August 17th was the 50th Anniversary of the release of Enter the Dragon the history making movie staring San Francisco’s original martial arts movie star Bruce Lee. On that day in 1973, Enter the Dragon became one of the highest-grossing movies of that year. Most people know the story; a sort of spy film in the vein of 007 where Lee plays a secret agent who infiltrates a martial-arts tournament on an exotic island to take down a criminal mastermind. Adjusted for inflation, Enter the Dragon grossed $150 million out-earning other artistic giants like as Westworld, American Graffiti, The Sting, and The Exorcist.
So August brought with it a couple of notable pieces on the impact of The Dragon and what one might want to watch afterwards, both by long-time friend and collaborator Gene Ching.
Years Earlier, 25 to be exact. I was given the opportunity to single-handedly assemble a magazine one-shot in honor of the movie’s 25th anniversary. Titled Kung Fu Presents a Tribute to Bruce Lee – though I designed the cover for the magazine to read Kung Fu Bruce Lee. Our publisher had a strong subscriber base at the time and newsstand distributors still offered promotions and premium placement.
This issue was an addition to our usual publishing and production schedule. I was given a list of articles, accompanying images and an additional media files we had permission to use. Mostly in the form of 20cm slides.
Along with the layout for the following articles, the design of the magazine masthead I was tasked with digitally remastering the digital scan of cell from the movie’s film. A poor quality copy of a copy enlarged for out-put to pre-digital press. No easy task on a PC version of photoshop in the 90’s
The magazine’s Table of Contents is as follows –
ENTER THE DRAGON 25th Anniversary
THE PAUL HELLER INTERVIEW
Enter The Dragon’s Producer Talks About Bruce Lee and the Making of the Film.
KEEPING IT SIMPLE-Taky Kimura’s Seattle Days with Bruce and the Legacy He Carries on
TRUTH’S PATHLESS ROAD-The Dan Inosanto Interview
GROWING UP WITH BRUCE LEE Robert Lee Reminisces
BRUCE LEE’S INNER RHYTHMS.
“Little Joe”Torrenueva on the One-Inch
Punch and Cutting Bruce’s Hair
FROM HAWAII TO IMB
Richard Bustillo on How Bruce Lee
Changed His Life
LA CHINATOWN LEGACY
Pete Jacobs Talks About the LA Experience
with Bruce and Bringing it to the Valley.
WALKING BOTH WORLDS
Enter The Dragon Producer Andre Morgan
Tells About the Bruce Lee He Knew, The
Hong Kong Film World, and What Made
Bruce Truly Great
10 YEARS WITH THE DRAGON
Bob Wall on Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon.
ISOMETRICS, ISOTONICS, WOODEN DUMMIES AND BRUCE LEE
An Interview with Hayward Nishioka
NEVER WASTING TIME
Backyard Student Herb Jackson Remembers Bruce Lee.
BRUCE LEE’S PHILOSOPHY
MY VIEW ON GUNG FU
TRUE ART CANNOT BE HANDED OUT
GUNG FU KICKING TECHNIQUES
A MOMENT OF UNDERSTANDING
THE CIRCLE OF COMBAT
WHAT IT ALL ADDS UP TO
MARTIAL ART AS SELF-EXPRESSION
Tiger’s Tale