Friday, April 24, 2015

Mae West: Raoul Recalls

MAE WEST came up in conversation in April 1974, when Columbia University interviewed Raoul Walsh. Let's listen in, outside his suite at the Warwick Hotel.  Quiet on the set, please.
• • "Reminiscences of Top Filmmaker Raoul Walsh" • •
• • by Columbia University students George Robinson and Ira Hozinsky • •
• • Columbia Daily Spectator wrote:  Raoul Walsh was in town this week. The name may not ring a bell, but a list of the 87-year old director's films should — The Thief of Bagdad, What Price Glory, The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, They Died With Their Boots On, White Heat. Ira Hozinsky and I encountered Walsh in his suite in the Warwick, where he was staying after being re-presented by the Museum of Modern Art, where the first comprehensive retrospective of his work is currently being held, to the New York which is his birthplace. Walsh, whose autobiography is being published this summer by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, is still an imposing figure at 87. He still has the rugged frame of the cowboy and roustabout of his youth, and the eye-patch over his right eye gives him a faintly piratical air.  In short, he remains as commanding, even intimidating, a figure as he must have been in his days in Hollywood.  . . .
• • G.R.:  What was it like at Fox around that period?
• • Walsh:  When the crash came, (William) Fox lost $300 million. Sheehan (Winfield Sheehan, head of production at Fox) got out of the business. Then Darryl Zanuck took over and called it Twentieth Century Fox. They had me make their first picture for them, a thing called "The Bowery" with George Raft and Wally Beery (1933).
• • I.H.:  Was there much trouble with "The Bowery" with audiences or censors at the time? There's a lot of racial humor in it.
• • Walsh: Yes. The censors were always on my tail. So I'd make about eight risque scenes and they'd cut out five, and that way I'd still have three.
• • G.R.: Did you have trouble like that when you were working with Mae West ("Klondike Annie," 1936)?
• • "With Mae West, the cops were in there all the time . . ." • •
• • Walsh: With Mae West, the cops were in there all the time. (Laughter.) Actually, I think they cut a reel out of "Klondike Annie."  When I made that Norman Mailer picture, "The Naked and The Dead" (1958), the censors cut out the naked and just left the dead.  . . .
• • Source: Article-Interview (page 7) "Reminiscences of Top Filmmaker Raoul Walsh" written by George Robinson and Ira Hozinsky for Columbia Daily Spectator; published on Wednesday, 24 April 1974.
• • On Wednesday, 24 April 1935 • •
• • Mae West Impatient as 'Marriages' List Grows • •
• • HOLLYWOOD, April 24 (By United Press) — — Mae West, curvesome lady of the screen, today called for a showdown to settle the somewhat confusing question of her spinsterhood. "I've got a sense of humor," she said. "Nobody can say I haven't. But this thing is going too far."  . . .
• • Source: United Press interview rpt in San Bernardino Sun; published on Thursday, 25 April 1935.
• • On Thursday, 24 April 2008 • •
• • Goldmine Magazine featured Mae West on Thursday, 24 April 2008.
• • Goldmine Magazine said: Mae West did it all, even 45s.  Mae West was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll before there was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.  After Mae West, the rest of us just tried to keep up.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • "Night After Night" was 73 minutes long. No one remembers anything about this film except for the hilarious moments when Mae West was onscreen.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Adam sure started something. Men are a very important subject."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Backstage mentioned Mae West.
• • Kate McClanaghan noted: Many of the characters used in animation today are loose or distorted impersonations of old Hollywood stars or famous folks. Ex: the voice of Stimpy from “The Ren and Stimpy Show” is an exaggeration of Peter Lorre, rather than a direct impersonation. Try this: Take an impersonation of someone famous — even a bad impersonation — of Orson Welles or Jack Nicholson or Mae West and see where that takes you. Regardless of how poor or awkward the impersonation might be, you’re likely to discover a character all your own.  ...
• • Source: Article in Backstage written by  Kate McClanaghan; published on Wednesday, 8 April  2015
• • 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 recently when we completed 3,100 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3164th 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 • with Raoul Walsh and Marlene Dietrich, 1936

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