ANNA MAY WONG | DRIFTING (1923) Photo by Freulich

[Los Angeles: Universal Pictures], 1923. Vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) black-and-white double weight semi-glossy silver gelatin photo. Minor diagonal crease at top left corner, small crease at bottom left corner, small indent at top right edge. Fine.

As written on the verso in pencil, this image represents Anna May Wong in her native costume. Also typed at the bottom on verso: “Anna May Wong Drifting Feb. 1923”. Three credit ink stamps for Brown Brothers including those from New York City and Sterling, PA. Photo is signed on front by photographer Freulich.

At age 18, Wong was appearing as Asian character Rose Li in a supporting role in the Tod Browning-directed Universal film Drifting. The story was about the horrors encountered when an American girl becomes involved in a drug ring in Shanghai. A Jewel Production.

Universal, not owning a theater chain, devised a three-tiered brand system that helped it market its feature product to independent theater owners: Red Feather (low-budget), Bluebird (mainstream releases) and Jewel (prestige productions). Jewels would often receive special promotion and be marketed with an eye for higher roadshow ticket prices. Brown Brothers, the nation’s oldest stock photo agency established in New York in 1904, appears to have had an exclusive use of this photo as granted by the Jewel status afforded the production by Universal for use in publications.