In addition to a slew of movies and tv shows, it seems like every midwestern minimall was portrayed as having a karate dojo around this time. Why? How did Chinese and Japanese self defense forms capture the mentality of Western youth so passionately?
While I hate to simplify such a complex cultural phenomenon down to a single celebrity, it really is difficult to overestimate the impact Bruce Lee had on America's youth. Martial arts were being taught to non-westerners before Lee was known, in part due to increasing numbers of Eastern immigrants post WW2, but it wasn't until Lee's popularity boosted it into the mainstream that its popularity really took off. The Green Hornet in 1966 and the subsequent releases of Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon in 72/73 respectively started a fascination with Eastern combat forms that still thrives today.