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What was going on in the mind of MAE WEST on Saturday night, 13 January 1945 as her show "Catherine Was Great" was winding down its Broadway engagement with its 191th performance? 
• • It is easy to disparage the dreams of a performer. When it comes to admiration and understanding of Mae's achievement, however, look to John T. Alexander's informative analysis of those who tried to walk in Catherine's shoes. He starts by mentioning all the European film stars who portrayed the empress: Pola Negri, Louise Dresser, Elisabeth Bergner, Paule Andral, Marlene Dietrich ["The Scarlet Empress" in 1934], etc. He also enumerates other interpretations by Tallulah Bankhead, Hildegard Neff, Jeanne Moreau, Zoe Caldwell, and so on. Especially dissatisfied by Dietrich's portrayal ("an arty disaster") and irritated by Bergner's interpretation, Mae West became even more intrigued with the Russian czarina.
• • Mae West said: "I saw the Empress as a warm, gay, very sensual woman, and yet a monarch who was a skillful politician and a master statesman."
• • John T. Alexander wrote: "In four months, by September 1938, Mae West compiled a screenplay about Catherine's life as an empress. ... [When] the Hollywood studios reacted frigidly, Mae West resolved to have it produced independently, but this proved impossible, too."
• • Determined to see the project produced, Mae reworked the material as a stage revue and opened for a three week run in Philadelphia in July 1944 before mounting a Broadway version. Though she later regretted it, she limited herself to one song: "Strong, Solid, and Sensational."
• • Mae's 70-lb train in the final scene required four men . . . • •
• • John T. Alexander wrote: The elaborate, heavily brocaded costumes tested her endurance; her 70-lb train in the final scene required four men to lift it gracefully. ... Certainly her portrayal impressed more deeply than ever in the popular psyche Catherine's association with extravagant, theatrical sexuality."
• • Source for this information: John T. Alexander's book "Catherine the Great: Life and Legend" (New York: Oxford University Press, Nov. 1989, 418 pages)
• • Sophie Tucker [1884 — 1966] • •
• • In January it's time to remember a singer and comedienne who was a big influence on Mae West, though she never admitted it.
• • Sophie Tucker [13 January 1884 — 9 February 1966] was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first third of the 20th century. Almost ten years older than Mae and not as controversial when she launched her career, Sophie Tucker had an ethnic appeal which upped her forward momentum and she was, in fact, a much bigger draw in vaudeville than the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • On Saturday, 13 January 1945 • •
• • "Catherine Was Great" featured Mae West onstage in her stunning Russian empress regalia. Mike Todd's lavish production was onstage from 2 August 1944 — 13 January 1945 on Broadway, which ran for 191 performances. The play was staged at the Shubert Theatre, then moved to the Royale.
• • On Sunday, 13 January 1958 • •
• • An article in a Joe Weider publication in 2004 gave this point of view on the late bodybuilder and the Hollywood icon:
• • Joe Weider's reporter wrote: In 1955, a 64-year-old Mae West saw Mickey Hargitay on the cover of Strength and Health Magazine. She asked him to join her chorus of musclemen, clad in leopardskin G-strings, in her Las Vegas nightclub act, the Mae West Revue. According to Mae West, when she first met him, Hargitay had said: "Miss West, you are the end of my search for an ideal, my dream come true." ...
• • Blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield encountered the very handsome Mr. Universe 1956 Miklos (Mickey) Hargitay on 13 May 1956, while attending a performance of the "Mae West Revue" at the Latin Quarter in Manhattan.
• • Twenty months later, Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay wed on 13 January 1958. They had three children and, alas, would divorce in 1964.
• • On Sunday, 13 January 2008 • •
• • Newsday [the newspaper issue dated on Sunday, 13 January 2008] reported a collaboration between Mae West and The Naked Stage in Suffolk County on Long Island, the location where the play "Sex" was going to be presented in February 2008.
