Mae West: Deep in the Heart

It was March 1924 and MAE WEST was deep in the heart of a Texan.
• • It's also true that she was 30 years old and watching her star-dusted dreams slowly dimming. When she did snag a booking, it was on a low-level variety circuit. Though a few years before she had negotiated an appearance fee of $500, in 1924 she was accepting gigs for only $125 a week. During this frustrating interval, she was hiring and firing her accompanists.
• • Imagine Mae's state of mind as she trouped during the month of March in 1924 through the southwest, where she had accepted a four-week contract to perform on the Interstate Vaudeville Circuit. Covering Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, this was one of variety's least desirable routes and a far cry from Broadway.
• • In Houston, Texas, the Brooklyn bombshell turned the head of a publicity flack for a nearby playhouse.
• • Eventually, the Associated Press discovered a marriage license [dated 22 March 1924] obtained — — but never used — — by Mae West and a local theatre press agent named R.A. "Bud" Burmeister.
• • Was it a touch of Cupid or career capitulation that made Mae entertain the idea of settling down? Maybe Mae was overcome by the heat of hormones — — or did she have a pregnancy scare? And how long could she have known Mr. R.A. "Bud" Burmeister, a 34-year-old resident of Harris County, Texas anyway? Hmmmmmm.
• • Before any orange blossoms were ordered for the bride, Mae took off (as scheduled) on March 23rd for San Antonio, where she played through March 24th.
• • Perhaps this was the time when Mae registered at the famous Menger Hotel. Located in downtown San Antonio, Texas, this landmark was built in 1859 (23 years after the fall of the adjacent Alamo) by William Menger, a German immigrant. In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt had used the bar to recruit Rough Riders which fought in Cuba in the Spanish-American War.
• • The Menger was San Antonio's most popular hotel in the 19th Century. Mae West along with O. Henry, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Babe Ruth, Oscar Wilde, and others were known to frequent the bar and hotel, which was periodically enlarged and remodelled to accommodate more guests. The Menger Hotel is located here: 204 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205.
• • After such a rough ride with romance, Mae headed for the footlights in a Fort Worth theatre, and then saddled up for an engagement in Detroit before returning to the East Coast — — and a long hitch of unemployment.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Ned Wayburn

Eighteen-year-old brunette MAE WEST got her first big break when she was cast in the legitimate show "A la Broadway" at New York's Folies Bergere Theatre. Ned Wayburn — — Mae's former dancing teacher — — who was staging this, pulled her in. The revue premiered 22 September 1911 and lasted eight performances.
• • The New York Times applauded Mae's debut, however, the theatre's limited seating capacity made it financially foolish to mount such an expensive entertainment there.
• • Ned Wayburn, born Edward Claudius Weyburn, was the most famous and influential choreographer in the early twentieth century.
• • Ned Wayburn [30 March 1874 — 2 September 1942] was born in Pennsylvania but spent much of his childhood in Chicago where he was introduced to theater and studied classical piano. At the age of 21, he abandoned his family’s tradition of manufacturing and began teaching at the Hart Conway School of Acting in Chicago.
• • After leaving the school, Wayburn spent many years in theater staging shows for producers. He worked with such teams as Oscar and William Hammerstein, and Marc Klaw and A.L. Erlanger.
• • In 1906, Ned Wayburn began his own management group called the Headline Vaudeville Production Company. Through his own firm he staged many feature acts, while collaborating with other producers such as Lew Fields, William Ziegfeld, and the Shuberts. In 1915, he began working with Florenz Ziegfeld and created the incredibly successful Ziegfeld Follies [1907 — 1931].
• • Ned Wayburn’s choreography was based on six idioms or techniques: musical comedy, tapping, stepping, acrobatic work, modern American ballet, toe specialties, and exhibition ballroom. His choreography was greatly affected by social dances of the time. His dancers moved in units of two or four, following popular trends. He also used a group of dancers to form shapes, as inspired by the Cotillion. He also was famous for taking dances such as the tango, the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, the Black Bottom, and the Charleston, and re-creating them for stage performances by using strong exaggerations of movement.
• • Ned Wayburn taught Mae West to do the Grizzly Bear, a dance craze that started in San Francisco (along with the Bunny Hug and Texas Tommy). The Bear dance (as it was also called) was done on the Staten Island ferry boats in the 1900s. It has been said that dancers John Jarrott and Louise Gruenning introduced this dance as well as the Turkey Trot at Ray Jones Cafe in Chicago around 1909.
• • The Bear Goes Bigtime • •
• • The Grizzly Bear was first introduced to New York's Broadway audiences in the 1910 show "Over the River" via the song "Everybody's Doin' it Now." That song contained the repeated phrase "It's a Bear!" Later the Ziegfeld Follies of 1911 would feature the Bear dance by Fanny Brice. The dance was rough and clumsy since the Grizzly Bear step was imitating the movements of a dancing bear. After a very heavy step to the side, there was a decided bending of the upper part of the body from one side to the other, a deliberately ungraceful and undignified movement when performed as a dance.
• • In 1910, Sophie Tucker was arrested for singing the Grizzly Bear and the "Angle Worm Wiggle."
• • In addition to incorporating "scandalous dances" for the stage, Ned Wayburn was the one who created steps such as the “Ziegfeld Walk” and the “Gilda Glide” (for Mae's rival Gilda Gray), and worked with many well-known performers of the time such as Mae West, Fred Astaire, Marilyn Miller, Ann Pennington, Barbara Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, Evelyn Law, Fanny Brice, Gilda Gray, and others.
• • Some of his best remembered shows were Phantastic Phantoms (1907), The Daisy Dancers (1906), The Passing Show (1913), and all of the Ziegfeld Follies.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Georgia

