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One day in 1933 Eugene O'Neill was writing a letter to a fellow playwright Dubose Heyward [31 August 1885 — 16 June 1940] about censorship, Will Hays, and MAE WEST.
• • "Oh, I can easily credit your experience with the censorship," Gene commiserated. "The same sort happened with 'Anna Christie' and 'Strange Interlude.' And Mr. Hays, who cheers with senile lechery when that dainty Mae West sings 'I like a guy wot takes his time' has barred 'Desire Under the Elms' forever from the films! (Meaning no slur at Mae, you understand. I think she's grand.) And in England the censorship made them change the title . . . ."
• • This letter was printed in "Selected Letters of Eugene O'Neill" [Yale University Press, 1988]. The date on this note to Dubose Heyward is Monday, 7 August 1933.
• • Eugene O'Neill [16 October 1888 — 27 November 1953] • •
• • Born on Tuesday, 16 October 1888, Eugene O'Neill started his life in a Broadway (New York City) hotel room in Times Square. The site is now a Starbucks (1500 Broadway, Northeast corner of West 43rd and Broadway). A commemorative plaque is posted on the outside wall with the inscription: "Eugene O'Neill, October 16, 1888 — November 27, 1953 America's greatest playwright was born on this site then called Barrett Hotel, Presented by Circle in the Square."
• • During the 1910s, Eugene O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party founder John Reed.
• • "The Hairy Ape" is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill (1922), and this was the drama being mocked in Mae's song lyrics: "Lemme up! I'll show ya who's an ape!" Imagine it, if you will, since the show "The Ginger Box Revue" did not open (after all) at the Greenwich Village Theatre in 1922. The song Mae wrote for her skit was titled "Eugene O'Neill, You've Put a Curse on Broadway."
• • Fascinated by the prize-winning dramatist Eugene O'Neill, Mae West made sure she saw his plays. Though Mae found O'Neill's outlook depressing, she was well aware of his enormous popularity. His character Anna Christie inspired Mae's prostitute Margy LaMont along with her well-crafted spoofs.
• • Eugene O'Neill died in Boston, Mass. on Friday, 27 November 1953. He was 65.
• • On Monday, 16 October 1933 in Time • •
• • Time Magazine's review of "I'm No Angel" ran in the issue dated for Monday, 16 October 1933.
• • On Monday, 16 October 1939 • •
• • When they were collaborating on a screenplay, both Mae West and W. C. Fields signed a Universal Films contract. The document is dated Monday, 16 October 1939.
• • On Friday, 16 October 1959 • •
• • The sympathetic headline in The Hollywood Reporter was "Mae West Too 'Person'-al; CBS Junks Interview Tape" and it was printed on Friday, 16 October 1959.
• • In Marietta, Georgia, the Journal ran this article on page 3: “Too Sexy?: CBS Cancels Mae West's TV Interview.” It was printed on 16 October 1959.
• • The Los Angeles Herald-Express ran a similar piece on Friday, 16 October 1959. The media reacted en masse to CBS's censoring Mae by taking her side.
• • On Saturday, 16 October 1965 • •
• • The song "Day Tripper" was recorded on Saturday, 16 October 1965 by The Beatles. Mae West covered the song on her album "Way Out West" [1966].
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Now there is talk that Jim Aubrey and Hunt Stromberg Jr. will produce for Warner Brothers-Seven Arts a film version of a Mae West play, “Sextet,” starring Mae. It would be her first film since “The Heat’s On” 25 years ago.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I got my own individual style. You can always tell Eugene O'Neill — — and you can always tell Mae West."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on a playhouse mentioned Mae West.
• • Nancy Berk wrote: The stage where Katharine Hepburn was allowed to “try her wings” in 1931, has welcomed an endless list of legendary theater greats including Tallulah Bankhead, Art Carney, Marlon Brando, Carol Channing, Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour, Groucho Marx, Mae West, and Mickey Rooney. ...
• • Source: Article on Ivoryton Playhouse written by Nancy Berk for Parade; published on Friday, 10 October 2014
• • 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 1,223 visitors.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3027th 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 1928 • •
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MAE WEST told the court they couldn't put anything over her — — including an umbrella.
