MAE WEST is being commemorated in Ashland, Oregon today, 18 August 2012.
• • At the restaurant Blue, Greek on Granite (5 Granite Street), performer Gwen Overland will portray the legendary screen queen, singing 16 songs from her motion pictures in between offering mouthfuls from Mae's biography. Showtime is 6 o'clock this evening. Sounds like such fun.
• • Jeron Criswell King [18 August 1907 — 4 October 1982] • •
• • All but forgotten is the man born in the month of August as Jeron Criswell King, who became known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell. Criswell was Mae's personal psychic for awhile.
• • Born in Princeton, Indiana on Sunday, 18 August 1907, Jeron Criswell King wrote several books of (erroneous) predictions, including 1968's "Criswell Predicts: From Now to the Year 2000." In it, he offered peculiar predictions about Mae West, forecasting that she would be president — — or that Mae would fly to the moon with Liberace. Hmmmf.
• • The record "Criswell Predicts" was written — — at Mae's request — — by Bob Thompson [a native Californian who was born on 22 August 1924 in San Jose].
• • Criswell died of cardiac arrest in Burbank, California on 4 October 1982. He was 75 years old.
• • On Sunday, 18 August 1935 • •
• • In 1935 the discovery of Mae West's marriage license was still big enough news that The Gleaner carried a story on 18 August 1935 saying that Frank Wallace and Trixie LeMae were visiting her mother, Lena Carey.
• • "Yesterday, incidentally, was Miss West's birthday," revealed her former husband Frank Wallace to the news media, "and — — she was 42."
• • "The nerve of a brass monkey," was Mae West's response.
• • The Lake Whalom Playhouse in Fitchburg, Massachusetts was happy to invite a Broadway star to delight its New England audience. Mae West was featured in their Program dated for the week of 18 August 1952. Mae was starring in the play "Come On Up" (first known as "Ring Twice Tonight").
• • On Wednesday, 18 August 1954 • •
• • In her Hollywood column, syndicated on Wednesday, 18 August 1954, Louella Parsons wrote: "Mae West, who knocked them for a loop in Las Vegas, is at Malibu taking a vacation before she opens in Reno."
• • Mae West Movie Dialogue • •
• • Enjoy this frisky dialogue between Mae West as Flower Belle Lee and actor Dick Foran as Wayne Carter.
• • Wayne Carter: Yes, and I think that you could turn a man’s head very easily — — if he wasn’t careful.
• • Flower Belle Lee: Mmm, well there’s no fun in being too careful.
• • Wayne Carter: Aren’t you forgetting that you’re married?
• • Flower Belle Lee: I’m doing my best.
• • Source: "My Little Chickadee" [1940]
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "If you don't think you're wonderful, why should anyone else?"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A new DVD set and its reviewer mentioned Mae West.
• • Dave Kehr wrote: The first thing you may notice about “Universal Rarities: Films of the 1930s,” a fine new box set from TCM’s limited edition Vault Collection, is that all four features it contains were actually produced and released by Paramount Pictures. “Million Dollar Legs” (1932), “Belle of the Nineties” (1934), “Artists and Models” (1937) and “Souls at Sea” (1937) are indeed Universal rarities in the sense that (a) they are rare and (b) they figure among the 700 or so pre-1950 Paramount sound films that through a series of acquisitions and mergers, ended up under the control of Universal’s television division. ...
• • Dave Kehr explained: Mae West was Paramount’s biggest star in the early 1930s, and the objections of church and civic groups to her exuberantly risqué humor was a major reason the Production Code was fortified in 1934. Her screenplay for “Belle of the Nineties” suffered major interference at the hands of the industry censors, though even with her character forcibly watered-down (she’s a blues-belting nightclub entertainer who heads for New Orleans when St. Louis gets too hot for her), her delivery turns even the most innocuous line into an invitation to unspeakable delights. It’s West’s film all the way, although the director, Leo McCarey (“The Awful Truth”), allows his fine hand to show in a few scenes that allow West to drop her mask and utter some world-weary asides, humanizing her in a way that her other films do not. ...
• • Source: Article: "New on DVD: ‘Universal Rarities: Films of the 1930s’" written by Dave Kehr for The N.Y. Times; published on 17 August 2012
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2399th 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.
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2399th 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.
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1952 • •
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NYC Mae West.
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