Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Mae West: Fun on New Year's

MAE WEST is ready to party hearty. Are you? Smile and enjoy it all.
• • On Monday, 31 December 1923 • •
• • According to Jon Tuska: For the week of 31 December 1923, a chorus girl named "Mae West" appeared in the burlesque show "'Round the Town" for Mutual.
• • On Saturday, 31 December 1927 at Club Deauville • •
• • Mae West spent New Year's Eve on Saturday night, 31 December 1927, entertaining a crowd.
• • The nonfiction book "The Year the World Went Mad" is exclusively focused on the most vibrant events and the most fascinating individuals of 1927. Author Allen Churchill wrote: "Another New York night club listed a gala unveiling for New Year's Eve. This was Mae West's Club Deauville, at Park Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. Here a New Year's Eve Supper was advertised for a cover charge of ten dollars. Together with this went "A Program of Distinctive and Unique Entertainment Conceived and Directed by the Distinguished Star in Person." ... How we wish we knew more.
• • On Tuesday, 31 December 2013 • •
• • Wishing all of our readers a very happy and safe and wonderful New Year's Eve.
• • Around the World with Mae West • •
• • Did you know you could find Mae West in Alaska? There is a location popular with fishermen called Mae West Lake in Valdez-Cordova.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Her take-off on Eva Tanguay, the unrestrained, hippy favorite of soldiers, sailors, college boys and tired business men of that day, invariably won her the greatest applause. It practically gave Mae West her start in show business.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Gee, I loved the boys. Went around with lots of them and played with them. There was a gang of us — of course, we would have fights."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about "The Real Mae West" offered some interesting details.
• • Good or bad?  Is Mae West a destructive influence on minds of today's movie-goers? Read the first part of the life story of the real Mae West starting in this issue of New Movie Magazine.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West never forgets a friend nor a kindness, and seems to have an inexhaustible memory for the faces of those who have crossed her pathway in her long journey from Brooklyn to Broadway.  ...
• • Source: "The Real Mae West" written by Aileen St. John Brenon for The New Movie Magazine; published in June 1934   
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2821st 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 1937

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Monday, December 30, 2013

Mae West: Indelible That Persona

Never a dull moment with MAE WEST.
• • In December 2006, The Los Angeles Times critic Martin Rubin wrote: The trouble with writing a biography of someone like Mae West is that her image is not only larger than life, it's also big enough to dwarf the portrait you are trying to create. For most of her life, unto the very brink of the grave, Mae was engaged in imprinting that image of the sexiest of sexy women. Every action, every word, every gesture, off screen and on, seemed to be devoted to making indelible that persona. ...• • Photo: Posing for one of Paramount's photographers.
• • On Monday, 30 December 1912 • •
• • On Monday, 30 December 1912 the singing comedienne was giving a double performance at 7:30 PM and at 11:00 PM at B.F. Keith's Union Square Theatre on Fourteenth Street in New York, NY. Featured on the bill, along with the 19-year-old hopeful, was a great deal of variety. Britain's Laddie Cliff offered new songs and eccentric dances; Phina and company entertained; Alfredo (wandering wizard of the violin) played; Asaki presented his juggling act, so popular in Japan; and gymnasts Lydia and Albino did . . . something.
• • On Saturday, 30 December 1933 • •
• • Picturegoer, a British publication sold in movie houses, ran a three part series: "Making Love to Mae West." The first installment ran on 10 December 1933, it continued on Saturday, 30 December 1993, and the final portion appeared on 6 January 1934.
• • Cary Grant's byline appeared. The actor either wrote it or (perhaps) merely signed it.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The report that Miss Katharine Hepburn was a debutante in New York's exclusive "Four Hundred" appears equally libelous. This also seems to have been the unhappy Mae West, who on being given the bum's rush to Blackwell's Island following her debut in "Sex," became, ipso facto, a member of the East River — Sutton Place set with whom she exchanged the morning "yoo-hoos!" across stream. 
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Probably the sort of thing that I present on the screen is just what the folks need these days."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Jewish Week mentioned Mae West.
• • In an interview, Barbara Kahn told The Jewish Week that her initial focus in writing the play “Island Girls,” co-written with Noelle Lusane, was on Eve Adams and actress Mae West, who was imprisoned along with her, albeit for a much briefer period of time — — eight days as opposed to 18 months. But because Mae West’s life and career are so much better known, Kahn decided to keep the spotlight on Adams.  ...
• • Source: Article in The Jewish Week; published on Tuesday, 24 December 2013
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2820th 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 1935

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Friday, December 27, 2013

Mae West: Flavor Identified

Fans of MAE WEST in Big Spring, Texas were reading about her on December 27th when her new motion picture was released.
• • "Mae West Chooses Modem-Day, Rural Setting for Newest Film at the Ritz" • •
• • In "Go West Young Man" offered on Sunday and Monday Mae West forsakes the barroom and boudoir settings and the Gay Nineties atmosphere to go rural and modern in her latest film offering. The picture, "Go West Young Man," is the feature of the Sunday — Monday program at the Ritz Theatre.  ...
• • For the first time since her screen debut, Miss West sings a fetching romantic ballad in the picture. The song is titled ''I Was Saying to the Moon," and she sings it to Randolph Scott. She also sings two other songs in typical Mae West tempo, with words and music carrying the flavor identified with the wise-cracking gal. They are "A Typical, Tropical Night" and "Go West Young Man." ...
• • Source: Review for Big Spring Daily Herald; published on Sunday, 27 December 1936.
• • On Monday, 27 December 1937 • •
• • "Every Day's a Holiday" starring Mae West was reviewed (on page 8) for Film Daily on Monday, 27 December 1937.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • At that time there were no sex symbols, said Marlene Dietrich [born on 27 December 1901]. In my opinion this notion first came into being with Marilyn Monroe. Sex was then taboo.
• • "We must do all that only and exclusively with the eyes," Mae West explained to me one day. And we all stuck to this. There was no scene in which we undressed or appeared semi-nude, nothing improper. I must confess I prefer that method to what you see on the screen nowadays. I don't like it, and I'm sure the public shares my dislike.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "We haven't had any perfectly Natural Figures since the war took beer away."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A column by George Jean Nathan mentioned Mae West.
• • "Locally unmolested legitimate theatre plays ..." • •
• • In his December column, George Jean Nathan continued to discuss the censors and the stage: That there was occasional dirt in burlesque, no one is going to deny. But there certainly was no more and generally infinitely less than in any dozen such locally unmolested legitimate theatre plays and shows as "Catherine Was Great," "School For Brides", .... [dated on 25 December 1946].
• • Source: The Theatre Book of the Year 1946 — 1947 by George Jean Nathan. 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2819th 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 1939

• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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