Mae West: Hula High

It was April 1924 and MAE WEST was back in vaudeville shakin' it and taking her twitches and bewitchment on the road. Hawaiian themed music was once again trendy and the sassy Brooklynite knocked on many doors along Tin Pan Alley looking for just the right material that would suit her. She found a funky new composition at Ager, Yellen & Bornstein, music publishers who had established their firm at 1595 Broadway in Manhattan in 1922. Since these hit-makers were riding high during the jazz age, it was quite a big deal to be featured on their song sheets — — and Mae grabbed the chance whenever she could.
• • During her marriage to handsome Guido Deiro — — a popular accordionist also in demand as a recording artist — — Mae became aware of the financial rainbows that brightened the lives of the top singers and musicians. But as her own career prospects continued to sink during 1923 and 1924, and since no record companies pursued her, Mae gamely trouped on and continued to entertain the southwestern wheel of the vaudeville circuit — — trying to sell sheet music with her picture on the front cover. Which swings the conversation around to "Hula Lou."
• • The song sheet was designed by Frank E. Phares with a clever inset that made each individual personalization quite simple.
• • Holy Honolulu! Not for Mae the gooey romantic yearning numbers such as "My Hawaiian Melody" nor "Honolulu Eyes." Nor would she have ever chosen a lightweight love ballad such as "Honolulu Honey" nor a harmless hula tempo such as "Hawaiian Sandman." The girl had gumption and looked for lyrics suitable for a flirt — — a self-confident seductress who could put across a sultry kootch onstage. Could any chart-topper be as suitable for the singing comedienne as this come-hither bragging and posing? Here's an excerpt.
• • • • • "HULA LOU" • • • • •
• • Lyrics: Jack Yellen; Music: Milton Charles & Wayne King
• • Copyright 1924 by Ager, Yellen, & Bornstein, Inc., 1595 Broadway, New York City
• • • You can talk all you want about women
• • • Said a sailor known as Dan McCann
• • • And if you really want to know about women
• • • You've got to talk to a sailor man.
• • • Now I don't know how many women the sailor met
• • • And I hope there isn't that any he'll regret
• • • For if he'd only met me I'd a given him some trimmin'
• • • I'm one gal he'd never forget.
• • • (Band): Well, who are you?
• • • Who am I? I'm Hula Lou.
• • • I'm the gal that can't be true.
• • • I do my nestin' in the evenin' breeze
• • • 'Neath the trees
• • • You oughta see me shake my BVDs.
• • • I never knew
• • • A man who wouldn't hula dance or woo
• • • And sail across the briny blue to who
• • • The lady known as Hula Lou. That's me.
• • • (Rap):

• • • Now you ask any sailor and he'll tell you
• • • That this lady is the greatest dancer he ever knew.
• • • There isn't a ship in the Navy
• • • That I haven't got a friend in the crew.
• • • There's not a cruiser on the waves
• • • Without someone who is my devoted slave
• • • And I don't care how nasty I may be
• • • I'm the one gal the sailors all crave. ...
• • Sophie's choice . . .
• • In January 1924 Sophie Tucker discovered this gem and recorded it with Miff Mole on Okeh Records. All by herself, however, Sophie was featured on the sheet music version.
• • On 13 February 1924 The Varsity Eight recorded their version of "Hula Lou."
• • While many vocalists posed on this song sheet, the lyrics are so well-suited to Mae West that it's a shame she didn't sing it in a motion picture so we'd have a record of it in her voice.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Broadway's Broad

April was surely the month theatre-goers associate most with MAE WEST on Broadway. Here's a sassy snippet from the entertainment editors of Playbill Magazine, David Gewirtzman, Anne Bradley, and Ernio Hernandez .
• • From Playbill's popular feature "Today In Theatre History: APRIL 26" • •
• • Playbill writes: 1926 "Sex." It's a comedy. Mae West plays a Canadian woman with no time for those mountees; it's the British navy for her. It runs through one season, but the following it is raided as immoral. The cast is arrested and Mae West, who also co-produced, is sentenced to 10 days in jail and is fined $500. A well-received off-off-Broadway revival in 2000 proved that the show still had laughs and a unique social point of view.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Kenneth Hughes

