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POSTED: Tuesday, October 21, 2008

A long journey always starts with a single step. You've heard it before. But did you know it originated as a line of dialogue in a Charlie Chan movie?

 

  For playwright Joy Jackson, president of Seattle-based American Radio Theater, that first step was a suggestion by one of her actors that they create a work incorporating Seattle's large Hawaiian community. “;Cole Hornaday (ART vice president) and I wanted to write a radio play, and Charlie Chan seemed the best idea,”; says Jackson. “;However, a friend whipped out one of the Charlie Chan DVD sets, and it had a documentary on the real Charlie Chan. The real Charlie Chan? I was hooked.”;

The fictional Chinese-American super-sleuth is based on actual Honolulu detective Chang Apana. Jackson is traveling to Honolulu later this week to research Apana, beginning with exhibits at the Honolulu Police Department museum, and curator Eddie Croom.

“;Most people are as stunned as I was to learn that there was a real Charlie Chan,”; noted Jackson.

Was Charlie Chan serialized on radio before?

  “;Yes, in the 1930s and '40s. There are only a few of these shows in existence today. I've listened to a couple - the quality of the sound was pretty bad. The stereotyping of the Chinese detective was obvious.”;

                       

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Charlie Chan, the white-suited, effete brainiac, or two-fisted Chang Apana - are they role models or a cliches? Or both?

“;Chan is a cliche - 'the inscrutable East,'”; said Jackson. “;A new radio play about Chang Apana would use him as a role model.”;

Everyone she's talked to has objected to the stereotyping of the characters in the movies, books and old radio shows. “;I always thought Charlie Chan used his 'broken English' as a way to make others discount his intelligence. It's not really broken English he used, nor pidgin, but quoting philosophers, instead of just responding.”;

               

     

 

 

On the Net         »  www.AmericanRadioTheater.org » American Radio Theater's weekly broadcasts: www.radioent.com         » Chang Apana and Charlie Chan, alike or not?

Jackson's from-Seattle impression of Hawaii in the 1920s is that it “;was in the grips of white sugar-plantation owners. The various nonwhite races were looked down upon as a general rule. Chang appears to be a person of integrity, an honest cop in the territorial police.”;

Jackson points out that in this age of robo-programmed radio fare, there's “;no market for radio plays. Personnel of most radio stations don't believe that audio drama will sell commercials. That's even true of NPR. Garrison Keillor's show is the lone holdout, and 'Imagination Theatre.'”;

For those writing new radio drama, the Internet - streaming or pod-casting - is the way to reach an audience, which these days is primarily people hooked on audio books, as well as the blind, she said.

Radio drama enlists the active imagination of the listener, taking place, as it does, in the mind's eye. Jackson found a quote about radio production that sang to her: “;The eye is intellectual but the ear is emotional. People believe what they hear.”; It was written in 1942.