’s dedicated student and friend. Now 72, Bustillo, a master himself renowned for his expertise of Jeet Kune Do — Lee’s hybrid martial arts system — runs his own school, the IMB Academy in Torrance. He remembers that Sunday 50 years ago fondly: the packed Auditorium, where he sat and the view his 22-year-old self had of that unknown martial artist.

“[He was] extraordinary,” Bustillo said. “He was electrifying when he spoke. People gravitated to him. He had passion and his passion was martial arts.”

He pauses after that last thought, looking out of the front of the school before starting again. A painting of Lee that used to hang in Lee’s house is displayed over his shoulder in the Torrance school.

“That’s why he’s the best. He was like van Gogh or like Mozart. All those geniuses spent all hours and life on their passion. Bruce Lee was like that. You are not going to find guys like that — well there are, but not like him.”

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