Great essay. The same thing is true in science. We like our history neat and tidy: Person X discovered thing Y. But reality almost always is messy and several others would have bits and pieces of Y if not the whole letter.
Hi Katie! this one caught my attention because I'm performing the role of Afong Moy in the play The Chinese Lady at the Chance theatre next couple of weekends. Yes, I just plugged the show. In the play, Afong Moy has more than one impactful monologue about being a series of firsts in America in 1834. As she is the first historically recorded Chinese (Cantonese) woman in the US who was put on display for the majority of her life from age 14 to 29 first in Peale's museum and then later transplanted to PT Barnum. While she was not an actress, I would say her existence of being gazed at as a human exhibit for her entire life in the US, qualifies as a historic first, as there were no Chinese women allowed to come to the US at that time. Check out her story. She is another historical figure often forgotten.
Hi Michelle! I saw you post about the play on Instagram and am sorry I'm not in LA to catch it! I saw a production of The Chinese Lady in NYC a few years ago and have been fascinated with Afong Moy ever since. (I wrote about her briefly in this piece: https://halfcastewoman.substack.com/p/what-was-the-china-doll) I'll have to check out that monologue of firsts!
Let's hear it for Philly gal, Josephine Moy of Sansom Street, aka "Lady Tsen Mei", who starred in "For The Freedom Of The East" in 1918, filmed around, and premiered in, Philadelphia.
No mention made that Josephine was a local gal. No mention she was multi-ethnic [Chinese, White, and Black].
International woman of mystery.
Josephine also did stage and singing performances.
Josephine was Mrs. Hammond, the avenging love in the original talkie version of "The Letter" in 1929.
Jeannie Eagels had the Bette Davis role. Anna May Wong did not get the Mrs. Hammond role in 1940/1. Gale Sondergaard played the Asian role. Another "Code" issue?
But Anna May was Mrs. Hammond in the tv version of "The Letter" in 1956.
And Gale Sondergaard got the Bette Davis role.
It is my understanding that Anna May and Gale were friends. But that is hear say and saw written.
The casting of Sondergaard was not due to a Code prohibition against the Asian race. There was nothing in the Code that prohibited it. Most likely she was under contract but unfortunate they didn’t use an Asian woman.
We do have a "Good Earth" issue-also a "Study in Scarlet" issue. Miscegenation....by proxy, so to speak. Sondegaard played the "wife", common-law or otherwise, Mrs. Hammond. So, Gale is in yellow face.
So, too, Tilly Loesch in "The Good Earth". Can an actual Chinese woman play Paul Muni's [in yellow face] second wife?
Bad enough there is miscegenation in a movie plot-but to have a mixed race relationship where a White has a romantic relationship with a Non-White in the plot, and, the actors portraying the characters are in _fact_ racially diverse...Catastrophe, Catastrophe!
In 1929's "The Letter", Pre-Code enforcement, Josephine Moy gets romantic scenes with her White husband.
The tension of the story is not merely that the White female lead [Bette, most famously] is scorned by her lover, but scorned in favor of an Asian woman he genuinely loves.
The ice in that part of the pond is perilously thin.
Anna May faced these issues in many issues, including "Dangerous to Know" and "King of Chinatown".
You have to find the cues in those films to realize there may be a romantic relationship. A touch of a hand or an ambiguous word.
Look closely at "The Good Earth." The supporting roles of the aunt and uncle are played by Soo Yung (Chinese American) and Walter Connelly (white). That is a mixed-race cast who are married. (They both play Chinese.)
You need to study the Production Code files for each film (there are thousands) to see what, if any, race issue existed. Keep in mind the Production Code of 1934 defined miscegenation only as "sex relationships between the white and black races." (See section II, number 6) Nothing in the Code files mentions any race issue with casting the lead roles in "The Good Earth." Now, Wong may have believed her race was the issue, and it may have been, but it's not related to the Code. Otherwise, they never would have cast Yong and Connelly as a married couple. This issue is much more complicated than what many believe. For reference, at least two movies have an Asian/white marriage: "Japanese War Bride" (1952) and "The Purple Plain" (1954). In both, whites marry Asians and stay married.
This is all true, but here's my perspective on the issue. The Production Code of 1934 may only mention "the white and black races" but that doesn't mean it didn't influence or have a chilling affect on other types of interracial relationships that may have been scripted in films during that time. If not, then why was an actress like Merle Oberon counseled by her handlers to pass as white so that she could play leading lady roles in Hollywood?
