• • TV View: "Ann Jillian Delivers a Fresh Portrait of Mae West" • •
• • John J. O'Connor wrote: Val is impressed, but, fingering his rhinestone necklace and earrings, he warns her: ''Don't sell so hard — — the game is illusion.'' With his makeup guidance, she is transformed from the brunette in ordinary vaudeville tights into the blonde in white satin. Her new class act includes male backup dancers in tuxedos. Mae West is on her way, with no time for Timony's marriage proposal: ''I'm having fun with my career, and I want to enjoy it'' — — which brings the story back up to 1927 and the trial scene. Convicted of ''corrupting the morals of youth,'' Mae pointedly observes, ''That's what they got Socrates for.'' Asked if she is trying to show contempt for the court, she explains that she is only trying to conceal it. Her brief stay in jail proves to be a publicity bonanza.
• • The second half of the film deals primarily with Miss West's years in Hollywood, years that are sketched rather rapidly as a period of unhappiness and frustration, although they produced some of her most memorable work. The filming of ''Night After Night'' with George Raft had the actress in constant battles with the director. After seeing a preview, Raft commented that ''Mae West stole everything but the cameras.'' Her films with a young discovery named Cary Grant are briefly mentioned, and the classics with W.C. Fields are given even shorter shrift as he (played by Chuck McCann) is seen irritating his co-star with his drunken off-camera antics.
• • Meanwhile, an exasperated Jim Timony has walked out on Mae . . .
• • This was Part 4. On Monday you can read Part 5, the article's conclusion.
• • Source: TV Review by John J. O'Connor for The N.Y. Times; published on Sunday, 2 May 1982.
• • On Saturday, 6 May 1944 • •
• • Syndicated columnist Earl Wilson reviewed "Catherine Was Great" and his comments were printed in the Los Angeles Daily News on Saturday, 6 May 1944.
• • On Thursday, 6 May 1976 • •
• • In conjunction with the news that "Sextette" starring Mae West was going into production, a light went on in City Hall. Tom Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles, announced that he was creating a special Mae Day and issuing a proclamation in the movie queen's honor. Bradley presented West with a scroll validating her "valuable and important role" in the movie industry on Thursday, 6 May 1976.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It's a film event when Mae West's leading man in "Belle of the Nineties" co-stars with the glamorous star of "Berkeley Square."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Keep cool and collect."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "Mae West" • •
• • And while Broadway gets the hot-cha Velez girl, Hollywood gets Mae West, who is Broadway's idea of a daring damsel. The movies really captured her first for "Night After Night," to play a wisecracking night-club hostess [sic] — but when she stole the picture from George Raft, they wouldn't let her go.
• • For she's that rare kind of "find" — and exotic with a devastating sense of humor. So now she's playing Lady Lou in "She Done Him Wrong" — with Cary Grant, the not-altogether-unfortunate "Him" . . .
• • Source: Motion Picture; issue dated for April 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 3,400 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3436th 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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