By Wayman Wong
01 Aug 2003

So how did it all begin? Ching was 18 and a Merchant Marine, and he got up and sang in a San Francisco bar, egged on by his buddies. He was such a hit that one of the bar owners offered him "$35 a week to sing and all the liquor," so Ching said, "That’s the job for me!" And that’s how he became the first singing bartender in Chinatown. By 1942, Charlie Low hired the young man to headline at Forbidden City, which was to Asian-American entertainers what the Cotton Club was to African-Americans.

Though it was great crooning tunes for a living, he still had to face racism in the club: "Sometimes, customers would call us ‘slant eyes’ and we had to take it, but I had a few scuffles. I pushed a guy downstairs for calling me a ‘Chink.’ And I pounded the hell out of some guy who said my wife was 'a Chinese whore.'" Ching also couldn’t get society gigs or bookings in the Caucasian clubs. One bandleader told him, "You sing a lot better than the guys I know, but I can’t hire you because you’re Oriental."

Business was booming at Forbidden City in the 1940's, and it was even the model for the nightclub in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song, but TV and the changing times took their toll in the 1950's. Ching says, "It broke my heart." The place closed around 1961 and with nowhere to sing, he became a truck driver for the S.F. Chronicle and retired in 1985. He occasionally sang at weddings and senior centers.

Then in 1989, the Oscar-nominated moviemaker Arthur Dong made an amazing documentary called "Forbidden City," featuring Ching and many of his nightclub colleagues like Jadin Wong and Toy Yat Mar. Finally, these long-forgotten Asian-American singers and dancers were rediscovered and praised as pioneers.

One of the film’s biggest fans was Ben Fong-Torres, the famed and former Rolling Stone journalist and author ("The Rice Room"). He was determined to make a permanent record of Ching’s singing for posterity, so this past February, Fong-Torres, along with engineer John Barsotti, produced "Till the End of Time" as a labor of love. On June 28, the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco celebrated the release of the album, and Mayor Willie Brown declared it "Larry Ching Day."

Sadly, Ching died only a week later on July 5, after suffering a brain aneurysm. Fong-Torres says, "Larry went out in a blaze of glory." Ching is survived by his widow, Jane Seid Ching, two sons, four stepsons, eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. But he isn’t really gone. You can see him on the recently released DVD of "Forbidden City" or hear him on his one and only CD. Thanks to the tireless dedication of Dong and Fong-Torres, Ching’s vibrant voice will live on "Till the End of Time."

For info about the CD or the DVD, visit www.larryching.com. Plus, the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas is presenting the exhibit "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance: Performing Chinese America" through Aug. 10 in New York City: www.moca-nyc.org.

LET’S HAVE A HAND FOR THE PUPPETS
If you’ve seen Avenue Q, which just opened to rave reviews at the Golden, you know there’s a fine, fine mind behind this wildly fun puppets and-people musical. Actually, three of them — the writers: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty. And there’s a dynamite director (Jason Moore) and an incredible cast that includes John Tartaglia, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Rick Lyon and Ann Harada. But let’s talk to Rod, the show's gay Republican puppet. He's making his Broadway debut at a theatre that opened in 1927 with a play called Puppets of Passion. We reached Rod through the multitasking Tartaglia, who also acts as his handler and right-hand man.

Question: Congrats, Rod! Your favorite book is "Broadway Musicals of the 1940s," so how’s it feel to be actually on the Great White Way?
Rod: Overwhelming. I love Broadway. I’ve just seen Gypsy 400 times now. Bernadette Peters is my idol, and she’s been in every performance. And I have a friend in The Lion King: Daniel. He’s one of the cheetahs.

Q: Speaking of puppet shows, did you see Puppetry of the Penis?
Rod: No, I thought it would hurt to watch that.

Q: Yeah, me, too. Anyway, lots of actors unwind by watching TV. Have you caught "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"?
Rod: Yes, those guys are amazing! I also watch "Will & Grace" and I love "Queer as Folk," but I have to close my eyes during some of the [sex] scenes.

Q: By the way, what did you think of the Supreme Court ruling?
Rod: You mean the one that allows us all to wear pastels?

Q: No, the one that outlaws sodomy laws.
Rod: I don’t know that word "sodomy." Can we move on?

Q: Do you believe in gay marriage?
Rod: I believe two people should be able to express their happiness in any way they like. And I hope that extends to puppets or people with no lower extremities.

Q: Finally, you know Bert and Ernie. What’s the real story?
Rod: They’re just friends. Trust me. Just friends.

For more info about Rod and the gang, visit www.avenueq.com.

WHERE THE GUYS ARE
There’s so much to see in New York: Congrats to Seth Rudetsky! He deserves our "Leading Men" laurels for Rhapsody in Seth, his riotous, one-man show about showbiz, at the Actors’ Playhouse (212 239-6200). Seth is wrapping up his sassy, six-month run this weekend (Aug. 1-4), so if you still haven’t seen it, you gotta go! . . . Steven Lutvak and Amanda Green kick off Barbara and Scott Siegel’s marvelous monthly series, "The Best Cabaret CDs of Our Time," Aug. 3 at 7 PM at Dillon’s (212-946-9797). . . . Multi-MAC Award winner Phillip Officer salutes Burton Lane (Finian’s Rainbow) Mondays in August at 7 PM and Billy Stritch sings and swings Aug. 4 and 25 at 8:30 PM at the King Kong Room (212-921-1904). … And, finally, Marc Kudisch stars in The Thing About Men, a new musical by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change). Kudisch plays an adulterous ad exec who’ll do anything to win back his wife’s affections, and his co-stars include Ron Bohmer and Daniel Reichard. Previews begin Aug. 6 and then this musical affair opens Aug. 27 at the Promenade (212-239-6200).

Got comments or questions? E-mail me at waymanwong@hotmail.com.

Until next month, let’s hear it for the "boys"!

Wayman Wong edits entertainment for the New York Daily News. He has been a movie and theater critic for the San Francisco Examiner, a writer for the Sondheim Review and a Drama-Logue Award-winning playwright.

(L-R) Daniel Letterle (''Camp''), Rod and John Tartaglia (Avenue Q) and Larry Ching (Forbidden City).
photo by Wayman Wong and Natalie Schrik

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