Toy & Wing

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Toy & Wing, c. 1942

Toy & Wing were an American tap dance duo composed of Dorothy Toy (real name Shigeko Takahashi, May 28, 1917 – July 10, 2019) and Paul Wing (real name Paul Wing Jew, October 14, 1912 – April 27, 1997).[1][2][3][4] They were billed as the "Chinese Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers",[2] though only Wing was Chinese-American; Toy was of Japanese descent.[2][3][5] Active in the 1930s and 1940s, they were the first Asian-Americans to enter the American tap dance scene.[6] The pair married in 1940, mostly for convenience of booking and promotion, but later divorced. They continued dancing together after their separation.[7]

The pair were invited to participate in a film with Chico Marx, but were prevented because of Toy's Japanese heritage following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.[8]

Dorothy Toy was born on May 28, 1917, in San Francisco to Yataro and Kiyo (née Sayama) Takahashi. She had a sister, Helen. After marrying Les Fong in 1952, her married name was Dorothy Toy Fong — they would later divorce. Following her dance career, Toy worked as a pharmaceutical technician and a dance instructor.[9] She turned 100 in May 2017,[10] and died on July 10, 2019, at the age of 102 at her home in Oakland, California.[11] She had two children, Peter and Dorlie.[12][13]

Toy's career was memorialized in Dancing through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story, a film produced by Rick Quan in 2017.[14][15]

Paul Wing was born October 14, 1912 in Menlo Park and raised in Palo Alto. He married his wife, Anna, in 1974.[16] Wing served in World War II, taking park in the Normandy landing.[17]

Toy & Wing

References[edit]

  1. ^ "OBITUARY -- Paul Wing". SFGATE. May 2, 1997.
  2. ^ a b c Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America. Psychology Press. 2004. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2.
  3. ^ a b Stephanie Barron; Sheri Bernstein; Ilene Susan Fort (2000). Reading California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. University of California Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-520-22767-5.
  4. ^ Valerie J. Matsumoto (2014). City Girls: The Nisei Social World in Los Angeles, 1920-1950. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-19-937703-9.
  5. ^ Rusty E. Frank (1994). Tap!: The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955. Perseus Books Group. pp. 102–110. ISBN 978-0-306-80635-3.
  6. ^ Amy Gorman (2006). Aging Artfully: 12 Profiles : Visual & Performing Women Artists Aged 85-105. PAL Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-9785192-0-9.
  7. ^ Pak, Samantha (2022-05-11). "442: Meet the Great Asian American Dance Duo, Toy and Wing". JoySauce. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  8. ^ Pak, Samantha (2022-05-11). "442: Meet the Great Asian American Dance Duo, Toy and Wing". JoySauce. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  9. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (August 1, 2019). "Dorothy Toy, 102, Half of Asian-American Dance Team, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  10. ^ "Dorothy Toy Documentary to Be Screened at CHSA". January 13, 2018.
  11. ^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Katz, Brigit. "Remembering Dorothy Toy, a Dazzling Asian-American Tap Dance Star". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  12. ^ Dorothy Toy, dazzling dancer known as the 'Asian Ginger Rogers,' dies at 102, 2019-07-27
  13. ^ ""My Mother the Performer": The Life and Legacy of Dorothy Toy". StoryCorps. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  14. ^ https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Dorothy%20Toy. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ Dancing through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story. Retrieved 2024-04-11 – via www.youtube.com.
  16. ^ "OBITUARY -- Paul Wing". SFGATE. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  17. ^ "'Chinese Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' who broke barriers". South China Morning Post. 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2024-04-11.

Further reading[edit]

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