 The performers and artists from the era that Forbidden City highlights are still with us and we need to learn from their stories as young artists, musicians and creative people in our community really need to learn from them as well. So I'd like to ask Arthur if he could come forward. And on behalf of our Mayor, Ed Lee, our Board of Supervisors, our Public Defender, Jeff Adachi, and the whole San Francisco City family, thank you so much to Arthur and everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Joan and Eric and Jeff. You know, Jeff and I, I don't remember Jeff, but years ago we were judges for a beauty contest. Do you remember that? That was quite fun. But what a great turnout. This is really so exciting. I'm going to kind of give you a little bit of a background of how I started this whole project. And I think I created this PowerPoint, you know, I'm not really great at this. I'm a movie maker. So, oh, there it works. This is J.D. Nguong. She kind of started it on 85 for me because she was the first person I met connected to the nightclubs. I had read an article about her and then she lived in New York, so I flew out to New York to meet her. And she has such wonderful stories. And I just couldn't, I just, she just told me about this whole circuit of nightclubs, including Forbidden City, the Club Shanghai, and the Chinese Sky Room, Kupacana, and Lines Den in San Francisco that I had never heard of before. I had seen the Forbidden City, the club as a kid walking by, but that was just one chance encounter. So I spent five days with her and just hearing these wonderful stories, some of which are in the book. And at the same time, her dance partner, Jackie Miling, was there. And he was a total blast. He's kind of like the uncle that you never had, you know, that's just fun and witty, and he was gay, and that was really important for me to know that there were older Chinese men that were gay. And he had this great white puff of hair. Here he is with dancing with partners, Daddy Sun on this side. I can't tell left, right. And Mary Mammon on that side. And this is Mary Mammon. This is a, when I met her in, I think she was living in Oakland at that time. And she was a dancer that started in the 40s. What started happening was just from meeting one, I met another and another. It just kind of was like a domino effect. Here's Daddy Sun. She was in Sacramento. And when I was researching for the documentary and my initial meeting of these folks, I was really focusing on folks who worked at Forbidden City, the club itself, during the 40s. Because the 40s was pretty much the heyday for this nightclub period. Although it started somewhat in the 936 up through 1970, I was focusing on the 40s and specifically Forbidden City because that was pretty much the most well-known of the clubs that were around. Now, this is Charlie Lowe, who was the mastermind behind Forbidden City. Now, when I went to New York to visit JD and I stayed with my old-time friend Kevin Gee, who had known for years and we used to hang out a lot and he moved to New York to pursue an acting career. And he says, well, why are you in town here? And I said, well, I'm meeting JD Wong who used to dance at Forbidden City. And he says, well, you know, Charlie Lowe is my stepfather. It was like, did I know that and never thought about it? But it was like, okay, JD, Kevin, Charlie, it all kind of came to place. And of course then what happened is he instantly introduced me to Charlie and because I had this personal connection to Charlie, it opened up all sorts of doors and allowed me to meet everybody. And just here, this is taken at the low apartments, which is still standing now at the corner of Powell in Washington at the big tall white building. That's the building that he constructed when he faced housing discrimination when he first arrived in San Francisco from Nevada in the 1920s. So he goes, well, hell, they're not going to rent to me. I'm going to build my own house. And he did. And that's the history behind the low apartments. Larry Ching, known as the, he had a marketing name called the Chinese Frank Sinatra. And I think Larry's family is here. Phil, are you here? Phil, yeah, they're in the back row. They're waving. You want to stand, Phil? This is his son and his family. And here's the strange thing, you know, Phil and I went to, we're in, you know, grandma's school together and junior high, but not in high school, right? No, okay. And at that time I lived on Jackson across the street from the cable car barn. And Phil lived on Taylor and Jackson. And we used to hang out at his apartment. I'm not sure we ever met your father, but certainly we, I never knew that your father was a singer. And this is true of many of the performers that I had met, was that