Mae West: Elliot Roosevelt

MAE WEST received distinguished visitors often in Hollywood.
• • Elliot Roosevelt (1910 – 90) was Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s fourth child. He came out of the war a brigadier general for his work with a photo-reconnaissance squadron of the U.S. Army Air Force. He had a reputation for being the family maverick ― a trait he shares with the Brooklyn bombshell.

• • Fun Fact: Both are referenced in the novel “Gravity’s Rainbow” [1973] by Thomas Pynchon.
• • In 1934, following a spate of threatening letters and Mae’s infamous jewel robbery, Hollywood producers issued a new "verboten" order prohibiting visitors in certain studios and on movie sets. But if you're a president's son, the new ukase means nothing.  
• • Elliott Roosevelt was invited to be a spectator, watching Mae West making "It Ain't No Sin."  
• • At that time, Elliott Roosevelt [23 September 1910 ― 27 October 1990] was the aviation editor for Universal News Service.
• • “So He Goes Up to See Her” • •
• • On page 1, reporters for The World wrote: Elliot Roosevelt, son of President Franklin Roosevelt, took Mae West's word literally and went up to see her. While a guest of director Leo McCarey, Elliot visited the blonde film star on her set.
• • Mae is pictured explaining her script to the President's son.
• • Note: President FDR screened Mae West’s movies in The White House.
• • Source: The World (Coos Bay, Oregon); published on Wednesday, 11 April 1934.
• • On Wednesday, 11 July 1934 • •
• • "What's Wrong with the Movies?" • •
• • Writing from Hollywood, on Wednesday, 11 July 1934, Dan Thomas complained about nudity on the screen and vile dialogue. The front page article was illustrated with two scantily clad chorines. In his opinion, "It is harder to find a defense for the class of picture which offers nothing but a parade of nudity or ..."
• • Dan Thomas wrote: "And the increase in this type of motion picture of late was one of the reasons for the avalanche of public disapproval which fell on the movies. Mae West's excursion into the movie ring from Broadway offers a pretty good example of the progression."
• • Dan Thomas continued: "Famous for her New York characterization of Diamond Lil, Mae West came to the movies. The result was She Done Him Wrong, a picture which, though low in tone, contained such excellent characterizations that it not only drew few objections but it created a sort of vogue."
• • More and More Liberty • •
• • Dan Thomas added:  But what followed was "I'm No Angel." This was a picture of far less artistic merit and one designed to cash in on the Mae West vogue.  It was cruder and with far less real merit. Then came the announcement of "It Ain't No Sin," not yet released but with a prospect of even greater liberty ...
• • Source: Dan Thomas, NEA Services Staff Correspondent (in syndication) and printed on page 1 of the Hope Star on Wednesday, 11 July 1934.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Trade interest is high in such planned ventures as the teaming of W.C. Fields and Mae West for a film.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I've always taken the rap for the Code, but it was really those Barbara Stanwyck pictures (i.e., 'Babyface') that did it."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Motion Picture Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • Hollywood Brevities — Hollywood, July  2

• • Nate Blumberg on Saturday completed, via long distance, with Mae West a prematurely reported deal whereby the silver screen siren will make three motion pictures for Universal.
• • In her first film for the Universal studio, Mae West will co-star with W.C. Fields, with Eddie Cline directing and Lester Cowan producing. …
• • Source: Motion Picture Daily; published on Monday, 3 July 1939
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,057th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Elliot Roosevelt in 1934 • •
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Mae West: Typifies Seduction

