Beschreibung:

Title: Two imprints by and about Chinese-American James Wong Howe the premier cinematographer in Hollywood Author: Place: Publisher: Date: Description: Includes: • James Wong Howe “Interior lighting for Motion Picture”,Pp. 2132-2140 in The Complete Photographer, Issue 33 (1942). Complete in pictorial wrappers. One of Howe’s few publications. • Sanora Babb, et al. “James Wong Howe 1899-1976” (Second International Film Festival, Hong Kong, 1978) Original pictorial wrappers. 80 unnumbered pages. Illustrated. Inscribed: “To Mary and Bob with so many good wishes, Sanora Babb (Mrs. James Wong Howe / Hollywood December 1981”. With an autograph of Howe taped to one page, captioned “Jimmie’s real signature”. Howe's success in Hollywood was an amazing achievement, given the recurrent racism of the time during which there were few Asian actors in Hollywood films, let alone cinematic artists such as Howe. His success was also remarkable considering the personal problems he faced with his marriage to Babb, a white woman, an accomplished novelist and poet in her own right. They were married in Paris in 1937 because of an archaic California law banning interracial marriage. Because of that legal bar, Howe’s wartime studio contracts prohibited him from publicly acknowledging his marriage, while in keeping with Chinese tradition, they did not even live together, but had separate apartments in the same building. After the racist law was invalidated in 1948, they encountered other problems: During the McCarthy era, Howe’s wife was blacklilsted for alleged Communist ties; she was forced to move to Mexico City to protect her husband from both political taint and racial harassment. Lot Amendments Condition: very good. Item number: 288654