Mae West: A Loving Birthday Toast on August 17, 2026

 

Happy Birthday to MAE WEST, Brooklyn Bombshell, Screen Siren, Empress of Sex, Queen of Comedy, a notable and quotable comedienne who maintained a long career on stage, on screen, on the guest star circuit, and who also sizzled on the nightclub circuit.
• • Delivered by a local mid-wife, this feisty newborn drew her first lusty breaths in Bushwick on Thursday, 17 August 1893 (under the proud leonine sign of Leo) in her parents' bedroom. Little Mary Jane West always said: "I was born on a cool night in a hot month so I knew I could expect anything."

• • She trumped the income of every film actress of her generation because Mae was paid as a screenwriter as well as a box office draw.
• • Each day at least one publication in the world mentions her name. [We can verify our claim, too, because we have regularly tracked this a-Mae-zing trend for the past 22 years now!]
• • No other movie queen coined so many witticisms — durable and dateless because Mae West relied on wordplay and rhetorical devices such as chiasmus.
• • Often imitated but never duplicated, the one and only Mae West endures in our hearts and memories.
• • Darling Mae, to your loyal followers, you don't look a day over twenty-sex!
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Even at the fourscore mark, she remains a remarkable figure of a woman. The well-padded frame, which inspired the Mae West life jacket in World War II, seems little changed.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West  had been 40 when she made the first of 12 films and was an important influence on the early career of Cary Grant, teaching him much about the craft of comedy in the course of appearing with him in “She Done Him Wrong” and “I'm No Angel.”

• • The death of this sex goddess from Hollywood's Golden Age was front-page news in November 1980 when she was 87.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Come up sometime and see me. I'm home every evening."
• • Mae West said: "I give 'em what they want to see."
• • Mae West said: “The curve is mightier than the sword.”
• • Mae West said: "You have to outfight everyone else to succeed."
• • Mae West said: "I'll never believe the worst about anyone without complete proof."
• • Mae West said: "Woman is capable of more trickery than man ever dreamed of. I am not defending the tricky woman, but if she is forced to battle for the place due to her, she cannot be condemned for using any ruse she can."   
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "Mae West Turns Sixty" • •
• • The Horsham Times wrote: Mae West turned 60 recently. To reporters who went along to wish her many happy returns, Miss West made it plain that birthdays are one thing a lady just doesn't discuss.
• • Fluttering her inch-long eyelashes demurely, Mae West said: "You can see for yourself, a girl's just as old as she feels."
• • Source: The Horsham Times;  published on Friday, 12 September 1952
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,159th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1935 and 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Beloved Birthday Bombshell

 

Happy Birthday to MAE WEST, the beloved Brooklyn Bombshell, Screen Siren, Empress of Sex, Queen of Comedy, a notable and quotable comedienne who maintained a long career on stage, on screen, on the guest star circuit, and who also sizzled on the nightclub circuit.
• • Delivered by a local mid-wife, this feisty newborn drew her first lusty breaths in Bushwick on Thursday, 17 August 1893 (under the proud leonine sign of Leo) in her parents' bedroom. Little Mary Jane West always said: "I was born on a cool night in a hot month so I knew I could expect anything."

• • She trumped the income of every film actress of her generation because Mae was paid as a screenwriter as well as a box office draw.
• • Each day at least one publication in the world mentions her name. [We can verify our claim, too, because we have tracked this a-Mae-zing trend daily for the past upteen years now!]
• • No other movie queen coined so many witticisms — durable and dateless because Mae West relied on wordplay and rhetorical devices such as chiasmus.
• • Often imitated but never duplicated, the one and only Mae West endures in our hearts and memories.
• • Darling Mae, to your loyal followers, you don't look a day over twenty-sex!
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Even at the fourscore mark, she remains a remarkable figure of a woman. The well-padded frame, which inspired the Mae West life jacket in World War II, seems little changed.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West  had been 40 when she made the first of 12 films and was an important influence on the early career of Cary Grant, teaching him much about the craft of comedy in the course of appearing with him in “She Done Him Wrong” and “I'm No Angel.”

• • The death of this sex goddess from Hollywood's Golden Age was front-page news in November 1980 when she was 87.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Come up sometime and see me. I'm home every evening."
• • Mae West said: "I give 'em what they want to see."
• • Mae West said: “The curve is mightier than the sword.”
• • Mae West said: "You have to outfight everyone else to succeed."
• • Mae West said: "I'll never believe the worst about anyone without complete proof."
• • Mae West said: "Woman is capable of more trickery than man ever dreamed of. I am not defending the tricky woman, but if she is forced to battle for the place due to her, she cannot be condemned for using any ruse she can."   
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "Mae West Turns Sixty" • •
• • The Horsham Times wrote: Mae West turned 60 recently. To reporters who went along to wish her many happy returns, Miss West made it plain that birthdays are one thing a lady just doesn't discuss.
• • Fluttering her inch-long eyelashes demurely, Mae West said: "You can see for yourself, a girl's just as old as she feels."
• • Source: The Horsham Times;  published on Friday, 12 September 1952
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 21st anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started 21 years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,157th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1935 and 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Free Rein

“Cultivate your curves. They may be dangerous but they won't be avoided,” said MAE WEST. Magazine writers are still finding new angles on that famous figure. Let’s take a look. This is Part 3 of 4 excerpts.
• • Mae West’s Secret to Keeping Her Signature Curves • • 
• • Mae West and the curves • •
• • Jess Catcher wrote: “What can be accomplished by the feminine figure, once it’s nipped here and there, and allowed free rein elsewhere — you’d be surprised!” Mae West said. Of course, shape-wear has changed a lot over the years, but it still serves the same purpose West was looking for. “You got to have something to put in ‘em. Know what I mean?” We do! There’s no shame in getting a little help here and there.

