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James Wong Howe

March 17, 2023

Wong Tung Jim, A.S.C. (Chinese: 黃宗霑; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976), known professionally as James Wong Howe (Houghto), was a Chinese-born American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood due to his innovative filming techniques. Howe was known as a master of the use of shadow and one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography, in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus.[1]

James Wong Howe
Born
Wong Tung Jim

(1899-08-28)August 28, 1899
Taishan, Guangdong, China
DiedJuly 12, 1976(1976-07-12) (aged 76)
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
Years active1917–1975
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1937)​

(marriage not recognized in U.S. until 1948)
Awards
Signature
James Wong Howe
Traditional Chinese黃宗霑
Simplified Chinese黄宗霑
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáng Zōngzhān
Wade–GilesHuang2 Tsung1-chan1
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationWòhng Jūng-jīm
Jyutpingwong4 zung1 zim1

Born in Canton (Taishan), China, Howe immigrated to the United States at age five and grew up in Washington. He was a professional boxer during his teenage years, and later began his career in the film industry as an assistant to Cecil B. DeMille. Howe pioneered the use of wide-angle lenses and low-key lighting, as well as the use of the crab dolly.

Despite the success of his professional life, Howe faced significant racial discrimination in his private life. He became an American citizen only after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, and due to anti-miscegenation laws, his marriage to a white woman was not legally recognized in the United States until 1948.

Howe earned 10 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, winning twice for The Rose Tattoo (1955) and Hud (1963). He also received Oscar nominations for Algiers (1938), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Kings Row (1942), The North Star (1943), Air Force (1943), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Seconds (1966), and Funny Lady (1975). He was selected as one of the 10 most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.[2]

Career

Background

Howe was born Wong Tung Jim in Taishan, Canton Province, China in 1899. His father Wong Howe moved to America that year to work on the Northern Pacific Railway and in 1904 sent for his family. The Howes settled in Pasco, Washington, where they owned a general store. A Brownie camera, said to have been bought at Pasco Drug (a now-closed city landmark) when he was a child, sparked an early interest in photography.

After his father's death, the teenaged Howe moved to Oregon to live with his uncle and briefly considered (1915–16) a career as a bantamweight boxer. After compiling a record of 5 wins, 2 losses and a draw,[3] Howe moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in hopes of attending aviation school but ran out of money and went south to Los Angeles. Once there, Howe took several odd jobs, including work as a commercial photographer's delivery boy and as a busboy at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

After a chance encounter with a former boxing colleague who was photographing a Mack Sennett short on the streets of Los Angeles, Howe approached cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff and landed a low-level job in the film lab at Famous Players-Lasky Studios. Soon thereafter he was called to the set of The Little American to act as an extra clapper boy, which brought him into contact with silent film director Cecil B. DeMille in 1917. Amused by the sight of the diminutive Asian holding the slate with a large cigar in his mouth, DeMille kept Howe on and launched his career as a camera assistant. To earn additional money, Howe took publicity stills for Hollywood stars.

Silent film

 
James Wong Howe (rightmost) on the set of silent film The Alaskan. The film itself is now considered lost.

One of those still photographs launched Howe's career as a cinematographer when he stumbled across a means of making silent film star Mary Miles Minter's eyes look darker by photographing her while she was looking at a dark surface. Minter requested that Howe be first cameraman, that is director of photography, on her next feature, and Howe shot Minter's closeups for Drums of Fate by placing black velvet in a large frame around the camera. Throughout his career, Howe retained a reputation for making actresses look their best through lighting alone and seldom resorted to using gauze or other diffusion over the lens to soften their features. Howe worked steadily as a cinematographer from 1923 until the end of the era of silent film.

In 1928, Howe was in China shooting backgrounds for a movie he hoped to direct. The project he was working on was never completed (although some of the footage was used in Shanghai Express), and when he returned to Hollywood, he discovered that the "talkies" had largely supplanted silent productions. With no experience in that medium, Howe could not find work. To reestablish himself, Howe first co-financed a Japanese-language feature shot in Southern California entitled Chijiku wo mawasuru chikara (The Force that Turns the Earth around its Axis), which he also photographed and co-directed. When that film failed to find an audience in California's nisei communities or Japan, Howe shot the low-budget feature Today for no salary. Finally, director/producer Howard Hawks, whom he had met on The Little American, hired him for The Criminal Code and then director William K. Howard selected him to be the cinematographer on Transatlantic.

