0:06

Don't you find respectable people terribly?

0:10

No. The year two,

0:14

the movie Shanghai Express

0:17

starring Marlene Dietrich. It

0:20

took more than one man to change

0:22

my name to Shanhai Lilia

0:25

and acting alongside the German screen

0:27

siren and every bit is cool

0:30

seven year old Anna May Wong.

0:34

I must confess, I don't quite know the

0:36

standard of respectability that you demand

0:38

in your boyhouse. In

0:41

the movie, both actresses play women

0:44

of ill repute, but it was Wong's

0:46

performance that was publicly denounced

0:49

by the Chinese media for bringing

0:51

shame on her race. The government

0:53

has offered a price of his capture

0:56

live or did that was

0:58

the movie that took my breath a way that she

1:00

was just unapologetic. You

1:02

better get out of him. I

1:05

just killed anime.

1:08

Wong had already run a gauntlet of

1:10

social and legal obstacles

1:12

to become Hollywood's very first

1:15

Chinese American star. She

1:17

was extremely beautiful.

1:20

She was what today we would call a

1:22

fashionista. Even so, she

1:24

was usually consigned to playing

1:27

either the self sacrificing

1:29

lotus blossom or the

1:31

devious dragon lady. She

1:33

always had to die. It always had

1:35

to be dramatic, and it always had to be very tragic.

1:39

The blood is mine, the

1:41

hate is mine, the vengeance

1:43

shall be mine. Hollywood's

1:45

censorship code prohibited her from

1:48

even kissing any mail co star

1:50

who was white. She herself

1:52

was quoted in one interview, no

1:55

film lovers can ever marry me. If

1:58

they got an American actress as lant

2:00

her eyes and eyebrows and where a stiff

2:02

black wig and dressed in Chinese culture,

2:04

it would be all right. But me,

2:08

I am really Chinese, so

2:10

I must always die in the movies

2:13

so that the white girl with the yellow hair may get

2:15

the man. But

2:17

in Shanghai Express, she didn't

2:20

die, and the movie itself

2:22

killed at the box office, becoming

2:24

the highest grossing film of the year,

2:27

and anime. Wong was already being

2:29

talked about as the lead for one

2:31

of the biggest epics Hollywood would

2:33

make. The

2:39

Good Earth, based on the smash hit

2:41

and novel of the same name, was the

2:43

vehicle Wong had been waiting for.

2:46

If cast, it would propel her into

2:48

the first rank of film actresses.

2:51

Everybody in Los Angeles

2:54

knew that this was gonna be the biggest movie ever.

2:57

That her name was even being mentioned was

2:59

a sign of how far she'd come.

3:02

So who was Annime Wong? I

3:05

do think that Annime Wong just had

3:07

certain star quality. She

3:10

seemed to be very comfortable in her

3:12

skin. And here she

3:14

is being comfortable in her own skin when there's

3:17

no one who looks like her

3:19

on screen. That's the thing

3:21

that is really hard to imagine,

3:24

because she was a true pioneer in

3:26

that she couldn't look to

3:28

anyone and say, I want to be like

3:31

this person. She really had to forge

3:33

her own path. From

3:37

CBS Sunday Morning and Simon

3:39

and Schuster, I'm Morocca

3:41

and this is Mobituaries.

3:51

This Anname Wong

3:57

February third, one,

4:00

Death of a Trailblazer.

4:15

So I was in my mid twenties, pretty new

4:17

to New York, and I was taking a workshop

4:19

on auditioning for musical theater. The

4:22

teacher assigned me a comedic number

4:24

called the Butler Song from

4:26

a long forgotten musical Who's

4:30

Calling Please, Oh, Miss

4:33

Garble. It's sung by

4:35

a butler who's explaining

4:37

why his master can't come to

4:39

the phone. No, he can't call

4:42

you back at five at

4:44

five thirty humps Alice

4:48

as he proceeds to mention pretty

4:50

much every screen goddess from Hollywood's

4:53

Golden Age, Ben Gina Hallow.

4:55

At seven May were steppin

4:58

Leven and somewhere me. The

5:01

song is basically one long sex

5:03

joke. It's funny

5:05

in a pre met two era kind of

5:07

way. Carol One.

5:12

Anyway, some of the names I knew,

5:14

so I didn't. The one that really

5:17

popped out Anna

5:21

May Wong. Her name was

5:23

so melodic it had to be made

5:26

up. In

5:29

fact, she was given the name Lute

5:31

Song when she was born in Los Angeles.

5:35

It means frosted yellow willow.

5:38

At that time, Ellie's population

5:40

of immigrant and American born Chinese

5:43

was about three thousand, but the

5:45

young girl was very much a minority

5:48

within a minority. It's

5:50

about one woman for every twenty

5:52

men. Yeah, you've described

5:54

it. I think as a bachelors society was

5:56

considered a bachelor society. Lisa

5:58

c is the best selling author of On

6:01

Gold Mountain about her own

6:03

Chinese American family. Not many

6:06

children, not many little girls, so these

6:08

little girls were seen as very precious.

6:10

There were all kinds of rules about

6:13

girls, you know that. Well, they

6:15

shouldn't be seen on the street, they

6:17

shouldn't be seen with their bear

6:19

arms. And legs. They shouldn't learn

6:21

to rule escape, They shouldn't bicycle.

6:24

The second of seven children born

6:26

to Sam Sing Wong and his wife

6:29

Lie Gone Toy, she was soon going

6:31

by the name Anna,

6:36

Hi, Welcome, Nice

6:39

to meet Martinez. Amy

6:41

Wong Martinez is the daughter of Anime

6:43

Wong's youngest brother. She was

6:45

born after her famous aunt died,

6:48

but she grew up in a house filled with

6:50

her memorabilia. She would

6:52

do these little holiday cars.

6:55

She would have them made up. It's really beautiful,

6:58

greetings from my country

7:00

and my people. And Anime Wong,

7:04

Anime's father, that would be

7:06

Amy's grandfather, was a laundryman.

7:10

It really wasn't a laundromat with the machines. It was of

7:12

course him doing laundry by

7:14

hand. And it was one of the skills

7:16

that the Chinese could do, a Chinese

7:19

man could do because it was viewed

7:21

as female work, and

7:24

so it wasn't really a threat to

7:26

other men for him to set up business like

7:28

that. And it was in Chinatown, just outside

7:32

just a few blocks, it turned out from

7:35

Chinatown, but that short distance

7:37

proved crucial in shaping her outlook.

