Mae West: Connie's Rolls-Royce

"Go West Young Man" starring MAE WEST (as the man-eating movie marquee marvel Mavis Arden) was released in the USA in the eleventh month — — on 18 November 1936. Since there is a clause in Mavis Arden's contract with Superfine Pictures, Inc. that bans her from going anywhere near an announcement of the Banns of Marriage, the starlet is always receptive to male attention and affection. It falls to Morgan, her press agent, to be sure she is not tempted. Resuming her publicity tour, Mavis is detained in a sleepy town ninety miles outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania when her customized Rolls Royce breaks down.
• • According to some vintage vehicle experts, this Rolls-Royce started life with a 1929 Phantom II chassis. However, in 1936 the original body was transferred to a RR Phantom III. During the pre-war era, the Hollywood actress Constance Bennett owned it, agreed to loan it to the movie studios, and it was featured in some films. A scene in "Go West Young Man" shows Mae West in Miss Bennett's automobile.
• • The production began in early August at General Service Studios and wrapped up on 29 September 1936.
• • There were many snappy exchanges between the long-suffering, ever vigilant Morgan and Mavis, believed to be demure, chaste, and ladylike — — of course, anything but.
• • • Morgan: But you'd better think of your reputation.
• • • Mavis Arden: You think of it. That's what you're bein' paid for.
• • In November, Let's Remember James B. Carson [1884 — 1958] • •
• • Actor James B. Carson [1884 — 1958] worked with Mae West in "Vera Violetta," which opened on 20 November 1911 at the Winter Garden Theatre. The Broadway veteran was cast as Professor Otto von Gruenberg. It was on 22 December 1884 that Carson was born in Missouri. He was active on The Great White Way from 1908 — 1928.
• • James B. Carson died in November — — on 18 November 1958. He was 73 years old.
• • "Vera Violetta," offered in repertory with "Undine," remained at the Winter Garden Theatre through the Christmas holidays, closing on 24 February 1912.
• • 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].
• • On 18 November 1927 • •
• • In February 1927, when Mae West was arrested and her play "Sex" was shuttered, she came face to face with Humphrey Bogart's wife Helen Menken, whose lesbian drama "The Captive" was raided on the same night. The previous year, Helen Menken had wed Bogart at her mother's posh residence on Gramercy Park. A nasty drunk, after an evening of bar-room carousing, he would come home and assault his wife whenever he was deeply intoxicated. That marriage did not even last two years. The couple divorced in November — — on 18 November 1927.
• • On 18 November 1995 • •
• • In the U.K., Virago (a British publisher specializing in women authors) reprinted the novelized version of "She Done Him Wrong" by Mae West. There was a book review in The Irish Times in the month of November — — on 18 November 1995.
• • Dublin-based critic Arminta Wallace called it "a hard-edged novella with a soft centre" and she wrote: "To put it frankly, Diamond Lil was a beautiful short course to hell." …
• • On 18 November 2003 • •
• • Auction house Christie's held a sale of "Entertainment Memorabilia" on 18 November 2003 in New York City at Rockefeller Plaza.
• • Christie's described it like this: A large collection of over fifty black and white photographs signed by various actors including Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Lillian Gish, Van Johnson, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert, Gilbert Roland, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Irene Dunne, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Gloria Swanson, Ginger Rogers, Ida Lupino, Mary Astor, Fay Wray, Tyrone Power, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner, Marion Davies, Clara Bow, Fred Astaire, Ethel Barrymore, Ronald Colman, and Paul Heinreid among many others.
• • On 18 November 2007 • •
• • The amusing article "Why blondes make men act dumb" written by David Wilkes was published in the British tabloid The Daily Mail on 18 November 2007.
• • David Wilkes began his feature with this first sentence: From Mae West and Marilyn Monroe to more modern examples such as Paris Hilton, "blonde" has long been a by-word for a woman not overly blessed in the brain department.
• • David Wilkes explained: Now the stereotype of the "dumb blonde" is so firmly ingrained in the male psyche that men subconsciously become more stupid than they really are when they see one, according to scientists.