Sound film and the war years

Howe's innovative work on Transatlantic reestablished him as one of the leading cinematographers in Hollywood, and he worked continuously through the 1930s and 1940s, generally on several movies per year. Howe gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be difficult to work with, often overruling and even berating other members of the film crew. In a 1945 issue of The Screen Writer,[4] Howe stated his views of a cameraman's responsibility, writing in The Cameraman Talks Back that "[t]he cameraman confers with the director on: (a) the composition of shots for action, since some scenes require definite composition for their best dramatic effect, while others require the utmost fluidity, or freedom from any strict definition or stylization; (b) atmosphere; (c) the dramatic mood of the story, which they plan together from beginning to end; (d) the action of the piece." Howe's broad view of a cinematographer's responsibilities reflected those established for first cameramen in silent films and continued through the studio era where most directors were also contract employees mainly in charge of actor performances.

Howe was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944 in the "Best Cinematography: Black-and-White" category for his work on the movie Air Force, a nomination he shared with Elmer Dyer, A.S.C., and Charles A. Marshall.

In the early 1930s, while at MGM, Howe, who had generally been billed as "James Howe", began listing his name in film credits as "James Wong Howe". Over the course of his career, he was also credited as "James How", "Jimmie Howe", and "James Wong How." Often publicized as a Chinese cameraman, Howe was prevented from becoming a U.S. citizen until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. Prior to World War II, Howe met his future wife, novelist Sanora Babb, whom he married in 1937 in Paris.[5] Due to anti-miscegenation laws, the marriage would not be legally recognized in the United States until 1948. Babb died in 2005, aged 98.

Post-war work

After the end of World War II, Howe's long-term contract with Warner Bros., lapsed, and he visited China to work on a documentary about rickshaw boys. When he returned Howe found himself gray-listed. While never a Communist, Howe was named in testimony as a sympathizer.[6] Howe and his wife Sanora Babb, who had been a member of the Communist Party, moved to Mexico for a time;[7] Howe was cinematographer for the RKO movie Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas. Howe had trouble finding employment until writer/director Samuel Fuller hired him to shoot The Baron of Arizona released in 1950.

Again reestablished, Howe's camerawork continued to be highly regarded. In 1949 he shot tests and was hired for a never made comeback film starring Greta Garbo (a screen adaptation of Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais). In 1956, Howe won his first Academy Award for The Rose Tattoo. The film's director Daniel Mann originally had been a stage director and later stated that he gave Howe control over almost all decisions about the filming other than those regarding the actors and dialogue. In Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Howe worked with director Alexander Mackendrick to give the black-and-white film a sharp-edged look reminiscent of New York tabloid photography such as that taken by Arthur "Weegee" Fellig. During the 1950s, Howe directed his only English-language feature films, Invisible Avenger, one of many film adaptations of The Shadow, and Go Man Go, a movie about the Harlem Globetrotters. Neither was a critical or commercial success. In 1961 Howe directed episodes of Checkmate and 87th Precinct, then returned to cinematography.

Later life and work

Howe's best known work was almost entirely in black and white. His two Academy Awards both came during the period when Best Cinematography Oscars were awarded separately for color and black-and-white films. However, he successfully made the transition to color films and earned his first Academy Award nomination for a color film in 1958 for The Old Man and the Sea. He won his second Academy Award for 1963's Hud. His cinematography remained inventive during his later career. For instance, his use of fish-eye and wide-angle lenses in Seconds (1966) helped give an eerie tension to director John Frankenheimer's science fiction movie.[8]

During the mid to late 1960s, he taught cinematography at UCLA's Film School.[9] Some of his students include Dean Cundey,[10] Stephen H. Burum,[8] and Alex Funke.[11] Howe would take a minimal set and teach how to achieve a particular mood and style with just lighting. Cundey said, "it was my most valuable class I took in film school" and it changed his career direction to cinematography.[12]

After working on The Molly Maguires (1970), Howe's health began to fail, and he entered semi-retirement. In 1974, he was well enough to be selected as a replacement cinematographer for Funny Lady. He collapsed during the filming; American Society of Cinematographers president Ernest Laszlo filled in for Howe while he was recovering in the hospital. Funny Lady earned Howe his tenth and final Oscar nomination. Three documentaries were made about Howe during the last two decades of his life.[citation needed]

Association of Asian Pacific American Artists created the James Wong Howe Award in his honor. Past winners of "The Jimmy" have included Arthur Dong, Genny Lim, and Jude Narita.[citation needed]

Personal life

 
Howe with his wife, Sanora Babb

Howe met his wife, a white woman named Sanora Babb, before World War II. They traveled to Paris in 1937 to marry, but their marriage was not recognized by the state of California until 1948, after the law banning interracial marriage was abolished.[5][13] Due to the ban, the "morals clause" in Howe's studio contracts prohibited him from publicly acknowledging his marriage to Babb. They would not cohabit due to his traditional Chinese views, so they had separate apartments in the same building.[14]

During the early years of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, Babb was blacklisted due to supposedly having Communist ties from her marriage to Howe; she moved to Mexico City to protect the "graylisted" Howe from racial harassment.[5][15]

Howe raised his godson, producer and director Martin Fong after Fong arrived in the United States.

