Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Mae West: Bio-Pic Chick

MAE WEST will be toasted this month in Brooklyn.  The occasion is the Mae West Fest at The West Cafe (379 Union Avenue) in the Greenpoint section of the borough.
• • The West Cafe announced their event like this: Art and performance extravaganza paying tribute to the playwright, novelist, producer, actor, and Brooklyn Bad Girl. Cash prizes will be awarded to performances, visual, or literary art that honor and interpret an illustrious career that stretched over eighty years.
• • When: Saturday, 19 May 2012 at 7 o'clock in the evening.
• • James Crabe [19 August 1931 — 2 May 1989] • •
• • When Mae West starred in "Sextette" [1978], the cinematography was done by James Crabe.
• • Born in Los Angeles, California on 19 August 1931, James Aubrey Crabe was the cinematographer for 56 projects beginning with "The Proper Time" [1960] and ending with a TV movie called "Baby M" [1988].
• • James Crabe died in Sherman Oaks, California of complications from AIDS in early May — — on 2 May 1989.  He was 57 years old.
• • Sidney Skolsky [2 May 1905 — 3 May 1983] • •
• • Writer Sidney Skolsky regularly interviewed Broadway personalities such as Mae West during the 1920s. Sidney Skolsky wrote an eyebrow-raising essay about her in "Times Square Tintypes" [1929].
• • Mae West stayed on good terms with Sidney Skolsky. He was an extra in her film "I'm No Angel," he wrote about her often in his column, he cheered when the Masquers honored her in April 1973, and he attended some of the seances Mae held at her Santa Monica, California beach house.
• • On Sunday, 2 May 1982 • •
• • In the United States the bio-pic "Mae West" was shown on TV on Sunday, 2 May 1982. Actress Ann Jillian was cast in the title role. To announce this, Chicago TV Week Magazine put a beautiful photo of Mae on their cover; this issue was dated for May 2nd, too.
• • On Sunday, 2 May 1982 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • Covering the Mae West bio-pic for The N.Y. Times, John J. O'Connor wrote: If nothing else, television biographies are remarkable for their sheer variety.  ... The viewer is advised at the outset that the script, written by E. Arthur Kean, is ''based on events in the life of the legendary Mae West.'' Legend, of course, doesn't necessarily have anything to do with truth. In this case, certain autobiographical facts are embellished with several of Miss West's more famous comments about life and sex (''When I'm good, I'm very good; when I'm bad, I'm better''), some of them taken out of their original performance context and delivered as passing conversation.   . . . Her detractors, however, are offered a measure of comfort in the depiction of her private love life as a mess. The wicked, presumably, will still be punished.  . . .
• • Released on 2 May 2008 • •
• • The film "Watch Viva," released on 2 May 2008, is about a bored housewife (played by actress Anna Biller) in 1972 who gets pulled into the sexual revolution.
• • There is a Japanese Mae West in the orgy scene who says, “Murray, peel me a grape!” (played by Anna Biller's Mom Sumiko).
• • On 2 May 2011 in People Magazine • •
• • Mae West appeared in People Magazine in their issue dated for 2 May 2011.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "The Brooklyn I was born in, near the end of the 19th century, was still a city of churches. ... Deer ran wild in Prospect Park ...."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• •  An article on burlesque mentioned Mae West except Meghan Keneally got it wrong.
• •  The Daily Mail's Meghan Keneally stated:    A number of films brought burlesque to a mainstream audience, with several big stars bringing their name into the mix. Sex symbol Mae West starred in a film about the industry titled "I'm No Angel."  . . .
• • Source: Article: "The beauty of burlesque: Classic LIFE photographs capture glamour of risqué art during its pre-war heyday" written by Meghan Keneally for The Daily Mail [UK]; published on 13 December 2011  
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2288th 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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Mae West.

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