Mae West: Serious Glamour

A toast to MAE WEST and two other entertainers will be on the boards for a mid-morning presentation in Australia today on Wednesday, 17 June 2015.  It's called "Tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, and Peggy Lee" and it will begin at 10:00 AM.
• • Presenter Issi Dye wrote:  Cabaret star Aurora Mackrill will present her new show, which is a tribute to the three wonderful female superstars of the silver screen [sic]. 
• • Where: Cardinia Cultural Centre, Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham, Victoria, Australia.
• • On Friday, 17 June 1932 • •
• • Mae West would, no doubt, be capable of delivering "curdling melodrama," predicted the publication Hollywood Citizen News in its issue dated Friday, 17 June 1932.
• • On Thursday, 17 June 1982 • •
• • Fergus Cashin's highly suspect biography on Mae West was released in paperback by Virgin Books on Thursday, 17 June 1982.  Before you try to find it, however, read the review by Kirkus, which slams it and explains why. Clearly, the former reporter wished to "cash in."
• • Lacking footnotes and spiked with peculiar points, Cashin's biography makes you wonder what standards a British book publisher has before they accept a manuscript oozing with snark, insinuations, and venom.
• • Fergus Cashin, who worked for the Daily Express, Daily Sketch, and The Sun, died on 4 October 2005 at a hospice in Surrey, aged 81.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It is rumored here that the end of the careers of Mae West and Anna Sten, the sensational Russian star, is likely if the ban extends.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   "I never let anything stop me, once I set my heart on it. I've never had a wishbone where my backbone should be."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An American fashion magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • The Material Girl has revived the days of serious Hollywood glamour in the video for the song ["Hollywood"], meanwhile.  Paying tribute to the likes of Ginger Rogers, Jean Harlow, and Mae West, Madonna is seen swathed in £13 million-worth of gems, including the original 25-carat ring and bracelet that was worn by West in the 1933 film,  "She Done Him Wrong." . . .
• • Source: Feature in Vogue; published on Tuesday, 17 June 2003  
• • Note: we would love to know which stylist worked on that video and who arranged the Mae West estate jewelry for the shoot. As Mae-mavens know, the Brooklyn bombshell wore an array of bracelets, rings, earrings, and and sparklers in this motion picture, one piled on after the other, the way little girls do when they play dress up. A classic motion picture that will be remembered.
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3202nd 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/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC  Mae West

Mae West: Auction in Beverly Hills

A signed letter from MAE WEST will change hands at Julien's Auctions' Icons & Idols sale — — scheduled to take place next month on December 3rd — 4th in Beverly Hills.
• • Rare items from the worlds of film, music, and pop culture along with an extensive selection of Beatles memorabilia will go on the auction block within the next two weeks in California.
• • Fans of Michael Jackson will be able to bid on a red leather "Beat It" jacket signed by the late King of Pop. Also up for grabs are storied female garments: a D&G coat from Madonna's Girlie Show tour, Vivien Leigh's blouse from Gone With the Wind, and Barbra Streisand's Funny Lady dress. Signed correspondence from Mae West and Bette Davis will certainly attract attention.
• • For details, contact Julien's Auctions at 310-836-1818.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Glamour as Armor

MAE WEST 's approach to glamour was discussed by a British columnist focused on matters of style versus substance.
• • "Nothing empowers women more than a good education and career, but since cinema began they have been unable to resist copying the fashions that give models and Hollywood stars allure," writes Carol Dyhouse.
• • Carol Dyhouse adds: It is tempting to ask whether glamour, once an escape for women, has now become a prison? But adult women aren't simply prisoners, dupes or victims, and there can be a playfulness around glamour, exemplified by many women performers, for instance: Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Madonna, Courtney Love, and currently, the gloriously bonkers Lady Gaga. As soon as you think or write about glamour you enter dangerous territory. ...
• • To access this thought-provoking read, see the publication below.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Glamour versus feminism? Just look at the images in the media we all adore!"
• • Byline: Carol Dyhouse
• • Published in: The Observer [UK] — — www.guardian.co.uk
• • Published on: Sunday, 21 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 • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: A New Portrait