He is buried at Pierce Bros. Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Technical innovations

Howe's earliest discovery was the use of black velvet to make blue eyes show up better on the orthochromatic film stock in use until the early 1920s. Orthochromatic film was "blue blind"; it was sensitive to blue and green light, which showed as white on the developed film. Reds and yellows were darkened. Faced with the problem of actors' eyes appearing washed out or even stark white on film, Howe developed a technique of mounting a frame swathed with black velvet around his camera so that the reflections darkened the actors' eyes enough for them to appear more natural in the developed film.[16]

Howe earned the nickname "Low-Key Howe" because of his penchant for dramatic lighting and deep shadows, a technique that came to be associated with film noir.[17] Later in his career, as film-stocks became faster and more sensitive, Howe continued to experiment with his photography and lighting techniques, such as shooting one scene in The Molly Maguires solely by candlelight.[18][19]

Howe also was known for his use of unusual lenses, film stocks, and shooting techniques. For the 1927 film The Rough Riders, Howe created an early version of a crab dolly, a form of camera dolly with four independent wheels and a movable arm to which the camera is attached.[20][21] For the boxing scenes of Body and Soul (1947), he entered the boxing ring on roller-skates, carrying an early hand-held camera.[16][21] Picnic (1955) features a very early example of the helicopter shot, filmed by the second-unit cinematographer, Haskell Wexler, and planned by Wexler and Howe.[22][23]

Howe was the first minority cinematographer admitted to the ASC,[citation needed] and mentored other minority cinematographers, such as John Alonzo, who shot Chinatown and many other productions in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Alonzo credited Howe with giving him his big break on the film Seconds as a camera operator, doing hand-held sequences during the wild party scenes with Rock Hudson. Alonzo became known for his hand-held technique.[8]

Howe also shot The Outrage, a remake of Rashomon.[24] During the chase scenes through the woods, Howe had the actors run around him in a circle, which when filmed, looks like a chase. Alonzo used this technique in Sounder, in the wooded chase sequence.[citation needed][25]

Although the innovation of deep focus cinematography is usually associated with Gregg Toland, Howe used it in his first sound film, Transatlantic, 10 years before Toland used the technique in Citizen Kane. For deep focus, the cinematographer narrows the aperture of the camera lens, and floods the set with light, so that elements in both the foreground and background remain in sharp focus. The technique requires highly sensitive film and was difficult to achieve with early film stocks. Along with Toland and Arthur Edeson, Howe was among the earliest cinematographers to use it successfully.[26][27]

Frequent collaborators

Filmography

As director

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Result Ref.
1938 Academy Awards Best Cinematography Algiers Nominated
1940 Abe Lincoln in Illinois Nominated
1942 Kings Row Nominated
1943 The North Star Nominated
Air Force Nominated
1955 The Rose Tattoo Won
1958 The Old Man and the Sea Nominated
1963 Hud Won
1966 Seconds Nominated
1975 Funny Lady Nominated

