Beauty Queen Goes to Hollywood

Last update on September 29,2010

After achieving an incredible third runner-up title at the very first Miss Universe beauty pageant [1], 1952 Miss Hong Kong, Judy Dan 但茱迪, went to Hollywood and became the first credited actress from Hong Kong to appear in a US blockbuster production. She played the role of a Royal Wife in the 1956 Twentieth Century Fox musical 'The King and I' that starred Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. Her acting career in movies and on television continued for more than a decade, but no longer in a blockbuster film [2].

Born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong, Dan is the daughter of Chinese film director Dan Du-Yu 但杜宇 and actress Yan Ming-Zhu 殷明珠. She worked for Cathay Pacific Airlines (not as a flight stewardess) prior to part taking in the Miss Hong Kong Beauty Contest.

Miss Hong Kong Beauty Contest, as it was known at its debut in 1946, was organized under the auspicious of the Hong Kong China Amateur Swimming Club 香港中華業余泳團 and the Royal Air Force Club, no more than 10 months after the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered to the Allied Forces in Hong Kong. The contest was staged at the Ritz Garden Nightclub 麗池花園夜總會 in North Point for the reason that club owner, Lee Choi Fat 李裁法, was in fact the organizer of the event. Lee, a protégés of Shanghai crime boss Du Yuesheng 杜月笙, was acquitted after being charged in 1945 for the crime of collaborating with the enemy during the Japanese occupation. He was well connected in the political circles in China.

At the Miss Hong Kong pageant 1952, Judy Dan was crowned by Prof. Wong Ching-Ting 王正廷 (man standing behind Dan in the photo). Prof. Wong is a very distinguished diplomat and statesman: Ph. D. from Yale University, Foreign Minister of the Nanjing Republic Government, Chinese Ambassador to USA, Chairman of Red Cross China, Life Member of IOC, etc. I have as yet found out what his relation with Lee Choi Fat was, but incidentally, Du Yuesheng was the Chairman of Red Cross Shanghai around the same time Prof. Wong was countrywide.

[1] Miss Universe was held the very first time in 1952 in Long Beach, California, USA. Number of entrants: 30. The results:

Miss Universe 1952: Armi Kuusela from Finland
1st runner-up: Elza Edsman from Hawaii
2nd runner-up Greece - Ntaizy Mavraki from Greece
3rd runner-up: Judy Dan from Hong Kong
4th runner-up: Renate Hoy from Germany

Here are some of the modern-day beauty pageants and the years when they got started:
1940 - Miss Shanghai, organized and held at DD’s Night Club on July 5, 1940
1946 - Miss Hong Kong
1951 - Miss World held in London and created by Eric Morley
1952 - Miss Universe
1952 - Miss USA, started off as a local “bathing beauty” competition organized by swimwear maker Catalina in Long Beach, California
1960 - Miss International, held in Long Beach, California after Miss Universe moved to Miami Beach

As nurse Suzie Hayakawa in
TV series "Get Smart", 1969

[2] Judy Dan's “Filmography”

1956
Flight to Hong Kong as Stewardess
1957
The Seventh Sin as Tim Waddington's wife
Pal Joey as Hat Check Girl
1958
G.E. True Theater (TV series) - The Cold Touch as Airline Clerk
1960
Wake Me When It's Over as Geisha Girl
Hawaiian Eye (TV series) - Services Rendered as Kelly Chou; The Bequest of Arthur Goodwin as Secretary
Pete and Gladys (TV series) - No Man Is Japan as Fumiko
The Barbara Stanwyck Show (TV series) - The Miraculous Journey of Tadpole Chan as Miss Kow
Hong Kong (TV series) - Blind Bargain as Model
77 Sunset Strip (TV series) - The Wide-Screen Caper as Lotus Lee
Richard Diamond, Private Detective (TV series) - East of Danger as Sally Fong
Johnny Ringo (TV series) - Single Debt as Lisa Lu Chung
Rescue 8 (TV series) - Ti-Ling as Kim
Sugarfoot (TV series) - The Highbinder as Ah Yung
1961
Bachelor Father (TV series) - Peter's Punctured Wedding as Lu San
Adventures in Paradise (TV series) - Queens Back to Back as Mei Ling
1962
The Spiral Road as Laja
Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock as Loi Yan Wu
War Is Hell as Yung Chi Thomas
Perry Mason (TV series) - The Case of the Weary Watchdog as Trixie Tong
1963
My Three Sons (TV series) - Honorable Grandfather as Mai Pah
1967
Kill a Dragon as Chunhyang
1969
Get Smart (TV series) - And Baby Makes Four Part 1 and 2 as Nurse Suzie Hayakawa

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