Mae West: Knocked Together

"Making Love to MAE WEST Is Like a Football Game" was the hilarious headline on the cover of Motion Picture's entertaining issue for September 1934. This is Part 2 of a lengthy magazine article. To read Part 1, see yesterday's post.
• • And Johnny Mack Brown is glad Mae West didn't keep him warming a bench  . . .
• • "You should have been penalized for holding," I told him.  
• • Johnny Brown grinned — — that white-toothed smile you used to see in newsreels when "the Alabama Flash" came like a streak across the goal line.   "And I was! You see, we had a censor on the set. John Hammill was our referee, and if our close-ups got too close for Primville, Kansas, or Priscilla, Massachusetts, he'd blow the whistle and slap on a penalty. You know they penalize you five yards for crawling."
• • No Football Thrill Like It • •
• • There is one scene in "That St. Louis Woman" that, to Brown's way of thinking, has more thrill than a fifty-yard field goal. It's where he bends over her downy couch, enraptured by her beauty, to murmur in her ear how much he'd like to be her friend. Mae gives him that up-and-down look, slow-like, with tongue in cheek.
• • "What kind of friend?" she asks, sighing a little.
• • "A close friend," says Johnny — — and does he mean it!
• • And Miss West, with that effective, soft, significant look.  It's a rare man who could tackle Mae West and sweep her off her feet — — but in this composite photograph John Mack Brown is putting heart and soul into the effort.
• • Score Chart • •
• • Mae West  vs John Mack Brown — — First Quarter • •

• • After John Mack Brown tells how football and Mae West give a man similar thrills, the author lets his imagination run wild — — and imagines their meeting as a football game. This is a chart of the game that he pictures. John scores the winning point with: "How close?"
• • It's the way she signals, the sound of her voice calling your number, that reminds a football player of the old game, thinks Johnny.
• • "When was the first time you went into a huddle with Miss West?" I asked.
• • "I heard that she was looking for a man to take George Raft's place, so I went to see her. She was in her dressing room on the Paramount lot. I was introduced, and my knees almost knocked together as she gave me that West once-over with her big eyes. I'd rather have faced a coach for a football try-out. When Mae smiled and nodded, I knew she'd send me into the game."
• • "Then she didn't keep you warming a bench on the side-lines?"
• • "Not much! Every scene I had in that picture was a love scene; four hours over one kiss! I was the object of more envy than if I had beaten one of the late Knute Rockne's teams single-handed."   . . .
• • This has been Part 2 of an extraordinarily lengthy magazine article. Maybe we'll post more another time.
• • Source: Motion Picture; published in the issue dated for September 1934.
• • On Saturday, 30 September 1911 • •
• • On Friday, 22 September 1911, 18-year-old Mae West was in the spotlight. On that date, "A La Broadway" had opened at the Folies-Bergere Theatre, New York, NY. This short-lived revue (produced in an expensive venue) closed on Saturday night, 30 September 1911.
• • Variety noted on September 30th: "Folies Bergere Experiment Reaching an End."
• • On Sunday, 30 September 1934 • •
• • Andre Sennwald wrote an article "Lines for a Mae West Scrapbook." It was published in The New York Times on Sunday, 30 September 1934.
• • On Saturday, 30 September 1944 • •
• • On Saturday, 30 September 1944 Mae West, who was playing the Empress of Russia, moved her show "Catherine Was Great" from the Shubert Theatre to the Royale, the playhouse that had originally welcomed Diamond Lil and her boisterous Bowery hijinx in 1928.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West and Jim Timony are apparently as devoted as when Mae first tackled Hollywood.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   "I'm my own child."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Screenland Magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • "Hollywood" by Weston East • •
• • Now Shirley Temple is a candidate for the Mae West treatment! The cutest little one may be "withdrawn" from the over-enthusiastic press for awhile. After Mae had three hundred interviews in four months, Paramount decided she'd be completely killed off by too much publicity if they didn't sidetrack the writers. So for nearly a year you couldn't see the lady any time, if you had quotes on your mind.
• • The same crisis has been reached in little Shirley's case.   . . .
• • Source: Item in Screenland; published in the issue dated for September 1933  
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3278th 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 1934 • •
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Mae West: Love Shivers

