Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Mae West: Obscene Play Trial

Did MAE WEST spend nearly as much time in a courtroom as she did on a sound stage? Sometimes it seems that way, doesn't it? Let's turn back the Westian clock.
• • Mae West Freed
• •
• • Jury Disagrees; State Not to Ask Retrial of 22 in Obscene Play Case • •
• • New York, A.P. ― A disagreement having ended the first trial, the district attorney's office indicated today that it would not ask a retrial of Mae West and her co-defendants on charges of presenting an indecent play.
• • A Jury, which had watched policemen reenact scenes from the play "Pleasure Man," written by Miss West, deliberated 10 hours, then reported to Judge Amedeo A. Bertini on Thursday night that it could not agree.

• • Court attaches said the Jury deadlocked with seven for conviction, five for acquittal. Miss West and 22 others, including the managers and actors in the company, were continued under bail.
• • Charges against 34 • •
• • Asst. District Attorney James G. Wallace, criticized the failure to reach a verdict but indicated he would recommend to District Attorney Crain that the State drop the case.
• • In dismissing the jury, Judge Bertini said: “The difficulties of legal administration and moral regulation of the theatre-going public, and the fact that it will never again be presented, may make it undesirable to try this case again. It may be just as well to let it go and consider that we have done our duty. “
• • The play was closed at its opening, Oct. 1, two nights after.
• • Source: Associated Press; published on Friday, 4 April 1930.
• • Note: The play had its Broadway debut on Monday, 1 October 1928. When the curtain fell, the entire cast was arrested. The play "Courting Mae West" dramatizes these true events.
• • On Thursday, 16 June 1932 • •
• • Mae West arrives on The Chief • •
• • It was on Thursday, 16 June 1932 when Mae West arrived in Pasadena, California on The Chief. She was unimpressed by the motion picture landscape she surveyed from the train station. "I'm a big girl from a big town," Mae told the Los Angeles reporters, "coming to a little town."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It is no trick at all to publicize a Will Rogers picture or one of Mae West's.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "So this is the place where a leaf falls up in some canyon and they tell you it's winter."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about summer stock in Rhode Island mentioned Mae West.
• • Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent, writes: Rhode Island is a place noted for its watery location (hence its nickname, "The Ocean State"), and proliferation of theater offerings. Combing both, Theatre By The Sea in Matunuck, a classic old barn-style theater near the ocean that when summer stock was the rage had the likes of Mae West, Marlon Brando, Art Carney, and other notables treading its boards, has opened for a season hosting four Tony Award-winning shows. ...
• • Source: Article: "Legendary RI summer theater opens for season" written by Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent, Globe Staff, Boston Globe; posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011

• • 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 4,700 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,757th 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 1930
• •
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