Friday, December 30, 2016

Mae West: A Steampit

MAE WEST was banned by NBC in 1937 and Jeff Kallman offered a fresh and refreshing perspective. Here are his words.
• • Adam, Eve, and outrage . . . • •   
• • Jeff Kallman said: It’s not that Arch Oboler’s silly but delightful parody of the Garden of Eden is particularly hazardous to the nation’s moral health merely on paper. But when Mae West gets hold of it opposite Don Ameche’s Adam, that’s where the devil in the translation comes into play.
• • a steampit in which Eve flips the tables • •
• • Jeff Kallman explained: And that’s where the headaches begin. The studio guffaws might have been expected, but Sunday night radio in this time and place isn’t exactly the place where listeners think it appropriate to mock the Garden of Eden at all, never mind turn it into a steampit in which Eve flips the tables and charms the snake, rather than the other way ’round.
• • Jeff Kallman observed: The clergy and the sectarian groups flood NBC with protests, and the Federal Communications Commission dressed the network down in a slightly scathing memo. And where other networks mere ban Miss Mae from their air for almost two decades, NBC won’t even let her be mentioned for the same period.
• • Jeff Kallman added: Seventy plus years later it will be impossible to believe the sketch left West guilty of anything other than provoking a few none-too-guilty laughs. Let the record show, however, that two weeks after the hoopla The Chase and Sanborn Hour became a ratings blockbuster. . . .
• • Source:  Excerpt from  Kallman's Alley: A Journal of Classic Radio written by Jeff Kallman; posted on Friday, 13 December 2013.
• • On Monday, 30 December 1912 • •
• • On Monday, 30 December 1912 the singing comedienne was giving a double performance at 7:30 PM and at 11:00 PM at B.F. Keith's Union Square Theatre on Fourteenth Street. Featured on the bill, along with the 19-year-old hopeful, was a great deal of variety. Britain's Laddie Cliff offered new songs and eccentric dances; Phina and company entertained; Alfredo (wandering wizard of the violin) played; Asaki presented his juggling act, so popular in Japan; and gymnasts Lydia and Albino did . . . something.
• • On Saturday, 30 December 1933 • •
• • Picturegoer, a British publication sold in movie houses, ran a three part series: "Making Love to Mae West." The first installment ran on 10 December 1933, it continued on Saturday, 30 December 1993, and the final portion appeared on 6 January 1934.
• • Cary Grant's byline appeared. The actor either wrote it or (perhaps) merely signed it.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West, the Hollywood actress, is expected to visit Australia early next year.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "It's all a lot of strudel."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A West Virginia paper mentioned Mae West.
• • Mae West in "Goin' to Town" — — Our New Year's Show. Wednesday, Thursday.  This is Mae West's latest and her best picture. See her as a real lady and hear her sing that wonderful song, "I'm a Lady Now." This motion picture will also be shown Tuesday night starting at 11:15pm.   . . .
• • Source: Item in Bluefield Daily Telegraph [Bluefield, West Virginia]; published on Sunday, 29 December 1935
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 12th 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 3,500 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3607th
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 • in 1935

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