References

  1. ^ "Who Was James Wong Howe? Oscar-Winning Cinematographer Honored With Google Doodle". Time. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  2. ^ "Top 10 Most Influential Cinematographers Get Their Props". Film Threat. 2003-10-20. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  3. ^ "BoxRec: Jimmy Howe". BoxRec. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  4. ^ "James Wong Howe Replies to Comment on Cameramen - page 1". www.theasc.com.
  5. ^ a b c Gordon H. Chang; Mark Dean Johnson; Paul J. Karlstrom; Sharon Spain, eds. (2008). Asian American art: a history, 1850-1970. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. p. 333. ISBN 978-0-8047-5752-2.
  6. ^ Full text of "Hearings regarding the communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session. Public law 601 (section 121, subsection Q (2))" Retrieved June 1, 2011.
  7. ^ "Sanora Babb, Stories from the American High Plains" by Douglas Wixson Retrieved June 1, 2011.
  8. ^ a b c LoBrutto, Vincent (January 31, 2018). "The Surreal Images of Seconds - The American Society of Cinematographers". ascmag.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  9. ^ KING, SUSAN (2001-07-08). "When a Poet Picked Up the Camera". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  10. ^ "The ASC — American Cinematographer: Cool, Calm, Creative". theasc.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  11. ^ "The ASC — American Cinematographer: ASC Close-Up". theasc.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  12. ^ LoBrutto, Vincent (1999). Principal Photography: Interviews with Feature Film Cinematographers. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780275949556.
  13. ^ "Sanora Babb, 98; novelist's masterpiece rivaled Steinbeck's". archive.boston.com. The Boston Globe. January 21, 2006. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  14. ^ See, Lisa (2009). On Gold Mountain. Rosetta Books. pp. 214–215. ISBN 978-0-7953-0496-5. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  15. ^ "Biography: Sanora Babb". www.hrc.utexas.edu.
  16. ^ a b Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (1997). The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press. pp. 200–201. ISBN 9780198742425.
  17. ^ Ebert, Roger. "James Wong Howe, Master of Lights | Interviews | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  18. ^ Thesing, William B. (2000). Caverns of Night: Coal Mines in Art, Literature, and Film. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 9781570033520.
  19. ^ "The Molly Maguires". Ulster Herald. 2014-07-17. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  20. ^ Thompson, Frank T. (June 1985). Between action and cut: five American directors. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810817449.
  21. ^ a b Robertson, Patrick (1985-09-01). Guinness film facts and feats. Guinness Books. ISBN 9780851122786.
  22. ^ Coleman, Lindsay; Miyao, Daisuke; Schaefer, Roberto (2016-12-27). Transnational Cinematography Studies. Lexington Books. p. 30. ISBN 9781498524285.
  23. ^ Hague, Angela; Lavery, David (2002). Teleparody: Predicting/preventing the TV Discourse of Tomorrow. Wallflower Press. p. 114. ISBN 9781903364390.
  24. ^ Field, Sydney (1965-04-01). "Outrage". Film Quarterly. 18 (3): 13–39. doi:10.2307/1210961. ISSN 0015-1386. JSTOR 1210961.
  25. ^ Conversations with John Alonzo 1990-1992
  26. ^ Neyman, Yuri. "How I Broke the Rules in Citizen Kane". IMAGO (European Federation of Cinematographers). Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  27. ^ "deep focus or vfx - Visual Effects Cinematography". Cinematography.com. Retrieved 2018-05-30.

Further reading

  • Higham, Charles (1970). Hollywood Cameramen. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-48014-1
  • Rainsberger, Todd (1981). James Wong Howe Cinematographer. London: The Tantivy Press. ISBN 0-498-02405-9
  • Silver, Alain (2011). James Wong Howe The Camera Eye. Santa Monica: Pendragon. ISBN 978-1-4563-5688-0
  • Kaye, Arthur M (1973), James Wong Howe, cinematographer, Davidson Films, OCLC 317358787 (documentary)

External links

  • James Wong Howe at IMDb
  • "The Camera Talks Back" by James Wong Howe
  • "Lighting" by James Wong Howe, Cinematographic Annual, Vol. 2 (1931) pp. 47–59
  • James Wong Howe Talk at 1974 San Francisco International Film Festival (audio only)
  • James Wong Howe papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  • on James Wong Howe at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries
  • Photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown by James Wong Howe (1944), The Bancroft Library
  • James Wong Howe's Google Doodle
  • James Wong Howe: A Relative's Perspective by Richard Francis James Lee
  • James Wong Howe at Find a Grave

