Mae West: Easy Riding Gals

MAE WEST adored ragtime. She performed a rag that she especially loved onstage in "Diamond Lil" and its Hollywood counterpart "She Done Him Wrong." The lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — was Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it in 1913.
• • Born in Canada, Shelton Brooks moved to Detroit in 1901 with his family; his parents were Native American and Black. His father was a preacher and Shelton and his brother would play the organ during services.
• • Surrounded by music, Shelton was 24 years old when he wrote his first big hit in 1910 — — "Some of These Days" — — using his own lyrics. He had already debuted the song in his own variety act when Sophie Tucker's maid introduced both him and the tune to Sophie, then touring through The Windy City. The vaudevillian, who would eventually style herself as "the Last of the Red Hot Mamas," made this 1910 composition her very own theme song.
• • Let's move three years forward to 1913.
• • "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — lyrics • •
• • Published by Will Rossiter in Chicago in 1913, the song combined horse racing and romance with a blues touch. Though Mae West's rendition [which can be seen on YouTube and endlessly replayed] has given people the idea that she was the first to sexualize the lyrics, that is simply untrue. In fact it was Sophie Tucker, who first introduced this number in vaudeville, who performed it with well-timed sly winks and a veneer of naughty innuendo — — especially when she would sing a suggestive line such as "To be on any horse that jockey's on ...." Here's an excerpt.
• • The lyrics tell of a Susie Johnson who bets on a horse race using a tip from Jockey Lee, who subsequently runs off with her money.
• • First verse:
• • • Miss Susie Johnson is a crazy as can be
• • • About that easy riding kid they call Jockey Lee.
• • • Now don't you think it's funny, only bets her money
• • • In the race friend jockey's goin' to be.
• • • There was a race down at the track the other day,
• • • And Susie got an inside tip right away
• • • She bet a "hundred to one" that her little "Hon"
• • • Would bring home all the "mon"!
• • • When she found out "Jockey" was not there,
• • • Miss Susie cried out in despair
• • Chorus:
• • • I wonder where my easy rider's gone today
• • • He never told me he was goin' away.
• • • If he was here he'd win the race
• • • If not first he'd get a "place"
• • • Cash in our winnings, on a "joy-ride" we'd go, right away
• • • I'm losing my money that's why I am blue.
• • • To win a race, Lee knows just what to do.
• • • I'd put all my junk in pawn,
• • • To be on any horse that jockey's on.
• • • Oh, I wonder where my easy rider's gone ....
• • From 1910 onward, Shelton Brooks watched his fortunes rise along with Sophie's. His 1916 instrumental tune "Walkin' The Dog" [which inspired a dance that first swept dancehall-crazed New York City, and then the rest of the country] was performed by Mae West in male drag during the shows she did with her sister Beverly in 1916.
• • In 1917, Brooks had another hit with "The Darktown Strutter's Ball," for which he wrote both the words and music.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • You are invited to the Annual Mae West Birthday Tribute to hear the songs of Shelton Brooks (and others) performed live.
• • WHEN: 10:00 PM on Saturday, 14 August 2010 — — one night only
• • WHERE: ACTORS TEMPLE, 339 West 47th Street, New York, NY 10036 [where SOPHIE TUCKER became one of their first vaudeville members in 1923]
• • WHO: MAE WEST [Anne Marie Finnie] and SOPHIE TUCKER [Maggie Worsdale], presented and introduced by playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo
• • WHAT ELSE: Shimmy lessons, raffle prizes, goodies, and a chance to win deluxe European scarves featuring MAE WEST’s quotes.
• • SUBWAYS: IND: C, E to West 50th Street station; BMT: N, R, W to West 49th Street station — — exit on the West 47th Street side
• • VIP service available. Please inquire.
• • CONTACT: Miss Sophie — Email: worsdale (at) aol.com — URL: www.thegaudygirls.com
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's songwriter Shelton Brooks; Sophie Tucker in 1913 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Easy Rider

MAE WEST adored ragtime. She once told an interviewer about grooving very early to "the black man's sound." Whether she was imitating the sultry Shimmy she watched in a Chicago club or swinging to the latest jam she heard in Harlem, Mae's musical taste was in formation: "we copied it because it was the greatest. [Black people] had been developing it for years."