• • It was November 1936 when Supreme Court Justice Joseph M. Callahan ordered Frank Wallace to supply further information concerning his alleged life with the buxom actress. Callahan gave Wallace, who sought a judgment declaring him to be Miss West's husband, until 27 November 1936 to serve and file an affidavit saying: Whether the plaintiff claimed he and the defendant actually lived together as husband and wife in the state of New York since 1911 . . . and, if so, to specify the times and places where such residences occurred.
• • The justice's order for additional information resulted from Miss West's refusal to appear in the New York court which, she said, had no jurisdiction over her.
• • In November, Let's Remember Eugene O'Neill [1888 — 1953] • •
• • At a time when City Hall was monitoring "dirt plays" and policing the ever present threat of theatrical innovations, both Eugene O'Neill and Mae West aroused the finger shakers in the New York City mayor's office. Joab Banton, N.Y.'s District Attorney, was especially severe on both playwrights. "Desire under the Elms" [produced in 1924] really got Banton's knickers in a knot. This drama was "too thoroughly bad to be purified by blue pen," said Banton.
• • Eugene O'Neill was born in New York, NY on 16 October 1888 and introduced to the theatre world via the Provincetown Playhouse during the 1920s. The Pulitzer-winning "Beyond the Horizon" [published in 1920] was O'Neill's first important play.
• • Though Mae found O'Neill's outlook depressing, she was well aware of his enormous popularity and made sure to go and see his plays. In 1922, she rehearsed the song "Eugene O'Neill, You've Put a Curse on Broadway" for "Ginger Box Review."
• • "Mae West was better suited to writing gritty realism than Eugene O'Neill," explains Frank Cullen in the book "Vaudeville, Old and New" [2007].
• • It was during the eleventh month that the prize-winning dramatist died — — on 27 November 1953. He was 65 years old.
• • On 27 November 1932 in Hollywood • •
• • Jon Tuska, writing about "She Done Him Wrong," notes that production commenced on 27 November 1932, and concluded in December of that year.
• • 27 November 2007 • •
• • Released by the U.K. publisher St. Martin's Griffin on 27 November 2007 was "Mae West: It Ain't No Sin" by the biographer Simon Louvish. The paperback edition had 491 pages.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I don't read. Never have and guess I never will. I write in my books what I learned myself, from life."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A review of "The Heat's On" mentioned that Mae West was "nearly crowded out."
• • The N.Y. Times noted: Even so, the sumptuous siren — — and Victor Moore and William Gaxton, as well — — is nearly crowded out of her own picture by a series of dull production numbers. Miss West, you see, is the turbulent musical comedy star caught in the intrigues of two rival crooked producers, and the plot has been used as little more than an excuse to place Hazel Scott, Xavier Cugat and some lesser folk through their paces — — none of which are particularly startling. ...
• • Source: Film Review written by T.S. for The N.Y. Times; published on 26 November 1943
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2128th 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 • • 1936 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
Spend the afternoon today with MAE WEST. N.Y. Press highlighted "Five Events You Can't Afford to Miss" this week — — and the annual Mae West walking tour was a top selection. Thank you N.Y. Press. We love you.
• • For an a-MAE-zing walking tour, come up and see Mae and celebrate with a nice group of people.
• • Mae West & Eugene O'Neill: Off-beat Links • •
• • At a time when City Hall was monitoring "dirt plays" and policing the ever present threat of theatrical innovations, both Eugene O'Neill and Mae West aroused the finger shakers in the mayor's office. Joab Banton, N.Y.'s District Attorney, was especially severe on both playwrights. "Desire under the Elms" really got Banton's knickers in a knot. This drama was "too thoroughly bad to be purified by blue pen," said Banton.
• • Oh, those purity police! Ever on the patrol for playwrights — — and meanwhile NYC bootleggers buzzed up the booze profits.
• • On Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011 • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill" 
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th. Join us at 3:00 pm on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." Rare vintage illustrations will show you how the buildings and blocks looked as these two theatre people saw them.
• • Where: This illustrated walking tour begins at 62 West Ninth Street, NYC (near Sixth Avenue). Join us and take a walk on the wild side next weekend.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Good sex is like good Bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • San Francisco costume designer Eleanor Knowles Dugan, always keeping abreast of fashion and design trends, was watching "Project Runway" when she heard a familiar style icon mentioned: Mae West.
