Bruce Lee King Dragon

Author's Dream Ignites World Interest in Bruce Lee

Norman Borine, known as the man most credited with keeping Bruce Lee's name alive through all the lean years, spent two decades making sure the world didn't forget the martial artist.

Grace Lee once said of the former proprietor of The World of Bruce Lee Museum, "[He] did more for my son than any single person."

"Grace really believes Bruce reached down and guided me," Norman said about his friend.  "The movie people had a helluva lot to do with his success in one aspect, but I doubt that anyone had the basic spiritual interest in Bruce that I had."

This interest all started because of a dream-vision Norman experienced in 1973, and it guided his life for the next 20 years. The night before he went to see Enter the Dragon and was converted to a Bruce Lee fan, he dreamed of being in China. He could see the Great Wall; then a dojo. Suddenly there was a huge blast and there people all over the streets selling newspapers. Next, he saw thousands of people lining a street and watching a funeral procession. At the end of the procession he saw Linda Lee and her children. The casket then mysteriously floated up into the sky, along with Linda and the children, and they were swallowed by an airplane. Then the dream ended.

That was the beginning, and the end came two decades later with the sale of the collection. "It's very much like losing part of yourself," Borine said, referring to selling off the contents of The World of Bruce Lee.

"In a sense it does kill me to part with these things," Borine added, but l am a person of many interests and talents ... and I believe in the strength and intelligence of the universe."

Borine had a gift for understatement. His many interests and talents included studying with several world-class dance instructors, working as a contract dancer for MGM for seven years, becoming choreographer for an Emmy Award-winning NBC television show, working as a model, owning and operating a card shop  and eventually the creating of The World of Bruce Lee Museum and touring the world spreading the word about Bruce Lee.