• • In 1928, she performed a rag that she especially loved onstage in "Diamond Lil" and its Hollywood counterpart "She Done Him Wrong" [1933]. The lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — was Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it around 1913. He was good friends with Mae's maid Bea Jackson; his nickname for her was "Hot Story Telling."
• • Born in Amesburg, Ontario, Canada, Shelton Brooks moved to Detroit in 1901 with his family; his parents were Native American and Black. His father was a preacher and Shelton and his brother would play the organ during services.
• • Surrounded by music, Shelton wrote his first big hit in 1910 — — "Some of These Days" — — using his own lyrics. He had already introduced the song in his own vaudeville act when Sophie Tucker's maid introduced both him and the tune to Sophie. The vaudevillian, who would eventually style herself as "the Last of the Red Hot Mamas," made this number her very own theme song.
• • "Walkin' the Dog" • •
• • His 1916 instrumental tune "Walkin' the Dog" inspired a dance that first swept dancehall-crazed New York City, and then the rest of the country. That year, the variety act "Mae West and Sister" performed "Walkin' the Dog" as their grand finale.
• • A lifelong lover of black culture, Mae's ears were drawn to the relaxed, finger-snappy Shelton Brooks sound.
• • "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — Shelton Brooks's playful song, which Mae performed in 1933 in her first blockbuster hit film, was also been recorded by a diverse group of song stylists such as Tampa Red & His Hokum Jug Band, Sophie Tucker, Liza Minnelli, Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, Peter Bocage, Kid Thomas Valentine, Le Petit Jazzband de Mr. Morel, and others.
• • On September 6th, Shelton Brooks died in Los Angeles in 1975 when he was 89 years old. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" [lyrics] • •
• • • • Miss Susie Johnson is a crazy as can be
• • • • About that easy riding kid they call Jockey Lee
• • • • Now, don't you think it's funny, only bets her money
• • • • In the race friend Jockey's goin' to be
• • • • There was a race down at the track the other day
• • • • And Susie got an inside tip right away
• • • • She bet a hundred to one that her little Hon
• • • • Would bring home all the mon
• • • • When she found out Jockey was not there
• • • • Miss Susie cried out in despair....
• • • • I wonder where my easy rider's gone today
• • • • He never told me he was goin' away
• • • • If he was here he'd win the race
• • • • If not first, he'd get a place
• • • • I never saw that Jockey trailing anyone before
• • • • I'm losing my money, that's why I am blue
• • • • To win a race, Lee knows just what to do
• • • • I'd put all my junk in pawn
• • • • To bet on any horse that Jockey's on
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • He went to put my brand new watch in pawn
• • • • I see him comin' round that turn
• • • • What a trail that man can burn
• • • • He's gonna win because my dough is on the nose
• • • • Just watch my Jockey's easy rider stance
• • • • He'll hit that home stretch, win it by a mile
• • • • I want him to win this spree
• • • • And keep a-goin' till he comes to me
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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: Done Right

Many individuals have commented on the motion pictures of MAE WEST. But often, in a movie theatrre, key elements are pushed into darkness.
• • What do we know about living during the parched, policed Prohibition Era, for instance, except as an oncoming narrative headlighted on the big screen?
• • Mae West, who experienced the lawless decade first-hand and disapproved of these legal restrictions, found it more desirable to turn back the clock to the livelier liberal years of corner saloons, "bottoms up," and nickel beer when she conceived "Diamond Lil" in 1928. A few years later, Paramount Pictures would turn Mae's Broadway blockbuster into a successful screen classic.
• • Freelance cinema follower Bob Aldrich captured the essentials in his bright, tight review. Critics would do well to see how Mr. Aldrich wastes no words and gets it right. [Happily, he also introduces American readers to the adjective "shonky" — — British/ Australian slang for something that is shoddy.]
• • For whatever it's worth, Aldrich rated "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] three and a half stars. His comments are below.
• • Bob Aldrich writes: Tales of the Gay 90s were a genre in themselves (far more so than the 1900s). Mae West made a point of it — — presumably the period setting allowed her to be a bit more daring. The opulence and raffishness must have looked particularly appealing during the Depression. This is the film that made her a movie star — — when people talk about Mae West they’re talking about this and Diamond Lil.
