Mae West: Ribald Reputation

MAE WEST’s plump, curvaceous body was a vital element in her comedy. Academics have emphasized that “excessive body is one of the qualities of female unruliness, suggesting that she is unwilling or unable to control her physical appetites.” Japanese film historian Mio Hatokai discusses how Hollywood publicists and fan zines responded to this “fatness” in 1933. This is Part 5 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Her burlesquian curves and ribald reputation • •  
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: In her book “When I’m Bad, I’m Better,” Marybeth Hamilton explains: [G]iven her burlesquian curves and ribald reputation, most had assumed she’d prove a limited stag draw.

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: On the contrary, “I’m No Angel” drew such a large female audience that an Omaha theater owner held women-only screenings, complete with complimentary coffee and rolls, so that women could savor Mae West among themselves.    
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: In fact, before coming to the silver screen, Mae West already had many female admirers.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Prior to Hollywood, she enjoyed great success on Broadway.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: In another essay, Hamilton provides a detailed discussion on West’s play, SEX, which opened in April 1926 and became a Broadway sensation.
• • Mae West: Was “Sex” merely “bald, crass porn"? • • …  
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • Saturday, 25 October 1930 • •
• • In their issue dated for Saturday, 25 October 1930, Publishers Weekly announced the clever contest Mae West's publisher Macauley came up with to draw more attention to her novel titled "Babe Gordon."  
• • Asking a reader to rename it, Macauley offered a prize of $100. The winning title was "The Constant Sinner."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Maybe “Diamond Lil,” with Mae West who wrote it and Cary Grant, who co-starred will  reopen the 11-year-dark Majestic, the Freres Schubert have declared.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Tired of all those jokes about my figure and my man talk? No, if people expect me to be the same off-stage — — why I call that flattery."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An Illinois newspaper mentioned Mae West.
• • Coming Sunday to the Rialto Theatre — — Mae West in "I'm No Angel." . . .
• • Source: Urbana Daily Courier; published on Thursday, 19 October 1933
• • 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,800 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,850th 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 1933 • •
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