Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Mae West: Nudity, Crudity

The headline read "MAE WEST Approves Decency Campaign" and this news came from Canada. Let's look it over together.
• • Vancouver, April 11 — "I am opposed to nudity, crudity and vulgarity in all forms. I provide healthy entertainment to the movies because I have never taken sex seriously. I 'kidded' it," said Mae West, the noted film star, in an interview to-day.
• • "It is quite a good thing, and it had to come," Miss West declared.
• • Speaking of the sex film clean-up, Mae explained that everybody was trying to outdo everyone else at being dirty. New books, the stage, magazines, and movies were all in the race to see how far they could go.
• • "My pictures do not shock me, but I have been genuinely shocked by stories and some scenes that I have seen in the pictures," she said. "lt is hard to see why people who will wear next to nothing on public beaches object to nudity on the screen."
• • Source: Article: "Mae West Approves Decency Campaign" printed on page 1 of the Barrier Miner (Australia); published on Friday, 12 April 1935.
• • On Saturday, 17 April 1937 • •
• • "Mae West Disappears — Star in Retreat" • •
• • From London, the snippy, snooty British gossip columnist Greville Bain wrote: It cannot have escaped the notice of the film public that it is a long while since we had any news or even rumors of Mae West.
• • Greville Bain stated his own opinion on this: Even her greatest admirers had to admit that Miss West's more recent pictures were not calculated to enhance her reputation. Not so long ago she was said to vie with Shirley Temple as the greatest film attraction in the United States.
• • In accordance with his misogynistic and curdled view, Greville Bain burbled: It is doubtful if, in Europe. Miss West was ever accepted as a first-class star. She rushed into a sensational vogue in "I'm No Angel," and repeated her characteristic performance several times. Trouble beset her when she attempted to add sentiment to her repertory. It was hard to accept her very mature features as a magnet for comparatively young men.  While she was "tough" she was, in her way, a success. But when she began to intimate a soft heart within a tough exterior, admiration gave way to derision.
• • Greville Bain added: It may be for this reason that Mae West is in retreat and no announcements are made about her forthcoming pictures.
• • Source: Article: "Mae West Disappears" by Greville Bain in The Advertiser (Adelaide); published on Saturday, 17 April 1937.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Although your conscience depends on what is found out, there is no husband on my conscience."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An amusing article mentioned Mae West.
• • "No Mae West For You!!" • •
• • Mercurious wrote: So concerned were banks about the welfare of their employees outside of the office hours that one bank had a regulation designed to stop junior officers from going to Mae West pictures. Mr. A. G. Ogilvie, K.C. (for the Bank Officials' Association) said this during the hearing of the Association's case in the Arbitration Court in Melbourne. ...
• • Source: "Passing Notes" column in The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania); published on Saturday, 9 April 1938
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2629th 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 1933

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