We also have to acknowledge the fact that the Code was written in an era when anti-miscegenation laws prohibited marriage between white and nonwhite (not just white and Black) throughout the United States. And there is a well-established history of lumping all nonwhite peoples together when it comes to their legal/social status relative to white people.
I've always seen the ban on miscegenation in the Production Code as something that was applied selectively by studios. (Similar to vagrancy laws that were used to target and criminalize Black people in the South and rarely applied to white people.) It was a pretext, a convenient excuse for why they couldn't or wouldn't cast actors of color in leading roles. Whether the censors would have banned an Asian actress like Anna May Wong appearing opposite someone like Paul Muni is almost beside the point because in the case of THE GOOD EARTH (1937), MGM didn't even consider it. They "self-censored." And the result is the same whether the Code banned it or not.
In the 1950s, you begin to see Asians in interracial relationships in the films you mention and SAYONARA (1957) in part due to things that were happening in real life, like WWII, the Korean War, and the War Brides Act of 1945, which created an immigration loophole for Asian war brides. But also because the Code was on its way out and not as strongly enforced then. If I recall correctly, the language about the miscegenation ban may have even been dropped from the official Production Code sometime in the 1950s.
Thank you, Katie, for your very interesting and well-researched article. I wonder if you've ever heard of the Kim Loo Sisters, a Chinese-Polish American jazz vocal quartet popular in the 1930s and 40s who became the first Asian American act to star in Broadway musical revues. I am the daughter of one of the "Kimmies." I'm also the author of a few books (one of them about the Kimmies) and the fledgling filmmaker of a documentary (in post production) about the Kim Loo Sisters. Thank you for bringing your special lens and talent to the wealth of Chinese Americans in theatre and film who deserve our attention and thanks.
Hi Leslie, Thanks for sharing about the Kim Loo Sisters! I have briefly heard of the Kimmies but know very little about them. They would be a great group to explore for a future newsletter. Please let me know when your docu is out! I'd love to watch it and learn more about your mother and the group. Perhaps we could do a Q&A?
Hello, Katie. It was my pleasure to share a bit of information about the Kimmies with you. If you'd like to know more, I'll be happy to send you the link to selected clips—about 16 minutes— from The Kim Loo Sisters documentary. As for a Q&A with you, I would be delighted for you and your readers to know more about four Chinese American sisters who are at present only a footnote in American theatre history. They deserve a full story and a much larger audience. I'd like to add that a musical about the Kimmies' lives—Blended Harmony: The Kim Loo Sisters—premiered in the Twin Cities, MN in May 2024, a co-production of Theater Mu and History Theatre. Thank you so much for your interest!
I enjoy learning about the little nooks and crannies of history, so this essay struck home. It's always risky to declare anyone or anything "the first," because its inevitable that someone will come along and point out that someone else or something else came before.
I salute your devotion to the truth and share your annoyance when people get their facts wrong. But I try not to judge and remind myself that not everyone is as historically-minded as some of us. Anyway, thanks for the essay. Enjoyed your book, too.
Thanks for the history lesson, as always, Katie. And I love that you prod at many of the contemporary narratives that we accept too readily, out of ignorance or laziness or otherwise. Grateful to be in your pile of books. 🥹 You're also in my pile!
Before Lillian St Cyr was the Inuit actress Esther Enutseak. Also St Cyr was not a leading actress in The Squaw Man. It was Winifred Kingston. St Cyr was a feature player. There was also Minnie Provost of Cheyenne Arapaho heritage the same year and actor Jessie Cornplanter who was the lead in 1913 before Squaw Man. Note Cecil B. DeMille..
Thank you for enlightening me on this! I'm not surprised at all that there are other Indigenous actresses that predate Lilian St. Cyr. I'll add a note to the essay and include Minnie Provost and Esther Eneusteak. What name should I credit your contribution to? (And thanks for the spelling correction for Cecil... my brain was a little fried yesterday.)
Should have spelled it Eneutseak. Look up her daugher Columbia on IMDb. Minnie goes by a few last names. There’s a great write up on her and St Cyr in Hollywood’s Native Americans: Stories of Identity and Resistance. (2022)
I really appreciate all the research you put into this. You're correct that more important than being first is recognizing these unsung actresses (although being first has its honors).
