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1-12 of 12
- Pioneer exotic dancer Noel Toy's fashionably seductive nude performances in both San Francisco and New York night clubs caused quite a sensation back in her 1940s heyday.
Concealed by a few ostrich plumes, she became the nation's first Chinese-American fan dancer while turning San Francisco's "Forbidden City" into one of the nation's most scandalously famous nightclubs.
Dubbed the "Chinese Sally Rand" because of her similar routines with fans and a huge, transparent plastic bubble, ritzy New York clubs quickly fought over her.
She went on to "take it all off" at such exclusive niteries as "The Stork Club", "Maxie's", "The 18th Club", Lou Walter's "Latin Quarter" and "Leon & Eddie's". (Lou Walters was the father of TV journalist / interviewer / host Barbara Walters.)
Born Ngun Yee in San Francisco, she was the eldest of eight children born to émigré parents from Canton, China. Mrs. Young's parents opened and operated a laundromat. She studied journalism and was quite close to graduating from the University of California Berkeley when she accepted an offer to perform in a Chinese village show at the World's Fair on Treasure Island in San Francisco in 1939, at which a career was born. Later that year, businessman Charlie Low invited her to work at his popular "Forbidden City" nightclub, the first and only Chinese nightclub at the time. Needless to say, a cross-over business quickly escalated. She began calling herself Noel Toy out of her love for the Christmas season.
Along the way she became an outspoken critic and strove in her own way to liberalize women (particularly Chinese women's) from the demeaning stereotype of a demure, submissive and subservient gender. She appeared in newspapers and eventually even in LIFE magazine
In 1945 she met and married a U.S. Army soldier who also happened to be the western character actor Carleton Young. He had caught her dance act at New York's "Latin Quarter" and was smitten. They had a long and happy marriage which ended only with his death in 1994 at age 89. She gave up dancing at her husband's request and began a career in acting.
She appeared in a few exotic bits in such films as Anne of the Indies (1951) with Jean Peters and Debra Paget (her husband was also in the picture); Soldier of Fortune (1955) with 'Clark Gable' and 'Susan Hayward'; The Left Hand of God (1955) with Humphrey Bogart and Gene Tierney; and How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955) with Betty Grable and Sheree North.
She grew very disillusioned, however, with the stereotyped role Hollywood placed on Asian-American women and eventually moved away from the business and later pursued real estate.
Every now and then, however, she would be glimpsed in character roles on such established TV programs as "Police Woman," "Family Affair" and "M*A*S*H".
She also appeared in the Kurt Russell film Big Trouble in Little China (1986) in a minor matron role.
Trim, tiny and forever sensuous, she died,quite fittingly, on Christmas Eve of 2003, five days after suffering a stroke. She was 84.
The ashes of Noel Toy Young and husband Carleton Young were interred together at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. - Martin was raised in the Wishkah Valley near Aberdeen, Washington. He served in the United States Navy during during WWII, where he was a radioman second class and serving on a Liberty ship which delivered ammunition and supplies to the forces in the south pacific. Martin was discharged from the Navy following the war and then moved to California, He worked in electronics and the motion picture industry, including work in the jet propulsion motion picture arena. He also operated a small business in Venice doing non-linear editing for films. He took up acting, and appeared in small roles in several television programs and big screen movies, including: A Summer Place (1959), The Hanging Tree (1959), and Baker's Hawk (1976).
- Special Effects
- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
Guy Hudson was born in 1958 in London, England, UK. He is known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Enemy Mine (1985). He died on 24 December 2003 in London, England, UK.- Actress
Donna Lou Miller was born on 8 November 1949 in Salem, Virginia, USA. She was an actress. She died on 24 December 2003 in Roanoke, Virginia, USA.- Cinematographer
- Actor
- Editor
José de Almeida Mauro was a cinematographer and actor, known for Canto da Saudade (1952), A Velha a Fiar (1964) and Congonhas do Campo (1957). He died on 24 December 2003 in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.- Stanislaw Kowalewski was born on 16 March 1918 in Brwinów, Mazowieckie, Poland. He was a writer, known for Tarpany (1962) and Draka (1971). He died on 24 December 2003 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
- Actress and prompter. She made her debut in 1927 at the Municipal Theater in Lódz, then she studied at the Ballet School at the Grand Theater in Warsaw and for several years she performed in variety programs of Warsaw theaters, e.g. in the summer theater in the Swiss Valley, "Momus", "Mignon" (1927- 29), the cinema-revue "Hollywood" (1929-30), in "Kometa" (1931) and touring bands, mainly in a character duet with Stanislaw Wolinski (1931-36), then alone in programs where she recited and played sketches ( 1936-39). During the German occupation, she performed in public theaters in Warsaw: "Niebieski Motyl", "Bohema", "Komedia", and after the war, in the 1945/46 season, occasionally in the variety theater in Wlochy near Warsaw. In the 1946/47 season, she participated in a tour of Poland by the News and Satire Theaters, and after returning to Warsaw, she performed at the Prague Revue Theater. Moreover, in 1948, she completed a two-year course for non-professional theater instructors at the Warsaw State Theater School based in Lódz. From 1949 she was associated with the Polish Army Home, Estrada Warszawska, and in 1957-65 with the PPIE Traveling Theater. In 1965-70 she was an actress of the Masovian Land Theater in Warsaw, and in 1970-75 she was a prompter there. In 1943, she married actor Zygmunt Mieczyslaw Garbacki, nickname "Actor", an actor of the Kometa Theater in Warsaw and a corporal of the Home Army. In January 1944, their daughter Halina was born, and after Zygmunt's death, in March 1945, two boys were born: Marek and Zygmunt. Garbacki died in August 1944 at Zagloba Street during the capture of "Jajczarnia" at the corner of Górczewska Street, during the Warsaw Uprising. Their son, also Zygmunt, was sentenced to death in 1971, after the murder of his fiancée's father, a popular writer and member of parliament - Jan Gerhard. The sentence was carried out.
- Hugo Argüelles was born on 16 January 1932 in Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico. He was a writer, known for Doña Macabra (1972), Cita con la muerte (1963) and Una vez, un hombre... (1971). He died on 24 December 2003 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Boris Berzner was born on 1 April 1945 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. He was a director and writer, known for Dela Lokhovskogo (1997), Keshka i terroristy (1993) and Keshka i boroda (1993). He died on 24 December 2003.- David Hobman was born on 8 June 1927. He was married to Erica Irwin. He died on 24 December 2003.
- Art Department
Patrick Miller was born on 2 January 1952 in Glendale, California, USA. He is known for Zoolander (2001) and The Follow (2001). He died on 24 December 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Sound Department
- Additional Crew
Eduard Palcek was born on 8 March 1936 in Koseca, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He is known for Skalní v ofsajde (1961), Skaly a ludia (1959) and Stastie príde v nedelu (1959). He died on 24 December 2003 in Bratislava, Slovakia.