• • Eleanor Knowles Dugan writes: This week's episode of Project Runway (11 August 2011) teamed the designers to make fashions for stiltwalkers, necessitating pants. In one pairing, the 22-year-old designer Viktor suggested they do something "glamorous 1930s Hollywood, like Mae West." Bert, the 57-year-old designer, said snootily, "Mae West never wore pants!" But of course Mae DID — — as the lion tamer in "I'm No Angel!" Hmmm. So much for the superior knowledge of age. ...
• • Source: Eleanor Knowles Dugan
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2022nd 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 • • invitation • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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MAE WEST sang a very memorable song on TV (no, not the duet with Rock Hudson) — — and it was written by a native New Yorker and praised the idea of a live-in fellow.
• • Born in Mae's hometown, New York City, Harold Spina [21 June 1906 — 11 August 1997] earned a reputation as a skillful arranger as well as a composer of popular songs. He always claimed that as a 14-year-old, he was conducting his own orchestra. By the time he finished high school, he was writing vocal arrangements and working as a staff pianist for music publishing companies on Tin Pan Alley. During the early 1930s, when he was still in his twenties, he was turning out his best-loved numbers in collaboration with the lyricists Joe Young and Johnny Burke. In 1937 he took the opportunity to head to Hollywood to create film scores. Still tuned into pop music, he co-created several chart-toppers with the lyricist John Elliot — — including "It's So Nice To Have a Man Around the House," made famous by Dinah Shore, and most memorably performed by Mae West when she guest-starred in March 1960 on CBS-TV's "The Red Skelton Show" wearing a gorgeous red gown. At 91 years old, Harold Spina died in the month of August — — on 11 August 1997.
• • Mae West & Eugene O'Neill: Off-beat Links • • 
• • Eugene O'Neill's name was regularly mentioned in connection with judicial proceedings regarding censorship at Jefferson Market Court on Sixth Avenue. For instance, City Hall gave him a few headaches by trying to stop his plays from being performed in NYC on Sundays. Unlike Mae West, Gene was not arrested nor hauled in to Jefferson Market Police Court in a paddy wagon. Nor did he spend time in their jail as Mae did on two occasions. On Sunday August 14th, those who take the tour will see rare photos of the prison that held Mae in 1927. In those days, when there was no such thing as prisoners rights, cold dirt floors and broken windows awaited the inmates.
• • On Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011 • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill"
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th. Join us at 3:00 pm on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." Rare vintage illustrations will show you how the buildings and blocks looked as these two theatre people saw them.
• • Where: This illustrated walking tour begins at 62 West Ninth Street, NYC (near Sixth Avenue). Join us and take a walk on the wild side this weekend.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: No gold-digging for me. I'll I take diamonds! We may be off the gold standard someday.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mae West is mentioned in an interview with Craig Russell, an impersonator who was then performing in Melbourne, Australia.
• • The Australian Women's Weekly writes: MOST PEOPLE know Mae West only as a famous American sex queen. But behind that face lurk two more faces — — the philanthropist and the hard-headed businesswoman. So says 28-year-old comedian-impressionist Craig Russell, who is at present performing in Melbourne.
• • And Craig should know. For almost a year, he worked as her secretary and helped with her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With lt. "Actually, goodness had a lot to do with it." Craig says. "Mae's sexy burlesque queen image is so strong that people fail to realize at the back of it lurks an angel who has had her hand in her pocket for years supporting people, worthy causes and putting wings on hospitals."
• • And she is also a "cute businesswoman." says Craig. "She bought real estate hand over fist in the '30s." He said it was sad most people only saw Mae as a sexy, salty platinum bombshell. "She's a Leo. Like Jackie Onassis and Lucille Ball. Mae is a real power lady!" It was Mae who gave Craig his start in show business. ...
• • Source: Article: "THE TWO HIDDEN FACES OF MAE WEST" from The Australian Women's Weekly (1932 — 1982); published on Wednesday, 24 November 1976
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2019th 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 trouble in 1927 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
Many people think of MAE WEST as a movie queen. But she was also a writer who worked hard honing her witticisms and comic comebacks. The Brooklyn bombshell discussed her habits with Dick Cavett on "Backlot USA" [1976], revealing that she did not know how to type and she always wrote longhand in bed. Mae also confessed that, since she knew the censors would want to red pencil her manuscripts, she would deliberately put extra material in.
