Oldieslover

By Anna May appearing top-billed in “The Toll Of The Sea,” a romantic melodrama, Anna became the first native-born Asian performer to star in a major Hollywood movie. This may sound strange but back in those days this was a major breakthrough in American cinema. The fourth picture here is Frances Dade & Anna May Wong for DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON (1931)

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. In “Hop” Wong played Toy Ling, the abused wife of Lon Chaney’s character Chin Gow, which the Man of a Thousand Faces…[Read more]

The very young 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. Due to her father’s demands, she had an adult guardian at the studio, and would be locked in her dressing room between scenes if she was the only Asian in the cast.…[Read more]

I agree Doc. I’ve researched her quite a bit over the years including several books. More I found out about her the more I liked her. I’ve watched all her movies, a few several times.

Thanks for Welcome, Doc. True, Sakurako is getting to the point where she could probably kick my ass. Take a look at her legs. I told her to focus on squats, calf lifts and other lower body work as opposed to too much ab work. Also plenty of upper body basics. She has actually done it. Her results are excellent so far.

Liu Tsong’s first film role was as an uncredited extra in Metro Pictures’ The Red Lantern (1919), starring Alla Nazimova as a Eurasian woman who falls in love with an American missionary. The film included scenes shot in Chinatown. The part was obtained for her by a friend of her father’s (without his knowledge) who worked in the movie industry.…[Read more]

The film industry was in the midst of relocating from the East Coast to the West, and Hollywood was booming. Liu Tsong would haunt movie shoots as she had earlier haunted the nickelodeons. Her favorite stars were Pearl White, of The Perils of Pauline (1914) serial fame, and White’s leading man, Crane Wilbur. She was also fond of Ruth…[Read more]

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…[Read more]

A couple years ago, Sakurako started a workout program that’s heavy into power weights. I’ve even given her a little advice every so often. lol

Sakurako with a friend, Rina Yuduki.

Couple more working pictures:

Photos of her while working:

Couple more shots: