Mae West: Down Under

For eight years, actress Kate Peters toured with her "Mae West Show" in Australia. In an interview for Gold Coast Magazine, the ever-ready Sydney-born thesp (who made her stage debut at age 7) discussed her current projects, her recent trip to California and Nevada, and her a-MAE-zing journey with reporter Doug Parrington.
• • This is an excerpt from Parrington's chatty sit-down with the seasoned doyenne of the stage.
• • Doug Parrington writes: In Canberra, Australia, while being a celebrity artist at the School of Arts Cafe and regularly performing one-woman shows, she kicked off the June Dally-Watkins school of modelling franchise in Canberra, a talent school and production company called Top Hat Productions and the first professional actor's agency in Canberra called CAN-ACT.
• • Her one-woman show focused on Mae West, the outrageous, scandalous and bawdy screen siren of Hollywood last century. Peters loves the irreverence and strength of Mae West, especially the way she ran her own race.
• • "I empathize with her," says Peters.
• • "I did the 'Mae West Show' show for about eight years, based on her famous quote 'goodness had nothin' to do with it' and obviously I grew to know a lot about her life as part of the character. I acquired her old movies — — 12 I think — — which are all fantastic."
• • Kate Peters adds, "She was very clever. Although she was targeted and pursued by the US National Legion of Decency, and at one point jailed for public obscenity, she never swore. She was so clever with the double entendre ... in other words whatever you made of what she said, it was all in the mind."
• • "I loved that line about goodness. Someone said to Mae West: 'Goodness, what beautiful diamonds' and she answered 'goodness had nothin' to do with it, dearie'.
• • "She was a screen writer, an actress, a playwright and a singer, and her career lasted a long time. She reinvented herself midway through her movie career, did singing and dancing, and wrote all her own stuff. And she always celebrated the glamour of her industry — — she would never go out without furs, limo, make-up, and jewelery. Where has that sort of glamour gone now?
• • "Many of today's entertainment stars are pictured in magazines in their jeans, going shopping, looking daggy. Now what's going on there? They seem to have forgotten that glamour is important, it should be part of their scene."
• • The Mae West discipline about glamour certainly is not lost on Kate Peters, who takes great care in how she looks and dresses before she steps out her front door. . . .
• • . . . She is just back from a trip to Palm Springs where she saw the Fabulous Palm Springs, featuring a 'galaxy' of old stars in a singing, dancing extravaganza.
• • "These are people who were the best of the best in places such as Las Vegas, and they stage 3-hour shows that play to packed houses and attract rave reviews. They're not young, but they're sexy, exciting and, as old professionals, absolutely perfect in everything they do," says Kate. "And being America, there always is a patriotic ending, complete with American flags and the US anthem."
• • "I'd like to do something like that on the Gold Coast, " she adds, "maybe not on such a grand scale, but the core of the show already is here. We have a wealth of older, marvelously talented people who could do it."
• • Kate Peters is well connected with scores of entertainers, past and present, . . . Her core aim — — through Top Hat Productions — — is to generate more work for Gold Coast performers of any age. . . .
• • "Theatre is the mark of a civilized society," she says. "It's the second oldest profession in the world, after the oldest one of course."
• • No doubt Mae West, her provocative and thoroughly entertaining heroine, would agree.
• • Source: GoldCoast.com — — www.goldcoast.com.au
• • Byline: Doug Parrington
• • Published on: 19 January 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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