As a preteen, I had a fascination with AMC movies (it was the 90s, I was bored and not allowed to watch MTV). I do remember being confused why the white men and women were cast in roles (especially leading ones) where they were supposed to be Asian or Native--especially when lesser roles in the movie were often played by people of that ethnicity (or closer to it). Later I learned more about racial codes and societal/institutional racism, and it made (very sad, unfortunate) sense. You've shed even more light on the situation and recovered some honor for these pioneering women. Thank you.
You need to get into those PCA files to see if there's any evidence that the PCA affected these non-Black interracial marriages. I already mentioned two examples before Sayonara. Whether the Black/white clause had a "chilling" effect, I have not seen it in the PCA files for Native/white, Mexican/white, or Asian/white. In 1956/57, the PCA dropped the miscegenation clause for Black/white relations (it was refined to say something along the lines of use with care), but it did not affect others. And in The Good Earth, the Soo Yong and Walter Connelly characters were married. I see no evidence in the PCA files for Good Earth that Wong's race was a factor. Others have looked in MGM's story files as well and found nothing. A Soo Yong/Walter Connelly marriage were OK, but for whatever reason they did not want Wong.
Regarding Oberon, actors were and still are "counseled" to go for roles outside their enthicity. That's advice via SAG-AFTRA. They encourage actors to try to make themselves as available as possible so as not to limit themselves. For better or worse, that still exists today. (Don't forget Wong as a Native American in Peter Pan. And that goes for Gil Birmingham today on Yellowstone. He's not Native.)
I stand in awe of your attention to detail and research!
Seriously! Great read!
Thanks, Jennie! As you can see, the research never ends. Haha.
Great essay. The same thing is true in science. We like our history neat and tidy: Person X discovered thing Y. But reality almost always is messy and several others would have bits and pieces of Y if not the whole letter.
You raise a good point. And it's interesting to think about this from the perspective of science, too!
Hi Katie! this one caught my attention because I'm performing the role of Afong Moy in the play The Chinese Lady at the Chance theatre next couple of weekends. Yes, I just plugged the show. In the play, Afong Moy has more than one impactful monologue about being a series of firsts in America in 1834. As she is the first historically recorded Chinese (Cantonese) woman in the US who was put on display for the majority of her life from age 14 to 29 first in Peale's museum and then later transplanted to PT Barnum. While she was not an actress, I would say her existence of being gazed at as a human exhibit for her entire life in the US, qualifies as a historic first, as there were no Chinese women allowed to come to the US at that time. Check out her story. She is another historical figure often forgotten.
Hi Michelle! I saw you post about the play on Instagram and am sorry I'm not in LA to catch it! I saw a production of The Chinese Lady in NYC a few years ago and have been fascinated with Afong Moy ever since. (I wrote about her briefly in this piece: https://halfcastewoman.substack.com/p/what-was-the-china-doll) I'll have to check out that monologue of firsts!
Great article!
Let's hear it for Philly gal, Josephine Moy of Sansom Street, aka "Lady Tsen Mei", who starred in "For The Freedom Of The East" in 1918, filmed around, and premiered in, Philadelphia.
No mention made that Josephine was a local gal. No mention she was multi-ethnic [Chinese, White, and Black].
International woman of mystery.
Josephine also did stage and singing performances.
Josephine was Mrs. Hammond, the avenging love in the original talkie version of "The Letter" in 1929.
Jeannie Eagels had the Bette Davis role. Anna May Wong did not get the Mrs. Hammond role in 1940/1. Gale Sondergaard played the Asian role. Another "Code" issue?
But Anna May was Mrs. Hammond in the tv version of "The Letter" in 1956.
And Gale Sondergaard got the Bette Davis role.
It is my understanding that Anna May and Gale were friends. But that is hear say and saw written.
Strange World!
The casting of Sondergaard was not due to a Code prohibition against the Asian race. There was nothing in the Code that prohibited it. Most likely she was under contract but unfortunate they didn’t use an Asian woman.
We do have a "Good Earth" issue-also a "Study in Scarlet" issue. Miscegenation....by proxy, so to speak. Sondegaard played the "wife", common-law or otherwise, Mrs. Hammond. So, Gale is in yellow face.
