American Masters (1985–…): Season 31, Episode 7 - Tyrus - full transcript

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♪♪

Narrator: This is Tyrus Wong,
Chinese-American painter,

at work in
his Los Angeles studio.

Here are his brushes,
palette, and Chinese ink.

♪♪

Tyrus:
What drives me to painting
is something I can't explain why

because something I
just love to do, you know?

See: In the '20s and '30s,
in Chinese-American communities,

what could you hope to achieve?

Maybe you could become
a laundryman,

be a houseboy,
or work in a restaurant.



To be an artist was not
a remote possibility.

♪♪

Leong: Can I get a hug?

See:
So, Tyrus, are you still coming
down here every day to work?

Tyrus: Yeah.

Not down here.
I just work in the small house.

See: In the small house?

Tyrus: Yeah.

See: Thank you. Wow.

Tyrus: This is the studio.
See: Oh.

Tyrus: It's oil.

Harrington:
He's a quintessential
20th century artist,

working with different media
in very different areas.

Tyrus: This is from
the motion picture "Harper"



with Paul Newman and so forth.

So this is some sketches.

Remember, let's see,
Bambi fell in love with Faline.

- See: Oh, yes.
- Tyrus: Strange, you know,

so I try to create his feeling
of real happy and gay.

Harrington:
He's primarily a fine artist

who spent three decades
of his life

working as a motion-picture
illustrator.

♪♪

Tyrus: I love to paint.

Anything else,
I'm no good at all.

♪♪

♪♪

See: This was time
of tremendous turmoil in China

and great poverty.

He did not come
from a wealthy family.

Wong:
I never saw my mother again.

♪♪

See: Angel Island was
in the San Francisco Bay

to be a kind
of Ellis Island of the West.

♪♪

Although, at Ellis Island,

we think of it as being
a very welcoming place.

The purpose of Angel Island
was to keep the Chinese out.

Duggan: What season
did you arrive? What month?

Tyrus: Oh, gee.
I forgot.

In fact, I was just worried
about my father.

Whether I can get the chance
to see him again, but, you know?

Duggan: So, the first day,
you were separated?

Tyrus: Yeah, separated.

All of a sudden, he's gone.

See: His father had already
been here

and so was able
to go through easily.

But Tyrus had to stay
on Angel Island

as a small boy, 9 years old.

Tyrus: I just cry, you know?

They went, "Oh, don't cry.

You will see your father
maybe today or maybe a month."

See: Some people,
when they arrive,

were able to pass through
in maybe two days.

Some people stayed
as long as two years.

Wong:
So, I just suffered, you know?

Whatever day
I stayed there was...

Every day was just miserable.
Miserable.

I hated that place.

See: The immigration inspectors
had these interrogations.

And the goal of the inspectors

was to trick a person
to make a mistake

so that you could just
automatically be deported.

Tyrus: They asked you about
your village,

who lived next to you
on your right-hand side,

your left-hand, how many windows
you had in your house.

"What about your village?
Do they have a fish pond?

Who lives in front of you?

Who lives in back of you?"
and so forth.

Very trick questions, you know?

Maybe something wrong
with the papers

that they kill themselves.

Very sad. I remember
the stories. Very sad.

♪♪

♪♪

You don't have to work,
anything like that.

See:
In Sacramento, Tyrus' father
was working for a cobbler.

And so, Tyrus' father went down
to Los Angeles,

leaving behind his son
by himself, 10 years old.

Tyrus: He said, "You be
a good boy and go to school."

The typical father,
wants you to be a good kid.

Woman: Were you a good kid?

Tyrus: Uh...

No.

♪♪

See: Tyrus, you know,
in those days,

I think he must
have been kind of naughty.

He would go fishing, or he would
go running around in the street.

Wong:
And run like hell, you know?

♪♪

I don't like schools at all.

Every time I go
to arithmetic class,

why, I can almost swear

I'm just killing myself,
you know?

So, I started playing hooky.

One day, two days, three days.

And then, finally, over a month.

What kind of excuse
are you gonna make?

You can't say you had the
stomachache for a whole month.

He said, "You take the first
train, come in to Los Angeles."

When I get off the train,
before I got a chance to say,

"Hi, Father," it's just...

You know, slapping me
in the face, and so forth.

"I'm very, very disappointed
in you," and so forth.

♪♪

In school, I do all
the drawing like,

you know, like fire-prevention
week and so forth.

Do all the things, and then
the teacher finally said,

"Gee, you like to draw
and paint."

And I said, "Yeah, that's
the only thing I like to do."

And I said,
"What's a scholarship?"

"That means if they accept you,
you can go there for free."

"You mean for nothing?"

"For nothing."

I said, "Gee, this is great."

♪♪

The first time I paint
in front of a nude model.

♪♪

That was really a lot of fun.

Dean said, "Well, Tyrus,
your term is up.

You go back to finish
your junior high school."

Said, "No,
I don't want to go back there.

This is what I want to do."

He said, "Well, I'm sorry,
but this scholarship has ended.

You have to pay for a term."

You know, a term
was 90 some-odd dollars.

