THE KING AND I: Featuring Machiko Iseri

I've been to Thailand more than 25 times, and the royalty of the country has long fascinated me.

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  In the early 1860s, Anna Leonowens (right) became governess to the children of King Mongkut (below), or Rama IV, of Siam.  
• He was trying to modernize the country.  
• Mongkut had 82 children from 32 wives, and lived to the age of 64.  
• The real story of Anna is not exactly as portrayed, for it is believed that she was born in India of mixed parentage, and came to Thailand from Malaysia.  She had a daughter, who was sent to England, and went to Bangkok only with her son.

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  One of his sons, most prominent in the book/play/film, was Chulalongkorn.
• He became the next king, Rama V, married four of his half sisters,  had 143 concubines, 32 sons and 44 daughters.  
• It was he who modernized his country, and died at the age of 43 from a kidney disease.  
• Chulalongkorn University ranks #1 in Thailand.

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  The country was early on called the Kingdom of Ayutthaya.
• By the late 1700s, Siam became commonly used. 
• The capital was moved by Rama 1 from Thonburi to what today is Bangkok.  

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  The Grand Palace was built in 1782.  The other photo is the Grand Palace today, a truly grand place to visit.
• Rama IV's reign began in 1851.

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  Rama VI in 1910 studied law and history at the University of Oxford.
• Through wisdom and luck, Siam was never colonized.

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  Sided with the British against Germany in World War I.
• Declared neutrality in World War II, but was invaded by Japan on 8December1941, and essentially became a puppet.  Again, perhaps wisdom, as after the war they largely escaped takeover and punishment at the same time.
• While all that was going on, Siam was changed to Thailand in 1939, returned to Siam from 1944 to 1946, and then finalized to Thailand since then.

With that background, the memoirs of Anna became a book by Margaret Landon in 1944.  Soon following came the film, Anna and the King of Siam in 1946, starring Rex Harrison as the king and Irene Dunne as Anna.   Won two Oscars.  Got an 89 rating by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers, but only 69 by audiences.

The film is not on Tubi, but I kept searching, and You Tube has the entire 2 hour 3 minute movie.  Black and white, of course, and no songs, but a worthy effort.

In 1951, in their fifth musical, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote The King and I for Broadway, showing in the St. James Theater.  Ran for nearly three years, unusual for those days.  Starred Gertrude Lawrence as Anna.  They couldn't get Rex Harrison, so settled on a young actor, Yul Brynner.  Won Tony Awards for Best Actress (Lawrence) and Best Actor (Brynner).  However, she died of cancer a year and a half into the run, and was replaced by a series of actresses. In this production, King Mongkut was about 57 years old, and the year was 1861.

Then the 1956 film with Brynner (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor).  The movie was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 5, including for Best Sound and Best Score.  Deborah Kerr was nominated, but did not win, same for director Walter Lang.

A dance consultant for the original Broadway show was Machiko Iseri.  She left the Heart Mountain Japanese containment site in 1944, and went to Broadway.  First, her dance class at Heart Mountain.

You can read about her, but she went on to fashion a fabulous life in dancing.  All films related to The King and I are banned in Thailand.  Thus, another story, with her in Bangkok in 1956:

• Prince Bhanubandhu Yugala, a cousin of King Bhumibol, came by to see her, and mentioned that when he was next in Hong Kong, he would go see The King and I.
• After he returned, he asked her, who dressed you in that blue coolie costume?  He said you were a princess and said that Thai laborers wore the color blue.
• He arranged for Michiko to learn about the Thai temple dance.

Here is Machiko on her 100th birthday.

 

Michiko helped pave the way for Asian American dancers and performers on Broadway, but most today do not even know her name.

The most recent major production was a 1999 film, Anna and the King, with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat.  This production ran afoul of Thai government attitudes, as they deemed it historically inaccurate and insulting to the royal family.  As such, the movie was filmed in Malaysia with no Thai actors, and also has never been shown in Thailand.  Rotten Tomatoes gave 52/64 scores.

There have been innumerable tours and revivals, and one featured Daniel Dae Kim as King Mongkut, here with Marin Mazzie in Shall We Dance.

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