Saturday, June 30, 2007

Mae West: Sketchy

One of the many illustrators who drew MAE WEST was the New York Times contributor Al Hirschfeld, who was born in June [21 June 1903].
• • Look at any of his Mae sketches, however, and it's easy to see that the Saint Louis, Missourian did not like the assignments that featured her plays. Do we need to see an ugly Hirschfeld caricature of Mae West? No.
• • Right before a Broadway theatre was to be renamed in his honor on his 100th birthday, the artist died on 20 January 2003 at 99 years old.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Friday, June 29, 2007

Mae West: Timothy Shay Arthur

MAE WEST was not even born yet when Timothy Shay Arthur died in 1885. But when she was a child, "Baby Mae" acted in a dramatized version of his novel for years.
• • T.S. Arthur was born in the month of June on 6 June 1809 and became a popular nineteenth-century author. He is most famous for writing his temperance work Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There [1854], which helped to demonize alcohol in the eyes of the American public.
• • Young Mae played the part of little Mary, who confronts her beer-guzzling father in the saloon and begs him to come home with her.
• • On 6 March 1885 Timothy Shay Arthur died.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Mae West: Vox

Recently, NPR asked listeners to describe the voice of MAE WEST and other personalities.
• • One member of their audience likened the actress's voice to "overstuffed pillows covered in scratchy satin you can't wait to bury yourself in."
• • Another NPR fan characterizied the Brooklyn native's voice as sounding "like 6 gallons of boiled lavender water stirred with a feather."
• • Huh?
• • Well, in case you missed this segment on NPR, their site has archived all of these precious pearls of wisdom.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Mae West: Muralist

The bedroom walls in Mae West's Los Angeles apartment were decorated by George Quaintance, a tall, handsome blond artist who often included his own image in his paintings.
• • Born in the month of June 3 June 1902 to a farming family in Virginia, by 18 years old he had enrolled at the Art Students' League in New York City.
• • Around 1947 gorgeous George had moved to Los Angeles and his flair for painting and photography began to attract attention among the Hollywoodites.
• • However, his career was short lived. At age 55, George Quaintance died of a heart attack on 8 November 1957.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Mae West: Hazel Scott

Bouquets did not shower MAE WEST after her film "The Heat Is On" was released right before Christmas in December 1943. All the same, Mae enjoyed working with several talented cast mates. Among those was Hazel Scott, who played herself.
• • Born in Port au Spain, Trinidad in the month of June on 11 June 1920 this classical and jazz musician became one of America's premier pianists of her time.
• • A child prodigy, Hazel first faced the eighty-eights at age 3 under the tutelage of her mother. In 1924, the family relocated to the USA. By age 8, Hazel was performing in New York City and receiving scholarships to study classical music at the Juillard School of Music.
• • The glamourous vocalist was a night club headliner and radio star by the late 30s, performing with Count Basie and others.
• • Hazel Scott died of cancer in New York in 1981.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Mae West: Gene Austin

MAE WEST utilized her friend Gene Austin's musical talents in her films "Belle of the Nineties" [1934]; "Klondike Annie" [1936]; and "My Little Chickadee" [1940].
• • In addition to writing the music and lyrics for "Klondike Annie," Gene Austin also appears as a vocalist and organ player during the church service. As the collection is in progress, Gene Austin and the parishioners sing "It's Better to Give Than to Receive."
• • Seven years younger than Mae, Gene Austin was born in the month of June in Texas on 24 June 1900.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Sunday, June 24, 2007

Mae West: Ed Wynn

MAE WEST said she learned so much from the sublimely silly vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn [born in 1886].
• • While playing opposite the seasoned 32-year-old Ed Wynn in Arthur Hammerstein's Broadway hit "Sometime" (with a music score by Rudolf Friml), Mae West came to the realization that she was throwing away her lines. Observing the crafty comic timing of Ed Wynn, said Mae West, and watching how he made sure he caught the audience's attention before delivering a line, was the best lesson.
• • Fortunately, Mae had ample time to study the Philadelphia-born cut-up. "Sometime" opened at the Shubert Theatre on 4 October 1918. After running for eight months and 283 performances, the musical closed in June 1919.
• • And also in the month of June, Ed Wynn died of throat cancer: 19 June 1966.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Saturday, June 23, 2007

