Mae West: Harlem's Bars 1931

On September 28th MAE WEST's latest play was reviewed by Time Magazine's critics. Here's the view from an aisle seat.
• • The Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan: 28 Sep. 1931, Time Magazine • •
• • "The Constant Sinner" • •
• • Three seasons ago Mae West's lusty singing of "Frankie and Johnnie" and the nostalgic flavor of bar and brothel scenes made Diamond Lil a Broadway hit. In The Constant Sinner, which Mae West wrote from her own novel, the bars and brothels are Harlem, 1931, and Mae West does not sing. But The Constant Sinner is no tame play, nor is it a dull play.
• • Though handicapped by a more effete period, Mae West in some of her lines attains the lush bawdiness of her earlier production:
• • "That dame [Cleopatra] went in for everything . . . she even went to bed with snakes."
• • "I never turn anything down but the bed-covers."
• • She plays the part of Prostitute Babe Gordon with a forthright enthusiasm, sometimes tempered by irony, as in the curtain line, after she has convinced her husband that she is not living with another man (which she is) and the husband has mouthed a few platitudes about Faith. Says Babe Gordon: "I used to know a fine poem about Faith. It begins — Oh, Hell! I've forgotten it."
• • [Review printed on Monday 28 September 1931, Time Magazine]
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• • Excerpt from Babe Gordon by Mae West [NY: The Macaulay Company, 1930] • •
• • • • "Well, it was a woman. A beautiful woman. She was seated at a table in a corner of the room with a big negro — — actually enjoying him, fascinated by him."
• • • • "Do you mean that stunning blonde woman in an ermine wrap?" asked Jack Rathburne. "I did notice her, but I didn't see the negro."
• • • • "Well, he came in later," explained Wayne Baldwin. "Come to think of it, you were at the opposite side of the table. Your back was to them. How in the name of all that's decent, Jack, could a woman like that, obviously a person of refinement, allow a black to make love to her?"
• • • • Jack crushed out his cigarette in a green-glass tray.
• • • • "A matter of taste, Wayne. In this case, a very depraved taste."
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as Babe Gordon • •
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