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Leo McCarey, who helmed "Belle of the Nineties," was one of the directors MAE WEST never liked.
• • In September 1934, a review of "Belle of the Nineties" appeared in The New York Times: "Of course, Miss West is her own plot, but there are a fixed prize-fight, some stolen jools, an envious siren, a fire, and a pair of rival claimants for her affections to add the necessary business. While Ruby Carter's personal philosophy is, in her own words, to keep cool and collect, she has a healthy admiration for a good man, and the Tiger Kid fills the bill. ..."
• • Born in Los Angeles, in the month of July, Leo McCarey [3 October 1898 — 5 July 1969] was an Academy Award-winning film director, screenwriter, and producer.
• • Where It Happened • • 
• • When Mae West was rehearsing in the month of July for "Ginger Box Review" — — in which she would be singing "Eugene O'Neill, You Put a Curse on Broadway" — — she was returning to a familiar playhouse on Sheridan Square. In 1920, Mae had enjoyed seeing her idol Bert Savoy [1888 — 1923] in the musical comedy "The Greenwich Village Follies of 1920," which opened at the Greenwich Village Theatre on 30 August 1920.
• • En route to Seventh Avenue South to production meetings at this 400-seat theatre in the summer of 1922, it is likely that Mae would have passed a place where she could have purchased a copy of "The Hairy Ape," the recently staged drama that was being lampooned in "Ginger Box Review."
• • "The Hairy Ape," an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill, had opened in Greenwich Village on Thursday, 9 March 1922. Drama critic Alexander Woollcott wrote: The little theatre of Provincetownsmen in MacDougal Street was packed to the doors with astonishment last evening as scene after scene unfolded in the new play by Eugene O'Neill. This was "The Hairy Ape," a bitter, brutal, wildly fantastic play of nightmare hue and nightmare distortion. It is a monstrously uneven piece, now flamingly eloquent, now choked and thwarted and inarticulate . . . ["Eugene O'Neill at Full Tilt" by Alexander Woollcott, published in The N.Y. Times on 10 March 1922].
• • If O'Neill was fortunate in the enthusiastic media coverage he received, he was also blessed by having an intelligent promoter of the manuscripts of his plays, the imaginative and erudite literary publisher Frank Shay, famously located at 4 Christopher Street. Come along with us to Chez Shay on August 14th.
• • Annual Mae West Tribute 2011 • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill" 
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th. An upcoming Mae West event that is open to the public will be held on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." Rare vintage illustrations will show you how the buildings and blocks looked as these two theatre people saw them.
• • Sites will include the Village speakeasies where Eugene drank himself into oblivion, and where Mae socialized and bent elbows with Texas Guinan, Walter Winchell, and Barney Gallant. Get ready to walk on the wild side.
• • Each Mae West walking tour ends with a raffle of Mae-themed prizes. Sponsors may inquire about suitable product placements for August 14th.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “Love thy neighbor. And if he happens to be tall, debonair, and good looking, it will be that much easier.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mae West enjoyed shopping at Bullocks. You can spend the day there, too, in July.
• • An occasional blogger, The Chic Bargainista has just written this post: Some Los Angeles residents may remember the art deco splendor of the old Bullocks Wilshire store. It was one of the first shopping stores to open in the suburbs and features a parking lots for its patrons cars. Wealthy Los Angeles residents shopped there as well as movie stars. Stars like Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Doris Day all shopped at the renowned department store. Sadly, the store shuttered its doors in 1993 after the Los Angeles riots and the recession of the 1980s. . . . However, every summer the [current law] school reopens Bullocks Wilshire for a wonderful tour, which also offers attendees the chance to chose to have lunch or high-tea in the legendary Tea Room where stars like John Wayne stopped in, and models in the latest fashions floated between the tables of ladies who lunched. This year, the tour will take place on 30 July 2011. General reservations for the tour will open on July 6th. ...”
