Yuen attended St. Benedict’s, a Catholic school. She was scheduled to participate in the closing exercises on June 16, 1913; her character was Lucy in the one-act play, “Ghost in the School Room.” In the Savannah Tribune, June 14, 1913 article below, it’s not clear what grade she was in.
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In the May, 12, 1917, Savannah Tribune, the St. Benedict’s School report cards were handed out and seventh-grader Yuen received a 95.
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In the 1920 census, eighteen-year-old Yuen resided in Savannah with her older sister, Edna, and her husband, John Mingo, both of whom were in the laundry business. Their address was 407 Taylor. Yuen’s occupation was ticket seller at a theater. A 1920 Savannah city directory listing said: “Yuen, Lilly, cshr [cashier] Star Theater, r 407 Taylor, w”. About seven months after the census enumeration, Yuen was injured in a car accident as reported in the Savannah Tribune, August 14, 1920.
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Hula dancer Yuen was mentioned in the December 15, 1921, Savannah Tribune.
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According to the blog, Soft Film, Yuen started dancing professionally in 1922. A Century of Musicals in Black and White (1993) said Yuen appeared in the 1923 vaudeville revue, “Jones Syncopated Syncopators”. In the following articles, Yuen’s name appeared most of time as “Lily Yuen”, and sometimes as “Lilly Yuen”, “Lily Pontop (her nickname) Yuen”, “L. Pontop” and “L. Pontop Yuen”.
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The Afro-American (Baltimore, Maryland), June 20, 1925, profiled Yuen in the page four article, “Artist Here from Savannah Had Chinese Father; A Racial Puzzle”.
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According to A Century of Musicals in Black and White (1993), the revue, “Brownskin Models”, began at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem in 1925. Yuen was a principal. She also appeared in “Miss Georgia Brown”.
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
January 9, 1926
Chronicle Telegram
(Elyria, Ohio)
January 18, 1926
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Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
February 13, 1926
Kansas City Advocate
(Kansas)
February 19, 1926
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Cleveland Plain Dealer
(Ohio)
December 26, 1926
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Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
June 25, 1927
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
July 2, 1927
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
July 9, 1927
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
September 17, 1927
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
January 14, 1928
New York Age
February 4, 1928
New York Age
February 11, 1928
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
February 11, 1928
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
January 12, 1929
New York Age
April 20, 1929
New York Age
June 8, 1929
New York Age
August 17, 1929
According to A Century of Musicals in Black and White (1993), Yuen appeared in the 1929 vaudeville revue, “Hottentots of 1930”.
In the 1930 census, Yuen, age 25, resided in Manhattan, New York City, at 232 West 142nd Street. Her sister, Edna, had remarried to Devereaux Greene, the head of the household. Also there was Yuen’s mother (a widow) and brother.
New York Age
April 19, 1930
New York Age
April 26, 1930
New York Age
May 31, 1930
New York Age
July 12, 1930
The Afro-American
September 6, 1930
New York Age
September 6, 1930
New York Age
June 13, 1931
New York Age
June 20, 1931
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
August 21, 1931
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Daily Star
(Long Island City, New York)
August 21, 1931
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New York Post
August 21, 1931
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
September 26, 1931
(Portland, Oregon)
October 31, 1931
Present Actors Not Always Great, Writer Reveals
Interesting Stage History Recalled
Do You Remember
... When Lilly (Pontop) Yuen waited table in her
mother’s theatrical boarding house, Savannah? ...
New York Age
October 31, 1931
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
May 27, 1932
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New York Age
June 4, 1932
Pittsburgh Courier
(Pennsylvania)
October 22, 1932
The Plaindealer
(Kansas City, Kansas)
April 20, 1934
New York Age
(Kansas City, Kansas)
April 20, 1934
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New York Age
February 9, 1935
New York Age
February 16, 1935
New York Post
July 1, 1936
The New York Times
November 7, 1936
Night Club Notes
... The Kit Kat Klub is inaugurating a small 9 P. M. show for
early arrivals, featuring Dorothy Salters, the Three Roccos,
Rosetta Williams, Lilly Yuen and Bobby Hargraves band. ...
New York Post
September 4, 1937
New York Post
September 11, 1937
The Augusta Chronicle
(Georgia)
March 24, 1938
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The Pittsburgh Courier, February 25, 1939, reported the death of Yuen’s older sister, Jennie.
Savannah, Ga. Feb. 23.—Mrs. Jennie Webb, sister of Lily “Pontop” Yuen and Libo Yuen, died here at her home, 612 W. Broad street, on February 2. Libo, who was in Honolulu at the time of her sister’s death, flew by plane to San Francisco in order to arrive here in time for the final rites. In addition to Lily and Libo, Mrs. Webb is survived by her mother, Mrs. Josie Pontop Yuen; her husband Jim Webb; sister, Edna Mingo of New York and a brother, Tommie Yuen, also of New York.
Yuen has not been found in the 1940 census.
