In praise of support, we salute those who wear sexy underwear.
In one of the biographies of Mae West, the following comment appears:
"Mae West was of German stock and Matilda her mother had been a corset model [before her marriage]. If Mae was released from the confines of the strongest that the Spirella Corset Company could offer, she had a distressing tendency to plumpness. . ."
http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Monday, March 21, 2005
Mae West: Raquel Welch Mayhem?
RAQUEL WELCH OPENS UP ON MAE WEST FEUD
Actress Raquel Welch has finally spoken out about her notorious feud with MAE WEST - accusing the late screen legend of being scared to work with her.
The two appeared alongside each other in 1970 movie MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, and their feud became legendary in Hollywood.
Welch discusses the rift on the movie's DVD.
She says, "Mae didn't really work until after 5 pm. Those were her hours, and it was even stipulated in her contract.
"I only had one scene with her, and she was quite apprehensive about working with me. She hadn't done a movie in a long time, and in all her previous films, she had been the only star and the only woman, and she was not very inclined to share the screen. So there were a few shenanigans."
Their battle came to a head just before their scene together was shot, says Welch, who recalls, "She had my costume removed from the dressing room. When I went to my closet, it wasn't there. I called my producer and told him my dress had disappeared, and he told me it had been confiscated."
West's costume was white, and she objected to Welch wearing a black gown "because black is also a non-color."
Welch adds, "This poor woman was really scared - and I've got to say some of this now because I'm doing a book."
from http://www.contactmusic.com/ - 12/03/2004
Actress Raquel Welch has finally spoken out about her notorious feud with MAE WEST - accusing the late screen legend of being scared to work with her.
The two appeared alongside each other in 1970 movie MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, and their feud became legendary in Hollywood.
Welch discusses the rift on the movie's DVD.
She says, "Mae didn't really work until after 5 pm. Those were her hours, and it was even stipulated in her contract.
"I only had one scene with her, and she was quite apprehensive about working with me. She hadn't done a movie in a long time, and in all her previous films, she had been the only star and the only woman, and she was not very inclined to share the screen. So there were a few shenanigans."
Their battle came to a head just before their scene together was shot, says Welch, who recalls, "She had my costume removed from the dressing room. When I went to my closet, it wasn't there. I called my producer and told him my dress had disappeared, and he told me it had been confiscated."
West's costume was white, and she objected to Welch wearing a black gown "because black is also a non-color."
Welch adds, "This poor woman was really scared - and I've got to say some of this now because I'm doing a book."
from http://www.contactmusic.com/ - 12/03/2004
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Mae West: March 16, 1940 Film Review
Spy Magazine: what Walter Monheit would call "indisputably a classic"!
W. C. Fields and Mae West Are Seen in 'My Little Chickadee' at the Roxy . . .
Noel Coward once had a line about two empty paper bags belaboring each other, but we never thought we should one day be scoundrel enough to remember it in connection with a picture harboring W. C. Fields and Mae West.
"My Little Chickadee," at the Roxy, in which the two comic soloists are trying to sing a duet, is an effort greatly strained. With the best will in the world, it just isn't funny --not even when the great William Claude ogles Miss West and roguishly invites her to come up and see him some time; not even when La West, commenting on her escape from the "Masked Bandit," explains "It was a tight spot, but I managed to wiggle out of it."
And those are the film's high-water marks.
The low water mark is more clearly defined, for the film is at low tide most of the time in the quality of its humor, in the broad treatment its players and directors have given it, in the caliber of the audience it seems intended to please and in the generally bad odor it exudes.
Miss West's humor, like Miss West herself, appears to be growing broader with the years and begins to turn upon the lady: it's one thing to burlesque sex and quite another to be burlesqued by it.
Mr. Fields, largely the innocent victim of some one else's bad taste, inevitably is tempted to juggle a few mud pies himself. It puts a heavy strain on an old admiration to endure the old boy's keyhole-peeping and door-champing at Flower Belle's boudoir, to see him become just another member of the adulant entourage Miss West thoughtfully creates for all her pictures.
The story this time is of Flower Belle Lee (guess who) and of Cuthbert J. Twillie, who are united in the bonds of matrimony-in-name-only because Flower Belle needs a consort for legal reasons and because Cuthbert has. . . well, never mind what . . . .
excerpt from:
Film Review
Written By FRANK S. NUGENT
published: March 16, 1940 in The New York Times
One-Minute Mae West [for Hire]
Maddox Will Be Your Mae West - for a Fee
Sometimes she is Cinderella. Sometimes she's Glinda, the Good Witch. Sometimes she's Jean Harlow or Mae West or Marilyn Monroe.
"It's fun to try on a different character," said Jane Maddox, who portrays all of these women.
Recently she started North West Character Entertainment, a company that offers a variety of historical and mythical celebrities for parties and special events. Jane Maddox plays Mae West and many of the characters, but she also has a crew of other actors who offer the likes of W.C. Fields and other larger-than-life figures.
For information on North West Character Entertainment: call 503-560-4334 or 503-472-8156.
from: News-Register - McMinnville, Oregon
Published: March 12, 2005
- excerpt from "Stopping By" - columnist Starla Pointer -
Sometimes she is Cinderella. Sometimes she's Glinda, the Good Witch. Sometimes she's Jean Harlow or Mae West or Marilyn Monroe.
"It's fun to try on a different character," said Jane Maddox, who portrays all of these women.
Recently she started North West Character Entertainment, a company that offers a variety of historical and mythical celebrities for parties and special events. Jane Maddox plays Mae West and many of the characters, but she also has a crew of other actors who offer the likes of W.C. Fields and other larger-than-life figures.
For information on North West Character Entertainment: call 503-560-4334 or 503-472-8156.
from: News-Register - McMinnville, Oregon
Published: March 12, 2005
- excerpt from "Stopping By" - columnist Starla Pointer -
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Mae West: Learning to be a High Earner in 1935
By March 1935 she was the highest-paid woman in America.
In Mae West's own words -- on being a trend setter:
"More people saw me than saw Napoleon, Lincoln and Cleopatra. I was better known than Einstein and Picasso. ... I changed the fashion of two continents. The style of the Gay Nineties became the rage ... women were trying to walk and talk like me. Women became more sex-conscious - - sex was out in the open and fun.
In Mae West's own words -- on being a trend setter:
"More people saw me than saw Napoleon, Lincoln and Cleopatra. I was better known than Einstein and Picasso. ... I changed the fashion of two continents. The style of the Gay Nineties became the rage ... women were trying to walk and talk like me. Women became more sex-conscious - - sex was out in the open and fun.