March 17, 2023
james, wong, howe, wong, tung, chinese, 黃宗霑, august, 1899, july, 1976, known, professionally, houghto, chinese, born, american, cinematographer, worked, over, films, during, 1930s, 1940s, most, sought, after, cinematographers, hollywood, innovative, filming, t. Wong Tung Jim A S C Chinese 黃宗霑 August 28 1899 July 12 1976 known professionally as James Wong Howe Houghto was a Chinese born American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films During the 1930s and 1940s he was one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood due to his innovative filming techniques Howe was known as a master of the use of shadow and one of the first to use deep focus cinematography in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus 1 James Wong HoweHowe winning the 1956 Academy Award for Best CinematographyBornWong Tung Jim 1899 08 28 August 28 1899Taishan Guangdong ChinaDiedJuly 12 1976 1976 07 12 aged 76 Hollywood Los Angeles California United StatesNationalityAmericanYears active1917 1975Spouse s Sanora Babb m 1937 wbr marriage not recognized in U S until 1948 AwardsAcademy Award for Best Cinematography The Rose Tattoo 1955 Hud 1963 SignatureJames Wong HoweTraditional Chinese黃宗霑Simplified Chinese黄宗霑TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinHuang ZōngzhanWade GilesHuang2 Tsung1 chan1Yue CantoneseYale RomanizationWohng Jung jimJyutpingwong4 zung1 zim1Born in Canton Taishan China Howe immigrated to the United States at age five and grew up in Washington He was a professional boxer during his teenage years and later began his career in the film industry as an assistant to Cecil B DeMille Howe pioneered the use of wide angle lenses and low key lighting as well as the use of the crab dolly Despite the success of his professional life Howe faced significant racial discrimination in his private life He became an American citizen only after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 and due to anti miscegenation laws his marriage to a white woman was not legally recognized in the United States until 1948 Howe earned 10 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography winning twice for The Rose Tattoo 1955 and Hud 1963 He also received Oscar nominations for Algiers 1938 Abe Lincoln in Illinois 1940 Kings Row 1942 The North Star 1943 Air Force 1943 The Old Man and the Sea 1958 Seconds 1966 and Funny Lady 1975 He was selected as one of the 10 most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild 2 Contents 1 Career 1 1 Background 1 2 Silent film 1 3 Sound film and the war years 1 4 Post war work 1 5 Later life and work 2 Personal life 3 Technical innovations 4 Frequent collaborators 5 Filmography 6 As director 7 Awards and nominations 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External linksCareer EditBackground Edit Howe was born Wong Tung Jim in Taishan Canton Province China in 1899 His father Wong Howe moved to America that year to work on the Northern Pacific Railway and in 1904 sent for his family The Howes settled in Pasco Washington where they owned a general store A Brownie camera said to have been bought at Pasco Drug a now closed city landmark when he was a child sparked an early interest in photography After his father s death the teenaged Howe moved to Oregon to live with his uncle and briefly considered 1915 16 a career as a bantamweight boxer After compiling a record of 5 wins 2 losses and a draw 3 Howe moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in hopes of attending aviation school but ran out of money and went south to Los Angeles Once there Howe took several odd jobs including work as a commercial photographer s delivery boy and as a busboy at the Beverly Hills Hotel After a chance encounter with a former boxing colleague who was photographing a Mack Sennett short on the streets of Los Angeles Howe approached cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff and landed a low level job in the film lab at Famous Players Lasky Studios Soon thereafter he was called to the set of The Little American to act as an extra clapper boy which brought him into contact with silent film director Cecil B DeMille in 1917 Amused by the sight of the diminutive Asian holding the slate with a large cigar in his mouth DeMille kept Howe on and launched his career as a camera assistant To earn additional money Howe took publicity stills for Hollywood stars Silent film Edit James Wong Howe rightmost on the set of silent film The Alaskan The film itself is now considered lost One of those still photographs launched Howe s career as a cinematographer when he stumbled across a means of making silent film star Mary Miles Minter s eyes look darker by photographing her while she was looking at a dark surface Minter requested that Howe be first cameraman that is director of photography on her next feature and Howe shot Minter s closeups for Drums of Fate by placing black velvet in a large frame around the camera Throughout his career Howe retained a reputation for making actresses look their best through lighting alone and seldom resorted to using gauze or other diffusion over the lens to soften their features Howe worked steadily as a cinematographer from 1923 until the end of the era of silent film In 1928 Howe was in China shooting backgrounds for a movie he hoped to direct The project he was working on was never completed although some of the footage was used in Shanghai Express and when he returned to Hollywood he discovered that the talkies had largely supplanted silent productions