Mae West: In Chinatown

MAE WEST was fascinated by New York City's Chinatown and the Bowery. And a hundred or so years ago, other authors were also intrigued and inspired by these neighborhoods.
• • Charles H. Hoyt, for instance, who was born in Concord, New Hampshire in July — — on 26 July 1859 — — wrote the immensely popular musical comedy "A Trip to Chinatown" (featuring a score by Percy Gaunt). Fifty years later, "A Trip to Chinatown" was turned into a silent film that starred the beautiful Anna May Wong. And that's not all. In 1891, the play premiered at Broadway’s Madison Square Theater and enjoyed a run close to two years (or 657 performances). Two of the most popular numbers from the show are still known: "The Bowery" and "Reuben and Cynthia."
• • The plot of "A Trip to Chinatown" is centered on a widow who connives and contrives to bring romance to several couples and herself in a big city restaurant [think of "Hello, Dolly!].
• • Still capitalizing on the "Trip to Chinatown" craze, clever showmen reworked the play again and presented it under a new title: "A Winsome Widow." Nineteen-year-old and fresh-faced Mae West was featured in the show "A Winsome Widow" as La Petite Daffy in 1912.
• • This extravaganza was produced by Flo Ziegfeld, and this time the Eastside musical was relocated to the West Coast — — to San Francisco's Chinatown.
• • As La Petite Daffy, Mae West won acclaim for her vivacity and sauciness. "Mae West assaults the welkin vigorously," applauded the New York Dramatic Mirror from their tony offices on West 42nd Street right opposite the New York Public Library.
• • Drawing inspiration from her past and the NYC neighborhoods that she always loved, Mae West set her hit play "Diamond Lil" [1928] along the entertaining stretch of the Bowery closest to Chatham Square, the liveliest mile in New York at one time. The song "The Bowery" was featured, performed by the character Ragtime Kelly.
• • In Mae West's novelization of "Diamond Lil," she situates scenes right on Chinatown's exotic side streets, for instance, Mae's amusing chapter "A Night on Division Street."
• • Not through yet with Chinatown's local color, Mae West opens her screenplay for "Klondike Annie" in Chinatown. The Paramount Pictures film set the mood in San Francisco's Chinatown, however, not in New York.
• • To learn more about Mae West's eastside productions, come walk on the WEST side, starting right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below for details and ticket pricing.]
• • Only 17 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West immortalized Suicide Hall at 293 Bowery • • 1914 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Harlem Idyll

MAE WEST wrote a play that starred her feisty and lusty character Babe Gordon, and it was produced on Broadway by the Shubert Organization.
• • However, her popularity was so widespread that the publishers Macauley and Sheridan House also printed a Mae West "novelization" that expanded on the same Harlem-centered material. Macauley printed the book first in 1930 under the title "Babe Gordon." Two decades later, the clever Fourth Avenue (Book Row) publisher Sheridan House held a contest to retitle the book, reprinting it as "The Constant Sinner" in 1949.
• • Mae West gets off to a rousing start on page 1, painting the alcohol and cocaine-fueled life led by her 18-year-old heroine Babe:
• • • • Babe Gordon leaned against the crumbling red brick wall of the Marathon Athletic Club in Harlem, at 135th Street off Fifth Avenue, and pulled at a cigarette. The Saturday night fight crowd picked its way under the glaring arc lamp in front of the main entrance like a slow moving black beetle. Babe scanned the humans with an eye to business. Babe was eighteen and a prize-fighters' tart, picking up her living on their hard-earned winnings. Her acquaintances numbered trollops, murderers, bootleggers, and gambling den keepers. Two well-modeled bare legs were crossed at the ankles; her waist pressed to the wall rose to two voluptuous breasts that almost protruded from the neglible neck of her black dress. Babe waited for Cokey Jenny.
• • • • Cokey Jenny had led Babe to her first drink in an apartment apeakeasy in Harlem, where a colored woman sold corn whiskey to black and white girls and their gentlemen friends, and where coke peddler and sniffer made their "connection" in safety. As Babe watched the mob push into the fight enclosure, she wondered what the hell was keeping Cokey. ... [Chapter 1, The Constant Sinner by Mae West].
• • Walk on the WEST side, starting right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 17 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's novel • • 1949 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: The Captive

MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex" and the cast of "The Captive." Snooty Basil Rathbone, who died in July [on 21 July 1967 in New York, NY], was cuffed and brought downtown to Jefferson Market Police Court along with Helen Menken and their co-stars.
• • Born in South Africa on 13 June 1892, Basil Rathbone was one year older than Mae West — — but in his mind, he was worlds apart even though they were both starring on Broadway in 1927.
• • During the 1920s, most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the legitimate theater. For many of his Broadway roles he portrayed a suave, sophisticated seducer of women — — quite a change from the legendary ascetic Baker Street detective he would play later in his career.
• • Making a sensation at the Empire Theatre [on Broadway and West 40th Street] was a drama that had been highly regarded in Paris: "The Captive." Basil Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques Virieu, a young man engaged to be married, only to discover that his fiancée [played by Helen Menken] is in love with someone else — — a woman. Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the Roaring Twenties, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed.
• • Rathbone was very angry about the censorship of his work, but even more aggrieved that show people would start whispering that he was arrested and booked — — with Mae West.
• • For years, Basil Rathbone and his wife made their home at 135 Central Park West. Mae lived in several westside locations, occasionally not far from Rathbone. But there is no record of their taking tea together to reminisce over their arrest on indecency charges in 1927.
• • Brush up on your Mae West lines right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 18 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's partners in crime, Rathbone and Menken • • 1926 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Hairy

MAE WEST was inspired by "The Hairy Ape," a popular play written by Eugene O'Neill.
• • She certainly saw it once — — and possibly twice — — before it ended its Broadway run at the Plymouth Theatre [236 West 45th Street, NYC] on the 1st of July 1922.
• • For the out-of-town try-outs of her new show "The Ginger Box Revue" in Connecticut on July 28 and July 29th, 1922, Mae West had polished her parody of O'Neill's tragic hero.
• • According to biographer Emily Wortis Leider, Mae West burlesqued the character: “Yank was the very sort of brutish caveman type Mae West favored as a foil to play against, onstage and off — — in O’Neill’s hands a somber and powerful archetype, and in hers a comic cartoon rendered with broad strokes.”
• • Backed by a dozen chorines (the Stoker Girls) and a black orchestra, Mae sang, “Eugene O’Neill, You’ve Put a Curse on Broadway” and bellowed “Yank-style” lines including, “She don me doit! Lemme up! I’ll show her who’s an ape.”
• • Rehearse your favorite Mae West lines right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 19 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • April 1923 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Timing

MAE WEST clashed on the set of "Night After Night" [1932] while she was in a couple of scenes with veteran actress Alison Skipworth.
• • The portly British-trained thespian, suspecting that the younger woman would steal the scene by injecting it with jolt of energy, told the director that Mae West's timing was off.
• • "You forget," she declared, turning to West, "I've been an actress for forty years."
• • "Don't worry, dear," West tartly replied. "I'll keep your secret."
• • Alison Skipworth was born in July in London, England on 25 July 1863.
• • Skipworth also died in the month of July — — on 5 July 1952 — — in New York City.
• • In August 1932, Paramount Pictures began production on "Night After Night"; the Prohibition-themed story, conceived as a vehicle for George Raft, was released in theatres on 30 October 1932. Raft plays Joe Anton, a former speakeasy owner and gangster who longs to be a gentleman.
• • Which house in the West 50s inspired the plot of "Night After Night" [originally titled "Number 55"]? Which heiress was raised in that stately residence [once a posh single-family dwelling]? Which Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote the short story that Hollywood adapted for the screenplay? Which gangster met a crimson death on the white marble staircase?
• • On 17 August 2007, a tour group will stop at that location in midtown Manhattan — — the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour.
• • Recharge your Mae West battery on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 20 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Follies