"Making Love to MAE WEST Is Like a Football Game" was the hilarious headline on the cover of Motion Picture's entertaining issue for September 1934.  The first-person piece was attributed to her handsome co-star Johnny Mack Brown ("as told to" reporter Jack Smalley).   Romantic scenes in "Belle of the Nineties" would have to be re-shot, the actor confessed to his fans, with the censors calling the shots as the studio acted as the referee.
• • And John ought to know.  He got plenty of thrills as an All-American halfback at Alabama — — and he plays opposite Mae in her new picture, "That St. Louis Woman" [one more title that was nixed].
• • Moviegoers the world over have tried to find words to describe Mae West. John Mack Brown, once a football star at Alabama, finds a vivid way of describing her by talking football language. But don't take this story too seriously. It's all done in a spirit of good, clean fun — — Editor.
• • Take it from John Mack Brown, making love to Mae West is like playing football. But the most exciting game of his college career had no thrill like receiving one pass from Mae. You can talk about the tingle of a touchdown; but he would rather be thrown for a loss by West, any day of the week. That's what it feels like to make love to the glamourous gal who made herself the most spontaneous sensation in movie history.
• • John ought to know what he's talking about when he compares thrills, for he's the famous All-American halfback who won the Southern Conference championship for Alabama with a play that sent fifty-thousand onlookers into tremors of excitement. Now he has just finished making love to Mae in his best tackle form in "That St. Louis Woman" (formerly "It Ain't No Sin").
• • "It's a tingle that goes up your spine and down again, for all the world like the moment you're crouched on the one-yard line, waiting for the ball to be snapped," Brown said, searching for a way to explain Mae's effect on the blood pressure of a healthy male specimen like himself.
• • And Johnny Mack Brown is glad Mae West didn't keep him warming a bench on the side-lines.
• • "And after finishing a scene with her, you feel as if you had made a touchdown against the entire field. The only difference is that you have no kick coming! After a couple of hours in a huddle before the camera with Mae West, there have been so many little shivers of excitement romping over the gridiron of your emotions that you feel positively limp!"
• • "You should have been penalized for holding," I told him.   . . .
• • This has been Part 1 of an extraordinarily lengthy magazine article.
• • Source: Motion Picture; published in the issue dated for September 1934.
• • On Tuesday, 29 September 1914 • •
• • The newspaper Philadelphia North American reviewed the more prominent variety artists who were performing onstage in the City of Brotherly Love on Tuesday, 29 September 1914. The arts critic thought well of Mae, who was then calling herself "The Original Brinkley Girl." When he referred to her stage act, he called her a "nut comedienne."
• • On Friday, 29 September 1933 • •
• • It was on Friday, 29 September 1933 that Mae West signed the Release Dialogue Script form for her very successful motion picture project "I'm No Angel" for Paramount Pictures. Mae West was paid for the film's treatment, story, and screenplay.
• • Julien's Auctions sold this autographed Release to a fan for $128.00.
• • On Tuesday, 29 September 1936 • •
• • "Go West Young Man" starring Mae West (as the man-eating movie marquee marvel Mavis Arden) was released in the USA on 18 November 1936.
• • The production began in early August at General Service Studios and was all wrapped up on Tuesday, 29 September 1936.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Why does Mae West shift her weight from one foot to another? Why does Lionel Barrymore use his hands in that peculiar, blind, batty fashion? Why does Greta Garbo pace up and down, up and down, while the cameras are being made ready?
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Look, I haven't got a bookkeeper's mind. I can't remember what I paid for those things five or six years ago."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • A book published by University of Chicago Press mentioned Mae West.
• • Dennis Chong wrote:   . . . how popular sensibilities have changed. For example, William Manchester recounts how moviegoers in the Depression Era, watching a Mae West film, Night after Night, "gasped" when "in reply to a friend's remark [sic], 'Goodness, what beautiful diamonds,' Mae replied, 'Goodness had nothing to do with it.'" . . .
• • Source: Noted in the book "Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society" written by Dennis Chong; published in April 2000
• • Note: Mae used this bit on Patricia Farley, the fillm's coatcheck counter gal (who was made up to look like a dark-skinned woman), not a friend. It's interesting how no one remembers that this was one of Texas Guinan's lines.
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3277th 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 1932 • •
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Mae West: Roger Carmel

