Bunny Boy
According to the Chinese Zodiac, this is the year of the rabbit. As such, it’s fitting that I have recently learned that Bruce Lee was a regular reader of the Playboy magazine. In January 1972, Bruce sent a letter to Roman Polanski where he congratulated him for his interview in the December 1971 issue (which advertised the fact that Polanski’s adaptation of Macbeth was produced by Playboy). In spite of Bruce being a subscriber, Playboy never had a zodiac-themed cover or even a cover where a woman looks like she is a bunny by resting on her stomach so that her feet look like bunny ears.
In the seventies, the year of the rabbit was 1975. This was a peculiar year for Bruce Lee’s widow because Linda Emery allowed herself to be interviewed by Penthouse, but not Playboy. This is especially baffling since 1983 was when Albert Goldman had his articles on Bruce Lee published by Penthouse (except in January and February instead of June and July). Back to the widow formerly known as Linda Lee, she talked about Bruce but not once did she nor her interviewer (Hong Kong dubbing artist Michael Kaye) reference her book which was known in the U.K. as The Life and Tragic Death of Bruce Lee.
As for why Playboy were seemingly snubbed by Linda, the magazine’s book section never covered the 1974 Bruce Lee biographies which were written by other authors. Playboy didn’t even print a review of Enter the Dragon in the movies section. Before he died, Bruce wasn’t even featured in their “On the Scene” column about rising stars. On the other hand, Penthouse were kind enough to publish a review of a 1974 biography called The King of Kung Fu (a collaboration between Felix Dennis and Don Atyeo). Another reason why Linda may have snubbed Playboy is that Bruce had a friend and student named Peter Chin, who Linda’s ghostwriter (Alan Shadrake) quoted as saying: “He told some great jokes. Oh, sure, some of them were pretty dirty, why not? - kinda Playboy stuff.”
Playboy had a column called Playboy’s Party Jokes where readers could submit jokes. Because all of the jokes were submitted anonymously, it remains to be seen what jokes, if any, that Bruce had contributed. After all, he did own the compendium books of Playboy’s Party Jokes. Also, Bruce was a notoriously prolific writer of letters. As such, it remains to be seen if he contributed any letters to the columns known as Dear Playboy and The Playboy Forum. The difference between these and the jokes column is that a person’s name and location were revealed (unless the person didn’t want their name to be revealed). It would be puzzling if Bruce didn’t want to write a letter to Playboy seeing as how many celebrities over the years have done so. Before Bruce died, such examples included Mel Brooks, Oliver Reed and Clint Eastwood.
In Linda Lee’s book, primarily known as Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, she said: “I remember once where in the case of a couple we knew, the man had gone off to live with his mistress and the wife had just hung around forlornly for years displaying her misery and courting everyone’s sympathy. I told him,‘If that ever happened between us, I’d be gone — like a flash.’ He looked a little surprised for my voice was firm and emphatic. ‘Would you?’ he asked, a little nonplussed. ‘You’re darned right, I would,’ I said. And he knew I meant it.”
This is funny because Matthew Polly’s book, Bruce Lee: A Life, revealed that Bruce had affairs with Thordis Brandt and Sharon Farrell. As for the other Sharon, as in Sharon Tate, she was a close friend of Wende Wagner - who had acted alongside Bruce in The Green Hornet. One of the stories that surrounds the making of Enter the Dragon is that Bruce was absent at the start of principal photography. Producer Paul Heller claimed that there were reasons which he wouldn’t disclose because they were personal to Bruce. One possible reason is that the January 1973 issue of Playboy had revealed that Miki Garcia (Miss January) and pageant director Jane Pope were going to hold a bikini contest in Hong Kong that month.
The July 1972 issue stands out the most to me. There is a Robert Sherrill article, Cause Without a Rebel, where the illustration consists of a three-headed dragon taking on a knight who is jousting in the wrong direction. In Hong Kong, Bruce Lee’s nickname was Three Legs Lee for his ability to kick three times consecutively with the same leg. Another notable thing about the July 1972 issue is Reg Potterton’s article about Hong Kong: The Red and the Gold. It features a reference to businessman Jon Benn, who was in Bruce’s The Way of the Dragon. Also, there is a piece on fashion where James Caan and Burt Reynolds modelled pendants along with bracelets. Not only did this influence Bruce Lee’s fashion in a photography setting but also in cinema since his character in The Game of Death wore a bracelet, albeit one made of fibres instead of metal.
On the final page of the July 1972 issue, there is a reference to the August issue containing an interview with Sam Peckinpah - who is referred to as the Picasso of violence. Not only would this have appealed to Bruce Lee (along with the fact that Peckinpah had an interest in China as a former marine), but Peckinpah later on had made a martial arts movie starring James Caan. Titled The Killer Elite, not only was it released in the year of the rabbit (1975) but it involved the work of people who knew Bruce Lee: Stirling Silliphant, Tiana Alexandra (Stirling’s wife), Mako, Gene LeBell and Dan Inosanto. One of the actors, Gig Young, had even been cast in Robert Clouse’s 1977 attempt to complete Bruce’s The Game of Death. This version, released in 1978, featured an actress (Colleen Camp) who had previously played a Playboy bunny in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
It’s ironic that Sam didn’t cast two of his previous collaborators - Steve McQueen (who starred in Junior Bonner and The Getaway) and James Coburn (who starred in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid). These men were two of Bruce’s friends and students. They also served as his pallbearers. In fact, Steve sent a letter of condolences to Dan Inosanto some time after Bruce died. If Playboy was Bruce Lee’s bible then Steve was one of the prophets. In December 1969, he had sent a letter to Hugh Hefner where he talked about wanting to meet him despite turning down the chance to appear in a TV series called Playboy After Dark. Some of the people who appeared in that series had been trained in martial arts by Bruce: Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski and Vic Damone.
Steve McQueen’s letter was written exactly one week before the release of his latest film, The Reivers, on Christmas Day. The December 1969 issue of Playboy had a feature called “Sex Stars of 1969” where a fair amount was written about McQueen but the film was only reviewed in the February 1970 issue. It was in this later issue where you could read James Coburn’s thoughts on drugs during a Playboy Panel such as this thought: “I think that some people might become violent while on pot, but you should look at the whole background in such a case. More than likely, there is a psychological disturbance present to begin with. Since my wife and I have been working at the Free Clinic in Los Angeles, I’ve seen a lot of methheads and the picture is really pitiful. Speed really fries your brain.”
After Bruce Lee died in late July 1973, Raymond Chow and Betty Ting Pei told the police that Bruce claimed that marijuana would soon be legalized. Bruce was basing this on Playboy because their column, Forum Newsfront, usually had reports on the progress of marijuana’s legalization - which Playboy had fully endorsed. Betty Ting Pei told the police that Bruce told her about taking marijuana in America, albeit she didn’t say this in court. She didn’t reference Steve McQueen being Bruce’s initiator. Likewise, Dr. Peter Wu failed to tell the police and the court that Bruce used McQueen in his defence of the drug. Linda, who was present at the time, also didn’t mention McQueen at the inquest because it would have highlighted that Bruce had been taking cannabis since he was in America. So there goes the insurance policies that Linda and her children depended on.