7:40

Here's historian Shirley Limb

7:43

author of anime Wong performing

7:45

the Modern Does that make a difference

7:47

to you thing in terms of her experience. Absolutely.

7:50

A lot of her father's customers were

7:53

not people of Chinese descent,

7:56

so she's grown up interacting

8:00

with Mexican Americans, European

8:02

Americans, people outside of Chinatown.

8:07

And as she was growing up, the motion

8:09

picture industry was moving to

8:11

Los Angeles, and young Anname

8:14

had a front row seat to all the action.

8:17

She's seen movies on the street. She

8:19

would deliver laundry bundles and

8:21

she'd save up the tip money to go

8:23

to the movies herself. It's

8:26

so evocative, it really is, like

8:28

so many young American

8:31

women of her generation. Going

8:33

to movies was in a

8:36

way to escape, to dream, to think

8:38

about the future, to think about oneself.

8:42

And although Annam was a third generation

8:45

American, if you were Chinese,

8:47

you couldn't sit in the main part of the theater. You

8:49

had to sit up in the balcony. So

8:52

she would take whatever money she had, you know, buy

8:54

a ticket, go sit up there in the balcony as

8:56

a very young girl, and then

8:58

to think, oh, I want to

9:00

and to do this. You know,

9:02

she's sneaking out right

9:04

she's sneaking out, and it's a pretty big family.

9:07

She has brothers and sisters, so she's

9:09

sneaking out, going to the movies,

9:11

going to be on movie sets. Amy

9:14

Wong. Martinez's mother, Carol Wong,

9:17

says that growing up, Anna May had

9:19

a key ally ole. Models

9:22

really know every time was

9:24

she's doing, she's protecting,

9:27

and she sometimes don't even go to

9:29

school and go see a movie. The

9:32

mother, no, but the father don't know.

9:34

From what you understand, Anime's mother

9:37

kind of was really backing her up. Yeah,

9:40

but Annime Wong's father was less

9:42

than pleased with his daughter's show business

9:45

ambitions. Here's what she said

9:47

to one newspaper reporter, as read

9:50

by actress Jennifer Limb. My

9:52

father objected so strongly

9:55

to my desire to appear in pictures that

9:57

we were all ill. Mikeah,

10:00

little mother. Let us fight it out, and in the

10:02

end I won. It

10:05

was the first great battle for my

10:07

career. As

10:10

a teenager, Anname found work as

10:12

an extra, then got bit parts,

10:15

and when she was just seventeen years

10:17

old, she starred in the silent film

10:20

The Toll of the Sea, Hollywood's

10:23

first technicolor movie. It was a

10:25

take on the Madam Butterfly story, but

10:27

set in China instead of Japan. She

10:31

plays Lotus Flower, a

10:33

young girl who rescues an American

10:35

who washes up on the shore of her village.

10:38

They marry, she has his child,

10:40

and he promptly abandons her, only

10:42

to return to her village with his new Caucasian

10:45

wife. A heartbroken Lotus Flower

10:47

gives up their son before drowning

10:50

herself. And

10:53

that's how pretty much any movie that saw

10:55

an Asian ingenue finding love with

10:57

a white man had to end with

11:00

the Asian woman dying. But

11:06

as hokey as the plot may sound to us today,

11:09

Anime Wong, it's really good in it.

11:11

As opposed to so much silent film

11:13

acting. Her performance is modern

11:16

in its restraint, communicating

11:18

so much with simple looks.

11:20

Her eyes are so big and expressive.

11:23

Variety called her an exquisite

11:25

crier, and I have to say her

11:28

ability to cry on que and look

11:30

beautiful while doing it is Demi

11:32

Moore in Ghost Level good. And

11:35

remember she was just seventeen.

11:38

How significant was it that her first starring

11:40

role was in a very traditional role and Toll

11:42

of the Sea, So movie audience

11:45

is probably assumed she was

11:47

Chinese born, that maybe she didn't

11:49

even speak English. Yes, absolutely,

11:53

people could read so

11:55

much into her because it is a

11:58

silent film and at

12:01

the time people could read

12:03

her as Chinese, not American.

12:08

Anime followed up that traumatic turn

12:10

with a supporting role in the epic

12:13

The Thief of Baghdad the

12:16

star Wars of its day. Audiences

12:18

were wowed both by the movie's

12:20

special effects it ends with a

12:23

swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks

12:25

flying off on a magic carpet, and

12:29

by the sensuality of anime

12:32

Wong's scheming and scantily

12:34

clad Mongol slave girl

12:36

character. I watched the scene

12:39

where Anname is confronted by a

12:41

shirtless, knife wielding Fairbanks

12:43

with comedian Margaret Choe. She's

12:46

like, really in that classic um

12:49

Carrie Fisher job of the hut

12:51

outfit slave Leah, and she would fit

12:54

in right in a comic cotton today perfect. I

12:56

mean in the nineteen twenties, I

12:58

mean, people in audiences must have been like, it's

13:01

racy, it's very sexy, very

13:03

revealed. He's like, he's all bronze

13:05

adopted shirtlets and muscular, and she's

13:07

she's in this little bikini but it's slave La early

13:10

adopter slave La outfit. She looks

13:12

great and the hair is very strange, so these weird

13:14

wire braids. I asked

13:16

Amy and Carol Wong about Anime's

13:19

appearance in the movie. It's

13:21

kind of racy. Yes, it's very sexy.

13:24

She can pull it off. She certainly can pull it off to We

13:26

know what her own parents thought of that.

13:28

Well, Oh, father,

13:31

I don't know what the thing. I think

13:34

maybe a little bit sick. Was

13:37

ashamed Lisa. She explains

13:39

why Anime's father might have felt

13:41

ashamed in Chinese culture

13:44

actors, in particularly

13:46

women who are acting. It seems

13:49

like being a courtisan, like being a prostitute.

13:51

It has these very very low connotations

13:54

to it. It's not somebody you'd want to have over

13:56

for dinner, and actresses on a spectrum

13:58

with a courtisan with the prom to r well, because

14:01

of what they do. You know, if you think of courtesan's

14:03

as playing instruments,

14:06

is singing, is dancing, they do

14:09

other things too, but they are these kind of entertainers.

