Ninety years ago, in June 1919, MAE WEST was onstage in a tuneful Broadway hit doing an odd thing — — playing a manhunter who can't land a boyfriend.
• • It was on Saturday 4 October 1918 that "Sometime," the "musical comedy of commerce" designed to showcase the talents of laughmeister Ed Wynn, had opened at the Shubert Theatre (establishing a nice healthy wartime run that continued for eight months at the Shubert brothers' flagship: 225 West 44th Street).
• • At 25 years old, Mae West was still much more accustomed to appearing in vaudeville than in the legit. In "Sometime," it was Mae's character Mayme Dean who appeared onstage first. At that point in her career, Mae had often been cast as an Irish maid — — although Mayme Dean is a frisky flapper who cannot land a man.
• • This musical closed in June 1919, after running for 283 performances.
• • Picture Mae West sometime in 1918/9, an energetic brunette sizzling onstage. A reviewer who covered her performance — — and her sultry shimmy — — at the Shubert Theatre described Mae West as a "tasty tornado."
• • A few years after this show, Mae started writing her own material — — however, she never again portrayed a chambermaid nor a lovelorn lady.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Mae West: June 1919
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1918,
1919,
Broadway,
Ed Wynn,
flapper,
Francine Larrimore,
Mae West,
Mayme Dean,
New York City,
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Shubert Theatre,
Sometime,
The Shimmy,
vaudeville,
wartime,
West 44th Street,
World War I
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Hi! there is a program you might be interested in at the Jefferson Market Library on Wed June 10 at 6:30. The author of American Eve (the book about Evelyn Nesbit and the Crime of the Century, I'm sure you know!) Please come and let your many readers know as well. thanks!
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fcollerius@nypl.org