Leyda, Si-lan Chen

Jay Leyda (1910-1988) was a leading film historian, best known for his work on Soviet cinema and director Sergei Eisenstein, and on Chinese cinema. He was also a film maker, photographer, archivist, translator, professor of cinema studies at New York University, and was also noted for his Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville scholarship. His wife, Si Lan Chen Leyda (1909- ) was a modern dancer who pioneered the use of Chinese dance elements.

Jay Leyda was born on February 12, 1910 in Detroit, Michigan, and was adopted and raised by his grandmother in Dayton, Ohio, after his mother's early divorce. In 1930 Jay moved to New York City to work for photographer Ralph Steiner. Leyda was published in Arts Weekly, exhibited at the Julien Levy gallery, worked for the Workers Film and Photo League, was a founding member of the Film Society and the Film Forum, and arranged music to be played during silent films. At this time he formed a liaison with the activist attorney Carol King and may have joined the Communist Party USA. In 1932 Leyda made his first film A Bronx Morning, which led to his September 1933 acceptance to the Moscow State Film School, where he studied directing with Sergei Eisenstein. Leyda became a correspondent for Theatre Arts Monthly and New Theatre, and using the pen name James Lincoln, was an art critic for the Moscow News . In 1934 Leyda married Si Lan Chen, whose sister Yolanda worked as a camera operator for Mosfilms. In 1934-35 Leyda worked for Eisenstein as photographer and archivist during the making of Bezhin Meadow.

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