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Four Atlantic Crossings Anna May’s turn on Broadway in the fall of 1930 was a rousing success. Edgar Wallace, a successful contemporary novelist, had adapted his work into a play called On the Spot. The critics were not universally kind—the New York Times called her “an inscrutably loyal jade”—but the play was a success and drew large enough audiences to move after the Broadway run to a Brooklyn theater. During its run on Broadway, On the Spot became the biggest hit ever for the Royale Theater and ran for 167 performances. There was an amusing incident in the New York run of On the Spot that Anna May added to her repertoire. During a poignant moment in the play, when she lay “dead” on the stage, production directions required that a “gramophone recording of Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’ fill the theater with sadness. One night, an inexperienced stagehand mistakenly put on a selection of ‘Negro melodies,’ which caused the normally professional Anna May to lie on the stage convulsed with the ‘most inopportune laughter.’” The show then prepared to tour across the country. Anna May intended to join the troupe, but a tragedy at home was calling her back to Los Angeles.1 Her success gave Anna May no comfort, for the fearful dream in London had come true. Shortly after Anna May’s arrival in New York a tragic accident back home killed her mother. Lee Gon Toy was crossing the street in front of the home at 241 North Figueroa. A passing car, driven by one Joe Rondoni, hit her. Lee Gon Toy, aged forty-three, died from a fractured skull and internal injuries at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital on November 11, 1930. The police did not charge Rondoni, who claimed that Mrs. Wong had stepped in front of his automobile and that he could not avoid hitting her. Lulu purchased a family plot where her mother could be buried and arranged for transfer of the infant 100 Anna May Wong Marietta’s remains to the plot. A few months later, the Wong family filed suit against Rondoni for $50,000 in damages. What happened within the family is a matter of debate. Anna May did not leave her play in New York to come to the funeral, which reportedly infuriated Wong Sam Sing and other members of the family. A second version is that Wong Sam Sing had his wife’s body kept in a mausoleum until the spring when Anna May was able to return and did not hold a deep grudge against her.2 A year later, American Photography, among the most prestigious magazines of its kind, published a full-page portrait of Anna May by Dorothy Wilding, taken around the time of Lee Gon Toy’s death. Earning an honorable mention in the magazine’s annual contest, the picture might easily serve as Anna May’s portrait of grief. Unlike her publicity photos, which often featured a gay smile or seductive glance, Wilding’s image shows a downcast, pensive Anna May.3 Anna finally arrived in Los Angeles on June 1, 1931. She had not forgotten the frustrations of previous years and was unsure if she was going to do more films in Hollywood. She told journalist Doris Mackie: “I was so tired of the parts I had to play. Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain? And so crude a villain—murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that. How could we be, with a civilization that is so many times older than the West?” She had to swallow her suspicions. Impressed by her European credentials, Paramount Pictures, her former and new employer, gave her a firstrate role in the thriller, Daughter of the Dragon, derived from the Sax Rohmer novel, Daughter of Fu Manchu, which was a bestseller the same year. Paramount purchased the rights to the book for $20,000 and lavished more than a quarter of a million dollars on the production. Paramount shot the film at the end of June 1931. Joining Anna May in star billing were Warner Oland as Fu Manchu and Sessue Hayakawa as Ah Kee. Anna May had worked with both men before. Oland had become a rising star as Charlie Chan, and Hayakawa had a very respectable star resume dating back to the early teens. Although Anna May and Hayakawa acted together earlier in her career, Daughter of the Dragon marked the first...

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