The Steve Golden Interview
Conducted by Paul Bax
HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME INVOLVED IN THE MARTIAL ARTS?
Steve Golden: I think I was twelve when I really got interested. I used to read Popular Science and Popular Mechanics and they always had those "Defend Yourself…" type ads. I sent for everything they offered. Kind of funny now that I think back on it because I didn’t have anyone that I needed to defend myself from. But I was intensely interested and wanted to take lessons. The only school I could find was a Judo club and it was about thirty miles from my home. Being twelve, I didn’t drive so I couldn’t get to any classes. It wasn’t until 1959 that Ed Parker did a demonstration at my high school. I was more than a little impressed. And I had a driver’s license.
DESCRIBE YOUR TRAINING WITH ED PARKER?
SG: It was great. I signed up for a three-month course. Classes were every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. By now you’ve probably figured out that I continued after the three months. I practiced constantly and, after four months, I was invited into the intermediate class. That was from 8:00pm to 9:00pm. At 9:00pm everyone had to leave and the doors and shades were closed. That’s when the advanced class worked out. No one was allowed to watch. Talk about inducement to practice.
Well, I did make it into the advanced class and used to be on the demonstration team. That was really fun. Ed would take us to schools, gyms, hotels and anywhere else that people were interested in martial arts. When we did a demo, we went hard. I’m still surprised that we didn’t kill each other. Oh sure, someone would get their face smashed into the concrete or there would be a fractured rib now and then, but nothing really serious.
WAS ED TEACHING THE HOLLYWOOD ELITE THAT EARLY IN HIS CAREER?
SG: Oh yes! We did a demonstration at a health club, I think it was in Santa Monica around 1963 or 1964, and a few the few Hollywood people studying with Ed were there. I remember McDonald Cary and Bronislau Kaper. Ed was also teaching Elke Sommer and Nick Adams at that time but they were not at our demo. Ed was well known and quite popular with the Hollywood crew even back in the early sixties.
HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET BRUCE LEE?
SG: I think it was in 1964. Bruce used to stop by Ed’s school in Pasadena to talk to Ed. I think it was about the Hollywood scene, but I wasn’t interested in that so I never asked. But I was interested in Bruce. I don’t think that he ever got out without us questioning him. He always took the time to show us things and play around.
HOW OFTEN DID LEE SHOW UP AT ED’S SCHOOL AND WHAT WERE SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED?
SG: Bruce showed up once in while. That’s as close as I can get. I was almost always at Ed’s school. I usually opened the school and was there to close it up. When Bruce showed up, we never discussed topics as such. Bruce usually just did whatever he wanted to do or he would answer questions by showing us how he did things. Ed was usually not involved in those discussions. I do remember one time when Bruce was in Ed’s office showing Ed how he defended against kicks. He was demonstrating a low stop kick or foot obstruction. We thought it was interesting but not very practical because we thought it wouldn’t work against things like roundhouse kicks, back kicks or spinning kicks. It took me quite a few years to understand how it really works and how useful it really is. I didn’t mind being wrong especially when I learned something so valuable in the process.
WHEN DID YOUR TRAINING BEGIN AND END AT THE CHINATOWN SCHOOL?
SG: Heck if I know. I was there when Bruce opened the school. On the first day Bruce did demonstrations and answered questions. There were quite a few people there but it wasn’t a class session. It was more to let everyone know what Bruce would be teaching and to let people decide whether or not they were interested. I’m still amazed that some people dropped out at that point. As for when I quit, I really don’t know. You have to understand that there was no reason for me to keep track of those dates back in those days. I never dreamt that anyone would be interested. My best guess is that I was there for six to nine months.
WHAT IMMEDIATE DIFFERENCE DID YOU NOTICE BETWEEN JKD AND KENPO?
SG: This might surprise you, but at that time I didn’t see much difference. The punches in Jeet Kune Do were a vertical fist and the sidekicks used the flat of the foot and heel instead of the "knife edge." But that’s small stuff. You should understand that we all relate and compare new things to what we already know. I knew hundreds of combat techniques from Kenpo. So, for example, when Bruce taught us trapping drills, I considered them new techniques. Sure, they were different techniques from the Kenpo Techniques I had learned but it wasn’t like it was really that revolutionary. No, it took years before I realized what Bruce was trying to teach me. Looking back on those days, I think of them as the time that Bruce turned on the lights but I didn’t know how to open my eyes.
WOULD YOU SAY THAT ED PARKER HAD A DIFFERENT INTERPRETATION OF FIGHTING THAN BRUCE LEE?
