Skip Ellsworth in new Bruce Lee biography

[misplayed-hand]

I just checked out Matthew Polly's new 500 page biography on Bruce Lee from my local library's new non-fiction section. I thought some might be interested to learn that a man named Skip Ellsworth is mentioned on pages 95, 96, 98-102, 108, 109, 114.

Pretty soon several students at the Seattle Judo Club, where Jesse was an assistant instructor, began inquiring if they could learn from Bruce. One of them was Skip Ellsworth, who grew up as the only white kid on an Indian reservation, fighting Native American youths on a daily basis amid dismal poverty. "During Bruce's very brief first demonstration of his kung fu, he hit me in the chest with both palms so hard that my feet left the ground and I flew backwards for what seemed like ten feet before I slammed into a wall," Skip remembers. "Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. It only took Bruce Lee approximately two seconds to make a true believer out of me.""

Bruce's street-tough students introduced him to another crucial aspect of American culture - guns. Leroy Garcia and Skip Ellsworth taught Bruce how to shoot pistols, revolvers, rifles and shotguns. The gave him his first gun, a Colt .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol with black handle grips. "Bruce totally loved it," says Skip."

[panderson03]

wow. so very cool! I'm going to have to add that one to my reading list! thanks

[Shark]

That's pretty cool.
I was lucky enough to take the class in their awesome home, but never got to meet Skip.

[Marsha]

I am new here, need lots of information about building a log home. Are there any classes planned?

[panderson03]

https://www.buildloghomes.org/shop/

[loghousenut]

Marsha, don't stay new for long. We'd love to have you over on the member's side of the forum.


PS... You just missed a class last weekend.

[adubar]

wow. so very cool! I'm going to have to add that one to my reading list! thanks

You might want to look up Sid Woodcock related to that time period. There may be a link to Skip's history there too. Though I don't know the exact dates that Bruce and Sid knew each other, Sid did bring his background as WWII OSS in China and later Indo-China after the CIA was organized as an in-theater operative. Sid had learned and taught Japanese and Chinese arts and at the time he knew Lee, he brought more to the table in terms of developed knowledge of Chin Na (joint locking, controls and takedowns) which he shared with Bruce and his students.

As a civilian, Sid was in the arms trade and helped bring the Detonics (smallest 45 based upon the 1911) to market. He taught weapons and armed combat as well. As instructor to CIA operatives and later civilian life.

It might be that both Lee and Skip met him at that time. The firearms interest would be a commonality and certainly the wider firearms interest public was fairly well integrated on a social level in Seattle back in the day. Sid was never far from both martial arts or firearms. He thought of them as all martial arts. A weapon, is a weapon, regardless if it has black powder or not -- an extension of the human body.

I tend to think that Bruce held similar views.

[panderson03]

Thanks, Adubar!

[Basil]

I took the last class that skip taught, in the house. My wife started watching Northern Exposure recently, and it brought back a lot of memories of that wild place.

[loghousenut]

I just watched an old episode of Gunsmoke... The one where Chester and Miss Kitty stole Doc's buggy and hightailed it toward Wichita.

The buggy reminded me of Skip's place.

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