Mae West: The New Movie

It was the January 1934 issue of The New Movie and MAE WEST was smiling on the cover. The newsstand price was 10 cents and subscribers received their issue in December.
• • In November 1933 Clarke Moore was assigned to sketch Mae West in color from a black and white photograph furnished by Paramount Pictures. His artwork was used on this New Movie issue dated for January 1934. Mae is wearing the wig chosen for "She Done Him Wrong."
• • Mae West's Bracelet • •
• • A jeweler who outfits those special stars who walk the red carpet is Neil Lane. His store shelves are filled with sparkle plenty, adornments that have been worn by (sold to or lent to) many celebrities. From Mae West's estate, Mr. Lane bought a bracelet. This lovely piece was worn by Catherine Zeta-Jones in "Chicago," a motion picture that had a 1920s setting. Knowing Mae's taste, her choice of glitterati was probably all diamonds.
• • On Tuesday, 16 January 1934 • •
• • It was another appearance in court, this time as a witness for the prosecution — — on 16 January 1934 — — when Mae West gave testimony about Edward Friedman, who had robbed her. Extensive courtroom coverage appeared in the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express under this headline: "Officers Guard Movie Queen at Trial after Threats by Gangsters" on 16 January 1934.
• • On Wednesday, 16 January 1935 • •
• • In the middle of January — — on 16 January 1935 — — Joseph Breen was shooting off another memo about Mae West. "'Now I'm a Lady' seems to us to be a definite violation of the Code," he wrote. Because of the Hays Code, the script would be altered numerous times and the movie re-titled.
• • On Monday, 16 January 1950 in Newsweek • •
• • Newsweek readers who opened their issue dated 16 January 1950 [Vol. XXXV, No. 3] saw this article on page 46: "The Return of Mae West."
• • On Sunday, 16 January 1994 in The L.A. Times • •
• • An art review by Prof. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, chair, department of liberal arts and sciences, Otis College of Art and Design, appeared in The Los Angeles Times on 16 January 1994 — — ART: And When They Were Bad . . . : With humor, sarcasm and brazen sexuality, the bicoastal 'Bad Girls' celebrates the women who operate outside the bounds of old notions of propriety.
• • "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." — — Mae West
• • Hunter Drohojowska-Philp explained: The Hollywood steam queen who noted that good girls go to heaven but bad girls go everywhere seems to be the figurative godmother of a new art movement. After two decades of serious thinking and writing on the subjects of feminism and post-modernism, hundreds of artists have decided that being a bad girl is a good thing.
• • Hunter Drohojowska-Philp continued: That's the premise of a bi-coastal art exhibition organized by New York's New Museum director Marcia Tucker and San Francisco-based independent curator Marcia Tanner. The two women noticed a widespread movement toward funny, sarcastic, and brazenly sexual work being produced by an increasing number of artists — — women as well as men. The results of their collaboration are displayed in the two-part show titled "Bad Girls," whose first part is currently at the New Museum, and "Bad Girls West," opening January 25 at UCLA's Wight Art Gallery. ...
• • On Monday, 16 January 1995 on TNT • •
• • Introducing a program on George Hurrell, who photographed Mae West, Turner Network Television (TNT) announced this: TNT re-captures the magic of an era of almost unimaginable glamour, elegance, and mystery with the world premiere of LEGENDS IN LIGHT, a new one-hour special showcasing the life and work of the king of glamour photographers, George Hurrell. This exclusive special premieres on TNT Monday, January 16, 1995 at 8 pm (ET). Hurrell's photography defined the Golden Age of Hollywood and the special brings hundreds of his most famous photographs alive. Mae West, Bette Davis, Fred Astaire, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Betty Grable, James Cagney, Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, the Barrymores, and Marlene Dietrich are among the stars Hurrell photographed in Hollywood's Golden era. ...
• • On Tuesday, 16 January 1996 in the Baltimore Sun • •
• • Baltimore resident Lucille Bjanes, born in 1911, wrote an amusing essay "Failed dreams" that began like this: "IN 1921 WHEN I was 10 years old, my ambition was to grow up and have a bosom like Mae West's. . . ." It ran on 16 January 1996 in the Baltimore Sun when Mrs. Bjanes was 85.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on films that make you feel good mentioned Mae West.
• • Geoffrey Macnab salutes the best in cinematic soul-food.
• • Geoffrey Macnab writes: Historically, the best feel-good movies have often been made at the darkest times. The early 1930s in Hollywood, the height of the Depression, were known as a "golden age of turbulence." It was in this period that the brashest Mae West comedies, the liveliest musicals and the most explosive gangster movies were made. ...
• • Source: Article: "Films that make you feel good" written by Geoffrey Macnab for The London Independent [UK]; posted on Friday, 16 January 2009
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2179th 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: Naked by George

