Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
Page 31
8 Ibid., pp. 75–77.
9 William Fu, The Yellow Peril (New York: Archon Books, 1982), p. 166.
10 John Michael, Introduction, in Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, p. iv.
11 Fu, p. 167.
12 Frank Chin, Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998), pp. 95–96.
13 Van Ash and Rohmer, p. 215.
14 Ibid., p. 288.
15 Ibid., pp. 72–73.
16 Ibid., p. 73.
Chapter 16: Charlie Chan, the Chinaman
1 David Robinson, Hollywood in the Twenties (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1968), pp. 9–14.
2 John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860–1925 (New York: Atheneum, 1955), p. 4.
3 Ibid., pp. 271–72.
4 Ibid., p. 265.
5 Ibid., p. 291.
6 David Montgomery, Fall of the House of Labor (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 457–58.
7 Higham, p. 317.
8 Ibid., p. 270.
9 Ibid., p. 318.
10 Mae M. Ngai, “Illegal Aliens and Alien Citizens: United States Immigration Policy and Racial Formation, 1924–1945” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1998), p. 95.
11 Higham, p. 330.
12 Ibid., pp. 273, 313.
13 Biggers, House Without a Key, p. 119.
14 Ibid., pp. 175, 144.
15 Ibid., pp. 244–46.
16 Ibid., p. 84.
17 Ibid., p. 182.
18 Ibid., p. 208.
19 Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926; reprint, New York: Penguin, 2000), p. 25.
20 Ibid., p. 246.
21 Earl Derr Biggers, The Black Camel (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1929), pp. 104–5.
22 Earl Derr Biggers, Keeper of the Keys (1932; reprint, New York: Bantam Books, 1975), p. 137.
23 Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, ed. G. W. Kitchin (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1934), p. 142.
Chapter 17: Kaimuki
1 Jardine, p. 40.
2 “Chang Apana Detective, In Fact and Fiction,” p. 33.
3 Jardine, p. 40.
4 “Chang Apana Detective, In Fact and Fiction,” p. 42.
5 Jardine, pp. 38–39.
6 “Lie Detector to Be Purchased If Trask Has Way,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (March 1, 1924), p. 1.
7 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” pp. 33–34.
8 Jardine, p. 41.
9 Ibid., pp. 42–44.
10 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” p. 41.
11 Ibid., p. 43.
12 Ibid., pp. 43, 28, 45–46.
13 Ibid., p. 44.
14 John Takasaki, “Kaimuki,” in Hawaiian Journal of History 10 (1976), pp. 64–73.
15 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” pp. 43–44.
16 Ibid., p. 44.
17 Ibid., p. 45.
18 Ibid., p. 44.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., pp. 41–42, 44–45.
Chapter 18: Pasadena
1 Ann Scheid, Pasadena: Crown of the Valley (Northridge, CA: Windsor Publications, 1986), p. 54.
2 Ibid., pp. 96, 143.
3 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, November 21, 1924, Lilly Library.
4 Scheid, p. 128.
5 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, October 21, 1925, Lilly Library.
6 Jon Tuska, The Detective in Hollywood (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978), pp. 21–25.
7 Gregorich, p. 13.
8 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, November 11, 1926, Lilly Library.
9 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, December 10, 1930, Lilly Library.
10 Tuska, p. 110.
11 “The True Story of Charlie Chan As Confessed by His Creator, Earl Derr Biggers,” in Honolulu Advertiser (September 11, 1932).
12 A copy of George Armitage’s letter was enclosed in E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, January 7, 1931, Lilly Library.
13 Daws, pp. 331–33, 381–82.
14 Huang, Transpacific Imaginations, p. 19.
15 “Writer Boosts Hawaii in Tale,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (February 9, 1925).
16 “Earl D. Biggers to Get Big Key,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (April 15, 1925).
17 Doyle, “Charley Chan and Officer Apana.”
18 “The Mainland Mail,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (July 2, 1925).
19 “Earl D. Biggers to Get Big Key.”
20 “Earl Derr Biggers Receives Key to the City of Honolulu,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (June 19, 1925).
Chapter 19: A Meeting of East and West
1 Earl Derr Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, November 21, 1924, Lilly Library.
2 “Author Biggers Here to Dig Up New Mysteries,” in Honolulu Advertiser (July 5, 1928).
3 David E. Stannard, Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow’s Spectacular Last Case (New York: Penguin, 2005), p. 28.
