Thursday, July 07, 2011

Mae West: "Angel" in Norfolk

MAE WEST sat down once with Mal Vincent. Now Mal has promised his fan base that "Mae West will invite audiences to come up and see her. (At last, I am brave enough to host this one, and, yes, we did meet and have dinner.)" So be sure to join the popular Virginian-Pilot film critic on 1 August 2011 when he screens "I'm No Angel" at his annual Classic Movie Festival, which opens next Monday evening with Bogart and Hepburn in "The African Queen."
• • Speaking about Mae's circus picture, in which she stars as koochie cutie Tira the Incomparable, Mal Vincent says: Mae West stars with Cary Grant in the film that illustrates why, and how, she was Mae West. Sexual attitudes in America can be designated Before Mae and After Mae. She is the only star who is also in the dictionary, thanks to the Navy’s life vest named for her. Beyond the movie: the story of how Miss West hosted an intimate dinner party I attended.
• • What: The Annual Classic Movie Festival
• • Who: Hosted by Virginian-Pilot film critic Mal Vincent
• • Where: Naro Expanded Cinema, 1507 Colley Ave., Norfolk, VA
• • When: Monday evenings; phone for details: (757) 625-6276
• • Tell them you read about it on the Mae West Blog.
• • Variety, 7 July 1916 • •
• • The resident scold sat stone-faced through "Mae West and Sister" at Proctor's Theatre near Madison Square Park. Later on, Sime Silverman pulled up his tight garters as he sniffed and snorted behind his keyboard like an overheated carriage horse. "Unless Miss West can tone down her stage presence in every way," he sneered, "she just might as well hop right out of vaudeville and into burlesque." And if the unabashed Brooklynite was going to continue to be so disarmingly aggressive, Sime scolded Mae by suggesting that she should get up onstage next time in "men's dress altogether."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this line for her character Tira [said to Slick Wiley]: "What'd you do? Get your hair cut — — or have your ears moved down?"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • From a book review of A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Ron Hansen [NY: Scribner, 2011], one North Carolina critic feels that murderess Ruth Snyder likes to talk like Mae West.
• • Gary Carden writes: From their first encounter, this “jazz couple” seem to be hopelessly drawn to each other; their wild roller coaster affair is an exhilarating rush to destruction. Yet, they are a product of their time. Ruth Snyder quips like Mae West, an actress she admires: “Better to be looked over than overlooked,” she says when sees admiring males looking her over. She sings Irving Berlin songs, peroxides her hair a vivid blonde and knows all the current dances. She is, after all, “a real jazz baby.” Her lover Judd Gray quotes the classics, attends the theater, affectionately refers to Ruth as “Momsie,” and ....
• • Source: Review article: "Murder, sex and celebrities — 1920 style" written by Gary Carden for Smoky Mountain News; posted on 6 July 2011
• • 17 July 2004 17 July 2011 • •
• • In mid-July the Mae West Blog will celebrate its seventh anniversary. Thank you to all those Mae-mavens who come up and see Mae every day.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1984th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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