For Michelle Krusiec, who portrays Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong, and Jake Picking, who plays Rock Hudson, it was an opportunity to … And we can't forget the story of Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec), as Murphy gives the fictional version of the (very real) actress an Academy Award. Anna May Wong is primarily known as the first Asian actress who achieved success as the “Oriental Temptress” and the queen of melodramas of the 1920s and 1930s. Playing the Asian blackmailer in, Anna once had an affair with noted silent film director. So wicked.”. Ultimately for this proud woman, it was a losing battle.Chinese nationalism had been on the upswing since Yat-sen Sun ended the Manchu Empire in 1911 and was rife in reaction to the war of aggression launched against China by the Empire of Japan. Finally, in 2004, the British Film Institute restored E.A. Why do they never show these on the screen? Wong's typecasting into roles of seductive temptresses highlighted a tired racial trope of the exoticized Asian woman. You remember ‘Fu Manchu’? She apparently was also hoping to appear in the film Flower Drum Song in 1961, but she died that year at the age of 55. She donated her salary from both films Bombs over Burma (1942) and Lady from Chungking (1942) to the then United China Relief. Her big breakthrough after her auspicious start with "The Toll of the Sea" finally came when Douglas Fairbanks cast her in a supporting role as a treacherous Mongol slave in his Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights extravaganza The Thief of Bagdad (1924). According to Hodges, "[S]he was the one American star who spoke to the French people, more than Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or Mary Pickford, the top American actresses of the time." In Ryan Murphy's Hollywood there are a couple of vintage industry tales that gets re-written. She learned German and French and began to develop a continental European attitude and outlook. Hodges considers Anna May's life and career to be amazing, particularly in light of the fact that her star has yet to be eclipsed by any other Asian-American female star, despite the change in attitudes. In addition to her roles in silent films, television, and stage, Wong landed a role in one of the first movies made in Technicolor. Moving between Poverty Row and the majors, she appeared again with Lon Chaney in Mr. Wu (1927) at MGM and with Warner Oland and Dolores Costello in Old San Francisco (1927) at Warner Brothers. It led to bigger parts in other movies with a Chinese or other East Asian theme, in which she alternated between playing the heroine or the heroine's evil nemesis. In Europe she was welcomed as a star. Similarly, she was later kept out of both a lead and supporting role in MGM's prestige production of The Good Earth (1937), its filming of Pearl S. Buck's popular novel, after flunking another screen test for failing to live up to a white man's idea of what "looked" Chinese. Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 1708 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960. Around the time she was nine years old, she began begging filmmakers for parts, behavior that got her dubbed "C.C.C." She appeared as Tiger Lily, "Chieftainess of the Indians," in Paramount's prestigious production of J.M. Helen Hayes played the role in yellow-face. She was also fond of Ruth Roland.Educated at a Chinese-language school in Chinatown, she would skip school to watch film shoots in her neighborhood. The film industry was in the midst of relocating from the East Coast to the West, and Hollywood was booming. Publicity Listings She was back in stereotype-land, this time as the ultimate "Dragon Lady," who with her father Fu Manchu (played by ethnic Swede Warner Oland, the future Charlie Chan) embodied the evil "Yellow Peril." Wong smoked, drank too much, and suffered from depression. The next year she appeared in two more films, Shame (1921) and Bits of Life (1921) (in which she received billing). Appearing in over sixty movies throughout her career, Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood. Asian American actress Anna May Wong is chiefly remembered as the first actress of Asian descent to achieve stardom as the "Oriental temptress," so much a fixture of melodramas in … Someone in the crowed denounced her with "Down with Huang Liu Tsong, the stooge that disgraces China. The second of seven children, her siblings were Richard, Lulu, James, Frank, Roger and Mary. She later incorporated her English moniker, Anna May, into her stage name. She even played an Eskimo in The Alaskan (1924). Her career problems were exacerbated by a drinking problem, and by the mid-1950s she learned that she was suffering from heart problems and cirrhosis of the liver. The focus of today’s blog is Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Asian