• • Source: Article: "Save the Date: A Summer's Day at Bullocks Wilshire Tour is on July 30th " written by The Chic Bargainista; posted on 4 July 2011
• • 17 July 2004 — 17 July 2011 • •
• • In mid-July the Mae West Blog will celebrate its seventh anniversary. Thank you to all those Mae-mavens who come up and see Mae every day.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1982nd 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1922 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST charmed The New York Times film critic Mordaunt Hall. Well satisfied by the motion picture "I'm No Angel," Hall haled it and his readers heeded. 
• • Here's what Hall wrote after the advance screening in 1933:
• • Arrayed in a variety of costumes which set off her sinuous form, Mae West is appearing at the Paramount in her latest screen vehicle, "I'm No Angel," a title which, as might be surmised, fits the leading character. Here Miss West, who wrote the story herself from "suggestions contributed" by Lowell Brentano, is beheld as a circus beauty named Tira, who wins applause and admiration by risking her blond head in a lion's mouth twice daily.
• • It is a rapid-fire entertainment, with shameless but thoroughly contagious humor, and one in which Tira is always the mistress of the situation, whether it be in the cage with wild beasts, in her boudoir with admirers, or in a court of law.
• • Tira is ever ready with a flip double entendre, and she permits no skeleton to be found behind her cupboard doors. She has an emphatic personality, which proves a magnet for even socialites with millions. She receives costly presents, including diamond necklaces, but she is hardly a gold-digger. She refrains from posing, preferring to keep her natural slangy speech in her journey through the story from a tent to a penthouse.
• • She admits that she has thrown discretion to the winds and she sometimes finds herself in an awkward predicament, but through a wily lawyer she succeeds in proving that she is guiltless. The feeble parts of this picture are those in which a criminal known as Slick is introduced. The less one sees of him the better one feels, for the production is interesting only as long as it proceeds on its merry route.
• • The glimpses of Tira making her impressive entry to the circus arena and then proceeding to the big cage with the roaring lions are depicted shrewdly. Tira does not actually stick her whole head in the lion's mouth, but contents herself by putting her face between the beast's jaws, which is quite enough. Even this is set forth with a certain degree of fun, and one feels that Tira probably has a pistol ready for an emergency and that other circus employee are ready to shoot in the event that the beast starts to close its mouth. But one is apt to wonder whether they could possibly be quick enough. Society among the spectators is thrilled, all except one snobbish girl, who is furious because her fiancé is very enthusiastic over the performer's courage — — and her beauty.
• • Later there comes the time when Tira puts her fair head into a court of law as the plaintiff in a breach-of-promise case. She sues Jack Clayton, whom she really loves, for $1,000,000, and it is not Tira's artful counsel who wins the case, but the circus queen herself. She cross-examines the defendant's witnesses and turns their testimony in her own favor, the unusual proceeding being countenanced by a judge whose sympathy Tira wins with the utmost ease.
• • Miss West plays her part with the same brightness and naturalness that attended her second film role. There is no lack of spontaneity in her actions nor in the utterance of her lines. She is a remarkable wit — — after her fashion. Cary Grant is pleasing as Jack Clayton and Walter Walker is excellent as the considerate old judge. Gregory Ratoff does well as Tira's lawyer. Wesley Ruggles has directed the film with his usual intelligence.
— — Source: — —
• • Byline: Mordaunt Hall
• • Published by: The New York Times
• • Published on: 13 October 1933
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • Cast for "I'm No Angel" • • • •
• • Tira . . . Mae West
• • Jack Clayton . . . Cary Grant
• • Bill Barton . . . Edward Arnold
• • Slick . . . Ralf Harolde
• • Barker . . . Russel Hopton
• • Alicia Hatton . . . Gertrude Michael
• • Kirk . . . Kent Taylor
• • Thelma . . . Dorothy Peterson
• • Benny Pinkowitz . . . Gregory Ratoff
• • Beulah . . . Gertrude Howard
• • The Chump . . . William B. Davidson
• • Bob, the Attorney . . . Irving Pichel• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • On Friday February 6th, a sparkling new print of "I'm No Angel" will open the 1930s series "Breadlines and Champagne," which will run from Friday February 6th through March 5, 2009 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info and screentimes are available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST, the price of a movie ticket, and the American economy were on the mind of a New York City film critic this week. 
