Mae West: Dirtiest Scenes

It was Ed Sullivan, commenting on MAE WEST as the Russian empress, who recognized an unacknowledged truth — — that only Mae could make a play like this go. Indeed the show did big box office even though each ticket was $4.80, the going rate during 1944 for a top-tier musical (which "Catherine Was Great" was not).

• • Variety held this opinion: "The play lacks fun."

• • George Jean Nathan wrote: The scene in Mae West's "Catherine Was Great" involving Mae and one of the actors in a bed was one of the dirtiest scenes shown on the New York stage in years, yet the mayor did nothing about it. ...

• • Source: "The Theatre Book of the Year — 1944" by George Jean Nathan [NY: Alfred Knopf, 1945].

• • Colette [28 January 1873 — 3 August 1954] • •

• • This early August date — — 3 August 1954 — — is when Colette died. The French author wrote a notable essay in 1934, assessing the impact of Mae West onscreen. Seventy-six years ago, Colette observed: "She alone, out of an enormous and dull catalogue of heroines, does not get married at the end of the film, does not die, does not take the road to exile, does not gaze sadly at her declining youth in a silver-framed mirror …. She alone has no parents, no children, no husband. This impudent woman is, in her style, as solitary as Chaplin used to be. ..."

• • On Thursday, 3 August 1944 • •

• • "Catherine Was Great" opened on Wednesday, 2 August 1944. Reviews appeared soon after. 

• • The Herald Tribune reported on Thursday, 3 August 1944: "Mae West came to Broadway last night, decked out like a battleship in a swimming pool ....

• • On Friday, 3 August 2012 • •

• • On Friday, 3 August 2012, come up and see Mae starring in "I'm No Angel" [1933] in Brooklyn. There will be a screening at sundown in the tranquil setting of the Narrows Botanical Gardens in the Bay Ridge area.  

• • WHERE: Shore Road between Bay Ridge Avenue and 72nd Street.

• • Save the Date: Thursday, August 16th • •

• • Thursday, 16 August 2012 will be the next Mae West Tribute in Manhattan and the evening affair will start at 6:30 pm at 155 Mulberry Street.  This year Mae-mavens will enjoy an indoor event (ahhh, air conditioning), music written by Mae West's Italian husband will be played, and attendees will be seated.
• • At the Reception, Italian wine and light refreshments will be served. The ever-popular Mae West Raffle will offer rare prizes once again to a number of lucky attendees. The public is invited.
• • Mae West was born in Brooklyn, NY on Thursday, 17 August 1893.

• • Closest MTA subway stations: Grand St. or Canal St.

• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Don't ever make the same mistake twice — — unless it pays."
• • About Jayne Mansfield, Mae West said: "When it comes to men, I heard she never turns anything down except the bedcovers."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about VIPs at a boxing match mentioned Mae West.
• • Louella Parsons wrote:  Snapshots of Hollywood collected at random: . . . Mae West, dripping with orchids, in a ringside seat with her boy friend, Jim Timony;  B. P. Schulberg and Sylvia Sidney on the other side of the ring; Roger Pryor and Ann Sothern, Adela Rogers and the new boy friend, Enzo Fiermonte, Raoul Walsh, Adolph Zukor and dozens of other film celebrities, watching these bouts;  ...
• • Source: Gossip Column written by  Louella Parsons for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; published on 25 August 1934

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2383rd 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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