Mae West: Story of O

Only one of MAE WEST's motion pictures received an Academy Award nod. Alas, a wink is not a win. The Brooklyn bombshell's big box-office for "She Done Him Wrong" left no impression on the gold-plated statuette's baby-sitters. And so, anticipating the season of Oscar, New York Times writer Dave Kehr offers his analysis about the tug-of-war between wowing the audience versus winning the laurels.
• • According to Dave Kehr: One of the enduring traditions of the Academy Awards is that the Oscar for best picture almost invariably goes to a film that isn’t. This will not be news to anyone who has sat through some genuine groaners from Oscars past: pictures like Frank Lloyd’s 1933 “Cavalcade,” Robert Z. Leonard’s 1936 “Great Ziegfeld” and Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 “Greatest Show on Earth.”
• • But even when good movies win, the other nominees are usually of equal or even greater interest. Most famously there was the banner year of 1941, for which John Ford’s magnificent “How Green Was My Valley” was named what the academy then termed “outstanding motion picture” (a more modest, defensible claim and perhaps one the academy should revive) while Orson Welles’s game-changing “Citizen Kane” went home with only the original screenplay award.
• • If the Oscars aren’t a reliable guide to artistic accomplishment, they provide an infallible index to how the leaders of the motion picture industry want their business to be seen in any given year. In 1933, for example, pressure was mounting from civic and religious groups for Hollywood to clean up its act — — pressure that would result in the renewed enforcement of the Production Code in 1934.
• • By selecting “Cavalcade” — — a numbing historical pageant, derived from a Noël Coward play, about a wealthy couple (Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook) stiff-upper-lipping their way through 40 years of English history — — the members of the academy distanced themselves from the racy entertainments that then dominated the box office.
• • Hollywood's 1932 — 1933 Season of O
• • Among the other nominees of the 1932 — 1933 season: the flesh-baring, garter-snapping backstage musical “42nd Street”; Mae West’s “She Done Him Wrong” — — the film in which she sings the innuendo-laden ballad “Where Has My Easy Rider Gone?” [sic]; and Frank Borzage’s adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “Farewell to Arms,” a film so forthright in its depiction of premarital sex that 12 minutes had to be cut when it was reissued into the more prudish, post-Code world of 1938. . . .
• • For most of the ’30s the academy whipsawed between popular entertainments (“It Happened One Night,” 1934) and prestigious literary adaptations (“Mutiny on the Bounty,” 1935) meant to assure would-be censors that Hollywood was a dignified, pipe-smoking kind of place, tirelessly working for the moral improvement of American audiences. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Big, Important Picture? Sure. But Is It Best?"
• • Byline: DAVE KEHR
• • Published in: The New York Times
• • Published on: 31 December 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Bowery Singer

MAE WEST was not the only one fascinated by the Bowery.
• • In 1905, Singer took over the firm Wheeler and Wilson Sewing Machines. In December they released intriguing bits of New York City history as part of the promotional material celebrating the merger.
• • Mae West's mother — — who made all of the costumes for "Baby Mae" — — perhaps even saw one of these give-aways. One featured a large photo of the Bowery and here's a portion of what it said.
• • The glamour is gone from "Thieves' Paradise," as the block on the right-hand side — — between Houston and First Streets — — towards the head of the thoroughfare used to be known. "Suicide Hall" was closed during the administration of Mayor Low, and the proprietor fled the city to escape arrest. More recently the Volks' Garten, adjoining it, has been taken over for the establishment of a Methodist mission.
• • At the head of the Bowery, just visible in the photograph, is . . . .
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1928 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Big Tim

Since MAE WEST had her eye on Tammany Hall perhaps for the entire time she lived in New York, she could spot a fixer.
• • "Big" Tim Sullivan [23 July 1862 — 31 August 1913] was a fixer extraordinaire and a born ward-heeler. This New York politician who controlled Manhattan's Bowery and Lower East Side districts as a prominent figure within Tammany Hall was the model for Mae's character Gus Jordan in "Diamond Lil."
• • Similarly, in "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] the bejeweled chanteuse and brash entertainer Lady Lou (Mae West) works in the 1890s Bowery saloon of her boss and benefactor Gus Jordan (Noah Beery, Sr.), who has given her many diamonds.
• • Unbeknownst to Lady Lou, slick and sleazy Gus Jordan trafficks in white slavery (prostitution) and runs a counterfeiting ring (to help finance Lou's expensive rock collection). He also sends young women to San Francisco to be pickpockets. Gus works with two other crooked entertainer-assistants, Russian Rita (Rafaela Ottiano) and Rita's lover, the suave Serge Stanieff (Gilbert Roland).
• • Not as handsome as Beery and certainly far heavier, "Big" Tim Sullivan was born to poor Irish parents in the notorious Five Points neighborhood. Determined to be successful, "Big" Tim Sullivan cultivated careers in business and politics. Over the course of 25 years beginning in 1886, Sullivan assembled a political machine that ruled the districts of lower Manhattan. A legitimate entrepreneur in the world of entertainment, Sullivan forged an effective brand of urban politics by fusing the traditional tactics of the machine with his influence in commercial leisure and organized crime.
• • Staging theatrical entertainments and athletic competitions, handing out food and clothing to constituents, and offering employment and social services to ordinary citizens won him many followers, but Sullivan's protection of key figures in the vice economy of the Lower East Side made him a rather controversial figure. Despite his frequent use of physical intimidation, "Big" Tim nonetheless worked to expand the franchise and give the disadvantaged a voice in municipal politics.
• • Both Mae West's character Gus Jordan and Tim Sullivan were active in a number of illegal activities including prostitution, white slavery, gambling, and extortion.
• • On 31 August 1913, "Big" Tim's body was found on the tracks in the Eastchester area of the Bronx, New York.
• • Sullivan's wake was held at his clubhouse — — located at 203 Bowery.
• • More than 25,000 people turned out for his funeral at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, New York on Mott Street. Perhaps some "mourners" turned up solely to make sure this politico was dead.
• • Tim's clubhouse was down the block from the notorious Bowery "resort" near Houston Street, namely McGurk's Suicide Hall [295 Bowery]. The second chapter of "Diamond Lil" (a 256-page novelization of the play published by Macaulay in 1932) is Suicide Hall.
— — Source for some of this information: — —
• • Article: "Underworlds and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889 — 1913"
• • Byline: Daniel Czitrom
• • Published in: The Journal of American History, vol. 78, no.2
• • Published on: September 1991
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 lobby card
• • Artwork: Big Tim Sullivan was drawn by artist Pat Hamou
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Mae West.