• • It’s an adaptation of a play and it feels like it — — most of the action takes place in a saloon, there are entrances and exits. Mae herself is very theatrical, full figured, and constantly cracking wise. Her character remains fascinating — — she holds her own with men, she’s nice to a girl who gets herself in a mess and is comfortable with shonky people. She makes eyes at the younger Cary Grant and Gilbert Roland (she invites Roland up to see her sometime as well) and older guys pant all over her — — indeed, they are driven to theft and murder.
• • It’s especially fun to see Mae flirt with Cary Grant in his salvation Army outfit — — less so when he’s revealed to be a cop but they had to do it. Cary’s a bit young for her and you don’t believe it’s love, but who cares. The lines are terrific, e.g., “it takes two to get one in trouble”; “hello dark warm and handsome”; “when woman go wrong men go right after them”; “you can be had!” It’s also very adult — — West is clearly a mistress to gangsters, a girl tries to kill herself after a relationship with a married man; Mae sings a song about an “Easy Rider." The running time is barely over an hour — — and that includes a couple of songs.
— — Source: — —
• • Column: "Classic films in focus: She Done Him Wrong (1933)"
• • Byline: Bob Aldrich | blogger who posts his "various rantings on movies . . ." and topics tied to cinema
• • Published in: The Great Unmade Robert Aldrich Romantic Comedy — — http://thegreatunmaderobertaldrichromcom.blogspot.com/
• • Published on: Sunday, 5 July 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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: Easy Rider

MAE WEST slipped the censor's noose in 1932 when she selected a number about an "easy rider" for her first major motion picture "She Done Him Wrong" — — because the "song police" did not understand Harlem slang. If they had, they might have realized Mae was singing about a pimp.
• • Today, on September 6th, it's a good time to toast the lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it around 1913.
• • While we're on the subject, let's pass the baton to Victoria Large, who writes for Brattle Theatre Film Notes, and who discussed the strong-willed star in this article (printed awhile back):
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Tough As Diamonds: Taboos, Censorship, and Mae West • •
• • By Victoria Large
• • • • Even today Mae West would be breaking all the rules. There she is in all her glory in 1933’s She Done Him Wrong: defiant, smart, curvy, and past forty, declaring herself “the finest woman ever to walk the streets” and suggestively yowling her appreciation for “A Guy What Takes His Time” (“I’m a fast moving girl that likes ‘em slow,” she sings with cheerful vulgarity).
• • I came to Mae West already knowing the persona — — having already gleaned the distinctive voice and the mannerisms, the outrageous diamond jewelry, and the immortal “Come up and see me sometime” from clips and impersonations — — but I still found her brassy presence galvanizing the first time I saw one of her films.
• • In her own time West made a splash with her risqué humor, but even now her brazen onscreen persona and off-screen chutzpah carry more weight than simply that. She’s the anti-ingénue, tough and worldly and unapologetic. She made a career of playing women who took care of themselves, and was one of very few classic era actresses to wield a great deal of control over her own image.
• • West had a part in writing the majority of films she appeared in and based the screenplay for She Done Him Wrong on her own stage play, Diamond Lil. She also selected She Done Him Wrong’s leading man herself — — a young and fairly inexperienced fellow named Cary Grant.
• • It’s a kick to see Cary Grant [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986] opposite West before his own movie star image had solidified. The promise may be there, but Grant is not yet the polished and adroit comic leading man that he would be at the end of the thirties: here he’s baby-faced and no real match for West’s dominating presence.
• • Cary Grant wasn’t yet thirty the first time he starred opposite West, and his age adds another provocative element to West’s gleefully taboo-busting, sexually frank presence. “To be sexual with younger men has been, according to Hollywood, a female sin punishable by death or dishonor,” feminist film critic Kathi Maio writes in her book Popcorn and Sexual Politics. “There have only been rare exceptions. When Mae West encouraged Cary Grant, a much younger man, to come up and see her sometime, she wasn’t interested in baking him a batch of brownies. Mae was sexy, but her blatant bawdiness was never threatening because her come hither looks were played for comedy. And besides, Mae West got to break the rules governing female comportment because Mae West was a law unto herself.”
• • Maio is mostly right here — — West really does seem to be a law unto herself as she shimmies across the screen and swaps lascivious double entendres, but what Maio neglects to acknowledge is that there were a great number of people who did find West extremely threatening, and that her persona only emerged as the result of cleverness and persistence in the face of censorship.
