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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 3 November 2018

Raymond Chow, film producer behind Bruce Lee, dies at age 91

Associated Press in the Bronx” that cata-
HONG KONG (AP) — Leg- pulted Chan to worldwide
endary Hong Kong film fame. The film was released
producer Raymond Chow, on 1,700 screens in North
who introduced the world America and grossed $32.4
to Bruce Lee and Jackie million, becoming the most
Chan and even brought successful Hong Kong film
the Teenage Mutant Ninja released in the U.S. Three
Turtles to the big screen, years later, Chan teamed
has died at age 91. up with Chris Tucker in
Hong Kong’ secretary for 1998’s “Rush Hour,” be-
commerce and economic coming a Hollywood A-list
development, Edward Yau, actor.
said in a statement Friday Chan acknowledged the
that Chow “helped nurture debt he owed to Chow’s
a pool of Hong Kong tal- grooming.
ents and brought them to “Mr. Chow gave me a
the international stage.” chance to follow my
Chow was a journalist dreams,” he told Variety
who became a publicist in 2000. “I think today that
for Shaw Brothers Studios, without Golden Harvest,
which churned out hun- there is no Jackie Chan.”
dreds of films and popu- Golden Harvest also
larized the kung fu genre. helped bring to the silver
Studio founder Run Run In this Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 file photo, film producer Raymond Chow speaks to The screen another set of un-
Shaw soon moved Chow to Associated Press in an interview in Hong Kong. likely martial arts charac-
the production side of the Associated Press ters, the Teenage Mutant
business after Chow com- mous with kung fu movies. Hollywood studio, Warner made a number of increas- Ninja Turtles, which began
plained that the movies — Chow signed Bruce Lee in Bros. It cost $500,000 and ingly popular Chinese- as a comic book and then
made on low budgets and 1971 after seeing him on a earned $40 million at the language action-comedy became an animated kids’
short schedules — weren’t Hong Kong television vari- box office. Tragically, Lee movies that made him a TV show with a cult follow-
good enough. ety show. died days before the film’s superstar in Asia. ing. Intrigued by the name,
“I said I did not think I could “Facing you on the screen, release in 1973. Chow invested plenty of Chow agreed to produce
keep my job because the you feel his presence is Lee’s death left a void for time and effort introduc- a live-action movie based
pictures were so bad,” very strong, very powerful,” kung fu heroes in Hong ing Chan to Western au- on the four crime-fighting,
Chow told Asiaweek mag- Chow told The Associated Kong’s film industry that diences. He arranged for human-sized turtles after
azine in 1983. Frustrated Press in 2005. young performers were ea- Chan to spend time in Los Hollywood rejected the
with Shaw Brothers’ assem- Golden Harvest signed Lee ger to fill. Chow signed one Angeles learning English idea.
bly-line ethic, he created to a three-picture deal, of them, a former stuntman and star in his first English- The movie about the pizza-
his own production com- with each breaking all named Jackie Chan, in language film, 1980’s “The eating, surfer-lingo-spout-
pany, Golden Harvest, in Hong Kong box office re- 1979. Big Brawl,” which flopped. ing terrapins named after
1970. cords. Chan’s first taste of success A year later, Chow gave Renaissance artists be-
He soon outmaneuvered Those movies were followed in Hong Kong had come him a minor role along- came a worldwide smash.
his gigantic old employ- by “Enter the Dragon,” the the year before with the side top Hollywood names Chow said that he made
er to grab the actor who first Chinese martial arts film film “Drunken Master.” Af- in “The Cannonball Run.” his choice based on a “gut
would become synony- to be produced by a major ter signing with Chow, he But it was 1995’s “Rumble feeling.”q

Can a long-running debate for Bob Dylan fans be settled?

By DAVID BAUDER musicians. But shortly before the album’s
Associated Press release, on a holiday break home in Min-
NEW YORK (AP) — The 14th volume of nesota, an apparently unsatisfied Dylan
Bob Dylan’s bootleg series won’t settle convened a mostly unknown group of
one of the most persistent debates about musicians and re-recorded half of the
his recording career. But it will allow fans album’s 10 songs. Many of his fans, par-
to decide for themselves. ticularly those who heard illicit outtakes
Dylan’s 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks” of what he recorded in New York, have
is considered a milestone, a torrent of long debated whether that was a mis-
words and images thought to be inspired take. There’s a greater bite and urgency
by the breakup of his marriage, although to Dylan’s voice in the Minnesota versions
he insists the stories he was reading at the as the band works to keep up with him,
time had more to do with it. The Nobel yet some loyalists prefer the more inti-
prize committee likely had it in mind when mate recordings from New York.
giving Dylan its 2016 award for literature. The six-disc box set out Friday, “More
He recorded tracks like “Idiot Wind,” Blood, More Tracks,” lays it all on the line.
‘’Tangled Up in Blue” and “Shelter From It includes everything he recorded in
In this Feb. 6, 2015 file photo, Bob Dylan accepts the 2015
MusiCares Person of the Year award at the 2015 MusiCares the Storm” in New York the previous Sep- New York, so fanatics can see how songs
Person of the Year show in Los Angeles. tember, primarily with his acoustic guitar progressed as Dylan tried out different ar-
Associated Press but occasionally joined by a few other rangements. q