Forbidden City (nightclub)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Forbidden City was a Chinese
nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...
and
cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, which was in business from 1938 to 1970, and operated on the second floor of 363 Sutter Street, between Chinatown and
Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
. Although Forbidden City was not the first Chinese American nightclub, it was the most famous nightlife venue to feature Asian American singers, dancers, chorus lines, magicians, strippers, and musicians, and was entirely managed and staffed by Asian Americans. It was popular with military personnel who were transiting through San Francisco during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, as well as Hollywood celebrities, and became the most well-known "Chop Suey Circuit" during the 40s and 50s. The term "Chop Suey Circuit" is used to refer to the established network of Chinese American nightclubs which opened in 1930s San Francisco Chinatown. Forbidden City also became a platform for Asian American performers who were denied opportunities through racial discrimination. Asian American performers were able to prove their talent regardless of their racial identity, and some even launched their career after the closure of Forbidden City. The club inspired Tom Ball, a Caucasian stage producer who opened "China Doll", the first Asian American nightclub in New York City in 1946, and billed as "New York's only all-oriental night club." Forbidden City also inspired the novel ''
The Flower Drum Song ''The Flower Drum Song'' is a novel by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, first published in 1957. The novel tells the story of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, and was a bestseller in its time. It is the basis of 1958 musical ''Flower Drum ...
'' (1957), which became a musical (1958) and film (1961) of the same title. In 1989, the club was profiled in the documentary, ''Forbidden City U.S.A''., by
Arthur Dong Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Franci ...
.


History


Inception

Charlie Low, the son of small store owners from
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
, opened the Forbidden City on December 22, 1938, after the success of Chinese Village, which he had opened two years earlier. The new club would eventually become the most famous of approximately 12 Chinese-themed cabaret clubs in the Chinatown area. It was located on the outskirts of San Francisco's Chinatown, and catered to the curiosity of a mostly white audience who were often imitated by a community of only Chinese Americans. Low's Forbidden City was preceded by and competed with Andy Wong's Chinese Sky Room, which opened almost a year earlier on December 31, 1937; the Chinese Sky Room featured a
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
led by
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
er Wong in what was previously the rooftop Chinese Tea Garden of the Grand View Hotel at
Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...
and Pine.


The origin of the name

Named after the
Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrifi ...
in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, Low described his nightclub as an Oriental paradise separated from the rest of the world. Low also joked about the club publicly, saying: "my babies (showgirls) are forbidden to say 'yes, which resonates to his idea of "look—but don't touch my beautiful Oriental girls." The male performers were also labeled as "
sissy ''Sissy'' (derived from '' sister''), also ''sissy baby'', ''sissy boy'', ''sissy man'', ''sissy pants'', etc., is a pejorative term for a boy or man who does not demonstrate masculine, and shows possible signs of fragility. Generally, ''sissy'' ...
," meaning homosexual men who don't fit into traditional gender roles of Chinese culture. Forbidden City also was a forbidden destination for the local Chinese communities, especially for conservative Chinese residents. It was viewed as a scandalous and shameful place where "girls show their legs" when they are not taught to do so.Forbidden City, USA. Directed by Arthur Dong. Deep Focus Productions, Inc., 2016. Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/ondemand/forbiddencityusa Thus, Low found it difficult to recruit performers from the local Chinese community, which looked down on entertainers, particularly women in sexually provocative performances. For this reason, Low recruited Asian American performers primarily from other areas like Arizona, Hawaii, and the Midwest, rather than directly from San Francisco's Chinatown. Although the Forbidden City cast was drawn from multiple countries, Low required the performers to change their names to sound more "Chinese" because Forbidden City is a club that "celebrates Orientalism." Forbidden City also became a place for many of its cast to learn choreography formally as many of them were self-taught, or had no prior experience.