• • David Wilkes continued: Without realising it, they mimic what they believe — — often incorrectly — — to be the lesser intelligence of a blonde woman in order to get along with her, a study suggests. ...
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this line for the character Mavis Arden, an actress, in 1936: "Don't be modest. Modesty never gets you anything. I know." [Movie dialogue from "Go West Young Man"]
• • Mae West said: "I like my clothes to be tight enough to show I'm a woman, but loose enough to show I'm a lady."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about organizing a classic film fest in Prosser, Washington mentioned Mae West.
• • Local reporter Pat Muir writes: "A lot of parents are bringing their kids because they want them to see what they saw and make that connection," Rick James says.
• • That parents can share that by taking their kids to see films on the big screen rather than at home on a little TV or computer screen is important, Rick James explains. His own favorite so far is "She Done Him Wrong," the Mae West vehicle that The Princess Theatre ran in April [2011]. "Everyone talks about Mae West," he says. "I'd never seen Mae West on the screen and it was a blast to see her."...
• • Source: Article: "Prosser's picture show: Historic theater to show classic film" written by Pat Muir for The Yakima Herald-Republic; posted on 16 November 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2119th 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 • • Mavis Arden's Rolls-Royce, 1936 • •
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Mae West: Hell and Helen

On December 12th — — the date of the old "Chase and Sanborn Hour" tempest — — what often comes to mind is how much was political and how much MAE WEST was merely a pawn in a Catholic reformers game. It's ironic that a skit set in the Garden of Eden could lead to Eve's banishment from the airwaves, an expulsion by the lords of the Legion of Decency.
• • For a well-researched analysis of this, Steve Craig's article — — "Out of Eden: The Legion of Decency, the FCC, and Mae West's 1937 Appearance on The Chase & Sanborn Hour" — — in The Journal of Radio Studies [November 2006] is most enlightening.
• • Helen Menken's birthday is December 12th • •
• • How many performers could say they were arrested with Mae West?
• • It was on 9 February 1927 that Mae — — along with the cast of "Sex," and the cast of "The Captive," and the cast of "The Virgin Man" — — was cuffed and dragged in to Night Court.
• • Broadway ingenue Dorothy Hall [1906 — 1953] was the youngest actress to face the judge after the raid; Hall was 21 years old. Helen Menken was 26 and Mae was 33 at the time of this arrest.
• • Native New Yorker Helen Menken [12 December 1901 — 27 March 1966] was born Helen Meinken to a German-French father, Frederick Meinken, and an Irish-born mother, Mary Madden. She was still a newly-wed, having married Humphrey Bogart in May 1926, when discussions started about an American version of a French sensation called "The Captive" (a controversial new drama about a lesbian who leaves her husband for a woman).
• • Perhaps the prestige this play enjoyed in Paris persuaded Helen Menken to accept the leading role. "The Captive" was produced at the Empire Theatre, opening on 29 September 1926.
• • During December 1926 both "The Captive" and "Sex" were doing brisk business at the box office. While Mae did everything possible to get more publicity to attract men to see her show, Helen Menken reached out to women theatre-goers.
• • Unknown to her fans (nor revealed to reporters) was this alarming coincidence. Though Helen appeared so confident onstage in her role as the unconventional heroine Irene De Montcel, at home her alcoholic husband was getting drunk and beating her. Not long after the police padlocked the play on 9 February 1927 [after 160 performances], Helen would divorce the brutish Bogart.
• • The police stopped the play during a scene between Basil Rathbone and Helen Menken.
• • Playing the role of Mr. Clean, attempting to disinfect the sewer Broadway had become, New York City's Acting Mayor Joseph V. McKee made sure the news men were informed the evening before.
• • After 10:00 PM, Helen Menken, Dorothy Hall, and Mae West were charged with "contributing to a common nuisance" and "obscene exhibition" and found themselves shoulder to shoulder with each other and answerable to Magistrate John Flood Wells, who set bail at $1,000 each.
• • On February 10th, the local newspapers focused more on Miss Hall and Miss Menken than on Mae West. All three producers sought restraining orders permitting them to reopen. Under fire, Dorothy Hall immediately quit the play — — and Lucille Lortel replaced her.
• • Helen Menken continued her Broadway career, starring in a number of plays until the mid-1930s. One of her greatest stage triumphs was "The Old Maid," the Pulitzer Prize-winning play that starred Menken and Judith Anderson from January — September 1935. [Bette Davis would recreate Menken's role as the spinster with a secret in the 1939 film version.] Menken's final Broadway appearance was in an unsuccessful piece named "The Laughing Woman," which closed after a few weeks in 1937. She was active on radio in the 1940s (notably recreating her performance opposite Judith Anderson in a 1946 radio adaption of "The Old Maid") and a major presence behind the scenes in the theater world, especially at the American Theatre Wing. She received a special Tony Award posthumously in 1966 for her work.
• • Don't you wish you could have been there when the door to the police paddy wagon opened on 9 February 1927 and the 26-year-old Helen Menken came face to face with Mae West for the first time?
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Broadway rivals in 1927 Menken with Rathbone • •
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Mae West: Dorothy Hall

How many performers could say they were arrested with MAE WEST?
• • It was on 9 February 1927 that Mae — — along with the cast of "Sex," and the cast of "The Captive," and the cast of "The Virgin Man" — — was cuffed and brought to Night Court.
• • Born in 1906, Dorothy Hall was the youngest actress to face the judge after the raid. And unlike the 10-month-long box-office bonanza "Sex" had become, "The Virgin Man" had only debuted on 18 January 1927 on West 39th Street and was struggling to find an audience before the purity police targeted it, arousing new interest.
• • Before coming to The Great White Way, "The Captive" had enjoyed success in France. That prestige perhaps persuaded Helen Menken [1901 — 1966] to take the (then) quite unusual role of a married woman who falls for another female.
• • Playing the role of Mr. Clean, attempting to disinfect the sewer Broadway had become, New York City's Acting Mayor Joseph V. McKee made sure the news men were informed the night before.
• • After 10:00 PM, Helen Menken, Dorothy Hall, and Mae West were charged with "contributing to a common nuisance" and "obscene exhibition" and found themselves face to face with each other and answerable to Magistrate John Flood Wells, who set bail at $1,000 each.
• • On February 10th, the local newspapers focused more on Miss Hall and Miss Menken than on Mae West. All three producers sought restraining orders permitting them to reopen. Under fire, Dorothy Hall immediately quit the play and Lucille Lortel replaced her.
• • Dorothy Hall continued her Broadway career, starring in a number of plays until 1941. Hall died in the month of February — — on 3 February 1953 — — at age 47.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Rathbone's Wrath

MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex," the cast of "The Virgin Man," and the cast of "The Captive."
• • Snooty Basil Rathbone, who died during the month of July — — on 21 July 1967 in New York, NY — — was cuffed and brought downtown to Jefferson Market Police Court along with Helen Menken and their co-stars.
• • Born in South Africa on 13 June 1892, Basil Rathbone was one year older than Mae West — — but in his mind, he was worlds apart even though they were both starring on Broadway in 1927.
• • During the 1920s, most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the legitimate theater. For many of his Broadway roles he portrayed a suave, sophisticated seducer of susceptible women — — quite a change from the legendary ascetic Baker Street detective he would play later in his career.
• • Making a sensation at the Empire Theatre was a drama that had been highly regarded in Paris: "The Captive." Basil Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques Virieu, a young man engaged to be married, only to discover that his fiancée [played by Helen Menken] is in love with someone else — — a woman. Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the Roaring Twenties, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed right after the police raid.
• • Basil Rathbone was very angry about the censorship of his work, but even more aggrieved that show people would start whispering that he was arrested and booked — — with Mae West.
• • For years, Basil Rathbone and his wife made their home at 135 Central Park West. Mae lived in several westside locations, occasionally not far from Rathbone. But there is no record of their taking tea together to reminisce over their arrest on indecency charges in 1927.
