Mae West: Stiffs

On Thursday, 2 March 2006, an Australian dramatist was pitching a project called MAE WEST's Stiffs. Actress Martha Lott portrayed Mae West. Stephen Sewell, born on March 13, 1953 in Liverpool, NSW, Australia, was seeking financing. This was his presentation. 
• • "Mae West's Stiffs" by Stephen Sewell • •
• • Stephen Sewell  wrote: In 1964, a young New York fashion photographer, Diane Arbus, a woman with the knack of putting people completely at their ease took the last photo shoot of the 72 year old Mae West, queen of the sex queens, in her Los Angeles apartment. True to form, Diane’s charm worked, and apart from getting one of the most startling photos ever taken of Mae West, of her in bed with her pet monkey (a photo which West despised ever after), Diane was initiated into one of Mae West’s best kept secrets — —  her store of plaster of Paris moulds of the penises of the many men who had come up and seen her sometime. 
• • Stephen Sewell  wrote:  With this as a beginning, "Mae West’s Stiffs" probes the enigma of sex under the gaze of two of the most unlikely but perfectly matched women, the ever available Mae West, who confessed to Diane that she had never allowed a man to sleep in the same bed as her; and Diane Arbus, a young woman whose fascination with the most intimate details of our lives led her on a journey into one of the strangest places on earth, the bedroom. 
• • Stephen Sewell  wrote: Contemplating the male phalluses Mae West regales her with, the pair explores what it is to be a woman and an object of desire in a play that uses wit and humour to delve into some of the deepest and most fascinating mysteries of our lives.  

• • Stephen Sewell  wrote:  Diane Arbus committed suicide in 1971, and Mae West died in 1980. But the questions they contemplated as they chuckled about the strange statues Mae West had collected as mementos of her past conquests will be with us till the end of life on earth.  Why is it that in order to be desirable, a woman must be forever available, but never touchable?  How can a woman remain free and still find love? What is it about sex that makes people crave and despise it at the same time?  
• • Stephen Sewell  wrote: "Mae West’s Stiffs" seeks to look at some of those questions through the eyes of two of the most fascinating women of the 20th Century, each an artist of love and mystery, and each, in their own way, a Sleeping Beauty ever awaiting that wakening kiss.     . . .
• • On Sunday, 2 March 1913 in NYC • •
• • It was on Sunday, 2 March 1913 that Mae West began a one week booking at Hammerstein's Victoria in the theatre district on West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue.
• • On Wednesday, 2 March 1927 in Variety • •
• • More details about the February 9th raid at Daly's Theatre on Broadway, and the political punching behind it were explained in Variety Magazine in their issue dated Wednesday, 2 March 1927.
• • Dated for Wednesday, 2 March 1927 • •
• • Auctioned off in 2002 was a Bowery and East River National Bank check for Moral Producing Corporation, dated Wednesday, 2 March 1927, made out to Harold Spielberg for the sum of $500.00, signed in black ink by Mae West. Note that Mae West was signing in her capacity as (yes, yes, yes, she was!) President of the Moral Producing Corporation.
• • On Thursday, 2 March 1978 • •
• • The VIP premiere of "Sextette" starring Mae West was at the Pacific Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, California at 8:30 pm on Thursday, 2 March 1978.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West, the gal who has done so much to brighten the Great White Way, has discovered that in Hollywood all is sweetness and light. New York, she says, is a city of constant wrangling, intense and unceasing in its effort to take away a living from others.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "It's not the men in my life that worry me, it's the life in my men."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Walter Winchell mentioned Mae West.
• • Walter Winchell wrote: In "Bitter Rice," Silvana Mangano is XXXier than both Mae West and Jane Russell.  ...
• • Source: Item in Walter Winchell's column in The Daily Mirror; rpt in an ad on Friday, 2 March 1951 
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. The other day we entertained 1,430 visitors. We reached a milestone this week: 3,100 posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3125th 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 • • by D. Arbus in 1965 • •
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