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MAE WEST inspired the artist Max Ernst [1891 — 1976], who painted her in a mosaic-like portrait with W.C. Fields in 1957. Mae's hat is deliberately styled like a clown's cap; above her figure is suspended the grinning mask of comedy. A unique take on the Chickadee couple.
• • "Projet Pour Un Monument à W.C. Fields" • •
• • Bringing this work into focus, British journalist James Knowlson wrote: A further pictorial candidate came to my attention recently, in the shape of Max Ernst's "Projet Pour Un Monument à W.C. Fields," a remarkable, kaleidoscopic painting of Mae West and W.C. Fields. In the centre of the 1957 work is a female figure, Mae West, painted as a rotund, buxom torso in red, wearing an ornate hat and holding aloft an unfurled, multi-coloured parasol. The right foreground features the head of a male figure, wearing a top hat and reaching out his hand. This is the comic actor W.C. Fields and the painting had apparently been inspired by the collaboration of Fields and West on a 1940 film called "My Little Chickadee." ...
• • Source: Article: "What lies beneath Samuel Beckett's half-buried woman in Happy Days?" written by James Knowlson for The Guardian [UK]; published on Monday, 20 January 2014.
• • On Sunday, 23 January 1927 in the New York Herald Tribune • •
• • The New York Herald Tribune sent a journalist to cover "Sex" and this newspaper printed perhaps the longest diatribe against Mae's play in their weekend edition on Sunday, 23 January 1927.
• • The Herald Tribune drama desk scribe ranted: "It may be said of [Mae West] and "Sex" that they do not make sin attractive. The hell they picture is uninviting, a horrible place whose principal lady-viper has a tough hiss, an awkward strut and an over-plump figure. ..."
• • The newspaper had published another harsh review months before on 27 April 1926 but, for some reason, sent a reporter to take a second look.
• • Since when is it fair to mock an actress because she's carrying a few extra pounds than your personal ideal of a woman, eh? Such a sad but striking example of what critics scratch out when lost for words, deadline-challenge, and unable to make valid points about a play.
• • On Wednesday, 23 January 1929 in Variety • •
• • "Diamond Lil" had its Chicago premiere on 20 January 1929 at the Apollo Theatre. But a few days later, Mae West was troubled by terrible stomach pains that forced showtime delays or unusually long intermissions. Variety reported on Mae's suffering and its effect on her engagement in The Windy City in their issue dated on Wednesday, 23 January 1929.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Pete Barnes of the Angelus Theater, San Angelo, Texas, held a "Mae West Week," playing three of the Paramount star's pictures for two days each, with business 30 per cent above average.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Strong coffee is my weakness. Occasionally I drive out for a spaghetti dinner at Jack LaRue's Italian restaurant. Or slip down to Los Angeles Chinatown for chicken chop suey."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Milwaukee Journal mentioned Mae West.
• • "Police Censors Arrest Mae West's Manager" • •
• • Hollywood, Calif. — (AP) — Police raided an allegedly indecent stage show early Tuesday and arrested James A. Timony, business manager of Mae West, and 13 members of the cast of "Ladies by Request."
• • Timony had just watched the curtain fall on the last act when ho was taken into custody. Patrons filed from the theatre, unaware that a raid was in progress.
• • . . . The play, the second produced here by Timony this year, had been running for several weeks. ...
• • Source: The Milwaukee Journal; published on Tuesday, 31 December 1935
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2838th blog post.
Unlike many blogs, which draw
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Max Ernst oil painting in 1957 • •
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MAE WEST may have preferred to forget the shadows that fell across her silver screen beams in "Sextette," her last motion picture. It was released in the month of March — — on 3 March 1978. However, one of her handsome co-stars still has fond memories of being in "Myra Breckinridge" with her and also relishing her singular star turn on Oscar night.
• • Rex Reed Misses Mae West • • 
• • N.Y. Observer columnist Rex Reed writes: I can't chastise the absence of charisma and talent in today's bland, unfocused workforce. It's not their fault they aren't Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, and Bette Davis. I remember Doris Day paired with Clark Gable and Mae West crooning to Rock Hudson. Now we get Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. Next year, we'll probably get Justin Bieber. What we need more than anything else is some genuine humor. . . [Source: Column: "What the Hell Happened to the Oscars?" written by Rex Reed for The New York Observer on 1 March 2011].
• • "Love Goddesses" Released on March 3rd • •
• • Mae West film footage is used in the documentary "Love Goddesses," originally released in the month of March — — on 3 March 1965.
• • Alyce Ardell Died on March 3rd • •
• • When she worked with Mae West in "Go West, Young Man" [1936], Alyce Ardell portrayed Jeanette, a French maid. She retired early from the cinema — — perhaps out of boredom or frustration.
• • Born as Marie Alice Pradel in Paris on 14 November 1902, the French voice actress Alyce Ardell lent her sexy accents to several intriguing cartoons as well as shorts and many motion pictures in which she was often cast, mais oui, as a French maid from 1925 — 1939.
• • Alyce Ardell died at age 95 in Laguna Hills, California in March — — on 3 March 1996.
• • Mae West Memento Lost in New Jersey • •
• • ABC reporter Nina Pineda writes: The contents we could see was a trove of jewelry, pearls, pocket watches, antique clocks, coins, a vintage dollar from the roaring 20's, a collectible program signed by screen siren Mae West, even a century-old Derringer pistol. . . [Source: Article: "Find your unclaimed property!" written by Nina Pineda for WABC in Trenton, NJ on 1 March 2011].
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Contemplating the cinema releases of 1933, movie maven Eric D. Snider writes: The list of 1933's most popular movies lends credence to the theory that audiences weren't in the mood for such jarring, chaotic satire. Instead they favored light musicals (State Fair, 42nd Street, escapist fantasy (King Kong), saucy Mae West comedies (I'm No Angel and She Done Him Wrong), historical dramas (Queen Christina) and serene literary adaptations (Little Women). . . [Source: Article "What's the Big Deal?: Duck Soup (1933)" written by Eric D. Snider for FILM.COM].
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Rock Hudson at the Oscars • •
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MAE WEST spent many hours with many men but not with Oscar. Recapturing favorite Oscar moments — — preserved for posterity thanks to footage on YouTube — — Jaime Weinman lists eight treasured classics in an article "Oscar Moments From Days Gone By" [for Macleans, Canada on 5 March 2010].
• • Jaime Weinman explains why numero uno is this: Here’s one of the most famous/ infamous good-bad Oscar-show musical numbers: at the 1957 awards, an Oscar-winning song from several years earlier was performed by one of Hollywood’s biggest young stars, Rock Hudson, and one of its most famous semi-retirees, Mae West. The weirdness of the combination made the number an instant cult hit; it was a camp classic even before the term “camp” was mainstreamed.
• • We do think that Mae West deserved an Oscar. Only one of her motion pictures was ever nominated for "Best Picture." The actress herself was never nominated and perhaps an invitation to perform that 1957 duet was Hollywood's gentle hat tip to the Brooklyn bombshell who earned so much moolah for Paramount Pictures during the Depression.• • 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.
While Broadway is playing musical chairs, the return of a 68-year-old musical to the Gay White Way on 18 December 2008 has a whiff of MAE WEST.
• • Which names would you cast in the principal roles in Rodgers & Hart's "Pal Joey"?
• • The Hollywood Reporter reminded readers this has never been a creampuff of a show.
• • According to the Hollywood Reporter: For all its legendary status today, the reviews for the original production — — it opened December 25, 1940, at the Barrymore and made a star of Gene Kelly — — were decidedly mixed. It lasted less than a year (374 performances), with the 1952-53 revival (540 performances) being much more warmly received. Later revivals were done with the title role played by Bob Fosse (1963) and Christopher Chapman (1976).
• • Meanwhile, Columbia bought the film rights early on, but for various reasons — — including hassles from the Production Code Office because of the "Joey" story line and lyrics of several of its songs — — it took 17 years before cameras turned.
• • Along the way, however, several interesting casting ideas for it were announced: Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth, the latter playing the young love interest, in the 1940s; Marlon Brando and Mae West as the older woman in the early 1950s; as well as Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich — — Dietrich eventually turning it down because, at the time, she'd never heard of Lemmon.
• • It was finally done in 1957 with Frank Sinatra as Joey and the older woman played by Hayworth, who at 39 was three years younger than her boy toy. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Published in: Reuters/ Hollywood Reporter
• • Published on: 5 December 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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It was 75 years ago — — on 17 November 1933 — — when Penrhyn Stanlaws was interviewed about painting the face of MAE WEST, noted the Jackson Hole Star Tribune. 