It was like going to college.

So, I told my father about it.

See: His father was working
in a gambling den.

They're living in utter poverty
in a boarding house for men...

A butcher shop on one side,
prostitutes on the other.

No one had $90 a year
to spend on something

as seemingly frivolous
as art school.

♪♪

Tyrus: Said, "Well, you really
like to draw and paint."

♪♪

See: Tyrus' father recognized
in his son

that he had a talent, and
that this should be nurtured.

Tyrus: So, he borrowed
about 90 some-odd dollars.

See: It wasn't just that his son

was doing something
kind of crazy,

but he had to go out and ask
people to support his son

who was doing something
different and crazy.

♪♪

Mak: Art school
was a very different world

than Los Angeles' original
Chinatown where he lived.

It was a very important set
of formative years

because it enabled him

to become part of
a broader arts community.

It was, in many ways, a place
where he could nurture a talent

that he innately possessed.

Wong:
Every minute, I was, you know,
either painting or drawing.

♪♪

I look at all the masters,
you know, Michelangelo,

Wissler,

Picassos,

Turners,

and George Bellows...

all different artists.

Woman: What would you say had
the greatest influence

on you as an artist?

♪♪

Tyrus: My father wanted me
to be an artist.

Mak: His father was very strict
and insistent

that Tyrus be committed
to studying his calligraphy.

Tyrus: So, every night
before I go to bed,

I had to get old newspaper,
and then we can't afford ink,

so we using water and a brush.

Just paint it.
You had to leave an impression.

He'd say, "Oh, this is could be
a little bit this

and little bit that."

My father, he doesn't want me
to, you know, play baseball.

And he said, "Well, what if
you break your finger?

Ruin your fingers,
it will ruin your whole career."

♪♪

See: This practice of that
calligraphy would really evolve

for Tyrus into what came to be
known in the Chinese style

as ink-and-brush painting,
this kind of wash,

this very fluid
kind of calligraphy.

♪♪

Tyrus: When I went to Otis,
I had to pass a library,

the downtown library.

Every time, when I passed that,

I'd go to
the research department.

Go to the Chinese art
department, look at painting.

I studied painting,
Sung Dynasty, especially.

♪♪

Chinese is always very poetic
like landscape, you know?

Way big, wide space.

Some tiny figure compared
to the universe is nothing.

The painting
is very powerful, feelings.

See: There's
a kind of melancholy...

a loneliness...

the starkness and desolation.

You see this over and over again
in Tyrus' work.

Canemaker:
There's a quote by Gombrich,
who wrote a book on art.

Talked about Chinese art
and said that the reason

that Chinese artists
don't like a lot of detail

is that they consider it
childish.

What you should really
be putting in there

is the artist's enthusiasm.

And I thought that was
a lovely description

of what Tyrus' art does.

♪♪

Tyrus: Yeah.

Yeah.

♪♪

♪♪

When my father died, I think
something really died in me

because he was such
a great father.

♪♪

See: In the '30s, there were
three sort of art places.

There was Otis Art School.
There was Chouinard Art School.

And then there was
the Art Students League,

which at that time was being run
by Stanton MacDonald-Wright.

Tyrus: I admired him.

Here's a Caucasian man who
was interested in Chinese art.

♪♪

♪♪

He said, "Tyrus, you have
a great tradition,

so don't forget it

because you can combine
your tradition

with modern art, you know?

Then you will become
a great artist."

See: What do you do if you want
to become a famous artist?

You go to New York.
You go to Paris.

Los Angeles was not
on the art map.

Wong:
After that, I went to Eddy.

I get acquainted with Eddy See.

See:
It was my grandfather

who had a Chinese antique store
down in Chinatown.

And everybody sort of
congregated around him.

So, there was Tyrus Wong
and Hideo Date.

There was Benji Okubo, who was
a Japanese-American artist

at the Art Students League.

And Gilbert Leong,
who went to Chouinard.

My grandfather,
at one point, thought,

"Well, we have a mezzanine
above the antique store

where I could put a gallery.

He put together what is believed
to be the very first

Asian-American art exhibition

to have been held
in the country.

♪♪

McLelland: They were open.
They were young.

Most of these guys
were like 18 to 22 years old.

Mak:
These Asian-American artists

were actually drawing
on something

that they already felt
a sense of ownership about,

cultural ownership.

It was a time
in which people's attitudes

about Chinese
were beginning to shift.

They were fueled by
the broader public interest

of exoticizing Chinese culture.

Woman: I love the movement.

Tyrus: Oh, yeah,
and the brushstrokes.

I painted it really fast.

The brush is about this size.

- Woman: Really big brush.
- Tyrus: Uh-huh.

Woman:
Do you remember doing that one?

See: There was an exhibit
that included artists

not just from Los Angeles,

but also from
the San Francisco Bay Area.

These were
the very first exhibits

anywhere of these artists
as a group, as a movement.

Mak: It was an exciting time
for artists like Tyrus

and the California Orientalists

to be gaining ground,
gaining visibility.

Again, this is all taking place

while Chinese immigration
is illegal.

