On this day in 1899, Wong Tung Jim is born in Guangzhou, China. At five, his family immigrates to the United States. His parents own a General Store in Washington state, and young Jim comes into possession of a Brownie camera. Which triggers his interest in photography. Which prompts, ten years later, a move to Los Angeles to find work in a portrait studio and then ... as a camera assistant in silent movies.
Along the way, he becomes known as Jimmie Howe. After awhile, that morphs into JAMES WONG HOWE. James W. H. rapidly becomes a topflight cinematographer. He develops a system for making the light blue eyes of actress Mary Miles Minter look darker by photographing them while they gaze at black velvet. Ms. Minter quickly decides that Mr. Howe is the cinematographer for HER.
"Jimmie Howe" goes on to do deep-focus photography in "Transatlantic", in 1931. His cinematography continues to be groundbreaking, from the Technicolor of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (where he has to fight color supervisor Natalie Kalmus to make "Injun Joe's cave" DARK and ... ahm ... cave-like), to the moody black-and-white in the noir Western "Pursued" (1947) ... to the drained-of-color look of "The Molly MacGuires" in 1970.
And in 1939-40, Howe shoots -- without credit -- the striking live-action segments of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia orchestra for Walt Disney's "Fantasia". (Walt liked to employ the best; he used Gregg Toland for the live-action in "Song of the South".)
Howe wins two Academy Awards ("The Rose Tattoo" and "Hud") and is nominated for eight more. His professional life, not without setbacks, is smoother than his personal one. From the time of his childhood, he has to navigate around the warm and welcoming embrace the United States often gives minority immigrants. (Howe only becomes a citizen after the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed in 1943.) His interracial marriage is finally recognized by California after the state's ban on interracial marriage is abolished in 1949.
James Wong Howe's last professional work is "Funny Lady" in 1975. He dies in 1976, six weeks shy of 77.
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