14:14

But there was no putting the genie back in

14:16

the bottle. Soon Anime Wong

14:18

was rubbing shoulders with Charlie Chaplin

14:21

and silent film start Norma Talmadge

14:24

at the groundbreaking of Gramin's Chinese

14:26

Theater. But after her

14:28

early on screen successes, she

14:31

was only getting offered marginal roles

14:33

as an exotic Oriental, and

14:35

so when an opportunity to work in Europe

14:37

presented itself, she jumped at

14:40

the chance. In America,

14:42

they wouldn't starve me because they said

14:44

they could never find enough stories for me.

14:48

I am not limited to Chinese

14:50

parts. I can play any type

14:52

of oriental or even eskimos.

14:55

When Anime Wong could not get

14:57

the roles that she wanted to get

14:59

in Hollywood, she

15:03

goes off to Berlin.

15:12

In Europe, she learned to speak German and

15:14

French and acted in both languages.

15:18

It's been most interesting to master

15:20

what formerly seemed like an impossibility,

15:23

but we sometimes even surprise ourselves

15:26

at what we can do. The

15:31

yep, that's Anime Wong singing in

15:34

German. During

15:41

her time overseas, she cemented

15:43

her status as an international movie

15:46

star and as a fashion

15:48

icon. Throughout her career,

15:50

she'd be photographed by her friend Carl

15:52

van Vakten, gamely

15:57

playing with different looks and attitudes,

16:01

dressed in a tuxedo, or

16:03

with hair dyed blonde, or

16:06

with barely any clothes at all.

16:10

She was extremely beautiful.

16:13

She was what today we would call a

16:16

fashionista. You know, she was

16:18

dressed like no one else.

16:21

She had her special, you know, Harris

16:23

style, which was imitated by

16:25

many people, including Edith

16:28

Head, costume designer. One

16:31

of her biggest successes during these years

16:33

was in a British film called Piccadilly,

16:36

playing a nightclub dishwasher who

16:38

becomes a star. It was another slinky

16:41

Chinese vamp roll. Still,

16:44

one reviewer wrote, from the moment Miss

16:46

Wong dances in the kitchen's rear, she

16:49

steals Piccadilly, and

16:52

while in London she acted on stage

16:54

opposite a young Laurence Olivier.

16:57

Reviewers panned her American accent,

17:00

but what she does she

17:03

hires elocution accent

17:06

coaches so that she can adopt

17:09

this upper crust world English

17:12

British accent, which then enables

17:14

her to transition to the

17:16

talkies. I cannot,

17:19

I cannot tell him anything

17:22

you like, say what you win? I

17:24

do not care. I shall not go

17:27

yes. Long before Madonna got herself

17:29

an English accent annime, Wong had

17:31

one. Now that we're here. You

17:33

do not regret. You don't

17:36

talk nonsense. I think it, and you believe

17:38

that I came because I love you, that I did

17:40

not just wish to be free like

17:42

a bad woman who gives herself for a price and

17:45

by paramount. Pictures

17:47

came calling, As The l A Times

17:49

reported, Annime Wong Oriental

17:52

actress came back to Hollywood with

17:54

an English accent. When

17:56

your husband left you, you will inform you where he

17:58

was going. No, but I fancied

18:01

was on a matter of business. He was a

18:03

man very precise in his heavens. When

18:05

midnight came and there was no sign

18:07

of him, I became rather along. Midnight

18:10

should be a lad hard for him. It

18:13

wasn't just her accent that made her sound

18:15

distinctive. Her voice also had

18:17

a weight and a depth to it that

18:19

allowed her successfully to make the transition

18:22

to talkies when so many other

18:24

silent film stars were well

18:26

silenced for good. Yes,

18:28

so unlike all my previous conceptions of the

18:30

Chinese, you've always thought of us as wearing

18:33

pig tails and with eyes like too

18:35

slip. I am afraid that's true. You

18:37

still think of us as a caricature. That's fifty

18:39

years ago. Now,

18:42

Anime Wong, they have been coming back to America

18:45

an even bigger star. But

18:47

America was still a country that denied

18:49

full rights to any citizens

18:51

of Chinese descent. Here's

18:54

some background on that. Only

18:56

a half century before, the Chinese

18:58

Exclusion Act two

19:01

became the first law in American

19:03

history restricting members

19:05

of a specific ethnic group from entering

19:08

the United States. That

19:10

act virtually ended legal

19:12

immigration from China. It was

19:14

part of the backlash to the influx

19:17

of Chinese immigrants who came to America

19:19

during the Gold Rush and to provide

19:22

cheap labor during the building of the Transcontinental

19:25

Railroad. A fear

19:27

of the so called Yellow Peril soon

19:29

gripped America, with newspapers

19:32

hysterically warning of the economic

19:34

and moral danger posed by

19:36

these invaders. Here

19:39

is author Lisa c Again that

19:41

people saw Chinese sas dirty,

19:44

They're going to pollute

19:46

our women, they eat strange

19:49

things, and then the Big

19:52

three gambling, opium,

19:54

and prostitution. Not surprisingly,

19:57

violence against the Chinese spread

19:59

a across the country. They were loaded

20:02

onto rafts and sent a drift into the ocean.

20:05

In Rock Springs, Wyoming,

20:07

they were literally just burned out of the Chinatown

20:10

in Tucson, tied to the

20:12

backs of steers and sent into the desert

20:15

to die. And in eighteen seventy

20:17

one in Los Angeles, eighteen

20:19

Chinese laborers were lynched

20:21

by an angry mob. This

20:24

wasn't ancient history in animas time.

20:27

Well into the twentieth century, Chinese

20:29

Americans faced limits on property

20:32

ownership. Anime Wong

20:34

may have been a star in Hollywood, but

20:36

she wasn't allowed to buy a house in Beverly

20:38

Hills, and anti miscegenation

20:41

laws in many states prohibited

20:43

marriage between whites and people

20:46

of other races, including Asians.

20:49

There were states that had laws against

20:51

Chinese and white people marrying

20:54

in here in California, that law lasted

20:56

until and

20:59

then there were the travel restrictions

21:01

whenever she would leave the country, and she

21:04

was a huge traveler, and she went to Europe,

21:06

she went to Asia, she went to Australia.

21:09

If the rest of my stay in Australia

21:11

will be as pleasant and happy as today has been,

21:13

I know that I shall enjoy every moment of it.

