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It is a kick to see Cary Grant, still a youthful Englishman in 1932 [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986], opposite MAE WEST before his own movie star image had solidified. Paramount Pictures cast him as Captain Cummings who came up to see Lady Lou on the Bowery. "Diamonds is my career!" she tells him.
• • Cary Grant: A Class Apart [TCM, 6:30PM on 18 January 2011]
• • Cary Grant: this TV profile, narrated by Helen Mirren, recounts Grant's career in chronological order — — starting with his early screen turns in "Blonde Venus" and "I'm No Angel" (opposite Mae West), which led to starring roles in celebrated romantic comedies like "Bringing Up Baby" and "The Philadelphia Story." The program includes interviews with Hollywood stars who knew and worked with Grant, including Eva Marie Saint, Martin Landau and Dina Merrill. ....
• • Source: The Globe and Mail [Canada] — 17 January 2011
• • 75 Years ago: Mae West's Dining Car — 13 January 1938 • •
• • Mae West's Application for Dining Car Zoning In Van Nuys Considered By Planners
• • Application of Mae West, cinema actress, for a variance of zoning of a parcel of land on Van Nuys boulevard near Circle Drive, for permission to place on the site an equipped dining car to be used for restaurant purposes, was taken under submission by the City Planning Commissioners Tuesday for further study . . . .
• • Source: The Van Nuys News [predecessor of the Los Angeles Daily News] — 13 Jan. 1938 edition
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
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Mae West.
The role of Captain Cummings — — in MAE WEST's play "Diamond Lil" — — required a handsome, charismatic man with stage training. For the Broadway role, Mae chose Curtis Cooksey, who was born in Pike County, Indiana during the month of December — — on 9 December 1891. 
• • "Diamond Lil" debuted at the Royale Theatre [242 West 45th Street, NYC] on 9 April 1928. It was a box office success as well as a favorite with drama critics.• • Since 1916, the 25-year-old actor began winning leading roles on The Great White Way. Curtis Cooksey had starred in over a dozen productions before stepping into his Salvation Army uniform to make an impact on a beautiful saloon singer, a vivacious blonde bombshell who told him, "Diamonds is my career."• • Since 1911, Curtis Cooksey had also been cast in silent films [debut: "Taming a Tyrant"] and he made a smooth transition into talkies.
• • In the film version of Mae's play, Cary Grant played Captain Cummings [a.k.a. "The Hawk"].• • After a long career in Tinseltown, Cooksey contracted cancer. He committed suicide in Hollywood on 19 April 1962. He was 70 years old.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • her co-star Curtis Cooksey • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST said: "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." 
• • This statement could easily describe her handsome co-star Cary Grant, who died in the month of November — — on November 29th. Mae granted him access to a motion picture classic and paved his way for more leading man roles.• • It’s a kick to see Cary, still a youthful Englishman in 1932 [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986], opposite Mae West before his own movie star image had solidified. The promise may be there, but Grant is stiff in the role of Captain Cummings. He would not yet become the polished and adroit comic leading man that he turned himself into by the end of the nineteen-thirties. As the uniformed do-gooder, he is baby-faced and no real match for West’s dominating presence.
• • Cary Grant was not yet thirty the first time he starred opposite West, and his age adds another provocative element to West’s gleefully taboo-busting, sexually frank presence. “To be sexual with younger men has been, according to Hollywood, a female sin punishable by death or dishonor,” feminist film critic Kathi Maio writes in her book Popcorn and Sexual Politics. “There have only been rare exceptions. When Mae West encouraged Cary Grant, a much younger man, to come up and see her sometime, she wasn’t interested in baking him a batch of brownies. Mae was sexy, but her blatant bawdiness was never threatening because her come hither looks were played for comedy. And besides, Mae West got to break the rules governing female comportment because Mae West was a law unto herself.”
• • Kathi Maio is mostly right here — — West really does seem to be a law unto herself as she shimmies across the screen and swaps lascivious double entendres, but what Maio neglects to acknowledge is that there were a great number of people who did find West extremely threatening, and that her persona only emerged as the result of cleverness and persistence in the face of censorship.
• • As for Cary Grant's emerging persona, he confessed, "I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point.” In other words, Cary came up sometime — — to see his better self.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • on the set in 1932 • •
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Mae West.