MAE WEST worked with an American actor who was born at the end of September.
• • Roger Carmel [27 September 1932 — 11 November 1986] • •
• • Born in Brooklyn, NY, Roger Charles Carmel was named after his grandfather, Roger Charles, who carved the horses for the iconic carousel in New York's Central Park. The little boy bounced into this world on Tuesday, 27 September 1932 during the Depression Era.
• • Roger Carmel decided to become an actor and he played a stagehand (uncredited) on the big screen in "Stage Struck" [1958] when he was 26 years old. 
• • In 1961, he snagged his first TV credit for the series "Great Ghost Tales."  Small screen projects suited him; he appeared on various series, did TV commercials and voice-overs for characters such as Smokey the Bear.
• • From 1958 — 1987, Roger Carmel racked up 79 credits, mainly for television work. According the IMBd, only 16 credits were for motion pictures (and several were for uncredited minor parts).
• • In 1970 he had the good fortune to be cast in "Myra Breckinridge" starring Mae West; he was seen as Dr. Randolph Spencer Montag.
• • He said bye-bye to his film fans after appearing in a Jerry Lewis film "Hardly Working" [1980], though his TV guest starring jobs continued. 
• • Roger Carmel died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood, California on Tuesday, 11 November 1986.  He was 54.
• • On Sunday, 28 September 1930 • •
• • Mae West decided to take her play "Sex" on the road during August 1930.  The N.Y. Times reported that "Sex" was booked in the Midwest.  The engagement at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago began on Sunday, 28 September 1930.
• • On Wednesday, 28 September 1932 • •
• • This statement was taken from the court case of People v. Voiler: The first indictment charged appellant and two co-defendants, Harry Voiler (a.k.a. Edward Friedman) and Cohen, with robbing one Mae West on Wednesday, September 28, 1932, taking from her money and jewelry [2 Cal. App. 2d 727] valued at $15,400.
• • The case went to trial and Mae West testified.
• • On Saturday, 28 September 1974 • •
• • The colorful Mae West room in Dalí Theatre and Museum opened on Saturday, 28 September 1974.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West has gone to sea — — maybe she's giving the sailing lads the eagle eye for her next epic! 
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Biographies — — that's what I like best.  I like everything that is true, I mean.  Everything that happened, otherwise I'm not interested.  If I wanna read fiction, somepin (sic) that isn't true, I can dream it myself if I want."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An Australian newspaper discussed the latest film written by Mae West.
• • "Mae West in Tale of Wild West — — Rousing Comedy Scenes" • •

• • Te Pana wrote:  The growing circle of comedy purists who would like to see slapstick retain its pristine glory on the screen have a worthy exhibit in 'My Little Chickadee,' at the Tivoli this week.
• • Te Pana wrote:  If I ask you — — What could be funnier than W. C. Fields as a patent medicine vendor turned masked bandit, and Mae West, late of the honky-tonks, as a little desert flower blooming brighter every hour?  . . .
• • Source: Film Review by Te Pana for The Courier-Mail (Brisbane); published on Saturday, 28 September 1940
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3276th 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 1940 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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