21:16

To the many Chinese who are listening in May,

21:18

I say that Monicog

21:22

every time she left the country, and

21:24

every time she came back into the country,

21:27

she'd be interrogated. Yes,

21:30

any time Americans of Chinese

21:32

descent wanted to travel overseas,

21:34

they had to apply for re entry

21:37

into the United States to prove

21:39

that they were indeed Americans. Is

21:42

it almost though, like she was an

21:44

American citizen with an asterisk? Yes,

21:47

I think that's true. Hollywood's

21:49

censorship rules reflected the law

21:51

of the land. The Haze Code of formalized

21:55

the rules prohibiting kissing or

21:57

even the hint of romance between white's

22:00

and non whites that Annime Wong

22:02

had faced earlier in her career. Back

22:05

then, you weren't even allowed to kiss

22:07

a white man on screen. By

22:10

the time I was acting. When

22:13

I was a young woman, I remember

22:15

saying to my husband, I

22:18

just want to do one job where I don't

22:20

have to kiss someone. Rosalind

22:24

Chow played Corporal Maxwell Clinger's

22:26

South Korean wife Soon Lee in

22:29

the sitcom's Mash and Aftermash,

22:34

Why not take it easy? Stay home? Take

22:37

it easy at all? All I do is

22:39

clean this place. Robbed the ball.

22:41

Yeah, but that's on your hands and knees, not on

22:43

your feet. You're jeus.

22:48

And she was one of the stars. In hit

22:51

film The Joy Luck Club, a

22:54

landmark for Asians in Hollywood,

22:57

Chow's character Rose was married

22:59

to Ted, a white man played

23:01

by Andrew McCarthy. It's

23:03

our house, we agree

23:05

the seller. You're not taking my house,

23:09

you're not taking my daughter, You're

23:12

not taking any part

23:14

of me. It's the kind of role

23:16

Anime Wong wasn't allowed to play

23:19

here. She is a leading lady. She's not

23:21

allowed to kiss a

23:23

white co star. That's like fighting,

23:25

really with both hands tied behind your

23:27

back. If you're trying to make a career as

23:30

a leading lady, sex symbol and leading

23:32

lady, it's um. It's quite

23:34

the magic act that she was able

23:37

to bring a certain sensuality

23:40

and and wait to the screen and never

23:43

be able to express it with a co star.

23:46

Are you going to marry him? Perhaps

23:48

someday, but you don't

23:50

love him. I certainly do,

23:53

but you are not in love with

23:55

him. I certainly am

23:57

Me thinks the lady does protest too much.

24:00

Come on, I

24:02

don't trust people who quote Shakespeare

24:04

so glibly, and

24:06

Hollywood always seem to have new ways

24:09

of reminding anime of her status.

24:12

I made a test at Metro Golden Mayor Studios

24:14

for the leading role in The Son Daughter

24:17

the Chinese played David Blasco produced years

24:19

ago with Leonore Ulrich. I

24:21

guess I look to Chinese to play a Chinese

24:24

because I hear Colleen Moore is going to do it.

24:27

Although no definite decision has been made,

24:30

Colleen Moore didn't get the role. It

24:32

went to Helen Hayes, and for the record,

24:35

neither actress was Chinese. Anime

24:38

did lend a hand during the production.

24:41

Here's Shirley Lamb. So there's

24:43

actually this really interesting photograph of Anime

24:45

Wong on the MGM set teaching

24:48

a Chinese handshake. You're kidding?

24:51

So that she ended up? Me? Boy, that's

24:53

that's a sport. There were one, and

24:55

she's not in the not in the movie. She's just essentially

24:58

helping them portray

25:00

an Asian person. To

25:04

be clear, Hollywood was producing movies

25:06

with Asian characters, some of

25:08

them big lead even romantic characters,

25:12

but the best of those roles weren't going

25:14

to Asian actors. You may

25:16

not know the name Warner Land. He

25:18

was a Swedish actor and

25:21

tens of millions went to the movies

25:23

to see him as detective Charlie

25:26

Chan hasty acquisition like

25:28

long shot on horse race. Odds

25:30

good, but chances doubtful. He

25:32

also played the evil Foo Man Chew

25:35

in Daughter of the Dragon in

25:38

the twenty years, I have thought to

25:40

live the thought of killing you

25:42

and your son has been my

25:45

dearest nurse. What's

25:49

called yellow face was donned

25:51

by him and many actors you

25:53

probably have heard of, Mary

25:55

Pickford, Edward g. Robinson, Peter

25:58

Laurie, Marlon Brand, Marna

26:00

Loyd, Rita Moreno. Even

26:03

John Wayne wore yellow face when

26:05

he played Genghis Khan. I

26:07

share your taste in women, but

26:11

not in blood. And here's

26:13

Katherine Hepburn as a jade tan

26:17

dragon seed. How can I Jim

26:20

Missy when he was signed to kill I'll

26:22

be Killed nineteen sixty

26:25

ones Breakfast at Tiffany's,

26:27

I Am Rod and

26:30

otherwise beloved. Classic is

26:33

marred by Mickey Rooney's yellow

26:35

faced portrayal of Mr yuni

26:37

Oshi all the time with disturbance,

26:40

I cannot see. I got to get to

26:42

my arrest. I'm a daughters. Don't

26:44

be angry with dear little man. I won't do it again. The

26:47

practice lasted well beyond then,

26:50

but Back in the early nineteen thirties, Annime

26:52

Wong was in a category of her own

26:55

Chinese American yes, but a

26:57

bona fide star. So

27:01

when MGM decided to adapt

27:03

pearl Les Bucks Pullitzer Prize

27:05

winning novel The Good Earth, Anime

27:08

Wong finally saw a role

27:10

worthy of her talent. Everybody

27:14

in Los Angeles knew that this was going to be

27:16

the biggest movie ever two million

27:18

dollars MGM

27:21

Los Angeles's Desert Hills

27:23

transformed into rice patties, and

27:26

it was supposed to be made in a way that resonated

27:29

with the American Depression

27:32

era audiences, so a very sympathetic

27:35

and positive betrayal

27:38

of Chinese peasants. The

27:40

film version of the family struggles

27:42

of Wang Long and his wife O Lan

27:45

was anticipated in much the same way

27:47

that Gone with the Wind would be later

27:49

in the decade, and the casting of the

27:51

movie was a saga all its

27:54

own. Early on

27:56

in The Los Angeles

27:58

Times hinted that Anna May Wong was

28:00

a lock to play Olan. She

28:03

would, of course, have to be cast opposite

28:05

an Asian male to conform with the production

28:08

code. Two years later, the

28:10

paper reported the Good Earth

28:12

compass now points very strongly

28:14

towards anime Wong Here's

28:17

actress Rosalind Chow again. I

28:20

tried to look for

28:22

her screen test for it, because legend has

28:25

it that it was phenomenal.