SG: Of course he did. In Ed’s world of combat, your actions had a predetermined set of actions. In Bruce’s world, nothing was predetermined, (except, of course, that he was going to win). If you look at Kenpo using JKD theory, Kenpo doesn’t look so good because it makes too many assumptions. But looking at Kenpo that way does not give you a true representation of what it was really like. I keep hearing people say that JKD is Bruce Lee. But I don’t hear people say that Kenpo is Ed Parker. But it’s just as true. You can look at Kenpo and tear it apart through theory but in reality Ed Parker made it work. And with Ed’s personal teaching, I made it work too, until I met Bruce.
DID PARKER HARBOR ANY ILL FEELINGS TOWARDS LEE SINCE SEVERAL OF HIS STUDENTS ENROLLED IN HIS LOS ANGELES CHINATOWN SCHOOL?
SG: I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t thrilled with the situation, but it wasn’t like you think. It might sound like Bruce came along, showed me something new and I deserted Ed. That’s not what happened. I had been with Ed for over seven years. Ed was almost always at the school teaching me and the other advanced students. But, for the last year before I left, Ed was spending more and more time away from the Pasadena school. He was involved in his other schools and in dealing with the Hollywood crowd. So, at least for that period of time, he was not teaching me. I still needed more training and Bruce Lee was available.
Ed and I remained friends. I had moved to Eugene, Oregon. He used to come there to do seminars for local Kenpo schools and I’d bring my students. He was so friendly to me and my students that the Kenpo people in town got real cool toward me after that. Ed was also a bodyguard to Elvis and he was in Eugene when Elvis was performing there. During the day, when Elvis was resting, Ed came to my home. He came over for Thanksgiving dinner one time and the next day he put on a private class for my students. Ed was really a great guy. And, I might add, a superb martial artist and a genius in developing his system.
SO DID YOU EVER MEET ELVIS AND IF SO, WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION OF HIM?
SG: Ed was in Eugene, Oregon body guarding for Elvis during one of Elvis’s tours. I visited Ed at the hotel where they were staying. At one point he told me that Elvis was next door and asked if I wanted to meet Elvis. I told Ed that I came to see him, not Elvis. So, no, I never did meet Elvis. People still kid me about being so close and not meeting Elvis.
IF YOU HAD TO PICK BETWEEN THE TWO, WHICH GENIUS WOULD YOU SAY YOU LEARNED THE MOST FROM, BRUCE LEE OR ED PARKER AND WHY?
SG: I’m not sure what that question means. The problem is that I don’t know how to value what I learned from each of them. Since I’ve been working on what I learned from Bruce Lee for over thirty years, you might think that his teachings would be the most valuable. However, things are not always that simple. One of the reasons Bruce liked Ed Parker’s people, is because of the way we learned to move and learned to think. That training has stayed with me and influenced all of my understanding of Bruce’s teaching. So, maybe I would not have the understanding and abilities that I now have without the base from Ed Parker. It might also surprise you to find out that the Kenpo training keeps showing itself in a very positive manner and fits in well with all the other training. Of course, an observer might not recognize it as Kenpo. Then again, the observer might not recognize what I’m doing as anything related to Bruce Lee’s teaching either.
DIDN’T YOU LATER TRAIN IN WING CHUN TO FILL IN SOME OF THE GAPS AND IF SO, WITH WHO AND HOW DID THIS TRAINING HELP WITH UNDERSTANDING JEET KUNE DO?
SG: Well, I certainly didn’t study Wing Chun to fill in any gaps. I studied Wing Chun because Wing Chun is a very good system. The instructor, Dennis Lui, had studied in Hong Kong and was teaching two of his friends, Dave Chan and David Leung, while they were students at the University of Oregon. I was lucky to be included in the group and worked with them for four years. David Leung continued his Wing Chun studies in Hong Kong and now lives in Eugene, Oregon. He teaches Tai Chi and Wing Chun there and he is very good at both as well as being an excellent instructor. David and I are still very good friends. Dave Chan and Dennis Lui are living in Hong Kong.
DESCRIBE SOME OF YOUR FIRST TRAINING SESSIONS UNDER BRUCE LEE AT THE L.A. SCHOOL.
SG: There were a few different flavors while I was there. We always started with a warm up and some heavy exercising. We moved on to footwork, kicking, trapping, sparring and a lot of questions and answers. When Bruce was there teaching, he would teach new things. When he wasn’t there, Danny Inosanto would lead the class through what Bruce had previously taught. In all cases, the door was locked promptly at the beginning of class and the door and windows were covered so no one could watch. We occasionally had visitors and I noticed that we only practiced basics during those classes. It was like, "You can watch but you’re not going to see…"
DID YOU EVER GET THE FEELING THAT DAN INOSANTO WAS MORE THEN JUST LEE’S ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR BUT ALSO A PART OF THE FORMATION OF JKD?