Anna May Wong
Anna was born January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California. Her parents ran a laundry in the city's Chinatown. Anna became a photographer's model when she was still attending Hollywood High School. She was fascinated with the movie industry at a young age. When she was almost 14, she landed a bit part in the movie Dinty (1920). At seventeen Anna moved out of her family’s home above the laundry to her own apartment in Hollywood. There she was to continue her movie ambitions, auditioning for any part that she could get. Anna's big break came when she landed the role of a Mongol slave girl in The Thief of Baghdad (1924). This film put her in the position of being the first Chinese-American to become a movie star. It led to bigger parts in other movies with a Chinese or Asian theme, in which she alternated between playing the heroine or the heroine's evil nemesis. Another hit was A Trip to Chinatown (1926), in which her trademark bangs and Oriental dress was accentuated by her natural beauty. In January of 1926 Anna May Wong drove the first golden rivet in the steel girders to start the construction that eighteen months later would be named The Grauman's Chinese Theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. Her name was synonymous with exotic, Asian-themed productions, such as The Devil Dancer (1927), Across to Singapore (1928) and The Crimson City (1928) kept her fans coming to the theaters.
Anna's talent and beauty carried her through a successful transition into talkies, and she traveled to Europe to make films in both French and German. Upon her return to the U.S. she was signed to a contract with Paramount. Her career reached its zenith with her casting with Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932). By the 1940s, however, Anna's career had begun to stall. Her Chinese melodramas were no longer in demand. Also, American society's attitudes towards races other than Caucasian made it almost impossible for Anna to get good parts in movies. Anna didn't appear on-screen again until Impact (1949).
Anna appeared sporadically on television throughout the 1950s. Her career problems were exacerbated by drinking , and by the mid-1950s she learned that she was suffering from heart problems. She made a final effort to recharge her career with actor Anthony Quinn in Portrait in Black (1960).
Although the film was a modest hit, it had mixed reviews and meager box office sales.
Anna had an affair with silent film director Marshall Neilan. Most of her romances tended towards Caucasian men, as many Chinese men looked down on Hollywood actresses as prostitutes.
She was the second of seven children. Her father disapproved of Anna's acting career, which caused a severe strain in their relationship and may have attributed to her younger sister's suicide. Following Anna's mother's death in a car accident in 1931, they grew far apart. Anna's Will at her death disinherited her father.
Her younger sister Mary Wong committed suicide by hanging herself in her garage in Los Angeles on July 15, 1940 at age 30.
Wong never kissed her leading man on the lips on screen since the films were cut by censors who felt that moviegoers would be offended by the interracial kiss.
On February 2, 1961, Anna died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, at age 56. She had never married.
The song “These foolish things remind me of you” written for her in 1936 by her English love Eric Maschwitz, has been performed by everyone worldwide from Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Sinatra, to Brian Ferry. Below another tribute to Anna May Wong by Ron Stewart. It seems that her love song and images will long out live her films that she loved so dearly.
These foolish things remind me of you.
Richard O'Kelley
AsianEntertainment.org
