Teach me about Miyoshi Umeki!!!

Is this the Miyoshi Umeki troll? I haven't seen you here for a long time.

It helped that Red Buttons made everyone look charming compared to him.

no. I'm new to Miyoshi Umeki.

I am the Shelly Hack troll who used to be the Brenda Vaccaro troll.

I first saw her in Flower Drum Song. My grandmother took me to see it during it's first run in theaters and we both loved it so much we went back two more times. I fell in love with James Shigeta too. I also loved her in The Courtship of Eddie's Father. I loved the way she called him "Mister Eddie's Father". I didn't find out until much later that both she and Shigeta were of Japanese descent. She was a Naturalized citizen. He was third generation American.

She was a hot jazz singer with a sultry voice before she started doing the cute and submissive war bride routine.

I'm a fucking STAR and have a fucking Oscar!

She and Pat Suzuki were the first ever color photographs on the cover of Time magazine, December 22, 1958. Before that, they only artists' sketches or black and white photos. I can't remember the last time Time put a Broadway show on its cover.

Sayonara is a really good film. I think if either Red Buttons or Miyoshi Umeki were not in the film they wouldn't of won. But voters really loved their ill fated interracial romance. I think Carolyn Jones or Elsa Lanchester (globe winner) were the front runners for supporting actress but voters probably thought it wouldn't of made sense to give it to Red and not Miyoshi. Not a lot of acting jobs for Asian women (and even now) in Hollywood so she eventually did tv with Courtship Of Eddies Father.

[quote]they wouldn't of won

[quote]it wouldn't of made sense

DOUBLE oh, dear!

Miyoshi Umeki was actually a nightclub singer in Tokyo and on the West Coast before she did "Sayonara"--she performed under the name Nancy Umeki.

Although she's a Datalounge joke, and though she probably did not deserve the Oscar her year (it should have gone to Carolyn Jones), she is truly wonderful in "Flower Drum Song." She has a lovely voice, and she is deeply charming in both "A Hundred Million Miracles" and "I Am Going to Like It Here," and her voice blends beautifully with James Shigeta's in "You Are Beautiful" (my favorite song in the show). She's the best thing in the movie, IMO.

R9 sorry for typos my bad

"I can't remember the last time Time put a Broadway show on its cover."

That's a great trivia question - anybody know? Last I remember was Lloyd Webber with the mask when PHANTOM was opening in '88, and that's the most recent one included in the Broadway category of the "Topics" section of Time's website. Is it possible they've never again had a Broadway show cover since 1988?

Last one I remember for Newsweek was Daphne Rubin-Vega and Adam Pascal for RENT in '96. I guess you could argue whether their putting Mitt Romney's head on the BOOK OF MORMON logo body in 2011 counted as having a Broadway show on the cover.

First of all I love " The Courtship of Eddie's Father". She was great as Mrs. Livingston. I also love her voice in " Flower Drum Song" . But film was dull. " Flower Drum Song" has a beautiful score. I think " Love Look Away" is a masterpiece. A better show on record than to watch. I think it is rather racist in many ways. I don't think Oscar and Dick were racists. But lots of stereotypes trying hard to please us.

I have never watched "Sayonara". Is it a good film? But I agree that Jones was excellent. So was Hope Lange . Though I never liked her.

And I love hot Asian men: James Shigeta, Bruce Lee, Russell Wong. All started with " Flower Drum Song"

[quote] I think " Love Look Away" is a masterpiece

And I sang for Reiko Sato in that one!

She was heartbreaking in Sayonara. And she dies in the film! That's always a sure Oscar-getter.

OP, one must always precede her name with "the delicate, the flower-like".

[quote]OP, one must always precede her name with "the delicate, the flower-like".

Fuckin' A!!!

She can eat shit!

PEARL CREAM??? LOL, more like Jack Soo's dickcheese!

What was Carolyn Jones nominated for that year? A Hole in the Head? I love that film.

Carolyn Jones was nominated for "Party Girl," and had been expected to win.

"Fuckin' A!!!"

If I recall, the Miyoshi Umeki troll used to refer to her as "the delicate, some say the flower-like, Mioyshi Umeki" or "the delicate, nay, the flower-like Mioyshi Umeki".

So then who is Nancy Kwan?

R23, if I recall, she was a briefly famous figure skater of recognized, but narrow, talent.

All I know is Murphy Brown once said "Oh don't worry about it. No one watches our show. Besides channel 11 was running the Flower Drum Song last night. PEOPLE LOVE NANCY KWAN!!!"

Jones was nominated for Bachelor Party I have never seen it (I failed to record when on TCM)but I heard her role is very small...

Miyoshi was a delicate flower, but I had PIZZAZZ!

"Miyoshi was a delicate flower, but I had PIZZAZZ!"

Huckada bejeepers, R27!

If I recall, the Miyoshi Umeki Troll stuck to an an elaborately constructed backstory where M.U. was good friends with Pat Suzuki, but hated Nancy Kwan with a venomous passion beyond the ken of mortal men. Plus, she had an unrequited affection for "Dick Rodgers," who slept with leading women of many races (Jan Clayton, Shirley Jones, Diahann Carroll), but for some reason not her.