Mae onstage as Diamond Lil

• • Jess Catcher wrote: Mae also revealed another secret about her enviable body. “I have an extra thyroid gland,” she said. “It gives me twice the energy and twice, the, you know, everything else I guess.”
• • Mae West advocated for taking care of yourself • • … 
• • This four part series will be concluded tomorrow.
• • Source: Woman’s World; published on Monday, 22 July 2019.
• • On Friday, 17 June 1932 • •
• • Mae West would, no doubt, be capable of delivering "curdling melodrama," predicted the publication Hollywood Citizen News in its issue dated Friday, 17 June 1932.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Latest in the Mae West builder-upper series is the Society for Advancement of Feminism, purpose of which is to discourage the wearing or usage of mannish clothes and habits among women. Jack Mclnerney of Publix created the idea, which was handled last week as though a regular legal proposition. Incorporation papers were asked of Supreme Court Justice Aaron J. Levy who granted them in the usual manner.
• • Miss West is listed first among the incorporators.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “No secret marriage stuff for me."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Chicago Tribune mentioned Mae West.
• • Bombshells who followed in her footsteps • •
• • Mae West loved diamonds from the time she first encountered them at age 4. "There is nothing better in life than diamonds except maybe health," she told author Charlotte Chandler.
• • Mae West also loved pushing cultural boundaries with her still-repeated double-entendres via her most famous character, Diamond Lil, originally created for the stage. Lil was immortalized in West's 1933's "She Done Him Wrong" and came to influence generations of other sexy blonds who "always knew how." …
• • Source: Chicago Tribune; published on Friday, 24 April 2009
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 15th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,498th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • onstage in 1928 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Recollections

William Safire wrote:  I interviewed the real MAE WEST, boys, before she had a wrinkle on her face, and well remember the lesson she taught a cub reporter about living up to a legend.  It was 1949; she was in her late 50's, starring on Broadway in ''Diamond Lil.'' Her leading man was not her film discovery Cary Grant, to whom she had famously vamped ''Come up and see me sometime,'' but the actor who also played ''Captain Video'' on small-screen TV.  ...

• • Check out William Safire's charming recollection about what Mae taught him.

• • [Source: Op-Ed essay "I Remember Mae" by William Safire for The N.Y. Times;  published on Monday, 22 May 2000.]

• • Edward F. Cline [4 November 1891 — 22 May 1961] • •

• • Edward F. Cline directed a motion picture starring Mae West — — but he did not describe it like that. Instead (recalling the turmoil between the Brooklyn bombshell and her booze-loving co-star), Cline admitted: "I wasn't directing, I was referee-ing."

• • Born on 4 November 1891 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Edward F. Cline entered the world of cinema as an actor with Keystone in 1913, where he encountered a rotund juggler from Pennsylvania, William Claude Dukenfield.

• • As the director of "My Little Chickadee" [1940], Cline's insistence on having his stars adhere to the script irked Fileds; the former vaudevillian preferred spontaneity.  Cline had objected to ad-libbing because it caused the crew to snicker and chuckle. In fact, one time Cline's sudden burst of loud laughter necessitated a quick cut at the end of one of Fields's barroom scenes. Cline also directed "The Bank Dick," a comedy starring W.C. Fields. He followed up by directing "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" [1941].

• • Edward Francis Cline died in the month of May — — on Monday, 22 May 1961.  He was 69.

• • On Monday, 22 May 1978 in Time • •

• • In May 1978, Time Magazine printed these felicitous remarks by resident movie critic Gerald Clarke: And her new movie, Sextette, is so bad it's good. Opening her mouth so wide that the pink of her gums shows, Mae West taps her teeth with her fingernails. "See that," she says proudly. "All my own. Not a false one there." Then, holding out her arms so that her wrists protrude from her jacket, she adds, "I've never had any face lifts either. You can tell by my hands and wrists. They can't operate on your hands. I've never had anything done, and I look the way I did when I was 22." You can't argue with a lady, and when the lady will be 85 this summer, who would want to? Sixty years ago Mae West looked in the mirror and ordered the clock stopped. So far as she is concerned, it has never dared to start again ....

• • [Source: "Show Business: At 84 Mae West Is Still Mae West" by Gerald Clarke, Time Magazine, issue dated for the week of 22 May 1978].

• • May 19 — 22, 1994 • •

• • Andrea Ivanov-Craig, who wrote about Mae West in her doctoral dissertation, presented a paper — — "Funny Seduction: Mae West, Cultural Literacy, and the Rhetoric of Sex" — — during a conference organized by Rhetoric Society of America (1994 Biennial Convention) in Norfolk, VA, from May 19 — 22, 1994.

• • On Friday, 22 May 2009 in Virginia • •

• • To celebrate blonde bombshells, Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg, VA hosted a film series with Mae West in "I’m No Angel" (1933), Jean Harlow in "Libeled Lady" (1936), and Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like it Hot" (1959).

• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "I don't like myself — — I'm crazy about myself.”

• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An article in Film Daily mentioned Mae West.

• • Film Daily wrote: Hollywood — Mae West announced last week that she would move her permanent residence from New York to California. She and her father, Dr. Jack West, are looking over San Fernando Valley for a ranch.  . . . 

• • Source: Article: "Mae West Seeks Ranch'' written by the West Coast Bureau of The Film Daily, Hollywood, for Film Daily; published in 1933   

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2308th 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 • • 1949 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYCMae West.