Chinese people couldn't
testify in courts,

especially against
a white person.

They couldn't own property,

and they couldn't marry
outside of their race.

It was a hostile environment.

Johnson: These artists created
a sort of synergy

by coming together
to exhibit their work

and a great reputation that led
to these museum invitations.

I think of it as a renaissance
because there were so many

different things happening
all at the same time.

Woman:
Hey. "Artists such as Okubo,
Hideo Date, and Tyrus Wong

advanced the stylistic approach

by showing together
as oriental artists

in several high-profile
museum exhibitions.

Their work during this period
reflected their interaction

with Stanton MacDonald-Wright,

a major figure
in the Los Angeles art scene."

Tyrus: I was exhibiting
all over the place.

Man: "Tyrus Wong
has a landscape with water

and a cliff,
a marvel of living stillness."

Woman:
"Only 22, he gives a Chinese
twist to a Michelangelo figure."

Man:
"He had mastery enveloped in an
atmospheric harmony of color."

Wong should have a great future.

Tyrus: I was busy painting.

I didn't want to accept,
you know,

wondering where the next meal
would come from in that time.

Depression, you know,
it was terrible.

See: Everybody was broke.

I mean, they were just broke.

And somehow the idea came up
of what is the one thing

people need even if it's
the height of the Depression?

Food.

♪♪

So, my grandfather decided
to open a restaurant

in the basement of the store.

Wong:
Gee, down in the basement.

How about we can make
a restaurant out of it?

So, his brother Ming said,

"A restaurant down
in the basement?

You're crazy. Who the hell
would want to eat

down in the basement?"
you know?

See: Brick, a bunch of pipes,
exposed pipes up on the ceiling.

All the rafters were open.

Everything was just
this dark, dank basement.

So, they decided
to paint murals.

One area was
the Eight Immortals.

Tyrus: And then one corner,
they had painted a dragon.

And it was fighting
one of the immortals.

See: He used ink and pencil
to do the monkeys in the trees

in that kind
of Sung Dynasty style.

Quon:
He did the great sign outside.

His great brush lettering which
showed the Chinese characters.

Oh, he was so great
in his lettering.

See: He designed
the matchbook covers.

He designed and hand-painted
every single menu.

Quon: It turned out to be
a big hangout

for Hollywood celebrities.

♪♪

See:
And this became Dragon's Den.

Tyrus: One of the girls who used
to work up in See's house

by the name of Ruth Kim.

I seen her before.

There was something...

What is that... attracted to her.

Passing the drug store,
and I saw Ruth sitting in there.

I said, "Gee,
I got to ask that girl

whether she want
an ice-cream cone or not."

I was a big spender, you know?

So, I went in there, and I said,

"Ruth, can I buy you
an ice-cream cone?"

She smiled.
She said, "Oh, no, thank you."

My friend, Jackie, said,
"See what I tell you? Dumb jerk.

You go didn't even go through
junior high school,

and she went to UCLA.

She is not interested in you.
You are crazy!"

See:
She spoke beautiful English.

He's still very embarrassed
about his English.

She was very cool, very elegant.

Tyrus is pretty emotional.

Tyrus: Boy, I was really feeling
so bad so long.

See: So, he kind of gave up
for a while,

but he didn't
give up completely.

Pres. Roosevelt:
My most immediate concern

is in carrying out the purposes
of the great work program

just enacted by the Congress.

Its first objective
is to put men and women

now on the relief rolls to work.

♪♪

Canemaker:
He was eking out a living
by doing paintings, you know,

classical watercolor paintings.

He was doing some
commercial work, as well.

But it wasn't enough.

Man: In the early '30s,
when Roosevelt was elected,

George Biddle came to him,
and he said,

"Listen, you know, you need
to set up an art program."

Narrator: The sensitive fingers
of artists

are poorly suited
to manual labor,

and in finding suitable work
for musicians and other artists,

the WPA has contributed greatly
to the culture of America.

Tyrus: They pay you about
90 some-odd dollars a month,

and then you just bring
in one painting.

So, I did lithograph
and watercolor.

Man: ♪ I put on
my walking shoes again ♪

♪ Sometimes, I think
the road's my only friend ♪

♪ Open highway
or an old great car ♪

♪ Don't know where,
but I'm going far ♪

♪ I put on
my walking shoes again ♪

Tyrus: They exhibit the painting
all over the place,

for libraries and so forth,
public building.

♪♪

Good thing we had the WPA,
because otherwise,

a lot of artists
would have starved to death.

One day, I was with Eddy
and so forth.

Eddy said, "Well, gee, Tyrus.

How would you like
to be a waiter?

Help us out for a while?"
I said, "Okay."

I think that pay was
just working on tips.

See: When my grandfather was
looking for people to be waiters

and waitresses, Tyrus said,

"You know,
there's that Ruth girl.

I'm gonna go ask her.

Maybe she'd like
to come and work here."

Tyrus: So, we worked there
for a little bit,

and finally I got enough nerve
to ask her again.

And said, "Gee, they're playing
'David Copperfield'

over in
the Million Dollar Theatre.

Would you like to join me?"