MAE WEST's portrait will be unveiled — — as an eye-catching new exhibition opens today, 1 March 2010, in Northern Virginia, celebrating Women's History Month.
• • Artist Rosemary Gallick, who lives in Centreville, VA and teaches art history at Northern Virginia Community College, has titled her show "American Women: Voices of the Past & Present" and has captured on canvas notable females such as the First Ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama, divas of the silver screen Mae West and Marilyn Monroe, and entertainers such as Janis Joplin, Madonna, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, and more. Inspired also by political theatre, Gallick painted Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, and Sonia Sotomayor.
• • The heads of the singers, for instance, have been rendered mostly in acrylic with touches of mixed media for special effects. "The emotionally charged lines and dazzling colors embrace the exuberance of the individual performer," Gallick said.
• • For four weeks you can enjoy these artworks on display at Northern Virginia Community College's Woodbridge Campus [1 March — 1 April 2010]. Admission is free. The Woodbridge Campus is located at 15200 Neabsco Mills Road — — off Interstate 95 at exit 156. For information, phone 703-878-5797. And tell them you heard about it on the MAE WEST BLOG.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Blonde Icons

A Garden State artist draws inspiration from MAE WEST.
• • During an exhibition entitled "Blonde Icons," Anthony Alansky got the opportunity to display his colorful portraits of Mae West — — as well as Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren, Madonna, and others.
• • "When I was a child, I got turned on to all the great old Hollywood movies," Alansky recently told reporter Daniel O'Keefe, Staff Writer for NorthJersey.com. "I love beauty and glamour. It's just what inspires me."
• • A fictional character Alansky has brought to life on canvas is a blonde bombshell named Gaemella La Amouria, a model and an actress.
• • Daniel O'Keefe noted: The subject of his works has remained constant through the years. Since his youth he's felt drawn towards celebrity actresses, singers and models — larger than life starlets such as Marilyn Monroe and Madonna, whose every move is made in the spotlight. . . . In 2007, a portrait he painted of Princess Diana, which currently hangs in the hallway of his Rutherford, New Jersey residence, was featured in the book, "Diana in Art."
• • Alansky's latest achievement is a portrait featured in a new book called "Letters of Little Edie Beale: Grey Gardens and Beyond." Edie Beale, or Edith Bouvier Beale, was a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. A socialite and model for Macy's, Beale lived a life of privilege in New York City. ...
• • May all his blonde bombshells strengthen his bonds with art buyers.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Rae in August

An amusing article appeared about Rae Bourbon, who performed on Broadway with MAE WEST.
• • "Eventually Rae Bourbon had his own club on Sunset Strip in L.A., where he hobnobbed with Hollywood elite such as Mae West and Bob Hope. He released dozens of comedy and bawdy-song records on several labels, including his own, UTC (Under The Counter, where one often found the risqué records in a shop)," writes Nick DiFonzo [Houston Press, "Cutout Bin: Rae Bourbon — — Let Me Tell You About My Operation," Friday, 31 July 2009].
• • Born in Texas as Hal Wadell, the vaudeville comedian and female impersonator called himself either Ray or Rae Bourbon [11 August 1892 — 20 July 1971] onstage. Not unlike that other not-very-beautiful entertainer born during August — — Madonna — — Bourbon kept his bookings going by navigating a shifting terrain of social attitudes about gender, censorship, bisexuality, transgression, transvestism, bawdiness, and sheer snark.
• • A memorable date for Rae Bourbon took place 65 years ago — — the Broadway debut of "Catherine Was Great," when Mae West portrayed the Empress of Russia and Bourbon had a minor role as Florian.
• • Let's imagine the crowds that gathered on 2 August 1944 in front of the Shubert Theatre [225 West 44th Street] to celebrate this grand premiere.
• • An enthusiastic group will gather in the same spot on 16 August 2009 for a walking tour — — "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District" — — and we hope to see you, too, at 4 o'clock that Sunday.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Blonde Bonds

