Rare Joe Lewis, Bruce Lee Photo Found!

Every once in a while, a rare photo is unearthed. A precious gem that you didn’t know existed. A photo that provides a brief glimpse into history and makes your jaw drop.

This morning I awoke to such a finding.

My good friend Joe Lewis emailed me an amazing photo that he recently discovered. It was snapped during the making of a movie called The Wrecking Crew, starring Dean Martin and Sharron Tate, filmed in 1969, at Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, California.

This was Joe Lewis’ first feature film.  Here, you see the champ demonstrating the drop side kick in front of an all-star cast of martial arts greats.

In the shot with Joe Lewis is Mike Stone (wearing the white slacks), who doubled for Dean Martin during the film. Stone was one of the toughest karate fighters EVER and the man for whom Priscilla Presley left Elvis.

We also see Ed Parker (villain in the back left) in this shot. Parker was the founder of the American Kenpo system of martial arts, and by happenstance, was also one of Elvis Presley’s martial arts instructors and personal bodyguards.

Also, watching Joe Lewis demonstrate the kick is the one-and-only Bruce Lee, who was one of the film’s fight sequence choreographers. To this day, Bruce Lee is still the most famous martial artist of all time. And I don’t think that will ever change.

Is this a cool picture or what?

According to Lewis, “My fight scene with Dean Martin appears at 6:27 on the You Tube clip, which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37NB_B7u3Y. Ed Parker’s is just before mine. During the first walk through, when I fired the first spin back-kick, my pants split from my butt all the way to my frontal apparatus. Wardrobe had no replacements and so they shut the production down until my pants were stitched up.

Dean was a bit tippy as you can tell from his eyes throughout the film so I was warned to take it REAL easy with him. I kicked as slow as a white belt to make sure that spin back-kick at Dean’s head missed—-everyone held their breath; I was not known for hitting softly. I had to put a LOT of daylight between my moves and Dean’s body which regrettably make it looked staged; however, not bad, we did it in one take. My first film choreography—-Bruce Lee, the film’s fight scene choreographer, approved.”

Joe Lewis is truly a one of a kind; a living legend.

If you’d like Mr. Lewis to consider making an appearance, teaching a seminar or delivering a keynote speech at your next big event, then you are welcome to shoot me an email (see contact page on this site). As long as you’re serious, I’d be happy to connect you with Mr. Lewis.