Mae West: Among Woodchucks

A derelict Vermont vaudeville palace that once hosted luminaries as MAE WEST, Harry Houdini, and Jimmy Durante underwent a $3.7 million renovation and will reopen this weekend with a production of "The Phantom of the Opera" performed by a local group.
• • Chairman of the theater restoration committee William Lockwood said the theater was built in 1927, after the first 1870 Town Hall burned down in 1925. The Bellows Falls Opera House had been booking variety acts before its conversion to a movie house.
• • Despite its original name Bellows Falls Opera House local historians said it was doubtful that the Colonial Revival structure was known for such high-class fare. It is believed that many of the earliest ticket-buyers were travelers, since folks had to change trains in Bellows Falls.
• • Where are the WOODCHUCKS? Shucks. A Vermont native is known as a "woodchuck."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Friday, June 22, 2007

Mae West: Rockin' Hollywood

Featuring portraits of MAE WEST and others, the installation "Rockin' Hollywood" is on display in the new Sun Deck Gallery on the Queen Mary [Long Beach, California] from now until Labor Day.
• • The show's curator, Pasadena neurosurgeon Lou D’Elia, knows a number of behind-the-lens secrets and offers these intriguing little vignettes along with the photographs.
• • Thanks to Dr. D'Elia, for example, viewers will get to know that Mae West, when starring in the ill-fated Myra Breckinridge, set up her own lighting and struck her own pose, all the while ordering the photographer Michael Childers around.
• • “Lower!” Mae kept telling Childers. “Lower,” D’Elia recalls — until Childers shot her almost at floor level, an angle from which she was looking back at the camera not unlike an empress surveying her kingdom.
• • "Rockin' Hollywood" on view until 3 September 2007
• • Sun Deck Gallery on the ocean liner Queen Mary
• • 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA; T. 562-499-1634
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Annual Mae West Gala 2007

Since 1893, August 17th has been MAE WEST's birthday and this year her special day will fall on a Friday. PRWeb has announced this event that is open to the public:
• • • • Annual Mae West Gala Will Raise Mae's Roof • • • •
Yearly Commemoration Attracts Celebrities along with Mae West Devotees
• • New York, NY: In August 2007, the Annual Mae West Gala will take celebrators to three places where Mae West once lived and to other important locations in her life.
• • Each year, the Mae West Gala organizers plan different events and outings. Within that variety, however, there are key elements: the place or places where the actress is commemorated are sites relevant to Mae-West-iana.
• • Nostalgia king Joe Franklin says, "It's like a return to the exciting speakeasy era because the Annual Mae West Gala recreates the spirit of the famous Jazz Age. I always come up to see Mae on her birthday."
• • Past New York City locations have included a courtroom where Mae West was on trial; a Greenwich Village cabaret that inspired Mae West to write her first gay play "The Drag" (which led to her arrest and imprisonment); and a midtown saloon where Mae West toasted her fellow vaudevillians. Previous party sponsors and giftbag donors have included Beau-Ties of Vermont, Perrier Jouet Grand Brut, Boru Vodka, Hendrick's Gin, Izze, Nivea, Iman Cosmetics, Thompson's Candies, Adora Calcium, and many others.
• • This year, the Annual Mae West Gala will head to Manhattan's theatre district, where Mae's West Side Story will unfold in over a dozen sites between West 50th Street and West 63rd Street. Participants will come up to see three addresses where the blonde bombshell hung her famous hats along with her dance school, the jewelers who created the "Diamond Lil" sparkle, old vaudeville theatres, former speakeasies, and more.
• • Past attendees of these yearly events have included playwright Sam Shepard, actress Jessica Lange, broadcaster Joe Franklin, ballplayers from the New York Yankees, and a diverse group of Mae devotees who travel cross country to The Big Apple during the dog days of summertime.
• • As always, festivities kick off on Mae West's birthday. On 17 August 2007 there will be a Friday evening walking tour followed by a reception.
• • TIME: "Mae West Side Story" tour lasts from 7:00 PM until 8:30 PM.
• • PLACE: Tour begins on Broadway at West 50th Street [NE corner].
• • PRICE: VIP tickets are $25 per person including tour AND reception AND goodie-bag and MUST be pre-paid by Wednesday August 15th.
• • TOUR ONLY: $15 tickets (CASH only) are available after 6 o'clock on Friday evening August 17th for the tour only but this will NOT INCLUDE the PARTY nor a goodie-bag.
• • Sorry, no exceptions and no refunds.
• • Advance payment is accepted via PayPal.
• • PayPal: Use this email address to buy a ticket: comeupseeMAE (at) aol.com.
• • Updates and past party pictures are online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • Sponsorship inquiries only: 212-477-0893.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.


Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Mae West: Lorenzo Tucker

It's easy to see why sparks would fly when MAE WEST looked at Lorenzo Tucker.
• • Born in Philadelphia in June [27 June 1907], the light-skinned black actor was known in the 1920s as "the colored Valentino." Tucker claimed that the olive-skinned Italian hearthrob was, in reality, darker complected than he was.
• • Tall, broad-shouldered, and dashing, Lorenzo was tapped by Mae to play the role of the pimp Money Johnson in her controversial Broadway play "The Constant Sinner." The Shuberts refused to permit this, therefore, the Greek-American thespian George Givot played the role in blackface.
• • But Mae West wasn't through. She then cast Lorenzo Tucker in a few minor parts in the production. For example, he played a non-speaking Spaniard and walked across the stage in one scene. When a woman asks the Babe Gordon [Mae West] character who is that hunk, Babe responds, "Oh, he's Spanish he's my Spanish fly!"
• • This photo was taken when Lorenzo Tucker was 20 years old.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West's co-star Lorenzo Tucker • • c. 1927 • •
Mae West.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Mae West: Redux

"Dead Famous: Ghostly Encounters" will come up to visit MAE again in a repeat episode that will air this week on The Biography Channel.
• • • • Thursday, 21 June 2007 10:00 pm ET
• • • • Friday, 22 June 2007 2:00 am ET
• • This 60-minute TV episode explores the supernatural side of Mae West: Mae West was a show-off a sensational showgirl whose wit was as legendary as her contempt for the censors. But she also had a passion for the paranormal that saw her take part in séance after séance. Where better, then, to search for her spirit than in New York, the city where she made her name, earned her fortune, and was jailed for upsetting the authorities with her unashamedly brash stage play Sex? Our hunt for Mae takes us to a haunted mansion in the middle of New York City, and a house in the middle of nowhere built by a man who believed spirits gave him instructions and stood over him as he hammered in every nail. Visiting the places in which Mae lived and worked during her colorful career, we try to coax the far-from-shrinking violet into the limelight for one last performance or will she ask us to come up and see her some time?
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Mae West: Bad Girls

What would MAE WEST say?
• • Tabloids are proclaiming that the year of the blonde bad girl is over. And that with socialite Paris Hilton in jail and actress Lindsay Lohan in rehab, the arrival of a "good" girl in pop culture is most welcome.
• • Enter girl detective Nancy Drew [played by Julia Roberts' 16-year-old niece Emma Roberts], who looks quite cute in knee socks considering she is a 77-year-old. In fact, Nancy looks younger now than she did when she was first introduced to America in 1930 during the Depression.
• • Mae West, clearly no kin to Nancy Drew, said that "when a woman goes wrong, men go right after her." But this weekend movie-goers are saying that kittenish brunette Nancy Drew proves that a smart teenager can also be cool. Stay tuned.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Mae West: Harvey Brooks

MAE WEST 's composer Harvey Brooks died in June, so let's take a moment to meditate on his angel music.
• • Born in 1899 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harvey Brooks wrote all the numbers that Mae fans associate with her successful film "I'm No Angel."
• • His song compositions included "I'm No Angel," "They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk," "That Dallas Man," and "I Found a New Way to Go to Town."
• • The songwriter a member of ASCAP died in Los Angeles at age 69 on 17 June 1968.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Mae West: Gene Barry

Brooklyn native Gene Barry [birthname: Eugene Klass], who was featured on Broadway with MAE WEST in 1944, was born on 14 June 1919.
• • The handsome graduate of New Utrecht High School is still performing.
• • Gene Barry began his acting career in stock.
• • He likes to reminisce about his early show business days when he appeared in a Mae West play on Broadway, Catherine Was Great. He recalls the famous curtain speech Mae West gave: “I’m glad you like my Catherine. I like her, too. She ruled 30 million people and had 3,000 lovers. I do the best I can in two hours.”
• • Written by Mae West, the play premiered at the Shubert Theatre on 2 August 1944 and ran until 30 September 1944. On 2 October 1944, the show transferred to Mae's lucky spot,: the Royale Theatre, where it remained until after the Christmas holidays [closed 13 January 1945].
• • After honing his craft onstage, Gene Barry headed to Hollywood and worked in films and on TV.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as the Empress of Russia • • 1944 • •
Mae West.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Mae West: Gluck