She said, "No, I don't mind."

Micawber:
In short, I have arrived.

Wong:
So, that's the first date.

Fong: He said he remembers
they were walking.

That he, all of a sudden,
leaned over

and kissed her real fast
and really caught her off guard.

And I guess they started
laughing after that.

♪♪

Tyrus: I believe in fate.

I think I am very lucky.

Woman: What moment in your life
gave you the most joy?

Tyrus: When I got married.

♪♪

See: It was just beginning to
come out of the Depression.

He was just married,
just had his first baby.

Fong: I figured, in Chinese,
if you were in married,

you had to support your wife.

So, I had to find a job.

I didn't know what I could do,
except I just loved to paint.

Fong:
My mother was very good about
steering him in the right way.

You know,
"Maybe you should try this."

Fong: So, I take my painting
in there and show it them.

He said, "Well, you know,
we could give you

a scholarship as an apprentice."

I think $29 a month
or something like that,

you know, to learn the trade.

♪♪

Solomon: Hollywood,
and animation in particular,

was very much an old boys' club

during the '30s and '40s
and even into the '50s.

The number of minorities working

in the whole film industry was
fairly small then.

There were not a lot of Asian
or Asian-American actors

or Africa-American actors

who played much
beyond villainous

Fu Manchu characters
or servants.

Katrin: Take it away, please.

The plate, take it away.

Solomon: You find this prejudice
is repeated

in a lot of the cartoons
of the era.

There are lots of jokes about
things being stamped kosher,

although there were
a lot of Jews

working in Hollywood then.

Italians had big noses
and ran food stands.

Chinese jabber incomprehensible
syllables and run laundries.

It's not a pretty picture,
but it is one that reflects

a good deal
of the attitudes there.

Canemaker:
When you joined the Disney
Studio in those days,

you had to begin
to learn the craft.

Even though Pinocchio was
in production at that time,

1938, Tyrus was assigned
to the Mickey Mouse shorts.

They always put people,
even with a wonderful artistic

background and very special
skills like Tyrus Wong,

they would throw them
into the inbetweener pool.

The inbetweener pool was
a pretty rough place to be.

You had to take
the rough animator sketches

and clean them up
very precisely.

You had to do the in between
drawings between the main poses

that the animators put there.

It was almost
a mechanical process.

Solomon: He said his eyes were
turning into tennis balls,

that it was just staring
at the light box

and altering drawings
a little bit.

And I don't think he liked

working with other peoples'
drawings that much.

Fong: I hated that job,
so I come home,

and I told Ruth about it.

She said, "Well, what are you
going to do, then?"

I said, "Well, I don't know."

So, I discovered they
were making "Bambi,"

about the deer in the forest.

So, during the weekend,
I told myself,

I can do tiny little sketches.

Hahn: Here was a guy that was
painting in a really loose,

atmospheric style.

And detail wasn't as important

as shape and color
and composition.

Canemaker: And he brought his
own sketches to Tom Codrick,

who was the main
art director on the film.

That is where Codrick
discovered Tyrus Wong.

Fong: He said,
"Gee, what department?"

I told that I had been
an inbetweener.

"Maybe put you
in the wrong place."

After Walt saw Tyrus Wong's
sketches for Bambi,

he made the go-ahead
to Codrick to hire him.

- He said, "Gee,
'Snow White' was very ornate.

This is really simple.

I kind of like
that unusual style.

Had a little bit
of oriental influence to it."

So, he liked that.
Now I could get started.

Thank you, Walt.

♪♪

Canemaker:
Tyrus was what they called
an inspirational sketch artist,

and it was concepts
that he came up with

that then could be taken on
by anybody on the crew,

not just the directors

but also the layout people
and the animators.

It was like a domino effect.

Fong: My job was, you know,
to paint as many sketches

as I could, set an atmosphere.

♪♪

Early in the morning
when, you know, very foggy.

I also had snow,
and then the fire.

♪♪

Goldberg: Because it is
so impressionistic,

his use of light

and his use of softness
helps you focus

on the characters who are,

by their nature,
drawn on the cells, sharp.

♪♪

His use of color is very,
very adventurous.

He was using color to really
raise the emotional stakes

of what was going on
in the story.

♪♪

Solomon:
"Bambi" stands out for being
just so singularly beautiful

and having a style
that is as unique and strong

as any of the great
Disney features.

Part of that is
Tyrus' personal style,

and part of that is drawing

on the traditions
of Chinese art.

Deja: You could actually
see brushstrokes on the screen.

It sort of gave you the idea

of a whole bunch
of leaves or a bush.

But they were brushstrokes.

Canemaker: Bambi is rather
an experimental film.

It has a poetry to it,

a lyricism that we don't
see very much today.

Goldberg: It's only really
happened a few other times

where the entire studio

will cleave
to one artist's style.

It happened on
"Sleeping Beauty."

Walt said, "Okay,
we're doing Eyvind Earle."

But it happened on "Bambi,"
as well.

You know, "Okay,
we're doing Ty Wong."

Tyrus: The funny thing,
you know, I never met Walt.

Of the 3 1/2 years, I never.

