Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Mae West: Brooklyn Fox

MAE WEST reunited with her hometown fans on March 18th at the Brooklyn Fox. It's interesting that an article written in 1939 mentioned Catherine the Great because that was five years before Mae would portray the man-eating Russian empress on Broadway in "Catherine Was Great." 
• • Hmmm. What was that about?  No matter. Mae was onstage with half-a-dozen chorus boys in 1939, which was more than decade before she introduced the "Mae West Revue" in Vegas. Are you feeling the deja-vu vibe yet? All right. Calm down and let's hear what Herbert Corn had to say.
• • "Mae West Heads New Show at Fox Stage, Screen" • •
• • Herbert Corn wrote: Last night  was the original, the vivacious, glamorous and curvaceous Mae West, whose hip-swinging drew a standing line to the Fox Brooklyn Theatre at 9 A.M. yesterday to wait an hour and a half for the doors to open. It was the Mae West of "come up see me sometime" days that they came here to applaud. It was the legendary Mae West, who cautions you gals that "it ain't the men in your life that count — —it's the life in your men." Catherine the Great was nowhere in sight. She wasn't even mentioned.  No one even thought of her.
• • Herbert Corn continued:  The original Mae West, with six chorus boys as her foils and Milton Watson to assist her In a romantic skit, clicked at the Fox. What she does is even older. But Flatbush Avenue, both downtown and uptown, were there to greet her. The crowds at the Brooklyn Fox reflected not only their fascination with La West but also how she says it and the way she does it, ...
• • Source: Article in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle; published on Saturday, 18 March 1939.
• • On Wednesday, 18 March 1936 • •
• • Variety reviewed "Klondike Annie," calling the motion picture "chic" and starting the critique on the front page. But the man-on-the-aisle objected to several elements therein. "Miss West is handicapped by having to wear rather dowdy dresses in about half the footage. In other portions she struts fine feathers and wears a set of furs that will make the women gasp," he commented on page 17. Variety Magazine's issue was dated for Wednesday, 18 March 1936.
• • In the March 2000 issue of The New Criterion • •
• • The New Criterion published the article "Mae Days" by Mark Steyn (Vol. 18, March 2000). Mark Steyn wrote: "But quite a lot of Mae West is going quite a long way on the New York stage these days. It’s been twenty years since her death, almost seventy since her career peaked, and, on a random sample, I find most people today have no very clear idea who she was. Yet she’s out there . . . ."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Old West-ern Custom • •
• • Mae West in "Goin' to Town" starts a third week at the New York Paramount Theatre tomorrow. This marks the fourth time a Mae West film has played three or more weeks at the Paramount. "She Done Him Wrong," Miss West's first starring picture, played three weeks. "I'm No Angel" played four weeks — — and "Belle of the 90's" three weeks.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I am just as religious as anybody. I go to church just as much and I make as many donations." 
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The  News mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae West Described as a Good Gal" • •
• • I have just come across an old publicity sheet containing many complimentary remarks by Ian Smith, a Sydney critic, about Mae West. It was published in "The Labor Daily." The following is just the start of it:
• • Ian Smith wrote: Vulgar or no? Aye, verily indeed doth that appear to be the question once more. But whether it would be nobler to let live or to let die, the question — — or should I say the controversy? — — seems to go on, for there's one thing certain in these days of vast uncertainty, and that is you simply can't keep a good gal down!
• • Ian Smith wrote: She's in our midst again. A swish of a silken skirt, one hand resting on a swaying hip, that brazen, fascinating, almost tigerish walk, a slight curl of the lip, and the languorous, soft drawl, "Come up and see me some time."
• • Ian Smith wrote: How I've come to hate the sickening monotony of that expression. But, as I said before, you simply can't keep a good gal down!  ...
• • Source: Item in Recorder (Port Pirie); published on Wednesday, 5 February 1936
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2872nd 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 1939

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