With no experience in that medium Howe could not find work To reestablish himself Howe first co financed a Japanese language feature shot in Southern California entitled Chijiku wo mawasuru chikara The Force that Turns the Earth around its Axis which he also photographed and co directed When that film failed to find an audience in California s nisei communities or Japan Howe shot the low budget feature Today for no salary Finally director producer Howard Hawks whom he had met on The Little American hired him for The Criminal Code and then director William K Howard selected him to be the cinematographer on Transatlantic Sound film and the war years Edit Howe s innovative work on Transatlantic reestablished him as one of the leading cinematographers in Hollywood and he worked continuously through the 1930s and 1940s generally on several movies per year Howe gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be difficult to work with often overruling and even berating other members of the film crew In a 1945 issue of The Screen Writer 4 Howe stated his views of a cameraman s responsibility writing in The Cameraman Talks Back that t he cameraman confers with the director on a the composition of shots for action since some scenes require definite composition for their best dramatic effect while others require the utmost fluidity or freedom from any strict definition or stylization b atmosphere c the dramatic mood of the story which they plan together from beginning to end d the action of the piece Howe s broad view of a cinematographer s responsibilities reflected those established for first cameramen in silent films and continued through the studio era where most directors were also contract employees mainly in charge of actor performances Howe was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944 in the Best Cinematography Black and White category for his work on the movie Air Force a nomination he shared with Elmer Dyer A S C and Charles A Marshall In the early 1930s while at MGM Howe who had generally been billed as James Howe began listing his name in film credits as James Wong Howe Over the course of his career he was also credited as James How Jimmie Howe and James Wong How Often publicized as a Chinese cameraman Howe was prevented from becoming a U S citizen until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 Prior to World War II Howe met his future wife novelist Sanora Babb whom he married in 1937 in Paris 5 Due to anti miscegenation laws the marriage would not be legally recognized in the United States until 1948 Babb died in 2005 aged 98 Post war work Edit After the end of World War II Howe s long term contract with Warner Bros lapsed and he visited China to work on a documentary about rickshaw boys When he returned Howe found himself gray listed While never a Communist Howe was named in testimony as a sympathizer 6 Howe and his wife Sanora Babb who had been a member of the Communist Party moved to Mexico for a time 7 Howe was cinematographer for the RKO movie Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948 starring Cary Grant Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas Howe had trouble finding employment until writer director Samuel Fuller hired him to shoot The Baron of Arizona released in 1950 Again reestablished Howe s camerawork continued to be highly regarded In 1949 he shot tests and was hired for a never made comeback film starring Greta Garbo a screen adaptation of Balzac s La Duchesse de Langeais In 1956 Howe won his first Academy Award for The Rose Tattoo The film s director Daniel Mann originally had been a stage director and later stated that he gave Howe control over almost all decisions about the filming other than those regarding the actors and dialogue In Sweet Smell of Success 1957 Howe worked with director Alexander Mackendrick to give the black and white film a sharp edged look reminiscent of New York tabloid photography such as that taken by Arthur Weegee Fellig During the 1950s Howe directed his only English language feature films Invisible Avenger one of many film adaptations of The Shadow and Go Man Go a movie about the Harlem Globetrotters Neither was a critical or commercial success In 1961 Howe directed episodes of Checkmate and 87th Precinct then returned to cinematography Later life and work Edit Howe s best known work was almost entirely in black and white His two Academy Awards both came during the period when Best Cinematography Oscars were awarded separately for color and black and white films However he successfully made the transition to color films and earned his first Academy Award nomination for a color film in 1958 for The Old Man and the Sea He won his second Academy Award for 1963 s Hud His cinematography remained inventive during his later career For instance his use of fish eye and wide angle lenses in Seconds 1966 helped give an eerie tension to director John Frankenheimer s science fiction movie 8 During the mid to late 1960s he taught cinematography at UCLA s Film School 9 Some of his students include Dean Cundey 10 Stephen H Burum 8 and Alex Funke 11 Howe would take a minimal set and teach how to achieve a particular mood and style with just lighting Cundey said it was my most valuable class I took in film school and it changed his career direction to cinematography 12 After working on The Molly Maguires 1970 Howe s health began to fail and he entered semi retirement In 1974 he was well enough to be selected as a replacement cinematographer for Funny Lady He collapsed during