Happy Birthday to MAE WEST,
Brooklyn Bombshell, Screen Siren, Empress of Sex, Queen of Comedy, a notable
and quotable comedienne who maintained a long career on stage, on screen, on
the guest star circuit, and who also sizzled on the nightclub circuit.
• • Delivered by a local mid-wife, this feisty newborn drew her first lusty
breaths in Bushwick on Thursday, 17 August 1893 (under the proud leonine sign
of Leo) in her parents' bedroom. Little Mary Jane West always said: "I was
born on a cool night in a hot month so I knew I could expect anything."
• • Each day at least one publication in the world mentions her name. [We can verify our claim, too, because we have tracked this a-Mae-zing trend daily for the past 18 years now!]
• • No other movie queen coined so many witticisms — durable and dateless because Mae West relied on wordplay and rhetorical devices such as chiasmus.
• • Often imitated but never duplicated, the one and only Mae West endures in our hearts and memories.
• • Darling Mae, to your loyal followers, you don't look a day over twenty-sex!
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Even at the fourscore mark, she remains a remarkable figure of a woman. The well-padded frame, which inspired the Mae West life jacket in World War II, seems little changed.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West had been 40 when she made the first of 12 films and was an important influence on the early career of Cary Grant, teaching him much about the craft of comedy in the course of appearing with him in “She Done Him Wrong” and “I'm No Angel.”
• • The death of this sex goddess from Hollywood's Golden Age was front-page news in November 1980 when she was 87.
• • Mae West said: "Come up sometime and see me. I'm home every evening."
• • Mae West said: "I give 'em what they want to see."
• • Mae West said: “The curve is mightier than the sword.”
• • Mae West said: "You have to outfight everyone else to succeed."
• • Mae West said: "I'll never believe the worst about anyone without complete proof."
• • Mae West said: "Woman is capable of more trickery than man ever dreamed of. I am not defending the tricky woman, but if she is forced to battle for the place due to her, she cannot be condemned for using any ruse she can."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "Mae West Turns Sixty" • •
• • The Horsham Times wrote: Mae West turned 60 recently. To reporters who went along to wish her many happy returns, Miss West made it plain that birthdays are one thing a lady just doesn't discuss.
• • Fluttering her inch-long eyelashes demurely, Mae West said: "You can see for yourself, a girl's just as old as she feels."
• • Source: The Horsham Times; published on Friday, 12 September 1952
• • 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 18th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,152nd 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 • • sketched in 1932 and 1970 • •
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