American movie star. Her first talkie was Road to Dishonour (1930) (aka "The Road to Dishonour", although some sources claim it was "Song" aka "Wasted Love" in that same year), which was released by British International Pictures. Wong was cast in Ewald André Dupont's silent film Piccadilly (1929) as a maid who is fired from her job at a London nightclub after dancing on top of a table, then rehired as a dancer to infuse the club with exotic glamor. Her last two starring roles in films were in a pair of anti-Japanese propaganda films, Bombs Over Burma (1942) and Lady from Chungking (1942), both of which were made by Producers Releasing Corp., the lowest of the Poverty Row studios. Instead of becoming a star, this beautiful woman with a complexion described as "a rose blushing through old ivory" continued to be stuck in supporting roles, as in Tod Browning's melodrama Drifting (1923) and the western Thundering Dawn (1923). This breakthrough should have launched Anna May Wong as a star, but for one thing: She was Chinese in a country that excluded (by law) Chinese from emigrating to the US, that forbade (by law) Chinese from marrying Caucasians and that generally excluded (by law or otherwise) Chinese from the culture at large, except for bit roles as heavies in the national consciousness. For better or worse, a star, albeit of the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" type, was born.Despite her waxing fame, she was limited to supporting roles, as Caucasian actresses, including most improbably Myrna Loy, continued to be cast as Asian women in lead roles from the 1920s through the 1940s, despite the ready availability of Anna May Wong. Anna, an ethnic Chinese, lost out on both roles to two Austrian women, Luise Rainer and Tilly Losch, as Albert Lewin, the Thalberg assistant who was casting the film, vetoed Wong and other ethnic Chinese because their looks didn't fit his conception of what Chinese people should look like. Anna May Wong dealt with racism all her life. When you think of early Hollywood icons, Vivien Leigh, Ava Gardner, or Katharine Hepburn may come to mind, but oft overlooked is Chinese … In her memoir, Wong referred to herself as "Chinese" or "Americanized Chinese," but not as an "American" or "Chinese-American. Anna became a photographer's model when she was still attending Hollywood High School. Despite her WASP looks and red hair, Loy in Chinese drag had become a major "Oriental" star in American films desiring an exotic element. Her biographer Hodges claims this was the beginning of a consensus among Chinese and Chinese-Americans that Wong was an embarrassment. Anna and her siblings worked for hours each day in the family laundry. Liu Tsong would haunt movie shoots as she had earlier haunted the nickelodeons. Google/Sophie Diao. Although the first was a modest hit, the second film was released to mixed reviews and meager box office receipts. In London, she had a widely praised nightclub engagement at the Embassy Club, where she sang and danced. It was illegal in many states, including California, for Asians to marry Caucasians, and featuring an interracial couple, even if they were playing the same race, likely would mean the movie would be rejected by many theater chains in regions in which anti-Asian prejudice was particularly severe, such as the South. Rock Hudson proudly comes out as gay and a Black woman wins an Oscar for best actress in the 1940s, playing an ingenue. Wong first starred in The Toll of the Sea, which was released in 1922.The silent movie told the story of … She was aided by the fact that, though still a teenager, she looked more mature than her real age.Director Marshall Neilan cast the teenage Anna May in a bit part in his film Dinty (1920), then gave her her first credited role in the "Hop" sequence of Bits of Life (1921), the American movie industry's first anthology film. And so crude a villain--murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. She also was considered for the supporting role of Lotus, Wang Lung's concubine. On January 22, 2020, she was honored with a Google Doodle. The half-hour program, which ran weekly from August 27 to November 21, 1951, was the first TV show to star an Asian-American.Wong's personal relationships typically were with older Caucasian men, but California law forbade marriage between Asians and Caucasians until 1948. One of her most famous projects was 1929's Picadilly. On a trip to China in 1936, Anna May was welcomed by the country's cultural elite in cosmopolitan Beijing and Shanghai, but she had to abandon a trip to her parents' ancestral village when her progress was blocked by a crowd of protesters. Use this resource as a shared reading activity for your primary students during Women’s History Month. Anna May Wong was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California. In 1926 she seems to have appeared in a "race" film made by Chinese-Americans for a Chinese-American audience, The Silk Bouquet (1926) (aka "The Dragon Horse"). for "curious Chinese child. Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California, to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. Her favorite stars were Pearl White, of The Perils of Pauline (1914) serial fame, and White's leading man, Crane Wilbur. She made a final effort to recharge her career with Portrait in Black (1960). For large sections of the German public, Anna May Wong was the first Chinese woman whose personality became visible to her, and Wong's presence on the screen was of great importance for the perception of Chinese women in Germany at the time. Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain? "I’ll be glad to take the test, but I won’t play the part," she'd said, per the L.A. Times. Converted her Santa Monica, California home into several apartments and titled them "Moongate Apartments" and was the manager from the late 1940s until 1956 when she moved in with her brother Richard. The film was a hit, and it showcased Wong in a preternaturally mature and restrained performance. The roles she was forced to accept in order to have an acting career, as well as her status as a single woman, disgusted many Chinese in America and in her ancestral homeland, where actresses were equated with prostitutes and where women were still played by men in classical opera. I speak English without any accent at all. A lecture and film series, "Rediscovering Anna May Wong," was held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2004, sponsored by "Playboy" publisher Hugh Hefner. Anna May Wong was a real Hollywood figure who starred in movies in the 1920s-1940s, including The Thief of Bagdad, Daughter of the Dragon, Shanghai Express, Bombs Over … She also appeared in major roles in King of Chinatown (1939) and Island of Lost Men (1939).Anna May Wong did not appear in films from 1939-41, when she was cast as a supporting player in Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941), an entry in the B-movie series. I beat him all right, but I missed the bridge. | "Wong embodied the Caucasian ideal of a foreign exotic beauty, an alien presence despite her American citizenship. In Photoplay (June 1923): I couldn't find a taxi, and I haven't got a car myself. According to Google, Wong … Even when she visited China for the first time in 1936, she faced backlash. The trip was filmed and would later be broadcast on television in the 1950s including narration from Anna May. Upon her return from China, Wong was determined to play Chinese characters more authentically, but her only options were to reject roles she deemed racist or to try to soften them from within the belly of the beast. Anna May Wong was featured in magazines all over the world, far more than actresses of a similar level of accomplishment. In The Thief of Bagdad, she had a small part as a Mongol slave, but it received a lot of attention because she was barely clothed, sporting only a bandeau top and mini skirt seemingly fashioned out of silk scarves. The major studios, when shooting propaganda films requiring a sympathetic Asian lead, reverted to the old practice of casting Caucasians in yellow-face, no matter how absurd the result.As her movie career went into eclipse in the 1940s (she would not appear in another motion picture until 1949), she found work on the stage and in radio and then in the new medium of television. She was 56 years old. American Actress Anna May Wong passed away on 2nd Feb 1961 Santa Monica, California, USA aged 56. But Anna May Wong's Story Is a Real Hollywood Injustice. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Her parents owned a laundromat. Wong Faced Discrimination in Hollywood But Went to Europe to Flee It. The characters she played typically were duplicitous or murderous vamps who often reaped the wages of their sin by being raped. She had an early television series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951), but it didn't last long. ‘Daughter of the Dragon’? How Do We Solve Attacks Against Asian Americans? At the age of 19, Anna May Wong was cast in a supporting role as a scheming Mongol slave in the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks picture The Thief of Bagdad. Her family gave her the English-language name Anna May. Widely considered to be the first Chinese-American movie star, Anna May Wong was an early advocate for diversity in film. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. This film put her in the position of being the first (and for a long time the only) U.S. Chinese performer to become a bona fide movie star. Stereotyped in America as a dragon lady, the cover photo had her holding a dagger. Jon C. Hopwood (qv's & corrections by Anonymous). She next appeared in support of John Gilbert in Fox's Shame (1921) before being cast in her first major role at the age of 17, the lead in The Toll of the Sea (1922). She starred in the first full length color movie, It is believed by some that Wong never kissed her leading man on the lips on screen but she does share just such a kiss with, She was a Democrat who strongly supported, Desperately wanted the role of O-Lan in the romance film. While "Daughter of the Dragon" may have been B-movie pulp, it enabled Wong to show off her talent by delivering a powerful performance.Her best role in Hollywood in the early 1930s was in support of Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Oscar-winning classic Shanghai Express (1932). All of that hanging around film sets earned Wong the attention of casting directors. In the late 1930s, Anna May Wong had two pet Pekinese dogs she named Maskee and Dumshaw. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, Lizzo Is Teaming Up with Amazon for a New Series, Gaga and Adam Driver Kiss for 'House of Gucci', A Brittany Murphy Documentary Is Coming to HBO Max, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong Will Star in a Series, Watch: Soledad O'Brien Dissects American Identity, 'Killing Eve' Will End with Season 4 Next Year, Erica Gonzales is the Culture and Content Strategy Senior Editor for. Anna's will disinherited her father. Ironically, the year "The Good Earth" came out, Wong appeared on the cover of Look Magazine's second issue, which labeled her "The World's Most Beautiful Chinese Girl." Anna appeared sporadically on television throughout the 1950s. In the 1930s, she toured in vaudeville and with her own one-woman show, traveling through Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries. HOLLYWOOD is the new alternative period drama streaming on Netflix now and viewers are curious to know more about actress Anna May Wong. Internationally recognized, her legacy continues to influence entertainers around the world. Anna's big break came when she landed the role of a Mongolian slave girl in The Thief of Bagdad (1924). However, this turns out she was buried under her Chinese name beside her mother and sister in a family plot. Retaining the family surname "Wong" and the English-language "Christian" name bestowed on her by her parents, Liu Tsong Americanized herself as "Anna May Wong" for the movie industry, though she would not receive an on-screen credit for another two years.The rechristened Anna May Wong appeared in bit parts in movies starring Priscilla Dean, Colleen Moore and the Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa, the first Asian star of American movies. According to the British Film Institute biography, her birth name was Luong Liu Tsong. Anna May Wong (born Wong Liu Tsong; January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American movie actress.She was the leading Chinese American Hollywood movie star of the pre-WWII era.. She was the first Chinese American actress to get international recognition. She was born on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles in an integrated neighborhood dominated by Irish and Germans, one block from Chinatown, where her father ran the Sam Kee Laundry.The Wong family moved back to Chinatown two years after Liu Tsong's birth, but in 1910 they uprooted themselves, moving to a nearby Figueroa Street neighborhood where they had Mexican and East European neighbors. She was unable to attract lead parts despite her beauty and proven acting talent, even in films featuring Asian women, but she did carve out a career as a supporting player in everything from A-list movies to two-reel comedies and serials. This is her story. Returning to the US in 1930, Wong appeared on Broadway in the play "On the Spot." "The Toll of the Sea" made Anna May Wong a known, and thus a marketable, commodity in Hollywood. In 1928's The Crimson City, Wong was given a minor role and had to teach Myrna Loy, a white actress playing the Asian lead, how to use chopsticks, Hodges writes in her biography. Wong wrote a preface to the book "New Chinese Recipes" in 1942, which was one of the first Chinese cookbooks printed in the US. Following Anna's mother's death in a car accident in 1931, they grew even further apart. The result of this new consensus, according to Hodges, was that "her memory has been washed away. The movies were her escape. She became a media superstar, and her coiffure and complexion were copied, while "coolie coats" became the rage. Wong fell in love with the movies as the film industry boomed in the 1910s as the silent era was in … We are not like that," she later said in an interview, according to The Los Angeles Times. She was poised to make a comeback as a character actress on the big screen toward the end of her life, having appeared as Lana Turner's maid in Ross Hunter's sudsy potboiler Portrait in Black (1960).