• • According to Newsday: "Sex" by Mae West will be performed on Feb. 12, 2008, and more — — at 7:30 p.m., Guild Hall, 158 Main St., East Hampton, NY 11937 — — free.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “I’m glad you like my Catherine. I like her, too. She ruled 30 million people and had 3,000 lovers. I do the best I can in two hours.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The article "Two Takes on Camille Saint-Saens’s 'Samson and Delilah'" was written by Christopher Purdy, who discussed Mae West's rendition of the aria.
• • Christopher Purdy explained: "But there is one performance of this music different than all the rest. It was immortalized in a film called 'Goin’ To Town' [1935]. Not only do we have a very special brand of music making, we also have the hysteria of backstage at the opera, on film. Saint-Saens meets his match long after his death when his music is, er, interpreted by….. Mae West.
• • Christopher Purdy continued: In her memoir Beverly the late Beverly Sills recalls meeting the very elderly Mae West in Hollywood. “I don’t think she knew who I was, but I certainly knew who she was.” When Sills asked Miss West if she ever sang, the old girl almost lost her false… eyelashes. “I got a fully trained operatic voice!,” she crowed.
• • Christopher Purdy added: Indeed. Not for nothing was Mae West the highest paid woman in America in the mid-1930s, outranking FDR and the head of General Motors at the height of the depression. ...
• • Source: Article: "Two Takes on Camille Saint-Saens’s 'Samson and Delilah'" written by Christopher Purdy for WOSU.org; posted on 13 January 2010
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2176th 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 • • in 1944 • •
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Mae West.
A painting of MAE WEST, a good gal with a bad reputation, was used on the promotional material for the Lane Arts Council's First Friday ArtWalk on 4 November 2011. 
A free event, this intriguing ArtWalk began at 5:30 in the evening yesterday on November 4th at Modern on East Fifth Avenue and then proceeded on foot to four other art havens.
• • If you do not reside in Oregon, you can still admire this wonderfully moody piece created by artist Nicola Noetic titled "Mae West." Take a few moments to study the figure, inspired by Mae's extravagant 1936 costuming as the Frisco Doll, unwilling mistress to Chinatown's Chan Lo. Quite lovely, isn't it?
• • Lane Arts Council is located in Eugene, Oregon; Tel 541-485-2278
• • Please do not copy Ms. Noetic's artwork without permission. Be nice.
• • In November, Let's Remember Texas Guinan [1884 — 1933] • •
• • Born on 12 January 1884 in Waco, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan played a gun-slinger and rode bareback in silent films, took New York by storm in 1906, and earned a salary of $700,000 as a speakeasy hostess. The versatile stage star led a noisy and joyful life at full speed until one day in early November — — on 5 November 1933. One month later Prohibition was repealed.
• • In November, Let's Remember Will Hays [1879 — 1954] • •
• • Born in Sullivan, Indiana, William Harrison Hays, Sr. [5 November 1879 — 7 March 1954], was the namesake of the Hays Code for censorship of American films, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and U.S. Postmaster General from 1921 to 1922. There has been so much written about the man they called "the Hitler of Hollywood" and you can find entire books dedicated to his career.
• • On 5 November 1930 • •
• • "A prizefighter's tart" who enjoys black men as well as Caucasians, Babe Gordon, the luscious blonde teenage protagonist, was Mae's idea of an uptown temptress, footloose and unfettered in Harlem.
• • The novel "Babe Gordon" by Mae West was published in New York City by The Macaulay Company on 5 November 1930.
• • On 5 November 1986 in The N.Y. Times • • 
• • Writing about a Jubilee Gala in the 5 November 1986 issue of The N.Y. Times, columnist Anna Kisselgoff warmed to the topic by leading off like this: A labor union that includes Beverly Sills, Jascha Heifetz, Agnes de Mille, and Suzanne Farrell must have something solid behind it, and so it was solidarity forever at a gala performance Monday night celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American Guild of Musical Artists. Miss Sills led off with a salute on film to some of the guild's ''illustrious members.'' Thus we saw Lawrence Tibbet, the guild's founding president, on horseback, James Melton singing ''Home on the Range,'' and clips of Gladys Swarthout, Lily Pons, Grace Moore, Rise Stevens, Giovanni Martinelli, and Kirsten Flagstad — — whose Wagnerian outfit was echoed inimitably by Mae West, who appeared next wearing breastplates in an excerpt from ''A Lady for the Day.'' [sic] . . .
