When Helen Lawrenson came up to see MAE WEST, Esquire's first female journalist was closing in on her sixtieth birthday and the Brooklyn bombshell was 73. A color photo by Diane Arbus flashed across the double-page-spread, hunched under half the title as if warding off a punch in the nose.
• • Enjoy her seldom seen interview. This is Part 40 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: She moved men to laughter • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: The headshakers all missed the point. She moved men, not to lust, but to laughter. She kidded sex. Her gestures, her voice, her walk, her jokes, the character she created—in everything she did professionally, she was a parodist of sex. Doubtless she took it seriously enough in her personal life, but on stage or screen, as John Mason Brown wrote, “Sex is for her an animated cartoon.”
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: It is the same today with her records: there is no mistaking the burlesque note in her voice.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She certainly didn’t start sex on the stage, as she is inclined to imply.
• • Mae West: This set her aside from the others • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Sunday, 4 December 1932 • •
• • It's more than amusing that Billy Sunday chose a Sunday to pay a visit to Mae West with his wife. On 4 December 1932, Mr. and Mrs. Sunday took photographs on the set of "She Done Him Wrong." Billy is pretending to smash the set's saloon in some candids. Too funny.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The night Prohibition was repealed, Mae West was being photographed in a Hollywood speakeasy with Gary Cooper.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "It's harder to write for the screen because of the censors. I have to ask the censors whether I could even sit on the arm of a man's chair."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article was dedicated to Mae West.
• • “Mae West, Hollywood's Sex Symbol, Dies” • •
• • The next step was Broadway, where she made her debut in 1911, and went on to a string of successes that helped her learn her craft, won her a growing audience and enhanced her earning power as a vaudeville performer.
• • Finally, in 1926, came a milestone. She wrote for herself not a single song or a simple sketch, as she had been doing, but an entire play [sic]. It opened on Broadway April 26, 1926. It had a simple title but one that was to epitomize her life and career. It was called "Sex." ...
• • Source: Washington Post; published on Sunday, 23 November 1980
• • 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 16th 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 4,600 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,619th 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 • • cartoon depiction of Mae West, 1934 • •
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