Celebrating WHM: "Maylia"

(Celebrating Women's History Month)

Today, we salute actress Gloria Chin, best known as Maylia. 

-CLICK HERE for Image-

Gloria Fong was born Gloria Chin on November 10, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. 

She was spotted in a restaurant by the wife of writer-producer Sidney Buchman and then auditioned for a role in Buchman's film To the Ends of the Earth. From was promoted as "the first Chinese starlet since Anna May Wong". She changed her name to Maylia ("beautiful" in Cantonese) and was signed to Columbia Pictures. 

Days after signing her contract with Columbia, Maylia met actor Benson Fong and within a few weeks, they were married. Soon, she was pregnant with her first child, thus halting the big plans that Columbia had for "their Anna May Wong". 

Maylia worked in a total of only six films, but she and Benson would later run a successful Chinese restaurant in Beverly Hills. The couple had five children together and were married until Benson's death in 1987. 

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Here is Maylia in To the Ends of the Earth (1948):

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Links:

Soft Film (Source of my information)

IDMb