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: Starstruck

"Those were the years of the excitement of MAE WEST, Bogart, W.C. Fields, and the Marx Brothers," said New Yorker and cinema memorabilia collector Ira M. Resnick, explaining that those anarchic screen legends had become idols of the counterculture Woodstock generation.
• • During the past four decades, the 60-year-old movie maven has amassed some 2,000 vintage posters and some 1,500 stills and lobby cards — — and 258 vibrant and colorful posters from this treasure trove have been reproduced in his book "Starstruck," which came out in early February 2010.
• • Ira Resnick attended NYU film school for his junior and senior years. Martin Scorsese, who wrote the foreword to the book, was one of his instructors. He graduated in 1971 and recalls browsing for lobby cards on West 13th Street at a movie memorabilia store, Cinemabilia, in Greenwich Village. The items he purchased there, which formed the basis of his collection, appear in this new release printed by Abbeville. If you love silent classics and the golden age of cinema, then "Starstruck" is for you. Catch a free premiere on Ira Resnick's web site.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Bloomers

Playing to the balcony and the barbell crowd till the very end, MAE WEST was starring in a Hollywood movie well into her seventh decade.
• • Feeling glum on his birthday, a West Coast columnist pulled this fact out of his favorite reference work: "Tolstoy's Bicycle" by Jeremy Baker.
• • According to John Bogert, who's been thumbing the pages since 1982, "The book is nothing more, and nothing less, than a collection of birthday facts telling us what the famous and infamous were doing on certain birthdays. . . . The book's premise feeds into the natural human desire to measure ourselves against others, especially the rich and famous or talented and famous or just famous and famous."
• • While Mae-mavens often know what the busy performer would have been involved in during mid-August, it may come as a surprise to see what other notable names were up to on their birthdays. John Bogert reminds his readers that at age 17 Henry VIII ascended the throne and Jack London became a sailor; at 18 Humphrey Bogart was expelled from school, Cary Grant was a Coney Island stilt-walker at 18, and Chubby Checker recorded "The Twist" at 18.
• • Bogert also marvels at mature achievement, for instance, that, at 69, Ronald Reagan became president and John McCain is still rolling at 73. At 70, Simon Wiesenthal was still hunting Nazis.
• • John Bogert adds: When she was 77, Mae West made her last film, while Amos Alonzo Stagg was named college coach of the year. At 81, George Burns made "Oh, God." At 88, Michelangelo died. So did Hearst, while Leopold Stokowski signed a six-year recording contract at 94. ...
• • No late bloomer Mae.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Is there still time to be a late bloomer?"
• • BY: John Bogert, Staff Columnist | The Daily Breeze
• • Published in: The Daily Breeze [Torrance, CA 90503] — — www.dailybreeze.com
• • Published on: 8 October 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: In England

A new show in England about the history of cinema will feature MAE WEST.
• • In Great Britain, actor Robert Powell has assembled an "affectionate and nostalgic romp through the first 113 years of cinema," according to the Express and Star.
• • Interviewed by reporter Mark Andrews, Powell promised not to be boring: “It’s a little of entertainment, a bit of film, a bit of history, and a bit of fun.”
• • The production begins with cinema pioneers the Lumiere Brothers in Paris in 1895 — — and finishes with Bond 22 being filmed at Pinewood Studios in 2008.
• • The audience is introduced to Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mouse, and Humphrey Bogart along the way, with appearances by Clark Gable, Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe, and Jack Lemmon.
• • Also appearing in the production are Christine Croshaw and Clive Conway.
• • The journey will be sweetened with musical interludes from Scott Joplin, George Gershwin through to John Barry’s “James Bond” theme.
• • "Robert Powell’s Silver Screen" is on at Lichfield Garrick Theatre on 30 May 2009, starting at 7:30 pm. Telephone the box office for details: 01543 412121 [UK].
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Affectionate look at history of cinema"
• • Byline: By Mark Andrews
• • Published in: UK's Express and Star — — www.expressandstar.com
• • Published on: 12 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: El Rancho

The charm of yesterday, the convenience of tomorrow is the slogan for the El Rancho where MAE WEST bedded down with the sandman.
• • Columnist Amy Graff writes: Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn stayed here during production of The Sea of Grass; Burt Lancaster and Lee Remick were guests when they made The Hallelujah Trail. The list of Hollywood stars who bedded down at the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, N.M., goes on and on: MAE WEST, Gene Autry, Jack Benny, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, James Stewart, John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, and many others.
• • Columnist Amy Graff writes: Built in 1937 by R. E. "Griff" Griffith, brother of movie mogul D. W. Griffith, the El Rancho's rustic charm was attractive to the movie makers and stars filming in the surrounding red rock canyons. Their autographed photos line the walls of the spectacular two-story lobby with dark wood beams, Navajo rugs, mounted trophy heads, a circular staircase, and an enormous stone fireplace.
• • Today the El Rancho is on the National Register of Historic Places and a popular attraction along Route 66. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • The Mommy Files: Route 66: El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, N.M.
• • Byline: Amy Graff
• • Published in: SFGate.com — — www.sfgate.com
• • Published on: 10 July 2008
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Ciro's

MAE WEST used to perform at the legendary Ciro's on Sunset Boulevard, Leonie Cooper reminds the British readers of The Guardian. London is seeing a resurgence of those glamourous nightspots. At the 2-year-old Pigalle Club [in London's Piccadilly], for instance, Eartha Kitt is still stepping out from behind the velvet drapes at the back of the stage. In her red dress slit to the thigh, 81-year-old Kitt is the epitome of supper-club chic.
• • Leonie Cooper writes: Hollywood movie stars of yore knew how to dine out in style. At Ciro's supper club on Sunset Boulevard — — a favourite of Marilyn Monroe and Lana Turner — — the entertainment was provided by luminaries such as Mae West, Edith Piaf, and Billie Holiday, while Bogie and Bacall used to eat at the Mocambo, a Brazilian-themed venue that was inhabited by a flock of showbiz parrots. This was the golden, maribou-trimmed era of supper clubs, yet now, despite lean times looming, ritzy restaurant-cum-nightclubs are experiencing a revival. ...
• • Cooper has researched an enjoyable feature and you can read the rest online in The Guardian.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: A new generation of sophisticated, luxurious supper clubs is bringing back the glamorous tradition of 'dinner and a show'.
• • Written by: Leonie Cooper
• • Published in: The Guardian — — http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/
• • Published on: 21 May 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Strong Women

MAE WEST made a brief appearance in an article about strong women even though the focus was on Bette Davis who was, Johann Hari wrote, "self-confident enough to demand to look bad on camera."
• • Johann Hari's column observed: Precisely a century ago, in a suburb of Boston, a child called Bette Davis erupted into the world. She was not only a woman; she was an electrical storm with skin. With nothing but raw talent and raw determination, she became the most famous woman in the world, taking on the Hollywood studio system, the FBI and the Catholic Church.
• • For a while, this not-especially-beautiful woman in her forties ruled Hollywood, playing tough women who chose their careers and their own desires over sacrificing for men or children or a picket fence. She never pretended to be dumb, or a little girl. She didn't do soft, or simpering. She had a voice like sour cream, and eyes like a raven. Humphrey Bogart said about her: "Unless you're very big she can knock you down." And she was one of the great events of her time.
• • She was popular with the mostly-female movie audience - women like my grandmother, who gave me my first glimpse of Bette Davis movies from her lap - in part because her characters will not accept 'their place.' They want more, more, more. It was not easy to be a strong woman then; she said, "When a man gives his opinion he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion she's a bitch." But she fought, and women responded to it. She was only the most shimmering example of a generation of tough Hollywood women whose characters saw the world as a place not to cower from or simper at, but to conquer: MAE WEST (who made her first film at 40), Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Barbra Stanwyck, Rosalind Russell, Marlene Dietrich, and more. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • "Where have all the strong women gone?"
• • Byline: Johann Hari
• • Published in: The London Independent — — www.independent.co.uk/
• • Published on: 27 March 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Quote? Note!

MAE WEST comes up in Laurie Boeder's Classic Movies Blog on about.com.
• • In Boeder's article, "The Most Famous Movie Quotes No One Ever Said," she lists these.
• • Mae West never said her oft-imitated, "Come up and see me sometime," from "She Done Him Wrong."
• • Humphrey Bogart never said, "Play it again, Sam."
• • Bela Lugosi never said, "I vant to suck your blood."
• • James Cagney never said, "Top of the world, Ma!"
• • "Those wacky kids at the list universe have favored us with yet another handy list — — the top 15 movie misquotes that persist in the popular culture," adds Boeder on her blog.
• • Also among the classic movie misquotes are lines from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" — — such as the Mexican bandit sneering, "Badges? We don't need to show you no stinkin' badges!"
• • Laurie Boeder concludes: if you're going to misquote, misquote from the best!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Kalamazoo

MAE WEST is still being invited to movie premieres – – and she turns up.
• • Mae West, Humphrey Bogart, Groucho, and Harpo Marx ( – – Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo seemed to be MIA – – ), Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, Judy Jetson, Shirley Temple, Myrna Loy, the Blues Brothers, Cruella DeVille, Dorothy from the Land of Oz, and many more packed the Union with KAFI festival pass-holders sipping cocktails.
• • It took five stretch limos to truck the stars around the block to the Rave, where the red carpet, paparazzi, "Roger Ebert'' and "Joan Rivers'' awaited.
• • Cartoon fans and animators from all over the country, iconic movie queens from Tinseltown's Golden Age, and characters from fantasy lands all showed up in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the Hollywood-style advance screening of "Shrek theThird'' on Thursday night [May 17th, 2007]. The event was part of the kick-off to the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International.
• • The pre-Shrekapalooza party at the Union Cabaret and Grille provided reporters with a rare chance to interview Clark Gable. "I am quite pleased to see how many people are coming out to see this green guy,'' said Gable, who died in 1960. Clark Gable was not too familiar with Shrek, he admitted: "It's been a while since I've been out to see a movie.'' . . .
• • Source: The Kalamazoo Gazette
• • Byline: Mark Wedel [Published: Friday, 18 May 2007]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: A Stamp Vamp

Help get MAE WEST commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp.
• • Here's a sample letter and here is where you should write:
• • To: Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee
• • c/o Stamp Development; U S Postal Service
• • 1735 North Lynn St [Rm 5013]; Arlington VA 22209-6432.
• • • • SAMPLE • • • •
• • Dear Chairman - Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee:
• • Please issue a US postal stamp commemorating MAE WEST, the former Broadway star and Hollywood icon who died in 1980.
• • Comedy and entertainment are hallmarks of the popular culture of the United States of America. The U.S. Postal Department has befittingly honored screen legends Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Lucille Ball, James Cagney, Alfred Hitchcock, and Humphrey Bogart by issuing commemorative stamps depicting these adults.
• • However, none of these individuals wrote their own plays. MAE WEST wrote "Diamond Lil" and many other plays that were staged on Broadway.
• • None of these individuals wrote their own movie dialogue. MAE WEST wrote all of her own dialogue for most of the nine films she appeared in.
• • None of these individuals can match MAE WEST when it comes to numerous original quotes. Her witty sayings are often quoted in books and newspaper articles to this day.
• • Please approve the issuance of a US postal stamp commemorating a legendary American talent MAE WEST (1893 - 1980).
• • Source of this letter: The Mae West Blog http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • • • The Stamp Selection Process • • • •
• • Ideas for stamp subjects that meet CSAC criteria may be addressed to the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee; Stamp Development; US Postal Service; 1735 North Lynn St Rm 5013; Arlington VA 22209-6432.
• • The Committee only reads hard-copy letters. No faxes or emails.
• • Subjects should be submitted at least three years in advance of the proposed date of issue to allow sufficient time for consideration and for design and production, if the subject is approved.
• • Submit stamp proposals in writing to the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. This allows everyone the same opportunity to suggest a new stamp subject. All proposals are reviewed by the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee regardless of how they are submitted, i.e., stamped cards, letters or petitions.
• • After a proposal is determined not to violate criteria set by CSAC, research is done on the proposed stamp subject. Each new proposed subject is listed on the CSAC's agenda for its next meeting. The CSAC considers all new proposals and takes one of two actions: it may reject the new proposal or it may set it aside for consideration for future issuance. If set aside for consideration, the subject remains "under consideration" in a file maintained for the Committee.
• • An "I Love Lucy" stamp appeared in the Postal Service's "Celebrate the Century" series. A new Lucille Ball stamp [released in 2001] is the seventh in a "Legends of Hollywood" series. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Cagney, Alfred Hitchcock, and Humphrey Bogart are among other Hollywood icons who have been featured.
• • Actor Karl Malden is a long-time member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, which helps choose stamp subjects and designs.
• • who • • why • • what • •
• • As of March 2001, these are the Committee's Stamp Subject Selection Criteria:
• • It is a general policy that U.S. postage stamps and stationery primarily will feature American or American-related subjects.
• • No living person shall be honored by portrayal on U.S. postage.
• • Commemorative stamps or postal stationery items honoring individuals usually will be issued on or in conjunction with significant anniversaries of their birth, but no postal item will be issued sooner than ten years after the individual's death. The only exception to the ten-year rule is the issuance of stamps honoring deceased U.S. presidents. They may be honored with a memorial stamp on the first birth anniversary following death.
• • Events of historical significance shall be considered for commemoration only on anniversaries in multiples of 50 years.
• • No stamp shall be considered for issuance if one treating the same subject has been issued in the past 50 years. The only exceptions to this rule are traditional themes such as national symbols and holidays.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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