Mae West: Marie Wells

MAE WEST starred in "Klondike Annie" [1936] and did several new numbers including "Mister Deep Blue Sea," which her character sings to Victor McLaglen. 
• • Fans will recall that several dance hall girls were used in the background of a certain scene. Marie Wells was one. After 1934, her once auspicious rise in the cinema had flat-lined. The former star of stage and screen was struggling and contemplating suicide. Give Marie your attention.
• • Marie Wells [20 February 1894 — 3 July 1949] • •
• • Born in Cleveland, Mississippi on Tuesday, 20 February 1894 was a pretty baby called Marie Edith Wells. She pursued her passion for the dramatic arts and worked hard during her voice and dance lessons. 
• • The arc of a promising screen career began in 1915 when she was 21. Marie E. Wells, who handled numerous featured roles as the ingenue in silent movies, would smoothly transition to talkies and maintain her Tinseltown credibility until the mid-1930s.
• • In between film projects, she was lucky and talented enough to land a principal role in a revival of "Florodora," produced at the Century Theatre on Broadway from 5 April 1920 — 14 August 1920. Marie Wells was 26 when she was cast as Marquita. Mae West also performed in this lavish auditorium once located on Central Park West at West 62nd.
• • A year later, Marie was seen as Olga in a revival of "The Merry Widow." This popular operetta, with a modernized production, was staged at the Knickerbocker Theatre from 5 September 1921 — 22 October 1921. After closing on Broadway, this blockbuster hit began a well-received regional tour and Marie Wells stayed with the cast. The show got terrific reviews when it was seen in Atlantic City at the Globe, at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, etc. One critic described the updated version as "a rebirth rather than a revival."

• • From 1915 — 1939, Marie Wells participated in 34 motion pictures.
• • What happened in 1935 that caused the fall from grace? Just one year before, Marie had a supporting role (as Mabel) in "Elmer and Elsie" [1934]; on the set she got to meet Nella Walker, who would also be cast in "Klondike Annie." Other cast mates who had the privilege to work with Mae West included Roscoe Karns (Leo in "Night After Night"), Albert Conti (Head Steward in "Goin' to Town"), and Duke York (a spectator in "I'm No Angel").
• • But by the time she was hired for one of her last onscreen credits, the Oliver Hardy comedy "Zenobia" [1939], Marie Wells was shoehorned into an unimpressive uncredited bit as a party guest. ("Zenobia" brought together a number of Mae West film alums — — Hattie McDaniel, Alice Brady, Ralph Brooks, Nigel De Brulier, Laura Treadwell, Cyril Ring, et al.)
• • Faced with bleak career prospects, a ritual of unfulfillment, and bad health, the troubled actress pondered her future in a drab rooming house. Morose and unwilling to go on, Marie Wells took her life with a drug cocktail, ending it in Hollywood, California on 3 July 1949. She was 55. Very sad.
• • Local headlines read "Marie Wells, Former Movie Star, Suicide."
• • LOS ANGELES, July 4, 1949 — Police today blamed poor health for the suicide of Marie Wells, 55, stage and film star of decades ago. The former actress was found in her cheap rented room by her landlord’s son. She had taken an overdose of sleeping pills. 
• • A note addressed to her sister, Mrs. Eloise McDaniel of Glenburn, Calif., read:  "Forgive me, please, but my health is bad. I can’t go on.”
• • February 1934 in the Hollywood Reporter • •
• • The Hollywood Reporter ran an article: "Mae West Captures Paris Fans."
• • They wrote: Mae West has taken Paris like the revolutionists took the Bastille. "I'm No Angel" is packing them in at Gaumont-Elysee, with long lines being turned away daily.
• • The Hollywood Reporter also ran this article in February 1934: "Mae West Not So Hot In Icy Stockholm."
• • A Stockholm reviewer wrote: The Swedes can't get the slant of America and England on Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong." Censorship board had to view picture twice before making up its mind. Now, while picture is doing well, critics and patrons don't care so much either for the subject matter of the film, or for the wiggles of Mae.
• • The Hollywood Reporter ran this interesting item, too: "Prinz Quits Paramount With Indie Pic Plans." Mae West was going to be a puppet. The article explained: Leroy Prinz, who has been at Paramount for the past year directing musical numbers, has handed in his resignation and plans to go into independent production. Prinz plans on making a series of shorts with puppets. The puppets are to be patterned after screen characters. He has already finished the first short, with the Mae West character featured.
• • On Friday, 28 February 2003 • •
• • In London, England Dr. James Pitt-Payne (in association with Doug Grierson) did a sequence and karaoke of "Good Night Nurse" by Mae West from 1912. Music by W. Raymond Walker; lyrics by Thomas J. Gray; copyright MCMXII by Jerome H. Remick and Co., N.Y. and Boston. You can download the midi of "Good Night Nurse" from his web site. The men completed this project on Friday, 28 February 2003 at 00.21.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I'll never do the smart thing because it is smart. For instance, I won't go to the opera. It's all right for people who honestly love it, but a certain percentage goes just to be seen. Personally, I'd rather watch prize-fights, and I do."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Motion Picture Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae Loyal to Paramount"
• • Hollywood, October 2 — Mae West declares she intends to confine her picture activities to Paramount, despite the fact that her contract permits her to work for other companies between films. ...
• • Source: Motion Picture Daily; published on Tuesday, 3 October 1933 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2591st 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 • • 1936 • •
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Mae West: 3 Showings

MAE WEST is waiting for you today at 209 West Houston Street. Don't be late.
• • As part of their salute to 1933, New York City's premiere movie house Film Forum is presenting a gold rush that is one month long — — mining the best motion pictures from 1933. This four-week festival runs through the first week of March, ending on Thursday, 7 March 2013.
• • 3 Showtimes on February 27 • •
• • Mae West will be on hand for two separate double features — — and the first date will be on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 when fans can enjoy a two-fer: "She Done Him Wrong" and "Broadway Through a Keyhole" (based on Walter Winchell's columns and starring Constance Cummings, who was seen with Mae West in "Night After Night," Texas Guinan, and tragic Russ Columbo, slain months later). Three showtimes are scheduled.
• • Another 1933 favorite on the schedule is "I'm No Angel" on Friday, 1 March 2013.
• • Come up to see Mae on West Houston Street.
• • Happy Birthday, Mark! • •
• • Happy Birthday to Mae-maven and Canadian researcher R. Mark Desjardins. He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on Tuesday, 27 February 1951. Readers have noticed the fascinating excerpts we have posted from time to time, with his kind permission, from his manuscript "In Search of Mae West," a carefully detailed magnum opus that will be released as soon as it's completed.
• • Mark covered the last Mae West Birthday Bash held at the home of Ramfis Diaz in Los Angeles on 17 August 2010. Enjoy your special day, Mark!
• • On Saturday, 27 February 1932 • •
• • The headline on Saturday, 27 February 1932: "Puppets to Act in Shows Today."
• • The Cornell Daily Sun announced the Mae West marionette show on the front page: Tatterman Marionettes will present plays in Willard Straight Theater. "Stringing Broadway" is adult entertainment. The puppets . . . poke good-humored fun at the contemporary world of politics, the theatre, and letters. A burlesque grand opera . . . A.A. Milne, Mae West, and Eugene O'Neill are on the program. . . .
• • "Stringing Broadway," with its chorus of "Glorified Girls," takes the professional revue for a ride, noted the Cornell Daily Sun.
• • Source: Cornell Daily Sun, page 1 story, Volume 52, Issue 106, published on Saturday, 27 February 1932.
• • On Thursday, 27 February 1936 • •
• • Joseph Breen wrote to Will Hays about Mae West and "KIondike Annie." His letter is dated for Thursday, 27 February 1936.
• • Newspapers were aware of the bickering and the chaos. The Los Angeles Herald printed a news story on page 4 about the censorship issues on Thursday, 27 February 1936. It was never easy being Mae West.
• • On Sunday, 27 February 1938 • •
• • From Perth Australia, the newspapers echoed the after-shocks of "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" in December 1937: Mae West's un-Scriptural portrayal of Eve in a national broadcast has aroused the wrath of hundreds of American women and infuriated the clergy. They are shocked because, instead of the serpent tempting Eve, as the Book of Genesis records, Mae West tempted the serpent. The company that broadcast Mae as Eve has been besieged by angry resolutions from women's clubs.
• • "Applesauce! Horrible Blasphemy!" says Rev. Walsh • •
• • Rev. Maurice Walsh, of Battle Creek, Michigan, described Mae's Eve as "a travesty of Holy Scriptures." Walsh strongly objects to her referring to Eden's "Forbidden Fruit" as applesauce, the tempting item which women had fed men through the ages. ...
• • America's big Catholic League of Decency is also planning to reprimand her. . . .
• • Source: From Our Own Correspondent by Air in New York, Sunday Times (Perth, Australia) published on Sunday, 27 February 1938.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Prize fights are my chief form of relaxation. Watching boys in action takes my mind off studio and business problems. Furthermore, my father was a good boxer. Guess it's in the blood."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Motion Picture Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • "Out on Sunday" • •
• • Kansas City, Sept. 13,  1934 — As a concession to something or other, the Kansas City Journal-Post, running a serialized feature by Mae West titled "Me and My Past," omitted the story on Sunday and carried the installment on Monday instead.  An editor's note said the arrangement was requested by La West. ...
• • Source: Motion Picture Daily; published in mid-September 1934
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2590th 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: Blue Washington

MAE WEST starred in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934] and a tall handsome black actor made his mark as the doorman at Sensation House.
• • Blue Washington [12 February 1898 — 15 September 1970] • •
• • Born in Los Angeles, California in February — — on Saturday, 12 February 1898 — — Edgar Washington Blue began his onscreen odyssey during the silent film era playing a train porter in a shortie "Rowdy Ann" [1919] when he was 21 years old.

• • In 1921 he had a role in a silent drama "A Virginia Courtship" along with George Reed, who would be cast as Brother Eben in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934]; it's possible George Reed helped his colleague gain access to an audition for this Mae West classic.
• • From 1919 — 1961, Blue Washington participated in 86 motion pictures. Directors expected him to play the stereotypical role of an easily intimidated wide-eyed, menial type, which was rather more startling since he stood six-foot-two. He was used when a scene needed a black servant, coachman, cook, henchman, porter, prisoner, doorman, spectator, "Native Bearer," Nubian slave, chicken thief, or "Shantytown Man."  
• • He played a limping poolroom attendant at Ames Billiards in "The Hustler" [1961], his final film. Interestingly, Piper Laurie was in the cast and she would go on to play Mae's Mom, Matilda West, in the TV bio-pic "Mae West" [1982].
• • In between his occasional acting assignments, Edgar Washington Blue was employed as an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department.
• • The native Angeleno died there on 15 September 1970. He was 72.
• • On Wednesday, 26 February 1936 • •
• • Hollywood Citizen News ran this article on Wednesday, 26 February 1936: "Mae West Mum in Lubitsch, Timony Debate."
• • On Saturday, 26 February 1938 • •
• • A leisurely article (317 words) published Down Under on Saturday, 26 February 1938 discussed in great detail all the ways Mae West, the real woman, was nothing like the fast-living fictional females she played.
• • The Mirror (in Perth, Australia) wrote: Mae West's characterisation of a motion picture star in "Go West Young Man," the hilarious comedy, which will be screening at the Grand Theatre, Friday next, March 4, strangely enough, is entirely unlike her own life as an outstanding film luminary.
• • The Mirror gave several examples. Here's one: "Go West Young Man" portrays a film star's touring paraphernalia as extremely elaborate, but the real Mae West journeyed to Corona, California for her first ''location" scenes of the picture, in simple fashion. Accompanied only by her driver and personal maid, Miss West's arrival was inconspicuous, and her departure the same — — a decided contrast to the film role (Mavis Arden) she portrays.  ...
• • Source: Article: "'Go West Young Man' — Mae West Stars in Coming Paramount Attraction" printed on page 24 in The Mirror (Perth, Australia); published on Saturday, 26 February 1938.
• • Finale on Saturday, 26 February 1949 • •
• • A revival of "Diamond Lil" opened at the Coronet Theatre in February [5 February 1949 — 26 February 1949] on Broadway.
• • Background: On Saturday, 26 February 1949, Mae West broke her ankle when she slipped on a rug in her hotel suite, ending that engagement at the Coronet Theatre [230 West 49th Street, a Broadway playhouse later renamed for Eugene O'Neill].  The revival of "Diamond Lil" had begun on 5 February 1949. Naturally, the cancellation of a show in any legitimate theatre — — where each actor has a union contract — — is an enormous expense, not to mention the box-office losses.
• • When Mae filed a lawsuit, newspapers posted headlines: "Mae West Tosses Curve at Chatham Hotel in New York" and "Mae West Fell In Hotel, Claims Dollars." Yee-owtch!
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Honey, I've always got a new trick."
• • Mae West said: "I'll never be anything but myself, publicly or privately, except on stage or screen.  That's where acting belongs."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about the Oscar ceremonies mentioned Mae West
• • TheJournal.ie wrote: As Hollywood gears up for this year’s Oscars, we’ve been taking a look at some of the more memorable Academy Awards show through the years, from a racy rendition of "Baby, It’s Cold Outside" in the late 1950s to Marlon Brando’s award refusal in 1973. …
• • TheJournal.ie wrote: Rock Hudson and Mae West caused a stir with their ‘kingsize’ rendition of Baby It’s Cold Outside at the 1957 awards show. ...
• • Source: News: "Five of the biggest Oscar night controversies" written by TheJournal.ie;  published on Sunday, 26 February 2012
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2589th 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 • • 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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