Mae West: Sees Her Sadness

Starring Australian actress Melita Jurisic as the American icon MAE WEST, a new play “Arbus and West” was onstage in Melbourne until March 30th. Naturally, Mae would have stipulated that her name was placed first in the title. Let’s enjoy a spirited review by drama critic Robert Reid. This is Part 10.
• • “Arbus and West” — — A one-way gladiatorial battle • •
• • The bigness of Mae West overbalances • •
• • Robert Reid wrote: As a portrayal of Mae West, the woman and the myth she created of herself, the play is comprehensive; but the bigness of her character overbalances the entirety of the work.
• • Robert Reid wrote: The myth that remains unexplored is Arbus. I wanted to know more about her through the whole play. Some hints of her sadness— — heavily foreshadowed by the knowledge of her suicide — — come to the surface, mostly because West keeps telling her that she can see her sadness, how it hangs around her. There’s some fleeting back story about Diane Arbus’s family in New York, but nothing that makes her feel as developed as Mae West. Instead she becomes increasingly confused with a ghost haunting West, a memory of a lost friend from her childhood whom the superstitious West comes to think has returned to speak to her through Arbus.
• • Verbal fencing between superstitious Mae West and Arbus • • . . . 
• • To be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Witness, stage review; published on Wednesday, 6 March 2019.
• • On Friday, 15 April 1927 • •
• • Taking advantage of the legal woes of his sister-in-law Mae West, Beverly's husband Sergei Treshatny obtained a divorce on Friday, 15 April 1927. Well, somebody had a nice weekend, eh?
• • The play "Courting Mae West" dramatizes aspects of Beverly's relationship with Sergei, her divorce, and her hot — cold bond with her older sister Mae.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • There is wonderful home movie footage of a 1938 Mae West performance at Chicago's Palace Theater (now known as the Cadillac Palace), Illinois. Source: Rhodes Patterson Collection. Runtime: 4 minutes, 18 seconds.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I think that the most brainless woman in the world can out-smart a man when she has to."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Bloomberg News mentioned Mae West.
• • Bloomberg News wrote: "Mae West had it right: 'Too much of a good thing can be wonderful,' Warren Buffett wrote in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on March 1, referring to the late Hollywood actress and comedienne." ...
• • Source: Bloomberg News; published during March 2013
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • • 
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — — 
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/

• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,100 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4191st 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 1938 • •
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