Yes, Virginia, there really was an actress who wrote her own material and tonight you can see MAE WEST for free — — on Thursday, 10 September 2009 — — in the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater.
• • Alerting everyone to this treat, reporter Allison Brophy Champion describes this evening's entertainment in her own way.
• • Allison Brophy Champion writes: Hubba-hubba — Mae West and Cary Grant star in “She Done Him Wrong” (Paramount, 1933), screening tonight for free in the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater on Mount Pony in Culpeper [i.e., Mount Pony Theater, 19053 Mount Pony Road, Culpeper, Virginia 22701].
• • Brooklyn-born West (1893-1980), never an angel, plays sultry nightclub singer Lady Lou in the Oscar-nominated “She Done Him Wrong.”
• • She has a lot of beaus, including some dangerous ones, but it’s all right because cute Cary Grant will protect her.
• • In black and white; 1 hour and six minutes; program includes two short films and a cartoon.
• • Reservations required: phone 540-827-1079 ext. 79994.
— — Source: — —
• • Event Listing: "Warm, dark, and handsome"
• • BY: Allison Brophy Champion | Arts & Entertainment Editor
• • Published in: The Culpeper Star-Exponent — — www2.starexponent.com
• • Published on: 10 September 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • 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.
MAE WEST and Cary Grant will delight film buffs in The Garden State next month.
• • As part of Monmouth County Library's popular series, Thursday Afternoon Films, the iconic comedy "She Done Him Wrong" [1933, Paramount Pictures] will be shown on Thursday, 15 October 2009 — — from 2:00 PM — 3:10 PM.
• • Starring Mae West and Cary Grant, and inspired by Mae's Broadway hit "Diamond Lil," this 66 minute pre-Code screen classic is set during the 1890s in the lively downtown district where Chinatown meets the Bowery.
• • Location: Monmouth County Library [Eastern Branch, 1001 Route 35, Shrewsbury, NJ 07702-4398]. Tell the Eastern Branch that the Mae West Blog sent you.
• • For details, please phone: 866-941-8188. • • 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.
Calendar girl MAE WEST was noted in Playbill's long-running feature: "Today In Theatre History: September 7."
• • Theatre chronicler David Gewirtzman writes: 7 September 1949 Mae West stars in a hit revival of her own play, Diamond Lil, for a 182-performance run at the Plymouth Theatre.
• • Last month, the annual Mae West walking tour paused at this popular playhouse on August 16th, and vintage Mae-memorabilia was shown to the group.
• • The Diamond Lil revival enjoyed great success at the venerable Plymouth Theatre [236 West 45th Street]. It opened there on 7 September 1949 — — and had four months of performances on Broadway.• • In his admiring review of her 1949 reinvigorated Bowery queen romp through her popular "naughty nineties" hit, The New York Times drama critic Brooks Atkinson admitted he was moved to acknowledge what he called — — in an atypically poetic effusion — — ''the sublime fatalism of the entire business,'' and he went on to ask: ''Is she kidding or is she serious?''
• • Knowing Mae, the likely answer is both.• • Are you a theatre buff? Then you ought to visit Playbill online — — www.playbill.com — — 'cause playgoers are much more fascinating than playboys.• • 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.
In many ways Adeline Leitzbach was the ideal ghostwriter for MAE WEST — — hard-working, experienced, flexible, self-effacing, and willing to shed her byline.
• • Sweet Adeline comes to mind in August because on 10 August 1918 the scriptwriter left Fox Films.
• • Adeline M. Leitzbach • •
• • A female author of German descent, who was often hired to collaborate on silent movie scripts as well as Broadway plays, Adeline was born in 1887 and raised in Manhattan, living in genteel circumstances in Greenwich Village — — until her father died.
• • In 1922, Mae had first contacted this hired pen, who helped her put together a full-length, three act play: "The Hussy."
• • During the World War I era, the unmarried woman was living in the Bronx with her widowed mother Mrs. Maximilian Leitzbach, and had many high-profile projects to her name. When she was 30 years old, Adeline Leitzbach had co-written the Broadway play "Success," staged at the Harris Theatre [254 West 42nd Street] from January — March 1918.
