Mae West: Might Have

“I first went to interview MAE WEST after the collapse of ‘Myra Breckinridge’ [1970]. Like almost everyone else, I was in awe of the woman,” wrote Jacoba Atlas. Let’s read her fascinating first-hand account from 1974. This is Part 13 of 19 segments.
• • Image from a Cracked Mirror • •
• • Mae West never grew “comfortably old” • •
• • Jacoba Atlas wrote: That Mae West moved and sauntered, and I searched in vain for the woman she might have become, a woman grown comfortably old the way actresses Dame Edith Evans, Cathleen Nesbitt, and Sybil Thorndike had grown comfortably and elegantly old. There was none of it; instead I felt almost as if I had wandered into Bette Davis’ lair while she was perpetually playing that grotesque child-star in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”

• • Jacoba Atlas wrote: Sure, all this negativism sounds like bad faith considering the age of the woman and her considerable accomplishments.
• • Mae West is nothing if not contradictory • • …
• • This long profile by Jacoba Atlas will be continued on the next post.  
• • Source: Los Angeles Free Press, Volume 11, issue 517; published on Friday, 14 June 1974.
• • On Saturday, 8 May 1926 • •
• • Unflattering comments about Mae West's play "Sex" (the phrase "street sweepings" was in the description) were printed in The New Yorker, their issue dated for Saturday, 8 May 1926.  Aww. Somebody was not swayed by all that free beer Mae was pouring backstage.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West chose to be an independent woman who was comfortable with her sexuality. The political climate of the times, however, saw her open sexuality as pornographic.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Keep cool and collect."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A St. Louis paper mentioned Mae West.
• • Saint Louis, April 21 (INS) — — Boys in their early teens prefer Mae West to Shirley Temple, but they would rather take part in some athletic event than to attend a movie.  ...
• • These were some of the conclusions drawn by officers of Optimist International, a service club with headquarters in St. Louis, on the basis of questionnaires answered by members of representative Junior Optimist Clubs in twenty-two cities scattered throughout the USA and Canada. …
• • Source: The Kane Republican; published on Thursday, 21 April 1938
• • 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 15th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,470th 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 George C. Scott on Sunday, 1 September 1974 • •
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