One nickname for MAE WEST was the "blonde bombshell," a title linked to an evolving archetype in both literature and motion pictures.
• • For an intriguing "long drink" on this, refresh your mind with "I'm No Angel: The Blonde in Fiction and Film" by Ellen Tremper [University of Virginia Press; illustrated edition; 288 pages; hardcover book published on 30 March 2006].
• • Here's what Publishers Weekly thought of it: Ellen Tremper's authoritative treatise on the role of the blonde in modern fiction and early film is as fascinating as it is dense. The author of the Virginia Woolf biography "Who Lived at Alfoxton?" shows how the blonde evolved radically over two centuries. In fairy tale lore, she was the angelic and passive Rapunzel, who could be saved from imprisonment only by an all-powerful prince. But by the mid-1800s, romance got ahold of her — Thackeray's Becky Sharp is an example — and the blonde became a bombshell in the truest sense: a pre-Raphaelite siren rocketing through the patriarchy. When the blondes of the silver screen — Harlow, Dietrich, Monroe — hit big, the blonde had become iconic and transgressive: she was a catalyst of sexual and social disorder, particularly when she left comedy and went to film noir. As her hair — dyed an impossible shade — lit up screens and pages, the blonde ignited social mores with her brassy independence. Tremper's thesis wanders in places, as she equates the blonde with other transgressive characters (people of color, Jews), and at times the sheer volume of her scholarship overwhelms. Nevertheless, the work explores a complex character with thoroughness and verve. — — PW
• • British entertainer Denise Van Outen, who may not be to the honey-haired manner born, nevertheless will pour out her blonde ambition next month at the Fringe in Scotland. Actress Jackie Clune wrote the show "Blondes," and Denise has been busy stoking the fires for it.
• • In Scotlland, reporter Jackie McGlone did a goodnatured flack piece for The Scotsman freckled with a few cliches: "Interview: Denise Van Outen — — actress and presenter." Going straight to the root of it, Jackie McGlone writes: DENISE VAN OUTEN examines a lock of her ash-blonde hair and announces that at last she's the blonde she has always wanted to be. "This is my happiest blonde colour," says the newlywed, with a smile. If happiness were a colour, then it would be golden, just like the 35-year-old Essex girl, actress, and TV and radio presenter. And it's not just her highlights that are looking good.
• • For Denise Van Outen, who has starred on Broadway and in the West End, played a nurse in ITV1 drama Where the Heart Is, and who is bringing a new, one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe called Blondes, is clearly on cloud nine. ...
• • At 12, Van Outen was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Cosette in Les Miserables in the West End. By the time she was 18 she was the nation's favourite Essex girl, sharing a sofa and saucy banter with Johnny Vaughan.
• • Dare her to do something and she'd do it back then. "My gay friends were always egging me on," she grins. She flashed her bra at Prince Charles at a Royal Variety Show, she dyed her hair pink, and she dressed like a Barbie doll. She even nicked an ashtray from Buckingham Palace. ...
• • Soon she was, in the words of one newspaper columnist, "the nation's top telly vulgarian" . . . .
• • Yakking about the "Blonde Thing" • •
• • WE TALK about the "blonde thing" and Blondes, which has been written for her by her friend – "another Essex bird" — — the actress and writer Jackie Clune, who has been the toast of many a Fringe herself. It's a celebration of what it means to be blonde, so she'll tell a few stories about her own life, but she'll also reveal why gentlemen prefer blondes and address the vexed question of whether blondes have more fun ("Yes!" she exclaims emphatically. "All the blondes I know have had a really good time"). Oh, and she'll be singing, too.
• • "I love blondes who sing: Blondie of course! Bonnie Tyler, Kylie, Britney, who I'm completely fascinated by, having lived in LA for a couple of years when I presented the TV talent show, Grease: You're The One That I Want. I used to see Britney out all the time. So I've some stories to tell about her. I really want to ask why so many blondes like her have meltdowns and why so many iconic blondes' lives ended tragically.
• • Blondes as Victims • •
• • "Why do blondes in the public eye have to be victims? I'm sure Kylie still gets all that 'poor Kylie' stuff for having had breast cancer. People have certainly wanted me to be the victim over the years, mainly because I've made no secret of the fact that I've been unhappy in my love life.
• • "There's a lot of pressure on you, being a blonde. You're expected to be the fun-girl, the good-time girl, the life and soul of the party. Those are always the days when I'm having a brunette moment — — I can be a moody cow."
• • From Mae West onwards • •
• • She pauses to drink a glass of water and exclaims: "But just look at all the fabulous blondes in history! They're the women who have shaped me, the women who've influenced me, made me who and what I am now. So we'll range from Mae West to Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. From Dusty Springfield to Olivia Newton-John and Dolly Parton . . ." Which brings us to the notion of the dumb blonde. "Yeah," sighs Van Outen. "All those tired old cliches about blonde moments and the fact that I'm always described as 'laugh-a-minute, bubbly blonde Denise'."
• • Yet Van Outen, who is clearly a smart cookie, echoes the divine Dolly: "Just because I'm blonde don't think I'm dumb, 'cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool." Unlike Dolly, who pronounced herself never offended by dumb blonde jokes, because "I know I'm not dumb; I'm also not blonde," and the marvelous Mae West, Van Outen did not make herself platinum. Her hair was so fair as a child it was almost white.
• • Since she's become something of a gay icon, despite the years as a lads mag lovely, Van Outen reckons the gays and the girls will love Blondes, which she and Clune hope will transfer to the West End post-Edinburgh. ...
• • Denise Van Outen will appear during August 2009 in The Fringe [www.edfringe.com * Edinburgh, Scotland] in "Blondes" — — Previews: August 6-7; then August 8-31, 2009.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Interview: Denise Van Outen, actress and presenter
• • Byline: By Jackie McGlone | Special to The Scotsman newspaper
• • Published in: The Scotsman — — thescotsman.scotsman.com/
• • Published on: 4 July 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Fashion Icon