In July of 1928, MAE WEST impersonator Dorothy Sands was igniting a grand firestorm of media muchness. Newspapers and magazines ran pictures of the "Grand Street Follies" — — featuring the talented Dorothy Sands giving her impressions of Mae West [then starring in "Diamond Lil" at the Royale Theatre].
• • The amusing "Grand Street Follies" did not take place in Little Italy on Grand Street.
• • Despite its downtown title, the revue was right on the Rialto at the Booth Theatre [222 West 45th Street, NYC], where this clever little crowd-pleaser opened on 28 May 1928; it ran 144 performances at the 700-seat playhouse before closing in October 1928.
• • Coincidentally, impressionist Dorothy Sands [1893-1980] shared Mae's birth year and death year.
• • Refresh your Mae West memories on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 21 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West impressionist Dorothy Sands • • 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Mayme Dean

Cast in the successful Broadway hit "Sometime" [October 1918 — June 1919] as Mayme Dean, a vamp whose suitors always seem to decamp, Mae West was in the unusual position of putting across a few comically wistful laments. Since the musical was written during the war years, when red-blooded men were scarce in New York City, presumably the duly deprived females in the audience could relate to Mayme Dean's howl of frustration.
• • If it's hard to imagine 25-year-old Mae performing songs that include "Any Kind of Man" [by Rudolf Friml and Rida Johnson Young], there is a tantalizing snippet of the instrumental version online, recorded in 1919 by Joseph C. Smith's orchestra, that you can listen to: http://www.redhotjazz.com/Songs/jcsmith/Sometime.ram.
• • Pleading for the attentions of "Any Kind of Man," Mae West sings these lyrics:
I was born a scamp
Meant to be a vamp
If I'd had the chance I could have did
Theda Bara tricks,
Paralyzed the hicks
Nothing could have stopped me but the lid
But somehow my style has got a cramp
Can't find a single soul to vamp
All I want is just a little loving
Just a little spooning and a squeeze . . .
If the boob can walk, he don't have to talk!
Send me any kind of man!
• • Sitting in the Shubert Theatre on opening night were all the top drama critics. "Sometime," one announced, "is as catchy as the grip!"
• • Ramp up your Mae West memories on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 22 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West, vamping for the N.Y. Dramatic Mirror • • 1919 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: In Blackface

Among several intriguing studies on the American actress MAE WEST there is one written by Marybeth Hamilton, who holds a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University and teaches American History at Birkbeck College, University of London.
• • In When I'm Bad, I'm Better, Marybeth Hamilton discusses how Mae West's former lover George Raft, who was becoming a matinee idol in Hollywood during 1932, was instrumental in getting Mae a cameo role as Maudie Triplett, his blowsy ex-girlfriend in "Night After Night." Hamilton also explains how Mae was aghast at being cast in such a colorless bit part — — and then went on to revise her dialogue and win all the applause. "If nothing else," writes Hamilton, "[Mae West] showed Paramount that they were dealing with an expert scene stealer."
• • It is not surprising that Marybeth Hamilton mentions the hatcheck girl's line: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!" and Maudie Triplett's famous comeback: "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie!" [Mae borrowed the routine from her diamond-draped pal Texas Guinan.]
• • What was left unsaid in this study (and other Mae West books) about that film scene?
• • Curiously, no writer ever mentions that Paramount made the 21-year-old actress Patricia Farley play the role of the hatcheck girl in blackface.
• • Take a peek. Do you remember the sepia-skinned beauty in the scene — — or not? How come no one ever mentions the deliberately darkened skin? Why not?
• • Here's another question: which house in the West 50s inspired the plot of "Night After Night" [originally titled "Number 55"]? Which heiress was raised in that stately residence? Which Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote the short story that Hollywood adapted for the screenplay? Which gangster met his death on the marble staircase?
• • On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a guided tour will stop at that location in midtown Manhattan, that is, the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event, open to the public, is timed to salute the Brooklyn-born bombshell on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Speaking of blackface, Mae West "blacked up" for vaudeville performances and was known as an expert "coon shouter" in 1911. Other vaudevillians who "blacked up" were Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, and many more.
• • Only 23 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West in "Night After Night" • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Sun in Leo

