• • "Here goes on Mae West" [Part 2] • •
• • We are scared to death of being considered "good" — — most of us. So the title: "I'm No Angel" starts a provocative fellow-feeling of guilt.
• • Then human nature being what it is, made up of the silly things we all do sometime because emotions run away with our heads, most of the audience had "a fellow feeling" for the five or six or seven men (how many were there?) that the heroine of the picture had played for easy marks. The situations were old as the first town established in this world; obvious as pop eyes, and yet good hokum because goodness knows it required no celebration to know what it was all about!
• • More than that, the canny Mae realizes that only within the past quarter of a century have we taken conversation out of swaddling clothes and called sex "Sex.'' So in interviews, she did not put any damper on the idea that, in her pictures, the theatre-goer would see SEX. The fans indirectly or subconsciously had the hunch that this was going to be "naughty, naughty, boys."
• • "Is Old Story" • •
• • Well, for myself, I can't think of that picture as being very naughty, naughty. Nor being so terrifically based upon sex except as all living is. Where one finds men and women, one finds demonstration of practically everything seen in "I'm No Angel," except that frequently it is much more dangerous in some presentations because it is not so obvious. Mae West's grandstand play for sex reminds me (and I think it should remind all adults) of the artificially built up romantic sunsets or patriotic finales. . . .
• • Mae West's latest motion picture might have had me worried a bit. . . .
• • This is Part 2 of a lengthy feature. It continues tomorrow.
• • Source: Article (page 3) in The Ironwood Times (Ironwood, Michigan); published on Friday, 15 December 1933.
• • On Thursday, 16 December 1937 • •
• • It was on Thursday, 16 December 1937 that Variety ran an article about Mae West's controversial appearance on NBC in the Garden of Eden Skit: "Educator calls radio program a home menace."
• • On Thursday, 16 December 1937 • •
• • An article "Religious Leader Warns US Board on 'Risque' Radio Plays" was printed in The Los Angeles Herald on Thursday, 16 December 1937. A never ending Niagara of condemnation from the religious righteous — — that is, the same groups that either condoned or covered up the outrageous priest pedophilia for decades. Sheesh.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Cara Williams began using her talent as a moppet impersonating Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Mae West and providing a voice for the Porky Pig cartoons.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I did not change my way of life. I harmed no one. I had a philosophy, an idea of how to live fully and in my way. I believed in it as fully and as strongly as I believed in being an American."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "Mae's Homecoming" • •
• • The Brighton Theater, where she made her first big-time splash in vaudeville, reopens Tuesday as a legitimate playhouse with Mae West in "Diamond Lil." Charles G. Martin is one of her three leading men. . . .
• • Source: Item in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle; published on Sunday, 8 July 1951
• • 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 3,300 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3334th 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 • • costumed as Diamond Lil in 1951 • •
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