Anna May Wong was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California. Her parents ran a laundry in the city's Chinatown section. Anna became a photographer's model when she was still attending Hollywood High School. She was fascinated with the movie industry at a young age, having observed several films being shot in and around her neighborhood. At almost 14 years old, her actor cousin, James Wong Howe, showed a photograph of her to a director, which resulted in her getting a bit part in Dinty (1920) (unfortunately for film buffs, there are no prints of the movie in existence, because of deterioration). The next year she appeared in two more films, Shame (1921) and Bits of Life (1921) (in which she received billing). Anna's big break came when she landed the role of a Mongolian slave girl in The Thief of Bagdad (1924). This film put her in the position of being the first (and for a long time the only) U.S. Chinese performer to become a bona fide movie star. It led to bigger parts in other movies with a Chinese or other East Asian theme, in which she alternated between playing the heroine or the heroine's evil nemesis. Another hit for her was A Trip to Chinatown (1926), in which her trademark bangs and East Asian dress only accentuated her beauty, enhancing her status with the movie-going public. Before long her name was synonymous with 'exotic', East Asian-themed productions, and films such as The Devil Dancer (1927), Across to Singapore (1928) and The Crimson City (1928) kept fans coming to the theatres. Anna's talent and beauty carried her through a successful transition into talkies, and she also traveled to Europe to act in films there. Upon her return to the U.S. after three years, she was signed to a contract with Paramount. Her career reached its zenith with her casting in Shanghai Express (1932) with Marlene Dietrich. Another in her string of successes was Dangerous to Know (1938) with Charles Laughton, Lloyd Nolan and Anthony Quinn, in which she played Lin Yang, a "kept" woman who seeks revenge when her gangster lover tries to replace her. By the 1940s, however, Anna's career had begun to stall. Theatre patrons were finding escapist fare elsewhere, and her Chinese melodramas were no longer in demand. Also, attitudes towards race in the U.S. made it almost impossible for Anna to get good parts in pictures other than East Asian-themed ones. After Lady from Chungking (1942), Anna didn't appear on-screen again until Impact (1949), and then only in a minor supporting role. She had an early television series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951), but it didn't last long. Anna appeared sporadically on television throughout the 1950s. Her career problems were exacerbated by a drinking problem, and by the mid-1950s she learned that she was suffering from heart problems and cirrhosis of the liver. She made a final effort to recharge her career with Portrait in Black (1960). Although the first was a modest hit, the second film was released to mixed reviews and meager box office receipts. On February 2, 1961, Anna died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. She had never married.

Otto Dyar was a prominent stills photographer who began his career at the Paramount studios in the 1920s. Initially working as an assistant on major film productions such as the 1927 ‘Wings’, Dyar quickly rose through the ranks to become one of Hollywood’s most notable image-makers.

During the 1930s and 40s, Dyar developed his own, highly dramatic style of lighting and photography that deviated from the neoclassical glamor of the 1920s. Edgy and expressionistic, Dyar’s photographs pushed the iconic features of movie stars like Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Kay Francis and Joan Crawford to a grittier place that was more in accord with the aesthetics of films made in those decades. Of particular note are Dyar’s star portraits taken outside of the studio, an unusual and daring step at the time.

Despite all the high-contrast lighting, skewed angles and often tiny ‘surrealist’ interventions that point to the influence of photographers like Man Ray, Dyar faithfully accomplished the task of elevating the studio stars to the realm of deities. Like his peers George Hurrell, Ted Allen and Clarence Sinclair Bull, Dyar was not concerned with the psychologies of his sitters. What interested him was amplifying and consolidating the image the stars exuded in their roles, which was usually so powerful that it eclipsed the ‘real’ person that was in front of the camera. As noted by film historian John Kobal, Hollywood stills photographers like Dyar ‘were not mirroring life, but illusion; their subjects were not humans but gods – of love, of allure, of luxury, perfection incarnate from the golden age of Hollywood glamor.’*

During the 1950s, Dyar left Paramount and moved to MGM where he continued to work up to mid 1950s. His work can be found in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art and other major art museums throughout the USA.

The late Hugh Pickett liked to collect stuff. Antiques, art, movie posters, autographed photos of Hollywood stars — his Kerrisdale home was brimming with all sorts of treasures.

Nine years after Pickett’s death, it all went up for auction.  On Aug. 26, 1915, Love’s Auction in Richmond sold off  the Hugh Pickett estate. Thousands of pieces went up for grabs, reflecting the diverse tastes of the impresario who was Vancouver’s top promoter from the 1940s until the 1980s.

He was born Hugh Frank Digby Pickett was born on April 11, 1913 in Vancouver, British Columbia and he went on to be a Canadian impresario who made major contributions to Vancouver’s arts and entertainment scene.  He started out as a usher and went on to become a manager and press agent with Theatre Under the Stars and brought many entertainers to town from  around the world.  

It is hard to overestimate Hugh Pickett’s impact on Vancouver. Pickett led the fight to save the Orpheum Theatre when it was threatened with demolition in the 1970s. He talked the manager at the Hotel Georgia into letting Nat King Cole stay there in the 1950s, breaking the color barrier at the big downtown hotels. He was the promoter behind the Rolling Stones show that turned into a riot in 1972.

As far as Dietrich goes, he was Marlene Dietrich's business manager for 12 years and they remained friends for even longer.

According to Gordon Boyd, who was Pickett’s partner for 30 years, he had every photo of Dietrich ever printed and many other unique items from the great lady of cinema.

Mary Pickford, Elvis Presley, Bette Davis, Mae West, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Tyrone Power, Lillian Gish, Katharine Hepburn, Phyllis Diller, Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Margot Fonteyn, Mischa Baryshnikov, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Rubenstein, Maria Callas, Leonard Bernstein — these are only a few of the people Pickett knew or at least met and had memorabilia from.

In 1986, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition for his involvement with "Vancouver's famed Theatre Under The Stars".

Pickett died on Feb. 13, 2006, at the age of 92.