Thursday, August 10, 2017

Mae West: Queerest

MAE WEST would have been so proud to know that her banned gay play "The Drag" [1927] was seen in London's West End on Monday, 10 July 2017.
• • "The Drag" — Reviewed by Ian Foster, Queer Theatre at the National — — Part 1
• • Writer:  Mae West
• • Stage Director:  Polly Stenham
• • "The Drag" was #5 in the National Theatre’s Queer Theatre season of rehearsed readings
• • Ian Foster wrote:  Last but by no means least in this queer season is the one play written by a straight person and perhaps the queerest of the lot. Mae West wrote "The Drag" in 1927 where its frankness about gay lives (and once again, drag ball culture!) scandalised its out-of-town Connecticut and New Jersey audiences so that it never made it to Broadway. But Polly Stenham has opted to revive it for this reading and to introduce it to a new (Alaska Thunderfuck-literate) crowd.
• • Not the "greatest play in the world" • •
• • Ian Foster noted:  To be brutally honest, it isn’t the greatest play in the world.  ...
• • Source: Review by Ian Foster: Queer Theatre at the National: 'The Drag'
• • This was Part 1. The second half will appear tomorrow.
• • On Monday, 10 August 1936 • •
• • Production of "Klondike Annie" starring Mae West began on Monday, 10 August 1936 and was finished by September.
• • On Thursday, 10 August 1944 • •
• • On Thursday, 10 August 1944, the headlines in Australia read: "AIF Men Went Up and Saw Mae West ." 
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Andre Sennewald saw in Mae West a welcome relief from the “sulphurous sex-dramas” of Greta Garbo.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An estate sale announcement mentioned Mae West.
• • Duncan's Estate Services in Palermo, NJ announced: Upcoming Sales on August 11 — August 12, 2017 — — Cherry Dining set, Lots of Posters, Mae West posters.  . . .
• • Source: Item announcing auction sales on the East Coast; posted in July 2017
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 13th anniversary • •  
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,700 blog posts. Wow!   
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started thirteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3763rd 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 1936

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