Here in New York, NY the hometown of MAE WEST the Metropolitan Opera’s 2006–07 season just ended and critics have begun to throw darts.
• • Designer Mark Morris showed his affinity for pop culture in his staging of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice [one of the seminal works in the opera canon] by putting Mae West in the chorus. Yes!
• • Orfeo ed Euridice tells the Greek myth of musician-poet Orpheus, who is grief-stricken after his bride Euridice dies. Pitying Orpheus, Jove invites him to retrieve her from the underworld on one condition: Orfeo may neither look at Euridice nor explain anything as he leads her back to earth, however, he does look back and she dies again.
• • Gluck’s rendering uses three individual characters in the opera — Orfeo, Euridice, and Cupid — along with the all-important chorus.
• • Arts reviewer Heather MacDonald writes that "it was difficult to experience the work’s full profundity with the chorus tricked out like Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band." MacDonald describes the scene: Arrayed on three rows of a large industrial scaffold, each chorus member was costumed and made up as a historical figure, no matter how banal. Next to Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi were MAE WEST, Liberace, John Lennon, Hiawatha, and Mao. The chorus was supposed to be a “witness to history,” according to the designers, but the effect was as tacky as a wax museum. It is inconceivable that Mae West would sing Gluck’s finely-wrought dirges.
• •
Occasionally, Mark Twain, Karl Marx, or other animatronic wonders would jerk out their lower arms, matching the spasmodic movements of the dancers. ...
• • Source: The City Journal [Spring 2007 issue]
• • Byline: Heather MacDonald
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Mae West: Dan Hesse

As Qwest searches for a successor to their CEO, a wireless-industry veteran Dan Hesse [now the head of Embarq] has been reminding everyone how much he is like MAE WEST.
• • According to a recent article in the Denver Post, it seems that Dan Hesse is an executive focused on growth which the Denver-based Qwest is eager to pursue, according to Board member Frank Popoff.
• • A November 2005 article in the Kansas City Star stated that Dan Hesse compared himself to one-time Hollywood star Mae West, who once said she liked only two kinds of men: domestic and foreign.
• • "I am very much like Mae West," Hesse said. "Two kinds of customers I like are our customers and their customers. We have to very aggressively go after their customers." . . . .
• • Qwesting, one, two, three
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Mae West: Tom Selleck

Risk-takers in Hollywood include MAE WEST and, apparently, Tom Selleck, who was featured opposite the actress in 1970.
• • Chicago Tribune reporter Louis R. Carlozo interviewed the Detroit native recently, since the 62-year-old senior citizen [born in January 1945] is busy flogging some DVDs that he stars in. Carlozo's column is called "On the Small Screen."
• • "On The Small Screen" spoke with Selleck about his latest project, which has him wearing multiple creative hats, and how it fits into an entertainment career built around taking risks.
• • • • Q. Let's go back to the very start. One of the most bizarre films you ever appeared in was 1970's "Myra Breckinridge," which included Mae West, Raquel Welch, Farah [sic] Fawcett, Jim "Mr. Magoo" Backus, and film critic Rex Reed. What on earth was that like?
• • • • A. That was in the day when I didn't take risks, I took jobs. I was under contract with Fox; I think that was the second job I ever had. I think I was Stud No. 6, and at one point, Mae West walks in and says to one of the studs, "I don't care that you're 6 feet and 7 inches, let's talk about the 7 inches." I was not the recipient of that laugh. I don't know who was taking what substances, but it was a great experience. Raquel Welch was writing her own stuff, and Mae West was writing her own stuff, the director [Michael Sarne, who would photograph cakes for eight hours while the cast waited] was on Pluto ... and all I did was sit around for two weeks and fantasize about Farah [sic] Fawcett. ...
excerpt
• • Source: Chicago Tribune
• • Byline: Louis R. Carlozo, Chicago Tribune staff reporter
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Mae West: Violet Trefusis

A MAE WEST fan, British socialite Violet Trefusis had extraordinary bad girl genes all her own.
• • Born in Great Britain during the month of June [6 June 1894], sweet Violet Keppel was the daughter of the courtesan Alice Keppel, a mistress of King Edward VII of England.
• • Alice Keppel anxious to keep her daughter shielded from a scandalous affair with another woman, Vita Sackville-West arranged a marriage for Violet with Denys Trefusis.
• • Living abroad in gay Paree, Violet Trefusis adopted Mae West's fashion flair of the 1890s after enjoying the American film "She Done Him Wrong."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Illustration: • • Mae West's fan • • 1934 • •
Mae West.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Mae West: Hays Fever