New York Age
May 4, 1940
New York Age
November 9, 1940
New York, New York, Index to Marriage Licenses (Ancestry.com)
Name: Lily Margaret Yuen
Gender: Female
Race: Colored (Black)
Age: 32
Birth Date: Dec 1908
Birth Place: Savannah, GA.
Marriage Date: 9 Jan 1941
Marriage Place: New York, Manhattan, New York, New York
Residence Street Address: 131 Edgecomb, Av.
Occupation: Entertainer
Father: Joe Tong
Mother: Josephine Mattie Tong
Spouse: Herman Duane Clark
Certificate Number: 210
Current Marriage Number: 0
Witness 1: Olivia Yuen
Witness 2: Harold W Clark
New York Age
January 18, 1941
Marriage Licenses Issued
Clark-Yuen—Herman D. Clark, 31, 310 West 119th street;
Lily M. Yuen, 32, 131 Edgecombe avenue.
1948 Manhattan, New York, City Directory
Name: Lily-Pontop Yuen
Street Address: 131 EdgcmbAv .. WAdswth 6-5852
1949 Manhattan, New York, City Directory
Name: Lily-Pontop Yuen
Street Address: 131 EdgcmbAv .. WAdswth 6-5852
Lily’s husband passed away.
Name: Herman Duane Clark
Birth Date: 1 Apr 1910
Death Date: 14 Jun 1949
Cemetery: Long Island National Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: East Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York
1953 Manhattan, New York, City Directory
Name: Lily-Pontop Yuen
Street Address: 131 EdgcmbAv .. WAdswth 6-5852
1960 Manhattan, New York, City Directory
Name: Lily-Pontop Yuen
Street Address: 131 EdgcmbAv .. WAdswth 6-5852
New York Amsterdam News
May 16, 1964
New York Amsterdam News
August 6, 1966
Down Memory Lane
“Pontop” Yuen
Gorgeous singing and dancing lady
Lilly “Pontop” Yuen, whose Chinese
ancestry enhanced her beauty.
In Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart (2001), Yuen recalls the apartment she shared with Josephine Baker and other chorus girls.
Josephine and some of the other girls were staying at 200 West 137th Street, in an apartment up over the Howell Funeral Parlor. She and Mildred Smallwood shared a room. In the 1980s, I went to Harlem to interview Lilly Yuen, who still lived in that fifth-floor walk-up apartment. She told me Mama Dinks had held the leases on a few places like this that she sublet to show people. “There was a bunch of us girls here, Josephine had the smallest of the four bedrooms.
She showed me the long narrow cubicle with a window at one end....“At first I was afraid to live over a funeral parlor,” Lilly said....“People always say she was in the Cotton Club,” Lilly complained. “Josephine wasn’t in no Cotton Club. She was just a chorus girl, baby, we all was chorus girls.”
The New York Public Library, Archives & Manuscripts:
Lily Yuen was a singer and dancer, who also considered herself a comedienne, performer of novelty songs, parodies and specialty acts, as well as an emcee, during the 1920’s and 1930’s. She was a principal in the Brownskin Models, an annual touring revue produced by Irvin C. Miller in which her sister, Libo, also appeared. Yuen performed in “Broadway Rastus,” “Fast and Furious” and “Yeah Man.” Lily Yuen, also known as “Hoy Hoy” and “Pontop,” was born in Georgia and lived her adult life in New York City. The Lily Yuen Papers provides some documentation of the dancing and entertainment career of this revue performer, in addition to containing personal family papers. A small number of papers pertain to Yuen’s mother, brother, husband, and her sister and colleague, Libo (Olivia) Yuen. Of interest are two manuscript joke books containing hundreds of jokes, many titled, often about the relationship between men and women. There are also programs for the Brownskin Models, “Fast and Furious” and “Yeah Man,” and sheet and manuscript music, some with parts, and most annotated, including “Can’t Believe” and “Why Do I Lie to Myself About You?” A scrapbook of newsclippings documents Yuen’s career as a Brownskin Model during the group’s nationwide tours (1926-1930). The scrapbook emphasizes Yuen’s fellow dancer, Blanche Thompson, who was a principal dancer in Brownskin Models, as well as Florence Mills of “Bye Bye Blackbirds” fame. Yuen’s sister, Libo, is also mentioned in the scrapbook as a dancer.
An obituary or death notice for Yuen has not been found.
(Updated June 12, 2021; Today’s post supports Arthur Dong’s upcoming exhibition, “Forbidden City, USA: Chinese American Nightclubs, 1936-1965.”; next post December 27: Beatrice Fung Oye)
This was very interesting. Thank you for sharing her story.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bernita.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Age (via Readex) has a marriage announcement for Lily Yuen to Herman D. Clark on January 18, 1941, and Ancestry has the record of the marriage of Herman Duane Clark and Lily Margaret Yuen on January 9, 1941. There's also a 1964 mention in the Amsterdam News (via Proquest) of her calling the police when a friend failed to respond to a note she'd left; the colleague had died at home.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Arlene. I've updated the post with your information.
ReplyDelete