The purity police dogged the heels of MAE WEST with a Javert-like intensity. Barry Chapman analyzes how the censors affected her film Belle of the Nineties. This is Part 5 of 8 parts.
• • N.B.: When Toronto Film Society presented Belle of the Nineties (1934) and My Gal Sal on Monday, January 8, 1990 as part of their Season 42, this article was first written.
• • Censorship and Belle of the Nineties (1934) starring Mae West • •
• • Mae West: Amount of censorship • •
• • Barry Chapman wrote: In her 1959 autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, Mae comments, “Every person who is not a moron or a mental defective of some sort carries a very effective censor and super-critic of his actions in his cerebral cortex, and in his heart. If that doesn’t work, no amount of censorship from the outside will do anybody any good.”
• • Barry Chapman wrote: Mae also notes that none of this affected her personal life.
• • Mae West: Sashays down the gangplank • •
• • To be continued.
• • Source: Toronto Film Society; reprinted on Sunday, 15 November 2020.
• • On Wednesday, 18 March 1936 in Variety • •
• • Variety reviewed "Klondike Annie," calling the motion picture "chic" and starting the critique on the front page. But the man-on-the-aisle objected to several elements therein. "Miss West is handicapped by having to wear rather dowdy dresses in about half the footage. In other portions she struts fine feathers and wears a set of furs that will make the women gasp," he commented.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Actress Rose McGowan said, "There's definitely a little Mae West in me."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "You never hear about good women in history."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on “Sextette” mentioned Mae West.
• • The Sheraton Town House hotel and the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles stood in for the locations referred to in the film as the Sussex Court Hotel and St. Martin's Church in Sextette.
• • With Mae West reportedly earning $1 million and a percentage of profits, budget estimates for Sextette ranged from $4 to $7 million, according to news items in New West and in Hollywood Reporter on 4 Mar 1976 and 14 Oct 1977.
• • DV announced on 7 Mar 1977 that filming was scheduled to end in two weeks and a full-page advertisement in the 28 Apr 1977 HR announced the completion of principal photography. ...
• • Source: AFI Catalog of Feature Films [1893–1993]; published [unclear]
• • 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 4,693rd 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 1934 • •
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Bellevue of the Nineties suffers partly because of censorship, and partly because of Roge Pryor, who was really not up to Mae's weight, so to speak. But it does havre some too her best and most meaningful music, with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Also, her friendly, intimate relationship with the musicians, all of them black, was a specific anti-racist statement.
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