Mae West: Will I Last?

MAE WEST sat down for a long chat with Leicester Wagner. The interview, reframed in Mae's first-person statements, was offered as a syndicated series and reprinted in newspapers across the USA during September 1934.  
• • By Mae West (as told to Leicester Wagner) • •
• • "Will I last?" • •

• • That's the question which has had Hollywood talking from the time I first flashed on the screen until today. I can answer that one for Hollywood.
• • My answer is "Yes." I'm no ingenue. I'm a woman. I have a screen personality which is distinctive, which conflicts with no one and which audiences throughout the world seem to want more of.  Forty-six million have come up to see me so far and they evidently liked it. Hollywood was surprised from the start, did — — as I pointed out — — start yelling "accident."
• • But ''I'm No Angel" did three times the business of the record-setting "She Done Him Wrong" and "The Belle of the Nineties" speaks for itself. I have always — — as the diamond-saying goes — — two strikes on me. Because of the records set by my pictures, I have to top each one.   ...
• • To be continued on Monday.
• • Source: Syndicated article rpt in Logansport Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Indiana); published on Wednesday, 12 September 1934.
• • On Tuesday, 12 September 1933 • •
• • Paramount Pictures pumped out the promotional copy for Mae West's "She Done Him Wrong" during 1933.  "Not Once But Again and Again" read one ad headline printed in Variety's issue dated for Tuesday, 12 September 1933.  "Yes, they kinda went for me," Mae tells her audience in another advertisement.
• • On Monday, 12 September 1938 • •
• • Mindful of movie-goers' budgets, The Danville Bee alerted film fans that there would be a "New Deal Show" on Thursday night so they could enjoy "Every Day's a Holiday" starring Mae West and featuring Edmund Lowe, Charles Butterworth, Walter Catlett, Lloyd Nolan.  A notice was posted in The Danville Bee (on page 14) on Monday, 12 September 1938.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • "New Piece of Showmanship!" • •
• • Ninety negro voices burnish a choral background to Mae West's singing of that lovely spiritual, "Troubled Waters."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I'd rather make pictures than whoopee."
• • Mae West said: “I was in a tight spot, but I managed to wriggle out of it.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Derek Scott mentioned Mae West.
• • In 1993 Derek Scott wrote this article: "Sexuality and musical style from Monteverdi to Mae West."    
• • Source: Article rpt in the book "Music, Gender, Education" edited by Lucy Green [Cambridge University Press]; published on Friday, 28 March 1997
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3003rd 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 furs • •
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