Mae West: Requiring 4 Men

What was going on in the mind of MAE WEST on Saturday night, 13 January 1945 as her show "Catherine Was Great" was winding down its Broadway engagement with its 191th performance?
• • It is easy to disparage the dreams of a performer. When it comes to admiration and understanding of Mae's achievement, however, look to John T. Alexander's informative analysis of those who tried to walk in Catherine's shoes. He starts by mentioning all the European film stars who portrayed the empress: Pola Negri, Louise Dresser, Elisabeth Bergner, Paule Andral, Marlene Dietrich ["The Scarlet Empress" in 1934], etc. He also enumerates other interpretations by Tallulah Bankhead, Hildegard Neff, Jeanne Moreau, Zoe Caldwell, and so on. Especially dissatisfied by Dietrich's portrayal ("an arty disaster") and irritated by Bergner's interpretation, Mae West became even more intrigued with the Russian czarina.
• • Mae West said: "I saw the Empress as a warm, gay, very sensual woman, and yet a monarch who was a skillful politician and a master statesman."
• • John T. Alexander wrote: "In four months, by September 1938, Mae West compiled a screenplay about Catherine's life as an empress. ... [When] the Hollywood studios reacted frigidly, Mae West resolved to have it produced independently, but this proved impossible, too."
• • Determined to see the project produced, Mae reworked the material as a stage revue and opened for a three week run in Philadelphia in July 1944 before mounting a Broadway version. Though she later regretted it, she limited herself to one song: "Strong, Solid, and Sensational."
• • Mae's 70-lb train in the final scene required four men . . . • •
• • John T. Alexander wrote: The elaborate, heavily brocaded costumes tested her endurance; her 70-lb train in the final scene required four men to lift it gracefully. ... Certainly her portrayal impressed more deeply than ever in the popular psyche Catherine's association with extravagant, theatrical sexuality."
• • Source for this information: John T. Alexander's book "Catherine the Great: Life and Legend" (New York: Oxford University Press, Nov. 1989, 418 pages)
• • Sophie Tucker [1884 — 1966] • •
• • In January it's time to remember a singer and comedienne who was a big influence on Mae West, though she never admitted it.
• • Sophie Tucker [13 January 1884 — 9 February 1966] was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first third of the 20th century. Almost ten years older than Mae and not as controversial when she launched her career, Sophie Tucker had an ethnic appeal which upped her forward momentum and she was, in fact, a much bigger draw in vaudeville than the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • On Saturday, 13 January 1945 • •
• • "Catherine Was Great" featured Mae West onstage in her stunning Russian empress regalia. Mike Todd's lavish production was onstage from 2 August 1944 — 13 January 1945 on Broadway, which ran for 191 performances. The play was staged at the Shubert Theatre, then moved to the Royale.
• • On Sunday, 13 January 1958 • •
• • An article in a Joe Weider publication in 2004 gave this point of view on the late bodybuilder and the Hollywood icon:
• • Joe Weider's reporter wrote: In 1955, a 64-year-old Mae West saw Mickey Hargitay on the cover of Strength and Health Magazine. She asked him to join her chorus of musclemen, clad in leopardskin G-strings, in her Las Vegas nightclub act, the Mae West Revue. According to Mae West, when she first met him, Hargitay had said: "Miss West, you are the end of my search for an ideal, my dream come true." ...
• • Blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield encountered the very handsome Mr. Universe 1956 Miklos (Mickey) Hargitay on 13 May 1956, while attending a performance of the "Mae West Revue" at the Latin Quarter in Manhattan.
• • Twenty months later, Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay wed on 13 January 1958. They had three children and, alas, would divorce in 1964.
• • On Sunday, 13 January 2008 • •
• • Newsday [the newspaper issue dated on Sunday, 13 January 2008] reported a collaboration between Mae West and The Naked Stage in Suffolk County on Long Island, the location where the play "Sex" was going to be presented in February 2008.
• • According to Newsday: "Sex" by Mae West will be performed on Feb. 12, 2008, and more — — at 7:30 p.m., Guild Hall, 158 Main St., East Hampton, NY 11937 — — free.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “I’m glad you like my Catherine. I like her, too. She ruled 30 million people and had 3,000 lovers. I do the best I can in two hours.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The article "Two Takes on Camille Saint-Saens’s 'Samson and Delilah'" was written by Christopher Purdy, who discussed Mae West's rendition of the aria.
• • Christopher Purdy explained: "But there is one performance of this music different than all the rest. It was immortalized in a film called 'Goin’ To Town' [1935]. Not only do we have a very special brand of music making, we also have the hysteria of backstage at the opera, on film. Saint-Saens meets his match long after his death when his music is, er, interpreted by….. Mae West.
• • Christopher Purdy continued: In her memoir Beverly the late Beverly Sills recalls meeting the very elderly Mae West in Hollywood. “I don’t think she knew who I was, but I certainly knew who she was.” When Sills asked Miss West if she ever sang, the old girl almost lost her false… eyelashes. “I got a fully trained operatic voice!,” she crowed.
• • Christopher Purdy added: Indeed. Not for nothing was Mae West the highest paid woman in America in the mid-1930s, outranking FDR and the head of General Motors at the height of the depression. ...
• • Source: Article: "Two Takes on Camille Saint-Saens’s 'Samson and Delilah'" written by Christopher Purdy for WOSU.org; posted on 13 January 2010
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2176th 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 1944 • •
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Mae West: Gilbert Emery

When Variety performed its autopsy on MAE WEST's motion picture "Goin’ to Town," the film critic Abel had harsh words for almost every actor — — except Gilbert Emery. The picture was released by Paramount on 17 May 1935 and no amount of fanfare could have persuaded the critics of its merits.
• • According to the 1935 review published in Variety, this motion picture was "Mae West's poorest."
• • Since Gilbert Emery died on October 28th, let's give him his due.
• • Born in Naples, New York on 11 June 1875, Gilbert Emery was the stage name of Emery Bemsley Pottle, an actor who appeared in over 80 movies from 1921 until his death in 1945.
• • Emery Bemsley Pottle first started out as a writer, a newspaper reporter, and an instructor in English and public speaking. Composing poems and short stories, he used "Gilbert Emery" as his pen name. He attended Amherst College, graduating in 1899.
• • This character actor, 6' 2", was often cast as an aristocrat or a distinguished gentleman.
• • On 28 October 1945, he died at age 70 in Los Angeles, California.
• • Paramount production and release. Stars Mae West. Directed by Alexander Hall. Produced by William LeBaron. Original by Marion Morgan and George B. Dowell; screenplay and dialog. Miss West. Songs, Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal; camera, Karl Struss. At the Paramount N.Y. — — week of 10 May 1935. Running time, 75 mins.
• • Cast:
• • Cleo Borden . . . Mae West
• • Edward Barrington . . . Paul Cavanagh
• • Ivan Veladov . . . Ivan Lebedeff
• • Taho . . . Tito Coral
• • Mrs. Crane Brittony . . . Marjorie Gateson
• • Buck Gonzales . . . Fred Kohler, Sr.
• • Fletcher Colton . . . Monroe Owsley
• • Winslow . . . Gilbert Emery
• • Young Fellow . . . Grant Withers
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Paul Cavanagh and Gilbert Emery • • 1935 • •
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Mae West: Catherine

