Mae West: Sexual Nature

MAE WEST had visits from a member of the Nassour family. This remembrance continues from Thursday, when Part 6 was posted.
• • "After knowing Ms. West for seven years through a family connection, I had the pleasure of working with her to promote a recording project of some of her famous movie lines," wrote Ellis Nassour in 1985.  Insisting he had "rare access," he self published this lengthy remembrance.  This is Part 7.  The misspelt words have been corrected. Some of the more questionable recollections and inaccuracies have been marked by "sic."
• • Memorable Visits with "Aunt Mae" • •
• • Ellis Nassour recalled Mae West's words:  "Why shouldn't women be able to do what they wanted even if it was of a sexual nature?"   Mae observed that before she came along, you couldn't print the word "sex." [sic] Mae continued,  "I'm flattered when people say I invented it. I didn't. Now it's on billboards, all over the movies. People shout it. It's not special anymore. It's been so exploited, it's not fun anymore. What's missing is a respect for sex."
• • Ellis Nassour  observed: She explained that sex in films was going through a rough period. "It's being misused and mishandled." As far as language was concerned, "I would never want censorship, but writers and directors ought to learn four-letter words aren't the full extent of the English language. I never used a four-letter word. I didn't have to rely on that for laughs. We've gained full freedom to say and see everything, but we've lost something, too."
• • Ellis Nassour  noted: Of films she'd seen up to that point, she liked Star Wars. "It made people laugh and have fun. I coulda been in that one. I'd like to do a science-fiction. I could have played the Moon Goddess."
• • Ellis Nassour  stated:  She spoke of her "feud" with W. C. Fields. "Bill was difficult, but I didn't hate him. There was no one quite like him.  I always enjoyed his comedy. My only doubts about him came in bottles. I wrote "My Little Chickadee" and put in a terrific part for him.  I had my ideas, he had his and the studio had theirs. I did my best to make Bill's part funny, but he became envious of me getting so many big laughs from the crew.  Bill wanted to write a scene for himself, and demanded co-billing."  . . .
• • This has been Part 7.  Part 8 will continue  on Monday.  [Ellis Nassour © 1985; all rights reserved; used with permission].
• • On Thursday, 29 July 1937 • •
• • Frank Wallace and the on-going lawsuit he initiated (to get the court to recognize his marriage in 1911 to Mae West) made enough waves in the news media. However, an item in the Los Angeles Citizen-News on Thursday, 29 July 1937 reported that Paramount Pictures "announced 98% of her fan mail had been favorable" despite the drawn-out divorce debacle.
• • Save the Date: Wednesday, 17 August 2016 • •

• • Mae West: New Yorker, Vaudevillian, Upstart, and Jailbird — — a Birthday Celebration! • •
• • Link: Mae West event on August 17, 2016
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Roger Pryor was borrowed from Universal by Paramount Saturday for the role in the Mae West picture, "It Ain't No Sin," which George Raft refused to play.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   "Jazz suited me — — I liked the beat and emotions."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A British newspaper mentioned Mae West.
• • Wilde at Heart • •
• • Helen Zaltzman wrote: A 'sex personality' with Oscar Wilde's capacity for quips, Mae West's 'great secret' was that she was a hard-working writer by night, knocking out three novels and 12 plays and more than 20,000 finely honed ripostes. . . .
• • Source: Article in The Guardian (London): published on Saturday, 29 July 2006
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 12th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past twelve 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 twelve years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3497th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in court in 1927 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West: Elvis Presley