28:28

But then by the end of n four,

28:30

gossip columnist Luella Parsons

28:33

reported that Wong refused

28:35

to make any more tests for Good Earth

28:37

or any other pictures, just to prove

28:40

she can look Chinese. As

28:42

anime told Parsons, I

28:44

know I look Chinese, and so does

28:47

everyone else. Her fate was

28:49

sealed when Austrian actor Paul

28:51

Muni was cast as the male lead.

28:54

Ultimately, Louise Reiner, who

28:56

was born in Germany and raised in Austria,

28:59

was as all On from

29:01

all appearances, Ms Reiner is definitely

29:04

set for the part of all On No

29:06

use bucking up against a stone wall. Reiner

29:10

was Hollywood's newest sensation.

29:12

She was considered a great actress. But

29:15

have I mentioned she was Austrian,

29:18

a small cash, a kind

29:20

you throw away. He is

29:23

starving. When

29:25

Paul Muni landed his role, he reportedly

29:28

said, I'm about as Chinese

29:30

as Herbert Hoover. My father

29:33

knew years of famine, but he

29:35

kept the land. I must keep

29:37

it from my sons. Anime

29:40

was invited to audition for the supporting

29:42

role of Lotus, the younger

29:44

second wife of Wanglong, but

29:47

studio notes described the then thirty

29:49

year old as quote a little

29:51

disappointing as to looks. I

29:54

have to sit here shutting if

29:57

I start, they whisperon looked at me hatefully.

30:00

That role went to actress Attilli Losh,

30:03

strangely enough, another Austrian.

30:06

This is a year's long saga,

30:09

and Anime Wong, I mean, this is

30:12

the brass ring. This is the thing

30:14

that's gonna make her the star

30:16

that she deserves to be. If you must be able

30:19

to empathize with that absolutely

30:22

From Anime Wong's point of view,

30:24

it must have just been heartwrenching because

30:27

at that point she wasn't

30:29

an on genue anymore, and she

30:31

had already made a name for herself.

30:34

But that wasn't enough to overcome

30:36

the ignorance and racism of that era.

30:39

I guess. The

30:45

movie opened to rave reviews in seven

30:52

presented an Academy Award for the Best Performance

30:54

of nine Working Good. Her Louise

30:59

Reiner went on to win an Oscar for

31:01

her performance. Had

31:04

Anime Wong received

31:07

one of the leading roles. She would

31:09

probably still be a household name today.

31:13

It was a crushing disappointment, but

31:16

Anime Wong wasn't about to throw

31:18

herself into the ocean. Now

31:28

Here is the reason why I

31:31

have been so interested in Anime

31:33

Wong for so many years. So

31:36

instead of crying,

31:39

sitting on her ass, sulking, going

31:42

woe is me, she made

31:46

her first and only trip to

31:48

China. Historian Shirley Limb

31:51

is describing how Anime Wong responded

31:54

after she wasn't cast in the Good

31:56

Earth. She

31:59

hides the cinema bographer and actually

32:02

ends up making her own film

32:05

about China, which

32:07

is a Chinese American woman's

32:10

perspective on China

32:12

versus MGMs Hollywood

32:15

Hollywood Chinese version

32:17

of the Chinese peasant in

32:20

her film about China, which she narrated,

32:23

My first address in China was the Cafe

32:25

hotel, where I'm greeted by relatives

32:28

friends. Anime

32:30

Wong learns Mandarin. She

32:33

goes for a fitting for a traditional Chinese

32:35

dress called the chung Sam, and

32:38

the next stop is r Lookdong

32:40

Chung, who takes a piece of string and

32:42

it ties a knot for each measurement.

32:45

Now how you can tell which not is whatnot?

32:47

I know not. She's quippy,

32:50

She's funny. The countryside is very

32:52

much like the Philippines and

32:54

parts of California, many palm

32:57

trees, papayas, mangoes. Another

33:00

as a Chinese, always believing planning something

33:02

gives them something to eat. And she

33:04

visits her father, who had moved to China

33:07

after Anime's mother had died in a

33:09

car accident. This is one

33:11

of my favorite pictures of my father. He

33:14

was so happy that day to be surrounded

33:16

with his family from the West in

33:19

the east. There's a lovely

33:21

shot in the documentary

33:24

where she sort of walks off into the sunset

33:26

with her father. I like to compare it to Gone

33:29

with the Wind with um, you

33:32

know, Scarlet O'Hara and her father

33:35

looking over the plantation

33:37

fields at Tera with you know,

33:39

the sun's setting. You can almost

33:41

hear the music swell, yes,

33:45

I hear it, I hear it. Although

33:49

I've been to many many places in the world,

33:52

this first and only trip I

33:54

made to China was the most meaningful.

33:57

But she wasn't received as warmly China

34:00

as she may have hoped. At one

34:02

banquet, she was publicly excoriated

34:05

by a series of speakers for the

34:07

image she had projected of Chinese

34:09

womanhood. They made speeches

34:12

that lasted for four hours. They

34:15

all took turns berating me for the roles

34:17

I played. Since I didn't speak

34:19

Mandarin, I had to answer them in English.

34:22

I told them that when a person is trying to get established

34:25

in a profession, she can't choose parts.

34:27

She has to take what is offered. I

34:30

said I had come to China to learn, and

34:32

that I hoped I would be able to interpret

34:34

our country in a better life. It

34:37

probably didn't help that she was single.