It was 73 years ago and MAE WEST was going through the gossip grapevine.
• • On 29 March 1936, the Atlanta Journal Magazine printed an article written by Frank Daniel, then 36 years old.
• • "Has Mae West Done Herself Wrong?" was the less-than-original title.
• • William Frank Daniel’s [1900 — 1981] journalism career began in 1925 with the Atlanta Journal where he eventually served as opera, theater, music, and book critic and as an editorial page columnist. [Opera reviewer AND a book critic, too? Amazing.]
• • The news man may have met the Brooklyn bombshell in Georgia three years earlier. During the spring of 1933, Mae West was in court in Atlanta fighting for permission to show her latest film "She Done Him Wrong" at the Paramount.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in the 1930s • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Pre-Code

Pre-Code pictures that featured MAE WEST were her best loved films. These policeman surrounding Lady Lou [in "She Done Him Wrong"] were harmless. But the "purity police" who soon arrived on the scene slowly ruined the cinema.
• • The essence of pre-Code and its freedom inspired these remarks by Mick LaSalle, Movie Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.
• • Mick LaSalle writes: When we're talking about "pre-Code," we're talking about a period roughly from the middle of 1929 until July 1, 1934, in which American movies were pretty much uncensored. If you think of old movies as corny, chances are you're thinking of the movies made after censorship took hold in the middle of 1934. Before then, movies were sexy. They were political. They were surprisingly feminist and they were adult.
• • I spent many years obsessed with these films. Their appeal is that, through them, you get to hear a long-ago era speak with its own voice, unimpeded by censorship. That voice is surprisingly modern. You come to realize how much of human nature remains consistent from one era to the next — — and also how all that phony virtue stuff, in the late '30s and '40s films, was nothing but propaganda. Human beings have always been more or less the same, and these movies are your proof.
• • In the early 1930s, there were seven major studios cranking out product: MGM, Warner Bros., RKO, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, and Fox. All of them have significance, but some are more essential than others. As far as pre-Codes go, Columbia is not too important. Fox was probably the lewdest of the studios, but it made the worst movies. Universal specialized in horror films. That leaves MGM, Warner Bros., RKO, and Paramount.
• • MGM, contrary to its staid reputation (gained during the late 1930s and 1940s), was one of the most risque studios, mainly because it specialized in female stars (Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Madge Evans), and actress vehicles of the day dealt mainly with sex and feminism.
• • Warner Bros., which didn't have many female stars, dealt mainly with politics, business, crime, and current events. It was the most politically liberal of the studios and developed its own hard-hitting, fast-paced style. As for RKO, it was the least of the three, but it had Constance Bennett and Ann Harding, and it turned out some fine movies (including "King Kong").
• • MGM, Warner Bros., and RKO films are owned by Warner Bros. They can be seen on Turner Classic Movies, and they've been the most readily available on home video for many years. But Paramount's pre-Codes, which are owned by Universal, have been missing in action. And Paramount was a huge studio, on a par with Warner Bros. and MGM.
• • How huge? Just look at its roster of stars. For either part or all of the pre-Code era, Paramount had Mae West, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Ruth Chatterton, William Powell, Maurice Chevalier, Kay Francis, Fredric March, and Jeanette MacDonald (in her "lingerie queen" years) under contract. They also had some of Hollywood's finest directors: Josef von Sternberg, Rouben Mamoulian, Cecil B. DeMille, and Ernst Lubitsch. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: “Pre-Code films: The way we really were"
• • Byline: Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic
• • Published in: The San Francisco Chronicle — — www.sfgate.com
• • Published on: 27 March 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: 100 Years

Formerly known as the Columbia Theatre and the Geary Theatre when MAE WEST trod the boards, this magnificent San Francisco showplace will soon celebrate its 100th birthday.
• • Constructed in 1909, and opened to the public on 10 January 1910, the 1.024-seat Beaux Arts auditorium has been the headquarters of the A.C.T. acting company since former director Bill Ball relocated the group to the West Coast from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1965.
• • The Geary Theater was nearly destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; the extensive damage caused to the structure shuttered it for seven years.
• • American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced the lineup of the company's 43rd subscription season today. The season will welcome some of the best American and international artists to the Bay Area and also celebrate the 100th anniversary of this national landmark, a celebrated architectural icon in a city renowned for its urban beauty.
• • During its storied past, this has been a venue for performers of the likes of Mae West, Sarah Bernhardt, Helen Hayes, Isadora Duncan, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, and others.
• • The building is located here: 415 Geary Street [at Mason Street], San Francisco, CA 94108.
• • Its near neighbor is the Curran Theatre — — where Mae West performed her blockbuster success "Diamond Lil" in 1929 — — located at 445 Geary Street (San Francisco, CA 94102).
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Diamond Lil • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: 1919

A short novel that focuses on the lesser-known achievements of "exceptional woman in history" features MAE WEST.
• • New York based ZAPmedia, a boutique provider of books, art, and online content, is toasting Women’s History Month by recognizing the achievements of trailblazing females such as Mae West and inventor Beulah Henry. Released back in February 2007, 1919 – Misfortune’s End — — ZAPmedia’s first venture into publishing fiction — — explores the remarkable lives and accomplishments of certain adventuresses and fearless femmes who made 1919 an incredible year for women around the world.
• • 1919 – Misfortune’s End follows the lives of two families through the twelve pivotal months of 1919, right after World War I. The stories of notable individuals including Mae West [1893 — 1980], Margaret Sanger [1879 — 1966], Madame C.J. Walker [1867 — 1919], Beulah Henry [1887 — 1973], and several prominent males served as counterpoint to the exploits of the fictional characters such as Louvenia Jackson.
• • In reality, during March 1919 Mae West was on Broadway performing in "Sometime" — — ninety years ago — — when the actress was 26 years old and more used to appearing in vaudeville than in the legit. The "musical comedy of commerce," designed to showcase the talents of laughmeister Ed Wynn, had opened at the Shubert Theatre on Saturday 4 October 1918 (establishing a nice healthy run that continued through June 1919 on West 44th Street).
• • In "Sometime," it was Mae's character Mayme Dean who appeared onstage first. At that point in her career, Mae was often cast as an Irish maid — — although Mayme Dean is a frisky flapper who cannot land a man. A few years after this show, Mae started writing her own material — — however, none of her titles contained the downbeat word misfortune.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Good Lessons

Celebrating "Women's History Month" — — by performing as MAE WEST and others — — usually keeps Dorothy Leeds busy and wearing many hats.
• • The one woman show she does is “Good Lessons from Bad Women” and it is more than one singular sensation since the actress portrays a selection of goodie-goodies and bad girls. Her figures include Mae West along with Eve from the Garden of Eden, Mrs. Machine Gun Kelly, Elizabeth Freeman, pirate Anne Bonney, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
• • “Good Lessons from Bad Women” asks “Was mother really right?” — — while dramatizing some of the ways that a person will value the good and also find the bad irresistible.
• • Dorothy Leeds is an actress and author based in New York. The show was co-written by Daphne Greaves and directed by Eve Collyer. For the past three years, Ms. Leeds has been touring the USA with her virtual entourage of saints and sinners.
• • Another good lesson is that the interest Mae West arouses does not lessen.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Dorothy Leeds as Mae • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: "The Drag" in Iowa

Here's another opportunity to see "The Drag" by MAE WEST — — or to be cast in the production.
• • In Iowa Dreamwell's Artistic Director decided to present a season with a theme of "Inciting Theatre."
• • Their season opens with Ibsen's “An Enemy of the People," a play from 1882. Dreamwell is using a new translation and has cast women in several male roles to modernize it.
• • Then in late June, Dreamwell Theatre will present a play written by 1930s screen legend and sex symbol Mae West.
• • Rachael Lindhart, secretary and active member of the volunteer company, does not expect insurgence, rioting, padlocks, nor police raids in Iowa City even though she is aware that "The Drag" (which was doing its out-of-town tryouts back in January 1927) opened to an “avalanche of condemnation,” as one of Mae's biographers phrased it. Rachael Lindhart says Mae West’s “The Drag” was one of the first plays to portray gay men in a sympathetic light. Before “The Drag,” homosexual characters were used to add a more comedic element.
• • Subjects that were deemed unlawful or offensive to good citizens are considerably less so these days, however, Rachael Lindhart insists that the theater’s history of sparking debate is essential to the development of today’s dramas. By presenting a bill of old controversies, Dreamwell pays tribute to those brave playwrights who paved the way for modern vanguards of the stage.
• • “We have a history of somebody’s gotta be first,” Rachael Lindhart says. “There are a lot of things that we need to talk about from the stage that aren’t easy. I hope that this season will make people think that they should perhaps see a play before they condemn it.”
• • Auditions for "The Drag" will be held in Iowa during April and May in 2009. To audition, contact Brian Tanner: brian@dreamwell.com.
• • Dreamwell Theatre’s 2009 Season includes these four: “An Enemy of the People” [written by Henrik Ibsen]; “The Drag” [written by Mae West and directed by Chuck Dufano] on June 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th, 2009; “Master Harold and the Boys” [written by Athol Fugard]; “Playboy of the Western World” [written by J.M. Synge].
• • All performances take place at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 10 S. Gilbert Street, Iowa City. Tickets are $12 with discounts available for seniors and students.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes surrounding "The Drag" and "Sex." Scenes in Act I dramatize Mae's interactions with her drag queen cast, the police raid on 9 February 1927, and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 trial • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Bartlett's Way

Why take the trouble to analyze a new biography when you can simply quote some of your favorite lines by MAE WEST?
• • New York Post critic Mackenzie Dawson does just that, turning in copy that sounds not unlike Bartlett's compendium of wit and wisdom.
• • Here is the unvarnished Empress of Sex entertaining a latter day visitor who confesses to cupboards bare and insufficient sparklers.
• • "Do you know my idea of a wonderful time? Sex and chop suey."
• • The best part of the new Mae West biography, "She Always Knew How" by Charlotte Chandler, isn't her well-known life story, but verbal gems like these. The voluptuous Brooklyn-born actress, who died in 1980, held court in a series of interviews with the author (a woman West pities for her lack of diamonds). Besides her best known quips "the best way to get over someone is to get under someone"; "I've climbed the ladder of success, wrong by wrong" the excellent Ms. West shares her thoughts on, well, just about everything.
• • On serving jail time for indecency: "I was told I could pay the fine and get out of going to jail, but I made up my own mind. I decided it would be more interesting to go to prison. I was always fascinated by prisons and mental institutions . . . I wasn't going to be deprived of that experience. I saw those as ten very valuable days, a kind of working vacation."
• • On sex: "Honey, sex with love is the greatest thing in life. But sex without love that's not so bad, either."
• • On independence: "I made up my mind very early that I would never love another person as much as I loved myself. Maybe that sounds selfish to you. But I saw what a mess a lot of other people could make of their lives when they're smitten . . . they find a person who they think holds the key to their happiness . . . they don't understand they're the ones who give the other person that power."
• • On the stock market: "I didn't have money in stocks because that kind of paper didn't seem real to me. I always liked investing in things I could see and touch and enjoy. The country was on the gold standard. I was on the diamond standard. If the market in diamonds fell out of bed, I could always wear them. They'd always be just as beautiful."
• • On children: "I knew I didn't want children. When I was a little girl, I wanted a doll. But I knew that a doll wasn't a baby. You can just put your dolly away when you don't feel like playing that game anymore. But I don't think I was meant to be a mother. I don't think a woman should have a baby unless she's prepared to love that baby more than she loves herself."
• • On monogamy: "I found one man who had beautiful hair, another had great muscles, and another one . . . ummm. I didn't see why I should deprive myself of anything, so a lot of men was better for me than just one man. That way I could enjoy what was great about each one, but I wasn't tied to him."
• • On alcohol: "I have a theory that people drink because they're bored, bored with themselves, even more with other people. So they drink, and after drinking, they bore everyone else."
• • On seeing spirits: "I started seeing other men, all dressed in clothes from some earlier time. They spoke in 'thees' and 'thous,' and I couldn't understand why they came to me. Some kind of mistake in traffic signals, maybe."
• • She Always Knew How
• • by Charlotte Chandler [Simon & Schuster]
— — Source: — —
• • “The Wonderful Wisdom of Mae West”
• • By: Mackenzie Dawson
• • Published in: The New York Post — — www.nypost.com
• • Published on: 22 March 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: March 1934

Starting in March 1934, MAE WEST was involved in her fourth feature for Paramount Pictures: "Belle of the Nineties." After an ongoing battle with the censors, this "Naughty 90s-theme" motion picture was wrestled from the Paramount wringer on September 21st looking and sounding very different from its original model — — Mae's Broadway drama "The Constant Sinner" set in Harlem where 18-year-old Babe Gordon is a "prizefighter's tart" during the 1920s.
• • Mae West was beset with other concerns, too, during the unpredictable month of March. Quarrels with her manager Jim Timony resulted in his moving out of the Ravenswood and bedding down in a modest home behind the Hollytown Theatre, where he resumed his old involvement in stage plays.
• • Meanwhile, "Battling Jack" West left his Florida flat and showed up in Los Angeles. Unwilling to have her father interfere with her private life, Mae had him moved to her San Fernando Valley Ranch. Nevertheless, she had the studio put him on the payroll to lend his expertise to staging the Tiger Kid scenes. A Paramount press release alerted the media that their boxing consultant was a former prizefighter — — a "stocky, well-built man, bearing none of the usual physiological mementos of the ring."
• • Adding to the tense atmosphere was Joe Breen's determination to make an honest woman out of Mae's character Ruby Carter.
• • Reflecting on this sudden upsurge of family values in 1934, The New York Times wrote: Back in the days when "Belle of the Nineties" — — alias "Belle of New Orleans" and "It Ain't No Sin" — — was locked in a death grip with the local censorship board, one of the major points of dissension was the shocking fade-out in which Miss West won her man without the assistance of a justice of the peace. In the new and approved version there is a wedding ceremony and Miss West is now safe for her large following to visit. ..."
• • Retracing Mae's stressful journey in 1934 will bring us to Arthur Mayer, that sprite inside Paramount's publicity office, and his idea about training several dozen African parrots to promote the film. Toucan, anyone? More anon.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Blush-worthy?