• • Let's begin by saying that DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is putting up a good front these days.
• • In his intriguing piece in The Village Voice, J. Hoberman writes: "More optimistically and historically," Jeffrey Katzenberg recalled, the motion-picture product "has actually been recession-proof." Optimistic? You bet: Back in 1930, Hollywood had considered itself "depression-proof," too.
• • For the American people, the first five years of the Great Depression — 1930 through 1934 — were the worst of times and the really worst of times. For the American movie industry, the period would also bring the worst of economic times. In another way, though, it was the best. The early '30s were the days of "Breadlines & Champagne," as Film Forum has dubbed its month-long, all-35mm celebration of the pre-Code, the Socially Conscious, and the Screwball — three manifestations of the richest period in Hollywood history.
• • Crisis may be stimulus to popular art — the Nixon years were great for movies as well — and the Great Depression created chaos for all. Busily rewiring their theaters for newly developed "talking pictures" and importing verbally adroit talent from the Broadway stage to make them, the Hollywood studios initially ignored the stock market crash. The crash, however, did not ignore them. The novelty of sound soon faded. By the end of 1931, the record motion-picture audience of the previous year was down by a third and falling. So were ticket prices. Production costs, however, had doubled.
• • Warner Bros., the studio that led the initially profitable shift to talking pictures, was now hemorrhaging money. Universal terminated hundreds of employees and would soon join RKO in receivership — followed by Fox and, in what was then America's second largest bankruptcy to date, Paramount. As movie houses darkened, exhibitors played exploitation angles, promoting double features, dish giveaways, and weekly lotteries called "bank nights" — which, as part of its retro, Film Forum plans to revive. By the time Franklin Roosevelt took office in March 1933, theaters were empty, production slates slashed, cash flow dried up. The industry was near collapse. But the product was better than ever.
• • Sound brought a new hyper-verbal cinema, racy, and insolent. The talkies also changed the nature of stardom.
• • (The great voices of the early 1930s are recycled to this day: Cagney, Hepburn, Peter Lorre, Groucho Marx, W.C. Fields, and Mae West.)
• • Hard times pushed desperate producers toward sensationalism. The studios ignored their own Production Code. Crime paid, so did sin. Street-smart criminals traded brazen double entendres with fast-talking chorines. Gangsters ruled the 1931-32 season; bad girls followed, as Variety estimated 80 percent of the pictures released in the 1932-33 season had a "sex slant." 
• • • • The biggest hit of 1933 • • • •
• • The trend peaked with Mae West, whose first feature, She Done Him Wrong, was the biggest hit of 1933, returning 10 times its production costs in North America alone and precipitating a national crusade to clean up the movies. Fittingly, "Breadlines & Champagne" opens with West's follow-up, I'm No Angel — selling tickets at the Depression price of 35 cents.
• • The movies of the early '30s were at once more naturalistic and more theatrical than silent movies — and, thanks to tight budgets and the exigencies of the double feature, far snappier. In addition to trafficking in sex and violence, talkies assimilated the vaudeville aesthetic of ethnic stereotype and crazy comedy, creating a rowdy new American idiom in which every other line seemed to include an appreciative "Swell!" or questioning "On the level?" Extravagant fantasies alternated with cynical realism. The period brought forth a remarkable number of enduring celluloid archetypes: Paul Muni's Scarface and Jean Harlow's Platinum Blonde, the Universal horrors Dracula and Frankenstein, Tarzan and King Kong, Betty Boop and even Mickey Mouse. The chaos (and lack of supervision) allowed filmmakers like Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg, and Busby Berkeley to do their best work — unlike today, when every project is necessarily pre-sold and vetted.
