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Anna May Wong (1905-1961) |
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- Helen Hayes, The Son-Daughter, 1932. Wong maintained she was turned down for the role of Lian Wha because MGM insisted she was “too Chinese to play a Chinese.” So, they called up The First Lady of the American Theatre.. way too Caucasian. Like all the other Chinese characters: HB Warner, Ramon Novarro, Werner Oland, Lewis Stone.
- Toshia Mori, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, 1932. Accents are accents… Hollywood being Hollywood didn’t care one jot that while Wong was Chinese as the role of Mah-Li - while Mori was Japanese.
- Luise Rainer, The Good Earth, 1937. Too Chinese again. Or just, Chinese... And the stupidly censorious Hays Office banned would any hint of miscegenation - between an actual Chinese woman and a Caucuasian actor in yellow-face drag! Enter: Rainer. the first notable victim of The Oscar Curse - her career nose-dived after being the first (and only) consecutive Best Actress Oscar winner. “For my second and third pictures I won Academy Awards. Nothing worse could have happened to me.” (Irving Thalberg died during the production, which has his only possessory credit in an MGM film).
- Tilly Losch, The Good Earth, 1936. Wong then fled from Irving Thalberg’s compensatory offer of playing the vampy Lotus. This was the only film with a credit for MGM’s house genius, Irving Thalberg - after his shock death at 36. His boss, LB Mayer, has told him: “The public won't buy pictures about American farmers, and you want to give them Chinese farmers?” Thalberg, as usjal, was right - three Oscars from six nominations.
- Juanita Hall, Flower Drum Song, 1961. Producer Ross Hunter's original choice for Madame Liang died after a heart attack, at age 56, just before shooting was to begin. She had won 63 screen roles since 1919. The great Juanita, of course, had created the role on Broadway.
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