4 Earl Derr Biggers, “Chang Apana Carries On,” in Fox Film Pressbook, circa January 1932.
5 Ibid.
6 Biggers, Black Camel, pp. 25–28.
7 Biggers, “Chang Apana Carries On.”
Chapter 20: Hollywood’s Chinoiserie
1 Lucy Fischer, ed., American Cinema of the 1920s: Themes and Variations (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009), p. 1.
2 Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Social History of American Movies (New York: Random House, 1975), p. 86.
3 Biggers, Black Camel, p. 57.
4 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurence Chambers, March 10, 1927, Lilly Library.
5 Robinson, p. 26.
6 Sessue Hayakawa, Zen Showed Me the Way, ed. Croswell Bowen (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill 1960), pp. 97–98.
7 Daisuke Miyao, Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), p. 1.
8 Richard Dyer, Stars (London: BFI, 1979), p. 30.
9 Miyao, p. 88.
10 Graham Hodges, Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 20.
11 Michael Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 129.
12 Hodges, p. 20.
13 Ibid., p. 66.
Chapter 21: Yellowface
1 Rogin, p. 5.
2 Ibid., pp. 12–13.
3 Ibid., p. 15.
4 Ken Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1989), p. 1.
5 Ibid., p. 2.
6 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, January 7, 1931, Lilly Library.
7 Quoted in Tuska, p. 117.
8 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, February 12, 1931, Lilly Library.
9 Tuska, p. 109.
10 Quoted in Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies, p. 11.
11 Biggers, letter to Chambers, February 12, 1931.
Chapter 22: Between the Real and the Reel
1 “Charlie Chan At It Again,” in New York Times (June 21, 1931).
2 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” pp. 28–30. Pau is a Hawaiian word meaning “over.”
3 Ibid., p. 32.
4 Robert C. Schmitt, “Movies in Hawaii, 1897–1932,” in Hawaiian Journal of History 1 (1967), pp. 73–74.
5 Ibid., p. 75.
6 Ibid., p. 77.
7 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” pp. 14–15.
8 Biggers, House Without a Key, p. 270.
9 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” p. 32.
10 Biggers, “Chang Apana Carries On.”
Chapter 23: Rape in Paradise
1 Stannard, p. 246.
2 Ibid., p. 55.
3 Ibid., p. 92.
4 Peter Van Slingerland, Something Terrible Has Happened (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 312.
5 Stannard, p. 104; Daws, p. 322.
6 St
annard, pp. 117, 143–44.
7 Ibid., pp. 88, 101.
8 Theroux, p. 150; Stannard, p. 161.
9 Stannard, p. 141.
10 Ibid., p. 218.
11 Cobey Black, Hawaii Scandal (Waipahu, HI: Island Heritage Publish ing, 2002), p. 127.
12 Ibid., p. 128.
13 Ibid., p. 117.
14 Stannard, pp. 224–25.
15 Ibid., p. 154.
16 Ibid., pp. 264–67.
17 Ibid., p. 258.
18 Russell Owen, “First Interview with Mrs. Fortescue; Gives Her Reactions to Honolulu Tragedy,” in New York Times (February 8, 1932).
19 Russell Owen, “Hot Lands and Cold,” in Hanson W. Baldwin and Shepard Stone, ed., We Saw It Happen: The News Behind the News That’s Fit to Print (New York: World Publishing Co., 1941), pp. 221–22.
20 Stannard, p. 100.
21 Ibid., p. 293.
22 Ibid., p. 295.
23 Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life (New York: Scribner’s, 1932), pp. 426–27.
24 Ibid., p. 428.
25 Stannard, p. 367.
26 Ibid., pp. 376, 371.
27 Ibid., p. 375.
28 Ibid., p. 380.
29 Floyd Gibbons, column in San Francisco Examiner (April 30, 1932).
30 Stannard, pp. 384–87.
31 Daws, p. 327.
32 Chicago Tribune (April 30, 1932).
33 Stannard, p. 327.
34 Ibid., p. 382.
35 Van Slingerland, pp. 325–26.
Chapter 24: The Black Camel
1 Stannard, p. 281.
2 Straus, p. 33.
3 “Chang Apana Detective, In Fact and Fiction,” p. 33.
4 “Chang Apana Is Struck by Auto,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (May 3, 1932).
5 “Apana Pension Total Will Be $123 a Month,” in Honolulu Star-Bulletin (May 13, 1932).