MAE WEST had visits from a member of the Nassour family. This remembrance continues from Wednesday, when Part 5 was posted.
• • "After knowing Ms. West for seven years through a family connection, I had the pleasure of working with her to promote a recording project of some of her famous movie lines," wrote Ellis Nassour in 1985.  Insisting he had "rare access," he self published this lengthy remembrance.  This is Part 6.  The misspelt words have been corrected. Some of the more questionable recollections and inaccuracies have been marked by "sic."
• • Memorable Visits with "Aunt Mae" • •
• • Ellis Nassour recalled:  Self-hypnotized, she believed so deeply in her youthful luminosity that she felt the public accepted her unchanged and unchangeable." 
• • Ellis Nassour remarked:   Who came closest in the imitation department?  "Marilyn Monroe," Mae replied. "Marilyn Monroe had magnetism and sex appeal. The masses loved her. She couldn't talk or dominate a picture the way I did, though.  Chaplin's the only other person who could star in and write his films."
• • Ellis Nassour stated:  In the male department, Mae said she liked Elvis Presley. "He was raw and the sexiest actor around. He could sing, too. When he started and caused so much of a ruckus swiveling his hips, I thought, 'He's takin' what I did and settin' it to music.' And, like me, he brought freedom and independence to the public."
• • Ellis Nassour noted:  She was always flattered by her popularity among homosexuals. "They're good people and I always stand up for them. I like the impersonations the gay boys do. I had flamboyance and style. They liked that. I've had wonderful gay friends since my days in vaudeville. I used to bring the chorus boys home with me. Mama loved 'em. We'd cook for them and they'd fix our hair."
• • Ellis Nassour wrote:  She knew she was different because, from the time she was 12, boys hung around her "six and seven at a time."  She said, "We'd mostly talk or sing and dance, but sometime we'd hug and kiss. They wanted to play around, but I came from a proper family, so I never let them go too far. I knew I had something, but then I didn't know it was called sex appeal. Even later, I didn't know what made men brawl over me."
• • Ellis Nassour emphasized:  The public made her a star. "They responded to me because I had something they liked. I gave them what they wanted. The men liked me, but the women came to see me, too. Women really supported me. Men could do everything, but not the gals. This was nonsense! Why shouldn't women be able to do what they wanted even if it was of a sexual nature?" . . .
• • This has been Part 6.  Part 7 will continue tomorrow.  [Ellis Nassour © 1985; all rights reserved; used with permission].
• • On Tuesday, 28 July 1931 in NYC • •
• • An agreement between Mae West and Howard Merling (signed by both of them) acknowledged his help with background research for her novel and stage play "Babe Gordon." Additionally, there was a receipt, written by Howard Merling, noting he received the sum of $500 dollars from Mae West on Tuesday, 28 July 1931.
• • On Wednesday, 28 July 1954 in Variety • •
• • Variety was awestruck by "this magnificent herd of males" and such a refreshing new concept. The article "Odds Are Sex-to-1 Mae West Makes Her Point in Las Vegas" was printed on page 3 in Variety on Wednesday, 28 July 1954.
• • Save the Date: Wednesday, 17 August 2016 • •

• • Mae West: New Yorker, Vaudevillian, Upstart, and Jailbird — — a Birthday Celebration! • •
• • Link: Mae West event on August 17, 2016
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West says she thinks she is a narrow-minded woman. Well, we forgive her. It's the only place she is.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   "[In "Myra Breckenridge"] they didn't use enough of me or my material until the budget had been run up high."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An Indiana paper mentioned Mae West.
• • And I like that Hollywood theatre marquee that blasted out in electric lights: "Mae West and Free Electric Refrigerators."
• • Source: Item in The Daily Banner; published on Friday, 28 July 1933 
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 12th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past twelve 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 twelve years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3496th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • "Sex" poster in 1926 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West: Give Hope

