Grace Cunard and Colonial Korea

Excerpts from “How Roleau became Songsan instead of Matsuyama: Early film practices in colonial Korea and the influence from American serial films” by Chonghwa Chung

        Universal’s fifth serial film The Broken Coin was the second imported title to Japan after Master Key (1914). It was highly acclaimed at that time in Japan and was later also adapted into a novel in Japanese. The popularity led to the reverberation of the serial film in colonial Korea as well. Since the first and second episodes were shown in Woomingwan on June 23, 1916, the film was shown repeatedly. There was a The Broken Coin fest which featured four episodes (eight rolls) every two days at Danseongsa Theater for ten days since November 10, 1921. Overall, this film was screened at least 14 times until 1928. Its popularity can be inferred from the fact that the film was adapted into two old printed novels in 1920 and 1921 in colonial Korea, and that the narrator (byeonsa, bensi) Seo Sang-ho’s commentary was released as a gramophone record in 1932 and 1934.

        The Broken Coin was reproduced repeatedly through various media since its first screening in 1916, providing the most popular narrative pattern and the prototype of characters for popular culture forms including colonial Korean films. The action of Western films, symbolized by The Broken Coin and its character Roleau, became a visual reference in the production practice of early colonial Korean films that began with the combination play. It also influenced the formation and circulation of Na Un-gyu’s persona, the action hero from Joseon’s silent film Arirang (1926). The table shows the schedule for the screening of The Broken Coin based on a 1916 advertisement of the theater Woomingwan in Maeilshinbo newspaper. It shows how American serial films were released in colonial Korean theaters.

“American Serial Films at Theaters in Chosun” by Moonim Baek
translated and edited by Jung-Aa Ahn

        Kitty Gray, referred to as “the world’s best actress” by Chansik Choi is the name of the main character in The Broken Coin. This role was played by Grace Cunard, who wrote the scenario as well. With Francis Ford, she made one of the most influential serial films in the early 1910s and was called a “serial queen.” Through The Broken Coin, she contributed to creating the concept of stardom in Chosun for the first time. Her films after The Broken Coin were advertised as the films with Kitty Gray, and when The Adventure of Peg o’ the Ring (1916, premiered in colonial Korea in 1917) premiered in colonial Korea, her and Francis Ford’s picture was given out for free.

        Kitty Gray from The Broken Coin is a woman who is a popular detective novel writer of New York who does not hesitate to go on an adventure to uncover the mysteries of the ancient European kingdom, fights against the villain’s evil schemes, and gets entangled in the war but eventually triumphs. In fact, American films, which enjoyed their heyday in the 1910s, gained popularity among female urban workers who emerged as an important audience for the film by showing young women who go beyond the fence of their family and jumped into adventures. This was in line with the women's suffrage movement and helped highlight the presence of women on and off the screen. As various serial films got released in Chosun, Pearl White, Helen Holmes, Ruth Roland, Eileen Sedgwick, and Marie Walcamp also became recognized as “serial queens”. However, although the most popular “serial queen” was Grace Cunard at the time, her other works were not as widely recognized even after the independence of Korea from Japanese colonial rule.

[Sang-Eon Han’s Book and People] The Dominant Film of Silent Film Era ‘Broken Coin’ by Sang-Eon Han
translated and edited by Jung-Aa Ahn

        The magazine Nokseong, which showed the most serious interest in serial films at the time, provides a good source for guessing the reason behind this. In this film magazine, which disappeared after publishing several issues towards the end of 1919, Eddie Polo and Charlie Chaplin were the only ones referred to as “stars”, and for plays, only the British series Ultus with the male actor Aurele Sydney was introduced. Nokseong published an article in 1919 titled “The Story of Roleau, a Popular Boy in Motion Picture World.” Although Grace Cunard’s picture is printed in the magazine due to the popularity of The Broken Coin and an episode about Pearl White filming the “adventure play” is introduced, they are depicted just as “pretty women” or naïve and weak women who do not have an active role in making the film.

       However, if one goes beyond the definition of “serial queen” from just the stardom of an actor, the definition can be expanded. When Chansik Choi refers to Grace Cunard as the “world’s best actress” who works at Universal Studios, this indicates not just her value as a star but the ability of a young woman with professional skills. In addition, this points to Joseon’s popular culture in which the concept of an “actress” did not exist.

       As it is now, it was the publishing culture's trend to publish popular films into a film novel. The film novel The Broken Coin was published by Shinmyeong Publisher with Byeongjo Yoon's translation in 1920 and was also published with Wanshik Song's translation through Yeongchang Publisher in 1921.

       The novel The Broken Coin from Taehwa Publisher was published in 1934. Twenty years had passed since the film was made, and fifteen years had passed since the first publication was released from Shinmyeong Publisher, yet the book was still a steady seller. In a nutshell, the film Broken Coin was the most popular film in the silent film era and the film novel The Broken Coin was the most popular steady seller at the time.

Sources:

Baek, Moonim. "American Serial Films at Theaters in Chosun 기획: 감상 (鑑賞) 의 시대, 조선의 미국 연속영화." 사이間 SAI 14 (2013): 213-264.

Chung, Chonghwa. “How Roleau Became Songsan Instead of Matsuyama: Early Film Practices in Colonial Korea and the Influence from American Serial Films.” Busan International Film Festival, 9 Oct. 2019, forum.biff.kr/eng/addon/10000001/page.asp?page_num=2115.

Han, Sang-Eon. “[Sang-Eon Han’s Book and People] The Dominant Film of Silent Film Era ‘Broken Coin’ [한상언의 책과 사람들]무성 영화시대 풍미했던 ‘명금.’” NEWSIS, 18 June 2021, newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20210615_0001477297.

Korean Film Archive, et al. “활동사진의 시대.” Google Arts & Culture, Korean Film Archive, 2021, artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/wQw3xXM5?hl=ko.