I would just see him come in for
a story meeting and so forth,

but I never...
Nobody introduced me to him.

Maybe because they think
I am Chinese.

I don't know.

Solomon: Though he doesn't like
to talk about it,

Tyrus has said there were people
who did treat him differently

because he was Chinese,
because he had an accent.

He wasn't a good WASP.

Canemaker:
There was jealousy, as well,
that he had moved up so quickly.

Tyrus said that there were
some people that, you know,

they didn't know why they
were taking orders from him.

Indirect orders
through Tom Codrick.

Wong:
He's very, very nice to me.

He said, "Tyrus,
don't get discouraged.

You know, some guys, you know,

this and that,
so don't pay attention.

You just do your own work,
do your work, and so forth."

You know, "As long as Walt likes
your work, it's okay," you know?

Canemaker: In May of 1941,

about 300 employees
went out on strike at Disney.

They were striking for a number
of reasons...

Job security, money.

Solomon:
Some of the artists didn't feel
they belonged in a union.

That they were artists,
not workers.

And many of the artists believe

that hey had
a relationship with Walt

that was more important
than any contract

or union agreement
could possibly be.

Tyrus: So, I asked
Travis Johnson, I said,

"Are you going to go in
or go out?"

So, Travis said,
"I think I will stay in."

So, I stayed in with him.

Solomon: Although the Disney
strike took place in 1941,

it was one of the watershed
moments in animation.

Even in the early 2000s,
there were still artists

who held grudges
over that strike.

It was that bitter
and that deep.

When the strike vote
finally came,

it was, again,
a very bitter division.

The artists who stayed in
didn't forgive the strikers

in many cases, and vice versa.

Canemaker: Tyrus said that
when the strike was over,

that there was resentment,

even more resentment toward him

because he hadn't
gone out on strike.

Tyrus: I think I went back one
day, it was something like that.

And know that I'm out,
and that's it.

Canemaker:
Even though there was a year
to go on "Bambi," he was let go.

He was fired.

♪♪

Tyrus was credited as one of
the background painters,

but that's not what he did.

He was that film in terms
of the design,

and he was not properly
credited for it.

Announcer:
The attack was carried out
by Jap torpedo planes.

The far-eastern double-crossers
had their ships and planes

on the way for the sneak punch.

♪♪

See: The Japanese being
sent to interment camps,

this is a terrible blot
on our history.

But it was very difficult for
the Chinese at that time, too,

particularly in the West.

People would stop Chinese
in the street,

throw them in the street,

you know, beat them up.

Tyrus: I am afraid that somebody
might mistake, you know? Yeah.

So, I had my button.

Usually wearing one
that says China,

or that I was Chinese
or something like that.

See: One of Tyrus'
very closest friends,

Benji Okubo,

is sent off
to the interment camp.

Although he taught painting and
did some painting in the camps,

once he got out,
he never painted again.

They never really came together
again as a group

or as a movement after the war.

So, whatever momentum they had
had just completely melted away.

♪♪

Tyrus: I did a lot of work

that I didn't particularly care
for, but I had to do it.

I used to pick asparagus
and so forth.

It's hot,
and I think I was itchy.

It's terrible.

See: Tyrus had a couple
of commissions that he did,

one for $5, one which was
a lot of money, $50.

But you're not going to
live off of that.

Tyrus: I was painting
a dragon down in Chinatown.

Dick Kelsey, he was
lead artist at Disney.

He was down in Chinatown,
he yelled, "Hey, Tyrus!

Come out!
I want to talk to you!"

He said, "How would you like
to design Christmas cards?"

I said, "Design Christmas cards?

I don't know a damn thing about
Christmas cards, you know?"

So, he had to explain to me.
He said, "Well, Christmas cards.

You think about, you know,
Christmas and stockings,

and gifts and so forth
and snow."

♪♪

And they zoomed up.

They really sell like hotcakes.

And, every year,
I put out 20 designs.

Kim: My mother would do
a lot of the research,

come up with ideas
on what he would paint

and what kind of theme it
would be

or the story
that would go with it.

Tyrus: I was happy, really
happy, through Christmas time.

It was all on my own,
I can go over there and paint.

I was designing
for about 20 years.

♪♪

I think maybe, each card,

I think I got
about 3 or 4 cents.

♪♪

♪♪

Travis Johnson, I called him up.

He said, "Oh, I'm working
at Warner Bros.

Why don't you come
into Warner Brother?"

And I told him, I said, "No, I'm
not familiar with live actions.

I don't think I could cut
the mustard and go in there."

He said, "I think you can do it.
You know, you can do everything.

Why don't you bring
in your sample?"

♪♪

I had about 12 sketches, so I
bring it in to Warner Bros.,

to the live action studio,
to the art department.

And Ralph Gilbert is
the head of it.

And then they look at it
and say, "Yeah.

Young man, I like your work.

I will give you two weeks' time.

If you can cut the mustard,
I will hire you.

I will pay the top salary.

But if you can't
cut the mustard,

you go and shake my hand
and no hard feeling."

Okay.

Announcer: Warner Bros.
First National Studios.