34:40

From virtually the start of her career, she

34:42

had been asked if and when she planned

34:44

to get married. I try not to think of

34:46

romance or marriage. If

34:49

love comes to me, I shall take

34:51

it to my family and see what they think. But

34:54

I hope that it will not come for a long

34:56

time. I hope that I shall

34:58

make a great success first, that

35:01

I shall have enjoyed my career and provided

35:03

for my family. She

35:06

was rumored to have had affairs, but she never

35:08

did marry Lisa. She points

35:11

out that any realistic prospects

35:13

were complicated by those anti missigenation

35:16

laws. If she follows

35:18

the law, who's out there that's

35:21

at her level. She

35:23

could marry a Chinese man, right,

35:26

and who's at her level? There

35:29

are a few Chinese who

35:32

are doing well,

35:35

but not very many. I mean, so what

35:37

are the other options then? Is she really

35:40

going to marry a laundryman like her

35:42

father? Is she going to marry somebody

35:45

who washes dishes in a restaurant?

35:47

So it's not like there were many sort

35:49

of peer to peer people that she could

35:52

marry within the Chinese community. But I think

35:54

even beyond that, what would have been

35:56

expected of her as a Chinese wife

35:58

to live in conclusion, to

36:01

not be seen on the street, to have

36:03

a lot of children and babies, and that

36:05

I don't think was going to be for her. Here's

36:07

Amy Wong Martinez again. Can

36:10

imagine her honey breakfast is ready.

36:14

Her ability to have to strive

36:17

for her career and make a career. I

36:19

think that was more of a priority for her

36:22

than finding true love or

36:24

traditional marriage. When

36:26

she returned to the US, she found better

36:28

roles in b movies. Gee,

36:31

I'm sure glad that's over, doctor Lyn. I don't

36:33

know how you're doing here. I am checking like a

36:35

general plugging an't even trembling.

36:37

The first thing you've got to learn is not to let your hands

36:40

tremble if you want to be a good surgeon.

36:42

In the King of Chinatown, she plays

36:44

a surgeon, a rarity for an

36:46

actress of any race at the time. It's

36:49

amazing. He's still alive. He

36:52

had to live. Do you know him personally?

36:54

No, he was just

36:57

another emergency. And in Daughter

36:59

of Shang Hi, a terrific movie, she

37:02

and an FBI agent played by Korean

37:04

American actor Philip On helped

37:06

break up an illegal smuggling operation.

37:09

Let the authorities handleistmas Quan. I've

37:11

seen how the authorities handled things. Press

37:14

great excitement and arrest is expected

37:16

in a few days, and in a few days everything

37:18

is forgotten until someone else is

37:21

murdered. And despite her

37:23

mixed experience in China, when

37:25

Japan launched an attack on China

37:27

in seven anime, Wong

37:30

threw herself into fundraising on

37:32

behalf of the beleaguered Chinese. She

37:35

was quite political, what today

37:37

we would call an activist, but at that time

37:40

was pretty rare. When Japan

37:42

invades China in the lead

37:44

up to World War Two, the rest of the world

37:47

really didn't care too much, but she cared,

37:49

and the Chinese American community cared,

37:52

and so she was one of the big fundraisers.

37:55

She traveled all around the country raising

37:57

money. Then after

37:59

the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

38:01

in December of nine, China's

38:04

plight became America's cause.

38:09

Anime contributed her talents to

38:11

propaganda films like Bombs

38:14

Over Burma and The Lady from

38:16

Chung King, where she played the part of

38:18

the Chinese heroine Battle of the ruthless

38:21

Japanese bow. You cannot

38:23

kill. You cannot kill

38:25

China. Not even a mini

38:28

deaths could crush the soul of China.

38:31

We shall live on until the

38:33

enemy is driven back over scorched

38:35

land and hurled into the

38:38

sea. And

38:40

she visited with American troops across

38:43

the country. We had genuine

38:45

American chop suey and the mess hall for lunch.

38:48

Today. I nearly disrupted

38:50

the service when I pulled out my chopsticks.

38:52

During one wartime Christmas, she

38:55

made a tour of air bases in Nebraska,

38:58

and all the boys were so appreciate that

39:00

it really did something to my moral too.

39:03

Spent the time having mess with the boys and

39:06

visiting sick cases in hospitals, and

39:08

made a brief address in the camp theater. Two

39:11

of the camps had large troops of colored soldiers,

39:14

and they have their own canteen, theater and

39:16

mess halls, at which basis I made

39:18

a double tour. So

39:23

when Madame Chang Kai Shack, the charismatic

39:26

wife of Chinese nationalist leader

39:28

Chang Kai Shack, came to Hollywood

39:31

to raise money for the war effort, it seemed

39:33

a no brainer that America's most

39:35

famous Chinese American would

39:37

be included in the star studded

39:39

fundraiser. Huge throngs

39:42

pack Hollywood's famous Bull to see

39:44

and hear Madame Shan. On April

39:47

four, a record

39:49

crowd of thirty thousand gathered at

39:51

the Hollywood Bowl. Henry

39:53

Fonda and Spencer Tracy gave introductory

39:56

remarks. Judy Garland, Rita

39:58

Hayworth, Shirley Temple, and Ginger Rogers

40:01

stood for the American and Chinese

40:04

national anthems. Chinese

40:06

American soldiers probably serve

40:08

as guards of honor, and then Madam Chang

40:11

delivered a forty five minute address pleading

40:13

her country's case and thanking America

40:16

for its leadership. We shall not permit

40:19

aggression to raise its

40:21

satanic hay and threaten

40:24

men's greatest heritage,

40:27

life, liberty, and

40:29

the pursuit of happiness. Won't

40:35

So what role was given to anime

40:37

Wong? They didn't invite

40:40

her, right, they

40:42

didn't invite her. And this goes to

40:45

sort of China's view of

40:47

anime. So if you think of

40:49

her, first her own family that

40:51

could be proud of her for her accomplishments,

40:55

but also a little embarrassed about her for

40:57

the nudity in some of the roles she

41:00

played in China, you have the same thing

41:02

on a much larger scale. So

41:04

people they were kind of proud of her, but

41:07

at the same time they felt she was

41:09

perpetuating negative stereotypes

41:11

about Chinese women in particular. That

41:14

must have been humiliating, humiliating, humiliating.

41:18

She lays a lot of money for them, and

41:20

I also sees I know she was

41:22

very hard. My husband told me about that.