for many reasons they didn't want to talk about their past. Some just said, well, the past is the past. I just let it go and go on to another career. Well, some of them, because they were ostracized by certain communities, they felt that, well, maybe this is something I don't want to expose about myself. That this is a secret that I should keep. And Larry was one of them that where I never knew that Phil was the son of a singer like Larry. I'm not sure what I would have done if I had known. But so this is Larry. This is Lily Pond, who is on the cover of one of the programs. And this is, I think, the program you read here. It says, your program for the evening. Come along with me, please. I'll show you how to have fun in Chinese. It's just, I just love that sense of humor. And I think one thing that I found really striking was these clubs, outside of one club in New York City called China Doll, these clubs were owned and operated by Chinese Americans. And there was a sense of humor and a sense of taking control of the racist attitudes of that time and playing with it and marketing it and knowing that they were doing that on purpose, as opposed to being a victim of racism. They took that racism and say, OK, all right, this is how you see us. This is how we're going to take it, bring it right back to you. And this is such a great example of that attitude. Different from the China Doll nightclub in New York City, which was owned and operated by a Caucasian man. And whereas the show was here in San Francisco in the Chinese clubs, Chinese owned clubs had shows like the Chinese Gershwin show, or the Gay 90 show, or the Gold Rush show. In New York, the China Doll had shows like Slandite Scandals. You know, that's the kind of shows they had. And that club only lasted a couple of years. So I found that very striking. And in a lot of the marketing material from the China Doll, there's kind of the edge of a meanness to it, where it's not about co-opting or taking control of that attitude, but it's like perpetuating that attitude instead. So it's quite a big difference. Anyway, this is one of my favorite images. I opened actually my book with this image, and I've always loved it. The actual program is on display outside, so you can take a look at the actual program itself. It is May Lee, and I interviewed her. She didn't end up being in the film, but I just love those shoes. It's like, look at those shoes. It's like, I just love this photo. And when I was meeting all these performers, between 85 and 92, I would always ask them for an autograph photo. And they were so generous with sharing their items and just willing to just give me a photo like this. Anyway, I treasure them, and they're on display as well. There's a wall of autographed photos. And I want to point out that this is the third show that I've curated. And it's very important for me to... Personally, when I go to see a negative, I love to see the real thing, even if it's wrinkled or even it's tearing apart or brown or faded. Something about seeing the real thing just takes me to that time closer. Now, I'm lucky because I've gotten to touch all this stuff. You won't be able to, and you better not. I want to see you taking off a case and touching stuff. And the blow-ups on the wall are blow-ups, so they're reproductions. Some of the items are framed, but when I met these performers, I said, you know, I don't want to be rude, but I want the original photo. I don't want a reprint from 1985 or 1970 because I want the real thing. And they were all very generous with their memories. Tony Wing, who's taking a lesson with Tony Wing in here? Wow, look at this. He would be so proud. He's like Tony Wing the dance teacher. So you all know Tony Wing, right? And even before I started this project, I knew of his studio because I would walk by his studio in Chinatown. And all of these contemporary photos that you see are photos that I shot of them, probably the first time I interviewed them, so I wanted to catch them fresh in terms of our meeting. This is Toya Mar. She was marketed as the Chinese Sophie Tucker. She was living in Fresno at that time, and she was what you call a belter, powerful voice. She felt that her performance careers was pretty much over and she felt like, you know, I have to move on, life goes on, I can't be a performer forever. She became a file clerk. She was very happy doing that and finally retired as a postal clerk. And of course it's the well toy, the bubble dancer. And because of her, the spotlight on Chinese American nightclubs in 1940 was really shiny because people had never seen a performer like her before in this way. And she was discovered, quote, unquote, at the World's Fair, Golden Gate Exposition in Treasure Island in 1940 by Charlie Lowe, whose club was really almost near bankrupt and he needed some kind of energy, some kind of new idea to spice things up, to get people to come to the club. And he heard of Noel, went to where Noel was working, which was a concession called the Candid Camera Concession, which was kind of an artist concession where they had nude models posing on stage. And if you paid whatever cost for your ticket to come in, you would come in and you would be able to take a picture of them because they were posing for artists. So they were artist models. And so that's how Charlie found her and said, hey, you want to be my Chinese Sally Rand, who was a famous exotic dancer at the period. And she goes, yeah, sure. And that was the beginning of the big boom for the nightclubs. And here is Dorothy Torren, Paul Wing, Torren Wing. And I'll be talking more about that in just a second. But Paul, Paul's stepson, Tony is here. Is he still here? Tony, you want to stand up? That's Tony. You want to stand up? And he was, thank you. And Tony was very generous in learning us Paul's 1930s beautiful costume that's outside. It's on display. And a lot of the photos as well. So thank you, Tony, for doing that. And he even hand-delivered it to us here at the library. Now, I also was interested in the other clubs. And this is Ed Pawn. He was an insurance man who owned and operated the Kupla Con at the corner of Bush and Grant. The building is still there at the gateway to Chinatown. And he also owned a smaller club called the Dragon's Lair, which wasn't a full-fledged nightclub. It was more like a cocktail lounge, but that had performances as well. This is Fritz Jensen. Did the Jensen family come? Chris, did you come? I guess not. But he's a deep piano player. You see him there with the Harry Abenson band. And I'm sorry, I cut out Harry, the leader. Is the Abenson family the Jensen? No, I'm good. I don't have to apologize now. All right. All right. Well, if anybody knows it, tell her I apologized in public. But it just didn't fit in the frame. So this is Fritz. And this is Walton Biggestaff, one of the original producers and choreographers that worked in all the clubs, except I think the Chinatown. I don't think he worked at the Chinatown, but he worked in all the Bay Area clubs. And I interviewed him as well. And this is one of the best days of my life here. After meeting a lot of the performers, Francis Chen, who is at the bottom middle, a singer, was gracious enough to host a kind of a reunion. Because although I've been meeting all these folks, a lot of them haven't been talking to each other. And they would ask me, well, how's Mary doing? How's Daddy doing? How's J.D. doing? I said, well, why don't we all get together? So Francis was very generous and opened up her house in Oakland on August 18, 1988. And I gather as many people as I could in the Bay Area to come join us. And it was really a really great party. And I think I have some video of it somewhere, but it was just a wonderful party. Right now I want to segue into introducing some guests that are here in the audience with us from who we're performers as well. First is, well, there's a photo of Arlene Wing and Cisco Borges. Cisco Borges was a dancer, and she was the former wife of the performer Jimmy J. Borges, who will be performing later. But Arlene Wing is the baby sister of Tony Wing. And she performed at the clubs. She kind of grew up to the clubs and then started dancing at the clubs as well into the 60s. And Arlene is here today. So if Arlene can stand up and turn around, Arlene. Now this is Barbara Young, a fabulous dancer from the 40s. And she was recently, a few years ago, was inducted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Now this is because we're in the library, this is not the complete picture. But Barbara is still gorgeous today and she's here with us. Barbara, can you stand, please? And Cynthia Fong Yi, who is the center. This is the Oriental Playgirls, which is a troupe of performers put together by Dorothy Toy of Torian Wing. And Cynthia Fong Yi is in the center. The other women are Cisco Borges, Joanna Pang. And I have to tell you, I got her name wrong in the book, but I'll correct in public now. I put it down as Jennifer Pang, but it's Joanna Pang. And Cynthia and Arlene again. And that is, tell me. Cocoa, yes. And I got her name wrong, so I labeled her as Keiko. But her name is Cocoa. But Cynthia Fong Yi is actually going to be performing today as part of the Grand Army Follies. So she won't be joining us at this moment, but we'll talk about her again later. I'm Kobe Yi. Now who, no. It's Kobe Yi. Can I say any more? I mean, do I have to say more? Kobe has been with us dancing since the 40s. And she's just a wonderful spirit and a wonderful story. And I've known her for a