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28 tfUklaniiilAirribunt Mon., Nov.29,1965A Flsir for It-fjVou could have cut the darkness with a pan i::ed noodle. But Mai Tai Sin is more like lotus blossom soup, and anyway it wasn't that dark that you couldn’t see her.Mai Tai must be studied carefully, as if you were reading an awesome biolog)' text. She is a combination of sight, sound and smell, a three-dimensional woman who toils happily in an alley a hlock and a half from Grant Avenue, San Francisco, California, t'.S.A. (If I can get Bichard Bodgers on the phone, I've got a hit.)Mis* Sing had summoned me to her Ricksha I.ounge for an important announcement. She could have summoned me to her Ricksha Lounge to ask me what time it was and I would have broken the sound barrier.I imagine she is (all, but I am not sure how lull. While talking with her, X stayed seated. Otherwise,I would not have been able to retain balance.She used to be on the television, in a late, lamented thing called “Hong Kong.” She was born here, went to Hong Kong to study, came back to S. F. to run the Ricksha with her three brothers, then fell into the movie and TV whirl. The two movies she did, with Ann Blyth and Tony Curtis, featured her as a dancer and informer. “I don’t think I should mention them,” she said.But that was long ago, as was “Hong Kong.” Now, how-ever, Mai Tai Sing has a pic- ri£lt;Sture she docs want to mention.* * *“I have an important announcement,” she said.I breathed of the rare East iris perfumes that floated about her, bit into an egg roll she’d handed me, poised my pencil and said, “Are you sure you don’t want to know what time it is?”“Jeffrey Hunter will be MICHEISON here soon to help me tell you about my new picture,” she said.At that moment I did not, repeat did not, need Jeffrey Hunter. Or an egg roll. But then he came, the handsome devil, the handsome, 3S-year-o!d devil in his handsome houndstooth sports jacket. His arrival was strictly unfair io labor.Still, he is a pleasant man. And terribly handsome.“It was like this,” he said. Now I really had my pencil poised. There was nothing else to do.+ ★ k“A couple of weeks ago T met a woman in Hollywood I hadn’t seen for years, since 1 made an appearance in Singapore as a goodwill ambassador in 1953. She is now married to Jeff Stone, a writer and director. Mrs. Stone told me her husband had this new script. She showed it to me and asked for some suggestions about actors.“I was intrigued by the story line. I read it and flipped. So I called Jeff and asked him if I could play the lead, which I guess was being a bit presumptuous because he hadn’t asked me. Eventually, I came up here to talk to Mai Tai about it, and while I was here we closed the deal — the first time I’ve ever signed for a picture without talking to my business manager or agent.”That’s why yesterday Jeff and Mai Tai flew off to Hong Kong lo begin shooting “Strange Portrait” with Stone.Both of them will have a piece of the production company (East-West Motion Picture Co.). The budget will he modest, and they hope to wrap up Strange Portrait” in less than 40 days.“I'm glad we won’t be hurried,” said Ilunler.•k k krThe story will feature Jeff as an itinerant thief who stumbles on a valuable portrait in a Hong Kong mansion. But the man in the portrait looks just like him. When he learns the man is dead, Jeff confronts .the widow (Mai Tai) and a suspense fantasy ensues. It sounds like a combination of “Laura” and Picture of Dorian Gray.” To Mai Tai, it sounds like a good shot at a comeback.t know I’ve been out of the field for jears,” she smiles. “I left for business reasons, bid now I really miss being In movies. I’ve always bad show business in liiv blood, somehow. 1 guess I just have a flair for it.”She smiled at Hunter, and Hunter smiled back. I took one last whiff of tire perfume, one final look at the houndstooth jacket and walked limply back into Chinatown. And yesterday, as I heard a jet obviously bound for Hong Kong, 1 cried just a little. Man, I guess, cannot live on egg rolls alone.
Newspaper Details
Oakland Tribune
Oakland, California, US
Mon, Nov 29, 1965
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Wikimedia F.
California, DZ 19 Sep 2024
Other Publications Near Oakland, California
Sunday Oakland Tribune
Oakland Tribune
