ANNA MAY WONG in PARAMOUNT PICTURES [ca. 1925] Photo by Irving Chidnoff

[Los Angeles]: Paramount Pictures/Chidnoff Studio, [ca. 1925]. Vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) black-and-white glossy silver gelatin photo. Stamped on verso “Anna May Wong, Paramount Pictures”. Minor blank white margin scratch near top left corner, fine.

Anna May Wong became the first Chinese American movie star when she played the lead in the first Technicolor (two-color) production, The Toll of the Sea, in 1922. By 1925 she was making five films a year, including two box office spectacles in 1924: The Thief of Bagdad and Peter Pan.

This portrait is from her earlier days with Paramount between 1924 and 1926. Russian-born celebrity photographer Irving Chidnoff founded his studio in New York City in 1925 and Wong became one of his first portraiture subjects.