Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Our first entrant to the Celebrity Shrine is early Hollywood star Anna May Wong. She is not honoured here because of her struggles with the institutional racisim of Hollywood, or her glamerous rise to be the first(only) Chinese-American actress of the '20's and '30's to get top billing and star status(with unparalleled style and class), or the way she kicked ass on Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express. No, she is brought to your attention here because of a section in her memoirs where she mentions being stricken with St. Vitus dance. It was written in the 1930's so it seems to be a rather late and casual mention of a very popular Old Country affliction. "..oh I stayed home the other day. Touch of the ol' St. Vitus dance. Anyway, whadj you do?"
After that, the dance falls out of fashion for a bit untill Bauhaus rivives it in the '80's. Those crazy retro kids.
