Elvis picked up a guitar in a music store and the clerk asked him to put it down. What happened in the next 10 minutes made every other customer in that store stop what they were doing. It was a Saturday afternoon in October of 1956 and the city of Memphis was in the…
Clint Eastwood is a Hollywood legend, a man who controlled every story he ever told on screen for over 70 years. But there is one story he never tells. It is the story of a woman who held a strange and powerful influence over him. A woman whose name is now a ghost in…
The tragedy of Debbie Reynolds’ husbands was Debbie Reynolds really the tragic victim the world believed her to be? The woman still standing. In 1973, Debbie Reynolds walked onto a Las Vegas stage at 11:00 at night. She was 41 years old. Her feet hurt. And somewhere across town, the United States government was…
Elizabeth Taylor was 18 years old on her wedding night when her new husband kicked her so hard she lost their baby. Joan Collins was 17 when her idol drugged and assaulted her, then convinced her to marry him out of shame. And Lana Turner held a loaded weapon to her husband’s head when…
Sydney Portier named the seven worst racist stars he was forced to work with in old Hollywood. He was Hollywood’s first black movie star. Not the first black actor, the first black star. From 1950 to the 2000s, Sydney Poier carried the entire weight of black representation in American cinema on his shoulders alone …
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, June 1971. A Green Beret hand-to-hand combat instructor, 6’2 in, 220 lb, 15 years special forces experience, looks at Bruce Lee and says, “Civilians can’t handle real combat training. You teach demonstrations, we teach survival.” Bruce sets down his water bottle. Want to demonstrate the difference? What happens in the next…
Beverly Hills mansion party, March 1972. Clint Eastwood, 6’4 in 185 pounds, Hollywood’s toughest cowboy, looks at Bruce Lee and says, “Western fighting is tougher than kung fu. Real brawling. No rules, no fancy moves, just survival. That’s what cowboys did. That’s real fighting.” Bruce, holding a drink, smiles. Want to test that theory, Clint?…
Oh, hello ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I want to thank you for all the lovely letters you have sent me. >> Hollywood sold happy families like a product. Off camera, the damage often started at home where one adult controlled the schedule, the money, the …
Soul, South Korea, October 1970. A taekwondo master, eighth Dan Black Belt, 35 years training, points at a small man in the crowd and says, “You, Chinese visitor, come demonstrate why you think Kung Fu can compete with Taekwondo.” The crowd of 600 Koreans erupts in mocking laughter. This small Chinese man thinks he can…
Hong Kong, Cowoon District, November 1967. Five triad members, professional criminals armed with knives and chains, surround a small man in an alley and say, “You disrespected our boss. Now you pay.” What they don’t know, this small man is Bruce Lee. What happens in the next 15 seconds doesn’t just send all five to…
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