Here's another drive-by scattershot embrace of the latest book on MAE WEST — — the hardcover with that dreadfully Photoshopped dustjacket, a retouched image that makes Mae's lower lip look like something you bait a hook with.
• • Tsk tsk.
• • And it is also sad to realize that the brief interval when BookReporter.com had insightful scribblers keeping abreast of new titles is over. No longer a model of narrative rectitude, BookReporter.com has current standards calibrated to the average soap opera fan.
• • Check out Bronwyn Miller's column below. Blush-worthy, cringe-inducing, gullible, inept? We demur — — you decide.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • SHE ALWAYS KNEW HOW: Mae West — — A Personal Biography
• • • • Charlotte Chandler
• • • • Simon & Schuster [ISBN: 9781416579090]
• • As Mae West herself once proclaimed, “Some women know how to get what they want. Others don’t. I’ve always known how.” This epigram explains the title as well as the mindset of this very driven and singular woman. Charlotte Chandler, venerated biographer of Alfred Hitchcock, Groucho Marx and, most recently, Bette Davis, turns her keen eye to the life and career of one of the most iconic stars of Hollywood.
• • Born Mary Jane West in Brooklyn, New York, in 1893, she quickly found her calling, and it involved a stage, a spotlight and a receptive audience. Mae, who changed her name only slightly from the nickname of “May” for aesthetic reasons, was the first child of Matilda and Jack West. Jack was known throughout New York as “Battlin’ Jack,” a tough, no-nonsense neighborhood boxer who once laid a guy flat with one punch for merely looking at his young wife. Her parents wanted to give their talented daughter all they could and encouraged her to perform on the stage, which she did, with great success. She spent her formative years in variety shows, vaudeville tours and the burlesque circuit, literally growing up in front of her audience.
• • When she came of age, Mae decided that instead of fitting a rather voluptuous peg into a square hole, she would do far better if she wrote her own material. Thus, Mae West the playwright was born. Her first play, scandalously titled Sex, opened in 1926 and became something of a cause célèbre. Mae was convicted of obscenity and sentenced to 10 days in jail. She could have had her lawyer and soon-to-be lover persuade the powers-that-be to knock the sentence down to community service, but Mae felt it was more honorable to do her time — — and, of course, think of the publicity!
• • Years later, she commented, “They say censorship was my enemy, but I’m not so sure about that. Maybe censorship was my best friend. You can’t get famous for breaking the rules unless you’ve got some rules to break. Where would censorship have been without me? Like I always say, I made censorship necessary.” After that, there was no stopping her. Plays that tackled very tough, very modern issues continued until Hollywood came to call. There, as on Broadway, she called her own shots, never afraid to push the envelope.
• • Not only did her trademark sayings like “Come up and see me sometime” (which is actually a misquote from one of her early films) and that one-of-a-kind walk define her persona, Mae proved herself to be a rather acute arbiter of talent. She made sure that Cary Grant was cast alongside her in I’m No Angel, and she persuaded George Raft, a local tough she had known in New York, to come to Los Angeles to pursue acting, eventually becoming her leading man in Night After Night. She was always about the work and took it most seriously. If W.C. Fields turned up to the set of My Little Chickadee inebriated, West would promptly leave. “Sex and work have been the only two things in my life,” she once said, “… but if I ever had to choose between sex and my work, it was always my work I’d choose.”
• • But apart from the work and the men (amazingly, there were only a few really important men in her life), Chandler also divulges what a kind and generous woman Mae was — — always eager to sign an autograph (she kept extra photos in the car, just for this purpose), faithfully keeping up with her fan mail, answering most letters herself, and generously donating to local charities in need. Once, she donated her slightly used limousine to the local convent because she couldn’t bear “to see a nun waiting for the bus” and decided they need a little luxury, too.
• • Most of the stories in this book were culled from conversations Chandler had with Mae at her Ravenswood apartment in Hollywood the year before her death. Her recall is astounding, and her desire to protect her image is unmistakable: “I made up my mind very early that I would never love another person as much as I loved myself. Maybe that sounds selfish to you. It is. But I saw what a mess a lot of people could make of their lives when they are smitten. Some of them go temporarily insane. They find a person who they think holds the key to their happiness — — the only key to their happiness that exists. They don’t understand they’re the ones who give the other person that power. It’s like a fever. The person in that condition may ruin their own life, and the lives of others, as well.”
• • Both reader and author find it difficult to ascertain if Mae is all about protecting the image she carefully created over so many years, or if she really believes it. But with her trademark wit, she retorts, “Some people thought I ought to see a psychiatrist, but why spoil a good thing?”
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
— — Source: — —
• • “Review”
• • Written by: Bronwyn Miller
• • Published in: Bookreporter.com — — www.bookreporter.com
• • Published on: 20 March 2009
• • © Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • N.B.: We put the copyright line there so no one will think WE wrote this drivel.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Washington, DC

It was March 1921 and MAE WEST was onstage in Washington, DC.
• • The Shubert brothers' latest spectacle was on a tryout tour before looping back to Broadway. The material, patched together quickly but not gracefully, was a bloated bill of over two dozen scenes — — not all of them enjoyable or even worthy of being seen, according to the critics.
• • Jean Schwartz had written the music including, apparently, a shimmy that was scripted for a Mae West number called "The Trial of Shimmy Mae."
• • Though Variety's DC reviewer sniffed at most of the production, his heart was stolen by one performer. He reported: "There was one outstanding feature that caused a riot — — men actually stood up and yelled — — namely, Mae West when she shimmied. Miss West simply shook the house from its seats, as well as shaking herself from her neck to her toes and then back again. [Variety, 11 March 1921] ..."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: March 1927