• • Even before she hit the big screen Mae West was ruffling feathers. She and the rest of the cast of her play Sex were arrested in 1927 for corrupting the morals of youth, and, later that year, her play The Drag, “a homosexual comedy in three acts,” created such a public outcry that no theater in New York would book it [sic].
• • West made her Hollywood debut with a supporting role in the film Night After Night and put her own distinctive stamp on the role, responding to a hatcheck girl’s cry of “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds,” with a saucy, “Goodness has nothing to do with it.”
• • She made waves again with her first starring role in She Done Him Wrong. The Hays Office, responsible for the industry’s newly-instituted Production Code, used to regulate objectionable content in motion pictures in order to avoid government censorship, had already determined that Diamond Lil was unsuitable for filming when Paramount Studios and their new leading lady Mae West began conspiring to bring the ribald play to the screen. They made their way around the censors by cleaning up much of the script, still implying much but avoiding actually saying or showing it forthright. They also set about altering the names of several characters — — Lil became Lou — — and coming up with something new for the title.
• • Even with the changes, the film was severely edited in a number of states when the film was released (West’s performance of “A Guy What Takes His Time” received the brunt of the censorship, but many of her sexually charged jokes were also jettisoned in various parts of the country).
• • Similarly, West’s next film I’m No Angel sent the Hays Office to work nipping and tucking scenes, lyrics, and dialogue. Nevertheless, there was really no diluting West. She had to do little more than swagger across the screen for one to get a sense of who she was. She became a subversive success and eventually, an icon.
• • Humor isn’t a means of diffusing the potency of West’s persona so much as one of the sharpest weapons in her arsenal. She remains an intrinsically subversive figure for many of the reasons already mentioned — — her sexuality, to be sure, but more importantly her unmistakable independence, and the satiric edge of her indelicate wit. She isn’t only playing herself and her “blatant bawdiness” for laughs, but also highlighting the ridiculousness of lustful male admirers, most notably in I’m No Angel, where she plays a lion tamer who is equally adept at wrangling men. It’s telling that when searching for a title for her thinly-veiled adaptation of Diamond Lil, West rejected the suggestion He Done Her Wrong and chose to reverse the gender of the wronged party. She wanted the woman of the title to be the one performing the action, and that, ultimately, was only fitting. West was a woman who acted — — not one who was acted upon.
• • Hollywood films displayed a marked tendency to punish and vilify independent, sexualized women for years before West’s emergence and in years hence — — from the gold diggers of the 1920s to countless noir femme fatales — — but West’s Lady Lou not only escapes any form of punishment, she gets a diamond ring, and Cary Grant. More importantly, we know that she may want Grant and his diamond, but she doesn’t need either of them. She’s older, wiser, and stronger too — — Lady Lou can make it all on her own, and so could Mae West.
• • She Done Him Wrong USA, 1933. 66 minutes. Paramount
• • Source: Brattle Theatre Film Notes — — http://brattleblog.brattlefilm.org/
• • Byline: Victoria Large
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West with co-stars • • 1933 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Shelton Brooks

MAE WEST adored ragtime. She performed a rag that she especially loved onstage in "Diamond Lil" and its Hollywood counterpart "She Done Him Wrong." The lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — was Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it about 1913.
• • Born in Canada, Shelton Brooks moved to Detroit in 1901 with his family; his parents were Native American and Black. His father was a preacher and Shelton and his brother would play the organ during services.
• • Surrounded by music, Shelton wrote his first big hit in 1910 — — "Some of These Days" — — using his own lyrics. He had already introduced the song in his own vaudeville act when Sophie Tucker's maid introduced both him and the tune to Sophie. The vaudevillian, who would eventually style herself as "the Last of the Red Hot Mamas," made this number her very own theme song.
• • His 1916 instrumental tune "Walkin' The Dog" inspired a dance that first swept dancehall-crazed New York City, and then the rest of the country. In 1917, Brooks had another hit with "The Darktown Strutter's Ball," for which he wrote both the words and music.
• • It was in August [on 21 August 1971] — — on a TV program called "The Anthony Newley Show" — — that "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" was performed by Liza Minnelli. Was Mae West watching Liza on television that evening?
• • Four years later, Shelton Brooks died in Los Angeles in 1975 when he was 89 years old. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's songwriter • • Shelton Brooks • •
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Mae West.