MAE WEST made the news on May 30th, adding an element of anticipation to the holiday weekend. Filled with hyperbole and hokum, this article shows how Mae was embroidering her legend early on in her career.
• • News of Mae's sensational shimmy dance spread like wildfire and the stage offers poured in, more of them, and one from Ned Wayburn, her former teacher. She was featured in his "Demi-Tasse Revue" and later in his "The Mimic World."
• • Mamma Mathilda was not able to gratify all her wishes, but her tastes in dress were so simple and the effect so charming, that Mae follows her lead, never appearing on the street in loud colors. "Mae for smart conservatives" is the way she verbalizes her amusing statement on fashion.
• • "Mae attends daily Mass, an inheritance from her devout mother" • •
• • The fact that Mae West, when studio hours do not conflict, attends early Mass daily is another inheritance from her devout mother. Why even Mae West's colored maid says that her missus never does nothing like nobody else. Even in the old days Flo Ziegfeld must have thought the same for he offered her five hundred dollars a week and her costumes! "More in 'em than of 'em!" Mae says. . . . So there she was in the vast New Amsterdam Theatre glorifying the American Girl in the "Follies" [sic] with Mamma Mathilda in a twitter of excitement and insisting on being wardrobe lady!
• • Money for vacation was plentiful but Mae (as she does to this day) refused to consider flying, horse-back riding, or going down to the sea in ships and things.
• • According to Mae, Ed Wynn — — of "The Perfect Fool" fame — — was feeling the need of a stage-mate of like inclinations. He nabbed Mae for his "Sometime" and the box office proved beyond question that neither Wynn nor West were such perfect fools after all. Mae was by this time an all-around comedienne. She could do male impersonations in a topper, spats, and cane. She could do a breakdown, sing, shimmy, and capture the crowd with her clowning. . . . She was writing a play on the side which was to get her Into trouble with the authorities and put her temporarily out of circulation. Mae didn't mind in the least. It was all In the game. ...
• • See what happens tomorrow.
• • Source: Article: "Mae West in Roads of Romance" by Harry Lee and Winfield Meggs, Side Glances columnists and illustrators for The Winnipeg Evening Tribune; published on Wednesday, 30 May 1934.
• • On Wednesday, 30 May 2007 • •
• • Christie's held this auction of a Mae West movie collectible in New York City, Rockefeller Plaza on Wednesday, 30 May 2007.
• • A costume design for Mae West, circa 1970s, by Edith Head possibly for "Sextette" [1978]. The sketch of this elegant pink gown is pictured in the auction booklet. A collector paid $900 to possess it.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • "Mae West will open casino" • •
• • Las Vegas, Monday — Mae West will open soon a gambling restaurant-casino at Las Vegas.
• • Her lawyer. Charles Catt, announced today that Mae West would be a featured attraction in the casino's floor shows.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Western Australian publication mentioned Mae West.
• • Change of Style — — 1936 Version of "Little Lord Fauntleroy."
• • . . . Since then Mrs. Hodgson Burnett's play has been performed countless thousands of times, both in England and in America, and dozens of child players, mostly girls, have played the title role. In one New York production before the war, the part was taken by no other than Mae West, then aged 7. . . .
• • Source: Article for The West Australian; published on Friday, 29 May 1936
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2925th blog post.
Unlike many blogs, which draw
upon
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or
a
magazine
and/
or
summaries,
links,
or
photos,
the
mainstay
of
this
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is
its
fresh
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focused
on
the
life
and
career
of
Mae
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original.
•
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1918 • •
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It's very curious how many fringe groups discuss MAE WEST in new and interesting ways.
• • Knobarius wrote: in this 1933 saga of Gay 1890s life, "Russian Rita" tries to stab "Lady Lou" (Mae West) but ends up falling on her own slim-bladed knife after Mae takes it from her in the struggle. She expires and ends up dead in a chair, head thrown back, eyes closed, and displaying an impressive amount of cleavage. Mae briefly tries to revive her.
• • Knobarius continued: I think in the play on which this was based, she actually tosses a curse or two at her dead body!
• • Knobarius added: Anyway, after Rita makes a sexily sleepy corpse, Lady Lou has to prevent a couple of visitors from discovering the killing, so she tilts the dead woman's head forward onto her ample bosom and begins combing her hair forward as if to cover her dead face. Problem solved, except for the dead woman's body. But Lou signals a devoted employee to go to her room and take care of something for her. Unfortunately we don't see the big lug carrying away poor Rita, and I don't think anybody mentions finding the body later, or where he put her. ...
• • Source: Item on Mae West from http://www.deadskirts.com — — Fantasy Female Deaths Forum.
• • Yes, in the play "Diamond Lil," Lil does deliver a very interesting final statement to the deceased Rita. If you saw our "Diamond Lil" onstage at 343 West 46th Street (August — November 2013), then you know what the line is. The Paramount Pictures film omits the emotional line because they have flattened all of the characters lest they appear too villainous, scandalous, sexy, vulnerable, human, and interesting..
• • In the play, it is Chuck Connors who disposes of the corpse by throwing it in the East River. In the film version, the duty falls to Spider Kane.
• • On Tuesday, 29 May 1917 • •
• • "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It" was Mae West's letter to the world. Released in hardcover more than fifty years ago by the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey imprint Prentice Hall, this meaty memoir was reprinted as a paperback by Avon Books [December 1959].
• • Hollywood publicist Frank Liberman helped promote the bio in 1959. Mr. Liberman, who had Parkinson's disease, died of pneumonia in September 2009 at Providence Tarzana Medical Center. He was 92.
• • A native New Yorker like Mae, he was born in The Big Apple on Tuesday, 29 May 1917 and was raised in White Plains.
• • On Tuesday, 29 May 1934 in New Zealand • •
• • A flattering article on Mae West's emergence as a new screen star was published in New Zealand in the Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser (on page 2) on 29 May 1934. Very nice to discover it.
• • On Wednesday, 29 May 1935 in Variety • •
• • Frank Wallace timed his wedding revelations to coincide with the release of his former spouse's latest motion picture. Bad publicity had already paved this road, thanks to Joseph Breen's tantrums over the screenplay for "Goin' to Town" — — and Mae West watchers probably cared less about Wallace's wailing than the Hollywood hatchet man's cuts. Could Breen have ruined the movie? Thanks to Mae's large and loyal fan base, "Goin' to Town" did big box office, reported Variety on Wednesday, 29 May 1935.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • "Where did the report start that you are twenty-three years of age?"
• • Mae West told the reporter: "That's a job for a private detective."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "You’re never too old to become younger."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Maryland newspaper discussed Mae West.
• • The Cumberland Evening Times wrote: At Cumberland Theatres is the new Mae West film "Goin' to Town." Not one, but seven leading men support Mae West in her new Paramount film, "Goin' to Town," showing for the last times today and tomorrow at the Strand.
• • The players, Paul Cavanagh, Ivan Libedeff, Tito Coral, Fred Kohler, Monroe Owsley, Grant Withers, and Gilbert Emery, all piay important parts, essential to the story.
• • "Goin' to Town" is the picture in which Mae West goes modern.
• • Source: Item in Cumberland Evening Times; published on Wednesday, 29 May 1935
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2924th 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 • • "Diamond Lil" • •
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MAE WEST of "Diamond Lil” stage fame, brings her first starring film, "She Done Him Wrong," to the Orpheum theatre today for a two-day return showing.
• • Mae West, whose legitimate production, "Diamond Lil" made even blase New York audiences blush, comes to the Orpheum theatre today to play through Tuesday. In her first starring film vehicle called "She Done Him Wrong," based on her stage play, "Diamond Lil," Miss West scores a distinct hit. The film is playing a return engagement.
• • Get a load of the plot. Lady Lou (played by Miss West) is the star performer in a notorious Bowery beer hall of the 1890s. She has developed a craving for diamonds and the gentlemen who can get them for her. It seems that the district bosses, dandies, saloon owners, and others of the Bowery's elite supply the rocks. They steal diamonds to slip on her lovely fingers, and otherwise decorate her.
• • Lady Lou even exercises her sensual charms on a leader of a district mission, Captain Cummings. Some of the torrid lines and wisecracks of the film have become notorious. Most prominent of these is the line, "I always knew you could be had," muttered by Lady Lou as she slips into Captain Cummings' arms in a fade-out embrace. Romantic.
• • Source: Article on page 17 in Waco Tribune-Herald; published on Sunday, 28 May 1933.
• • On Monday, 28 May 1934 • •
• • The Australian audience embraced "the new star" in their midst when their movie-houses showed "She Done Him Wrong" down under. But their local critics did not have the same reaction to "I'm No Angel."
• • On Monday, 28 May 1934, a lengthy article in The Argus emphasized that the second comedy "shows Mae West as a type rather than an actress." The Argus found other faults but we'll only mention their viewpoint on this: "In her first film she had a good story and the support of a brilliant cast. In 'I'm No Angel' she has an ordinary story and a commonplace cast. Her own part is much the same as it was in 'She Done Him Wrong,' but the setting is very different. . . ." [Source: The Argus, on page 5, 28 May 1934.]
• • Nevertheless, the film did good box office and Mae's stock rose even higher in Tinseltown after two successes in the States, What's your opinion? Which Mae West film is your favorite?
• • On Tuesday, 28 May 1935 • •
• • The Straits Times
in Singapore carried this headline: "Mae West Marriage Claim — — Come
Up and See My Lawyer Some Time." Uh-oh. Trouble brewing.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • She said, with some show of annoyance that she had never married Mr. Frank Wallace nor any other man for that matter. And to show that she meant it, she refused to show herself in the streets of the film city for months afterwards. Which goes to show that the cinema queen is a woman of some modesty.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I'm often asked why I like to play seductive females. It's because virtue has its own reward, but has no sale at the box office."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An Australian publication discussed Mae West.
• • The Capitol: "From West to West" • •
• • "She Is No Angel Now" • •
• • Picture-goers who were delighted with Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong" may not be so pleased with her in "I'm No Angel." Flattered by the mild sensation which she caused in her film of the nineties, Mae West has fallen into one of those traps for young players which an old player should avoid. ...
• • Source: Article in The Argus (Melbourne, Australia); published on Monday, 28 May 1934
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2923rd 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/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in "Diamond Lil" in 1928 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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