Rise to popularity

Business was slow until 1940, when Low hired Noel Toy, a journalism student at
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
who had worked as a nude model at the
Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair celebrating, among other things, the city's two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 ...
in 1939. At Forbidden City, Toy was marketed as a "Bubble Dancer" and the "Chinese Sally Rand" even though she had no experience in dancing. Toy performed nude with a large, opaque bubble covering her body. She also performed a nude fan dance with ostrich feathers. Within three months, business revenues had tripled. Life Magazine published a 3-page profile of the club in 1940, praising the dancing abilities of Chinese women as a "fragile charm distinctive to their race". Toy's performance also brought in a flow of male Caucasian audience who were seeking to fulfill their hypersexualization of race. According to the manager of Forbidden City, Frank Huie, during its busiest periods, the club recorded 2,200 patrons in a day. Many of the performers were second and third-generation Asian Americans, who had grown up in traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrant households. The women, in particular, were expected to follow traditional female roles, and their grandmothers may have had
bound feet Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...
. However, they strongly identified with American youth culture, including the film, music, and dance styles of the era. Some ran away from home to pursue a new life, such as Jadin Wong and Ellen Chinn. The Hollywood star
Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
served as an inspiration to some of them, and they often rebelled against the conventions of their period. As Candice Pociano, daughter of Ellen Chin explained, "It was taboo to dance in Mom's day onstage exposing your legs, and even in my teen days, the Chinese girls were shy and demure." Furthermore, as explained by Jimmy Borges, a former performer at the club:
eforethe Asian was always looked upon as being a menial. And when Charlie Low's nightclub opened, he showed that, you know, the Asians don't only do dishes or work on the railroads or do laundry. They dance, they sing, they're magicians, they're tap dancers. And not only that, they're very good at it... And whenever I ran into stuff where people I would run into, racism or stuff like that, all it did was make me stronger. I says, 'You know what? You're going to be sorry one day, you're going to wish you were my friend.' Because that was my impetus to succeed.
The club thrived through the 1950s. World War II brought many servicemen to San Francisco, which served as a primary port of departure for the Pacific Theater; the club was popular with both servicemen and tourists. The audience was primarily Caucasian, but Asian American locals and tourists also visited the club. Some of the Japanese American performers changed their names to avoid the prevalent
anti-Japanese sentiment Anti-Japanese sentiment (also called Japanophobia, Nipponophobia and anti-Japanism) involves the hatred or fear of anything which is Japanese, be it its culture or its people. Its opposite is Japanophilia. Overview Anti-Japanese senti ...
while others were forced to move out of the region to avoid internment. A fire in 1946 temporarily closed the club. While Forbidden City was the most famous Chinatown nightclub, it competed with other local venues that featured Asian American performers, such as Club Shanghai, Lion's Den, Kublai Khan, Dragon's Lair, and Chinese Sky Room. In fact, Charlie Low had a rivalry with Fong Wan, a famed
herbalist Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...
and the owner of Club Shanghai. In 1949, Fong Won sued Low for $50,000 for "stealing" an acrobat from his club. The lawsuit was covered by the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
''. The club inspired the novel ''Flower Drum Song'' as well as its subsequent musical and film adaptations. In 1957 author C. Y. Yee wrote the best-selling novel, which was set at the Forbidden City.
Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular ...
created a popular musical from the book in 1958; since then, it has had several revivals, the most recent by
David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yell ...
in 2001–02.
Jack Soo Jack Soo (born Goro Suzuki, October 28, 1917 – January 11, 1979) was an American singer and actor. He was best known for his role as Detective Nick Yemana on the television sitcom ''Barney Miller''. Early life Soo was born Goro Suzuki on a s ...
(the stage name of Goro Suzuki) had been hired to headline the Forbidden City for a six-week engagement starting in September 1957; by October, it was rumored he would be moving on to the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, but it was announced in November that he would star in the Broadway production of ''Flower Drum Song'' as Wang Ta, the Americanized son promised to Mei Li; he would go on to reprise the role in the Hollywood film version of the musical, released in 1961.


Decline and legacy

Despite the popularity of ''Flower Drum Song'', business at the club declined, hurt by the increase in the cabaret tax in 1944. By the late 1950s it was facing increasing competition from more explicit shows, such as the
Condor Club The Condor Club nightclub is a striptease bar or topless bar in the North Beach section of San Francisco, California"Nudity, Noise Pay Off in Bay Area Night Clubs", ''Los Angeles Times'' (February 14, 1965) Page G5. The club became famous i ...
in North Beach. The rise of
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
also killed the culture of live performance as people slowly tradition to watch performance from the comfort of their house. Owner Charlie Low retired in 1962, selling the club to exotic dancer Coby Yee. Yee managed the club until it closed in 1970. The space was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s, but the building has survived and was used as a computer instruction center as of 2000. , the space was available as an open-plan office. An hour-long documentary, '' Forbidden City, U.S.A.'', was filmed in the mid-1980s by Chinatown native
Arthur Dong Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Franci ...
and released in 1989, featuring most of the original cast. A DVD was released in 2003. The documentary led indirectly to a second singing career for Larry Ching, the club's "Chinese Frank Sinatra." Excerpts from two 78 RPM acetate disks were played in the documentary, and included in Ching's debut album ''Till the End of Time'' (2003).


Description

The Forbidden City has been compared to an Asian-American version of the
Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Blac ...
, in that it featured an all-ethnic cast of performers for a mostly white audience, performing to the popular tastes of the time rather than in stereotyped or authentic ethnic roles. However, some acts played up the supposed exoticism of ethnic Chinese, as well as sensuality of Chinese women. The owner, Charlie Low, generated publicity by describing the performers as Chinese equivalents of famous mainstream celebrities (for example, the "Chinese Frank Sinatra", the "Chinese Fred Astaire", and so on). Part of the club's appeal to both audiences and performers was the "racial cross-dressing" of placing Asian Americans into traditionally white entertainer roles, and the racial dialog that came out of the varying level of success of the various performers had in fitting into these roles. For many visitors from middle-America, Forbidden City was their first exposure to people with Asian heritage. San Francisco's Asian population was approximately 4.2% of the population in 1940, versus 0.2% for all of the United States. Although the cast included Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans (except during World War II, when the club's Japanese American performers were removed as part of the Japanese American internment), Korean Americans and other Asian Americans, they were presented to audiences as Chinese. The club itself seated 300, and also contained elaborate stage area and dressing rooms (accessed through the kitchen).Description at KUCI: filmschool
/ref> Typical of the clubs of the time, in front, it displayed pictures of famous guests (greeted by Low). The club was patronized by Hollywood celebrities, such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall,
Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Duke Ellington,
Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
, George Jessel, Lena Horne,
Jane Wyman Jane Wyman ( ; born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007)"Actress, P ...
, and Ronald Reagan. An evening's entertainment at Forbidden City typically started with a dinner that was ostensibly "Chinese" cuisine, but it was a fusion of Chinese and American cuisine. Dinner would be followed by dancing, then a floor show. The floor show typically opened with performers dressed in traditional Chinese clothing. The performers would then shed the traditional clothing and perform modern song and dance. Acts were a combination of
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and burlesque-style performances, including singing, tap dancing, ballroom dancing, skits, slapstick, tumbling, and parodies of American cowboy scenes. The show included burlesque performers like Coby Yee, dancers such as
Toy & Wing Toy & Wing were an American tap dance duo composed of Dorothy Toy (real name Shigeko Takahashi, May 28, 1917 – July 10, 2019) and Paul Wing (real name Paul Wing Jew, October 14, 1912 – April 27, 1997). They were billed as the "Chinese Fred Ast ...
and Mai Tai Sing, and singers such as Larry Ching ("Chinese Sinatra"), who performed six nights per week with a band. Each show typically lasted 45 minutes. The club also formed a touring company that played across the United States and Canada, as well as
USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
shows worldwide.


Notable performers

A number of Asian American musicians, actors, and other celebrities either started their professions at the Forbidden City, or are famous for performing there. During the early years of the club the performers' salaries, modest as they were, provided rare employment opportunities for Asian-Americans suffering under the discriminatory laws of the time.


Frances Quan Chun (1919-2008)

Frances Quan Chun was a singer billed as the "Chinese
Frances Langford Julia Frances Newbern-Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades. She was known as the "GI Nightinga ...
" . According to her interview in the book ''Forbidden City, USA'', she stated that it was a "novelty" at the time to work at the Forbidden City as a singer in the 30's regardless of its scandalous reputation. Born and raised in a musical family in Hawaii, her father loved playing instruments such as ukulele and guitar. She eventually landed in San Francisco during the Depression era. She participated in Cathayans (a band) in the early 1930s, where she was 16. Then, she joined Forbidden City in her 20's.


