Mae West: Soul Struggle

A very long article about MAE WEST and her career in Tinseltown appeared five years ago.  It was written by Paul Phaneuf. Let's enjoy it together. This is Part 40.
• • Mae West: "I'm here to make talkies" or Censor Will vs. Diamond Lil • •
• • tossed some garters out • •  
• • Paul Phaneuf wrote:   Also missing: a dance number in which she tossed some garters out to her audience; her affair with ex-football star turned actor Johnny Mack Brown; and a lengthy romantic tryst with the Kid that had originally lasted for five days (shown through a montage) and was now reduced to one evening with the Kid quickly ducking out her door after a barely three-minute scene together. And of course Ruby Carter's colorful background had been eliminated.
• • Watching it today you can easily see the picture's rhythm is thrown off by missing scenes, quick editing, and plot lines that disappear. The film also included one of Mae's most potent scenes in all her films; her rendition of the Negro spiritual "Troubled Waters" as she watches a black preacher, Brother Eben, hold a revival meeting. It's an affirmation of the struggle in her soul between vice and virtue, and it's one of the most heartfelt moments she put on screen, and a reply to her moral critics.
• • suffered from interference • •  . . .
• • This was Part 40. We are taking a little break from this. Part 41 will appear next week.
• • Source:  Article by Paul Phaneuf in Films of the Golden Age Magazine;  issue dated 5  November 2011. Used with permission.
• • On Tuesday, 28 February 1933 • •
• • An article on Mae's staying power — — "Paramount's Unusual 3d Week for Mae West" — — was printed in Variety on Tuesday, 28 February 1933.
• • On Friday, 28 February 2003 • •
• • In London, England Dr. James Pitt-Payne (in association with Doug Grierson) did a sequence and karaoke of "Good Night Nurse" by Mae West from 1912. Music by W. Raymond Walker; lyrics by Thomas J. Gray; copyright MCMXII by Jerome H. Remick and Co., N.Y. and Boston. You can download the midi of "Good Night Nurse" from his web site. The men completed this project on Friday, 28 February 2003 at 00.21.  Great fun!
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Sure, Mae West was in “big money," without doubt, getting approximately $2,010 a week.  But weren’t other stars getting more?
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   "I'm much too busy to worry about the censor boards. ... If they don’t like me, well, that’s their business. In 'I'm No Angel' only one line was deleted by the censors, and that’s my business."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Hollywood fan magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • Has Mae West Reformed? • •

• • Lew Garvey wrote: Mae West has hit the sawdust trail. Ever since she played the lady evangelist in "Klondike Annie," the Pleasure Lady of the Screen has been undergoing a noticeable moral transformation . . .
• • Source: Article in Hollywood Magazine; published in August 1936
• • 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 3649th 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 • • with Jack LaRue at a party in 1936 • •
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