Monday, September 05, 2011

Mae West: Raquel Welch Is 71

MAE WEST worked with Raquel Welch in the oddball motion picture "Myra Breckinridge" [released in the USA on 24 June 1970].
• • 71 Birthday Candles Lit for Raquel Welch • •
• • Happy Birthday to Raquel Welch, whose silver screen aspirations were not furthered by "Myra Breckinridge" [1970]. Born on 5 September 1940, the former model is 71 years old today. When they co-starred together, Mae West was 77 years old. Yes, Raquel, give your long-fading Hollywood karma some thought, honey. Welch's fans may have been hoping that the pathetic TV series "Welcome to the Captain" would revive her lackluster career — — but this sit-com was canceled after merely five episodes in 2008. Raquel Welch was seen very briefly in "Legally Blonde" [2001]. Did anyone even notice?
• • Heavy-set comedienne Kathleen Freeman portrayed Bobby Dean Loner in the screen version of Gore Vidal's bestseller. Kathleen Freeman often chuckled about working with every "tough bitch" in the film industry. After this motion picture had been released in 1970, she often recalled the clash between the film's two leading ladies: "Mae West was not an actress; she was not a star; she was the most incredible phenomenon I ever encountered. Place that against the starlet Raquel Welch, who had an enormous ego, and boom — — there were fireworks. And I made darn sure that I wasn't caught up in the cross-fire."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this for Leticia Van Allen: "Don't forget to remind me about the policeman's balls — — I mean police show!"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Looking after Mae's interests, veteran wardrobe director Edith Head (who had dressed Mae before at Paramount Pictures) cleverly suggested that her longtime friend should add a significant costume clause to her contract.
• • In The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years written by David Shipman (1970), the author writes of the far-flung feud between Mae West and Raquel Welch which started on the set of "Myra Breckenridge": Raquel Welch had the title role, but Mae West had top billing. Apparently Miss Welch was no more pleased about this than about the clause in Miss West’s contract which gave her the exclusive right to wear black or white. Indeed there seems to have been dissension on all sides. ...
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • In an interview with actress-director Vera Farmiga, Mae West's name was mentioned.
• • Beantown film columnist Wesley Morris writes: When the subject turns to masculinity in the American movies and how there’s a lot less of it now than there used to be, Farmiga cites the 1930s as a good time for the males of the species. “Those were men, not boys. Men. They had gravitas,’’ curling each syllable of that last word with Mae West-caliber lasciviousness. ...
• • Source: Article: "Vera Farmiga reaches for ‘Higher Ground’ in directing debut" written by Wesley Morris, Boston Globe Staff; posted on 4 September 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2044th 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 • • 1970 • •
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