A couple days ago SAG-AFTRA posted this on their Twitter page...
SAG-Aftra/Twitter
Cinematographer, #oscar winner and restauranteur James Wong Howe's ad for his Chinese restaurant from the September 1941 issue of Screen Actor magazine. Howe broke barriers as one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood.
My goal was to find a photograph of the place...but the following is what I did find out.
In a Google search, a book called Chinese in Hollywood, had this information:
Cinematographer James Wong Howe operated Ching How restaurant at 11386 Ventura Blvd. in North Hollywood [Now known as Studio City]. Nominated for ten Academy Awards and winning twice [for The Rose Tattoo and Hud], Howe is one of the most successful Chinese Americans in the film industry. His wife, Sonora Babb, managed the restaurant; her sister handled the accounting; and actor Albert Wong worked as a waiter. Ching How's celebrity patrons included Marilyn Monroe Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Kirk Douglas, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Sessue Hayakawa and more.
In the Chinese American Eyes blog,
HERE, there is this ad from the February 1, 1940 edition of the Hollywood Reporter:
In an interview with character actor Marvin Kaplan on Classic Showbiz blogspot,
HERE, he talks about a 1951 film he was in, Behave Yourself, and says:
Marvin Kaplan:
The picture was directed by the man who wrote it - George Beck. It was photographed by James Wong Howe. He was magnificent. Great. Great. They tell a funny story about him. He had a restaurant. Chinese restaurant. Someone was photographing something by the restaurant. Howe came out and told them [the proper way] to use their camera. The guy said to Howe, "Listen, buddy, you stick to making your noodles.
The site also had this image...
...after the paragraph, but nothing about it.
The
Felix in Hollywood Facebook page has this photo: "John Garfield (left) and Claude Rains (right)...
...make like cooks in the kitchen of Ching How restaurant, owned by brilliant cinematographer, James Wong Howe.
And I found a matchbook cover:
FrankKelsey/Flickr
Looking up various info, one place said it was around for ten years, around 1940-1950, but there were a couple instances of people talking about the place where they seemed to think it was near the Ventura Freeway. Wondering if he bought another place later on?
The 11386 Ventura Blvd. address is in Studio City where Tujunga Ave. t-bones Ventura Blvd.
GSV Link. When I looked up the address on GSV I realized this is the address of one of the stores in the small chain of video stores I used to work for. So this address is now a strip mall and has been since at least the mid-80's when this video store location opened. (It is now a marijuana dispensary called Urban Treez.)
c.2011:
Patch/Studio City