"MAE WEST in the fashion pages?" you ask — — and why not?
• • What designers desire most is to enter the high blue door of interpretation. It's merely cut cloth that sewing machines piece together, after all. To give fashion context, there must be retrospectives, muses, icons, and that happy tag-along element: flair.
• • Last month, British tabloids ran photographs of Kate Moss as she was busy purchasing a £12 T-shirt from the Camden branch of Snappy Snaps. A reporter noted that Kate Moss chose one featuring a print of Mae West — — with the logo "Mae the spirit be with you!" written across the front.
• • Buttocks clenched, the UK Style Desk went into overdrive, shrieking: She's always had an eye for a trend, but even Kate Moss's most devoted fans may be surprised by the supermodel's latest fashion foray. For eschewing her usual haute couture haunts last week, Moss was to be seen shopping at budget camera shop Snappy Snaps, hardly known for its stylish credentials. Dressed down and hiding behind a pair of Prada sunglasses, she was spotted in the store's Camden branch buying a £12 T-shirt from its Demented Divas range, which includes images of Mae West, Cher, Shirley Bassey, and Madonna.
• • About her a-MAE-zing T-selection, designer Al Pillay exclaimed: 'I'm thrilled that Kate Moss has one. They've become very sought-after images. Amy Winehouse has one [from UK's The Daily Mail, 27 April 2009, page 35]." Soon all the capons will be sporting them (once they discover the coke-heads are snapping 'em up)! If you see the shirt being worn in your area, especially by any bow-legged jezebels, do phone in.
• • Al Pillay originally did these amusing sketches for his personal greeting card line. What do you think of his version of Mae West?
• • Also in the United Kingdom, the trendy femme brand Hellz Bellz channelled Mae for their Christmas Holiday catalogue last year — — Hellz 2008 Holiday ‘Born Bad’ Collection. Toasting the Brooklyn bombshell, and what she meant to them, the designers called the line "Born Bad." Their press release explained: “Our Holiday 2008 collection represents for the “Born Bad” femme fatale. With Mae West’s racy quotes which sprang, tough-dame style from the side of her mouth, she’s been firmly stamped as the personification of Hellz through her story of survival, persistence, independence, and unshakable self-esteem. In her life which ended in 1980, at the age of 87, she became both an icon and pioneer for both men and women everywhere.”
• • Two fashion tributes to the Empress of Sex, a durable diva, from King Arthur's country. Right-oh!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Al Pillay's greeting card • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Code Uncloaked