Jackie Mei Ling (1914-2000)

Jackie Mei Ling, a very famous and successful dancer and female impersonator, publicly identified himself as a gay man. He is famous for his innovative Oriental dance in various performances. He once played the role of harem master in the show "The Girl in the Gilded Cage", with his flexible body contorting in a series of peculiar postures. Ling was born in Utah and moved to Chinatown at a young age. He met Jadin Wong when he was a performing at another club before Forbidden City. Then, as a team, they started dancing at Grace Hayes Lodge. Later, Ling and Wong started performing as featured stars at Forbidden City, making up to 75 to 100 dollars a week. He also designed costumes for other dancers who worked at the nightclub.


Jadin Wong (1913-2010)

Jadin Wong was a singer, dancer and later Asian talent manager. She was born in Marysville but raised in Stockton, California; raised by a conservative father who was a cook, Wong recalled how dance was never something her family supported despite her mother's love of music. Wong would sneak out from the window of her house to watch shows hosted by traveling dance companies. She then moved to San Francisco after the death of her father. She eventually joined Forbidden City after meeting Charlie Low and his wife when she was taking dance classes at
Michio Itō was a Japanese dancer who developed his own choreography style in Europe and America. He was the son of Kimiye Iijima and architect Tamekichi Ito who was educated at the University of Washington; he was one of nine children, and the brother of D ...
's School of Dance. She also taught choreography to Noel Toy after Toy's first bubble dance because of Toy's inexperience with dance.


Noel Toy (1918-2003)

Noel Toy, the "Chinese
Sally Rand Sally Rand (born Helen Gould Beck; April 3, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was an American burlesque dancer, vedette, and actress, famous for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck. ...
", performed a burlesque fan dance and bubble dance which started the golden age of Forbidden City. She was born in San Francisco, but raised in the small town of Inverness in Marin County. Growing up, Toy recalls herself as the only Chinese person and only having Caucasian friends. After attending Marin Junior College, she received a scholarship from University of California at Berkeley. She first started as a nude model at the
Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair celebrating, among other things, the city's two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 ...
due to financial needs. That's where she met Charlie Low, who offered her a salary of 50 dollars per week to perform at Forbidden City, instead of the 35 dollars that Toy was making at the World's Fair. The bubble dance attracted many male Caucasian customers who were curious if an Asian woman's genitals were shaped the same as white women's. Toy also recalled her first performance at Forbidden City as "silly scared" because she kept falling and bumping into customer's tables. Toy only performed at the Forbidden City for a year. After that, she was scouted to perform at the Chinese Sky Room, which was a similar Chinatown nightclub. She then moved on to perform in different nightclubs around the East Coast including
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, making up to 500 dollars a week.


Coby Yee

Coby Yee was an
exotic dancer A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...
billed as "China's Most Daring Dancing Doll". Yee later bought The Forbidden City club from Charlie Low when he retired in 1962 and managed the club until it closed in 1970. Yee was born to Chinese immigrants living in Columbus, Ohio on November 2, 1926; as a teenager, she performed in her uncle's supper club in Washington, D.C. When her parents came to San Francisco after World War II to return to China, she refused to follow them and stayed in the Bay Area. After a drunken patron wandered into her dressing room at the Forbidden City, she quipped "I have never been so embarrassed. He caught me standing there completely clothed!" Although she retired after the Forbidden City closed, she remained active in the community and made many hand-sewn costumes in her San Pablo home; in 2015, Yee was spotted by Cynthia Yee (no relation) teaching ballroom dancing to seniors and was persuaded to join Cynthia's Grant Avenue Follies. The
Burlesque Hall of Fame The Burlesque Hall of Fame (BHOF) is the world's only museum dedicated to the history, preservation, and future of the art of burlesque. Located in the Las Vegas Arts district at 1027 S Main st. #110, BHOF is a tourist destination and non-pro ...
named her a "Living Legend" in 2020; she died on August 14, 2020, the day before she was scheduled to receive the award in a virtual ceremony.