The Hays Office monitored MAE WEST and Paramount Pictures non-stop during the making of "Klondike Annie."
• • The screenplay raised eyebrows because of its implications of interracial sex, representations of torture, and unpunished murder which undermined the Hays Office's principle of "compensating moral values" and, of course, because of casting Mae West as a sex-positive [unrepentant] prostitute.
• • A letter from a spokesman for Paramount to the censor Will Hays painted a rosy picture, however: "The ending of our story will be a romance between West and one of the characters in our picture, and it will indicate for the future a normal life and nothing that will bring condemnation from the most scrupulous [29 June 1935]."
• • In their heated replies to Paramount Pictures, there were more fireworks in letters from the Hays Office than on the Fourth of July.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
Mae West.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Mae West: Long Playing

MAE WEST did not do a lot of TV nor radio. However, a long-playing record "Original Radio Broadcasts" [Mark 56 Records, 643] released in 1974 contains an interesting sampling of Westian witchery.
• • Naturally, this compilation includes the infamous 1937 sketch entitled "Adam & Eve" performed by Mae West (as Eve) with Don Ameche (as Adam) on the Chase and Sanborn Hour hosted by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his wooden sidekick Charlie McCarthy. This was the skit that got Mae West banished from NBC's airwaves.
• • A "Frankie & Johnny" sequence was performed in the mid-1930s on the Rudy Vallee Show. And you'll hear two full length appearances by Mae on the American Forces Radio Service Christmas Shows of 1971 and 1972 during the Vietnam War.
• • Mae is at her best with the young men in uniform, teasing them with her special brand of innuendo. Classic Mae West lines are here, for example, "When I have to choose between two evils, I generally pick the one I never tried before!" and "In the New Year, I'm going to have Good Will towards Men .... and the More Men, the More I Will!"
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Mae West: June 1932

The June 1932 issue of Vanity Fair featured MAE WEST and Queen Marie of Romania in a spoof dialogue illustrated by Miguel Covarrubias.
• • Impossible Interviews—no.7
• • Marie of Roumania vs Mae West
DOWAGER-QUEEN MARIE: . . . I feel so neglected these days. Nobody reads what I write, nobody wants my autobiography, takes my picture for the newsreel, or interviews me, or asks me to endorse a cold cream. Nobody cares if my little heart breaks — into print.
MAE WEST: What I mean, Sister, lemme put you wise. Royalty don't get you any place, any more. Today they only want the kind of a Queen they can hold on their laps. Lookit me, for instance. Every other inch a Queen, from hips to whoozis.
MARIE (proudly): Do you mean I'm not a Queen?
MAE WEST: In that outfit, Sister, you ain't even a two spot. Why, you haven't got a royal air.
MARIE (thoughtfully): You may be right although Carol gave me the royal air a year ago.
MAE WEST: If you want to be a real Queen like I am you got to grin and bare it! Take off those black veils. Be yourself, Queen! Show 'em a royal flush!
MARIE: Then will I really be a Queen, like you, Mae?
MAE WEST (reassuringly): Of course, dearie. Aren't we all sisters under the skin?
• • Source: Vanity Fair Magazine [June 1932 issue]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Illustration: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
Mae West.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Mae West: Brooklyn Roots

MAE WEST and other Kings County cut-ups are discussed in an excellent article published by the venerable Brooklyn Eagle. Written by Brooklyn historian John B. Manbeck, "When Brooklyn Lost its Groove" is worth looking at.
• • Enjoy a tiny bit below to whet your appetite:
• • According to John Manbeck, Comics on the radio and in the movies sustained the image of the dumb but lovable mug from Brooklyn. Vitagraph Films and Hollywood stole the Brooklyn bumpkin from vaudeville and moved him to Coney Island. There he was impersonated by Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, and John Bunny. Brooklyn women, although few had native roots, usually acted sharper than their counterparts act and were personified by MAE WEST, Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, Gloria Grahame, and Pamela Britton. Masie, played by Ann Sothern, became a female William Bendix.
• • Radio added an aural dimension to the portrait. . . .
Source: The Brooklyn Eagle - - http://www.brooklyneagle.com/
Byline: John B. Manbeck

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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