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/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC  Mae West