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The critics often weighed in on MAE WEST — — and seldom were they indulgent. 
• • Back on 21 April 1928, Billboard's resident killjoy was Robert Garland. He had also been reviewing for the New York World—Telegram and was a founding member of the Drama Critics Circle. Perhaps trying to insure she would get good notices from him, one hopeful changed her name from Miss Gumm to "Judy Garland," snagging his surname.
• • Well, on that date eighty-one years ago, Robert Garland actually paid "Diamond Lil" a left-hand compliment.
• • "You'd have thought that a favorite bootlegger had come back from Atlanta," wrote drama critic Robert Garland in the New York Evening Telegram [5 April 1928]. "Mae West makes Miss Ethel Barrymore look like the late lamented Bert Savoy."
• • Wouldn't you know it? We did not notice any books about Robert Garland reviewed today in the London Guardian. However, we did spot a column about the book "Heroes: From Alexander the Great To Mae West" by Paul Johnson [Orion Books]. Which brings to mind this bit of Middle Eastern wisdom: "The dogs bark — — but the caravan moves on."
• • On 21 April 1957, the world received the sad news that Nils T. Granlund had died in a taxi accident in Las Vegas.
• • Born in Sweden but raised in the USA, Nils T. Granlund [29 September 1890 — 21 April 1957] was a Broadway show producer, radio industry pioneer, and also a publicist for Marcus Loew who formed Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). So well known that he went by his initials N.T.G., this powerhouse was Mae West's publicist and he also attended her wedding when she married Guido Deiro.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Robert Garland • • 1935 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST, who starred and wrote the screenplay for "Sextette," had asked Van McCoy [1940 — 1979] to write the theme song, and to make a cameo appearance in her motion picture. 
• • "Sextette" was released on 3 March 1978.
• • Singer, songwriter, and music producer Van Allen Clinton McCoy was born in January — — on 6 January 1940 — — in Washington, DC.
Van McCoy's musical venture started early on when she sang in the choir.
• • When his brother, Norman, Jr. and two high school buddies formed doo-wop group called the Starlighters, Van became the lead singer, writer, and music director for the group.
• • During the 1960s, Van McCoy penned numerous hit songs for such artists as the Shirelles ("Stop the Music"), Jackie Wilson ("I Get the Sweetest Feeling"), Gladys Knight & the Pips ("Giving Up"), Betty Everett ("Getting Mighty Crowded"), Ruby and the Romantics ("When You're Young and in Love"), Brenda & the Tabulations ("Right on the Tip of My Tongue"), Chris Bartley ("The Sweetest Thing This Side of Heaven"), and Barbara Lewis ("Baby, I'm Yours").
• • In 1966 Van McCoy recorded a solo album for Columbia Records, produced by Mitch Miller.
• • In addition to his many projects, Van McCoy arranged several hits for the Stylistics, formed his own orchestra [Soul City Symphony], and — — with singers Faith, Hope, and Charity — — recorded several albums and gave numerous live performances.
• • In 1975 Van McCoy, then 35 years old, scored an enormous smash hit with a catchy disco instrumental "The Hustle"; his #1 hit peaked on the Billboard charts during July 1975, sold over a million copies, and won a Grammy Award. He became a household name — — associated with the youth culture and trendy disco fever.
• • Unfortunately, the 39-year-old star was stricken with heart failure in his fashionable home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Without regaining consciousness, he died on 6 July 1979 at Englewood General Hospital.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1978 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Moral turpitude is back in the news — — but this time MAE WEST had passed the scepter.
• • The New York Times, in an article called "What Moral Turpitude Looks Like" [30 March 2008], was citing a U.S. Customs spokeswoman's objections when she refused to admit "the infamously debauched writer Sebastian Horsley" to this country, citing concerns of "moral turpitude." Apparently, the Englishman celebrated his past arrests in Britain for drug possession and prostitution in his book Dandy in the Underworld [NY: Harper Perennial]. Modeling a custom-made stovepipe, Horsley posed at home for The Times opposite a row of skulls.
• • Of the dramatic black Lincoln-esque headgear, Sebastian Horsley admitted, "It makes me almost pointlessly tall." But the dandy summed it up: "Dandyism, you know, you do it for yourself, but it requires a reaction or it wouldn't exist."
• • No doubt Mae West would have agreed. When writing her plays, she was counting on a certain reaction — — and without it "Sex" would not have gone so far.
• • In April 1926, Mae West opened in "Sex," which Variety described as a "nasty red-light district show." That must have been good for some advance ticket sales.
• • During the 1920s, there was an ongoing debate about what was morally acceptable in the public venue of theater and who was responsible to arbitrate that question. This was hardly a new question in the entertainment world; theater had long been considered a cauldron of unabashed and unacceptable moral turpitude.
• • Here's what some critics said about "Sex" at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre in New York City.
• • The cheapest, most vulgar, low "show" to have dared to open in New York this year — — Billboard • • "Sex" wins high marks for depravity, dullness — — Herald Tribune
• • "Sex" is a crude drama — — The New York Times
• • "Sex" an offensive play, a monstrosity plucked from the garbage can — — New York Daily Mirror
• • Fumigation needed — — Milwaukee Sentinel
• • A sink of moral turpitude — — Variety
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1926 • •
NYC
Mae West.
