Why did Bruce Lee’s widow auction off his private possessions?

“Bruce Lee fans will have a chance to buy a host of his private possessions when more than 150 items from his estate go on the auctioneer’s block on August 7,” reported the South China Morning Post on July 25, 1993. “The kung fu star is enjoying renewed popularity 20 years after his mysterious death in Hongkong. Earlier this year he received a posthumous star on Hollywood’s legendary Walk of Fame, to coincide with the release of his film biography, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

“Linda Lee Cadwell [Lee’s widow] has decided to let fans and admirers have a chance to own something belonging to their hero. ‘In agreement with both my children, we thought we could perhaps share the memorabilia with other people who might find great value in it,’ she said.”

The Post reported on August 9 that “Bruce Lee’s old reading glasses, the ones he held together with wire in the days before he could afford new ones, fetched US$6,000 (HK$46,500) at an auction in Beverly Hills.

“Many items were in ferocious demand during the weekend’s bidding, which was attended by about 150 collectors and fans of the late actor and martial arts legend. Lee’s Hong Kong driver’s licence, estimated to be worth about US$1,200 before the bidding, brought US$8,000. A personal handwritten note from the actor to himself, in which he predicted he would become a superstar, brought in US$29,000.

“Catalogued as worth up to US$15,000, the piece read: “I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest-paid Oriental superstar in the United States […] Starting in 1970 I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000.”