• • "Breadlines & Champagne" [at New York's Film Forum] doesn't showcase the full range of early-'30s Hollywood, but it is particularly rich in "preachment yarns" — movies that trafficked in lurid topicality while expressing a measure of passionately confused social protest. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Why Hard Times Won't Mean Good Times at the Movies Again — — Brother, can you spare $12?"
• • Byline: J. Hoberman
• • Published in: The Village Voice
• • Published on: Tuesday, 3rd February 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • "I'm No Angel" is being shown as part of the 1930s series "Breadlines and Champagne," which will run from Friday February 6th through March 5 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info and screentimes are available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
New Yorkers in the know are getting in the mood to spend February 6th with MAE WEST. 
• • If you have seen "I'm No Angel" before, then you might remember the title song, which Mae warbles in her inimitable cheeky way.
• • Harvey Brooks wrote the music for the theme song and the lyrics were written by Gladys DuBois and Ben Ellison.
• • Born in Philadelphia in the month of February — — 15 February 1899 — — Harvey Brooks also wrote the music for several other Mae West numbers. Composer Harvey Brooks died in Los Angeles on 17 June 1968.
• • Here are the lyrics so you can sing along with Mae on Friday.
• • • • "I'm No Angel" • • • •Aw, come on, let me cling on to ya like a vine
Make that lowdown music trickle off your spine
Baby, I can warm ya with this love of mine
I'm no angel
Aw, let me feel your fingers runnin' through my hair
I can give you kisses till you walk on air
Love me, honey, love me till I just don't care
I'm no angel
I'll take your blues, stomp down your troubles
Rock you with a steady roll
Here's your good nation, drink my affection
You're my new ace in the hole
Aw, let me have ya now before the night is gone
Come on, flank this joint, so we can carry on
I can make it heaven where the shades are drawn
I'm no angel
(— Instrumental Break —)
Come on, honey, thrill me like a midnight breeze
Don't care how you do it, babe, just so you please
Take my kisses till your weary heart's at ease
I'm no angel
Let me feel your fingers runnin' through my hair
I can give you kisses till you walk on air
Love me, honey, love me till I just don't care
I'm no angel
Oh, I'll take your blues, stomp down your troubles
Rock you with a steady roll
Here's your innovation, drink my affection
You're my new ace in the hole
Aw, let me have ya now before the night is gone
Come on, flank this joint, so we can carry on
I can make it heaven where the shades are drawn
I'm no angel
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • Cast for "I'm No Angel" • • • •
• • Tira . . . Mae West
• • Jack Clayton . . . Cary Grant
• • Bill Barton . . . Edward Arnold
• • Slick . . . Ralf Harolde
• • Barker . . . Russel Hopton
• • Alicia Hatton . . . Gertrude Michael
• • Kirk . . . Kent Taylor
• • Thelma . . . Dorothy Peterson
• • Benny Pinkowitz . . . Gregory Ratoff
• • Beulah . . . Gertrude Howard
• • The Chump . . . William B. Davidson
• • Bob, the Attorney . . . Irving Pichel• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • "I'm No Angel" is being shown as part of the 1930s series "Breadlines and Champagne," which will run from Friday February 6th through March 5 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info and screentimes are available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST leads the parade of screen gems when Film Forum rolls out the red carpet this coming Friday in Manhattan. 
• • This new series — — "Breadlines and Champagne" — — is focused on Depression movies, pre-Code classics, screwball comedies, and the socially conscious plots that worked their way to the silver screen. There will be Prohibition Era treats such as the Tuesday special which is being billed as "Bank Nites."
• • Programmed by Bruce Goldstein, and featuring all 35mm prints, this is the best news since bathtub gin was perfected.