MAE WEST was born on 17 August 1893 under the zodiac sign Leo (the Lion). Those who have their Sun in Leo are born between July 23rd to August 22nd.
• • Why not spend Mae's birthday with her? Go on the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour and visit three of her former homes in NYC. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Did Mae West read horoscopes? Yes. She would have related to an astrological forecast such as this one: "As a lion, you let out your roar, Walt Whitman's "barbaric yawp" that inspires and uplifts others. You too are untamed, untranslatable. You do not blend into the woodwork, but rather you take over and exude warmth, generosity, with a deep desire to understand others. You are energy, a force that dominates, and at its worst you can be destroyed by a lack of fulfillment.
• • The Sun is most radiant when it resides in Leo, bringing with it pageantry, ceremony, the creative spirit, and the artist. Both fixed and fiery, impulsive yet stubborn, Leo is wrapped in certainty and absolutes that need expression.
• • Leo-people frequently find release for their energy on the stage, enjoying the star role, or being the director or writer. In any case, the Leo is a visionary who goes with the flow in a receptive, never relaxed, way. Brilliant, cocky, defiant of authority, Hollywood is full of Leos who strongly emerge with the statement: "I am different! I am me!"
• • At their weakest, Leo-people can be too dogmatic, which can be augmented with attention to flexibility. Your sensitivity is a double-edged sword, for you can also be hurt easily. You like to be worshipped, though this may be unrealistic. Your partners must remember that you are the king (or queen). You enjoy being wined and dined, seduced — — you enjoy sex. Your expansive nature makes you broad-minded, faithful, and loving. This translates into being very ambitious, and you thrive on a career that involves creativity, emotion, and organization. Your natural sense of drama needs to be accentuated. You would be at home in the courtroom, operating a theater — — anywhere on stage and in-charge — — you make excellent employers. You excel at working with the public, in front of people — — an actor, orator, speaker, CEO would all be easy for you. No menial job would do for you. ...
• • Only 24 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West in lion-tamer garb • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Annual Gala

The Frisky Factor Increases
Secrets of an Actress Are Exposed in August

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 21, 2007 – – Calling all FRISK-a-teers! The wild WEST side of Mae West will be apparent on August 17, 2007 during the celebration of the Annual Mae West Gala in New York City. Secretive and image-conscious, the Brooklyn bombshell carefully covered up her private life, which included frequent partying at speakeasies, a secret marriage to an Italian accordionist, séances behind curtains, and multi-racial love affairs.
• • Next month, on the actress's birthday [Friday evening on August 17], the Annual Mae West Gala will focus on Manhattan's busy 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 the former speakeasies where she rendezvoused with Rudolf Valentino, George Raft, and others.
• • Other locations include her dance school, the jewelers who created the "Diamond Lil" sparkle, legitimate theatres, former vaudeville houses, and more. In the past, guests of these yearly Mae West events have included playwright Sam Shepard, actress Jessica Lange, broadcaster Joe Franklin, ballplayers from the New York Yankees, well-known screenwriters, and a diverse group of Mae devotees who travel cross country to The Big Apple during the dog days of summertime.
– – WHO – – WHAT – – WHEN – – WHERE – – HOW MUCH – – SUBWAY INFO – –
• • Festivities kick off on Mae West's birthday August 17, 2007.
• • The public is invited.
• • TIME: "Mae West Side Story" tour begins at 7:00 PM -- ends 8:30 PM.
• • PLACE: Tour begins on Broadway at West 50th Street [NE corner.
• • SUBWAY: BMT to Broadway -- West 49th Street station
• • • • • • COST:
• • VIP tickets: $25 per person – – including tour and reception and giftbag – – and all VIP tickets must be pre-paid by August 15, 2007.
• • TOUR ONLY: $15 per person (CASH only) – – buy tickets on Friday evening August 17 for tour only – – $15 tickets do not include party nor giftbag.
• • Sorry, no exceptions and no refunds. Advance payment via PayPal.
• • Updates and past party pictures are online.
• • URL: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • Sponsorship/ giftbag inquiries welcome.
– – WHO – – WHAT – – WHEN – – WHERE – – HOW MUCH – – SUBWAY INFO – –
• • Source: www.prweb.com
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Ink

