Quon Tai came from a prominent Chinese American family in the Northwest, spent a good part of her youth performing on the vaudeville circuit, and later married artist and film director Harry Lachman. Once Harry’s film career took off, Quon Tai became a well known party hostess in Hollywood circles. As it turns out, Quon Tai and Anna May were quite good friends, being the modern-minded Chinese American gals that they were. I write briefly about the Lachmans in my book, including the grand cocktail party they threw for Anna May on the eve of her departure for China in 1936.
I wish I could say this was the only time another Asian woman was mistaken for Anna May Wong and vice versa. But as anyone familiar with the “Wrong Asian” phenomenon knows, mixing up people of similar “ethnic types” is a frustrating, though sometimes humorous, fixture of American life. Perhaps even more so when one happens to be an internationally famous movie star.