skip to main |
skip to sidebar
MAE WEST's motion picture, with a working title of "It Ain't No Sin," began production in March — — on 19 March 1934. In the script, Ruby Carter, the American beauty queen of the night club-sporting world set, shifts her operations from St. Louis to New Orleans. 
• • From "Belle of the Ninetes" • •
• • • • Ace Lamont: Great town, St. Louis. You were born here?
• • • • Ruby Carter: Yes.
• • • • Ace Lamont: What part?
• • • • Ruby Carter: Why, all of me.
• • According to the venerable Hollywood publicist A.C. Lyles, attached for decades to Paramount Pictures, some press agents, who were assigned to promote Mae West’s next picture "It Ain't No Sin," bought 50 parrots and had the macaws trained to utter the film’s title. The intention was to ship one parrot to every notable movie columnist across the world. The entertainment editor, presumably, would unwrap the cage and immediately hear the parrot plug the film. Unfortunately, one month before the publicity department prepared to give the trained featherweights a send-off, Paramount's front office cabled that they were changing the title of the 1934 movie to "Belle of the Nineties," thanks to Will Hays. Today most movie reviewers would merely get a thing without feathers — — an email announcement.
• • We have an amusing interview with Arthur Mayer, the actual bird trainer, and will post it on another occasion.
• • Mae West: No More "Sex" • •
• • Mae West's play "Sex" closed during the month of March — — on 19 March 1927. As the noisy and contentious obscenity trial was in progress at Jefferson Market Courthouse, Jim Timony informed the press that the Broadway star was "exhausted." The blockbuster hit opened in April 1926 at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, according to Catholic teachings. Twin Cities reporter Tom Webb writes: Minnesota is home to the nation's largest all-you-can-eat buffet company, Buffets Inc., along with scores of restaurants that evidently agree with actress Mae West: too much of a good thing can be wonderful. Alas, nutritionists don't buy it. "We have data that when more (food) is there, people will eat more than they need," said Julie Miller Jones, a retired nutrition professor at the St. Catherine University in St. Paul. ...
• • Source: "Minnesota's food producers fed the nation, and the nation got fat" written by Tom Webb for Pioneer Press; posted on 18 March 2010
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST's play "Sex" closed during the month of March 1927. 
The obscenity trial was in progress at Jefferson Market Courthouse and the producers explained that the Broadway star was "exhausted." The blockbuster hit opened in April 1926 at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre.
• • Mae West: Pipe Dream in Munich • •
• • In March 2011, an article appeared on the unique fiber architecture and mandrel-less filament winding process that would make an “impossible” rotational paraboloid sculpture possible in carbon composites.
• • Source: "Case Study" written by Donna Dawson for the publication High-Performance Composites; March 2011
• • Mae West's Chauffeur, Ray Wallace, Commits Suicide in Car • • 
• • Depressed, the 44-year-old African-American World War 2 veteran had promised to kill himself, recalled Mae West about her former personal chauffeur. Ray Charles Wallace eased out of his vale of tears inside the actress's Cadillac, inhaling toxic exhaust fumes as he huddled under a quilt. At the time he was on a farm near Patoka, Indiana.• • Source: Jet Magazine, 3 March 1955 issue
• • Princess She-Who-Mountains-in-Front • •
• • Away from what she calls "the linen battlefields," Mae became a vaudeville headliner, a star in Broadway musicals and in her own lubricious dramas — Sex, Diamond Lil, and The Constant Sinner. In a dozen Hollywood films, Mae triumphed on both sides of the Atlantic. During the war, her shape was saluted by R.A.F. pilots, who called their inflatable life jackets "Mae Wests." U.S. Indians, naturally with the dedicated help of publicity men, made Mae a member of the Lakota tribe as Princess She-Who-Mountains-in-Front. ..
• • Source: Time Magazine, 1959
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Anthony Quinn, talking about his career and life, confided on "The Johnny Carson Show" that the three most amazing women he had ever met were Mae West, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Laurette Taylor. [In 1936, Quinn made the leap into the acting profession. That year he had a role onstage in "Clean Beds" with Mae West, a play that she financed and produced. His part was a take-off of John Barrymore, then an aging actor fading from the limelight.]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1926 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.
April was the cruelest month for MAE WEST in 1927. 
• • On 5 April 1927 at Jefferson Market Court [on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village], the jury returned with a guilty verdict. As she left the courtroom, followed by reporters, photographers, and a mob of well-wishers, Mae told them, "You've got to fight in this world!" She added, "You've got to fight to get there — — and fight to stay there."
• • On 19 April 1927, actress Mae West was sentenced for her performance in "Sex," the Broadway play she wrote, cast, and starred in. She was given ten days in prison and the jail time seems to have done her good — — from a publicity standpoint. As she left the courtroom, followed by reporters, friends, fans, and gawkers, Mae predicted, "I expect this will be the making of me!"