• • This portrait artist, who became famous for his paintings of beautiful women commissioned for the covers of magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, complained that Hollywood starlets were far from perfect beauties. The reporter for the Casper Tribune-Herald listed Penrhyn Stanlaws's critiques of stars such as Mae West, Katherine Hepburn, Constance Bennett, and Greta Garbo. His only criticism of Kay Francis, however, was that she had overdeveloped triceps but otherwise had "nicely balanced features."
• • Born on 19 March 1877 in Dundee, Scotland (birth name: Stanley Adamson), portraitist Penrhyn Stanlaws attended Princeton. This turn-of-the century illustrator sought out beautiful women for his studio models; he painted Mabel Normand, Olive Thomas, and Florence La Badie prior to their movie careers.
• • It was reported that Penrhyn Stanlaws died in his Los Angeles studio at the age of 80 after falling asleep while smoking in a chair on 20 May 1957.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Most people have not seen MAE WEST featured in a Frida Kahlo painting. 
• • Reportedly Diego Rivera’s favorite American actress, the Brooklyn bombshell appears in a cameo on the left side of the work titled "My Dress Hangs There." Created with oil and collage on masonite [460 x 500 mm], it is owned by a private collector and, therefore, it rarely tours.
• • Frida Kahlo — — who was born and died during the month of July — — [6 July 1907 — 13 July 1954] was a Mexican painter, who has achieved great international popularity.
• • The painter Diego Rivera [8 December 1886 — 24 November 1957] was her husband.
• • Critic Janice Helland wrote an essay about Frida Kahlo's paintings that were inspired by her American sojourn. According to Janice Helland, in "My Dress Hangs There" [1933], Kahlo scourges the United States with representations of the accoutrements of a bourgeois life-style (a toilet, a telephone, and a sports trophy) and indicts its hypocrisy by wrapping a dollar sign around the cross of a church. Her appropriated photographs of Depression-era unemployment, which constitute the lower part of the picture, juxtapose "reality" with the "made-up" painting and thereby highlight the vulgar display of American wealth and well-being as opposed to the poverty and suffering of the lower classes. In the midst of this Kahlo places a pristine image: the Tehuana dress. . . .
• • Let's accept the fact that Helland is well informed about art interpretation and Kahlo iconography. However, she and the others who insist on dating this artwork to 1933 are quite obviously not Mae-mavens.
• • One look at the millinery indicates that Mae West wore that costume in "Klondike Annie," a motion picture not released in the United States until 21 February 1936.
• • So tell us again: in what year did Frida Kahlo channel "Klondike Annie" for her collage filled with her sarcastic humor? It was NOT in 1933.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Frida Kahlo painting • •
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Miguel Covarrubias drew MAE WEST so memorably — — and so many times. And he died on 4 February 1957.
• • Born in Mexico City to a prominent and wealthy Mexican family, Miguel Covarrubias was a popular artist in the early 20th century. He drew the era's most notable figures like MAE WEST — — whom he sketched for The New Yorker [dated 5 May 1928] — — along with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Josef Stalin, Charlie Chaplin, and other VIPs all hilariously re-imagined via his exaggerated sketches.
• • José Miguel Covarrubias [22 November 1904 — 4 February 1957] was a painter and caricaturist, ethnologist, and art historian. Dissatisfied with his career in his hometown, the painter moved to New York City in 1924, illustrating actors and prominent figures for several top magazines.
• • Actor John Huston, mesmerized by Mae West's song "Frankie and Johnny" in her Broadway hit Diamond Lil, spent a year traveling the USA, collecting versions of the song. Huston partnered with Covarrubias on his 1930 book "Frankie and Johnny"; Covarrubias drew the mulatto prostitute Frankie Baker as a Caucasian woman who looked like Mae West.• • Miguel Covarrubias married the dancer Rosa Rolando and the couple resided in Manhattan until 1932, when they took a trip to Southeast Asia (Java, Bali, India, Vietnam), Africa, and Europe on his Guggenheim Fellowship.
• • Covarrubias returned to Mexico City where he taught ethnology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
• • He contributed to the fields of caricature, book illustration, painting, museography, collecting, set design, and writing.
• • Covarrubias died in a Mexico City hospital from complications due to diabetes. [Mae West was a diabetic, too.]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West drawn by Covarrubias for Paramount • • 1932 • •
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