Once upon a time, if you wanted to make money with MAE WEST, you'd have to convince the actress to write you a check. No longer.
• • Word comes from the website U2-France [www.u2france.com] that collectors are still bullish on old-fashioned autographs. Reporter Conal Gregory gave his opinion about Mae West's autographs and other Hollywoodites: "From pop stars and politicians to space walkers and sportsmen, there is an enormous and growing demand for autographs which can be greatly enhanced by the occasion or material on which the signature is made."
• • According to Conal Gregory's research among the autograph hounds of Western Euope, "The golden age of Hollywood has a distinct following. A magazine photograph of Katharine Hepburn with her autograph in black felt pen ink is offered at £975 [at Fraser's in London] whilst a 1970 dating by MAE WEST across a photograph costs £425. Some folding and crease lines as well as faint ink smudging on the latter have reduced the price. ..."
• • If you have a passion to collect Mae — — and the means — — contact Fraser’s or other traders.
• • Source: U2-France
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Playground

MAE WEST met Rudolph Valentino in July – – on Sunday evening 25 July 1926 during a party at Tommy's Guinan's speakeasy. Co-hosting this affair was Tommy's sister Texas Guinan.
• • The Italian heartthrob got an outstanding reception from the overdressed swells and the underworld guys and molls mesmerized by the Guinan's nightlife know-how.
• • Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was located at 201 West 52nd Street at the corner of Seventh Avenue [a.k.a. 800 7th Avenue]. Its generous square footage made it ideal for events that would attract a crowd.
• • A pleasure palace stills exists in this midtown location, non-threatening and totally Disney-fied. On Friday August 17, 2007 a tour group will visit this club and other a-MAE-zing sites on the Mae West westside map.
• • James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, also co-hosted the Reception at this popular speakeasy in honor of Rudolph Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" – – a sequel. One month later, alas, the 31-year-old silent screen star would be dead.
• • When Photoplay first began publication, Quirk's staff had included handsome Julian Johnson, who was Texas Guinan's lover.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the Apulian heartthrob and his entourage. After his untimely demise, Mae organized seances to keep in touch with Valentino.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Merchant of Menace

MAE WEST was not unfamiliar with menace. One of her former lovers, a money machine who could afford to finance all of her extravagant Broadway productions, was Owen Vincent Madden. On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a walking tour "Mae West Side Story" will take participants to several locations where the gangster rendezvoused with the Broadway actress — — including the place where Mae said they met.
• • British news man Graham Nown wrote a book about Owney, The English Godfather [London: Ward Lock Ltd., 1987] exactly twenty years ago. The dustjacket pictures a youthful-looking mobster and the marquee of the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem.
• • "Have you ever heard of this top Yankee gangster who was raised in Wigan?" asks Geoffrey Shryhane of his UK readers in the publication Wigan Today. Explaining further, Shryhane says, "Owney (The Killer) Madden was born in Leeds in 1891 and became America's most dangerous public enemy, an influential godfather of organized crime.
• • Enormously proud of himself for reading a book printed two decades ago, Geoffrey Shryhane goes on . . . and on. According to Shryhane:
. . . I've just read a fascinating account of Owney (real name Owen) Madden's life by the late local journalist Graham Nown. I can recommend it. Seems that the Madden family came to live in Wigan when he was a lad. Thick yellow smoke enveloped the town and clogs clattered on the cobblestones at dawn.
. . . Owney, who listed Mae West among his friends, remembered the Wigan schoolmaster's polished cane ready to swoop as pupils chanted edifying maxims such as "Discipline is the backbone of the British Empire."
. . . After school he tended his dad's pigeons ... and throughout his life as gangster, he retained a love of his feathered-friends.
. . . Later, the family moved to New York — — a Hell's Kitchen where the young Owney was drawn into a life of petty crime and gang violence.
. . . The English Godfather rose to criminal fame during the dry years of prohibition, when he ran chains of speakeasies, selling bootleg beer, and smuggling alcohol. ...
• • If you have not gotten around to The English Godfather yet, consult this UK-based site.
• • Source: Wigan Today — — http://www.wigantoday.net/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's former lover on a bookjacket • • 1930s • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Dressed