the filming American Society of Cinematographers president Ernest Laszlo filled in for Howe while he was recovering in the hospital Funny Lady earned Howe his tenth and final Oscar nomination Three documentaries were made about Howe during the last two decades of his life citation needed Association of Asian Pacific American Artists created the James Wong Howe Award in his honor Past winners of The Jimmy have included Arthur Dong Genny Lim and Jude Narita citation needed Personal life Edit Howe with his wife Sanora Babb Howe met his wife a white woman named Sanora Babb before World War II They traveled to Paris in 1937 to marry but their marriage was not recognized by the state of California until 1948 after the law banning interracial marriage was abolished 5 13 Due to the ban the morals clause in Howe s studio contracts prohibited him from publicly acknowledging his marriage to Babb They would not cohabit due to his traditional Chinese views so they had separate apartments in the same building 14 During the early years of the House Un American Activities Committee hearings Babb was blacklisted due to supposedly having Communist ties from her marriage to Howe she moved to Mexico City to protect the graylisted Howe from racial harassment 5 15 Howe raised his godson producer and director Martin Fong after Fong arrived in the United States He is buried at Pierce Bros Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles Technical innovations EditHowe s earliest discovery was the use of black velvet to make blue eyes show up better on the orthochromatic film stock in use until the early 1920s Orthochromatic film was blue blind it was sensitive to blue and green light which showed as white on the developed film Reds and yellows were darkened Faced with the problem of actors eyes appearing washed out or even stark white on film Howe developed a technique of mounting a frame swathed with black velvet around his camera so that the reflections darkened the actors eyes enough for them to appear more natural in the developed film 16 Howe earned the nickname Low Key Howe because of his penchant for dramatic lighting and deep shadows a technique that came to be associated with film noir 17 Later in his career as film stocks became faster and more sensitive Howe continued to experiment with his photography and lighting techniques such as shooting one scene in The Molly Maguires solely by candlelight 18 19 Howe also was known for his use of unusual lenses film stocks and shooting techniques For the 1927 film The Rough Riders Howe created an early version of a crab dolly a form of camera dolly with four independent wheels and a movable arm to which the camera is attached 20 21 For the boxing scenes of Body and Soul 1947 he entered the boxing ring on roller skates carrying an early hand held camera 16 21 Picnic 1955 features a very early example of the helicopter shot filmed by the second unit cinematographer Haskell Wexler and planned by Wexler and Howe 22 23 Howe was the first minority cinematographer admitted to the ASC citation needed and mentored other minority cinematographers such as John Alonzo who shot Chinatown and many other productions in the 1970s 1980s and 1990s Alonzo credited Howe with giving him his big break on the film Seconds as a camera operator doing hand held sequences during the wild party scenes with Rock Hudson Alonzo became known for his hand held technique 8 Howe also shot The Outrage a remake of Rashomon 24 During the chase scenes through the woods Howe had the actors run around him in a circle which when filmed looks like a chase Alonzo used this technique in Sounder in the wooded chase sequence citation needed 25 Although the innovation of deep focus cinematography is usually associated with Gregg Toland Howe used it in his first sound film Transatlantic 10 years before Toland used the technique in Citizen Kane For deep focus the cinematographer narrows the aperture of the camera lens and floods the set with light so that elements in both the foreground and background remain in sharp focus The technique requires highly sensitive film and was difficult to achieve with early film stocks Along with Toland and Arthur Edeson Howe was among the earliest cinematographers to use it successfully 26 27 Frequent collaborators EditHerbert Brenon John Cromwell Victor Fleming Samuel Fuller Howard Hawks William K Howard Charles Maigne Mary Miles Minter Paul Newman Sidney Olcott Martin Ritt David O Selznick W S Van Dyke Raoul WalshFilmography EditThis list is incomplete you can help by adding missing items February 2020 Drums of Fate 1923 The Trail of the Lonesome Pine 1923 The Woman With Four Faces 1923 To the Last Man 1923 The Spanish Dancer 1923 The Call of the Canyon 1923 The Breaking Point 1924 The Alaskan 1924 Peter Pan 1924 The Charmer 1925 Not So Long Ago 1925 The Best People 1925 The King on Main Street 1925 Padlocked 1926 Sea Horses 1926 Mantrap 1926 The Rough Riders 1927 Sorrell and Son 1927 Laugh Clown Laugh 1928 The Perfect Crime 1928 Desert Nights 1929 The Rescue 1929 The Criminal Code 1931 Transatlantic 1931 Surrender 1931 The Yellow Ticket 1931 Man About Town 1932 The Power and the Glory 1933 Baby Face 1933 Manhattan Melodrama 1934 The Thin Man 1934 Stamboul Quest 1934 Mark of the Vampire 1935 The Flame Within 1935 O Shaughnessy s Boy 1935 Three Live Ghosts 1936 Fire Over England 1937 The Prisoner of Zenda 1937 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1938 Algiers 1938 They Made Me a Criminal 1939 The Oklahoma Kid 1939 Daughters