Authentic Chinese Etiquette in Film

Filming of Pearl S. Buck’s Chinese drama, “The Good Earth,” ... Every day the watchful eye of General Theodore Tu, lent to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as technical expert by the Chinese government, follows the shooting.

Hollywood Film Shop Etiquette

HOLLYWOOD, June 9. If censor Will Hays were Chinese,
he would say "M'hi Gum Jo!" (You can't do that!)

Motion picture directors, attempting to sneak in a risque scene here and there, have heard the edict with painful regularity. Now they are hearing it in Chinese… “Mhi Gum Jo!”

Filming of Pearl S. Buck's Chinese drama. “The Good Earth,” caused it. Every day the watchful eye of General Theodore Tu, lent to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as technical expert by the Chinese government, follows the shooting.

For instance, if Louise Rainer sought the inside walk beside Paul Muni as Postians decree, General Tu would admonish her with “M'hi Gum Jo!” “Get behind him,” he would say. “A Chinese wife walks dutifully and respectfully behind her lord and master.”

Upon meeting a friend, Muni must shake hands with himself- not the friend. “Chinese do that because it's more sanitary,"” said the general. Every action is bound by rigorous Chinese etiquette. Walter Connolly, as Muni's uncle, learned this when he wished him a Happy New Year in a scene. He bowed politely.

“M'hi Gum Jo!” The older man couldn't bow to the younger. The “Patterns of Filial Piety” specify that the younger man must bow.

Other rules require children to address parents with honorable prefixes. Also an 8-year-old boy must be sedate, and set an example of dignity for a brother only two years his junior.

Even Lo, the water buffalo, came in for technical advice, A Chinese person wouldn't call the animal by his name, Tu said. He must be addressed as “friend.” – By Alexander Kahn, 1936

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette of Hollywood Films

Never ask another actor what he is doing unless you know he is working. It is embarrassing for him to admit that he is “between pictures.” – Public domain image of Golden Globe winner, Mervyn LeRoy, the man who promoted etiquette for the blossoming film industry in Hollywood.

 

A GUIDE TO FILM LIFE

HOLLYWOOD, March 18 (AP)- A treatise on the etiquette of the movies is being prepared by Mervyn LeRoy, scenario writer with Colleen Moore. 

Here are some of the rules he lays down: 

• Never ask another actor what he is doing unless you know he is working. It is embarrassing for him to admit that he is “between pictures.”
• Never ask an actor about his wife, nor an actress about her husband, unless you have read the morning paper.
• Directors do not visit sets on which other directors are at work.
• Three picture people, on parting, will go separate ways, in order that two will not be left to talk about the other. – San Pedro Daily Mail, 1927

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Hollywood Royalty Dines with Queen

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (left), and Ronald Colman in The Prisoner of Zenda

LONDON. Many britons were surprised when President Eisenhower named a banker instead of a movie star the next U.S. Ambassador to England. They welcomed the choice of banker Winthrop Aldrich, long known as a friend of the British. But newspaper gossip columnists and– all unwittingly – Queen Elizabeth II herself had led them to expect that the job would go to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., screen actor and spare-time diplomat., Fairbanks Junior, now a greying 43 with a hairline moustache and a friendly smile, has never achieved the film fame of his father. But with no apparent effort he has performed in Britain a feat of social climbing that leaves the most ambitious Washington hostess gasping. A few weeks ago, on November 19, he reached the top. Queen Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, came to dinner.

The young monarch and a handful of other guests ate off green china in the big dining room of the Fairbanks house in a secluded byway of the classy South Kensington district. For Fairbanks and his wife, the former Mary Lee Epling Hartford, daughter of a Virginia doctor, the party was a triumph. For the starchy "old guard" of society it was something to set eyebrows rising above lorgnettes. The question is: what has turned a Hollywood glamor boy into a respected, statesman-like figure? 

