Northwest Chicago Film Society

An archivist friend recently sent me this link on China Girls/Leader Ladies from the Northwest Chicago Film Society. It's a wonderful resource, with several of the very common China girls (most coming from film manufacturers) identified by date. I'm becoming increasingly interested in building a database that matches China girl with lab or film stock, and, in some cases, might point the way to locating the woman who sat for the shoot.

"Little Blondie" is especially compelling:



The site also includes a link to John Pytlak's acceptance speech for a technical Oscar in 2001. In describing the LAD system he pioneered, he suggests that the China girl "has probably been in more movies than any other actress in the world."