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Tom-Chong Family photograph album

Visual Materials

Tom-Chong Family photograph album

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Description: Family album of snapshots depicting the family of Du Wan and Tom J. Chong in Los Angeles, California, in the 1930s. There are many views of the Chong family and friends, as well as members of Los Angeles's Chinese community on outings, at the beach, attending picnics, on the University of Southern California campus, and at their residences. The album was presumably compiled by the Chongs' son Paul Tom, a pharmacist, and there are many images of him with friends as a young man, as well as a few of him posing at the shop where he worked in Old Chinatown near the Los Angeles Plaza. There are also images of the "Majestic Mandarins" band, shots of Paul on location in 1936 as an extra for the films "Lost Horizon" and "The General Died at Dawn," and of the "Chinese Group" of the Screen Actors Guild in a 1937 Labor Day parade. In addition there are 14 pieces of ephemera at the back of the album related to Paul consisting chiefly of cards and invitations often related to the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, and a program for Paul's 1928 graduation from Los Angeles High School. Some photographs have handwritten captions.
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Production date

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approximately 1930-approximately 1937.

Call number

photCL 475

Provenance

Gift of Mrs. Jadine Surette, October 2006.

Dimensions

images various sizes, album 29 x 32 cm +

Associated people

Surette, Jadine,

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