The Scotsman printed an interesting article about the designer who dressed MAE WEST for the screen — — Edith Head.
• • Reporter Jackie McGlone wrote that "Edith Head believed modesty was unbecoming and that you could have anything you wanted in life, so long as you dressed for it. And, boy, did she know about dressing. The legendary designer saw all the Hollywood greats stripped down to their knickers (or even less), from Mae West and Audrey Hepburn to Robert Redford and Paul Newman."
• • Prolific Head had her finger in most movies, it would seem. During a 60-year career, Edith Head designed clothes for 1,131 films — — about 35 a year — — and dressed virtually every star who shimmered on screen in the golden age of film. She won more Oscars than the actresses she clothed.
• • According to Jackie McGlone:
. . . Always discreet about the size and shape of the stars' backsides, she knew about all the skeletons in their closets but she was never one to gossip, although she did reveal that full-figured Clara Bow was known as "a sausage," that Claudette Colbert was "mean-spirited," and that Barbara Stanwyck was "frumpy" until she took over her designs.
. . . Of course, Head knew what she was talking about — — she was, after all, the woman who knew the intimate secrets around Mae West's vast bosom, Gloria Swanson's wide waist and small feet (size two-and-a-half), and swan-necked Audrey Hepburn's broad shoulders. Which is presumably why she often boasted that she was a magician, who "accentuated the positive and camouflaged the rest". . . .
• • Read the rest for yourself: - http://living.scotsman.com/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West dressed by Edith Head • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Barye

MAE WEST was shrewd about self-promotion. Once her "Diamond Lil" revival was booked for Broadway, she knew it was the ideal time for her novel to be reprinted.
• • First published in 1932, this Gay-90s narrative was reissued by Sheridan Books in 1949. Okay, maybe you can't judge a book by its cover — — but the eye-appeal of this illustration was undeniable.
• • Commercial artist Barye Phillips began his career in Columbia Pictures' advertising department during the early 1940s; he worked on training booklets and American military propaganda during WW II. Around 1943, Barye Phillips started painting paperback bookcovers. Prolific, versatile, and fast, he accepted commissions from several publishers. His most visible work was for Gold Medal and other Fawcett imprints.
• • In demand, he executed covers for Avon, Bantam, Dell, Pocket Books, and Signet. It's been said that he consistently turned out four finished paintings a week. His ability to work in a variety of styles led to his industry-wide reputation as "King of the Paperbacks."
• • In addition to this "Diamond Lil" gem for Sheridan, Barye Phillips did the dustcover for these titles: Case of the Vanishing Beauty by Richard Prather [Fawcett Gold Medal, 1950]; On the Road by Jack Kerouac [Signet, 1958]; The Big Caper by Lionel White [winner of the Frederick Muller Gold Award, 1961]; and the first paperback edition of Casino Royale by Ian Fleming [Signet].
• • Barye Phillips died in 1969.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West artwork by Barye Phillips • • 1949 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Comic Capital