MAE WEST had been aiming to play Catherine II of Russia [Catherine the Great] for years. She got her chance in 1944.
• • The czarina, who was born on 2 May 1729 and died on 17 November 1796, reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years, from 28 June 1762 until her death — — during the month of November.
• • Though the drama was not a big success on Broadway, it did last for 191 performances.
• • "Catherine Was Great" had its New York City premiere on 2 August 1944. The show closed on the Gay White Way on 13 January 1945.
• • Wouldn't it be something if, during November, Catherine's restless spirit hovered over the Royale Theatre [where the production was booked on West 45th Street from 2 October 1944 until the curtains came down shortly after the New Year in 1945].
• • In a 1993 article, film critic Molly Haskell observed this about Mae: For years she tried to promote a film about Catherine the Great, in which she would offer a warmer and more sensual alternative to what she described as Dietrich's "hollow-cheeked doll." Although West finally succeeded in launching an unfunny Broadway play on the subject of the czarina, for most of her career she was in fact playing a bawdy, carnivalesque version of Catherine, surrounded by an "honor guard" of admirers. See her — — as the lion-tamer in "I'm No Angel" — — entering atop an elephant, wearing a white spangled jumpsuit. Looking at her now, we can't but applaud this middle-aged woman (she was 40 when she made her first film), undisguisedly rotund, flaunting an unliposuctioned, unsiliconed body and demanding her sexual privileges! . . .
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West and Rae Bourbon • • 1944 • •
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Mae West: Robert Benchley

MAE WEST got her share of negative reviews from critic Robert Benchley. However, he and Zora Neale Hurston were two of a very small group of writers who had favorable things to say about "Sex."
• • Benchley's comments about Mae's show at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre appeared in Life Magazine on 20 May I926 (the month after the premiere) — — though his byline during the 1920s is more commonly associated with The New Yorker.
• • Born in New England on 15 September 1889, Robert Charles Benchley was a humorist, journalist, and (briefly) a screen actor cast in minor roles in Hollywood. He attended Harvard and became part of the "vicious circle" presided over by Dorothy Parker at the Algonquin Hotel. Like Mrs. Parker, he was an alcoholic.
• • Cirrhosis of the liver — — aggravated by his drinking — — contributed to Robert Benchley's death at age 56 on 21 November 1945.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West: Tom Selleck

Risk-takers in Hollywood include MAE WEST and, apparently, Tom Selleck, who was featured opposite the actress in 1970.
• • Chicago Tribune reporter Louis R. Carlozo interviewed the Detroit native recently, since the 62-year-old senior citizen [born in January 1945] is busy flogging some DVDs that he stars in. Carlozo's column is called "On the Small Screen."
• • "On The Small Screen" spoke with Selleck about his latest project, which has him wearing multiple creative hats, and how it fits into an entertainment career built around taking risks.
• • • • Q. Let's go back to the very start. One of the most bizarre films you ever appeared in was 1970's "Myra Breckinridge," which included Mae West, Raquel Welch, Farah [sic] Fawcett, Jim "Mr. Magoo" Backus, and film critic Rex Reed. What on earth was that like?
• • • • A. That was in the day when I didn't take risks, I took jobs. I was under contract with Fox; I think that was the second job I ever had. I think I was Stud No. 6, and at one point, Mae West walks in and says to one of the studs, "I don't care that you're 6 feet and 7 inches, let's talk about the 7 inches." I was not the recipient of that laugh. I don't know who was taking what substances, but it was a great experience. Raquel Welch was writing her own stuff, and Mae West was writing her own stuff, the director [Michael Sarne, who would photograph cakes for eight hours while the cast waited] was on Pluto ... and all I did was sit around for two weeks and fantasize about Farah [sic] Fawcett. ...
— excerpt —
• • Source: Chicago Tribune
• • Byline: Louis R. Carlozo, Chicago Tribune staff reporter
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: January 1945

After a successful run of 191 performances on Broadway, Mae West's extravagant production of "Catherine Was Great" took its final bow at the Royale Theatre on 13 January 1945. The play had made its NYC debut at the Shubert Theatre on 2 August 1944, then transferred to the Royale on October 2nd.
• • In the cast were Gene Barry [born 1919], Charles Martin, Gregory Orloff, Joel Ashley, Rae Bourbon, et al. This cast photo shows a regal looking 51-year-old Mae West playing the Empress of Russia.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: Mae West • • "Catherine Was Great" cast • • 1944-1945 • •
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