• • In preparation for the walking tour at 3:00 pm on Sunday, 14 August 2011, here's some background on Mae's battles with the purity police during her Broadway career in the 1920s. Instead of pursuing gun-toting bootleggers, City Hall kept the city safe and sanitized by jailing individuals like Mae and some lesbian novelists (like Eve Addams), and also giving O'Neill legal grief over minutiae such as Sunday performances of his plays. Dramatist and resident of "Bohemia" LindaAnn Loschiavo has prepared this look back in time.
• • The artwork, drawn by Michael Di Motta, is taken from his preliminary sketches for The Courting Mae West Comic Book.
• • • • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill" • • • •
• • The Jazz Age in Greenwich Village might seem like one big party. In spite of the weighty Eighteenth Amendment, which enacted the Prohibition Era in the USA on 16 January 1919, speakeasies were all the rage. The “pansy craze” made drag balls a hot ticket not only for gays but also heterosexuals. And more publishers were renting storefronts in Washington Square and printing left-wing journals, radical essays, little magazines, and controversial plays.
• • Despite the appearance of a free-wheeling society, censorship was ever present. The Catholic Church found a champion in New York’s Gov. Alfred E. Smith [elected governor in 1922, 1924, and 1926]. And The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV or SSV), founded in 1873 by Anthony Comstock, was a leading force in banning books by James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence, and lodging complaints about “dirt” plays on Broadway. [After his death in 1915, Comstock was succeeded by John S. Sumner, who headed the NYSSV until 1950.]
• • • • MAE WEST & CENSORSHIP • • • • 
• • In February 1927 Mae was arrested and jailed shortly after her gay play The Drag had a midnight performance on 31 January 1927. Her play Sex (which had been doing good box office at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre for 10 months) was raided and padlocked. After a jury found her guilty, she served a short sentence in the Women’s Workhouse in April 1927.
• • In October 1928, Mae was arrested again when her gay play Pleasure Man opened at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway. Though her well-connected lawyer Nathan Burkan kept her out of jail, the trial in 1930 bankrupted her.
• • • • EUGENE O’NEILL & CENSORSHIP • • • •
• • Throughout his career, Eugene G. O'Neill faced protests and efforts at censorship over material that some found objectionable and scandalous — — or immoral such as The Hairy Ape in 1922.
• • May 15, 1924 After a newspaper noted a "white Actress to kiss Negro's hand" in O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings [starring Paul Robeson], a member of the Salvation Army and the Society for the Suppression of Vice called for the production to cease. During rehearsal, the Provincetown Players got threatening letters from the Ku Klux Klan. Under a bomb threat, the play opened with a large police presence at the Provincetown Playhouse [15 May 1924]. The Mayor’s office showed their disapproval, too. The directors of the theater had applied for a permit to use a group of children in the first scene and the permit had been refused, no explanation being offered.
• • With its depiction of a passionate relationship between a young man and his stepmother, O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms outraged New York District Attorney Joab Banton after it opened on Broadway in 1924. Banton had also targeted other productions at the time. . . . But Desire, he said, was "too thoroughly bad to be purified by blue pen," and he threatened to convene a grand jury if the play was not shut down. After the producer refused, Banton created a citizen jury to evaluate the morality of Broadway productions. Upon seeing Desire, the play jury reached a verdict that it was not obscene, and the show went on. O'Neill bemoaned the final result. "We got a large audience, but of the wrong kind of people," O’Neill said. "They came for dirt and found it in everything.”
• • • • Greenwich Village's "queen of the third sex" • • • •
• • Eva Kotchever, a Jewish Polish emigre, took the name Eve Addams and proclaimed herself to be "queen of the third sex." At Eve's Hang-out on MacDougal St., social activities included poetry readings, salons, and discussions focused on sexual topics. A few newspapers raised an alarm about this cafe "where ladies prefer each other" and a sign on her door that announced MEN ARE ADMITTED BUT NOT WELCOME. Tipped off, an under-cover policewoman stopped by, and began to drop in and flirt with Eve, who shared some of her writing with the newcomer, a book titled Lesbian Love. The police raided the premises in June 1926. Charged with obscenity, Eve was sent to the Women’s Workhouse, then deported at the end of the year.