• • Ms. Kisselgoff's reference is half right. She is thinking of the (abandoned) film title "Now I'm a Lady" and Mae's hilarious soprano get-up after she decides to impress her guests in one scene of "Goin' to Town" by throwing the swells an opera. However, it was actress Glenda Farrell who starred in the motion picture "A Lady for a Day" [1933]; her character uttered this often quoted "bad girl" line: ''I'm so hot I'm smoking. I need a man!''
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West described Delilah this way: "A lady barber who made good!"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about an actress from California mentioned Mae West.
• • Lisa Millegan Renner writes: Morgan James sings the sexy showstopper "Turn Back, O Man" in "Godspell." Modeled after Mae West, her character aggressively flirts with the cast and audience. ....
• • Source: Article: "Modestan James back on Broadway" written by Lisa Millegan Renner for the Modesto Bee; posted on Thursday, 3 November 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2105th 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 • • as Delilah in 1935 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
Unafraid of a challenge, a culture clash, nor an opportunity, MAE WEST sang an abbreviated opera aria in her motion picture "Goin' to Town" [release date: 25 April 1935] costumed, hilariously, as the Biblical temptress Delilah. Portraying the star-crossed strongman Samson she serenades was none other than Mae's pesky in-law Vladimir Bykoff [billed as "the Tenor"]. Classical music buffs are either amused by Mae's spunkiness or astonished.
• • Born in Paris on 9 October 1835, Camille Saint-Saens was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Havanaise, etc.
• • Camille Saint-Saëns died of pneumonia at the Hôtel de l' Oasis in Algiers in the month of December — — on 16 December 1921.
• • 16 December 1905 • •
• • Before Daily Variety was born to make piquant and acidic observations, publisher Sime Silverman put out a vaudeville-focused weekly newspaper — — known simply as Variety — — beginning on 16 December 1905. Though Mae West was not in the first issue, it was not long before their sarcastic reporters were giving her a black eye.
• • Then quite early in its game, Daily Variety picked up on the naughty B.O. trend with its "Mae West Ditto Sought in Vain," an article that revealed:
• • "Success of Mae West has many Hollywood agents on the hunt for girls of the same type. Search is not only in the usual spots, but in burlesk and carney shows. So far there have been few gals of the West type uncovered, chief trouble being that those who have acquired the West hey hey are too decrepit for the camera."
• • How many issues of Variety did Mae West preserve?• • 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, who portrayed Delilah on screen and Eve on radio, has inspired an intriguing study of the Bible's bad girls organized by the First Baptist Church of Mobile, Alabama.
• • Good girls go to heaven; bad girls go everywhere, or at least that’s what Mae West said. First Baptist Church of Mobile’s Women’s Bible study group is reading the book “Bad Girls of the Bible: And what we can learn from them,” by Liz Curtis Higgs, which looks into the lives of women in the Bible — — including Delilah, Jezebel, and Lot’s wife — — announced the Press-Register on 31 January 2010.
• • According to Alabama Live, this 11-week study is free. The study group leader is Margaret Mangham. Information is available by phoning the church office at 251-432-6513.• • 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.
Not known for high culture, MAE WEST deliberately decided to throw her audience more than a few curves when she performed a shortened version of Delilah's aria to Samson in her motion picture "Goin' to Town" (released in the USA on 25 April 1935). French composer Camille Saint-Saëns [1835 — 1921] wrote this popular work, which had its debut in 1877.
• • During last year's Mae West walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" [Sunday, 17 August 2008] — — attendees had the enormous privilege of hearing Met soprano Marlena de la Mora perform this aria live. Another great delight was when Madame de la Mora launched into "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" in English, singing, "My heart opens itself to your voice..." — — a poignant rendering that was followed by heaps and heaps of applause and mass adoration. This stirring aria was sung when the group had assembled on Village Green, in front of the former Jefferson Market Court where Mae had faced the purity police in a grueling obscenity trial during 1927.