Ken Hughes once worked with MAE WEST.
• • Then 56 years old when he was at the helm of "Sextette" in 1978, based on Mae West's play ["Sextet"], the British director died in the month of April and is being remembered. Not unlike reading the work of a very clever Marxist, the script's logic is impeccable, even when the premise — — that an actress in her 80s can portray a 26-year-old sexpot — — is wrong.
• • "Sextette" was the middle-aged director's first American film — — as well as Mae West's final screen appearance.
• • Vincent Canby, then the film critic of The New York Times, pursed his lips and gave the project a sound spanking. Canby wrote: The story, based on a play written some years ago by Miss West, is about a world-famous movie star and her attempts to consummate her sixth marriage to Sir Michael Barrington (Timothy Dalton) despite repeated interruptions by former husbands, lovers, dress designers, secret agents, publicity people and delegates attending an international peace conference just upstairs. It's a plot that Miss West has often favored, and it freely reprises a lot of lines from earlier pictures. The movie was directed by Ken Hughes ("The Small World of Sammy Lee," "Cromwell," and so on), a fellow you might think had better things to do than to prop up the Tower of Pisa. In addition to Mr. Dalton, "Sextette" features a number of other people who, in happier circumstances, are decent actors. These include Tony Curtis, George Hamilton, Ringo Starr, and the incomparable Dom DeLuise. There are some original songs and some old ones, a couple of which sound as if they'd been lip-synched by Miss West to old recordings . . . [N.Y. Times 8 June 1979].
• • On 19 January 1922, Kenneth Graham Hughes was born in Liverpool, England.
• • The Hollywood director developed Alzheimer's disease and died on 28 April 2001 in Los Angeles. Several of his obituaries reminded the public that "Sextette" was a camp disaster and, furthermore, that the writer/ director had had a prolific but "remarkably inconsistent career" with only one hands-down triumph: "The Trials of Oscar Wilde." Hard to believe the same person directed the family musical and moneymaker "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," the James Bond loser "Casino Royale," and "Sextette."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Vote in Bombshell Poll

Number 17 is MAE WEST on a list of "The Top 25 Bombshells" of the big and small screen that Fox News has assembled. Here's a snippet from their entertainment desk.
• • Fox411 explains: "With sexy stars like Christina Hendricks, Scarlett Johansson, and Halle Berry taking over television and movies, it seems that Hollywood has finally renewed its celebration of the voluptuous woman. In keeping with that celebration, Fox411 has decided to review decades of stars and find the greatest bombshells ever to grace the screen. Check out our list of the top 25 bombshells of the big and small screen, and then cast your vote. ..."
• • Fox411 will reveal the winner next week. When the poll was checked on 27 April 2010, however, Marilyn Monroe was leading, closely followed by Sophia Loren.
• • Check out the poll — — http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/04/26/fox411-battle-of-the-bombshells-poll-who-is-the-sexiest-screen-star-of-all-time/ — — and cast your vote for the one and only Brooklyn bombshell Mae West.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Vegas Memories

Anita Harris, age 67, met MAE WEST during the 1950s when she was invited to perform in Las Vegas. Here's a snippet from a recent interview that News of the World did with the perky Scottish songstress.
• • NOTW: Once you got to Sin City, you found yourself rubbing shoulders with Mae West and Frank Sinatra. What are your favourite memories from that time?
• • ANITA HARRIS: Mae was a very large lady. Very statuesque. But she loved her men. The male dancers from our production often used to go out on the town with their counterparts on her show. And Frank? Well, Sinatra was beautiful. When he performed you could tell he wanted to give his best and that was a great lesson for me. The way he engaged you as if he was just singing to you. ...
• • Currently, Anita Harris is back onstage delighting audiences in Scotland with a special 25th anniversary production of "Stepping Out" at Dundee Rep and elsewhere. Good luck, Anita!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: April News Showers