6 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” p. 42.
7 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, May 20, 1932, Lilly Library.
8 E. D. Biggers, Keeper of the Keys, p. 192.
9 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” p. 42.
10 Eleanor Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, April 9, 1933, Lilly Library.
11 Lee Shippey, “Earl Derr Biggers,” in Los Angeles Times (April 7, 1933).
12 Gregorich, p. 18.
13 Honolulu Star-Bulletin (April 6, 1933); Honolulu Advertiser (April 7, 1933).
14 Pasadena Post (April 8, 1933).
15 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” p. 46.
16 Biggers, Black Camel, p. 59.
17 Martines, “In Search of Charlie Chan,” p. 10.
18 “Chinese Detective, ‘Charlie Chan,’ Dead,” in New York Times (December 10, 1933); “Detective Real-Life Chan Dies,” in Los Angeles Times (December 10, 1933).
19 “Many Present at Rites for Noted Sleuth,” in Honolulu Advertiser (December 18, 1933).
20 Martines, “Modern History of Hawaii,” p. 48.
Chapter 25: Racial Parables
1 E. D. Biggers, letter to Laurance Chambers, September 23, 1931, Lilly Library.
2 Untitled news/gossip column, Los Angeles Times (November 25, 1934).
3 Ibid.
4 Tuska, p. 115.
5 Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, new 3d ed. (New York: Continuum, 1996), pp. 35–36.
6 Ibid., pp. 39–41.
7 Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies, p. 45.
8 Bogle, pp. xxii–xxiii.
9 Ibid., pp. 42–43.
10 Tuska, p. 115.
11 Ibid.
12 “Hollywood Starts War Cycle,” in Motion Picture Herald (October 19, 1935), p. 18.
Chapter 26: Charlie Chan in China
1 This ballad was written by someone for Anna May Wong, who once sang it at a party hosted by Kamiyama Sojin. Quoted in Hodges, p. 65.
2 Eleanor Biggers, postcard to Laurance Chambers, April 4, 1936, Lilly Library.
3 Leo Lee, Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930–1945 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 83.
4 J. G. Ballard, A User’s Guide to the Millennium (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), pp. 286–87.
5 Leo Lee, p. 96.
6 Don Marion, “1930s Censorship of Western Films,” in The Chinese Mirror: A Journal of Chinese Film History, http://www.chinesemirror.com/ index/western_ films_in_china (accessed March 2, 2009).
7 Van Ash and Rohmer, pp. 214–15.
8 Wei Zhang, Qianchen Yingshi: Zhongguo zaoqi dianying de linglei saomiao (Past movie matters: Other sketches of early Chinese films) (Shanghai: Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 2004), p. 232. See also Don Marion, “Charlie Chan in China,” in The Chinese Mirror, http://www.chinesemirror.com/ index/2008/ 05/charlie-chan-in.html#more (accessed March 2, 2009).
9 Guangping Xu, Huiyi Luxun: Shinian xieshou gong jianwei (Recollections of Luxun: A decade of being together, through thick and thin) (Shijiazhuang, China: Hebei Jiaoyu Publishing House, 2000), p. 79.
10 Zhang, p. 232.
11 Hodges, p. 77.
12 Ibid., p. 232.
13 Ibid., p. 71.
14 Victor Jew, “Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Glorious Descendant: The Contradictions of Chinese American Employment in the Hollywood Studio System during the 1930s” (paper presented to 2003 meeting of American Historical Association). Quoted in Hodges, p. 154.
15 Hodges, p. 157.
16 Ibid., p. 113.
17 Ibid., p. 49.
18 Ibid., pp. 50–51.
19 Ibid., p. 69.
20 Leo Lee, pp. 99–101; Hodges, p. 162.
21 Hodges, pp. 166–67.
22 Marion, “Charlie Chan in China.”
Chapter 27: Charlie Chan Soldiers On
1 Earl Derr Biggers, Charlie Chan Carries On (first published 1930; reprint, New York: Pyramid Books, 1969), p. 150.
2 Tuska, p. 119.
3 Ibid., pp. 117–18.
4 Ibid., p. 125.
5 “Warner Oland, 57, Screen Star, Dies,” in New York Times (August 7, 1938).
6 Tuska, p. 126.
7 Steve Rhodes, “Warner Oland,” http://charliechanfamily.tripod.com/id85.html (accessed August 31, 2009).
8 Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies, pp. 110–11.
