Cathay Vaudeville Show: Blossoms and Beauties

Given my recent interest in Chinese American vaudeville, I was delighted to discover this article from International Screen No. 29 (March, 1958) about a variety fundraiser organized by Cathay/MP&GI during the Chinese New Year of 1958.

Of special interest is the skit "Northerners & Southerners" which would later be fleshed out by Cathay into a successful trilogy of films (1961-64) playing on the culture clash in Hong Kong between Mandarin-speaking immigrants from northern China and Cantonese speakers from the South. Some of the other acts were derived from previous films — the "Sword Dance" from Our Sister Hedy (1957) — or films then in production — Li Mei and Chen Ho's calypso routine in Calendar Girl (1959).

A scan of the original article is available here (1.9MB PDF).

"Blossoms and Beauties"

In response to the Standard-Sing Tao Newspapers' Fat Choy Drive to raise funds for Hongkong's needy people during the Chinese New Year, Motion Picture and General Investment Co. staged an unprecedented mammoth vaudeville show in which the cream of the Colony's movie workers paraded their talent in singing, dancing, clowning and tear-jerking. That the show was a whopping success was borne out by the fact that the two performances were played to full houses. The 18 items on the entertainment fare were dished out by a big cast of Hongkong's top movie stars, producers and directors.