"Act in haste, repent in leisure" was never a saying of MAE WEST's. But perhaps it crossed her mind during the unrelenting "news showers" raining on her p.r. parade in April of 1935.
• • On 25 April 1935 the motion picture "Goin' to Town" was released starring Mae — — who was, as usual, busy promoting her latest picture. One bit of screen dialogue ran this way:
• • • • • Young Fellow: What excuse has a gal like you for runnin' around single?
• • • • • Cleo Borden: Mmm, I was born that way.
• • Frank Wallace was runnin' around single, too — — since he had not lived with Mae since shortly after their quickie wedding in April 1911.
• • But he had suddenly decided his 1911 romance ought not to be consigned to the realm of forgetfulness (especially when his former mate had become famous and a millionaire).
• • Words, words, words. Grinding them together, Frank summoned up the void for any news man who would interview him over a nice hot lunch.
• • On 25 April 1935, the Los Angeles Examiner ran with this exclusive: "Dancer's Story of Marriage Irks Film Star." The script that had gone off course was now front page news. Arrrggh. How that jerk can irk.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Rockland County

Not many home-owners can say, “MAE WEST cavorted here.” And while no one knows how much time the hard-working entertainer devoted to "cavorting," if you were going to disport yourself, then you could do much worse during the 1930s than lounge around the gilded great-house and grounds of Adolph Zukor.
• • Rockland County columnist Kathy Kahn writes: When Rockland County’s famed Dellwood Country Club, the former “farm” retreat of Paramount Pictures’ founder Adolph Zukor, came on the market in 2008, it was an opportunity investor and attorney Jeff Mandelbaum and his family couldn’t pass by. ...
• • Kathy Kahn adds: Although the movie mogul’s former estate will undergo a remarkable indoor transformation, Mandelbaum is not forgetting Adolph Zukor. “There is a treasure trove of photos of Dellwood when it was in its heyday, when movie stars — — such as Mae West — — sunned themselves at the pool, lounged around the grill room or were out on the links. They are part of the club’s history and its charm and will be displayed throughout the clubhouse,” said Jeff Mandelbaum. ...
• • To learn more about Adolph Zukor's property and how to visit, see the reference below.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Come out and see them sometime"
• • By: Kathy Kahn
• • Published in: Westfair Communications Inc.
• • Published on: 23 April 2010
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Sweet and Vicious

"So sweet and so vicious," is how MAE WEST described her former flame Owney Madden, who bankrolled her Broadway plays during the 1920s, attended her seances, and escorted the grieving actress to her mother's funeral.
• • Owney "The Killer" Madden [18 December 1891 — 24 April 1965] was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition with bootlegger Larry Fay. He also ran Harlem's famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter during the 1930s.
• • An intriguing article — — "The New York gangster — from Leeds" — — supplies some information of interest. British writer Paul Robinson fails to paint a vivid portrait of an adolescent Owney being raised in the westside slums by his single mother and his aunt in an impoverished household teaming with boisterous brothers and male cousins [amid a host of thuggish neighbors hanging out on the fire escapes]. But you will learn a few fascinating nuggets.
• • See "The New York gangster — from Leeds" — — in the Yorkshire Evening Post [printed 21 April 2010].
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: San Francisco Metreon