• • The opening night stars Mae West and Cary Grant, in a screenplay written by the Brooklyn bombshell and inspired by her awe of Bostock's lions in Coney Island, which she enjoyed as a child. Those trips to Dreamland with her father created Mae's desire to be a lion tamer — — and in "I'm No Angel" Tira will get her chance to enter the big cage and eyeball the king of beasts.
• • Here is what some critics have said about "I'm No Angel."
• • • • "Mae West was the sensation of 1933. A total delight to watch." — Andrew Bergman
• • • • "Going to help redistribute a nice chunk of the nation's coin. Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber and all-around box office bet in the country." — Variety (1933)
• • • • "Arguably West's best film, certainly one of her funniest." — Pauline Kael
• • "There weren't that many films that dealt directly with the Depression," says Bruce Goldstein, repertory director at Manhattan's Film Forum. "But you got a feeling of the desperation — — the lower-class rooms, the spartan look of things. There's an almost palpable atmosphere."
• • "Breadlines and Champagne," Goldstein's upcoming retrospective at the Forum, offers New Yorkers the thrill of enjoying 50 Depression-era movies in new prints. Friday's opening night showcases Mae West's "I'm No Angel," and a 1933 admission price of 35 cents.
• • Why weren't there more of these classics? "Cycles come and go," says Goldstein. "I think people were tired of those Depression-era movies, and the studios wanted to make more escapist entertainment. And after the Production Code came in (in 1934) everything got sanitized — — there were certain kinds of characters and certain kinds of stories you just couldn't do anymore."
• • For the complete schedule, stop by Film Forum.
• • Every Tuesday movie-goers will enjoy the revival of an old-time tradition of giveaways so prepare for some good old-fashion fun.
• • "Breadlines and Champagne" runs from Friday February 6th through March 5 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY. Info is available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
The play "Courting Mae West" opens in one of the drag cabarets in the Village that MAE WEST used to visit. In Act I, Scene 1, Mae waves to a cigarette girl in drag known as Rosebud. Mae explains to her date, "I just cast Rosebud over there in 'The Drag'. . . ." 
• • In 1923, Arthur C. Budd was 21 years old and residing at 25 West 52nd Street. Known as “Rosebud,” Arthur C. Budd worked as a female impersonator in “The Lady in Ermine” at The Century Theater.
• • A New York Times article published on 5 February 1923 — — “Village Raid Nets 4 Women and 9 Men: Detectives Thought They Had Five Females, but Misjudged One Person by Clothing” — — paints a picture of the Greenwich Village circles Rosebud traveled in.
• • The police continue to pay special attention to Greenwich Village, according to The N.Y. Times. Every tearoom and cabaret in the village was visited yesterday morning by Deputy Inspector Joseph A. Howard and Captain Edward J. Dempsey of the Charles Street Station, and a party of ten detectives.
• • Detectives Joseph Massie and Dewey Hughes of the Special Service Squad were at the Black Parrot Tea Shoppe Hobo-Hemia, 46 Charles Street, to witness what they had been informed would be a “circus.” They arrested what they thought were five women and eight men. It developed later, however, that one of the “women” was a man, Harry Bernhammer, 21 years old, living at 36 Hackensack Avenue, West Hoboken, N.J. He is familiarly known in the Village as “Ruby,” according to the police. The charge against him is disorderly conduct for giving what the police termed an indecent dance.
• • The other prisoners, all of whom were bailed out at the station house, were Lucy Smith, 22 years old, of 46 Charles Street, and Patricia Rogers, 24 years old, of 16 Charles Street, alleged proprietors of the establishment, charged with violating the Mullan-Gage law; . . . Arthur C. Budd, 21 years old, of 25 West Fifty-second Street; . . . Paul Warring, 21 years old, of 75 West Seventy-second Street; . . . . The real name of the Smith woman, according to the police, is Vera Black, and the real name of the Rogers woman is Nan Paddock.
• • Arthur C. Budd, according to the police, is known as “Rosebud,” and claimed when arrested that he is a female impersonator in “The Lady in Ermine” at The Century Theater.