41:25

This is Carol Wong again. She

41:28

was married to Anim's late brother Richard

41:30

for almost fifty years. She

41:33

says he was very hard, but she said

41:35

nothing he can do about that. But

41:37

she had told your husband about being disappointed

41:40

about the Hollywood bawl. Yes, he

41:43

can see it too, you know what can he

41:45

do? I guess it's comfortable

41:47

each other. But she never

41:49

let the bottle once

41:52

more. Anime Wong soldiered

41:54

on along her singular

41:56

path. With

42:05

the advent of television, anime Wong

42:07

saw new opportunities. A

42:09

lot of female film stars, as

42:12

they got older in the nineteen

42:14

fifties, began to participate

42:17

in television shows as a way to recycle

42:20

their acting careers um

42:22

television in Hollywood. That

42:25

was the way that she was able to still

42:27

remain in the public eye. In

42:31

one she starred in The Gallery

42:33

of Madame Lute Song, making

42:36

her the first Chinese American to

42:38

star in a TV show. The

42:40

show aired on the Earstwhile Dumont

42:43

Television Network. No footage

42:45

survives since the network's archive

42:48

was dumped into the East River in the nineteen

42:50

seventies, but the reviews

42:52

survived, and they weren't pretty.

42:55

One reads it is suspected

42:57

that even if ms. Wong were given a sound

43:00

script, she would still sound like

43:02

an attractive Oriental girl who has

43:05

been thoroughly americanized. That's

43:07

a weird critique because

43:09

you're basically saying why aren't

43:12

you more foreign? That's

43:14

sort of like, well, what do they even

43:16

know about what it means to be

43:19

Chinese? Margaret Show has some

43:21

experience with those kinds of criticisms.

43:24

She followed in Anime Wong's TV

43:26

footsteps when

43:30

she became the second Asian American

43:32

woman and the first Korean American

43:35

to headline a series when the sitcom

43:38

All American Girl premiered on

43:40

abcne so

43:43

tell me about the reel you Okay?

43:46

Well, for one thing, when I hear a joke,

43:49

I don't do this, hey, I

43:53

laughed more like this. In

43:57

her case, she turned out to be too much

44:00

of an All American Girl for

44:02

some in the Korean American community.

44:05

When I was doing All American Girl, it was

44:07

very difficult because the Korean

44:09

community in America had just been

44:11

through the l A Riots, and so they

44:13

were hyper concern, hyper

44:16

aware of their public image. They

44:18

wanted to really strictly control

44:21

what was being said about them. And so when I

44:23

came along as a very foul

44:26

mouth comedian, as a woman,

44:28

as um, you know, somebody who was talking

44:30

about gay rights, somebody who was talking about sexuality,

44:33

it really destroyed this

44:35

sort of image of what Koreans had of themselves,

44:38

and so it was very difficult to get their support.

44:41

All American Girl was canceled

44:43

after one season. Um, I don't know if

44:45

you can reduce it to this, but when you did

44:48

the sitcom, did you feel more pressure

44:50

from the Korean side or more pressure

44:52

from, let's call it the white American

44:55

side. I think that I was just caught.

44:57

Caught certainly describes Anam A

45:00

Wong. It seems that when she wasn't

45:02

too Chinese, she wasn't Chinese

45:05

enough. Still, she kept on

45:07

hustling for work. Now as a character

45:09

actress. Here she is

45:11

as China Mary in an episode

45:14

of Wyatt earp. They have broken

45:16

the law and they must be punished. They

45:19

will be in my way.

45:22

I cannot agree to that. Then

45:24

find them yourself. By

45:28

the nineteen fifties, she was well past

45:31

her Hollywood prime, but she wasn't

45:33

alone. She was part of a tight

45:35

knit Chinese American community in

45:37

Los Angeles. Did your father

45:39

play poker? Whether My dad used to go over and play

45:42

poker. He was a teenager, you know, and he'd go over

45:44

to the apartment in Santa Monica

45:46

and they'd play poker, and they they drink

45:49

Lisa Ce's grandparents and parents

45:51

were friends with Anime Wong. My

45:54

dad. When I called him the other day to say we were doing

45:56

this, he was like, oh, yeah, you know, way used to go

45:58

over there. And I'd say, well, you know what happened

46:00

then, and said, oh, I don't know. We were drinking so much.

46:03

I don't remember. It was a fun

46:05

place for him, and he'd go over with his buddies

46:07

and she always had room at the table and

46:10

they play poker and get drunk.

46:13

But Anime's health was beginning to

46:16

falter. Letters she wrote to her

46:18

dear friends. Carl van Beckton, the

46:20

same man who had photographed her years before,

46:23

and his wife, Vannia Maronoff, suggests

46:26

she was suffering from liver disease, perhaps

46:29

cirrhosis. My doctor

46:31

insisted I come here to rest and continue

46:33

treatments until a complete recovery is

46:35

affected. He said,

46:38

the eight pints of blood they poured into me

46:40

at the hospital was just a temporary

46:42

crutch to tide me over, and he wasn't

46:44

going to dig me out of the grave again. They

46:47

have done a great deal of thinking while laid up, and

46:49

I'm going to overcome the habit of worrying

46:51

all the time about things that are not worth

46:54

the bother with best

46:56

love always anime. She

46:59

was in and out of hospitals during that decade,

47:02

sometimes for lengthy days at

47:05

a time when money was tight. The

47:07

hospital and sanitarium expenses

47:09

were pretty steep, so in between

47:11

times, I'm still trying to dispose of a

47:13

few pieces of good jewelry to pay

47:16

off everything. Owing in her

47:18

letters, she's increasingly introspective,

47:21

even spiritual. Have you

47:23

buy any chance read a book that came out

47:25

last year, The Power of Positive

47:27

Thinking. I have read it several

47:30

times and find that it is a great

47:32

help in many ways, especially

47:35

reading oneself of nervous tensions and

47:37

having the right attitude towards what appears

47:40

to be colossal problems. At

47:44

home, her youngest brother, Richard, Amy's

47:47

father watched over her and

47:49

fiercely guarded her privacy. My

47:52

daddy actually was really

47:54

one of the closest relatives to her and

47:56

took care of her, especially in her later years. He

47:59

had informations and stories

48:01

and knowledge about her, but he

48:04

never wanted to expose

48:06

that because he was afraid that it would be taken

48:08

the wrong way or used in the wrong light. Amy

48:11

and her mother Carol, share some details

48:13

of Anime's home life. Nobody

48:16

know a lot of knitting,

48:19

A lot of knitting, h Na,

48:22

my husband. I'm

48:24

still keeping. That's kind of a big deal to

48:26

knit a sweater. And she obviously was a dial icon.

