"She was an outrageous rebel." So says filmmaker Arthur Dong, who chronicled exotic dancer Noel Toy and fellow Chinese American performers in Forbidden City, U.S.A. (1989), a documentary about America's premiere all-Chinese nightclub.
Born in San Francisco, Noel Toy (real name Ngun Yee) got her start in showbiz in 1939 at the Golden Gate International Exposition held on San Francisco's Treasure Island. A UC Berkeley student at the time, she was offered a job at the Expo's Chinese Village that evidently involved "little more than standing around in a Chinese gown." Noel soon found another job — that also required little more than standing around, and in a lot less than a gown — at the Candid Camera attraction, which invited fairgoers to photograph live nude models.
When the Forbidden City's PR man suggested to owner Charlie Low that what they needed to attract more customers was a Chinese bubble dancer, Charlie hired Noel to perform at his nightclub. Undoubtedly, the idea was inspired by Sally Rand — the original bubble dancer — who was stirring up lots of controversy and making lots of money at the Golden Gate Expo with her "Nude Ranch" and nightly performances at The Music Box (currently known to Bay Area residents as the Great American Music Hall). So that's how UC coed Ngun Yee came to be known as Noel Toy, the "Chinese Sally Rand".
Business at the Forbidden City tripled within three months, and Noel soon began performing at other clubs around San Francisco. In February 1941, she was appearing in Reno, Nevada and later that year she was invited by a promoter to perform in New York City, where she was a big hit.
In the fall of 1942, Noel appeared in the Broadway revue Wine, Women and Song. The show ran for 150 performances, from September 28th until December 3, when it was shut down on obscenity charges. A witness at the trial said that Noel Toy "was nude except for her shoes and one other piece of clothing, and pretended to dance but didn't move her feet" (Associated Press, December 1, 1942). Another witness, commenting on her signature fan dance, testified that Noel intermittently revealed "all or substantially all her body." On December 18, the producer of the show was sentenced to a six month prison term, and the judge had these words to say to Noel Toy and fellow performer Margie Hart.
Whether or not these so-called leading attractions, these artists of the strip tease, are to be prosecuted under another law for their indecent performance, this court does not presume to know.
But the hope is expressed that they earn the just contempt of those in the theatrical profession who are still interested in maintaining the high moral standards of the stage.
—International News Service, December 18, 1942
Noel Toy gave up burlesque dancing but continued performing songs and monologues in NYC. In 1945 she met and married actor Carleton Young and retired from the stage. Noel subsequently had a sporadic career in film and television, which included appearances in Soldier of Fortune (1955), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), and a few episodes of M*A*S*H*, but not surprisingly, Hollywood didn't have much to offer her.
But lucky for us, the famously sexy — and infamously indecent — dance that made Noel Toy a star for a few brief years has been preserved on film and made available by the Prelinger Archives.
Further Reading and Viewing
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