Mae West: Rowdy Energy

MAE WEST came to the attention of Tinseltown ninety years ago in 1932. Step into the Time Machine with me for a long, leisurely ride. This is Part 52 of 68.
• • Mae West in Hollywood 1932 – 1943 • •
• • Mae West: Wit and rowdy energy • •

• • Andy Goulding wrote: Some complain that the wit of old has been replaced by increased volume and it is true that this is a very loud film, but there’s plenty of wit mixed in and the rowdy energy is a relief after the sluggish pacing of its immediate predecessor.
• • Andy Goulding wrote: Mae West has surrounded herself with a game cast of men, noticeably less superfluous or interchangeable than the men in her earlier films.
• • Andy Goulding wrote: Particularly fun are Charles Winniger as the wealthy Van Doon, the loudest and most excessive of all the characters here, and Lloyd Nolan as the villainous Quade, whose predisposition for misspeaking provides the film with some of its best pieces of wordplay.
• • Mae West: Back in full hip-bouncing form • • …
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Blueprint Reviews U.K.; posted on Friday, 3 December 2021.
• • On Tuesday, 6 December 1994 • •

• • It was on Tuesday, 6 December 1994 that Christie's New York held a well-attended and highly anticipated auction listed as "Film and Television Memorabilia."
• • One light-hearted Mae West item was "A box of approximately 120 red, white, and blue poker chips; a deck of cards from the Roosevelt Hotel." This lot of goodies was sold for $345.00 and now the deck is stacked at someone's house.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • On Tuesday, 6 December 1994 a fan purchased Mae West's white painted upright piano and bench, a frequently photographed fixture of her Hollywood living room.
• • The price realized was $12,650, four times the estimate.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Don’t marry a man to reform him — — that’s what reform schools are for.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A book on the Who mentioned Mae West.
• • Matt Kent stated: Monday, 6 December 1976 — Friday, 25 March 1977
• • Shooting schedule in Hollywood for "Sextette" starring eighty-three-year-old movie star, Mae West . . .
• • Source: Book: "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who 1958 — 1978" (page 277); published in June 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 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 5,100 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,131st 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 1937 and in 1959 • •
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Mae West: In Sausalito

A motion picture comedy starring MAE WEST was playing at The Gate Theatre in Sausalito, California on Sunday February 6th and Monday February 7th in 1938. The telephone number of this movie house was 47 (that's right, only two digits) in the 1930s.
• • Mae West, Edmund Lowe, Charles Winninger in “Every Day's a Holiday’’
• • Also showing — Ricardo Cortez and Phyllis Brooks in “City Girl”
• • Ladies Coronado Pottery Night — Monday Only!
• • Source: announcement in Sausalito News; published on Friday, 4 February 1938.
• • On Tuesday, 4 February 1930 in NYC • •
• • New York City's "picture newspaper" The Daily Mirror reported that Mae West "collapsed in  her dressing room at the Shubert Riviera Theatre" [sic]. Nevertheless, her attorney Nathan Burkan dismissed the idea that his client's uncustomary breakdown was due to her upcoming court appearance. The author of "Pleasure Man," insisted Burkan, "is not in the least worried about the outcome of her impending trial."
• • Scheduled to begin on Tuesday, 4 February 1930 in Manhattan, the "Pleasure Man" trial was not brought before Judge Bertini until 16 March 1930. Mae looked plenty worried in several photos taken when the trial was in session.
• • The "Pleasure Man" trial is intriguingly dramatized in Act 2 of the stage play "Courting Mae West." The audience gets to see how Mae first behaves very cagily around her friend Texas Guinan, and later on they hear the terrible truth when Mae's sister Beverly enters as Nathan Burkan exits.
• • Source: The Daily Mirror (NYC); published on Monday, 3 February 1930.
• • On Friday, 4 February 1949 on WOR • •
• • NYC broadcast journalist John Wingate interviewed Mae West backstage before the opening of a revival of "Diamond Lil" on Broadway. Their 2-minute exchange is quite funny and was heard in the NYC area over the popular radio station WOR.
• • On Wednesday, 4 February 1998 in Sammy • •
• • The raunchy comic book, Sammy, released their Mae West issue in early 1998. The panels were drawn by Raoul Cauvin and Jean-Pol. The cover has a maritime theme. An odd looking fellow in a beige raincoat appears to be mesmerized by Mae West, who is clad in a chic sailor outfit with her midriff exposed. Sammy's issue was published as a board book on Wednesday, 4 February 1998 by Dupuis.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • In her self-created role as "Diamond Lil" Mae West glittered her way to riches.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Because of my early training in vaudeville and in stock companies, I used to learn all the parts: the villain, the heroine, the meany. When I began to write, I was so tired of formulas that I wanted something different. That's why my plays were so original."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Los Angeles Times wrote about Mae West.
• • Edwin F. Schallert wrote:  Teaming Mae West and W. C. Fields commends itself as a first-class idea in showmanship. Wherefore the picture, "My Little Chickadee," will have plenty in its favor when distributed at the theaters throughout the nation.  . . .
• • Source:  Article:  “Mae West, Fields Team in Comedy of Old West” written by Edwin F. Schallert for The Los Angeles Times; published on Sunday, 4 February 1940
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. The other day we entertained 1,430 visitors. We reached a milestone this week: 3,100 posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3107th 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 1937 • •
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NYC  Mae West