Courageous 1939 Dust Be My Destiny 1939 Fantasia 1940 uncredited for Philadelphia Orchestra sequences Abe Lincoln in Illinois 1940 The Strawberry Blonde 1941 Shining Victory 1941 Out of the Fog 1941 Navy Blues 1941 Kings Row 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Air Force 1943 Hangmen Also Die 1943 The North Star 1943 Passage to Marseille 1944 Objective Burma 1945 Confidential Agent 1945 My Reputation 1946 Pursued 1947 Body and Soul 1947 Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948 The Baron of Arizona 1950 The Eagle and the Hawk 1950 He Ran All the Way 1951 Main Street to Broadway 1953 Jennifer 1953 Go Man Go 1954 Picnic 1955 The Rose Tattoo 1955 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 Bell Book and Candle 1958 Hud 1963 The Outrage 1964 The Glory Guys 1965 This Property Is Condemned 1966 Seconds 1966 Hombre 1967 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter 1968 The Molly Maguires 1970 Funny Lady 1975 As director EditInvisible Avenger 1958 Go Man Go 1954 Awards and nominations EditYear Award Category Result Ref 1938 Academy Awards Best Cinematography Algiers Nominated1940 Abe Lincoln in Illinois Nominated1942 Kings Row Nominated1943 The North Star NominatedAir Force Nominated1955 The Rose Tattoo Won1958 The Old Man and the Sea Nominated1963 Hud Won1966 Seconds Nominated1975 Funny Lady NominatedReferences Edit Who Was James Wong Howe Oscar Winning Cinematographer Honored With Google Doodle Time Retrieved 2018 05 31 Top 10 Most Influential Cinematographers Get Their Props Film Threat 2003 10 20 Retrieved 2018 05 25 BoxRec Jimmy Howe BoxRec Retrieved 2018 05 25 James Wong Howe Replies to Comment on Cameramen page 1 www theasc com a b c Gordon H Chang Mark Dean Johnson Paul J Karlstrom Sharon Spain eds 2008 Asian American art a history 1850 1970 Stanford Calif Stanford University Press p 333 ISBN 978 0 8047 5752 2 Full text of Hearings regarding the communist infiltration of the motion picture industry Hearings before the Committee on Un American Activities House of Representatives Eightieth Congress first session Public law 601 section 121 subsection Q 2 Retrieved June 1 2011 Sanora Babb Stories from the American High Plains by Douglas Wixson Retrieved June 1 2011 a b c LoBrutto Vincent January 31 2018 The Surreal Images of Seconds The American Society of Cinematographers ascmag com Retrieved 2018 05 26 KING SUSAN 2001 07 08 When a Poet Picked Up the Camera Los Angeles Times ISSN 0458 3035 Retrieved 2018 05 26 The ASC American Cinematographer Cool Calm Creative theasc com Retrieved 2018 05 26 The ASC American Cinematographer ASC Close Up theasc com Retrieved 2018 05 26 LoBrutto Vincent 1999 Principal Photography Interviews with Feature Film Cinematographers ABC CLIO ISBN 9780275949556 Sanora Babb 98 novelist s masterpiece rivaled Steinbeck s archive boston com The Boston Globe January 21 2006 Retrieved 2018 05 25 See Lisa 2009 On Gold Mountain Rosetta Books pp 214 215 ISBN 978 0 7953 0496 5 Retrieved 29 March 2011 Biography Sanora Babb www hrc utexas edu a b Nowell Smith Geoffrey 1997 The Oxford History of World Cinema Oxford University Press pp 200 201 ISBN 9780198742425 Ebert Roger James Wong Howe Master of Lights Interviews Roger Ebert www rogerebert com Retrieved 2018 05 26 Thesing William B 2000 Caverns of Night Coal Mines in Art Literature and Film Univ of South Carolina Press pp 159 160 ISBN 9781570033520 The Molly Maguires Ulster Herald 2014 07 17 Retrieved 2018 05 31 Thompson Frank T June 1985 Between action and cut five American directors Scarecrow Press ISBN 9780810817449 a b Robertson Patrick 1985 09 01 Guinness film facts and feats Guinness Books ISBN 9780851122786 Coleman Lindsay Miyao Daisuke Schaefer Roberto 2016 12 27 Transnational Cinematography Studies Lexington Books p 30 ISBN 9781498524285 Hague Angela Lavery David 2002 Teleparody Predicting preventing the TV Discourse of Tomorrow Wallflower Press p 114 ISBN 9781903364390 Field Sydney 1965 04 01 Outrage Film Quarterly 18 3 13 39 doi 10 2307 1210961 ISSN 0015 1386 JSTOR 1210961 Conversations with John Alonzo 1990 1992 Neyman Yuri How I Broke the Rules in Citizen Kane IMAGO European Federation of Cinematographers Retrieved 2018 05 26 deep focus or vfx Visual Effects Cinematography Cinematography com Retrieved 2018 05 30 Further reading EditHigham Charles 1970 Hollywood Cameramen London Thames amp Hudson ISBN 0 500 48014 1 Rainsberger Todd 1981 James Wong Howe Cinematographer London The Tantivy Press ISBN 0 498 02405 9 Silver Alain 2011 James Wong Howe The Camera Eye Santa Monica Pendragon ISBN 978 1 4563 5688 0 Kaye Arthur M 1973 James Wong Howe cinematographer Davidson Films OCLC 317358787 documentary External links EditJames Wong Howe at IMDb The Camera Talks Back by James Wong Howe Lighting by James Wong Howe Cinematographic Annual Vol 2 1931 pp 47 59 James Wong Howe Talk at 1974 San Francisco International Film Festival audio only James Wong Howe papers Margaret Herrick Library Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Selected Bibliography on James Wong Howe at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Photographs of San Francisco s Chinatown by James Wong Howe 1944 The Bancroft Library James Wong Howe s Google Doodle James Wong Howe A Relative s Perspective by Richard Francis James Lee James Wong Howe at Find a Grave Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title James Wong Howe amp oldid 1144902043, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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