Other performers

* Larry Ching, the "Chinese Frank Sinatra" performed here, from shortly after the club opened until shortly before it closed. Ching recorded and released his debut album ''Till the End of Time'', then celebrated the declaration of "Larry Ching Day" (June 28, 2003) shortly before his death on July 5. * Dorothy Toy and Paul Wing, a married couple billed as the "Chinese
Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
and
Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
", respectively *
Jack Soo Jack Soo (born Goro Suzuki, October 28, 1917 – January 11, 1979) was an American singer and actor. He was best known for his role as Detective Nick Yemana on the television sitcom ''Barney Miller''. Early life Soo was born Goro Suzuki on a s ...
was discovered working there as emcee, leading to his first big break when he was cast as the emcee and night club owner in the Broadway musical and film of ''
Flower Drum Song ''Flower Drum Song'' was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, '' The Flower Drum Song'', by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the ...
''; he later became one of the most prominent Asian American actors in film and television roles. * Stanley Toy, a solo "Chinese
Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
". *
Katy de la Cruz Katy de la Cruz (born Catalina de la Cruz; February 13, 1907 – November 10, 2004) was a leading Filipina singer who specialized in jazz vocals and torch songs in a hon career that lasted eight decades. Hailed as "The Queen of Filipino Jazz ...
, the "Queen of Filipino Jazz", was a top-billed performer during the late 1940s to early 1950s. * Larry and Trudie Long, "The Leungs," nightclub act.


The owner of the nightclub: Charlie Low

File:Charlie Low photo holder (From August of 1947).jpg , Featured on a photo folder File:Low with his ponies in 1940s.png , With his ponies in 1940s File:Charlie Low 1985.png , Interviewed by
Arthur Dong Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Franci ...
in 1985
Charles P. Low was youngest of seven children, born on June 9, 1901, in McDermott, Nevada. He arrived in the Bay Area in 1922, when he was 21, and made a fortune in real estate and by trading on the stock market. Low completed the Low Apartments in 1927, 1060 Powell (at Washington), after Caucasian landlords refused to rent to him. Low went on to open the first cocktail bar in Chinatown, the Chinese Village, on November 12, 1936, at 702 Grant Ave; Dr.
Margaret Chung Margaret Jessie Chung (, – ), born in Santa Barbara, California, was the first known American-born Chinese female physician. After graduating from the University of Southern California Medical School in 1916 and completing her internship an ...
was one of the early investors in the Chinese Village. Despite warnings that Chinese American residents would not patronize the Chinese Village, Low drew enough business from tourists to pack the small space regularly, prompting him to consider moving to a larger space where entertainment, not cocktails, would be the emphasis. Guests at the Forbidden City could purchase a 5x7 image of their evening, which came in a souvenir folder that was signed by their host, Charlie Low. Low was married four times: first to Minnie Louie, then to Li Tei Ming (who was the pianist and singer at the Chinese Village), Betty Wong, and Ivy Tam (who also worked at the Forbidden City).


See also

*
Showgirl Magic Museum The Showgirl Magic Museum is a history and culture museum in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco, California in the United States. The museum showcases on the 20th-century nightclub scene in Chinatown. History The Showgirl Magic Museum w ...
*
Queer history in Chinatown, San Francisco Sexuality, including same-sex sexuality, and other non-normative forms of sexuality have been central to the history of Chinatown, San Francisco. San Francisco's Chinatown, founded in 1848, is the first and largest in the United States. San Franci ...
* ''China Dolls'', a 2014 novel by
Lisa See Lisa See (born 18th February 1955) is an American writer and novelist. Her books include ''On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family'' (1995), a detailed account of See's family history, and the novels '' Flower N ...
set partly in the Forbidden City nightclub * Sutter Cinema * '' Last Night at the Telegraph Club'', a 2021 novel by
Malinda Lo Malinda Lo is an American writer of young adult novels including ''Ash'', ''Huntress'', ''Adaptation'', ''Inheritance,'' ''A Line in the Dark'', and '' Last Night at the Telegraph Club''. She also does research on diversity in young adult literat ...
, which mentions the Forbidden City nightclub as one of its inspirations


References


Further reading

* * * *


External links

* * (By
Arthur Dong Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Franci ...
, produced b
Deep Focus Productions
*
"Forbidden City, U.S.A"
a
asianconnections.comexcerpt from "Forbidden City, U.S.A"
(
Flash Video Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There ar ...
plays in VLC) * * * * {{Chinatown, San Francisco 20th century in San Francisco Culture of San Francisco Chinese-American culture in San Francisco Asian-American theatre Chinatown, San Francisco