Mae West: Flower Belle Lee

MAE WEST will be featured at a Tuesday matinee this month on Long Island. 

• • "My Little Chickadee" [1940] will be screened at the Farmingdale Public Library and the admission is free. Join the fearless Flower Belle Lee and traveling con man Cuthbert J. Twillie on Tuesday, 15 May 2012, starting at 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon.

• • WHERE:  Farmingdale Public Library, 116 Merritts Road, Farmingdale, NY 11735.

• • Eddie Borden [1 May 1888 — 1 July 1955] • •

• • Mae West worked twice with Eddie Borden, who was seen in "I'm No Angel" [1933] as an amusing carnival sideshow spectator who ogles "Tira the Incomparable" in her provocative costume — — and he was cast the following year as a comedian in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934].

• • Born in Deer Lodge, Tennessee on the first day in May — — on 1 May 1888 — — the funnyman launched his career as a variety artist, then gave up vaudeville for the screen trade. After his start in Hollywood in 1922, Eddie Borden appeared in 142 motion pictures during the next 30 years.

• • Eddie Borden worked with director Leo McCarey in "Bad Boy" [1925], who would also direct "Belle of the Nineties" nine years later.  The five-foot-nine actor had a number of feature roles when he first landed in Tinseltown in the 1920s, but gradually he became just another bit parts player.

• • Casting agents tended to use him as an extra in a brief scene. Typically, he was seen as a stagehand, one of the revenuers, a waiter, barfly, reveller, spectator, man in the crowd, taxi driver, etc.  Borden bid his farewell to the silver screen in "Holiday for Sinners" [1952], a title that sounds tailor-made for Mae West.

• • Eddie Borden died in Hollywood, California on the first day of July (on 1 July 1955) in Hollywood, California. He was 67.

• • On Tuesday, 4 May 1886 • •

• • On Tuesday, 4 May 1886 the black composer Shelton Brooks was born. Mae and Beverly performed his dance novelty "Walking the Dog" when they toured with their act "Mae West and Sister." In her 1928 Bowery melodrama "Diamond Lil," Mae performed his jaunty song "Where Has My Easy Rider Gone?" and the number would be reprised in "She Done Him Wrong" [filmed in 1932].

• • On Saturday, 4 May 1935 • •

• • A Los Angeles Times columnist noted on Saturday, 4 May 1935, that the news about Mae West's secret marriage to Frank Wallace had "chased Hitler, the NRA, and the quintuplets off the front page of every newspaper in America for two weeks."

• • On Sunday, 4 May 1969 • •

• • Reporter Whitney Bolton wrote an article, a first person remembrance: "Critic Impressed by Mae West Role of Siren at Seance." Bolton had attended one of Mae's backstage seances and his piece was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in its weekend edition on Sunday, 4 May 1969.

• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "If we can send a man to the moon, why don’t we send all of 'em?"

• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An article on the weather in May mentioned Mae West.

• • Humorist Glenn Cochrane wrote:  After a typical Toronto winter, which always seems so long and so dour, we are finally heading happily into the Merry Month of May and not a moment too soon, if you ask me. According to my notes the month is named after Mae West, a popular stage and movie performer back in the 1930s and '40s. Little is known about her today which I believe is the result of a cover up on the part of her bosses, which is what they were always urging her to do. Cover up, that is, which I am adding for purposes of clarification. Mae West is long back in the days of her buxom prime.   . . .

• • Source: Article: "Mae West can’t beat May in the Beach" written by Glenn Cochrane for Beach Metro Community News; published on 4 May 2011

• • By the Numbers • •

• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2290th 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: Greasewood City