Mae West: The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army has appeared in a number of films and plays and certainly MAE WEST made good use of it.
• • In her Broadway blockbuster "Diamond Lil" [which opened in April 1928], Mae perhaps had the Easter season in mind when she scripted this exchange:
• • Diamond Lil (turning around at the top of the stairs): "Whyncha come up some time and — — see me?"
• • Salvation Army Officer: "I'm sorry, Lil, I can't. It's Lent."
• • Diamond Lil: "Well, when you get it back, come up and see me."
• • The red-lining "Hitler of Hollywood" got Mae West to tone down the Salvation Army connection in Paramount's film version. In "She Done Him Wrong" [1933], a city mission (a rather thinly-disguised Salvation Army) is next door to Gus Jordan's saloon. Its young missionary director, Captain Cummings (played by Cary Grant) is, in reality, "The Hawk," an undercover agent working to infiltrate and expose the illegal activities in the bar.
• • The film "Klondike Annie" [1936] returned to the soul-saving organization — — probably because it was thought of as a lucky charm that could attract ticket-buyers. In the script, Mae West is a music hall performer who has to impersonate a Salvation Army missionary Sister Annie Alden (portrayed by actress Helen Jerome Eddy). Despite kicking and screaming from Joe Breen's office about linking the empress of sex to this Christian group, Mae went ahead and put plenty of missionaries and temptresses in the supporting cast.
• • The character Fanny Radler was portrayed by actress Esther Howard [born on 4 April 1892 in Helena, Montana].
• • The month of April reminds us of The Salvation Army especially because its British founder William Booth, a Methodist preacher, was born on 10 April 1829.
• • The Salvation Army is a Christian charity and church that is internally organized like a military service; it functions as both a charity and social services organization. Its founders William [1829 — 1912] and Catherine Booth [1829 — 1890] sought to bring Christian salvation to the poor, destitute, and hungry by meeting both their physical and spiritual needs.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1936 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Noah Beery, Sr.

MAE WEST worked in one project with a character actor who died on April Fool's Day.
• • In "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] the bejeweled chanteuse and brash entertainer Lady Lou (Mae West) works in the 1890s Bowery saloon of her boss and benefactor Gus Jordan (Noah Beery, Sr.), who has given her many diamonds.
• • Unbeknownst to Lady Lou, slick and sleazy Gus Jordan trafficks in white slavery (prostitution) and runs a counterfeiting ring (to help finance Lou's expensive rock collection). He also sends young women to San Francisco to be pickpockets. Gus works with two other crooked entertainer-assistants, Russian Rita (Rafaela Ottiano) and Rita's lover, the suave Serge Stanieff (Gilbert Roland).
• • Kansas City, Missouri native Noah Beery, Sr. [17 January 1882 — 1 April 1946] pursued a theatrical career from a young age.
• • Noah and his younger brothers William Beery and the legendary Wallace Beery all became Hollywood actors.
• • His much more successful younger brother, Academy Award winning Wallace Beery [1 April 1885 — 15 April 1949], was once wed to Gloria Swanson.
• • After a number of years touring on the stage, in 1915 Noah joined his brother Wallace in Hollywood to make motion pictures — — where he became a respected character actor adept at playing the role of the heavy.
• • Then, after years of working in silent films, he successfully made the transition to talking pictures. One film historian dubbed him "the villain's villain."
• • During a career that spanned three decades, Noah Beery, Sr. appeared in almost two hundred motion pictures.
• • In 1946, Noah Beery, Sr. died — — on his brother Wallace Beery's April 1st birthday — — in Beverly Hills, California of a heart attack at age 64.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Noah Beery, Sr. on the right • • 1933 • •
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Mae West.