Reports of Mae West's deaths are highly exaggerated. On February
7, 2004, MAE WEST was last seen, in a former courtroom on Sixth Avenue
and West 9th Street [in Greenwich Village, NYC], where she was on trial
on February 9, 1927 for obscenity.
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She was born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York on August 17, 1893 and named "Mary Jane West" because her Irish paternal grandmother's name was Mary Jane Conley. But her parents called their daughter MAY; when she was older and had started performing in vaudeville, the aspiring actress altered the spelling to MAE. Why? In truth and in fact, in the early 1900s there was already another female entertainer on the circuit whose name was "May West" but Mae, attuned to myth-making, gave a different explanation to the gullible newspaper reporters, saying that the letter E went up, whereas the Y went down. And so the MAE WEST legend began, the staginess that would lead her from the pages of a play to the timelessness of an icon. Happy Birthday to anyone born in August under the sign of LEO.
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To be continued . . .
Saturday, July 17, 2004
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News Watch
ReplyDeleteMae West Still Has a Thing or Two
To Teach Young Lawyers
New York Lawyer
January 9, 2004
New Play Depicts New York Prosecution of Mae West for Obscenity By Thomas Adcock
New York Law Journal
It was the best of times and the worst of times for the wise-cracking platinum blonde from Brooklyn, a rising playwright in the spring of 1927. "Sex" was the title of her new production, about a streetwise woman and exploitation by the rich and powerful. Predictably, the forces of decency had their way with young Mae West.
After her arrest by operatives of the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice, the playwright was taken to the Jefferson Market Courthouse and Prison and prosecuted for obscenity. At one point, the judge asked, "Miss West, are you trying to show contempt for this court?" According to the defunct New York Mirror, she famously replied, "On the contrary, your Honor, I was doin' my best to conceal it."
Now comes LindaAnn Loschiavo, a contemporary playwright and journalist who is not blonde and who believes that lawyers, especially the young ones, should learn from Mae West's travails in the criminal justice system.
Ms. Loschiavo is inviting lawyers to a free 90-minute staged reading of her own new production, "Courting Mae West: A Comedy About Sex, Censorship and Secrets," on Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. at what is now the Jefferson Market Library, Sixth Avenue at West 10th St. The historical play, Ms. Loschiavo maintains, offers lessons not stressed in law school.
"There's law for the lion, and law for the lamb," she said. "Certain laws you can break, and certain laws you can bend. But only certain people can do it.
"Mae West was not a lion when they attacked her. Okay, she was a tough-talking broad from Brooklyn. But really, she was a lamb. So what does that say about the law?"
With reference to the two-headed god of Roman mythology, Ms. Loschiavo added, "The law is a Janusian creature. It can look one way or in completely the opposite direction, depending who's on trial."
Upon conviction in 1927, Mae West served 10 days at the Women's Workhouse on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island), becoming fast friends with prostitutes and an armed robber called Lulu, whom she especially admired, "For it requires a lot of nerve to stick up a man," she later wrote.
The next year, 1928, saw Mae West mount yet another controversial play, "Pleasure Man," populated with acrobats, comedians and homosexual characters. Once again, the protectors of public virtue convicted Ms. West, this time levying a fine of $20,000 in a year when the annual salary of a New York school teacher was $950.
"Madness! Ridiculous!" said Ms. Loschiavo. "They were trying to destroy her. What did she do? Her humor was all word-play and innuendo."
But Ms. West was hardly destroyed. After mortgaging her Brooklyn house in order to pay her penalty, she blew town for Hollywood to build — and keep — an incredible fortune despite the Great Depression. She lived in splendor until the end of her life in 1980, enjoying a last laugh at the expense of the legal establishment. For her epitaph reads, "Censorship made me a rich woman."
Link to: nylj.com