Vaudevillian MAE WEST explored her own style along the laugh route. Beginning with amusing novelty songs, often delivered in an ethnic idiom, "Baby Mae" honed her skills based on reactions from a live audience. Over time, Mae coined her own comic capital.
• • These days, college teachers teach courses in funny business to coeds. [This is what has replaced the "core curriculum," apparently.]
• • In a recent interview, Kelley Lynn explained that her male students approach stand-up humor with more assurance than females. "Comedy definitely mirrors the culture," says comedian Kelley Lynn, who is also an adjunct professor and teaches a comedy class at Adelphi University, in Garden City, NY.
• • Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, reporter Gloria Goodale observed: Certain roles have been acceptable for women since the rise of mass media: the sexy vamp (think Mae West) or the ditzy klutz (everyone from Carole Lombard to Lucille Ball and Debra Messing). "These roles are not threatening to men," says actress Jennifer Coolidge who has made a career of crafting cunning but klutzy air-headed females.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Bullocks

MAE WEST enjoyed browsing from her car window.
• • Mae West would relax in her limo — as salesclerks from Bullocks Wilshire department store brought a selection of designer dresses for Mae's inspection.
• • Joan Mitchell, 78, who worked there as a model and salesclerk from 1947 to1971, hand-delivered gowns to West's penthouse at the nearby Ravenwood apartments, she said in a recent interview.
• • A dwindling number of former buyers, salesclerks, and models will return to the 78-year-old Art Deco landmark on 28 July 2007 for two rare public tours and a trip down the aisles of mercantile memory.
• • The retail emporium was built in the 1920s by John Gillespie Bullock and Percy Glen Winnett, both Canadian immigrants and owners of the original Bullock's in downtown Los Angeles. The site at Westmoreland Avenue and Wilshire, about three miles from downtown, was considered the suburbs but was conveniently close to wealthy Hancock Park. Architects John and Donald Parkinson, a father-son team who designed City Hall and Union Station, were commissioned to create a style that appealed to affluent shoppers.
• • L.A. Times Staff Writer Cecilia Rasmussen has written an intriguing backward glance, peppered with Hollywood's notables, that is, the biggest names and the deepest pockets.
• • Enjoy the entire Los Angeles Times article online • • www.latimes.com
• • Section: L.A. THEN AND NOW
• • Title: "A shrine to style and sophistication"
• • Byline: Cecilia Rasmussen
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Poetic Salute

Dublin-born versifier John Jordan [1930-1988] waxed poetic about MAE WEST.
• • The mammary-minded academic, who lectured at University College [Dublin], was a leading light in the literary life of Ireland from the 1950s until his accidental death in Cardiff, Wales [June 1988] at age 58 years old.
• • A few months ago, Dedalus Press published a posthumous collection: Selected Poems by John Jordan. This body-obsessed salute to Mae on her 85th birthday — — referring to her breasts as "platinum alps" and "plastic dugs" — — would not have charmed the actress. Or would it?
You decide.
• • • • To Ms Mae West on Her 85th • • • •

What right have you?
Did you pat your platinum alps
When across the electric wire
The thrilling message came
That the pelvic muscles were tranquillized
The gluteal shivers forever fridged
That in fact (O lamentable extinction!)
Elvis had gone pop.

Or did you cable another Cadillac
To some lucky mother-doll of Christ’s
Or over caskets run your pensive eye,
Golden, placid, lined with peachy silk,
And have your self re-measured
For the last tango with the beautician
Who’ll set all curves in proper mould,
The plastic dugs on top?

I weep not for the ‘King’: he wasn’t my type.
(Well, give him some pink, false roses.)
But you, old-timer, had better go West
While the pickings (pan me a nugget, Beulah)
Are ripe. The blue jeans of yesteryear
Might yet reverence your mummy,
And e’en their grassed spawn be mesmerized.
• • [Vallodolid — 17 August 1977 — by John Jordan]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.