MAE WEST had visits from a member of the Nassour family. This remembrance continues from Tuesday, when Part 4 was posted.
• • "After knowing Ms. West for seven years through a family connection, I had the pleasure of working with her to promote a recording project of some of her famous movie lines," wrote Ellis Nassour in 1985.  Insisting he had "rare access," he self published this lengthy remembrance.  This is Part 5. The misspelt words have been corrected. Some of the more questionable recollections and inaccuracies have been marked by "sic."
• • Memorable Visits with "Aunt Mae" • •
• • Ellis Nassour recalled:  There wasn't much reality at Ravenswood.  "It's all in the body and mind," she said. "Keep your mind thinking young and keep your insides healthy and youthful. I've had a happy life. The happiness part is important. I pamper myself, but why shouldn't I? I love myself! If you can't do that, how can you expect someone to love you or to love someone else? I like Mae West best — — all of me. Look! Show me anyone who, at my age, can do what I'm doing* and look the way I do."  [* She was about to make the film "Sextette," which was fraught with difficulties.]
• • Ellis Nassour continued: Ms. West said that most women, when they reach 40, must start playing character parts, but that she only played leads. She stated that when she looked into the mirror, "I realize that I give others hope."
• • Ellis Nassour emphasized:  For a woman who became outraged at such stars as Bette Midler, Streisand [in the film "Hello, Dolly"] and Madonna for copying her, she could be guilty of at least one crime.  Her blonde tresses, which she claimed to be her natural hair and may have been — — if they were used to craft the obvious wig she was wearing (she wore wigs her entire career, carefully hiding the scalp line) was done in the style that Brigette Bardot made famous in the 1960s.
• • Ellis Nassour stated:  One of her closest friends, after her 1980 death from complications following a fall and stroke, put it best:  "For decades, like Narcissus, kneeling by his pool lost in self-adoration, Mae reclined on her satin-sheeted bed, gazing rapturously at her misty image reflected in her mirrored canopy.  Self-hypnotized, she believed so deeply in her youthful luminosity that she felt the public accepted her unchanged and unchangeable."  . . .
• • This has been Part 5.  Part 6 will continue tomorrow.  [Ellis Nassour © 1985; all rights reserved; used with permission].
• • On Tuesday, 27 July 1954 in Vegas • •

• • On Tuesday, 27 July 1954 Mae West opened at the Congo Room. This exotic night spot, inside the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, offered patrons a full supper as they watched a live performance. If you were in the audience when "The Mae West Revue" was onstage in 1954, you might have selected Broiled Fresh Colorado Brook Trout, Maitre d'Hotel, for $5.25.
• • The Sahara knew that guests wanted to bring home special keepsakes, so they commissioned souvenir keys. The front side of the key was imprinted "Hotel Sahara Las Vegas, Nevada" while the reverse message was "Come up and see me sometime, Mae West."  
• • Save the Date: Wednesday, 17 August 2016 • •
• • Mae West: New Yorker, Vaudevillian, Upstart, and Jailbird — — a Birthday Celebration! • •
• • Link: Mae West event on August 17, 2016
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • While the motion picture "Myra Breckinridge" was not a hit, the media exposure engendered a "Mae West revival," explained The New York Post.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I never loved another person the way I loved myself." 
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A California paper mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae West is not, repeat NOT, on local stage" • •
• • Jeff Jouett wrote:   Mae West, the eternally seductive siren of the silver screen, dropped one of her blonde bombshells on Coronado Playhouse this week. Lawyers for mammoth MGM Studios in Hollywood contacted William R. Bruce, director of the 150-seat community theater, demanding Bruce change the name of the play, “Sextet,” now in its fifth week of an eight week run.
• • Jeff Jouett wrote: It seems MGM has produced a film it calls “Sextette,” which stars the venerable Miss West and the movie-makers are worried that audiences will confuse the play with the movie, despite totally different plots. "You must, repeat must, stop immediately using that  name (“Sextet”) or any variation.” MGM attorney Robert Layton wrote to William R. Bruce on Friday. “Your failure to do so immediately will result in immediate legal proceedings to halt your production."  . . .
• • Source: Article by Jeff Jouett  in Coronado Eagle and Journal (California); published on Thursday, 27 July 1978 
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 12th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past twelve 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 twelve years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3495th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1954 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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