It was Wednesday in Australia — — on 1 January 1941 — — and folks down under were reading about MAE WEST. Her latest motion picture comedy had been released in the USA on 15 March 1940. Now it was being distributed around the globe.
• • From Queensland, the Morning Bulletin's movie critic wrote: What could be funnier than W. C. Fields as a patent medicine vendor turned masked bandit (sic), and Mae West, late of the honky tonks, as a little desert flower blooming brighter every hour? A riotous "team" they make, this one-glance gal and two-shot son-of-a-gun. Their adventures among the citizenry of Greasewood City, one of the wilder outposts of the West, are something in the nature of a parody and burlesque on the familiar fixtures of Western pictures. Nothing has been spared in the hulabaloo of ridicule, and the disorderly progress of Fields through the badlands. lt is a flt subject for the short, barking laugh (it goes "Hah," and is bitten off on that syllable) or the comfortable internal chuckle.
• • The Queensland movie critic conveyed admiration by noting this: W.C. Fields is assisted in his hilarious duties by Mae West, who retains her old slinky ways, frank humour, free Invitations, wisecracks, and peculiar style that attracted the public in her first picture. She is Flower Belle Lee, idol of the "boys," and the sight of the comedian battling to save himself from the alluring dangers of the beautiful West is the kind of screen material that will throw any audience into a panic.
• • The critic concluded: It will be screened at the Wintergarden this afternoon [Wednesday, 1 January 1941] and tonight, also tomorrow and Friday.
• • Source: Entertainment Feature: "Wintergarden Theatre "My Little Chickadee" written for the Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld); published on Wednesday, 1 January 1941, page 8
• • Susannah McCorkle [1946 — 2001] • •
• • Shortly before committing suicide, Susannah McCorkle [1 January 1946 — 19 May 2001] had been writing a lengthy profile of Mae West.
• • A supremely talented jazz singer, Miss McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California in the month of January — — on 1 January 1946. Her fascinating article about Mae West can be found online.
• • On Sunday, 1 January 1933 • •
• • Bootlegger and speakeasy owner Larry Fay met his death inside the Napoleon Club, 33 West 56th Street, New York, NY on Sunday, 1 January 1933. Mae West and George Raft both knew Larry Fay, who was the business partner of the night club czarina Texas Guinan.
• • Filmed in Hollywood, the reformed gangster rom-com "Night after Night" was set in the once grand townhouse that Larry Fay turned into a deluxe speakeasy.
• • On Sunday, 1 January 1967 in The Washington Post • •
• • Newspaper readers in D.C. got a brief respite from hearing about the antics of President Lyndon B. Johnson on Sunday morning, 1 January 1967 when the Washington Post printed an article by Kevin Thomas: "Mae West, Like Rock 'n' Roll Music, Is Still Deeply Rooted in Ragtime."
• • On Sunday, 1 January 1978 • •
• • A review of the motion picture "Sextette," starring Mae West, was printed in Variety, the issue dated for Sunday, 1 January 1978.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Good women are no fun. The only good woman I can recall in history is Betsy Ross. And all she ever made was a flag."
• • Born on January 1st, Philadelphia native Betsy Ross [1 January 1752 — 30 January 1836] was a woman who was given credit for sewing the first American flag; her design incorporated stars representing the first 13 colonies. Heavens to Betsy!
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about "My Little Chickadee" discussed Mae West.
• • Roger Hurlburt writes: Ah, yes, My Little Chickadee, take a gander at the 1940 western spoof with W.C. Fields and Mae West (midnight, WFLX — Ch. 29). The duo also wrote the screenplay, though one feels the film could have been even funnier. Saloon scenes are the best; so are the performances of hatchet-faced Margaret Hamilton and milquetoast emeritus Donald Meek as a corrupt "preacher."
• • Source: Entertainment Feature: "Come Up and See This Film" written by Roger Hurlburt, Staff Writer, for the Sun Sentinel; published in Florida on 1 January 1987
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2163rd 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: Massapequa Chickadee