Mae West: Lloyd Nolan

In 1937, Paramount Pictures spent a record one million dollars on its MAE WEST vehicle "Every Day's a Holiday" [released in the USA as holiday fare on 18 December 1937].
• • Mae West portrays Peaches O'Day, a turn-of-century con artist who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the path for reform mayoral candidate Edmund Lowe. A strong cast of supporting comedians — — including Charles Winninger, Charles Butterworth, and Walter Catlett — — match Mae quip for quip. Set in the Naughty Nineties, the motion picture features the gayest New Year's Eve party ever held at Rector's on 31 December 1899.
• • Born in San Francisco, Lloyd Nolan [11 August 1902 — 27 September 1985] was a film, stage, and television actor.
• • Even though critics often hailed his acting ability, Nolan was relegated to B movies for the most part and spent his career in Hollywood portraying police officers, detectives, and physicians.
• • On 27 September 1985, Lloyd Nolan died at age 83 in Los Angeles of lung cancer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1937 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Oedipus Rector

In 1937, Paramount Pictures spent a record one million dollars on its MAE WEST vehicle "Every Day's a Holiday" [released in the USA as holiday fare on 18 December 1937].
• • Mae West portrays Peaches O'Day, a turn-of-century con artist who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the path for reform mayoral candidate Edmund Lowe. A strong cast of supporting comedians, including Charles Winninger, Charles Butterworth, and Walter Catlett, match Mae quip for quip. Set in the Naughty Nineties, the motion picture features the gayest New Year's Eve party ever held at Rector's on 31 December 1899.
• • Elaborately produced — — on a set that matched the interior of Rector's on Broadway — — and snappily directed by Eddie Sutherland, "Every Day's a Holiday" should have been the hit that Mae West needed to save her flagging film career. Sad to say, thanks to the scrub brush Joe Breen used on her manuscripts, Mae's saucy screenplay became a pepless stew.
• • And unfortunately Mae was also under fire from America's bluenoses because of her previous "racy" vehicles and her recent "lewd and lascivious" appearance on Edgar Bergen's radio show in mid-December 1937, just before Christmas. (Heard today, Mae West's "Adam and Eve" sketch seems harmless enough.)
• • Result: "Every Day's a Holiday" lost every penny it cost and then some — — and effectively ended Mae West's relationship with Paramount.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • In January 1938, Time Magazine published a review of Mae's film "Every Day's A Holiday" (Paramount Pictures, 1938).
• • Time's critic had this to say:
• • In the peculiar idiom of show business, Mae West's art comes under the head of umph.
• • This quality is expressed by sinuous gyrating and prurient murmurings. That this sort of thing will make money is well established. Actress West's last recorded cinema earnings (1936) were $323,000, about as much salary as Bethlehem Steel's president, Eugene G. Grace, and the chairman of its board, Charles M. Schwab, draw down together. That umph sometimes shocks the public is established too.
• • For "Every Day's A Holiday" Paramount made a determined effort to de-umph Mae West by vacuum-cleaning the script, disguising Mae in a fantastic black French periwig. But, like trying to purify the water by white-washing the village pump, it did not work. To situations with considerably less potential than the story of Adam & Eve, actress Mae West imparts a meaning all her own; despite all directorial and script-writing efforts to make her steer a straight course, she still writhes as she pleases. As sexless a game as selling a sucker the Brooklyn Bridge resembles, in the West vernacular, a bargain sale of great temptations.
• • Other impressions of "Every Day's A Holiday": snowy-haired Charles Winninger in typical foxy grandpa mood, Negro Swing-Trumpeter Louis Armstrong leading a torchlight procession, the plushy mustiness of the turn of the century, and a few gags, all mothered and murmured by Miss West.
• • Typical examples:
Q. "You mean he made love to you?''
A. "Well, he went through all the emotions. . . ."
"Keep a diary and some day it'll keep you. . . ."
"She's not as strait-laced as she's laced up to be. . . ."
• • With the release of "Every Day's A Holiday," Paramount and Mae West parted company. She is under contract to Producer Emanuel Cohen, whose production Paramount has sponsored. Last week Producer Cohen and Adolph Zukor, Paramount head, climaxed a four-year feud by calling off their deal. What bothered Paramount more than Mae West's loss was that on Producer Cohen's personal payroll is Crooner Bing Crosby.
• • Source: Time Magazine
• • Published: Monday, 24 January 1938
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1937 • •
NYC
Mae West.