• • Paul Warring, the police say, is pianist at the Black Parrot and was formerly employed at a Broadway cabaret. . . . Reilly is accused of doing “a suggestive dance.”
• • The detectives allege that before the raid early yesterday morning they bought eight drinks of whiskey at $1 a drink.
• • The “circus” did not actually take place, the detectives said, for just before the time for it to begin Patricia Rogers stepped out on the floor and announced: “There are two policemen here and I am afraid to put on the circus."
• • The joyful soiree at the Black Parrot Tea Shoppe Hobo-Hemia [46 Charles Street, New York, NY 10014] ended rather abruptly with a paddy wagon conveying the arrested individuals to Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue on 5 February 1923.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Jefferson Market Police Court • •
NYC
Mae West.
Few people made MAE WEST laugh louder than vaudevillian Dave Apollon.
• • Born in Kiev, Russia on 23 February 1897, Dave's heavy "sour cream accent" was so hilarious that Mae West knew exactly how to increase his comic capital when they worked together during 1922 in the ill-fated "Ginger Box Revue" [slated to open at the Greenwich Village Theatre in Sheridan Square].
• • When a shady producer short-changed the cast by not producing the expected costumes and scenery, Mae pushed Dave Apollon onstage to deliver a prologue. Apologizing for the third-rate production the audience was about to see, Apollon muttered under his breath, "Ach! It was better under the czar with the lousy pogroms!"
• • Though Dave Apollon also worked as a mandolin player, it was not his musicianship that brought him the enormous popularity and success he was to achieve in vaudeville. Instead it was his Russian accent. Always on the lookout for entertainers with unique charms, Mae West first noticed his built in assets.
• • In "Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It," Mae described her first encounter with Dave during the Ginger Box Review debacle.
• • Mae West wrote: "At a rehearsal of this show I first met Dave Apollon. He had just arrived in this country, after some hardships, and was in the show. He was a fine mandolin player and Russian dancer. I first saw him dressed in a very tight-fitting green tweed suit that looked as if it had been made for a smaller brother, high button shoes, and a high Hoover collar. He was short but slender, with a round elf's face, and a turned-up nose over a mocking mouth. He had a sour-cream heavy Russian accent, and a very amusing way of expressing himself in a fractured English almost like double-talk. Dave was very funny, I thought, but in the show he just played the mandolin and did a short dance. I couldn't help being amused by him and I would have him come to me so that I could ask him questions just to hear him mangle the language. I would try not to laugh out loud, just inwardly, and somehow everything became funnier that way. When Dave Apollon would start talking it would break me up inside. He'd ask, 'Whut suz funnik I'm saying please to tell me?'"
• • I said to him, "Dave, with your mannerisms, voice, and puzzled expression that seems to struggle to understand what is said, you make me scream with laughter. What would you be able to do to an audience?"
• • "But no thenk you — — I serious minded fella, this mandolin and dancing very serious for me is enough."
• • Mae West persisted and soon had Dave reading lines in a skit about Circe and her lovers. When the show opened in South Norwalk, Connecticut, it was discovered that the scenery was too small for the theater. The producer was about to write a formal apology for the theater manager to read to the opening-night audience, when Mae came up with an idea.
• • "Get Dave Apollon to go out before the curtain, in a spotlight, in his own tight little green street suit, and with that borscht dialect he should really be, funny telling them about the scenery." They captured Dave, fed him hot tea, patted his back, told him he could do it. Finally, Dave did go out on the stage to make the announcement. The more he got tangled up in the English language, the more scared and bewildered he looked, the more the audience howled. He became so screamingly funny the audience doubled up in the seats. They applauded madly, thinking it was all a part of the original show. He came off pop-eyed. "I sweating like a hoss," he said.
• • Dave Apollon died in Las Vegas at age 75 during the month of May: 30 May 1972.
• • 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.