• • Music columnist Tim Smith reminisced about Mae's sultry potrayal of the Hebrew temptress. Tim Smith writes: Since it's Monday, when everyone could use a little lift, I can't resist offering this reminder of Mae's distinctive musical talent, singing, of all things, the great duet from ... Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila" in the film "Goin' to Town." I just love the way she says, "Come here, Sammy," before launching into the abbreviated "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix." It's a performance, needless to say, like no other.
— — Source: — —
• • Article: Monday morning lift: Mae West sings Saint-Saens
• • BY: Tim Smith | Classical Music Critic
• • Published in: The Baltimore Sun — — http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/
• • Published on: Monday, 24 August 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
In the winter of 1929, MAE WEST was interviewed by Edgar Waite of the San Francisco Examiner. Here is a portion of their conversation. 
• • Edgar Waite: Is it your purpose to reflect life as it is lived — — or are you trying to elevate the stage?
• • Mae West: Don't kid me. I've had one dominating purpose in writing such plays as "Diamond Lil," "The Drag," "Sex," "The Wicked Age," and "Pleasure Man."
• • Edgar: Moral uplift?
• • Mae: Box-office uplift.
• • Edgar: What luck?
• • Mae: Assorted. Last Monday at the Curran, we took in $300 more than Ethel Barrymore on her opening night last summer. On the other hand, if the district attorney of New York hadn't closed "Sex" because the curbstone bidding for tickets took too many cops off their regular beats, I'd have owned my own theatre by now.
• • Edgar: Do you consider your plays quite moral?
• • Mae: I consider them a theatrical representation of those phases of life which interest the public more than anything else, and have since the days of Sappho, Aspasia, and Delilah.
• • Edgar: And when was that?
• • Mae: Forever. . . .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The Curran Theatre, where Mae West performed her play in 1929, is located at 445 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1928 illustration • •
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Mae West.
Invitation to the Annual Mae West Gala
In her 1935 release "Goin' to Town," MAE WEST's character — — newly rich Cleo Borden — — has an evening soiree and decides to impress the guests by "throwing an opera." Always envisioning herself as a seductress, Mae (hilariously costumed) performs an erotic French aria by Camille Saint-Saëns: "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix." 
• • On 17 August 2008, the glamorous Diamond Divas invite you to an a-MAE-zing birthday celebration that includes a musical walking tour of historical sights near Washington Square Park. Join Metropolitan Opera singer Marlena De La Mora and tour guide Sharon Weinman and historian LindaAnn Loschiavo for a noteworthy Sunday afternoon in Greenwich Village.
• • Metropolitan Opera singer Marlena De La Mora will sing excerpts from arias associated with Mae West including Delilah's French aria. Sharon Weinman, who has a long background in musical theatre, will punctuate the walking tour with showtunes linked to Mae's career. Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo will provide secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. 
• • This year the Annual Mae West Birthday Gala will also commemorate the 80th anniversary of "Diamond Lil," which Mae West wrote and brought to Broadway in 1928.
• • Soprano Marlena de la Mora has sung with both The Met & NYC Opera. A former winner of the New York Liederkranz Foundation's Wagnerian Vocal Competition, Madame de la Mora is a soloist at Fordham United Methodist Church.
• • Sharon Weinman has been leading walking tours for over a decade and performs in community theatre; she is also a Recreation Therapist with the New York State Recreation and Park Society.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's latest play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival; she is at work on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her rare vintage photos during the tour.
• • Walking Tour: "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side"
• • When: 1:00 PM on Sunday — — 17 August 2008 — — rain or shine• • Meet: Village Restaurant, 62 West Ninth Street, New York, NY 10011
• • Price: $20
• • Subway: E or F [IND] train to West Fourth Street; PATH to 9th Street station
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: Seesaw864@juno.com
• • This event — — which is part of the Annual Mae West Birthday Gala — — is open to the public.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
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Mae West.
