In another special quarantine episode, we discuss Anna May Wong, who appears as a character in Ryan Murphy’s recent Netflix series Hollywood. We are getting to know the real life actor, trailblazer, and queer icon who died in 1961. You Might Know Her From Shanghai Express, The Toll of the Sea, Piccadilly, The Thief of Baghdad, Daughter of the Dragon, and The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong. We get into Anna May’s transition from silent film actor to star of the talkies, the Asian actresses that came after her, and most importantly (to us) her lesbian cred.

 

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Discussed this week: 

Dakota Johsnon calling out Ellen DeGeneres

Melanie Griffith lighting 16 year old Dakota’s cig

Niciky Hilton and Rod Stewart’s daughter

Young people we like: Florence Pugh, Keke Palmer (she’s 26 not 36), Theo Germaine

Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood (Netflix)

We talked with Katie Finneran about Lucy Liu (she called her while on mic)

Lucy Liu has star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame next to Anna May Wong

Other Asian and Asian-American stars: Constance Wu, Mindy Kaling, Joan Chen, Lea Salonga, Sandra Oh, Priyanka Chopra, Ming Na

Wikipedia lists 2 Asian women have been nominated for Best Actress Oscars: Merle Oberon (Dark Angel, 1935), Natalie Portman (Black Swan, Jackie) WHAT?  

First Asian woman nominated for an Oscar Miyoshi Umeki (Sayonara, 1957) 

Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog, 2003), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, 2006)

Jennifer Tilly (Bullets Over Broadway, 1994) and Meg Tilly (Agnes of God, 1985) are half Chinese

Anna May’s IMDB

The Toll of the Sea (1922); Peter Pan (1926); 

Did The Chalk Circle in London with Laurence Oliver

The Good Earth (1931 book by Pearl S. Buck) 

Anna May Wong rumored to be cast. Screen test was apparently fantastic. 

Anti-miscegenation laws on the books

Hays Code 

Makes her own documentary on China in 1936

Donated money from Hollywood’s propaganda films to the China Relief Fund

Was set play Madam Liang in Flower Drum Song but passed before filming

Replaced by Juanita Hall who also played Bloody Mary in South Pacific film

Shanghai Express (1932, dir: Josef von Sternberg)

The Sewing Circle term for a secret group of Hollywood lesbians.

Term coined by Alla Nazimova

Rumored affairs with Nazimova, Marlene Dietrich, Dolores del Rio

Picture: Anna May Wong, Marlene, Leni Riefenstahl 

She said I’m “wedded to my career” 

The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961)

Portrait in Black (1960) w/ Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, and Sandra Dee where Anna May plays a housekeeper named “Tawny” and aggressively pets a Siamese cat. 

First Asian American woman to star in her own TV show:The Gallery of Madame of Liu Tsong (1951) which had its footage dumped in the East River (Vulture article)

Anna May Wong’s haircut inspired Edith Head’s and Damian says Linda Hunt’s