Items that once belonged to MAE WEST will be displayed on the West Coast as part of a large-scale exhibition: "Hollywood Legends: The Barry Barsamian Collection."
• • Ninety-five icons of stage, screen, and even TV series are represented in this show which has brought together an astonishing number of daytime garments, gowns, loungewear, ties, accessories, character costumes, fur coats, hats, jewelry, posters, photos, and props for this colorful array at the Metreon — — such as the ruby slippers and costumes worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz."
• • A resident of Oakland, California, Barsamian got interested in collecting when, as a youngster, he would save his allowance to purchase TV Guides and also Shirley Temple dolls. Having a cousin in the entertainment industry [actor Mike Connors] sparked his interest in meeting other celebrities. Many of the items he acquired were purchased directly from personalities such as Mae West. Over the years, he hoarded and preserved paraphernalia belonging to Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbara Eden, Lucille Ball, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Agnes Moorhead, Bob Hope, Rock Hudson, Cary Grant, and others.
• • The show can be seen at the San Francisco Metreon (corner of 4th and Mission Streets).
• • The exhibition is scheduled to run from noon to 8:00 PM from Wednesdays — Sundays on the theater's ground floor.
• • The Barry Barsamian Collection exhibit will be on display until the end of May.
• • Several California publications have written about this passionate collector but the most interesting article appears in The San Francisco Chronicle.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Valleys of Silicone

Since interviewers do not dare ask Raquel Welch about those valleys of silicone and alley-oops worth of surgical enhancements, they often fill those soft spots with questions about her bra size, her relationships with other celebrities, and her scenes with MAE WEST in "Myra Breckinridge."
• • Scottish columnist Jane Wollman Rusoff writes: Not that Raquel Welch denies she can be difficult. Since the beginning, when she left her husband and high-school sweetheart James Welch to break into the movies, with two toddlers and with only $200 in her pocket, she has been determined to get what she wanted. "With the force of will that you need to do what I did, you're going to be quite a handful," she says.
• • Jane Wollman Rusoff, quoting the actress, adds: "I needed to be a little tough to break through. But at one point I found myself being just a little too much. I told a few people off, and that wasn't at all what I should have done. Eventually I realised that I had to be quiet."
• • Jane Wollman Rusoff notes: Raquel Welch had a famous run-in with Mae West when the then-elderly film icon kicked up a fuss about a costume the younger actress wanted to wear in the poorly received "Myra Breckinridge" (1970). "At the time," she says, "I just thought, 'Raquel, she's a 77-year-old who never shot a movie in colour before, and now she has to share the screen with you. How would you feel?'" . . .
• • To learn more about what brassiere type Raquel prefers and which films she was fired from, cruise through the rest of this interview (see link below).
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Interview: Raquel Welch, actress"
• • By: JANE WOLLMAN RUSOFF
• • Published in: Scotland on Sunday
• • Published on: 20 April 2010
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Conversation-Provoker

MAE WEST got a round of applause from Variety only on a few occasions.
• • “Going to help redistribute a nice chunk of the nation's coin. Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country” — — announced Variety [referring to the newly released motion picture "I'm No Angel" in 1933].
• • Gone to his final rest with the other cinema angels is a plucky actor featured in "I'm No Angel" — — Gregory Ratoff, who started life in the month of April.
• • Ratoff was related to Mae thanks to his shifty cousin Vladimir Baikoff, who was the actress's brother-in-law and Beverly's second Russian husband.
• • Born in Samara, Russia in April — — on 20 April 1897 — — the 25-year-old actor first sailed to the USA in 1922. A year later Gregory Ratoff wed actress Eugenie Leontovich. He returned to New York in July 1925 on the SS Mauretania with his Russian-Jewish mother, deciding to settle in.
• • As an accent piece, he was harmless. Gregory Ratoff played Tira's New York City lawyer Benny Pinkowitz in "I'm No Angel" [1933]. And many fans remember the amusing scene in which Mae West and Ratoff are discussing the breach-of-promise suit.
• • In early 1943, when "Catherine Was Great" was being hammered out, Mae got a visit from Ratoff. He wanted her to star in a new film for Columbia Pictures to be called "The Heat's On," which he would direct. To arouse Mae's interest further, he hinted that he might also produce her newest extravaganza rushing to Broadway.
• • After many delays and disruptions, "The Heat's On" was released 9 February 1944 to jeers, sneers, and razzleberries.
• • For the record, "Catherine Was Great" had its live mainstage premiere on 2 August 1944. The show closed on the Gay White Way on 13 January 1945.
• • Gregory Ratoff's most famous screen role was his portrayal of the producer Max Fabian who feuds with star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) in "All About Eve" [1950].
• • Director, actor, and producer Gregory Ratoff contracted leukemia and died on 14 December 1960 in Switzerland.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Sentenced by Donnellan