His' Father's Footsteps 

It's probably a case of literally following in father's footsteps. With his wife, Mary Pickford, Fairbanks, Sr., made contacts in London society which have opened many crested doors to his son. Most important was a friendship with Lord Louis Mountbatten, now Earl Mountbatten of Burma, an uncle of the Queen's husband. Fairbanks, Jr., inherited from his father a love for England. His career as an ex-official statesman started when President Roosevelt asked him to help smooth the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the U.S. in 1939. Then, in 1940, Roosevelt sent him as an envoy to several Latin American countries. In World War II, Fairbanks served in the U.S. Navy. He was appointed to the staff of Lord Mountbatten. He took part in the raid on Dieppe, finished the war with rows of decorations. His biggest role since the war has been with C.A.R.E.. This won him an honorary knighthood in 1949. As a foreigner, he is not entitled to a "sir" before his name. He prefers to be known as Commander Fairbanks, but he does not object when Britons call him "Sir Douglas." 

Nobody knows just what other statesman plays host to Queen & Prince. About his official capacity, if he has any, the U.S. Embassy says only: "About a year ago the State Department asked Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., to be available for occasional consultation with the American Embassy in London. He now has an advisory status on the information side." 

He Won't Talk 

Fairbanks is silent about his diplomatic and social honors. To his credit, he talks only about his professional career– making movies here for U.S. television. Though he won't say how he managed to get the Queen to come to dinner, friends claim it came about quite naturally. Talking with Prince Philip, with whom he has much in common because of his friendship with the Mountbattens, Fairbanks mentioned that his house in South Kensington was decorated and ready for guests. Thereupon, Philip indicated that a Fairbanks' invitation to a quiet, informal evening would be accepted. And, for the benefit of ambitious hostesses, that's the inside story on how it happened!

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Cowboy Tom Mix on Etiquette

IMDB image of the
 Movie Poster for “Oh, You Tony!”

Tom Mix Writes a Book on Etiquette for Cow-Punchers

In “Oh, You Tony,” Tom Mix’s latest picture which starts showing at the Globe Theatre tomorrow, Tom, as Tom Masters, part owner of an Arizona ranch, goes to Washington as the representative of a ranch-owners’ association.

There Mix gets mixed up with the fast diplomatic and social set. He is put through the Capitals’ most exclusive school of etiquette and his written “The Cowboy's Book of Etiquette,” based on his own personal experience in smart society in “Oh, You Tony!” which is intended to be a practical guide and answer such questions as these:

• “What is the difference between a saloon and a salon?” 

• “Can cowboys cuss in polite society? Why?”  

• “Is it ever good form to shoot first?” 

• “May guns be worn to an informal dance? To a formal function?” 

• “Is the strangle hold barred in catch-as-catch dancing?” 

• “Is it more refined to say, ‘I beg your pawdon’ or ‘Excuse me?’” And should one say it before, or after knocking the villain down?”

• “In a free-for-all drawing room fight, is it good form to hit below the belt, even after a big dinner?”

• “On being introduced to a lady, is it smarter to say, ‘Chawmed’ or ‘Glad to a meet-cher?’” 

• “And which of her hands do you kiss first? Do you wait for the lady to stick it out?” 

• "When does a cover charge like a mad bull?" – San Pedro Pilot, 1925

 

  🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

New Etiquette for Hollywood Needed?

Evidently the photographer was still hanging around when Shelley Winters showed up at the police station to claim her man!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a slew of etiquette books. I have old, collectable books, vintage books, antiquarian books, and even a few new ones hanging around. My favorites are the vintage etiquette books. I especially love any original tomes by Amy Vanderbilt, Letitia Baldrige and Miss Manners. Those are true gems. Whenever I am looking for new things to post, or reading submitted articles, I find things that are well written, funny and honestly helpful with regard to “new etiquette.” This one is a gem! In our celebrity obsessed culture, this plea for new etiquette, from 1957, was a refreshing reminder of just how innocent the 1950s seemed.

New Book Needed? 

"MY GOOD deed for this day is a gratis presentation of a million dollar idea to Amy Vanderbilt and her host of imitators. The etiquette authorities, in their eagerness to transform us into a nation of Fauntleroys and Miss Prisses have somehow overlooked a virgin territory ripe for their ministrations. The ladies have prescribed the ground rules for every social contingency (rum apple bobbing to zebra hunting), but they have let their public down woefully on a 'Book of Etiquette As She Is Practiced in Hollywood.' 