long time now, and her costumes out in the exhibit. And I want to point out, her costumes, and she's just a beautiful designer. And Kobe, please stand up. Turn around, turn around. Okay, my son loves Kobe. So, okay. And he's here today. And of course Dorothy Toy of Torin Wing. Torin Wing were a dance team that started actually in the 30s. And they traveled around the world and all the wonderful stages, big stages, London, New York, Chicago, before arriving here in San Francisco in the late 40s and began their bookings at the various Chinese nightclubs. And dance at them until pretty much the end. In fact, Dorothy Toy, with her oriental playgirls, was at the Chinese Sky Room, pretty much near the end before Andy closed up the shop. But Dorothy Toy is with us today. Dorothy, can you please stand? Okay, and Fong Yi Liang, who's center front, is a dancer who has been in the dancing in the club since the 40s as well. Here she's pictured with other dancers from the club Shanghai. Up in the top middle is Fong Wan. You may know him as Herbalist. But he actually ran like one nightclub here in San Francisco and two others in Oakland as well. So he was quite an entrepreneur. But Fong Yi Liang is, I think, well, Fong is Kobe's sister as well. But she is a dancer and Fong is here with us today. Fong, please. Thank you. And Ivy Tam, Kevin's mom, my best friend from New York. And I met, you know, and I knew Ivy because I knew Kevin. But I never heard of her stories. I knew Ivy for a long time before I realized that she was Mrs. Charlie Lowe number four. It's amazing. And this is one of my favorite photos. I just want to point out that headdress. I mean, what a great headdress. You know, that's the lion's head, right? You know, the lion's head. It took me a while. I didn't see it at first. I said, wait a minute. What is that thing? It's so beautiful. I mean, this is a great Halloween costume. I think that's my next Halloween costume. Yeah, there you go. But Ivy is here today. But she's also part of the Grant M. Euphales. So she won't be coming out, well, now because she's in costume. But Ivy is going to be the fan dancer. So you'll know who she is. She's the fan dancer that will be performing today. Oh, and Cynthia, by the way, will be with the tap dance course number. And Jay Lin couldn't make it. She was going to come, but she couldn't make it today. But I still want to keep her photo in because this is one of my favorite photos. I mean, just the... There was something about that era of time and that we're... For some reason, photos just don't look like this anymore today. I'm not sure what it is. Is it the timing, the makeup, the design, the lighting, or maybe it's the film texture. We're doing everything digitally today. So we don't get this fine, soft feeling of film as we did back in the 40s. Pat Chen is right next to her name. And she's also performing with the Grand Averya Follies today. So she won't be coming out right now. But she will be the first performer out from the Grand Averya Follies. So that's Pat Chen right there in the middle of the ladder. And this is the... A shot from the 1954 show, Andy Wong Show, Chinese Vanities that he took on the road. And Penny Wong was the former Mrs. Andy Wong, who was the owner of the Chinese Sky Room. And here she is winning the 1948 Miss Chinatown Bathing Suit Contest in Gonegate Park. And you don't see it, but in the corner I cut it off. This is my luckiest day. You can ask her what it means, because she's here with us today as well. Penny Wong. Turn around the other way. They didn't see you on that side. Okay. Here are the Oriental Playgirls again with one difference. Can you spot the difference? That's Jimmy J. Borges. And Jimmy J. Borges is from Hawaii, as you heard. He performed at the Forbidden City, I think 57 through 59 or 60, a couple of years in the ladder of history of when Charlie owned the club. And his name is really actually Jimmy Borges. But the rule that Charlie had, because he was advertising an all-Chinese show, was that all the performers had to have Chinese names. So he adopted the name Jimmy J, which, okay, are there like historians? Is J a Chinese name? Yeah, I see. Yes? Yes? Oh, okay. So there you go. It's good. Yeah, kinda. Okay, all right. So he adopted the name Jimmy J. The same thing with Tony Wing. His real name was Tony Costa. He created the name Tony Wing to perform at the Forbidden City. I'm not sure if the other clubs required, it didn't seem to, because I want to hear of these requirements from Charlie's time, not the other clubs. And I think this is the last one, because right now I want to actually bring on the show. And the first performance we have will be by the Grant M. M. Follies. And the Grant M. M. Follies staging shows at community centers.