• • The Empire Theatre • •
• • Built in 1893, the Empire Theatre had been situated at 1430 Broadway (between West 40th and West 41st) in Manhattan. An impressive playhouse, it seated about 1100. J.B. McElfatrick was the architect. Producer Charles Frohman had it built "uptown" at the suggestion of Al Hayman — — "Everything theatrical is moving uptown," he advised. Al Hayman took ownership after Frohman died on the Lusitania in 1915. In 1948, the Astor estate purchased the Empire Theatre and announced, in 1953, that it would be torn down to make way for an office tower. Waves of nostalgia spread through the theatre community, and performers gathered to celebrate the venue in a restrospective farewell performance. The bulldozers arrived in 1953 and an edifice was wrecked.
• • Brush up those zippy Mae West lines right on Broadway — — Sunday afternoon August 16th — — and forge a-Mae-zing memories.
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Subway: N or R [BMT] train to West 42nd Street; 1 [IRT] train to Times Square
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: T. 212-614-9683 — — or post your RSVP or tour question here
• • Online: MaeWest.blogspot.com — — TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • Who: Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo makes the tour educational and entertaining.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's history play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July 2008 at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She is working on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her unusual theatre memorabilia and vintage photos during the tour and reveal secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. These rare pictures show the area as it looked during the 1920s when Mae West and Texas Guinan had their name on several marquees.
• • Surprises: Prizes and other nice things are part of the fun
• • Members of the press may attend on August 16th as our guest. RSVP required.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • •
• • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's fellow offenders • • Rathbone & Menken, 1927 • •
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Mae West: Booth Tarkington

No less than Booth Tarkington [1869 — 1946] was assigned by Collier's to write about the arrest of MAE WEST on 9 February 1927.
• • Surely, the dramatist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner had his own feelings about the purity police interfering with the written word when he addressed himself to the magazine's readers in his essay "When Is It Dirt?" [published in Collier's, The National Weekly, on 14 May 1927].
• • It used to be said, along the coasts of Bohemia in New York, "To the pure all things are impure," a shot at the Puritans — — was Booth Tarkington's opening. But even a Bohemian of that day must feel some misgivings now, when he goes to the theatre or reads modern novels and many of the livelier journals, for apparently he has become purified and is in danger of being penetrated by the arrow he himself aimed at the late Mr. Comstock. ...
• • Anthony Comstock [7 March 1844 — 21 September 1915] was a former United States Postal Inspector and politician dedicated to ideas of Victorian morality. In 1873 Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public.
• • "When Is It Dirt?" was illustrated with large photographs of actress Helen Menken [12 December 1901 – 27 March 1966] and actor Basil Rathbone, also arrested on 9 February 1927 — — and a huge portrait of the dirt-devil herself, Mae West.
• • God-fearing editors at Collier's penned this caption: Mae West and others connected with "Sex" answer in court.
• • 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: The Captive

MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex" and the cast of "The Captive." Snooty Basil Rathbone, who died in July [on 21 July 1967 in New York, NY], was cuffed and brought downtown to Jefferson Market Police Court along with Helen Menken and their co-stars.
• • Born in South Africa on 13 June 1892, Basil Rathbone was one year older than Mae West — — but in his mind, he was worlds apart even though they were both starring on Broadway in 1927.
• • During the 1920s, most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the legitimate theater. For many of his Broadway roles he portrayed a suave, sophisticated seducer of women — — quite a change from the legendary ascetic Baker Street detective he would play later in his career.
• • Making a sensation at the Empire Theatre [on Broadway and West 40th Street] was a drama that had been highly regarded in Paris: "The Captive." Basil Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques Virieu, a young man engaged to be married, only to discover that his fiancée [played by Helen Menken] is in love with someone else — — a woman. Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the Roaring Twenties, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed.
• • Rathbone was very angry about the censorship of his work, but even more aggrieved that show people would start whispering that he was arrested and booked — — with Mae West.
• • For years, Basil Rathbone and his wife made their home at 135 Central Park West. Mae lived in several westside locations, occasionally not far from Rathbone. But there is no record of their taking tea together to reminisce over their arrest on indecency charges in 1927.
• • Brush up on your Mae West lines right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Only 18 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's partners in crime, Rathbone and Menken • • 1926 • •
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