"I have been approached by MAE WEST to consider collaborating," wrote W.C. Fields in 1935. "But I want my work to stand out individually. Besides Mae has the wrong slant on this thing [i.e., the bed]. She says she does her best writing in bed. Well, I do my best loafing there, and consider that this is the primary purpose of a bed."
• • The motion picture screenplay they eventually would create came about a few years later when the screen queen was no longer attached to Paramount Pictures and (no doubt) eager to return to making movies.
• • "My Little Chickadee" — — starring Mae West and W.C. Fields — — was officially released on 15 March 1940 and was booked in Manhattan at the prestigious Roxy; then located at 153 West 50th Street, this superbly appointed cathedral devoted to the cinema had first opened in 1927.
• • This classic screen comedy will be shown once today in a Long Island library. John Carpenter, who styles himself "The Massapequa Park Movie Man," has organized this event and will introduce the program. A poster collector will show the audience two reprints that were autographed by Mae West. The screening will be free.
• • WHAT: "My Little Chickadee" — — Runtime: 83 minutes.
• • WHEN: Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock on 12 November 2011
• • WHERE: Massapequa Park Library's Bar Harbour building: 40 Harbor Lane, Massapequa Park, N.Y. 11762; Tel (516) 799-0770
• • Tell them you heard about it on the Mae West Blog.
• • On 12 November 1939 • •
• • Production began for Mae West's motion picture "My Little Chickadee" on 12 November 1939.
• • She had first entered into negotiations for this project by the end of May 1939 with certain reservations due to her costar's reputation for hard drinking.
• • Earlier that month, W.C. Fields had submitted a script called "December and Mae." In this early draft, which was set in the 1880s, the two leads were wed (but in name only) and also the co-owners of a Western-style barroom. By summer the studio had roped Grover Jones, a professional screenwriter, into the deal. Fields found Grover's ideas both tame and lame — — and urged Mae to collaborate with him instead.
• • On 12 November 2007 in the Contra Costa Times • •
• • "Mae West's work as a dramatist will never be confused with that of, say, Thornton Wilder," observed staff writer Pat Craig [12 November 2007] in the Contra Costa Times.
• • To that we say, while Mae West was willing to be thrilling, it's a good bet that Thornton Wilder couldn't shimmy if his freakin' life depended on it.
• • On 12 November 2009 • •
• • Mae West's role in Diamond Lil was a crossword puzzle clue on Thursday, 12 November 2009 in The New York Times. The puzzle that day was called Five of Diamonds.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said this about men: "They're nature's greatest gift to women."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • From the movie's description, which mentioned Mae West.
• • Hal Erickson writes: The once-in-a-lifetime teaming of Mae West and W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee had the potential for comic greatness: what emerged, though generally entertaining, was, in the words of critic Andrew Sarris, "more funny strange than funny ha-ha." Mae West dominates the film's first reel as Flower Belle Lee, a self-reliant woman who is abducted by a mysterious masked bandit during a stagecoach holdup. Because she refuses to tell anyone what happened during her nocturnal rendezvous with the bandit, Flower Belle is invited to leave her prudish hometown and move to Greasewood City. En route by train, Flower Belle makes the acquaintance of con-artist Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields), who carries a suitcase full of what seems to be large-denomination monetary notes. After a lively clash with marauding Indians, Flower Belle tricks Twillie into a phony marriage; she does this so that she can arrive in Greasewood City with a modicum of respectability, and incidentally to get her hands on Twillie's bankroll. ...
• • Source: All Movie Guide written by Hal Erickson
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2112th 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: Castro's Chickadee

MAE WEST is featured in an archival photo with W.C. Fields in the San Francisco Calendar today.
• • Hiya Swanhuyser's brief text — — so bracing and vivacious — — anounces the second coming of Mae. Hear ye, hear ye!
• • Here's what Hiya Swanhuyser wrote: Young people! It is understandable that you assume black and white movies are boring. Youth equals stupidity, after all. No, seriously: If you have not seen My Little Chickadee, you're stupid. It's like if you thought cake was boring, or sexual intercourse.
• • If you have not seen several Mae West movies, you are holding yourself apart from one of the really genuinely nice things that can happen to a live human adult, unless you don't like dialogue such as: He: "Aren't you forgetting that you're married?" She: "I'm doin' my best." Plus, it's time to scrap the whole idea that black and white movies are boring, because that is for children.
• • At Five Buck Tuesdays, well, you can probably figure out what happens with that, no matter how young you are.
• • WHERE: Castro Theatre — — 429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114; T. (415) 621-6120
• • WHEN: this coming Tuesday, on 14 April 2009 — — at 6:15pm and 8:30 pm.
— — Source: — —
• • Article: “Grow the Hell Up"
• • Byline: By Hiya Swanhuyser
• • Published in: San Francisco Weekly — — www.sfweekly.com
• • Published on: 8 April 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Tell the gang at the Castro that the Mae West blog told you to come up!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Joy in Joplin

MAE WEST fans in Joplin, Missouri will get a nice freebie on 15 May 2007. The Classic Cinema offering of "Hollywood at the Joplin Public Library" stars Mae West and W.C. Fields in their hilarious pairing - - "My Little Chickadee" [released on 15 March 1940] - - a comedy set in the Old West.
• • Movietime is 6 o'clock in the evening and this Mae West film is free.
• • In Missouri, the Joplin Public Library is on Main Street between 3rd & 4th Streets.
• • Here's the plot of "My Little Chickadee" - - Suspected of illicit relations with the Masked Bandit, Flower Belle Lee [Mae West] is run out of Little Bend. On the train she meets con man Cuthbert J. Twillie [W.C. Fields] and pretends to marry him for "respectability." Arriving in Greasewood City with his unkissed bride, Cuthbert J. Twillie is named sheriff by the town boss Jeff Badger, who has an ulterior motive. Both stars display their comic capital onscreen.
• • As the film ends, Cuthbert J. Twillie says to Flower Belle, "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" It is, of course, a sly reference to Mae West's famous line in "She Done Him Wrong" [1933].
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Illustration: • • Mae West • • 1940 • •
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