On 19 April 1927 MAE WEST was sentenced — — and the very next day she was on her way to spending ten days in the Women's Workhouse (then located on Welfare Island) in the middle of the East River.
• • During the trial in March and early April — — presided over by Judge George Donnellan — — Mae West had argued in a written statement that her plays were a work of art. Her lawyers made a case that "Sex" was a morally instructive drama. Mae did not take the stand. At Jefferson Market Court, Justice Donnellan had suggested a guilty verdict would be fitting, before the jurors went off to deliberate. Six hours later, the verdict came in. At her sentencing, Mae West was fined $500 and given 10 days to repent at an off-shore detention center.
• • The warden shortened her sentence by two days for good behavior.
• • The play "Courting Mae West" dramatizes the trial and the melee in court when the verdict comes in.
• • Mae was paid $1,000 to write about her experiences for a women's magazine. Some of her essay appears elsewhere on this blog. [Mae donated the $1,000 to the workhouse to establish a library for female inmates.]
• • Released from the lock-up on April 27th, Mae told the reporters — — who were waiting for her like Stage Door Johnnies — — that she had enough material for several plays now. Criminal street cred served the playwright well when she sat down to write "Diamond Lil" about a woman with a thing for bling, whose motto is, "My career is diamonds."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Life Magazine

The news racks on 18 April 1969 held the hot-off-the-presses issue of Life Magazine with MAE WEST on the cover.
• • The intriguing composition revealed the 75-year-old actress in her mirrored bed, garbed in white satin, and — — in the foreground — — was the exotic black long-tailed Tricky, Mae's pet woolly monkey, who had joined her Hollywood household in Apartment 611 just two years before.
• • Mae was photographed for Life by the 63-year-old lensman Philippe Halsman, who was born in Latvia on 2 May 1906. Aided by his friend Albert Einstein, Halsman emigrated to the United States. A portrait he took of the scientist became a US postage stamp in 1966.
• • Philippe Halsman began working with Salvador Dali and also with Life Magazine (from 1942 onwards).
• • April 1935 • •
• • But back in 1935, April's newspapers were peppered with spicy headlines about the actress's private life that probably caused a headache (if not also a certain degree of heartburn). The cover of the New York Herald trumpeted: Actor who Claims He Is Star's Ex-husband Bares Story of Romance [23 April 1935]. Not to be outdone, the Los Angeles Examiner blasted out some immensely unflattering photos along with this cover feature: Dancer's Story of Marriage Irks Film Star [25 April 1935]. Mae would definitely have preferred being paired with a monkey rather than a balding, skinny, unprepossessing ex-vaudevillian looking down at his threadbare socks in April 1935.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: MOMA in May