Thirty years ago, in 1980, a Hollywood photographer was sharing his naughty memories about MAE WEST as part of the promotional push linked to his California exhibition. The magazine has just reprinted the piece along with an offer to buy some signed portraits and prints originally posed for during the 1930s.
• • Back in 1980, Sharon Apfelbaum wrote: Dapper and energetic at 76, this septuagenarian artist is still going strong. While he photographs new celebrities in his grand old style, a major exhibit of his portraits, covering celluloid's last 50 years, opens December 18 [1980] at the Palm Springs Desert Museum. Entitled "The Hurrell Style," the show features photographs of such luminaries as Mae West, John Barrymore, Jean Harlow, and many others. ...
• • Mae West 'accidentally' dropped her clothes • •
• • Sharon Apfelbaum continued with this revealing recollection about Mae West: George Hurrell's glorification of beautiful women made him one of photography's highest-paid professionals. ... Hurrell's lens created a gallery of greats, all accompanied by cheeky anecdotes. "I remember when Mae West 'accidentally' dropped her clothes and stood there naked as a jaybird," he recalls, concealing a chuckle. "The studio door was locked, but still, there she was. And her boyfriend at the time, whatever his name was, got so upset he left. I had to unlock the door for him. Marilyn Monroe pulled the same routine, but it wasn't as natural with her.
• • "Of all my subjects, Joan Crawford's face was the closest to perfection," Hurrell told Sharon Apfelbaum. "She was also the most serious and relished a full day's shooting from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Crawford was tireless, but I had to take a day off after one of those sessions. Jean Harlow was the opposite of Crawford — never sweated over a shooting, was always gay and frivolous. Roz Russell was serious too, very ambitious and stagey. She wanted all her shots re-touched, with all the wrinkles in her face really ironed out. Rita Hayworth would do anything, and Marlene Dietrich had to watch herself in a full-length mirror at all times. Hepburn was the brainiest though, all spunk and spirit." . . .
• • To continue reading or to learn more about the Hurrell photo offer, see below.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: George Hurrell — — His photographs recall Hollywood’s truly glamorous days
• • By Sharon Apfelbaum
• • Publication: Palm Springs Life / December 1980 / George Hurrell
• • Source: Reprinted from the December 1980 edition of Palm Springs Life Magazine.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Making Faces

MAE WEST posed for George Hurrell. "She'd drop her clothes at the drop of a hat," the Tinseltown photographer once told John Kobal.
• • A master lensman, Hurrell [1 June 1904 — 17 May 1992] was the darkroom genie responsible for many memorable photographs of Mae along with top-flight Hollywoodites during the 1930s.
• • Disliking the trend towards soft focus, George Hurrell preferred to sculpt an actor or actress's face with light and shade, using a movable boom light to illuminate cheekbones or create moody depths under a nose or the eyes — — as if he made new contracts with artificial lighting. “The most essential thing about my style was working with shadows — — to design the face instead of flooding it with light,” he said. Ah, the mastery of hinting at mystique. Ooooh, that such carefully orchestrated chiaro-scuro could bring heightened attention to a movie star, an individual who might have no more mental acuity than a vintage snow globe.
• • An article printed days ago in The Kentucky Enquirer got thoughts flowing along the black-paved Hurrell highway.
• • George Hurrell, an art student who would set the standard for the glamorized publicity stills in Hollywood, was born in Covington in 1904, according to John Schlipp, Enquirer contributor. While some sources list Cincinnati as George Hurrell's birthplace, Hurrell himself clearly states in correspondence that he was born in Covington, Kentucky. He was raised in Cincinnati until age 5, when the family moved to Chicago, writes John Schlipp.
• • Browse his August 30th article — — "Covington native was 'photographer to the stars'" — — inside The Kentucky Enquirer — — http://nky.cincinnati.com/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: John Kobal

In many ways, John Kobal's Hollywood career caught fire thanks to MAE WEST.
• • Years ago, one interviewer whipped up this creamy prologue: "Like so many stories about John Kobal, the one about his notable role as a connoisseur, collector, and chronicler of Hollywood photography begins with a movie star. Working as a journalist in 1969, Kobal visited the set of Myra Breckinridge with the goal of interviewing screen legend Mae West. His reporter's credentials granted him access to the set and while awaiting summons from Miss West, Kobal had the opportunity to meet members of the film's crew. ..."
• • In his book "People Will Talk," he offered chatty testimonials from 43 notable Hollywood veterans. This is a snippet: Mae West's refusal to marry is symptomatic of narcissism, then and now: "Every time I look at myself, I become absorbed in myself, and I didn't want to get involved with another person like that. ..."
• • John Kobal [birthname: Ivan Kobaly] was born in Linz, Austria during the month of May — — on 30 May 1940. Clearly, he decided he'd never become the outsider at his own party. The author of over 30 books on film and film photography, he was known for his creative and exuberant personality, as well as his voracious knowledge of the minutiae of film and photography lore. He is credited with essentially 'rediscovering' the great Hollywood Studio photographers — — George Hurrell, Laszlo Willinger, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Ted Allan, et al — — who were employed by the motion picture studios to create the glamorous, iconic portraits of the most famous and intriguing stars of the day that came to spit-shine the Tinseltown myth.
• • "Made In Hollywood" • •
• • The prints in the Kobal Collection, which include many images of Mae West, form the backbone of the "Made In Hollywood" exhibition, which finished its run in Santa Barbara, California [July 12th – October 12th, 2008], and which is now on view at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, USA [May 7th – October 27th, 2009].
• • John Kobal, prolific and hard-working, died of AIDS when he was 51 on 28 October 1991 in London, England.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: George Hurrell

George Hurrell made many memorable portraits of MAE WEST.
• • A master lensman, Hurrell is the darkroom genie responsible for many terrific photographs of Mae West (and other Hollywoodites) during the 1930s.
• • In 1933, Hurrell shot numerous publicity stills of Mae West alone – – as well as with her Paramount Pictures co-stars. Here's Mae on the set of "She Done Him Wrong" with character actor Noah Beery, who played the shady saloon-keeper Gus Jordan.
• • George Hurrell was born in the month of June in Cincinnati, Ohio: 1 June 1904. After a long and successful career, he died in 1992.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • by George Hurrell • •
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