MAE WEST met her fans on the silver screen and between the pages of the day’s popular fan magazines, all of whom skated dizzily on the surface of facts and never did any fact-checking. This is the first section, Part 1, segment 32 of 32.
• • "The Real Mae West" • •
• • Mae West: Typifies all that is seductive • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Popular as she always has been with boys and men, Mae West has never married [sic] and she has very definite reasons why she, who typifies all that is seductive and charming to mankind, has preferred to pursue her career in real life alone.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: The second installment of Mae West's real life story will appear in the July [1934] issue of New Movie Magazine.
• • Notes • •
• • Oddly enough, though New Movie Magazine chronicled Tinseltown and West Coast screen stars, it was located on the East Coast in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
• • New Movie Magazine’s editorial offices operated from 55 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. This commercial building presently houses Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and numerous businesses.   
• • Who was the London, England native Aileen St. John Brenon [17 April 1894 — 23 September 1967]?
• • The Brenons were a musical and theatrical family.
• • Aileen’s father Algernon had been a music critic, and her uncle Herbert Brenon was a prolific film director who directed the first cinematic adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” (1926).
• • Aileen’s sister Juliet [1895–1979] was a silent movie actress.She married the artist and influential theatrical designer Cleon Throckmorton; they lived in Greenwich Village.
• • Aileen was a music critic and theatrical publicist whose husband was art critic Thomas Craven.
• • The first part of Mae West’s “life story” has now concluded with this post.
• • The second part of Mae West’s “life story” by Aileen St. John Brenon will appear in due course.
• • Source: The New Movie Magazine; issue dated for June 1934.
• • On Friday, 29 June 1934 • •

• • Mae heard more than enough objections about "It's No Sin" from Joe Breen, Catholic priests, and the censors in New York State. "If they think it's too warm, I'll cool it off," Mae told a Newsweek reporter. On Friday, 29 June 1934 an article appeared in The Los Angeles Herald. Mae assured the paper that she wanted to satisfy the censors.  
• • "You can never say," emphasized Mae West, "that I refused to meet somebody half way."  
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Frank Wallace, who says he is the husband of Hollywood movie star Mae West, sued her business manager James Timony and five John Does for $105,000 damages today. Mae West is unavailable for comment.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "A man in the house is worth two in the street."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Associated Press mentioned Mae West.
• • "It Ain't No Sin," starring Mae West, Hit by Churchmen • •
• • New York, June 27, AP — — A Mae West movie of the same type that established the swaggering actress as the premier screen siren and one featuring Dolores Del Rio as the French Madame du Barry became the first victims of a militant church campaign for decency in pictures. ...
• • Both the Mae West "It Ain't No Sin" and the Miss Del Rio biographical picture were withdrawn from application for licensing in New York. The censors did not know what "sin" referred to in the Mae West film.
• • Paramount Productions Inc., producers of Miss West's pictures, announced it was being sent back to Hollywood for revision and would be reissued another time. ... The announcements came a few days after leaders of Catholic and Jewish faiths joined in a nationwide drive against indecent movies.  ...
• • Source: AP; reprinted by Nevada State Journal; published on Thursday, 28 June 1934
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,026th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Los Angeles Lesbians

In 1934, Picture Play, piqued by a New York newcomer’s meteoric rise, pondered this: “Is MAE WEST a Fizzle? A bold discussion of an important question!” This is Part 29 of 29 segments, the finale.
• • Is Mae West a Fizzle? • •
• • Mae West: A corking motion picture • •

• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: Either "It Ain't No Sin" will be a corking picture or Mae will come to after its release to discover she tried to bite off more than she could manage to the downfall, not the betterment, of her career.
• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: That she failed in the way others have failed before her and for practically the same reasons, and that her stellar light in the film firmament has begun to fade to the dirge of "another flash in the pan is dying out."
• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: I hope I'm wrong about Mae West. I hope she continues to be what we expect her to be.  
• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: But I have very serious doubts. Have you?
• • Note: In 1941 Picture Play ceased publication when it merged with Charm Magazine.
• • Note: Memphis born Dorothy Herzog, who began writing for fan magazines during the silent screen era, also penned the “Behind the Scenes in Hollywood” column. Though little is known about her, she had once been a notable fixture among Tinseltown stars and wannabes. Dorothy Herzog even wrote the plot for one silent film: “Coney Island” (1928).
• • Los Angeles Lesbians • •
• • From Lynn Kear’s biography on the self-destructive, suicidal actress Evelyn Brent: “Evelyn Brent's life and career were going quite well in 1928. Brent [1895–1975] was happily living with her lesbian lover, writer Dorothy Herzog, following Evelyn’s divorce from film producer Bernard P. Fineman [1895–1971].” The female lovebirds enjoyed frequent meals together at Hollywood's Montmartre Café before switching over to the Embassy, a private club limited to 300 members, and “paying dues to insure their privacy and social position within the film colony,” according to one book reviewer.
• • Herzog wrote a scandalous book “Some Like It Hot” (Macaulay Company, 1930), banned in Boston, in Canada, and not permitted to be circulated by lending libraries. She wrote other potboilers, too, such as “Intimate Strangers” and “Undercover Woman,” and dedicated them to Brent under her real (birth) name. Presumably, these titles sold well enough since Herzog retained the enthusiasm of her editors at Macaulay.
• • During the 1920s, Dorothy Herzog also worked as a film critic for the New York Daily Mirror.
• • This opinionated article written by Herzog has now been concluded. Let us know if you enjoyed it.
• • Source: Picture Play; issue dated for May 1934.
• • On Tuesday, 25 February 1913 • •
• • The announcement that "Mae West, the comedienne" was appearing at the Grand ran in the Atlantic Journal on Tuesday, 25 February 1913.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The controversy over the latest Mae West film is gathering volume and velocity.  
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I cut down on physical sex when I'm writing or plotting a play."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Photoplay mentioned Mae West.
• • “Why Was Hollywood Jealous of Mae West?” • •
• • No star in Hollywood has been more miserably treated by the Cinema City than this famous blonde. Usually, Hollywood admires success, but in this case Hollywood resented it.
• • Here is the inside story, never before told in a movie magazine.
• • All of the absorbingly interesting feature articles described above and many, many more appear in the big March [1935] issue of Movie Mirror, the great movie magazine edited direct from Hollywood.
• • If you have not already done so, by all means get your copy today and see for yourself why Movie Mirror is fast becoming America's most popular movie magazine regardless of price. …
• • Source: Photoplay; published in the issue dated for February 1935
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,800 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,938th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: More Generous

In 1934, Picture Play, piqued by a New York newcomer’s meteoric rise, pondered this: “Is MAE WEST a Fizzle? A bold discussion of an important question!” This is Part 26 of 29 segments.
• • Is Mae West a Fizzle? • •
• • Mae West: “Nobody else gets the laughs!” • •
• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: Likewise James Cagney and many other top-notchers.  
• • Note: In 1936, it was widely reported that Mae West said (to Hollywood director Henry Hathaway): "Nobody gets laughs in my pictures but me, see?"

• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: Mae was warned to be more generous in both her pictures.
• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: Will she remember to be generous to the cast in "It Ain't No Sin"?
• • Mae West is cautioned often about her Brooklyn pronunciation • •
• • Dorothy Herzog wrote: Mae has to be cautioned frequently about pronunciation.  She has a tricky way with words.
• • Mae West: Tricky pronunciation • • …
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Picture Play; issue dated for May 1934.
• • On Saturday, 22 February 1947 • •
• • "Come On Up" opened 22 February 1947 • •
• • The show "Come On Up" starring Mae West opened in Los Angeles, California at the Biltmore Theatre on Saturday, 22 February 1947.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West has announced that she will be getting an armored limo to protect Jim Timony and herself.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "In my pictures I never took a man from another woman or pursued another woman's husband. That was all part of my plan to keep women audiences happy. Women don't like to be reminded of the fact that their man might stray after something like — — well, you know what I mean."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Palestine Post mentioned Mae West.
• • Hollywood Day by Day • •
• • The Palestine Post wrote: The first great wave of the talkies threw up a host of new stars, from Marie Dressler to Jackie Cooper but now there is a dearth. Think over the new big names of Hollywood, made in the last eight months, and only a few come to mind.
• • The Palestine Post wrote: There is Mae West, but she was already a famous stage star. Then there is Katharine Hepburn who has carved out a unique place for herself on the strength of her performances in only three films. And lastly comes May Robson whose performance in “Lady for a Day” has put her in the Marie Dressler class in one jump.  …
• • Source: The Palestine Post (via United Press); published on Tuesday, 21 November 1933
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,800 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,935th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • lobby card in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest