Mae West: Creating the Legend

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 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 1918 • •
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