• • Mae West & Eugene O'Neill: Off-beat Links • •
• • Eugene O'Neill loved to watch boxing as much as Mae West did. Anyone who went to take in the fights at Madison Square Garden during the 1920s or early 1930s might have spotted Gene or Mae in a good seat. Of course the Brooklynite had an advantage here in that she could also date the prizefighters after the bout.
• • On Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011 • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill" 
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th. Join us at 3:00 pm on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." Rare vintage illustrations will show you how the buildings and blocks looked as these two theatre people saw them.
• • Where: This illustrated walking tour begins at 62 West Ninth Street, NYC (near Sixth Avenue). Join us and take a walk on the wild side this weekend on August 14th.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West told this to a reporter (but maybe it was said tongue-in-cheek): "Right now I think censorship is necessary. The things they're doing and saying in films right now just shouldn't be allowed. There's no dignity anymore and I think that's very important."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Celia Walden writes: Mr. Chow had pulled off every restaurateur’s dream: transposing a restaurant and its atmosphere from one city to another. Not that the idiosyncrasies of the Sixties Brit Pack could rival this lot. Chow can still remember Mae West being given a standing ovation for finishing her meal and scrawling “for food that’s best, ask Mae West” in the visitor’s book. ...
• • Source: Interview: "Mr. Chow — — How the world's starriest restaurateur turned feeding the famous into an art" written by Celia Walden for The Telegraph (UK); posted on Monday, 08 August 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2017th 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 • • 1927 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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MAE WEST worked with several stage performers who transitioned into TV series focused on The Old West. Handsome Dayton Lummis, however, was garbed as a Russian when he appeared on The Great White Way with the Empress of Sex. 
• • Born in Union City, New Jersey in the month of August — — on 8 August 1903 — — Dayton Lummis was an American actor of film and television who specialized in the genre of anthology and western series, often playing authority figures. He was seen on every major TV western from "The Lone Ranger" [1953] to "Gunsmoke" [1975], his final chance to sport a gunbelt and spurs on the small screen. But when he wore a younger man's clothes, he went to the West Coast and studied theatre at the Martha Oatman School, Los Angeles. His first professional engagement, at age 24, was with the Russell Stock Company, of Redlands, California.
• • Dayton Lummis remained a regional actor until his Broadway bow in 1944 opposite Mae West in "Catherine Was Great," where he was cast in the role of Chechkofski.
• • He died in Santa Monica on 23 March 1988. He was 84 years old.
• • Mae West & Eugene O'Neill: Off-beat Links • •
• • Eugene O'Neill's roommate Barney Gallant opened a speakeasy on Washington Square South. O'Neill went there often (because he could drink for free). Mae West also went to this night spot with her friend Texas Guinan, one of Barney's closest pals.
• • On Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011 • • 
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill"
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th. Join us at 3:00 pm on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." Rare vintage illustrations will show you how the buildings and blocks looked as these two theatre people saw them. At the final stop on West Third Street, you will see how caricaturist Al Hirschfeld sketched O'Neill and his stage plays from the 1920s on.
• • Where: This illustrated walking tour begins at 62 West Ninth Street, NYC (near Sixth Avenue). Join us and take a walk on the wild side this coming Sunday on August 14th.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Don't keep a man guessing too long — — he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mae West is mentioned in Adolph Zukor's autobiography.
• • Adolph Zukor recalls: "When you speak of eras, I'd say Mae West was in command during the depression years. Mae surprised us, and maybe herself. But Mae knew her talents in relation to the audiences which is always what counts better than we did." .... Meanwhile we went ahead making pictures, and here I must pay tribute to another durable trouper, Mae West, for the powerful lift she gave us out of the depression mire. Neither the sweet ingenue nor the glamor girl fit the depression years. Mae did. She was the strong confident woman, always in command. And that was the real Mae. Except for her strength of character she would not have become the sensation she was perhaps would never have appeared on the screen at all. Mae had scored many hits on the stage as the embodiment of lusty sex, But picture makers had shied away, not knowing exactly how to use her. Certainly no one believed that the Mae West of the stage could be transferred almost intact to the screen. In 1930 we had, however, signed her for an important role in George Raft's Night After Night. ...
• • Source: Book excerpt: "THE PUBLIC IS NEVER WRONG: The Autobiography of Adolph Zukor" [NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1953]
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2016th 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 Catherine the Great, 1944 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