Several New Yorkers had seen Mae West's play "Sex" more than once — — including Sergeant Patrick Keneally, who had taken an exhaustive number of notes while attending three performances at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre in the line of duty.
• • Police action against "Sex" had been more in opposition to "The Drag" than to Margy LaMont's lascivious adventures, explains Jill Watts in her impeccably researched bio: Mae West: An Icon in Black and White.
• • According to Jill Watts: While efforts to euthanize "The Drag" succeeded, "Sex" played to capacity crowds for several more weeks. However, by the beginning of March [1927], attendance had died off and profits shrank. Desperate to keep the production alive, the Morals Production Corporation ordered a 25% pay cut for everyone. Several players handed in their notices.
• • Finally, on Sunday, March 19, after the evening's performance, Morganstern announced that Mae West was physically exhausted and was closing the play. Yet he also emphasized her determination to fight the case to its end.
• • According to Jill Watts: Only a few days later, the New York State senate passed the Wales Padlock Bill, which required the district attorney to prosecute everyone associated with an indecent production and to lock down for one year any theatre that hosted such shows. It was less severe than mandating a stage censor and allowed the power over Broadway to remain with the district attorney, who in New York was the Tammany Hall loyalist Banton. The bill now sat waiting on Al Smith's desk.
• • In Jefferson Market Police Court (on Sixth Avenue and West Ninth Street) the defendants from the "Sex" raid came to trial on 28 March 1927. The prosecution's case rested on the testimony of Sergeant Keneally and his ability to take rapid, accurate stenography in a darkened playhouse. New York's district attorney, perhaps addicted to the fortissimo eloquence of inner lives magnificently thwarted by the law, was prepared to step into his gladiator mode to do battle with the dauntless leonine jezebel of the Jazz Era — — Mae West.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes. Act I, Scenes 3 — 4 dramatize both the police raid on 9 February 1927 and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 courthouse • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: March 1913

It was early in March 1913 when Willie Hammerstein assembled variety artists for his mid-winter festival week — — and engaged MAE WEST for this saucy extravaganza.
• • In 1912 and 1913, Hammerstein booked the teenager for eleven week-long engagements at his vaudeville attraction situated in Longacre [later Times] Square. The location was popularly known by New Yorkers as "the corner."
• • In 1899, Oscar Hammerstein built his fifth showplace — — the Victoria Theatre — — at the corner of West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Stars like Mae West, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and Eva Tanguay were among the thousands of performers who made Hammerstein's Victoria the vaudeville "nut house" of Times Square.
• • Heading the bill for this mid-winter festival week was Fay Templeton [1865—1939], an accomplished singer on the light opera circuit.
• • Hammerstein also premiered "The Squealer," a dramatic sketch by William C. DeMille and Charley Case's newest monologue.
• • There will be moving pictures of the Scott South Pole Expedition, promised Willie Hammerstein. Other acts on the bill were Mae West, Genaro and Bailey, The Bird Millman Trio, The Bison City Four, Sharp and Turek, Marlin and a Pack of Cards, The Jack Dakota Trio, Violinsky, Bud & Nellie Helm, and several others.
• • How many bon-bons did a ticket-holder need to buy in Longacre Square in order to sit through such a staggering stagebill in March 1913?
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West venue • • Hammerstein's • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Coy Watson

Coy Watson was featured in "I'm No Angel" with MAE WEST, according to his daughter Pattie Watson Price.
• • Born in Edendale, California on 16 November 1912, James Caughey "Coy" Watson, Jr. was raised in the screen trade. Before his first birthday, Coy made his debut opposite Lon Chaney Sr. in “The Price of Silence” [1912].
• • From the age of nine months until his 21st birthday, Coy Watson appeared in over 65 motion pictures. The handsome lad eventually became known as "The Keystone Kid." [His father, Coy Watson Sr., was an early motion picture pioneer. He worked as an assistant director and special effects man for many studios, and periodic member of the famous "Keystone Cops" of the Mack Sennett Studio.]
• • In addition to his participation in early silent pictures, Coy Watson, Jr. snagged roles in "talkies." He also kept busy playing featured roles and bit parts in screen gems cast with Hollywood's hottest names such as Mae West, Cary Grant, Lon Chaney, Mary Pickford, Joan Bennett, Fatty Arbuckle, Jackie Coogan, Buck Jones, and John Barrymore. Some of his directors included Mack Sennett, Marshal Neilan, King Vidor, George Marshall, Sam Wood, and George Hill.
• • His was a long and versatile career as a child star, an inventor, a news photographer, a TV trailblazer, an author, and a dedicated family man. After battling stomach cancer for a few years, 96-year-old James Caughey "Coy" Watson, Jr. passed away on Saturday, 14 March 2009 not far from his home in Alpine, California (a mountain community in San Diego County). Loving and lucid to the end, Coy Watson will be missed by many.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Earl H. Emmons