"beyond the ken of mortal men"

R29, are you the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien?

Shirley Jones insists she never slept with Rodgers. Where did you hear that Jan Clauton did, r29?

[quote]Miyoshi was a delicate flower, but I had PIZZAZZ!

With that stumpy little body, you needed SOMETHING to compensate.

"I enjoy being a gargoyle!" was more like it,

She is the delicate, nay, the flower-like Mioyshi Umeki"

She won "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" and became a regular on his morning TV/radio show "Arthur Godfrey Time."

The Kitty Carlisle of Hokkaido prefecture.

My mom just had me watch Sayonara with her and I came here immediately afterwards. I have the same question as the OP!

I kept waiting for "the scene", that one Oscar scene that would change everything and it NEVER happened. I guess in those days, the story earned the Oscar more so than the acting.

How dare you criticize Miyoshi Umeki, R35? If you don't take it back, you're in for a tongue lashing from her, and not the good kind.

Sayanora is a great movie. Brando is incredibly sexy in it.

[quote]And I love hot Asian men: James Shigeta, Bruce Lee, Russell Wong. All started with " Flower Drum Song"

Bruce Lee and Russell Wong were not in FLOWER DRUM SONG. Wong was born 2 years after the movie came out.

R38, read more carefully. It reads "started" not "starred".

I liked the movie, wanted a more dramatic ending (but still happy.)

I have never cared for Brando. His voice in everything annoys the fuck out of me. That being said, he had major game in that movie and I was in awe over how he worked every scene he was in.

Miyoshi? Well, her father said that children keep growing, rivers keep flowing, too.

I was black!

I'll have to check out Sayonara again. As a kid, watching it on TV, I found it to be a crashing bore....except for Miyoshi and Red's scenes which are adorable and ultimately heartbreaking. Brando's love interest was just dreary. I also seem to have a memory of Ricardo Montalban playing a star of Kabuki theater and looking mighty fine in it, Japanese eye makeup and all.

Some of the movie's acclaim was no doubt definitely due to American guilt over Hiroshima.

My family and I always giggled over Miyoshi's name.

Meki (sp?) is a Yiddush euphemism for penis.

I was a kid in the 80s so I knew Ricardo Montalban from Fantasy Island and Star Trek II. I was shocked when I saw that he once looked like this:

You know nothing, OP, but we will teach you ALL!

I have relatives in Licking, Missouri, where she lived at the end of her life to be with her only son, Michael. He's a cop there, and is considered a very good, decent person. She would be seen once in a while - it's just a small town in the Ozarks - although she was in declining health with cancer. People said she always was very nice and down to earth, although she had class and moved "like a dancer."

I don't know how her son ended up there, of all places, but the locale is scenic and rural. But modest. Where she lived was hardly fancy.

Movie versions of R&H musicals are not great, in general.

I think FDS is one of the better ones!

Also lol, R142.

As I recall, Miss Umeki performed well in cage matches, or was that Bai Ling?

[bold]SHUT YOUR FUCKING FAT WHORE MOUTH, ANNA MAY![/bold]

I'm glad to hear that MU's son is a good and decent fellow, but I wish he could have kept his mother off the internet. The mouth on her would make a truck driver blush.

Oops, I just farted, bitches! LOL

Excuse my beauty and talent, cunts!

Nancy Kwan replaced someone in The World of Suzy Wong; it might have been Umeki, I don't remember. I just know it was a big break for her. Leslie Odom Jr. has a beautiful recording of Love Look Away, the best version I ever heard.

I'm not sure why Pat Suzuki did not do the movie version. She was a dynamite singer and performer and I don't think Nancy Kwan was that big of a star that they needed her name.

Pat Suzuki (still kicking at 87) was an underrated singer of standards.

I thought she did an absolutely great A Sunday Kind of Love r56.

Miyoshi has herself an Oscar. Something Glenn Close will never get her hands on.

Why is no one talking about me? I almost committed suicide for a part!

With DL favorite, Gisele MacKenzie.

Well this is quite the bump. I believe Nuyen was to be in the film of Wong which she originated on stage but people claim she had quite the attitude. Certainly one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. There is a relatively recent interview with her on youtube. Very old woman now of course but she seems nice enough. Didn't know a word of English when she did SP. A native french speaker(grew up in Marseille and though fluent now in English her accent is still strong) she could only communicate with R and H through Logan who knew French. It was as if they simply saw her and hired her. Adored John Kerr which I was surprised to learn knew no french. I would have thought he was the type have studied it in school.

"Was she respected?"

She's a DL icon.

I just watched Flower Drum Song and quit 2/3 of the way through. It has quite a sub par score.

The liveliest number is a horde of Asians jumping around to a number called “Chop Suey”?? Dear lord…

Dong, dong!

Pat Suzuki’s ex-husband (& JFK photographer) Mark Shaw ruined Dr. Max Jacobson (Dr. Feelgood) for the rest of us by dropping dead after getting his shot. He was the only person who died from it and Dr. Jacobson did not last much longer.

Her son in Missouri died in 2018.

In the icebox you'll find in a can

Some leftovers of moo goo gai pan...

She hit me in the head with a fondue pot.

Why don’t more drag queens impersonate the dear, flower-like Miyoshi?