Noel Toy

Pioneer exotic dancer Noel Toy's fashionably seductive nude performances in both San Francisco and New York night clubs caused quite a sensation back in her 1940s heyday. Concealed by a few ostrich plumes, she became the nation's first Chinese-American fan dancer while turning San Francisco's "Forbidden City" into one of the nation's most scandalously famous nightclubs. Dubbed the "Chinese Sally Rand" because of her similar routines with fans and a huge, transparent plastic bubble, ritzy New York clubs quickly fought over her. She went on to "take it all off" at such exclusive niteries as "The Stork Club", "Maxie's", "The 18th Club", Lou Walter's "Latin Quarter" and "Leon & Eddie's". (Lou Walters was the father of TV journalist / interviewer / host Barbara Walters.) Born Ngun Yee in San Francisco, she was the eldest of eight children born to émigré parents from Canton, China. Mrs. Young's parents opened and operated a laundromat. She studied journalism and was quite close to gradua