48:29

So this sweater is a handmade

48:31

knitted sweater. But

48:35

we still have it. Have you worn it? Know? What

48:37

color? Was a sweater that she met. Carol

48:44

married Richard in and

48:47

when their two daughters were born, they

48:49

named them Anime Wong and

48:51

Amy May Wong. Luckily I did

48:54

escape the curse of possibly being

48:56

April May Wong. Ineen

49:00

sixty, Anname Wong played a supporting

49:02

role in Portrait and Black with

49:05

Lanta Turner. For these

49:07

past few days, you've been acting

49:10

rather strangely in what way

49:13

I feel have been deliberately

49:16

avoiding me, of

49:18

course, not ms Kevin. I'm

49:20

sorry if I gave you that impression. It

49:23

was praised as a lovely comeback

49:25

role, and she wrote to her friends

49:28

with some exciting news. Dearest

49:31

Fania and Carlos ross

49:33

Hunter, the producer of Portrait and Black,

49:35

told me he has just purchased film rights

49:38

to Flower Drum Song and that I am

49:40

to play one of the leads, but

49:42

this will not go into production until February.

49:46

Continue to keep well and happy

49:48

and interestingly occupied, Bless

49:51

you both love Anime

49:55

hundred Media Miracle. Flowered

50:00

Drum Song, The Rogers and Hammer's nine

50:02

musical set in San Francisco's Chinatown.

50:05

You can't have a new way You're living

50:07

till you're living all the way

50:10

on that Avenue would

50:12

feature a predominantly Asian American

50:15

cast. Here's

50:19

Rosalind Chow again. The Flower

50:21

Drum Song was another first.

50:24

It was another landmark, much in the

50:26

way that Joy Luck Club was a landmark

50:28

and crazy rich Asians Chop

50:31

Sue Chop

50:33

Sue you and flower

50:35

drums song in that song, Chop Suey. The

50:38

fact that they rhyme nuclear war with Shasha

50:40

bor welldr

50:43

song and the

50:49

fact that you remember that is even

50:52

funnier to me. Those

50:54

lyrics are fantastic, but we should

50:56

point out if you didn't know this, you know one need a

50:58

haul for father was African

51:01

American, her mother was white. Ended up

51:03

playing the role I always forget the name

51:05

of the role, the antileon Anti

51:07

Leon, and that role

51:10

was going to be played by anime

51:13

Wong Oh

51:15

I didn't know that when Annime Wong died,

51:18

or did she die or oh, oh

51:21

my goodness, I had

51:23

no idea. So she died just

51:25

before she could have had this big break.

51:30

Anime Wong died of a heart

51:32

attack on February third, at

51:36

the age of fifty six. Her

51:38

New York Times habituary hailed

51:40

her as one of the most unforgettable

51:43

figures of Hollywood's greatest

51:45

days. Again, Carol

51:48

and Amy Wong. She was

51:50

that a new code. My husband's he's

51:52

gone to work. When he come home,

51:55

he found passed on and

51:57

she was reading the Squiret. She was in

52:00

the scrap the when

52:02

when she died. It's

52:05

hard done to think what a great comeback

52:07

that would have been for her. See, we're

52:09

doing a great job on death. I wonder

52:11

what she would have done had she lived past

52:13

fifty six. I mean, that's

52:16

so young. In

52:18

the decades after she died, as a

52:20

civil rights movement raised consciousness

52:22

among Asian Americans, Anime

52:25

Wong wasn't celebrated. Lisa

52:28

se says she once again became

52:30

a source of shame. I think she was

52:32

blamed for a lot of the stereotypes

52:34

that then continued to exist. These

52:37

kind of iconic things that she had set

52:39

up, you know, one the temptress and the other this

52:41

sort of the dragon lady. And

52:44

people saw her as the person who created

52:47

those stereotypes. But

52:51

today she's remembered as someone who

52:54

boldly went where no one had before.

52:57

She became a star without any role

52:59

models. As a young girl, she

53:02

sat in the balcony of a movie palace,

53:04

looked at the silver screen and imagined

53:07

a place for herself. I

53:09

want to thank the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce

53:12

and the Walk of Fame Committee. In May

53:14

two thousand nineteen, Lucy Lou

53:16

became the second Asian American

53:19

actress to have a star on

53:21

the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I truly

53:23

feel humbled. In

53:26

her remarks, Lou paid homage

53:28

to the first Annime

53:31

Wong so a

53:33

hundred years ago. She was

53:35

a pioneer. While enduring racism,

53:39

marginalization, and exclusion,

53:42

we could actually start our own little Chinatown right here,

53:46

from silent pictures to the talkies

53:49

on stage and then on TV. Through

53:51

sheer force of will, charisma

53:53

and talent, Anname Wong became

53:56

a first and for an astonishingly

53:59

long time. Wasn't only she

54:02

did it? And she did it despite

54:06

everything that was going on around her. I

54:09

think in many ways it was a lonely life, but

54:11

she also surrounded herself

54:13

with wonderful friends. I

54:16

think she paid a price

54:18

in life and then in

54:20

death, and now it's just nice

54:23

to see this kind of acknowledgement

54:27

and recognition for really what she accomplished.

54:47

I certainly hope you enjoyed this Mobituary.

54:50

May I ask you to please rate and review our

54:52

podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries

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on Facebook and Instagram, and you

54:57

can follow me on Twitter at Morocca.

55:00

You can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever

55:02

you get your podcasts. This

55:05

episode of Mobituaries was produced

55:07

by Ka Limb. Our team

55:09

of producers also includes Megan Marcus

55:12

and me Mo Rocca. It was edited

55:14

by George posit Irak and engineered

55:17

by Dan Dezula. Indispensable

55:19

support from Gideon Evans, Genius

55:21

Dineski, Sam Egan, Richard

55:24

Roarer, and everyone at CBS News

55:26

Radio. Special thanks

55:28

to David Henry Wong, B. D Wong

55:31

read Orvid All, Leslie Leong and

55:33

the f Suie One Company, and to

55:36

the great Jennifer Limb who voiced

55:38

the words of anime Wong for us. Our

55:41

theme music is written by Daniel Hart

55:43

and as always, undying thanks

55:46

to Rand Morrison and John Carp

55:48

without whom Mobituaries couldn't

55:51

live. Hi,

55:57

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