Back in the air again,

we look down on one of
the largest studios.

Musso: Known for its
James Cagney gangster films,

its Errol Flynn swashbucklers,
and high-profile war dramas...

Rick: I was willing to shoot
Captain Renault,

and I'm willing to shoot you.

Musso: Warner Bros.
Was worlds apart from Disney.

Harrington: Since the beginning
of the established studio system

in the 1920s,
there were art departments

that were physically located
on the lots

of the motion picture studios.

They hired professional artists
to be on hand

throughout the year.

It was a full-time job.

And all of the scripts that were
being developed by the studio

would come through
the art department.

Musso: We would take the written
words of the script,

and we would illustrate it

with either big
conceptual illustrations,

or we would block out the shots
within those scenes

by a series of storyboards.

It would be a very accurate
representation of, say,

what the set or scene
was going to look like.

Woman: Oh, Judge, you're not
walking out on us.

We have got to get married.

Man: You've got to get married?

Everybody is this room
has got to get married.

Tyrus: Before they built
the set, you had an architect

to draw up the floor plan

and blueprint
and show it to a director.

He can't read it.

You know, it is
pretty hard to read.

A blueprint doesn't mean
a thing to a director.

So, they either built a model
called a scale model,

or they also made a sketch.

And my job was to paint
the sketch.

Musso:
There was formula that they used

where they could
actually lay camera angles,

triangles down on blueprints.

Plans and elevations,
quarter-inch scale

or eighth-inch scale,

depending on the size
of the set.

Tyrus: I was scared to death,
you know?

We don't know what, you know,
how to go about it and so forth.

Man: Come closer.
I want to talk to you again.

Tyrus: My first picture
was "Background To Danger"

with George Raft.

♪♪

Barton: Hey.

♪♪

Miss Ramsey?

Ramsey: Mr. Barton!

Tyrus: For the first few months,
I really struggled.

So, that was quite a challenge

to quickly learn
anything new, you know?

But taking time, take time.

This is a sketch for the picture
"Harper" with Paul Newman.

Showing this, you know,
I had to make this sketch

to show to the director,

you know, so he can go in
and build the set.

Woman:
This is the astrology bit, but
obviously without much success.

Harper:
Any astrologist in particular?

Tyrus: This one is from
"The Wild Bunch."

By Sam Peckinpah, the director.

Musso:
For the most part, you really
had to work on everything.

We just didn't question
what they gave us.

We just did it.

Harrington: He has got some
incredible beautiful drawings

for an unrealized Warner
Brothers motion picture

that was meant to be a musical
that was influenced

by Salvador Dali.

Very surreal,
very unusual colors.

He was trained to be able
to do anything,

and he could do anything.

And he followed his assignments.

And his assignments
were to be flexible,

innovative, and work to
the service of that screenplay.

And that is what he did.

Man: I hope I haven't
inconvenienced you.

Helen:
♪ Someday he'll come along ♪

♪ The man I love ♪

Woman: Four!

♪♪

Harper: Hey!

Woman: Oh, I'm sorry, baby!

Judy: He needed you, maybe.
But so do I, Jim.

Harrington: When you look
at work by Tyrus Wong

and some of the other really,
you know, talented

motion-picture illustrators,

they almost end up making
the look of the movie

because they are the ones

who are getting
the first crack at it

and saying to the director,
"Here's a group of concepts,

and here's a group of ideas.
Do you like this?"

And, sometimes, people would
really get hooked on the visual

that they were seeing,

and that would help dictate
what the atmosphere

and the environment would
actually end up looking like.

♪♪

Tyrus: I had more fun over
in Warner Bros. than Disney.

We got a bigger lot.

I could go down to visit

where they paint
the backgrounds and so forth.

One of the guys said,
"How's the food,

you know, at the café?"

I said, "I don't know."

He said, "What do you mean?

Didn't you work in the cafeteria
or the restaurant?"

I said, "No,
I work in the art department."

He was surprised.

He said, "You work
in the art department?"

Musso: Every once in a while,
Jack Warner would say,

"Hey, we're going
two or three years.

We've got all these shows
in a can.

Why am I paying this big staff?"

And he would shut down the
studio for three or four months.

Harrington: Tyrus was loaned out
to Republic Pictures on occasion

and worked on a number
of John Wayne movies.

♪♪

Kim: I just remember him
telling stories more recently

that Republic was really bad,

that they weren't
very nice to him.

Tyrus: The very, very first day,
the head of department,

he come in here.

He introduced himself.

He said...
You know what he said?

"I'm a Swede. You are a Chink."

I was shocked.

I was really shocked.

I couldn't...
"Did I hear that right?"

It finally dawned on me...
He called me a Chink.

Woman: How were you able just
to keep on going?

Tyrus: Well, because, you know,
you had a family to support.

Yeah.

We had three girls.

They're very
wonderful daughters.

That is my greatest
achievement, I say.

When we are looking for a house,
they look at me.

You know that we are Asian.

She said, "Oh, I'm sorry.
The house is already sold."

And then, in a month,
go back there.

The sign was still there.

