Who is @thelastglow? A Fan’s Journey to Find Leroy & The Glow

@thelastglow is my online persona for all things related to The Last Dragon. My name is Craig Sutton, I am not Taimak, I don’t work for him or Sony.  I’m just a dedicated fan who, much like you, shares a strong connection with this 80s martial arts meets Motown cult classic.

As a mixed kid (Black and White with a touch of Chinese) who loved Kung Fu movies, Bruce Lee, Star Wars, superheroes, mythology, and Michael Jackson’s music, The Last Dragon was a magical fusion of everything I cherished and identified with. I never imagined that all my passions could be wrapped up into a single movie!

From the very first time I saw The Last Dragon, I fell in love with it. It became my movie. Bruce Leroy Green was my hero, I wanted Laura “Vanity” Charles to teach me some moves, (even though like Leroy I didn’t know what that meant!) and I thought Sho’nuff was the meanest, baddest, mofo around (really he scared the crap out of me). I was immediately inspired to begin my own journey to find the glow.

Why do I love The Last Dragon?

I saw The Last Dragon for the first time when I was about 10 or 11 years old and it still brings back memories of simpler times when I was a kid just beginning to discover myself—immersing myself in music, sports, kung-fu movies, and embracing my Black culture.

I’ve always been a fan of not judging a book by its cover and rooting for the underdog; that’s why heroes like Bruce Lee always resonated with me. Additionally, as a mixed-race kid growing up where I did, I didn’t see too many people who looked like me. So when I saw the trailer for a movie starring a guy who looked like he could have been my brother, it immediately piqued my interest. When I witnessed him performing those slow-motion kung-fu arm movements reminiscent of Bruce Lee, I was hooked; I had to see this movie. It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but I’m certain that was the first time I had seen a black superhero headlining his own film.

I saw it, I loved it, and I started my own journey…

Finding Bruce Leroy

In my high school yearbook, my ambition was:  “find Leroy Green”. When the internet started gaining popularity in the mid 90’s most teens and young adults were using early search engines like Alta Vista and Lycos to search for porn and other explicit content. As for me, I was scouring the web for anything related to The Last Dragon and the whereabouts of the legendary “Bruce” Leroy Green. Back then, without social media to guide you, it felt as though Leroy and the man who portrayed him had mysteriously vanished.

Why The Last Dragon Fan Site?

“Write the book you want to read, the one you cannot find…”

I did discover a couple of cool websites. One was titled “The Last Dragon Land,” and another focused on the wisdom in movies. It had a section dedicated to The Last Dragon called “The Wisdom of Bruce Leroy”. Websites like these, coupled with the limited Last Dragon content available on the internet, inspired me to create my own. In fact, when I discovered that the page dedicated to the wisdom of Bruce Leroy was no longer active, I created my own version: The Wisdom of The Last Dragon

My goal was to create something I would have loved to find when I first typed the words “Find Bruce Leroy” into a search engine. A place to showcase everything and anything from The Last Dragon from Sho’nuff’s quotes, Cool T-shirts, fan films, art, remake or not-to-remake debates, sequels news, cast reunions, to what the hell happened to Johnny Yu. Most importantly I wanted it to be a place where you could see that you were not the only one in love with Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon.

I am pleased to say that now when you type “Find Bruce Leroy” into Google there’s a pretty good chance you’ll come across something I’ve created or promoted. I embarked on a quest to find Bruce Leroy… and yes, I found Taimak, but just like Leroy in the film, what I discovered was something much greater…

The History of The Last Dragon Fan Site

It all began in 1996 when I had to create a website for an Internet 101 course I was taking at University. The site I designed had individual pages for all my interests, resembling a MySpace page before MySpace even existed. One of those pages was devoted to The Last Dragon.

That modest page quickly became the most visited one on the site. Before long, it led to a few email exchanges with Taimak himself!  I vividly recall my first email to him, which I believe went like this: “Good to see you are still ‘kicking’ around.” Achieving this was the fulfillment of my childhood ambition, and trust me, in a time before Facebook and Twitter, it was no small feat. But this was just the beginning.

I later created a Facebook Group (which is still active), then a full-fledged site dedicated entirely to The Last Dragon, known as The Fan Tribute to The Last Dragon Site (which sadly has been deactivated), I also established a Facebook fan page, Twitter, this Blog, Instagram, and a lot of other popular social media profiles (see links below).

All of this led me to contribute to the organization of the first Last Dragon reunion in 29 years at the D-Lux Expo, located just outside Detroit in early 2014. There, I had the chance to meet Taimak, Ernie Reyes Jr., and Glen Eaton for the first time, and I also had the honor of moderating the first Last Dragon cast discussion panel with them. It was epic! Watch The Last Dragon Discussion Panel.

In 2015, I had the pleasure of working with Taimak as part of the team that organized The Last Dragon 30th Anniversary Celebration at the 2014 Urban Action Showcase & 2015 30th Anniversary tour.

Before all of this, I had no idea there were so many other people who were as passionate about The Last Dragon as I was. It’s truly heartening to know that I’m not the only one who sees that The Last Dragon is more than just a campy 80’s action flick; it’s a special and important movie.

I hope you enjoy this blog and all the other Last Dragon content I’ve put together.

Thank you for visiting and for taking the time to read this

Regards,

Craig “thelastglow” Sutton

If you are a fan of 80’s Motown meets martial arts movies with a message I suggest you check out some of the other Last Dragon internet properties I manage:

• Fan Tribute to The Last Dragon
• The Last Dragon Inspired T-Shirts
• Twitter: @TheLastGlow
• Facebook: Fan Tribute to The Last Dragon
• Pinterest/TheLastGlow
• Instagram/TheLastGlow
• Tumblr: TheLastDragonTribute
• YouTube: The Last Glow Last Dragon Tribute

Contact & More Info

TheLastGlow@TheLastDragonTribute.com

TheLastDragonTribute.com is an online community for fans of the 80’s Motown martial arts cult classic THE LAST DRAGON. Using our web and social media presence our mission is to bring together fans from all over the world to help keep the Glow alive! We delve into all things The Last Dragon, Bruce Lee, and Martial Arts Entertainment.

Twitter: @thelastglow  Instagram: @thelastglow Facebook: Fan Tribute to The Last Dragon Podcast: The Last Dragon Tribute Podcast www.thelastdragontribute.com

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