In 1928, the original Broadway production of "Diamond Lil," written by and starring MAE WEST, inspired a number of men to take pen in hand. [What else they took in hand, we leave to your imagination.]
• • Pencil chewing backstage was a special habit of Samuel Marx — — a frequent visitor to the Royale Theatre.
• • Here is Samuel Marx describing Mae West as the Bowery Queen for a little book printed in 1929:
• • • • Prominent among those who have written their names in fire on Broadway is that of Mae West. ... She is both an actress of peculiar merit, and an authoress of ability, although her talent has been directed into unpleasant fields. ...
• • • • Although her weight now is well around 200 lbs., she can still do a passable tap-dance. A blonde, short woman, she possessed a slow, fascinating drawl. Her reputation as an entertainer has grown rapidly in the past decade. ...
• • • • Her favorite expression is "Doncha know?" which she appends to almost every sentence she speaks. ...
• • • • She is a frank woman about her love affairs. Each night after the performance her dressing room would be swamped by society folk from Fifth Avenue's swanky 400, eager to meet this "creature." Miss West entertained backstage impartially, for blue-bloods and lesser admirers. It was not at all unusual for her to make her guests comfortable in her dressing room, and then proceed to remove her outer garments in their astonished presence. A stout woman, she found the tight-laced corsets of the period she acted [1890s] almost unbearable, and after stripping herself down to black underwear would sit down to chat. It was nothing if not unconventional. . . . [to be continued]
• • • • Source: Wild Women of Broadway by Samuel Marx [1929]
• • Actor John Huston, mesmerized by Mae West's gutsy rendition of "Frankie and Johnny" in her Broadway hit of 1928, spent a year traveling the USA, collecting versions of the folksong. Huston partnered with Covarrubias on his 1930 book "Frankie and Johnny"; Covarrubias drew the mulatto prostitute Frankie Baker as a Caucasian woman who looked like Mae West. The Manhattan publisher Boni released "Frankie and Johnny" in January 1930.
• • Word comes from Mae-maven and researcher Mark Desjardins that a third publication inspired by Mae's successful Broadway blockbuster is an exquisitely hand bound 21 page booklet, privately printed in an edition of 100 copies on premium weight ivory stock. Light verse was the specialty of Earl H. Emmons, who owned and operated Maverick Press in The Big Apple.
• • About this project — — "Reward of Virtue: a versified version of the great bed and bar-room epic, Diamond Lil, written and played by Mae West" — — Mr. Desjardins has assembled this intriguing back story:
• • • • Written by Earl H. Emmons, and published in 1938 by Maverick Press in New York, it clearly is a labor of love.
• • • • In the forward, Emmons stated that in the spring of 1928, he went to see Diamond Lil, and it occurred to him that the plot had amusing possibilties for some versified foolery. Over the next few weeks, he saw the play a number of times, made notes and learned the lines. After writing his opus to West, he typed one copy, made it into a little book, and sent it to Mae West, who "expressed enthusiastic apreciation and suggested I come up and see her some time in the near future so that she might thank me personally."
• • • • Emmons called on West the very next evening after the performance and "collected her personal thanks, the nature of which is no one's business." However, he did state for the record that West told him she had received the booklet just as she was preparing for her performance, and without even completing her makeup, went onto the stage, assembled the entire cast in whatever stages of undress they happened to be and proceeded to read it to the company, delaying the evening performance by twelve minutes. Emmons then goes on to apologize to anyone being annoyed by the delay that evening, and asks them to "stop blaming Miss West and turn their venom on me."
• • • • A year later, in 1939, a book of poetry entitled "An Uncensored Anthology," published by the Peter Pauper Press of New York, reprinted Emmon's "Reward Of Virtue," along with other poems by him entitled, "Mae West's Bust," and "Ballad of the Twin Buttes." Another poem suggestive of West entitled "Frankie and Johnnie" was included in this collection attribued to "Anonymous."
• • • • I was thrilled to discover a mint copy of Earl H. Emmons's original booklet recently, and recommend anyone trying to search out the later published copy in the Anthology for sheer reading enjoyment. A classic early appreciation of Mae West — — and one she clearly took pleasure in.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The amusing lines that Emmons titled "Mae West's Bust" also appeared in a book called "Rowdy Rhymes." Henry R. Martin drew the illustration you see here.
• • Rowdy Rhymes. Gathered from Many Gay Minstrels [Publisher: Mount Vernon, NY — — Peter Pauper Press, 1952] Illustrated by Henry R. Martin; 61 pages
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • artwork printed in 1952 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Nick Stewart

MAE WEST had a special fondness for native New Yorkers, vaudevillians, and African-Americans and Nick Stewart was all of those.
• • Born In Manhattan [birthname Horace Winfred Stewart] during the month of March — — on 15 March 1910 — — Nick Stewart took the role of Nicodemus Stewart in "Go West Young Man" [1936].
• • He wed in 1941. Nine years later, the energetic character actor, with his wife Edna, founded the Ebony Showcase Theatre on LaBrea Avenue in Los Angeles.
• • If you saw "Song of the South" [1946], that was his voice bringing Bre'r Bear alive.
• • On the early 1950s TV series "The Amos 'n Andy Show," Nick Stewart (billed as Nick O'Demus) portrayed Lightnin', the slow-moving broom pusher.
• • The versatile showman from vaudeville and radio was one of the first inductees in the Academy of Television Arts and Science's new Archive of American Television.
• • The last surviving cast member from "Amos 'n Andy," Nick Stewart lived to be 90 years old and died on 18 December 2000 in Los Angeles of natural causes.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Fulton Street