Stern:
In Los Angeles, deeds were
allowed to say no blacks,

no Chinese,
no Jews, no Armenians.

I mean, this was
all utterly explicit.

See:
The Chinese, for a long time,
could only live in Chinatown.

It wasn't until 1948 that the
laws were changed that someone

who was of Chinese
descent could own property

in the state of California.

Kim: Before we moved out
to Sunland, he had the Realtor

go knock on doors
of the neighbors

and ask them how they feel
about a Chinese family moving in

because if they don't want us
to move in then, you know,

obviously wasn't going
to move there.

They both said, "No, we don't
have a problem with that.

We have Chinese friends."

So, we moved in.

Not that the whole
neighborhood was that way,

but those two people were.

♪♪

Kay: So, once we moved out
to Sunland, of course,

we were far removed
from any Asians.

So, once a year,

we would go to the Chinese
congregational church.

Kim: I think, in those days,

they wanted you to meet
other Chinese kids

so you might marry
another Chinese kid.

Somehow, that didn't click.

When they sent us to Chinese
school to learn Chinese,

I was, like, so bored.

I didn't want to do it.

I think I only got to page 9
in the book, and I was over it.

Fong: One time,
we walked as a family

up into the town of Sunland.

And I remember a car driving by,

and they yelled out
some sort of racial something.

I remember my dad
just turning around

and giving them the finger.

I don't know if was Tai-Ling
or Kim that said,

"Well, what was that?"

And I said, "Oh,
they were just waving at us."

My dad always taught us,
and my mom, too,

that whatever you do is going to
reflect on all Chinese.

And so, you have to be
on your best behavior.

One of the driving trips that we
took, when we were in a motel,

they would always
have us clean up.

You know, not make the bed,
but at least straighten it up

because they said,
if we make a mess,

they are going to think that
all Chinese people are messy.

I think my mother was very good
about keeping us occupied

so that he could do his art.

And I think she was very
supportive that way, you know,

that whatever
he had to do had to be done.

And we weren't to bother him
at that time.

Tai-Ling: He did work a lot.

I mean, when he wasn't working
at the studios,

or even when he was, he was
working on Christmas cards.

So, he was working...
After dinner, he would go work.

I don't remember that he spent
a lot of time with family.

Stern: Well, we can look
at more things

maybe you haven't seen
in a long time.

Something else, which I think
you may have forgotten.

When Tyrus was a student
at Otis, one of his classmates

went to work for the
Winfield Pottery in Pasadena.

She asked Tyrus if he would

paint dinnerware
for the company.

In the early post-war period,

they developed a style of home
decor called Chinese-modern.

And Tyrus' dinnerware
would fit perfectly

in a home with that style.

♪♪

This style of painting,
it's like watercolor.

You can't go back
and correct it.

So, every stroke is
the first go.

It's not just skill.

There's something
really beyond it.

It is skill and inspiration.

♪♪

Tyrus: I was still working at
Warner Bros. and the job,

sometimes paint on Saturday,
or it was at night.

After I filmed
with Warner Bros. Studio,

I went over and painted

until about 10:00 at night
or something.

Stern: This came from
Mark Peterson in Fort Worth.

Tyrus: Geez.

Boy, they've really
traveled a long way.

I didn't realize that I had done
so many of them.

♪♪

Stern: There is, in Tyrus' work,
a grace and an ease

that made his work
really accessible

to a large part
of the American public.

It is clearly
from another culture.

At the same time, it doesn't
seem strange or foreign.

Woman: I was wondering
if you could sign it for me.

Stern: I have seen dinnerware
in advertisements for silverware

where what the ad
is selling silverware,

but the dinnerware
is Tyrus' painted work.

So, you know that his work

was seen as part
of the American experience.

Yeah, do you remember
any of this?

Musso:
This was the New York street.

Tyrus: Oh, yeah.

I think I remember that thing.

Musso: Yeah, well, this theatre
right here

they used in
"Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Tyrus: Yeah!

Yeah, I think that's about same.

Musso: I was hired by Warner
Bros. around November of 1964.

And, of course, I was a new kid
on the block.

The first person
I got to know was Ty.

Ty was really a mentor to me.

Around 1967,

Jack Warner started negotiating
to sell Warner Bros.

And he sold it to Seven Arts.

And, in so doing,
there was a big layoff.

- Tyrus: My desk was about here.
- Musso: Yeah, right.

And you had a gallon of water
about here

with all your brushes.

Tyrus: Yeah. Yeah, right.

Musso: With fewer films shot
on the lots,

the studios began to downsize
all their departments.

Studios were making deals
with independent producers,

and it was up to the producers

to hire their own
production staff.

So, consequently, you were much
more of a freelancer

than you were before.

Ty never got into that.

Ty took the layoff and never
really came back to the studio.

♪♪

Harrington:
When you look at this work,
it is kind of remarkable

that one person
is actually responsible

for that body of work.

♪♪

Tyrus: Disney asked me to work
on "Mulan," you know?

I said, "No.
I'm not interested anymore."

Even at Warners, they asked me
to go back there.

I don't want to go back there
if they ask me.