9 Tuska, p. 143.
10 Ibid., p. 148.
11 Ibid.
12 Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies, p. 170.
13 Ibid., p. 191.
14 Howard M. Berlin, The Charlie Chan Film Encyclopedia (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000), p. 345.
15 Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies, p. 220.
16 Ibid., p. xv.
17 Otto Penzler, “Collecting Mystery Fiction,” in The Armchair Detective 15:2 (1982), p. 120.
18 Ibid.
Chapter 28: The Fu Manchurian Candidate
1 Sax Rohmer, President Fu Manchu (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1936), p. 202.
2 Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate (first published 1959; reprint, New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003), p. 306.
3 Louis Menand, Introduction, in Richard Condon, ibid., pp. x–xi.
4 Edward Hunter, Brain-washing in Red China: The Calculated Destruction of Men’s Minds (New York: Vanguard Press, 1951), p. 4.
5 Menand, p. xi.
6 Ibid., pp. xi–xii.
Chapter 29: Will the Real Charlie Chan Please Stand Up?
1 Jessica Hagedorn, ed., Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction (New York: Penguin, 1993), p. xxi.
2 Ken Hanke, “The Great Chan Ban,” in Scarlet Street 50 (2004).
3 Lan Cao and Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know about Asian-American History (New York: Penguin, 1996), p. 60.
4 Frank Chin, The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co.: Stories (Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1988), p. 132.
5 Chin, Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays, pp. 95–96.
6 Ibi
d., p. 98.
7 Hanke, “The Great Chan Ban,” p. 27.
8 Jerry Della Femina, “Charlie Chan and the Politically Correct Mafia,” in Jewish World Review (April 30, 2004).
9 Gish Jen, “Challenging the Asian Illusion,” in New York Times (August 11, 1991).
10 Anonymous, The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Chan (Hollywood, CA: Chapbook, 1976).
11 Wayne Wang, Chan Is Missing: A Film by Wayne Wang, with introduction and screen notes by Diane Mei Lin Mark (Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 1984), p. 73.
12 Ibid., p. 34.
Selected Bibliography
Much of this book is based on original research gleaned from archival materials held at various libraries and institutions, including the Honolulu Police Department Museum, Lilly Library at Indiana University (Blooming ton), Hawaii State Archive, Bishop Museum (Honolulu), Everett Collection, and Poetry and Rare Books Library of the University at Buffalo. In addition, for facts regarding the lives of Chang Apana and Earl Derr Biggers, I have relied on newspaper articles published in Pacific Commercial Advertiser (cited as PCA), Honolulu Advertiser (HA), Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HSB), Pasadena Star-News, New York Times, and Honolulu Police Journal, as listed below chronologically:
“Tricks of Wiry Japs: No Joke to Try and Arrest Some of Them.” PCA (June 19, 1901).
“Gamblers Escaped Through a Hidden Trapdoor.” PCA (May 20, 1904).
“Disguised Apana Caught Gamblers.” PCA (July 13, 1904).
“Officer Apana Sued for $2000.” PCA (July 6, 1905).
“Honolulu’s Highways and Byways.” PCA (March 16, 1908).
“Chinaman and Handsome Young Wife Murdered; Home Robbed.” HSB (May 1, 1913).
“Officers Trail Murderer and Loot to Lair.” HSB (May 2, 1913).
“Police Unravel Murder Mystery.” HSB (May 6, 1913).
“Rodrigues Confesses to Double Murder.” HSB (May 7, 1913).
“Filipinos Are Arraigned; To Plead Monday.” HSB (May 22, 1913).
“Death the Punishment for Murder.” HSB (June 14, 1913).
“Filipinos Expiate Murders.” HSB (July 8, 1913).
“Chinese Present Chief McDuffie with Badge.” HSB (July 30, 1913).
“Popular Girl Believed to Have Drowned.” HSB (July 3, 1919).
“Officers Seize Opium; Arrest Two Japanese.” PCA (March 9, 1920).
“U.S. Marshal Arrests Captain of Police; Charge Failure to Report Opium Haul.” PCA (March 23, 1920).
“Police Uncover Opium Store in Jap Garage.” PCA (April 7, 1920).
“Lie Detector to Be Purchased If Trask Has Way.” HSB (March 1, 1924).
“‘Dope Traffic’ Has Hawaii in Horrid Grip.” HA (May 4, 1924).