Raise your hand if you have an Arby's tumbler imprinted with the face of MAE WEST?
• • The roast beef sandwich chain, based in Georgia, is claiming to have sealed a juicy deal on their first Kings County outpost.
• • The fast food franchise will take top shelf space on Fulton Street inside the landmark that once hosted the venerable Gage & Tollner, where Mae West used to dine. Former patrons of Gage & Tollner were frequently high-fliers [think "Diamond Jim" Brady] along with colorful entertainers such as Jimmy Durante.
• • In 1879, a decade before Battling Jack West and Tillie Delker took their wedding vows, Charles Gage decided it was time to open an "eating house" in Brooklyn at 303 Fulton Street. By 1892, a year before Mae West was born, Gage & Tollner relaunched their dining saloon at 372—374 Fulton Street — — in a brownstone built in 1875 (before the district became commercial).
• • It seems odd to think of fast food served in an historic gaslight-era rowhouse that once boasted a prestigious steakhouse catering to swells and stars. But Raymond Chera, a Brooklyn-based franchisee, insisted that its gas lamps and wall-length mirrors will survive the dramatic transformation. “We’re keeping everything in place, and anything we move in will be non-permanent and easy to move out,” said Chera. “It will probably be the most beautiful Arby’s ever.”
• • But will the Mae West etched glassware return to Arby's? Stay tuned.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Tucson Tombstone

MAE WEST was on the mind of a plucky Arizona reporter this week. As the venerable Tucson Citizen rides off into the sunset, their prickly newshounds decided to reveal savory tidbits that had been swept under the carpet years before.
• • According to the Tucson Citizen: The gloves and muzzles are off! As the newspaper prepares to close, Calendar staffers cull 35 years of experiences and tell all about their most memorable celebrity encounters: some good, some bad. Divas, divos, sourpusses, hot lips, evil pets — — we've come across them all. But now we're naming names and sparing no one! . . .
• • Ink-stained scribe Larry Cox offered, for instance, "The real poop on Mae West."
• • Larry Cox writes: One summer during the 1970s, I found myself in Los Angeles visiting a friend. He knew Mae West in a round about way and asked if I would like to meet her. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to meet a true screen legend. I was immediately surprised by two things: the modesty of her apartment and the fact that she was much shorter than I had expected. After a few minutes of small talk, a monkey scampered into the room. He took one look at me and showed his instant dislike. He then inched his way closer and closer to me — — and without warning, jumped into my lap. Just as Mae West said, "I think he likes you," the evil little bastard pooped all over me. It was a memorable afternoon, but not in the way I had hoped.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
— — Excerpt: — —
• • “Dishin' the dirt: Citizen entertainment writers tell all!”
• • By Tucson Citizen
• • Published in: Arizona's Tucson Citizen — — www.tucsoncitizen.com
• • Published on: 11 March 2009
• • Photo of Mae West courtesy of Tucson Citizen
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Unfortunately, the very entertaining Tucson Citizen is about to turn the lights off. We bid the hardworking news team hail and farewell!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1978 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Beverly

When MAE WEST was living in Middle Village, New York, and working for her father's detective agency, she got mixed up in an expensive breach-of-promise case. The handsome heartthrob who was being sued was a Mr. Osborne. No doubt the complications of this tangled tale afforded amusement many times in the West household. The incident prompted Mae's sister to change her stage name to "Beverly Osborne" and also inspired the breach-of-promise suit used in Mae's script for "I'm No Angel."
• • How many of our faithful readers knew that one?
• • Let us devote some time to a vaudevillian who died at age 83 twenty-seven years ago on 12 March 1982, an entertainer whose gold-dusted dreams never quite came true.
• • On 8 December 1898, five-year-old Mae West and her parents welcomed a new addition to the household — — sweet Mildreth Katharina, who later changed her name to Beverly.
• • Also an aspiring actress, kid sister Beverly performed at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1916 in an act billed as "Mae West and Sister."
• • One song-and-dance number featured Mae clad in male drag opposite a very feminine Beverly (who actually got better reviews than the tough-talking Mae).
• • Few Mae-mavens realize that Beverly understudied her sister in three Broadway shows: "Sex," "Diamond Lil," and "The Constant Sinner."
• • Negative anecdotes about Beverly — — her drinking, her failed marriages, and her mental deterioration — — have popped up in every biography of her more famous sibling.
• • But every now and then a journalist would interview Beverly about her career. In 1933, Edward Sammis spoke to her and then wrote this rather rosy-tinged puff piece:
• • Picture Beverly's dilemma. As Mae's double, she could never hope for a break for herself unless misfortune befell her beloved sister — — and that was the last thing in the world she wanted to happen. It never did happen. Beverly was on hand, waiting in Mae's dressing room with her make-up on, night after night, ready for the emergency that never came. Mae, in all those months, never missed a single performance.
• • Beverly didn't mind. She was happy enough to see her sister get ahead. The patter of applause coming to her out through the wings night after night was music to her ears.
• • Then Mae got her chance to go to Hollywood. And Beverly was out of a job. Beverly went along, of course. They lived together in a bungalow during Mae's first months in Hollywood. But there is no place for an understudy in pictures. When the star is indisposed, production waits.
• • Money didn't matter. Mae was making money enough for both of them, and to spare. But for the first time since her girlhood days, Beverly found herself with nothing to do. She began to get restless. She thought of picking up the threads of her own career again. But great changes had come to the vaudeville business since she was a headline attraction. "Beverly West and Company" was a hazy memory to those in the game now. In those long anonymous years which she had spent backstage as Mae's understudy, living entirely in the roles of Mae's creating without benefit of audience, waiting for the emergency that never came, she had lost most of her own identity. . . .
• • Excerpt: The Strange Career of Mae West's Kid Sister
• • Byline: Edwards R. Sammis, Broadway Correspondent
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Beverly and family • •
NYC
Mae West.