The Museum of Modern Art will screen a cinema classic by MAE WEST next month — — and they recently recalled the turmoil Mae's motion picture caused in 1933.
• • According to MOMA: The establishment of The Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film, founded as the Film Library, began in 1933, when Iris Barry, the Museum's first film curator, was challenged to organize a series of film programs to "test the waters" of public consumption. From May 10 through 24, 2010, MoMA honors Barry with "Iris Barry: Re-View," an exhibition comprising films that Barry selected for a historic series of screenings at The Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford, Connecticut) from October 28 through December 30, 1934, many of which were later shown at MoMA. The exhibition, which also marks the 75th anniversary of the June 1935 founding of the Film Library, is organized by Anne Morra, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
• • "Iris Barry: Re-View" opens with the Best Picture Academy Award nominee "She Done Him Wrong" (1933), directed by Lowell Sherman and starring Mae West, which was a controversial acquisition to MoMA's collection, and almost single-handedly undid the establishment of the MoMA Film Library, but was later hailed as a cinema classic. ...
• • At the time of MoMA's founding in 1929, there were no dedicated film programs in U.S. cultural institutions. Film festivals, repertory movie houses, and academic degree programs in cinema studies had not yet been developed. ...
• • Upcoming Film Screenings & Events • •
• • "She Done Him Wrong" 1933. USA. Directed by Lowell Sherman. Screenplay by Harvey Thew, John Bright, based on the play Diamond Lil by Mae West. Mae West plays a sassy, suggestive saloon owner, in a role that had a clear influence on Dalí. His painting Mae West's Face Which May Be Used as a Surrealist Apartment (1934–35), which conflates celebrity worship, erotic fetishism, and the technical properties of the cinema, deconstructs West's face. Print courtesy Universal Pictures. 66 min.
• • WHEN: Monday, May 10, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1; and Thursday, May 20, 2010, 6:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1.
• • WHERE: MOMA, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: In the Back Seat

During her career, gutsy MAE WEST never took a back seat — — except when she was being driven by her chauffeur.
• • Here's what Mae was doing seventy-six years ago on 16 April 1934, during the height of the Depression: the Paramount Pictures star had ordered and signed for a 1934 V-12 Cadillac Town Cabriolet. The specifications indicated: a black chassis; wire wheels; the top (or roof) in Landau black leather; and luxurious custom upholstery in black leather.
• • No deprivation for Mae during the Great Depression. Here she is on the April 1935 issue of Movie Mirror edited in New York City by Macfadden Publications. That expression says it all: "Mae's riding high!"
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: April's Air-Cooled Ex

Taking advantage of the legal woes of his sister-in-law MAE WEST, Beverly's husband Sergei Treshatny obtained a divorce on 15 April 1927 after a decade of marriage.
• • On 29 January 1917 Beverly West [1898 —1982] wed her first Russian husband Sergei Treshatny. An inventor, Treshatny had arrived in the United States in 1916. Vaudevillians Beverly and Mae West were both busy working in Paterson, New Jersey during January 1917 when Beverly took some time off to become a "missus" at Brooklyn City Hall on Joralemon Street. It had been a brief courtship. On 8 December 1916, the bride-to-be had celebrated her 18th birthday.
• • A decade later, when Mae and Beverly were arrested in Bridgeport, Connecticut on 2 February 1927, Sergei took advantage of the scandal, using the trial testimony as his grounds for divorce.
• • The union between the unhappy couple was dissolved by Supreme Court Justice George H. Taylor, Jr. in Newburgh, New York. The divorce action was based on a police raid on a room in the Arcade Hotel (Bridgeport) at 5:00 AM when Beverly West and Edward Elsner were charged with a "breach of the peace" [i.e., being drunk].
• • Though the case against Edward Elsner and Beverly West was dropped the next day in the Bridgeport City Court, a stenographer took a transcript of the testimony for Treshatny, the policeman who made the February 2nd arrests testified before Judge Taylor.
• • Sergei Treshatny, who was living in Stamford in 1927, had invented an air-cooled motor.
• • Beverly had tried to divorce him in Brooklyn in 1924 — — but dropped it after her plea for alimony and counsel fees pending a trial had been denied.
• • Beverly's marital woes, the arrest at the Arcade Hotel, and the aftermath of this divorce are dramatized in "Courting Mae West" (a full-length stage play based on true events during the Prohibition Era).
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Dali in Delhi

