Bob Booth

Bob Booth was a journalist and actor, who notably acted in Japanese movies and stage shows during the post-American occupation period of 1952-57. He was born in Mississippi, and after his stint in Japan spent his later life living in Texas and Mississippi. He worked mainly as a journalist, having started and published Preview magazine in Japan, and in addition to his work as a performer he narrated many documentary films made by Ian Mutsu. His big break in the movie business came about when he was selected by stars Toshiro Mifune and Shirley Yamaguchi plus producer Tomoyuki Tanaka (who later made the original "Godzilla") to co-star in "Muteki" ("Foghorn") a love story set in Yokohama released by Toho in 1952. Shortly after its release Toho signed him to supervise the editing and handling of the English-language version of Hiroshi Inagaki's 3-hour Samurai movie "Sengoku Burai" ("Sword for Hire"), starring Mifune and Yamaguchi, and Booth also narrated the movie in place of any English subtitles. This shortened version was shown at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1953 he appeared as a G.I. in a Toho feature directed by Senkichi Taniguchi titled "Aka Sen Kichi" ("Red Light District") which despite the director's care to remove any anti-American references in the screenplay, the movie was criticized by the U.S. Embassy and military personnel, resulting in limited distribution. His personal favorite film came in 1956 portraying Russian spy Richard Sorge in Nikkatsu's "Aiwa Furu Hoshi No Kanata Ni" ("The Man Who Came from Shanghai"). The high point of his career in Japan was a Red Cross benefit live show on June 30, 1952 marking the first time American and Japanese entertainers appeared on stage together (which had been prohibited during the occupation). Booth emceed the event at the Ernie Pyle Theater, which raised 2 million yen for the Japanese Red Cross. Two weeks after the show Toho hired him as emcee/announcer in a live musical comedy revue titled "Love Harbor" at the Nichii Geki 5th Floor theater in Tokyo. In 1987 he was planning to return to movie acting in an indie film from his own banner Mississippi International Film Productions, titled "A Man and His Duck", a road movie about an older down and out man traveling the back roads from Texas to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis with his pet duck. The project was never filmed.