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A large cast of actors and actresses rehearsed with MAE WEST for "Vera Violetta," which opened on 20 November 1911 at the Winter Garden Theatre and continued to draw ticket-buyers through the Christmas holidays, closing in late February 1912. Unfortunately, the ambitious Broadway hopeful upstaged the musical revue's haughty French star, so she was dismissed.
• • After the clash with Gaby Deslys, Mae West's part as Miss Angelique from the Opera Comique was awarded to Kathleen Clifford, who also worked with Mae on Broadway in "A Winsome Widow" [April — September 1912]. Since the enchanting Miss Clifford died during the month of December — — on 28 December 1962 — — let's enjoy her company.
• • Kathleen Clifford • •• • Born in Charlottesville, Virginia on 16 February 1887, Kathleen Clifford was an American vaudeville and Broadway stage and film actress of the early twentieth century.
• • As with "Baby Mae," Kathleen Clifford's career acting was initially built on the vaudeville stages as a comedienne. Renowned for her impersonations of men, Kathleen Clifford was often humorously billed as "The Smartest Chap in Town."
• • In January 1907, Miss Clifford made her Broadway stage debut at the Lincoln Square Theatre in the musical "The Bell of London Town." Clifford's stage credits were numerous and she snagged a variety of parts throughout the 1910s.
• • For example, a large cast was hired for the Florenz Ziegfeld musical production "A Winsome Widow" [staged on Broadway from April — September 1912]. Kathleen Clifford was hired to play a male role: Willie Grow. Mae West won acclaim as La Petite Daffy in the same production.
• • Switching to silent films in 1917, Kathleen Clifford made her screen debut in the William Bertram directed mystery serial "Who Is Number One?" opposite silent film actor Cullen Landis. She would appear in several high-profile roles throughout the late 1910s and early 1920s, most notably: opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in the comedy "When the Clouds Roll By" [1919].
• • With the advent of the talkies, Kathleen Clifford made one short sound film and then settled into semi-retirement.
• • 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 will dazzle and delight The Windy City on Monday 14 January 2008.
• • At 7:45 PM "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] will be shown at The Gene Siskel Film Center [164 N State St at Randolph St Loop/ West Loop, Chicago; tel 312-846-2600].
• • Directed by Lowell Sherman, this 66-minute classic set on the Bowery during the Gay Nineties was a blockbuster. Produced for $200,000 — — half of which went to West for writing and starring — — it returned $2 million domestically on its initial release and another $1 million in international markets. Despite Mae's claims to the contrary, the box office bonanza was NOT enough to pull Paramount Pictures out of the red. But the film did raise studio morale and their image enough to help them edge back toward profitability. The film made Mae West a household name and boosted the career of co-star Cary Grant, who was just starting in motion pictures. He would later claim that he inhaled his lessons about playing comedy from watching the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • "She Done Him Wrong" made the hourglass figure trendy again and encouraged a rush of films set in the 1890s. A backlash was not far behind.
• • Mae West's suggestive song "A Guy What Takes His Time" was so heavily cut by the censors that Paramount recalled all release prints to cut the middle stanzas. Other lines were cut by local censors, and the film was banned outright in Java, Latvia, Australia, and Vienna. It also resurrected renewed cries for national film censorship that led to the strengthening of the Production Code in 1934. That, in turn, would create even more battles between Mae West and the censors, though the blue-noses could do nothing to diminish the sexual independence of her characters
• • An interesting side-trip down memory lane revisits Owen Moore [12 December 1886 — 9 June 1939], who portrayed Chick Clark, Mae West's imprisoned ex-boyfriend in "She Done Him Wrong." The novel Diamond Lil opens with the prison inmate on page 1, chafing at Lil from behind bars, angry that she done him dirt.
• • An Irish silent film star, Owen Moore wed 19-year-old Mary Pickford [8 April 1892 — 29 May 1979] on 7 January 1911. The marriage was stormy due to Moore's alcoholism and they divorced in March 1920; she gave Owen Moore $100,000 to go along with their quickie Nevada divorce scheme. A few days later, Mary wed her dashing lover and colleague Douglas Fairbanks.
• • By 1936, Pickford had also divorced Fairbanks. Is this when she acquired her reputation as an arch-prude? Certainly, Tinseltown's critics turned "America's Sweetheart" into a joke by circulating the story of how she ended Mae West's career by complaining to William Randolph Hearst about the bawdy lyrics of West's songs. Was she jealous of Mae for giving her ex-husband the role he would always be remembered for?
• • Owen Moore has a star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame: 6743 Hollywood Boulevard.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Owen Moore • • 1933 • •
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Mae West.
Think of it. Invited luminaries included MAE WEST, Gary Cooper, and Douglas Fairbanks.
• • Fifty thousand posters were printed.
• • A date was chosen for the opening: 1 September 1939.
• • On the eve of May's annual celebration of cinema at the Cannes Film Festival, Nigel Andrews reflects on what he calls "the worst-timed birth in modern cultural history." Writing for London's Financial Times, Nigel Andrews notes that a humble little fishing port on the Cote d’Azur had aspired to become a twin of Tinseltown by hosting an international film festival.
• • He writes: "Fifty thousand posters were printed. The invited luminaries included Mae West, Gary Cooper, and Douglas Fairbanks. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton – – what better symbol of Franco-Anglo-American entente? – – would open the event. Then Hitler invaded Poland. On that first day. The festival was cancelled. . . ."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
