Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Mae West: Christian Vienna Curb

MAE WEST was censored in foreign countries as well as in the USA. Here's a sad news item from March 13th datelined Vienna.  
• • To think that a European country who had embraced Hitler would frown on Mae West for her "baser instincts." Unreal. 
• • "Mae West Role Is Banished in Vienna" • •
• • VIENNA, March 12 — — Associated Press — — Mae West's blonde portrayal of "Lady Lou" in the film "She Done Him Wrong" has been banished from the screen in "Christian Vienna."
• • The ban followed upon newspaper attacks on what was called "nothing but uncouth and clumsy eroticism, appealing to the basest instincts." 
• • One Austrian newspaper editorial boasted this: in that connection the city might now call itself Christian with the crushing of the socialists.  . . .
• • Source: The San Bernardino Sun on page 10; published on Tuesday, 13 March 1934.
• • R.I.P. Beloved Sister • •
• • Mildred Katherine West [8 December 1898 — 12 March 1982] • •
• • In the month of March, we honor Mae's younger sister Beverly.
• • In March 1924, Variety noted a new act listed on Manhattan's stagebill: "Beverly West and Co., Piano and Singing." While not mentioning that she was Mae West's sister, Variety's reviewer admitted that "she puts over her numbers acceptably." Proctor's East 58th Street location had engaged Beverly and her musicians in 1924. Back in 1895, F.F. Proctor had built his playhouse, Proctor's Pleasure Palace Palm Gardens, on 154 East 58th Street, New York, NY in midtown on the eastside [now zipcode 10022]. During the same interval (mid-March in 1924), Mae West was trouping in vaudeville in Texas.
• • Born in Brooklyn on 8 December 1898, Beverly changed her stage name a few times. She was Beverly Osborne, then it was Beverly Arden. Afflicted with polio and a limp, Beverly favored long dresses that covered her imperfect legs. Beverly died two years after her older sister on Friday, 12 March 1982. She was 83.
• • On Thursday, 12 March 1936 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • The reviewer for The N.Y. Times Frank S. Nugent was aware of the uproar from the Hays Office that delayed Mae's latest motion picture. Nugent wrote: Mae West's "Klondike Annie" really does not merit the agitation it has caused. His comments appeared in The N.Y. Times on Thursday, 12 March 1936.
 
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Herb Howe wrote: No nutty nationalist, I find no fault with the nominations except they did not include that sturdiest, acting-est American, Mae West, who, incidentally, seems to be the choice of foreigners in the land of Bernhardt, the land of Duse, and even in the land of West, if box-office votes are any criteria.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Nearly all my work is based on true facts."
• • Mae West said: “Love thy neighbor. And if he happens to be tall, debonair, and good looking, it will be that much easier.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The San Bernardino Daily Sun mentioned Mae West and this quite charming anecdote.
• • New York, March 10th — — Jacob I. Lieberman, who at the age of 89 regained his sight after 22 years of blindness, is recuperating from his first visit to the movies. Lieberman, an inmate of the Jewish blind home at Yonkers, was taken to see a Greta Garbo picture on Broadway.
• • "Lemme see this Mae West first. Then I tell you!" • •
• • Lieberman sat down in the theater, took one look at the huge figures on the screen, fumbled for his hat and cane and exclaimed: "I'm going out! People are climbing on the walls." Asked for his opinion of Greta Garbo, he said: "I want to see this Mae West first. Then I tell you." ...
• • Source:  The San Bernardino Daily Sun; published on Sunday, 11 March 1934
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2868th 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 in 1933 with Owen Moore as Chick Clark

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

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:41 PM

    Hello ugly Neal or is it Neil, great mug shot of you lol, still waiting for Bette Midler to call? Miss the days you and "psychic" cold reader Ugly George used to menace the LI bars? Tell me Twoshoes, aren't you ashamed of yourself by now associating with someone who distorts peoples' memories of their dead loved ones, makes them think he's making contact with them? I guess you must now personify the sad, tired, hideous old queen, don't you? You were always ugly, personality and looks combined, but now you're old and ugly. Your pathetic sarcasm, attitude and condescending BULLSHIT are well suited to a sad zero and a nobody like you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. • • Dear Jeffrey Shields:
    • • You are much mistaken. This blog is not written by NEAL SIMS, a resident of Jackson Heights, Queens, and an individual whose acquaintance I made briefly during a past NYC Fringe Festival.
    • • Nevertheless, you have made it your quest to stalk NEAL SIMS via my blog since 2008. Each time you have written to me, denigrating his theatrical ambitions, mocking his long-ago lover Michael and other men, trashing his behavior at dance clubs on Long Island (ancient gay nightspots that were torn down 20 years ago), I have been astonished at the torch you carry.
    • • Sometimes (but not always) I have forwarded your peculiar messages to NEAL SIMS. Here is one response from him:
    — — — — — — —
    • • NEAL SIMS (LastMidnite2) wrote: Honestly the name sounds only vaguely familiar, but I can't place it. I really don't know what this guy's problem is! Sorry I couldn't come to the Mae West performance on Friday night, but it was ______ 's birthday and a bunch of us took her out. Hope all went well at the theatre.
    • • Getting back to this Jeffrey Shields guy; I am going to ask some people I still know from back then if they remember him, but I doubt they will. It's so strange! If he's still commenting on your blog, let him know that you are not me! Take care ------- Neal
    — — — — — — —
    • • Since you are still obsessed with the man, and you have been trying passionately to connect with him since 2008, please write directly to NEAL SIMS (@ lastmidnite2 AT gmail DOT com) instead of to me. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete