Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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In
his teens he was offered a contract by the Shaw Brothers, Hong Kong’s biggest
producers, but his mother disagreed and sent him back to America to be educated.
Following a brief spell at Edison High Technical School, Seattle, he moved
to the University of Washington. Bruce had been studying Kung Fu, a method of fighting which had been developed by Shaolin Temple monks in China. As a child he had been taught Tai Chi Chuan by his father and his interest in martial arts grew to the extent that he opened his own martial arts school and, in the early Sixties, wrote a book called ‘Chinese Gung-Fui: the Philosophical Art of Self Defence.’ In 1964 he married Linda Emery and moved to California where his martial arts school became so popular that several branches were opened. In 1966 he was offered the part of Kato in ‘The Green Hornet’ television series and, although the project was to last only a year, he made quite an impression with his use of martial arts which had rarely been seen on the American screen. This was to lead to his debut in an American movie – ‘Marlowe’, starring James Garner, in which he was also called upon to use his martial arts skills. He returned to Hong Kong to make several more martial arts films, beginning with ‘The Big Boss’, and was also contracted to star in the first major American martial arts film, ‘Enter the Dragon.’ |
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Bill Harry attended the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local band called 'The Beatles'. He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor. Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. |
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Bill Harry 2012 Original
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SixtiesCity 2012 |
