Mai Tai Sing

Mai Tai Sing is a former actress and a business woman. Her acting credits include the TV series Hong Kong, Forbidden, Strange Portrait and The New Adventures of China Smith.

Background

She was born in Oakland, California and her actual name was May Tsang. Most of her young years were in Hong Kong. Later in her teens she and her family moved back to the California Bay area. When she was about fourteen, her family moved back to the Bay Area. One of her early jobs was waitressing at the Forbidden City nightclub. It was there she became interested in performing.[1] Later in the early 1940s, she became a chorus girl there. She met Wilbur and Jessie Tai Sing, a dancing duo. Later she replaced Jessie. By 1942 she was married to Wilbur Tai Sing and had two children to him.[2][3]

In the 1960s she became romantically involved with actor Jeffrey Hunter. An article in The Milwaukee Sentinel said that they were to be married. At this time they had been working together in the film Strange Portrait.[4]

In the 1970s she relocated to Hawaii.[5]

Film and television roles

Film

In 1953, she appeared in a film with Tony Curtis, playing the part of Soo Lee.[6] Forbidden was directed by Rudolf Mate. Other cast included Joanne Dru and Victor Sen Yung.[7] Her last film role was in the ill-fated Strange Portrait that starred Jeffry Hunter. In this film she played a wealthy but reclusive and insane woman living alone in a mansion who has an obsession with a portrait of her husband that had abandoned her.[8]

Television

In the 1950s she appeared in two episodes of The New Adventures of China Smith aka The Affairs of China Smith which was an action/adventure series about an American adventurer living in Singapore. The main role was played by Dan Duryea.[9] In the early 1960s had a recurring role as Ching Mei in the series Hong Kong. [10][11] She played the owner of The Golden Dragon, a supper club. The cast included Rod Taylor and Lloyd Bochner.[12]

She would also host Charlie Chan films on channel 44, a local San Francisco television station.[13][14]

Club management

Advertising poster for Ricksha Bistro in San Francisco

She had an association with clubs that goes back to the 1940s as a chorus girl,[15] she would eventually end up in management. One of the clubs that she ran was The Rickshaw in San Francisco. That club is known for a night when John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Billy Preston stopped by.[16] Since having moved to Hawaii in the 1970s, another club she managed was Trappers located in the Hyatt Waikiki. This club would feature Jimmy Borges and the Betty Loo Taylor Trio. She was hostess and manager there until she retired in 2003.[17][18] She was originally hired by manager Ed Sullivan to run the club, and her retirement marked 28 years of management and hosting at Trappers and later at the Ciao Mein.[19][20]

Filmography

Television

Film

[22]

References

  1. ↑ Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive @ Mai Tai Sing Historical Essay Source material from Forbidden City: The Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs by Trina Robbins.
  2. ↑ npr These Nightclub Entertainers Paved The Way For Asian-Americans In Showbiz by Heidi Chang
  3. ↑ Chinese in Hollywood By Jenny Cho and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California Page 61
  4. ↑ The Milwaukee Sentinel Feb. 15 1966 Page 15, Buck Herzog, Sign Has Double Meaning
  5. ↑ Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive @ Mai Tai Sing Historical Essay Source material from Forbidden City: The Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs by Trina Robbins.
  6. ↑ New York Times Forbidden (1953) Acting Credits
  7. ↑ Screen World Vol. 6 1955 by Blum, Daniel Page 18 Forbidden
  8. ↑ Jeffrey Hunter: The Film, Television, Radio and Stage Performances by Paul Green Green Chapter 19 Strange Portrait - Dimension 5 page 119
  9. ↑ TV Guide China Smith TV Show, Cast & Crew
  10. ↑ epguides.com Hong Kong (a Titles & Air Dates Guide
  11. ↑ Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed. by Vincent Terrace Page 474, 4156 Hong Kong
  12. ↑ Broadcasting December 12, 1960 Page 73 Changes in 'Hong Kong' assure Kaiser backing
  13. ↑ Chinese in Hollywood By Jenny Cho and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California Page 61
  14. ↑ Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive @ Mai Tai Sing Historical Essay Source material from Forbidden City: The Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs by Trina Robbins.
  15. ↑ WPSU Penn State Tue March 17, 2015 These Nightclub Entertainers Paved The Way For Asian-Americans In Showbiz by Heidi Chang
  16. ↑ Honolulu Star Advertiser Saturday, March 14, 2015 Mai Tai Sing, Jimmy Borges, Hyatt's Trapperettes reunite by Ben Wood
  17. ↑ Honolulu Star Advertiser Saturday, March 14, 2015 Mai Tai Sing, Jimmy Borges, Hyatt's Trapperettes reunite by Ben Wood
  18. ↑ Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive @ Mai Tai Sing Historical Essay Source material from Forbidden City: The Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs by Trina Robbins.
  19. ↑ Honolulu Star Bulletin Archives Saturday, October 25, 2003 By Ben Wood, Wood Craft, "One last round for Hyatt’s Mai Tai Sing"
  20. ↑ Honolulu Star Bulletin Archives Wednesday, December 24, 1997 Body & Soul Hawaii Ever-youthful birthday Sing By Dave Donnelly
  21. ↑ Hollywood.Com Mai Tai Sing Credits)
  22. ↑ imdb Mai Tai Sing Filmography
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