Throwback Thursday and Dorothy Toy
Dorothy Toy, born Takahashi, was not
Chinese but a Japanese American born on May 28, 1917 in San Francisco. She was
discovered by a vaudeville theater manager as she danced in front of her parent’s
restaurant. She teamed up with Paul Wing, and together they became known as “The
Chinese Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers”.Their skill and style is shown in the
1937 short “Deviled Ham”.
Not long after WWII began, Toy’s family
was interned in Topaz, Utah. Toy avoided this by moving to New York, although
she still couldn’t escape the prejudice. In 1943 Wing was drafted into the Army. He
survived the war, but Toy said it was never quite the same afterwards, although
they continued to travel and perform together. Wing died in 1997 at age 85.
Toy taught dance in her own studio until
a hip injury sidelined her. A documentary of her life called “Dancing Through
Life: The Dorothy Toy Story” premiered December 11, 2016 at the Great Star Theater in San Francisco’s
Chinatown.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #246:
“ Dorothy Toy was billed
as the Chinese Ginger Rogers.”
Links of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“Prejudices,
it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has
never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds
among stones.”
― Charlotte BrontĂ«, Jane Eyre
― Charlotte BrontĂ«, Jane Eyre
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