It doesn't mean anything
to me anymore.

♪♪

Mak: Tyrus tells a story
about his wife

telling him to go fly a kite

because he was
bugging her one day.

He was retired.
He didn't have anything to do.

Woman: What attracted you
to the kite-making?

Tyrus:
Well, because it is different.

Yeah.
Different medium.

Mak: He actually got books
from the library

about Chinese kite-building,

and so he just kind of
taught himself how to do it.

He not only learned how to build
the kites in a traditional vein,

but he also learned
to reinterpret it

through his own
creative sensibilities.

Tyrus: I built this butterfly.

It just flies up
and stands still.

I said, "Gee, that doesn't give
me a feeling of a butterfly."

So, I put elastic in front of it

so that when the wind hits it
it springs back, you know?

It bounces back like that,

so that thing
would flapping like that.

So, the butterfly would be
flapping like that, see?

So, it catches the character
of a butterfly.

Mak:
When I look at Tyrus' kites,
I think, "Of course somebody

who is an artist
made these kites,"

because he thought about the
mechanics of what he was making

and how they would look

when they are animated
by the wind.

How they would look
against a blue sky.

♪♪

♪♪

See: He loved Ruth...
Loved, loved Ruth.

And they had such
an incredible marriage.

Fong: I can remember them
kidding around

a lot together and laughing.

They would go out with friends.

Tai-Ling: In beautiful weather,
they'd like to get in the car

and drive someplace.

Fong: He and my mom
would talk a lot.

My mother was more articulate
about things.

Kim: She would be the one
to type the letters,

do the communication.

She would organize
my dad's stuff

and take charge of his affairs.

It was great because my dad
could be allowed to paint

and be creative.

He really valued her.

♪♪

My mom was sick for a long time.

She had a type of dementia
that was related to strokes.

And my dad just took care of her
on a day-to-day basis...

Everything.

Tai-Ling: He was working so hard
to try to help her,

and we actually had to have
a hospital bed in there

so he could help lift her off.

He had to physically lift
her off the bed.

Sometimes she would
be cross with him,

and so then he would
feel very hurt.

We had to keep telling him
that it's not her.

It's the stroke that is talking.

Tai-Ling: She didn't recognize
any of us.

We would call him Dad,
so she would call him Dad.

♪♪

We went to
the convalescent hospital,

all of us together to see her,
and she had already died.

And to see him crying there,
that was a really sad moment.

♪♪

Tyrus:
You know, when you're living
with a person so many years,

you know, I still miss her.

Yeah.

♪♪

Tai-Ling:
When my mom passed away,
I thought, "I don't know

if Dad's every going to recover
from this."

♪♪

♪♪

Tyrus: Well, I hope it flies.

Kim: You ready to go, Dad?

♪♪

Tom: One of the most
outstanding pioneers

of our Chinese-American
community here in Los Angeles

was Tyrus Wong.

Not only was he noted here
in our Chinatown community,

but he bridged the gap
of the old culture

with the new culture

and broadened it
to the film industry,

where it has gone
all over the world.

And thank you again,
and congratulations.

Tyrus:
I wish my pa and ma were here.

See: In recent years,
especially after he turned 90,

Tyrus started being recognized
by many, many different groups.

♪♪

Kim: He's probably proudest
of the fact

that he was successful,
and he was Chinese,

and that he managed to fight
through the racial barrier

that existed back then.

Tyrus: I have gone through
so many different things,

like, you know, different
presidents and so forth.

But I think,
well, what the heck.

I mean, you know, I'm not going
to be thinking about it.

That's not good for my health.

♪♪

I think luck and hard work.

Luck and hard work.

I wouldn't say talent.

I am not that talented.

You know, hard work.

Disney:
Our next legend had a brief
but impactful Disney career.

His name is Tyrus Wong,
and he only worked at the studio

for three years,
and during that time,

devoted himself
to just one movie, "Bambi."

But what a film it was.

Felix: For that one
contribution, he is legendary

and constantly on the minds
of everyone here.

♪♪

Labrie:
This exhibition is exciting
and poignant for this area.

He came to the United States
through Angel Island,

which is right across the bay.

Amongst his colleagues
and many artists to this day,

they consider his art

as some of the most exquisite
and beautiful art

that was produced
at the Disney Studios.

♪♪

Solomon:
He is very, very much admired.

He has been much
more influential

than he would ever acknowledge
or probably even realizes.

Doctor:
Pretty good work. I think
you have a future.

Mak: Tyrus' story is like
an incredible flower

growing amidst concrete
and stone.

It is so unlikely, and that
is what makes it so valuable.

Hahn: I think sometimes we get
blinders on, and we think,

"Oh, I have to be
a great painter,"

or, "I have to be
an amazing animator,"

or something like that.

When you look
at Tyrus Wong's work,

there is tremendous
diversity to it.

You know, his ceramic artwork,
his greeting cards

or his painting at Disney
or his Warner Bros. work

or his kite-building.

I think all of those are
hand-and-glove, and I think

all of those relate
to each other.

It's almost a philosophy of
how he wants to live his life.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