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Forbidden City (nightclub)
Encyclopedia
The Forbidden City was a Chinese-themed nightclub and cabaret in business from the late 1930s to the late 1950s, on the second floor of 363 Sutter Street (the former space is now renumbered 369 Sutter Street and is now a franchise of Barbizon Modeling and Acting) in San Francisco between Chinatown
and Union Square. The Forbidden City featured Asian American singers, dancers, chorus lines, magicians, strippers, and musicians. It was popular with military personnel who were transiting through San Francisco during World War II. The novel, and in turn the musical
and film
Flower Drum Song were inspired by the Forbidden City, as was the 1989 documentary
, Forbidden City U.S.A.
in Beijing
. It was the first, and most famous, among approximately 12 Asian-themed cabaret clubs in Chinatown. It thrived during World War II, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1957 author C. Y. Yee
wrote a best-selling novel, Flower Drum Song, set at the Forbidden City. Rodgers and Hammerstein
created a popular musical from the book in 1958, which has had several revivals, the most recent by David Henry Hwang
in 2001-2002. In 1961 a Hollywood film was made from the musical. These portrayals did little to help the club, however. By the late 1950s it was facing increasing competition from more explicit shows, such as the Condor Club
in North Beach
. The club converted briefly to a strip club
before closing in 1962. The space was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s, but the building survived and was used as a computer instruction center as of 2000.
An hour-long documentary, Forbidden City, U.S.A, was filmed in the mid-1980s and released in 1989, featuring most of the original cast. The documentary led indirectly to a second singing career for Larry Ching
, the club's "Chinese Frank Sinatra."
, 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 nicknaming the performers after famous mainstream celebrities (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 encounter with people of Asian ethnicity. 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!). Typical of the clubs of the time, in front, it displayed pictures of famous guests (greeted by Low).
An evening's entertainment at Forbidden City included a full Chinese or American dinner followed by dancing, then a floor show. Acts were a combination of vaudeville
and burlesque
-style performances, including singing, tap dancing, ballroom dancing, skits, slapstick, tumbling, and parodies of American cowboy
scenes.
The club also formed a touring company that played across the United States and Canada, as well as USO shows worldwide.
JIMMY BORGES a.k.a. "JIMMY JAY" was the popular crooner at Forbidden City from 1957 through 1959 when he went to Las Vegas to star in "HOLIDAY IN JAPAN", A Steve Parker/Shirley McLaine Production. Jimmy Borges, discovered at The Forbidden City, replaced James Shigeta as the Las Vegas' show's star. In the same manner, Jimmy followed Larry Ching into Forbidden City. Both Jimmy and Larry are Hawaiian-born artists except Jimmy Borges was Portuguese, Hawaiian and Chinese. Jimmy's style of singing was a bit more jazzier, sounding like a cross between Mel Tormé and Frank Sinatra but uniquely his own. Jimmy continues to perform in symphony POPS concerts around the world (Florida, New Zealand, Honolulu, San Diego, etc.) to this day at the age of 74
Chinatown, San Francisco, California
San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants to the United States and North America...
and Union Square. The Forbidden City featured Asian American singers, dancers, chorus lines, magicians, strippers, and musicians. It was popular with military personnel who were transiting through San Francisco during World War II. The novel, and in turn the musical
Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
and film
Flower Drum Song (film)
Flower Drum Song is a 1961 film adaptation of the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author C. Y...
Flower Drum Song were inspired by the Forbidden City, as was the 1989 documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Forbidden City U.S.A.
History
Charlie Low opened the Forbidden City in 1938, naming it after the Forbidden CityForbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. It was the first, and most famous, among approximately 12 Asian-themed cabaret clubs in Chinatown. It thrived during World War II, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1957 author C. Y. Yee
C. Y. Lee (author)
Chin Yang Lee is a Chinese American author best known for his 1957 novel The Flower Drum Song, which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song and writer for his 2006 film "10,000 Apologies" with May Wang.-Biography:...
wrote a best-selling novel, Flower Drum Song, set at the Forbidden City. Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
created a popular musical from the book in 1958, which has had several revivals, the most recent by David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang is an American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S.He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University...
in 2001-2002. In 1961 a Hollywood film was made from the musical. These portrayals did little to help the club, however. By the late 1950s it was facing increasing competition from more explicit shows, such as the Condor Club
Condor Club
The Condor Night Club is a striptease bar or topless bar in the North Beach section of San Francisco, in California, USA. The club opened in 1964....
in North Beach
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy, and has historically been home to a large Italian American population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though...
. The club converted briefly to a strip club
Strip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
before closing in 1962. The space was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s, but the building survived and was used as a computer instruction center as of 2000.
An hour-long documentary, Forbidden City, U.S.A, was filmed in the mid-1980s and released in 1989, featuring most of the original cast. The documentary led indirectly to a second singing career for Larry Ching
Larry Ching
Larry Ching was a performer at the Forbidden City in San Francisco. Nearly 40 years after the end of his career there, he recorded a hit record produced by Ben Fong-Torres....