• • Though Mae West was sentenced to 10 days, she actually only served 8 days. The actress received "time off for good behavior."
• • Here is the cast of "Courting Mae West" acting out the chaos inside that Greenwich Village courtroom on 5 April 1927. The scintillating Yvonne Sayers, who portrays Mae West, is in the center of the frame, supported by Eric Eastman who plays her co-star and co-defendant, Barry O'Neill.• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes surrounding "The Drag" and "Sex." Scenes in Act I dramatize Mae's interactions with her drag queen cast, the police raid on 9 February 1927, and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Courting Mae West, ACT I finale • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
Here's another opportunity to see "The Drag" by MAE WEST — — or to be cast in the production.
• • In Iowa Dreamwell's Artistic Director decided to present a season with a theme of "Inciting Theatre."
• • Their season opens with Ibsen's “An Enemy of the People," a play from 1882. Dreamwell is using a new translation and has cast women in several male roles to modernize it.
• • Then in late June, Dreamwell Theatre will present a play written by 1930s screen legend and sex symbol Mae West.
• • Rachael Lindhart, secretary and active member of the volunteer company, does not expect insurgence, rioting, padlocks, nor police raids in Iowa City even though she is aware that "The Drag" (which was doing its out-of-town tryouts back in January 1927) opened to an “avalanche of condemnation,” as one of Mae's biographers phrased it. Rachael Lindhart says Mae West’s “The Drag” was one of the first plays to portray gay men in a sympathetic light. Before “The Drag,” homosexual characters were used to add a more comedic element.
• • Subjects that were deemed unlawful or offensive to good citizens are considerably less so these days, however, Rachael Lindhart insists that the theater’s history of sparking debate is essential to the development of today’s dramas. By presenting a bill of old controversies, Dreamwell pays tribute to those brave playwrights who paved the way for modern vanguards of the stage.
• • “We have a history of somebody’s gotta be first,” Rachael Lindhart says. “There are a lot of things that we need to talk about from the stage that aren’t easy. I hope that this season will make people think that they should perhaps see a play before they condemn it.”
• • Auditions for "The Drag" will be held in Iowa during April and May in 2009. To audition, contact Brian Tanner: brian@dreamwell.com.
• • Dreamwell Theatre’s 2009 Season includes these four: “An Enemy of the People” [written by Henrik Ibsen]; “The Drag” [written by Mae West and directed by Chuck Dufano] on June 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th, 2009; “Master Harold and the Boys” [written by Athol Fugard]; “Playboy of the Western World” [written by J.M. Synge].
• • All performances take place at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 10 S. Gilbert Street, Iowa City. Tickets are $12 with discounts available for seniors and students. 
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes surrounding "The Drag" and "Sex." Scenes in Act I dramatize Mae's interactions with her drag queen cast, the police raid on 9 February 1927, and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 trial • •
NYC
Mae West.
Several New Yorkers had seen Mae West's play "Sex" more than once — — including Sergeant Patrick Keneally, who had taken an exhaustive number of notes while attending three performances at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre in the line of duty.
• • Police action against "Sex" had been more in opposition to "The Drag" than to Margy LaMont's lascivious adventures, explains Jill Watts in her impeccably researched bio: Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. • • According to Jill Watts: While efforts to euthanize "The Drag" succeeded, "Sex" played to capacity crowds for several more weeks. However, by the beginning of March [1927], attendance had died off and profits shrank. Desperate to keep the production alive, the Morals Production Corporation ordered a 25% pay cut for everyone. Several players handed in their notices.
• • Finally, on Sunday, March 19, after the evening's performance, Morganstern announced that Mae West was physically exhausted and was closing the play. Yet he also emphasized her determination to fight the case to its end.
• • According to Jill Watts: Only a few days later, the New York State senate passed the Wales Padlock Bill, which required the district attorney to prosecute everyone associated with an indecent production and to lock down for one year any theatre that hosted such shows. It was less severe than mandating a stage censor and allowed the power over Broadway to remain with the district attorney, who in New York was the Tammany Hall loyalist Banton. The bill now sat waiting on Al Smith's desk.• • In Jefferson Market Police Court (on Sixth Avenue and West Ninth Street) the defendants from the "Sex" raid came to trial on 28 March 1927. The prosecution's case rested on the testimony of Sergeant Keneally and his ability to take rapid, accurate stenography in a darkened playhouse. New York's district attorney, perhaps addicted to the fortissimo eloquence of inner lives magnificently thwarted by the law, was prepared to step into his gladiator mode to do battle with the dauntless leonine jezebel of the Jazz Era — — Mae West.• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes. Act I, Scenes 3 — 4 dramatize both the police raid on 9 February 1927 and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 courthouse • •
NYC
Mae West.
