Great times with Bruce Lee at the Barrington Plaza, circa 1967.

[@anthonyD2365]

Tom another great story , I can relate I lost my young daughter in the mall when she was small it was terrifying. Security located her, thank God. To me you are relaxing, charming and a great storyteller and you were there!!!! and truthful!!! which means everything and I thank you. God bless you and your family and the entire Lee family. Thank you for the entertaining stories.

[@craigbani5502]

Hi Mr. Bleeker.... I'm growing ever more fond of your incredibly entertaining story telling & anecdotes of your past times & experiences with Bruce. Great stuff. Keep it up!❤

[@crow1994-bl]

Thank you Mr. Bleecker for sharing your wonderful memories. You're a gifted storyteller. Keep them coming!

[@Jonathan1997hk-ln4yk]

Listening with my mouth open fascinating with a capital F .. so many you tube videos with just small snippets of Bruce Lee information but yours are an avalanche.. thanks so much. Should have 100k hits on your videos

[@Partoftheratpack]

Hi Tom, really enjoy these videos and memories

[@TomBleecker]

Thanks. Glad you're finding them of value. Cheers

[@thomaselmore1155]

Thanks. The phone book story really hit me! Through my older sister, I also started training with Joe Lewis in the early 70's, combined with our base art of Kenpo. I was about 15-16. Joe was teaching us JKD and kickboxing and had us doing the 1inch punch with the Yellow Pages. Wow, He could launch you. We were all doing it to each other. Later became direct students of Mr Parker. He was always happiest when Coaching us in fights, as we were a competative fighting school. Original South Florida Kenpo Crew. Salute.

[@TomBleecker]

Thanks for your post!

[@manueldelapena7431]

Great story Tom! Loving this series! 🤙🏽

[@prodney1263]

Hey Tom that plaza building reminds Bruce when he was a kid in Hong Kong running down the stairs to help a old lady when he was a kid thank God Brandon was ok

[@Cookefan59]

Wow. This guy has so many great memories. The Barrington is still there. I wonder if the folks in apartment A2308 realize who use to live there? Excellent story about Brandon. I used to do the same thing as a toddler so I’ve been told😄 After looking at dozens of photos of Bruce’s library, it’s obvious he was HEAVY into self improvement and visualization. He had all of the classic by Norman Vincent Peale and others crowding his library including a series of books on how to “sell yourself and ideas. Part of the techniques of living your dream is writing down a “Mission Statement”. I believe you showed a copy of what Bruce had written down as his mission back in I think it was 1970(?) where he stated he wanted to have 10 million in the bank etc. This is a common technique. More recently, Jim Carrey the comic actor also did the same thing. On the tonight show, years ago, he took out of his wallet a ragged dog eared check he had written to himself for 10 million dollars. He said it was his dream and motivation and of course he went on to earn I believe $20 million dollars for a film. Im really loving these videos. You have a great way of conversing with a camera that is very relaxing and reassuring.

[@TomBleecker]

Thanks for your kind words. Welcome aboard!

[@dannydevito4899]

Love these clips

[@prodney1263]

Great stuff TOM love it that ur sharing all this very precious memories of Bruce at the plaza keep it coming brother

[@Aikunle78]

Thanks so much for sharing. Interesting series!

[@kelvoy]

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing

[@oronasundial]

These are incredible stories tom. These are details, no one can make up. Brandons baby story terrified me a bit actually, i can't imagine how scared bruce was going down those stairs only to find brandon later sleeping in a closet. I'm sure that was relief from a close call.

[@TomBleecker]

And knowing, while he's running down the stairs, that if that was Brandon on the walkway, there was no way Brandon could have survived. Indeed, there was a huge sigh of relief. Bruce wasn't a religious man, but I'll bet he was that day while he was running down that stairwell.

[@oronasundial]

@@TomBleecker absolutely, agree tom. Bruce appeared to be similar to myself, we are both non-religous but incredibly spiritual. Which some might mistake for religious like dogma. But i do agree, let's keep in mind the amount of pressure bruce was facing at such a young age, being this old soul, prodigy a maverick wise beyond his year's with such talent. His Lightspeed reflexes and how he refined his body to near perfection, from his brutal training and work schedules. Once, you combine this all, with his back pain and prolonged drug use. I can see why he was paranoid and ill towards his last month's on earth. It is tragic to not only loose him but his son Brandon also just 20 year's later both young and in thier primes in life, it hurts my heart just thinking about it all. Yet. I've learned so much from them both growing up a 90s child. I feel truly blessed to even experienced some of it. I write and play music to help with my stress, depression, and i always watch idol's from the 20th century to inspire and influence me. Both in music and in media, and lots of other genres, but i truly feel the greatest inspirations to me personally, came from the 20th century era. And whenever i feel down i watch thier film's or documentaries about them. And i feel an immense feeling of nostalgia and euphoria that heals my soul, where I'm no longer sad anymore, but inspired in the most positive way possible. And i'm grateful for it. Bruce and Brandon had these abilities, even decade's after thier passing. Thier memories and spirit are very much still alive. And I'm blessed to have found you're channel recently, i have heard of you before from past article's. And i wish you nothing but the best in life Mr. Tom. And i Thank You, for telling me about these stories and experiences, they give such insight. I'm sure I'm not the only who feels this way either.