An East Indian painter, who draws inspiration from MAE WEST and Dali, is now displaying his work on both in Delhi — — with an occult twist.
• • Georgina Maddox introduces this 48-year-old Delhi artist (formerly based in New York City and Paris) who pays tribute to Salvador Dali — — and the Mae West couch — — through an exhibition of surreal tarot cards.
• • Georgina Maddox writes: He’s been called a surreal egoist, as eccentric in his art as in his behaviour, but Salvador Dali has never failed to move Indian artists to high emotion. Delhi-based Baba Anand is a die-hard fan, and his forthcoming exhibition is a tribute to the late Spanish artist. Called "The Major Arcana: A Fool’s Journey," the exhibition comprises 22 paintings of tarot cards, each of which is six-foot tall. The exhibition, at the Religare Arts in Connaught Place, opens this Saturday [17 April 2010].
• • Georgina Maddox adds: Major Arcana literally means “trumps” and it is a suite of 22 cards in tarot, which have occult or divinatory symbolism. Anand’s work draws references from some of Dali’s most important pieces like the Three Graces, the Mae West Couch, and Adonis. “I have been fascinated by the works of Dali since the age of 13, and I have been reading tarot cards for the last 10 years,” says the 48-year-old artist, explaining why he chose tarot cards as the medium to pay tribute to Dali. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Dali Revisited"
• • By: Georgina Maddox
• • Published in: Indian Express
• • Published on: 14 April 2010
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Toy Boy

An intriguing article mentioned MAE WEST and the actor she ushered into the spotlight.
• • James Wolcott writes: Cinema’s first boy toy, Cary Grant [1904 — 1986] was the recipient of Mae West’s famous invitation in "She Done Him Wrong" — — “Why doncha come up sometime and see me?” She eyed him up and down as if he were a licorice stick, which would make many a young man queasy. Grant quickly shed the slightly louche gaucheness of a male ingenue to become the beau ideal of an English gentleman, but not a drawing-room fop, a “Tennis, anyone?” playboy, or one of those decent Ronald Colman chaps, lilting his lines as if playing the flute. His background buttressed him. Cary Grant had a Cockney accent and a coiled-spring athleticism that knocked the silk cover off any suspicion of poshness. He could spit out dialogue as fast as James Cagney or any other American machine gunner. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Classic Hollywood: To Catch a Legend"
• • By: James Wolcott
• • Published in: Vanity Fair Magazine
• • Published in: June 2004
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Aquabeau Speaks

One of MAE WEST's escorts commented about her in a recent interview in California.
• • According to Leah Garchik, a columnist at The San Francisco Chronicle: Sal Deguarda celebrated his 90th birthday recently with a party on Treasure Island, where during the 1939 World's Fair, he was an Aquabeau in Billy Rose's Aquacade. Sal Deguarda's bio says he was a "swimmer, diver, Hollywood actor, stuntman, sportsman and concrete contractor (three generations)" — — and for a time he was one of Mae West's accessory/gents. Nowadays, Sal Deguarda is devoted to the idea of re-creating "Pacifica," the statue built for that fair. ...
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Shimmy with Sophie

By 1918 MAE WEST had added a new number to her act: "Ev'ybody Shimmies Now."
• • "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" had three collaborators; the lyrics were by Eugene West, and Joe Gold wrote the music along with Brooklynite Edmund J. Porray. In 1918 Tin Pan Alley music publisher Charles K. Harris, based in Union Square by then, published and promoted the frisky new tune.
• • Encouraged by the applause she received, Mae wedded herself to both the new song and dance by posing for the sheet music. Shortly after, she also added the Shimmy to her act in Hammerstein's "Sometime" [1919] while she sang the song "What Do I Have to Do to Get It."
• • Mae's shimmy was a great crowd-pleaser, noted several entertainment and nightlife critics, so she kept it in her act. In 1921, Jean Schwartz had written the music for a Schubert Brothers production — — including, apparently, a shimmy that was scripted specifically for a Mae West number called "The Trial of Shimmy Mae."
• • While the 25-year-old singing comedienne was still an up-and-comer in 1918, always searching for good material and always striving for more forward momentum, there were many well-established female stars who seemed to move quite easily from success to success.
• • Vaudeville Queen Sophie & Her 5 Kings • •
• • Sophie Tucker [1884 — 1966], for instance, was a headlining vaudeville star wherever she appeared. According to the researchers at Archeophone (who did the liner notes for her last CD), while busy touring, Tucker had stopped recording during a brief period. However, when she did return to the studio in late 1918, it was with her new act, The Five Kings of Syncopation, for a new label called Aeolian-Vocalion. Two of the hottest and wildest numbers she cut with her new 5-piece band were "Please Don't Take My Harem Away" and "Everybody Shimmies Now," on which she perfects her talk-singing style with impeccable syncopated timing.
• • Sophie Tucker "Everybody Shimmies Now" [1919] — — recorded on the Aeolian-Vocalion label with The Five Kings of Syncopation — — also positioned her to pose on the sheet music, where the 35-year-old looks every inch the diva.
• • Meet the man who put singers on so many song sheets.
• • Charles Kassel Harris [1867 — 1930] • •
• • According to The Parlor Songs Association, as a publisher and promoter of music, Charles Kassel Harris was a great innovator and, as a result, was one of the most successful publishers of Tin Pan Alley over many years. His ability to judge which songs would sell was uncanny and he was particularly adept at persuading performers to introduce his songs. He is credited with being the first publisher to print photographs of singers on the sheet music, a practice that no doubt further endeared him to the performers. ... [— — information provided by The Parlor Songs Association, Inc., Richard A. Reublin and/ or Robert L. Maine.]
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Mae West: Cinematic Censorship

If an article is about cinematic censorship, can MAE WEST be far behind?
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• • Susan Daly writes: Will Hays at the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) came up with a list of 'Don'ts and Be Carefuls' for movie-makers in 1927. No excessive (over 3 seconds) and lustful kissing — — and if it happened anywhere in the vicinity of a bed, at least one of the parties had to have a foot on the ground.
• • Hollywood studios, heading into the Depression of the 1930s and desperate to attract audiences, pretty much ignored the cautions. The response of the censors was to introduce an expanded Hays Code in 1930. Sex was for married people only, and where affairs had to be mentioned, they should not be "presented attractively."
• • Sex was not "the proper subject for comedy" (no Carry On . . . movies, then). Dance moves that encouraged "movement of the breasts" were regarded as pure filth. The new, iron-cast code was formulated by a Jesuit, Fr Daniel Lord.
• • The Hollywood Reporter asked in 1931: "Does any producer pay attention to the 'Hays Code'?", knowing no one did. At this time, Jean Harlow was still getting away with asking, "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" in Hell's Angel (1930), while Maureen O'Sullivan's Jane went skinny-dipping with Tarzan in the 1932 and 1934 loincloth-and-vine films.
• • Resistance to the censorious overlords was futile, however. By 1933, the powerful Catholic League of Decency had launched a 'down with this sort of thing' crusade on the movies. In 1939, Gone With The Wind producer David O Selznick was fined $5,000 for leaving the final word intact in what is now cinema's most quotable lines: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
• • Not everyone could afford to do a Selznick but, this being an industry of wheeler-dealers, creative ways were found to circumvent the code. Mae West films were jam-packed with double entendres, the brazen blonde firing off lines like "I feel like a million tonight — — but one at a time."
• • And where would Bogie and Bacall be without word play? "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together — — and blow." (To Have and Have Not, 1944).
• • Mae West was particularly crafty. She used to write outrageous "decoy" scenes into risqué movies like I'm No Angel (1933) so that the moral guardians would focus on cutting those and let other, more subtly raunchy, material slip through. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Red hot in black & white"
• • Byline: Susan Daly
• • Published in: Irish Independent — — Independent.ie
• • Published on: 10 April 2010
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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