• • Building some momentum and increasing her visibility, Adeline kept busy supporting herself and her mother. Her credit was appearing frequently on screenplays for the silent cinema, too. In 1918, several of her projects made it to the big screen: "The Liar," "Her Price," "The Heart of Romance," and "Stolen Honor." Interestingly, one silent film she had scripted — — "Diamonds and Pearls" [1917] — — featured actor Curtis Cooksey in the role of Jack Harrington. Eleven years later, Cooksey would be on stage opposite Mae in "Diamond Lil" in the plum role of Captain Cummings.
• • Miss Leitzbach was also tapped to adapt a woman's novel "Wife in Name Only" for the screen; it was filmed as "Counterfeit Love" [1923] by Murray W. Garsson Productions.
• • Not long after, Mae West, age 32, and Adeline M. Leitzbach, age 38, would be revising the manuscript that would become "Sex" and would debut in April 1926 in the legit. The authorship would be attributed to "Jane Mast" (wink wink).• • 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.
An article that admires actor Cary Grant naturally must mention MAE WEST.
• • The heartthrob was born in the month of January — — on 18 January 1904. Cary Grant died on 29 November 1986.
• • Peter Bogdanovich writes: If there had never been a Cary Grant, someone would have had to invent him, and, in fact, someone did, a fellow named Archie Leach from Bristol, England. Acrobat, tumbler, stilt-walker, tall, dark, and handsome, Archie came over to New York City with a well-known vaudeville kind of stunt show, decided to stay on and try his hand at acting and singing in the theater, got work on Broadway, changed his name, taking “Cary” from his first large role, and “Grant” from the phone book. Did a number of musicals, sang, danced, acted, played in a half-dozen shorts, got picked up by Paramount for a seven-year contract, did leads in over two dozen films before he found his picture persona. But along the way, in a couple of the good movies he did at Paramount, he learned a thing or two.
• • On one of his first, Blonde Venus (1932), the legendary Josef von Sternberg, discoverer-molder-Svengali of Marlene Dietrich, took one look at Grant on his first day of shooting and quietly said, deadpan, “Your hair is parted on the wrong side.” Grant himself told me this story — — we were friends for 25 years — — and I asked him how he had responded. “I parted it on the other side,” Cary said brightly, and somewhat conspiratorially, “and kept it that way for the rest of my career!”
• • Another big thing was gleaned from his successful experience on two pictures playing the love interest to Mae West. In both She Done Him Wrong (1932) and I’m No Angel (1933), Cary is the object of Mae’s affections and desires. She pursues him, rather than the other way around. Indeed, she makes one of the screen’s most famous (and most misquoted) invitations to Grant in their first scene together: “Why don’t cha come up sometime, an’ see me?” Cary’s a minister [sic], says he hasn’t the time. She responds, “Say, what’re you tryin’ to do, insult me?!” What Cary took home was that it’s better to be wanted than to want, and once he established himself as a star in 1937, it never was otherwise. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article (with errors): "My Favorite Star"
• • By: Peter Bogdanovich
• • Published in The New York Observer — — www.observer.com
• • Published on: 25 November 2008
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.
The role of Captain Cummings — — in Mae West's play "Diamond Lil" — — required a handsome, charismatic man with stage training. For the Broadway cast, Mae chose Curtis Cooksey, who was born on 9 December 1891 in Indiana, as her leading man. 
• • Set in a Bowery dive known as Suicide Hall, "Diamond Lil" debuted at the Royale Theatre [242 West 45th Street, NYC] on 9 April 1928. It was a box office success as well as a favorite with drama critics.• • Since 1916, the 25-year-old actor began winning leading roles on The Great White Way. Curtis Cooksey had starred in over a dozen productions before stepping into his Salvation Army uniform to make an impact on a beautiful saloon singer, a vivacious blonde bombshell who told him, "Diamonds is my career."• • Since 1911, Curtis Cooksey had also been cast in silent films [debut: "Taming a Tyrant"] and he made a smooth transition into talkies.
• • In the film version of Mae's play, Cary Grant played Captain Cummings [a.k.a. "The Hawk"].• • After a long career in Tinseltown, Cooksey contracted cancer. He committed suicide in Hollywood on 19 April 1962.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as "Diamond Lil" • • 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.
It is a kick to see Cary Grant, still a youthful Englishman in 1932 [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986], opposite MAE WEST before his own movie star image had solidified. Paramount Pictures cast him as Captain Cummings who came up to see Lady Lou on the Bowery. "Diamonds is my career!" she tells him.
