For the privileged a cosmopolitan pleasure ground; For the desperate a port of last resort.
A pot of gold at the end of an Oriental rainbow; A thick slice of hell denounced from the pulpit.
The start of a journey for many; The end of the road for some.
A place to find fame, or to seek anonymity; Rogues, chancers, showgirls, criminals…
For so many people from so many lands, there was one phrase that sent a tingle of hope or a shiver of anticipation down every spine: "DESTINATION SHANGHAI"
Autorentext
By Paul French
Inhalt
Introduction - Sojourners of an Interesting Sort
1) The Hunt for Eugene O'Neill: How America's Most Famous Playwright Went to Shanghai, Fooled Everyone and had a High Old Time of It (1928)
- Did He or Didn't He? - Andre Malraux (1931)
2) Nearly Snubbed by Shanghai - Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford (1929)
- The Collaborators - Marion, Don and Bert dream of a Nazi Shanghai (1941)
3) Louis L'Amour's Shanghai Gestures (1933)
- A Warm Welcome for Charlie Chan - Warner Oland (1936)
4) Two Poets Meet in Frenchtown - Langston Hughes and Irene West (1934)
- From Warsaw to Shanghai to Hollywood - Lyda Roberti (1930s)
5) The Beast Comes to Shanghai - Aleister Crowley (1906)
- A Dense, Rank, Richly Clotted Life - Aldous Huxley (1926)
6) The Zeitgeist Bookstore and Recruiting the Fifth Man - the Red Sojourners Agnes Smedley, Roger Hollis and Irene Weitemeyer (1929)
- Nina Barsamova - The White Russian Movie Queen of Shanghai (1933)
7) Weimar Germany on the Huangpu - Lily Flohr Will be Flattered to See You (1941)
- Florence Broadhurst Teaches Shanghai to Sing (1926)
8) Shanghai's Most Charming Gangster - Ely "The Swiss" Widler's Wild China Ride (1940)
- A Showgirl, Bloody Saturday and the Shrapnel Swing - Terese Rudolph (1937)
10) CC Julian's Last Refuge - How America's Biggest Ever Swindler Ended Up in Shanghai (1934)
Conclusion - Ye Shanghai