The Old Movie Maven's New Home

CHARLIE CHAN ANNEX

is making a move to

THE OLD MOVIE MAVEN

at http://theoldmoviemaven.tripod.com.

The new website will let you

see who and what is where in the

The Old Movie Maven Magazine

plus notice when each issue

comes out. . . .

Plus extras in the months ahead

as both magazine and websie

will be ongoing projects!

Enjoy!

May Movies

Our May movies in Rush Glick's Chat Room* at www.charliechan.info/id17.htm

will be:

May 1 - The Black Camel

May 8 - Charlie Chan in the Wax Museum

May 15 - Charlie Chan at the Circus

May 22 - Shadows Over Chinatwon

May 29 - Charlie Chan's Secret

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*Our Chat Room begins at 8:00 to 10:00 PM (Eastern) on Monday nights.

We start our tapes/DVDs at 8:30.

St. Valentine's Day

Be My

Valentine?!

Have a

Lovely

Day!!

San Francisco's Old Chinatown, Part 4

SAN FRANCISCO'S OLD CHINATOWN, Part 4

By Commissioner Jesse B. Cook

Former Chief of Police

Part 4*

The lottery drawings: The Chinese have a very large room, with the doors constructed the same way as in the case of a fan tan game room. The far end of the room is partitioned off with wire screens to the full width and about eight feet deep. In back of the screen are two shelves, one of which acts as a counter for four Chinamen. Each Chinaman has a separate window in the screen. O the other shelf are placed Chinese ink pots and brushes, for the purpose of marking Chinese lottery tickets. Every Chinese lottery ticket has 80 characters on it; 40 above the line and 40 below. Each company stamps their own name at the head of the ticket. These tickets are really a Chinese poem, written by a Chinaman while in prison, and later adopted as a Chinese lottery ticket. There is not a thing on these tickets to designate their real use, although they are never used for nay other purpose.

The agents around town had their offices in back of stores where they sell the tickets. Just before the drawing takes place, they present a triplicate copy of each ticket sold to the Chinaman at the window. The duplicate ticket is given the purchaser, while the original is retained by the agent.

The clerk back of the window then figures up the amount that the agent should turn in to cover the tickets sold. If they agree, the clerk accepts the tickets. No receipt are given. The actual taking and accepting of the tickets by the clerk is considered an acknowlegement, as his name appears on all the tickets.

As soon as all the money and tickets are in, the tickets are closed and the lottery is held. In a little package, about 2 inches square, are 80 slips of paper. On each of these slips is a character corresponding to one of the characters on the lottery ticket. The Chinaman sets in front of him a large pan, like the old-time milk pans we used to set for milk to raise cream, and four bowls, each bearing a Chinese number--either one, two, three or four. The small slips of paper are folded into little pellets, brown into the pan and shaken up. The drawing then begins. The first pellet draw is put into bowl No. 1, the next into bowl No. 2, and so on, until there are twenty pellets in each bowl.

The Chinaman then takes another small package containing four little square pieces of paper. On each of these pieces is a figure in Chinese corresponding with the figures on the bowls. The same procedure is then followed as with the pellets. The slip picked from the pan is handed to the clerk, who in turn hands it to a man standing on the shelf in back of him. ; It is opened, in the presence of everybody gathered there. Of course, the bowl bearing the same number is considered the winning bowl, the other three are placed under the counter.

The pellets are then taken from the winning bowl and are pasted on a board in full view. These are winning characters. The Chinese mark the tickets by daubing the characters that agree with the ones on the board, with a brush. After this has been done, they present their tickets, and come back at the proper time to get their reward; that is, whatever they won.

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*Part 1 was posted 11/12/05.

-Part 2 was posted 1/7/06.

-Part 3 was posted 1/17/06.

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If you would like to subscribe to Maven's Movie News letter, please email her at theoldmoviemaven@yahoo.com or write her at

Miss Maven

P.O. Box 54493

Hurst, TX 76054

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Looking for a long, lost video or a movie from your childhood?

Contact www.torysmysterymovies.com.

Mention this blog in your email order and get a discount!

The Shanghai Cobra Cast

The Shanghai Cobra is full of the character actors that we love to see in the Monday Night Chat Room Movie at www.charliechan.info, 8:00 to 10:00 PM (EST) and we start our tapes/DVDs at 8:30.

Unfortunately we don't always know their names . . .