So, too, Tilly Loesch in "The Good Earth". Can an actual Chinese woman play Paul Muni's [in yellow face] second wife?
Bad enough there is miscegenation in a movie plot-but to have a mixed race relationship where a White has a romantic relationship with a Non-White in the plot, and, the actors portraying the characters are in _fact_ racially diverse...Catastrophe, Catastrophe!
In 1929's "The Letter", Pre-Code enforcement, Josephine Moy gets romantic scenes with her White husband.
The tension of the story is not merely that the White female lead [Bette, most famously] is scorned by her lover, but scorned in favor of an Asian woman he genuinely loves.
The ice in that part of the pond is perilously thin.
Anna May faced these issues in many issues, including "Dangerous to Know" and "King of Chinatown".
You have to find the cues in those films to realize there may be a romantic relationship. A touch of a hand or an ambiguous word.
Our cultural heritage.
Oy.
Look closely at "The Good Earth." The supporting roles of the aunt and uncle are played by Soo Yung (Chinese American) and Walter Connelly (white). That is a mixed-race cast who are married. (They both play Chinese.)
You need to study the Production Code files for each film (there are thousands) to see what, if any, race issue existed. Keep in mind the Production Code of 1934 defined miscegenation only as "sex relationships between the white and black races." (See section II, number 6) Nothing in the Code files mentions any race issue with casting the lead roles in "The Good Earth." Now, Wong may have believed her race was the issue, and it may have been, but it's not related to the Code. Otherwise, they never would have cast Yong and Connelly as a married couple. This issue is much more complicated than what many believe. For reference, at least two movies have an Asian/white marriage: "Japanese War Bride" (1952) and "The Purple Plain" (1954). In both, whites marry Asians and stay married.
This is all true, but here's my perspective on the issue. The Production Code of 1934 may only mention "the white and black races" but that doesn't mean it didn't influence or have a chilling affect on other types of interracial relationships that may have been scripted in films during that time. If not, then why was an actress like Merle Oberon counseled by her handlers to pass as white so that she could play leading lady roles in Hollywood?
We also have to acknowledge the fact that the Code was written in an era when anti-miscegenation laws prohibited marriage between white and nonwhite (not just white and Black) throughout the United States. And there is a well-established history of lumping all nonwhite peoples together when it comes to their legal/social status relative to white people.
I've always seen the ban on miscegenation in the Production Code as something that was applied selectively by studios. (Similar to vagrancy laws that were used to target and criminalize Black people in the South and rarely applied to white people.) It was a pretext, a convenient excuse for why they couldn't or wouldn't cast actors of color in leading roles. Whether the censors would have banned an Asian actress like Anna May Wong appearing opposite someone like Paul Muni is almost beside the point because in the case of THE GOOD EARTH (1937), MGM didn't even consider it. They "self-censored." And the result is the same whether the Code banned it or not.
In the 1950s, you begin to see Asians in interracial relationships in the films you mention and SAYONARA (1957) in part due to things that were happening in real life, like WWII, the Korean War, and the War Brides Act of 1945, which created an immigration loophole for Asian war brides. But also because the Code was on its way out and not as strongly enforced then. If I recall correctly, the language about the miscegenation ban may have even been dropped from the official Production Code sometime in the 1950s.
I concur! "Self-censorship" is perhaps as insidious as anything.
Thank you, Katie, for your very interesting and well-researched article. I wonder if you've ever heard of the Kim Loo Sisters, a Chinese-Polish American jazz vocal quartet popular in the 1930s and 40s who became the first Asian American act to star in Broadway musical revues. I am the daughter of one of the "Kimmies." I'm also the author of a few books (one of them about the Kimmies) and the fledgling filmmaker of a documentary (in post production) about the Kim Loo Sisters. Thank you for bringing your special lens and talent to the wealth of Chinese Americans in theatre and film who deserve our attention and thanks.
Hi Leslie, Thanks for sharing about the Kim Loo Sisters! I have briefly heard of the Kimmies but know very little about them. They would be a great group to explore for a future newsletter. Please let me know when your docu is out! I'd love to watch it and learn more about your mother and the group. Perhaps we could do a Q&A?
