Camera Craft, March 1928
Wah Hing [sic] Chang
Photograph by William Horace Smith
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(Next post on Friday: The Chinese in Camera Craft)
…One of the interesting characters of Chinatown is Fong Get, an aged photographer, who knows everybody in Chinatown and was in the original cast of the celebrated play, “The First Born.” He was one of the first to return to San Francisco and establish himself in business. To every white visitor he relates with manifest pride the story of how his boy took the first prize at something or another in the grammar school.“The First Born” originated in San Francisco and went on tour. The San Francisco Call, August 15, 1897, said “‘The First Born’ Company is now touring the Northwest in all cities it has visited playing to the largest audiences of the summer season. The papers along the coast have devoted columns to the story of the play.”
Manager Fred Belasco of the Alcazar Theater is in receipt of a telegram from his brother, David Belasco, the dramatist, giving the information that “The First Born,” Powers’ fascinating little Chinese drama, will be presented at the Duke of York Theater, London, on November 2. The original Alcazar Company will also interpret the characters in the metropolis of Great Britain, leaving New York City on the Umbria to-morrow.The Saturday Review, November 6, 1897, published George Bernard Shaw’s review of “The First Born”.
Fong Get, father of the little Chinese boy who plays in “The First Born,” and who himself plays the role of the keeper of vegetable stall, writes from New York to John Y. Gray, bailiff of the United States Circuit Court, to the effect that he and “the kid” will return to San Francisco next Saturday. Both are in good health and are delighted with the histrionic profession.In the 1900 census, Fong, his wife and three children resided in San Francisco at 6 Prospect Place. Fong’s occupation was janitor. Also in the household was Dung Sam who was a photographer-developer. Next door at 8 Prospect Place was photographer Wong Tin.
In looking for a photographer who worked closely with the Chinese community to help subvert Chinese exclusion and some of the common assumptions about photography, we need look no further than Fong Get. Fong maintained a gallery at 914 Stockton Street in San Francisco from before 1910 to about 1920, taking photographs of both elite Chinese and ordinary immigrants….Fong Get Photo Studio photographs are here, here, here, here and here.
Celebrate his anniversary by committing suicideCamera Craft
Fong Get, a Chinese, saw yesterday the body of his humble Leong Art thoughtfully from a rope attached to the ceiling of his room in Stockton St.
Next to the corpse it found a note written by the suicide and so conceived:
“The most we can live is 100 years. One hundred mini is a good age for a rich man or an emperor. But for a poor devil, 50 years are more than enough. Today I am 50 years old and so I bid farewell to life.”
Here is a true philosopher!
Fong Get, leading Chinese photographer, who made hundreds of fake photographs for use in falsifying records.The 1920 census was enumerated in January. Fong was recorded at 914 Stockton Street. The photographer was able to speak English.
Some one has said something about a son being but the echo of his father. If this is true, we may expect Fong Get Jr. to become as prominent and unique a person as was his dad. Who hasn’t heard of Fong Get (Sr.), the Bushnell of Chinatown?Fong passed away February 28, 1926, in San Francisco, according to the California Death Index.
Young Fong was born in San Francisco in 1893. He graduated from the Chinese Public School of this city in 1907. Three years later he graduated from a “prep” school, and three years later the College of Dentistry of New York City.
Possibly aspiring for a part opposite Anna May Wong, he entered the movies, first with Paramount, then Fox and others. In October, 1917, Uncle Sam invited him to help make the world safe for democracy and he was assigned to the 108th New York Infantry. On arrival in France he was transferred to the intelligence service and remained till October, 1919. [Quong’s World War I draft card, at Ancestry.com, recorded his address as 54 Cathedral Parkway, New York, New York.]
In 1920 he studied to be a chiropractor and graduated from the Palmer School. At the time of the death of his father, about two years ago, he was practicing in New York.
He tells us his mother needs him in San Francisco more than his patients need him, and while his mother lives he will continue to conduct the famous studio at 960 Grant Avenue. His brother, a graduate of the University of California and an authority on railroads, has a responsible position in China. What price glory.
they had three children: Terry, Donna and Barbara.
In 1950, at age 25, her early ballet training, and love of dance, resulted in her first professional job at The China Doll, a night club revue in New York City. [The China Doll closed April 1951.] Ultimately, however, the family moved to San Francisco, where Paula had relatives, hoping for better schools and opportunity.
Once settled in California she never left. She lived briefly in Southern California, but ultimately returned to the Bay Area. Her professional dancing career resumed at the famous Forbidden City on Sutter Street in San Francisco.