So here's the cast of charaters so you can keep track of who's who!

Sidney Toler: Charlie Chan

Mantan Moreland: Birmingham Brown

Benson Fong: Tomy Chan

James Cardwell: Ned Stewart

Joan Barclay: Paul Webb

Addison Richards: John Adams

Arthur Loft: Bradford Harris

Janet Warren: Record Machine Operator

Gene Roth (as Gene Stutenroth): Morgan

Joe Devlin: Taylor

James Flavin: H.R. Jarvis

Roy Gordon: Walter Flether

Walter Fenner: Police Inspector Harry Davis

Andy Andrews: Patolman Outside Joe's

George Chandler: Joe, Coffe Shope Owner

Cyril Delevanti: Detective Larkin

John Goldsworthy: Inspector Mainwaring

Stephen Gregory: Samuel Black

Karen Knight: Switchboard Supervisor

Mary Moore: Rita, Laundry Clerk

Paul Newlan: Big Bank Guard

Diane Quillan: Phone Operator

Jack Richardson: Letter Carrier

Wiliam Ruhl: Mr. Grey

London Dictionary Entries

We have a few dictionary entries for Charlie Chan in London, our Monday Night Chat Room Movie (8:00 to 10:00 P.M. [EST] and we start our tapes/DVDs at 8:30).

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AERODROME (British): Airfield.

The Farnwell AERODROME.

DEUCE: Used as an intensive.

What the DEUCE?

NAPPY: Crazy, unpredictable, potentially dangerous.

The horse Hellcat is NAPPY.

TOM FOOLERY: (1) Foolish, bad behavior.

(2) Something trivial or foolish; nonsense.

If you think I'm going on with this TOMFOOLERY . . . .

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If you need to find that elusive movie, try www.torysmysterymovies.com.

Mention Charlie Chan Annex in your email order and get a discount.

Chan in London Bloopers, Etc.

Charlie Chan in London has bloopers, questions and other tidbits for the Monday Night Chat Room Crowd at www.charliechan.info, 8:00 to 10:00 PM (EST) and we start our tapes/DVD's at 8:30.

We have a blooper in Paul Gray (played by Douglas Walton) being listed in the cast of characters as "Hugh Gray."

Some things that have continued to puzzle me include where was Jerry Garton when everyone else was with Charlie Chan out at the stables reconstructing the crime in the manner of the French police?

Garton said he was in the house and heard Hellcat act up but Pamela Gray (Drue Leyton) told Charlie that she HADN'T heard any noise from the stable the night of the discrepancy.

A blooper or a mistake in continuity?

Captain Hamilton, whom Paul Gray was convicted of killing, had adapted the "Merton Gyroscope Stabilizer" and was developing "a devise to silence warplanes"--How realistic were they?

[SPOILER]

Also . . . how was pepper put into Hellcat's eyes during the hunt with so many people around?

Movie and literary connections:

What did Charlie Chan in London, Paris, and Reno have in common?

What did London have in common with Monte Carlo?

What did London, Olympics and Murder Over New York have in common?

(Answers below!)

Charlie Chan in London was mentioned in the English film, Gosford Park, as well as the name of Alan Mowbray (who played Geoffrey Richmond).

[Alan Mowbray also appeared in the film called "Two Lips and Juleps; or, Southern Love and Yankee Exposure."

Sounds like an early racy movie!]

London also has the distinction in the series in that it was the first movie not based on one of Earl Derr Biggers' books about the rotund Chinese detective.

London also had a tie to another series from the thirties: Tarzan!

Reginald Sheffield, who played Flight Commander King, was the father of Johnny Sheffield who played "Boy" in the jungle series with Johnny Weissmuller.

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ANSWERS:

Charlie Chan told the investigating officers in London, Paris and Reno that if you want a wild bird to sing, do not put him in a cage.

Lake, the groom in London, and All Rogers, the Monte Carlo bartender, are both found dead in their rooms arranged like they had committed suicide.

London, Olympics and Murder Over New York all involve airplane inventions.

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Do you have any comments, questions or suggestions?

Would you like to see more of Maven's reviews that you won't see here?

You can contact her at theoldmoviemaven@yahoo.com or at

Miss Maven

P.O. Box 59943

Hurst, TX 76054

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And if you want to find that elusive movie you've been looking for, try www.torysmysterymovies.com.

Mention this blog your email order and get a discount!