, the club's "Chinese Frank Sinatra."
Description
The Forbidden City has been compared to an Asian-American version of the Cotton ClubCotton Club
The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem, New York City that operated during Prohibition that included jazz music. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith,...
, 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
Exoticism
Exoticism is a trend in art and design, influenced by some ethnic groups or civilizations since the late 19th-century. In music exoticism is a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient times Exoticism (from 'exotic')...
of ethnic Chinese, as well as sensuality of Chinese women. The owner, Charlie Low, generated publicity by nicknaming the performers after famous mainstream celebrities (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 encounter with people of Asian ethnicity. 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
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
), 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!). Typical of the clubs of the time, in front, it displayed pictures of famous guests (greeted by Low).
An evening's entertainment at Forbidden City included a full Chinese or American dinner followed by dancing, then a floor show. Acts were a combination of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
-style performances, including singing, tap dancing, ballroom dancing, skits, slapstick, tumbling, and parodies of American cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
scenes.
The club also formed a touring company that played across the United States and Canada, as well as USO 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.- Jack SooJack SooJack Soo was a Japanese American actor. He is best known for his role as Detective Nick Yemana on the television sitcom Barney Miller.-Early life:...
got his break in Flower Drum SongFlower Drum SongFlower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
when he was discovered working there as MC, and was eventually cast as the MC and night club owner in the Broadway musical and film, and later became one of the most prominent Asian American actors. - Larry ChingLarry ChingLarry Ching was a performer at the Forbidden City in San Francisco. Nearly 40 years after the end of his career there, he recorded a hit record produced by Ben Fong-Torres....
, the "Chinese Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
" performed here, from shortly after the club opened until shortly before it closed. - Noel ToyNoel ToyNoel Toy was an American burlesque performer famous for her fan dance and bubble dance, initially at the Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco, California. Later, she acted in films and on television.-Early years and career:Toy was born in San Francisco, California...
, the "Chinese Sally RandSally RandSally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.-Early life and career:...
", performed a burlesque fan danceFan danceA fan dance is a dance performed with one or more fans. This form has been adapted in various countries. The Korean fan dance, for example, evolved from Joseon Dynasty court dances and remains a popular form of traditional Korean dance. The Spanish or Portuguese flamenco makes dramatic use of fans...
and bubble danceBubble danceThe bubble dance is an erotic dance developed by Sally Rand. This was an alternative to the striptease, with some similarities to fan dancing. The dancer dances with a huge bubble to make some interesting poses....
. - Katy de la CruzKaty de la CruzKaty de la Cruz was a leading Filipino singer who specialized in jazz vocals and torch songs in a performing career that lasted eight decades. Hailed as "The Queen of Filipino Jazz" and as "The Queen of Bodabil", she was, by the age of 18, the highest paid entertainer in the Philippines...
, the "Queen of Filipino Jazz", was a top-billed performer during the late 1940s to early 1950s. - Dorthy Sun Murray- aka 'Dottie' known for her long legs and comedy dance performances
- Toy Yat Mar, the "Chinese Sophie TuckerSophie TuckerSophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
". - Stanley Toy, the "Chinese Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
". - Dorothy Fong Toy, the "Chinese Ginger RogersGinger RogersGinger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
". - Ah Hing, the "Chinese Harry HoudiniHarry HoudiniHarry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
". - Charlie Low, owner, often served as MC, entertained celebrity guests, and took part in comedy skits.
- Li Tei Ming, singer (Charlie Low's wife).
- The Tai Sings, ballroom dancers.
- Frances Quan Chun Kan, featured singer.
- Larry and Trudie Long, "The Leungs," nightclub act
JIMMY BORGES a.k.a. "JIMMY JAY" was the popular crooner at Forbidden City from 1957 through 1959 when he went to Las Vegas to star in "HOLIDAY IN JAPAN", A Steve Parker/Shirley McLaine Production. Jimmy Borges, discovered at The Forbidden City, replaced James Shigeta as the Las Vegas' show's star. In the same manner, Jimmy followed Larry Ching into Forbidden City. Both Jimmy and Larry are Hawaiian-born artists except Jimmy Borges was Portuguese, Hawaiian and Chinese. Jimmy's style of singing was a bit more jazzier, sounding like a cross between Mel Tormé and Frank Sinatra but uniquely his own. Jimmy continues to perform in symphony POPS concerts around the world (Florida, New Zealand, Honolulu, San Diego, etc.) to this day at the age of 74
External links
- Web page from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
- Forbidden City U.S.A. (film, 1989). By Arthur DongArthur DongArthur Dong is an Academy Award-nominated American documentary filmmaker. His work combines the art of the visual medium with an investigation of social issues, examining topics such as Asian American history and identity, and gay oppression...
, produced by Deep Focus Productions. - "Forbidden City, U.S.A" at asianconnections.com
- excerpt from "Forbidden City, U.S.A" (Flash Video plays in VLCVLC media playerVLC media player is a free and open source media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project.VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to...
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