THERE IS a crying well, maybe, a screaming need for such a tome. Such a volume, if written by Mme. Fearless Fairless, would clear up the justifiable confusions that assail the civilian or non-Hollywood mind when Miss Shelley Winters (the inflammable Bernhardt of the screen), and her fiance, Anthony Franciosa, who is incadescent on his own, became entangled with (1) a news photographer and (2) with the law. The nuances of Hollywood social usage and the delicate shadings of custom in the cinema capital are splendidly illustrated by this fracas and also the necessity of a book that will explain these tribal taboos to outlanders. 

TO BEGIN WITH Miss Winters and Franciosa have made no secret of their betrothal in any Broadway or theatre gossip column which would print the word. Nor has the phrase "Festively Top Secret" been stamped on the news that they would be wedded once the fiance was divorced by his wife. Furthermore, Miss Winters has never shown any more repugnance to being photographed by the press than, say, Jayne Mansfield. So when Miss Winters and her fiance went publicly and together to the Superior Court Building in Los Angeles to make an open and public bid on a home in Beverly Hills, a news photographer started to take a routine picture of the pair.

THIS IS WHERE the plot thickens and confusion reigns for us barbarians beyond the hills of Hollywood. The attempt to take a picture of Miss Winters and Franciosa together obviously fractured a strictly cinema social taboo. It caused Franciosa to fall upon the photographer and aim a placekick at his groin. And caused the law to jail Franciosa. "We can't have our pictures taken! He is still getting a divorce!" screamed Miss Winters. "He doesn’t want to be photographed because he doesn't want any scandal!” Sure enough, Franciosa was getting a divorce, on that very day. (Or rather, his wife received such a decree in Reno.)

ANYWAY, there you have the epitome of the delicate social usages that make Hollywood a trap for the unwary and a book of etiquette a necessity. Apparently, one of the basic rules says that if one is engaged to a man in the process of getting a divorce, it is all right to say it in print but not in pictures. That would constitute scandal. Of course, any book of etiquette is one-tenth politesse and nine-tenths anthropology. So my nominee as the author to tackle Hollywood's etiquette problems is Anthropologist Margaret Mead. Her study of the natives of Samoa made her world famous and ought to prepare her handsomely for research among the Holly-woodenheads." — Inez Robb for The Dessert Sun, May 4, 1957

By site contributor, Maura J. Graber. Etiquette and antique silver enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is generally annoyed by pleas for “new etiquette.” Oh yes, and she edits, publishes and maintains the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia blog!

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

15 Etiquette Books to Host Queen

Public domain image of Queen Frederika of Greece from 1947 until 1964, as the wife of King Paul of Greece.

Hollywood Beat: Filmland Matrons Ready For Greek Queen's Visit

How do you converse with a Queen? Can a Princess dance with movie stars? Where does royalty sit in a ballroom?

These are some of the hundreds of issues a group of Hollywood matrons have been wrestling with for the past three months. The climax of their struggle comes this Saturday night when the local chapter of WAIF, the international child adoption society, presents its Annual Imperial Ball.

Their guests: Queen Frederika and Princess Sophia of Greece. You don't just ask a Queen to dinner and let it go at that. Actress Coleen Gray, local WAIF president, found that out.

"Everything has to be planned, down to the smallest detail," she explained. "We have consulted the State Department. We have read 15 etiquette books. We have consulted the Queen's Grand Maitress de la Court. 

Coleen' s struggle began last June. The Chrysler Corp. agreed to co-sponsor the ball if the WAIF ladies could secure a bona fide member of royalty as guest. Coleen and her aides worked 12 hours composing a letter to Queen Frederika. It was sent according to proper procedure through the American ambassador in Athens. Weeks, months went by and no answer came. After repeated cables, the word finally returned: Yes, the ball would coincide nicely with the Queen's unofficial visit to the U S. ” — By Bob Thomas (AP Motion Picture Writer) Hollywood (AP), 1958

Reminder: We have a free webinar on Dining According to Hollywood and Dining Etiquette as Presented on Film! You can watch it live on September 23rd at 4:00 pm PST (Pacific Standard Time). We have a limited number of viewers who can attend via Zoom, however, if you are registered and cannot watch the event live, you’ll be sent a video link to watch a copy at your leisure. Link to the Free Webinar –– https://events.humanitix.com/dining-according-to-hollywood-the-art-of-dining-on-film Please email any questions to: theetiquettechannel@gmail.com

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia