• • The 39-cent stamp was released (on 29 January 2006) when the Oscar-winner had been dead for 53 years. This stamp features an image of Hattie McDaniel taken in 1941 in the same dress she wore when she accepted her Academy Award in 1940.
• • Beginning this year, however, Americans will see acclaimed musicians, sports stars, writers, artists, and other nationally-known figures on U.S. postage stamps — — while they are still alive. The Postal Service is inviting the public to use social media to submit their ideas for individuals to honor.
• • In September 2011 the Postal Service announced that they would be dropping a rule that currently requires an individual to have been deceased at least five years before being honored on a stamp. Under the new guidelines, living or recently deceased individuals will be eligible for commemoration on postage stamps.
• • Mae-mavens are waiting for the day that the Brooklyn bombshell [1893 — 1980] will be featured on a postage stamp issued in the USA. The Hollywood legend has been dead for 31 years. When do we get a Mae West stamp? When? When?
• • Mail your suggestions to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, c/o Stamp Development, Room 3300, 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, DC 20260-3501.
• • Midsumma, Melbourne, Mae West • •
• • At the end of January, Marie-Therese Byrne will take the role of Mae West in "Courting Mae West," a play written by LindaAnn Loschiavo. A one-time only presentation in Australia, the play will have a concert reading during Midsumma Playing-In-The-Raw.
• • Based on true events during the Prohibition Era — — from December 1926 until December 1932 — — the play follows a pre-Hollywood Mae West, age 33, as she socializes in the drag cabaret where she had cast "The Drag" (in Act I, Scene 1), a daring production she plans to bring to Broadway. Unfortunately, she gets arrested and jailed instead (Act 1, Scene 3). Censorship, courtroom battles, bankruptcy, and other crises will dog her footsteps, forcing the Brooklyn bombshell to climb the ladder of success wrong by wrong. Finally, a Paramount Pictures star at 39 years old, Mae gets to bring her box-office blockbuster "Diamond Lil" to the silver screen on her own terms by the end of 1932.
• • WHAT: "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship & Secrets"
• • WHEN: Saturday, 28 January 2012 at 2.00pm
• • WHERE: Midsumma Playing-In-The-Raw at The Chapel [Melbourne, Australia]
• • Alan Brooks [1888 — 1936] • •
• • Actor Alan Brooks played the title role in "Pleasure Man" [1928] written by Mae West.
• • Born in New York City as Irving Hayward in the month of January — — on 25 January 1888 — — Alan Brooks was active on The Gay White Way from 1909 — 1932. During that interval, Brooks was cast opposite Lionel Barrymore in "The Piker" [1925] and helmed his own Broadway trifecta when he wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy "Merchants of Venus" [1920].
• • The life of an actor has never been an easy one whether onstage or during the drama of the witness stand.
• • "Pleasure Man" had its opening night on 1 October 1928 padlocked by the police. Alan Brooks who portrayed Rodney Terrill died at the end of September — — on 29 September 1936 — — in Saranac Lake, NY, at age 48. The actor was treated at Will Rogers Hospital for TB, the disease that contributed to his early demise.
• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Alan Brooks are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube. Or attend the performance in Australia on January 28th.
• • Photo: 1930 Mae West leaves court with her lawyer Nathan Burkan and the cast of "Pleasure Man" in lower Manhattan
• • On Sunday, 25 January 1948 • •
• • On Sunday, 25 January 1948, The New York Times's London correspondent noted: "The audience displayed little interest in the comedy melodrama of the nineties but it warmed to Miss West. ..."
• • On Sunday, 25 January 1998 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • Published in The Times on 25 January 1998 was an interesting article by Albert Murray, "High-Stepping to an Uptown Beat," that offered the highlights of a decade.
• • Albert Murray wrote: It was during the 10-year period beginning in November 1918 that New York City consolidated its status as undisputed culture capital of the United States, indeed of the Western Hemisphere. This was the postwar decade of the Roaring 20's, with its deluxe sedans and sporty roadsters and increasingly available flivvers and jitneys. The newly ratified 18th Amendment brought in Prohibition, bootleg liquor and gangster-affiliated speak-easies. ...
• • Albert Murray wrote: Police come up to see Mae West: they raid "Sex," a musical revue [sic].
• • On Friday, 25 January 2002 • •
• • The Vegas View news-sheet announced on Friday, 25 January 2002 this interesting bit of weekend entertainment: The Magical Hula Girls performance Saturday [January 26th] will include appearances by a Mae West impersonator, stuntman and actor Samoan Sid on the Tahitian drums, and dancer One, who also performs in "O" at the Bellagio. At the Starbright Theatre in Sun City, Nevada.
• • On Sunday, 25 January 2009 • •
• • An intriguing item offered at the Winter Art and Antiques Auction on Sunday 25 January 2009 was this 1989 serigraph of Mae and an impressionist: "Large Caricature Portraits of Mae West and Jim Bailey."
• • On Tuesday, 25 January 2011 in The Orlando Sentinel • •
• • The paper announced on 25 January 2011 that the controversial Mae West play "The Drag" will get a reading in Florida: John DiDonna's Empty Spaces Theatre Co. will present a staged reason of Mae West's gay-themed "The Drag" twice this weekend as part of its Dangerous Plays Series.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Men are my hobby. If I ever got married, I'd have to give it up."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on Year of the Dragon celebrities mentioned Mae West.
• • Andrea Reiher writes: The Chinese New Year on January 23 kicks off year 4710 in the Chinese calendar, which is a Year of the Dragon. The legend goes that Buddha asked the animals to meet him for a New Year's celebration and 12 showed up, so they were each assigned a year. He also said people born in those years would have some of those animal's traits.
• • Andrea Reiher writes: 4710 is a Year of the Dragon, which means people born in this year and previous Dragon years are supposed to share the positive traits of being magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, loyal.
• • Andrea Reiher writes: The negative Dragon traits include tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, brash.
• • Andrea Reiher writes: Some famous Year of the Dragon celebrities include Mae West and also Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale, Sigmund Freud, Shirley Temple, Salvador Dali, John Lennon, Raquel Welch, Bruce Lee, Keanu Reeves, Orlando Bloom, Sandra Bullock, Al Pacino, etc.
• • Source: Article: "Chinese New Year: Year of the Dragon celebs" written by Andrea Reiher for pop2it; posted on: 23 January 2012
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven (7) years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2188th 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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Mae West• • Photo: • • Mae West • • during "Pleasure Man" trial in 1930 • •• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYCMae West.
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