Hello, Katie. It was my pleasure to share a bit of information about the Kimmies with you. If you'd like to know more, I'll be happy to send you the link to selected clips—about 16 minutes— from The Kim Loo Sisters documentary. As for a Q&A with you, I would be delighted for you and your readers to know more about four Chinese American sisters who are at present only a footnote in American theatre history. They deserve a full story and a much larger audience. I'd like to add that a musical about the Kimmies' lives—Blended Harmony: The Kim Loo Sisters—premiered in the Twin Cities, MN in May 2024, a co-production of Theater Mu and History Theatre. Thank you so much for your interest!
As usual, you hit a home run with your research.
Speaking of baseball, here's a very obscure first.
The first Asian American MLB player was Bobby Balcena (Filipino). He settled in San Pedro after his playing career ended.
I enjoy learning about the little nooks and crannies of history, so this essay struck home. It's always risky to declare anyone or anything "the first," because its inevitable that someone will come along and point out that someone else or something else came before.
I salute your devotion to the truth and share your annoyance when people get their facts wrong. But I try not to judge and remind myself that not everyone is as historically-minded as some of us. Anyway, thanks for the essay. Enjoyed your book, too.
Thank you, Jim!
Love this piece... Thanks for telling us about Lillian St Cyr, Esther Eneusteak and Tsuru Aoki!
Great essay! I learned a great deal about women of color in Hollywood, and I thought I knew everything.
Thanks for the history lesson, as always, Katie. And I love that you prod at many of the contemporary narratives that we accept too readily, out of ignorance or laziness or otherwise. Grateful to be in your pile of books. 🥹 You're also in my pile!
I saw your book at Tin House's booth at AWP this year and had to get a copy! I'm looking forward to reading it.
I think most people of colour experience a difference life from the mainstream.
Thanks for documenting a non mainstream version of life that is not often talked about.
I am amazed at all the rich material you are able to draw on.
Thanks for sharing.
Before Lillian St Cyr was the Inuit actress Esther Enutseak. Also St Cyr was not a leading actress in The Squaw Man. It was Winifred Kingston. St Cyr was a feature player. There was also Minnie Provost of Cheyenne Arapaho heritage the same year and actor Jessie Cornplanter who was the lead in 1913 before Squaw Man. Note Cecil B. DeMille..
Thank you for enlightening me on this! I'm not surprised at all that there are other Indigenous actresses that predate Lilian St. Cyr. I'll add a note to the essay and include Minnie Provost and Esther Eneusteak. What name should I credit your contribution to? (And thanks for the spelling correction for Cecil... my brain was a little fried yesterday.)
Should have spelled it Eneutseak. Look up her daugher Columbia on IMDb. Minnie goes by a few last names. There’s a great write up on her and St Cyr in Hollywood’s Native Americans: Stories of Identity and Resistance. (2022)
I really appreciate all the research you put into this. You're correct that more important than being first is recognizing these unsung actresses (although being first has its honors).
As a preteen, I had a fascination with AMC movies (it was the 90s, I was bored and not allowed to watch MTV). I do remember being confused why the white men and women were cast in roles (especially leading ones) where they were supposed to be Asian or Native--especially when lesser roles in the movie were often played by people of that ethnicity (or closer to it). Later I learned more about racial codes and societal/institutional racism, and it made (very sad, unfortunate) sense. You've shed even more light on the situation and recovered some honor for these pioneering women. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Abigail!
Thank you Katie for being so thorough in your investigative work & being so honest!
Another fantastic piece. 🩷
You need to get into those PCA files to see if there's any evidence that the PCA affected these non-Black interracial marriages. I already mentioned two examples before Sayonara. Whether the Black/white clause had a "chilling" effect, I have not seen it in the PCA files for Native/white, Mexican/white, or Asian/white. In 1956/57, the PCA dropped the miscegenation clause for Black/white relations (it was refined to say something along the lines of use with care), but it did not affect others. And in The Good Earth, the Soo Yong and Walter Connelly characters were married. I see no evidence in the PCA files for Good Earth that Wong's race was a factor. Others have looked in MGM's story files as well and found nothing. A Soo Yong/Walter Connelly marriage were OK, but for whatever reason they did not want Wong.
Regarding Oberon, actors were and still are "counseled" to go for roles outside their enthicity. That's advice via SAG-AFTRA. They encourage actors to try to make themselves as available as possible so as not to limit themselves. For better or worse, that still exists today. (Don't forget Wong as a Native American in Peter Pan. And that goes for Gil Birmingham today on Yellowstone. He's not Native.)