[@TomBleecker]

@@oronasundial Thank you for your kind words. I'm pleased that you're finding my videos worthy of your time. Cheers

[@spookyencounters9392]

Great stuff, thanks Tom. You have a great memory, too! I think this needs to be pointed out. lol

[@TomBleecker]

Well, I'll admit that with some of these videos I have cue cards in the form of a large piece of paper that is taped to the back of a chair. If you look closely on some of the videos, you'll see that I look off camera to the same spot. Of course, as Judge Judy often states, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory." Cheers

[@stew6662]

I bet it was great for Brandon and Shannon to have a stepfather who can tell these stories about their dad. I would think that they would have liked that they’re stepdad was actually friends with there late father and can share these fond memories with them.

[@TomBleecker]

To clarify, Linda and I have not been married for many years and, in fact, are happily married to other spouses. When we were married, I did share many stories with Brandon, although much fewer with Shannon because I did not spend as much time with her because she was away at college.

[@stew6662]

@@TomBleecker being 20 years old and living in a bachelor pad during the summer of love in Los Angeles no less! Tom, you are blessed my friend :) You we’re at the epicenter of everything!

[@PAUL_BAX3]

So, you do want to talk about Bruce Lee. ;)

[@Perun.Tha.Unvaxxd]

Hey Paul 😉

[@percybyssheshelly]

Love this stuff!

[@NorthernThaiGardenGuy]

Wonderful memories. 🙂

[@milanstojanovic7099]

Gospodine Tom! Hvala vam na svim ovim pričama,oduševljen sam da čujem ove priče od čoveka koji je poznavao Brusa. Vidim da odgovarate na svako pitanje. To je za veliko poštovanje. Imao bih mnogo pitanja! Mene zanima da li u to vreme 70 ih znalo za negativne uticaje kokaina i kortizola koje je Brus koristio tj. koliko je Brus bio upoznat sa time? Proveli ste sa Brusom,toliko vremena privatno i toliko priča možete ispričati. Voleo bih da čujem sve priče a verujem i drugi. To i radite i samo nastavite gospodine Tome. Svako dobro

[@TomBleecker]

Ne vjerujem da je 1970-ih itko znao za negativne efekte zloupotrebe kortizona. Početkom 1970-ih, pa čak i do danas, malo je ljudi umrlo od zloupotrebe kokaina. Hvala vam na ljubaznim komentarima.

[@TheRealTomahawk]

Did Bruce Lee like you a lot? You lived in Seattle.

[@TomBleecker]

Well, we did spend a lot of time together. Bruce wasn't someone who spent time with people he didn't like. When Bruce and I were spending time together, we both lived in Los Angeles, which is where the Barrington Plaza is located.

[@greencraig8570]

Any photos of Tom and Bruce?

[@TomBleecker]

Unfortunately, 60 years ago, no one was running around with a cellphone. In fact, it was rare that someone had a camera with them. There is one photo of Bruce and me at College Street standing next to Bob Bremmer. It's been posted previously. www.picuki.com/media/2555542700254348093

[@TomBleecker]

@@TaborSecurity-g6p I don't know. I wasn't there when this is alleged to have happened.

[@alexscott730]

Hi Tom. In Bruce Thomas's book "Bruce Lee Fighting Spirit" he claims that there was a confrontation between Joe Lewis and Bruce after Joe's wife complained to him that Bruce was hitting on her as she was cutting his hair.Apparently she was a hair dresser and cut Bruce's hair regularly. In the book,Bruce Thomas claims Joe jumped in his car and drove to Bruce's house,knocked on the door and when Linda answered he demanded to see Bruce. So Linda called Bruce to the door and when he got there he yelled at Bruce right in front of Linda quote "Stay the fuck away from my wife or we'll have a serious problem" and stormed off..Not long after that they parted ways.....Circa 1966-ish...Any truth to that interesting claim?

[@TomBleecker]

Joe did, indeed, drive to Bruce's house because his wife told him Bruce was hitting on her. My understanding is that Joe demanded that Bruce come outside and fight, but Linda managed to calm him down, and he left. Later, Joe apologized when he learned that his wife had lied to him.

[@alexscott730]

@@TomBleecker Ahhhhh,his wife lied to him!!...What do you think Bruce's chances were against Joe had they duked it out?...Thank you for your time answering more fanboy questions Tom👍

[@TomBleecker]

@@alexscott730 Ha! Hard to tell. Both Joe and Bruce were fully capable of inflicting serious harm on the other. Cheers

[@dorcel18]

You got story of seeing bruce fight people or just top martial artist?

[@TomBleecker]

I never saw Bruce spar any top martial artists, although he frequently sparred with Kenpo black belts, members of the BKF, and students of other styles and systems. As an aside, I wouldn't categorize these as fights, but rather causal sparring. Thanks for your post.

[@dorcel18]

@@TomBleecker thank you much!

[@TomBleecker]

@@TaborSecurity-g6p Not to my knowledge.

[@travels129]

How often did u see bruce loose his temper?? As he had a bad temper

[@TomBleecker]

Only the one time that I mention in the video in which he escorted a rude spectator from the WLA Kenpo school.