Meditating on MAE WEST jumpstarted the juice for one discerning essayist published by Bright Lights Film Journal.
• • There is much to consider and mull over in Erich Kuersten's delightful piece "Help us, Mae!" — — and we know you'll savor his hazy thoughts on the transition from real sex to digital hallucinations [below].
• • According to Erich Kuersten, the pre-code is alive and well today, just not onscreen. The stars have split their private life off, so the tabloids tell the sordid stories, while the screen shows teenagers trying on clothes to montage pop. But since 1934 America has always liked its love and desperation to be separate. In real life, the love of the desperate is as intense as the love of the genuinely enchanted; in fact in our age of digital hermits and alienation, there is no difference.
• • Take for example, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, Babs Streisand and Madonna. These are camp icons for a reason, women whose ferocious drive was such that they changed the face of beauty in order to make themselves pass for beautiful. The hallowed hierarchy of class, genes, and style that make us "attractive" is relative, of course; it's in the eye of the beholder: a very lonely sailor might, for example, fall in love with a dust mop, or mistake a seal for a beautiful mermaid. On the other hand, a jaded rock star might see Sienna Miller as an ocelot or common sea snail.
• • Take Mae West for another example.
• • Take Mae West for another example. Kind of heavy and yet small breasted, short and coarse, but it didn't matter. She could have been a dust mop crossed with a sea snail and men would still be falling for her. No one could tell Mae she wasn't a knockout glamour girl, so whether she was or not becomes — with the passing of each new generation — more and more immaterial. She defines beauty because we have seen her on the silver screen being adored. It must be true; we saw it on television.
• • Remember Cary Grant and Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong"?
• • She's so startlingly progressive, we presume all of ancient history defined her as the ultimate; it all has the iconic haze of myth, folklore. Mae is like (and would probably sleep with) Paul Bunyan, or John Henry, the steel-drivin' man. Like them she's embodying an archetype, she is the elevation of the cathouse harlot to the status of a benevolent, wisecracking Aphrodite. If she was genuinely beautiful, the ridiculous fawning of the men around her would be irritating and immodest. But because it's Mae, it's joyous, because we realize that beauty — if it wasn't already in the eye of the beholder before her — is now. She made it flex and bend until even the shy and ugly kids got some, too. She brought cake out to the guards. She shared her humongous appetites with her next-door neighbor in the Paramount dressing rooms, Marlene Dietrich; they passed guys like Gary Cooper and Cary Grant around like playing cards. West actually launched Grant's career for him. She had an eye for real moxie — a talent scout like her is sorely missed in Hollywood these days. But at any rate, the disciples of her brilliance live on; there are shades of her in everyone from Roseanne Barr to Diane Keaton, Paula Prentiss and up to Nicole Kidman and Anna Faris. Age, height, weight have nothing to do with it per se, it's all in the hips and their willingness to subvert the status quo from within, and the genius to know how to make it work and the nerve to pull it off at just the right time. When a girl at the end of her rope admires Mae's diamonds in "She Done Him Wrong," for example, Mae remarks, "Men, it's their game. I just happen to be smart enough to play it their way."
• • What does that mean exactly? It means she doesn't fight the current, and so has the energy to swim to the front and direct the whole wave. This means Mae is genuinely subversive, which is why the Catholic Legion of Decency was so quick to have her censored (she made only one radio appearance in her entire life, an "Adam and Eve" sketch, which got her banned forever). It's nothing in her double entendres so much as her complete lack of inhibition and — even more important — the copious admiration and financial gain she shows herself getting, onscreen, for her unmarried sexual congress. If Mae's characters had died alone and unloved, having sacrificed all for her child to marry a prince, etc., she would have been fine with the censors. But daring to indulge in the forbidden fruits and end the film all the richer and with Cary Grant on your arm and no harm done? It was just too dangerous to a rigid class and sex system like the Catholic delusory 1930s.
• • Those moralists wanted sex to be served in little teacups to a temperate nation. Mae served it by spreading tea leaves on the floor and flooding the building with hot water. It was like showing the corruptible females of the world a magic faucet by which they could drown their men's precious capitalist system with a few flicks of their diamond-bespangled wrists. And that doing it was not only easy but rewarding as hell; Mae was a lost generation Tyler Durden!
• • What was more than a mere threat to the Christian status quo, though, was Mae's willingness to peek behind the magic curtain where the big deals are made, and to point out that regardless of how much they bellow and bluster, they're all just men underneath the suits and uniforms. They can be had. If the Christians were reading this right, Mae was training women all over the country to step into men's affairs and topple them, just to see if they can. The whole social ladder seemed to shake and buckle from the force of Mae's tsunami hips.
• • We don't really have a similar figure to Mae West today, right now, do we? Kate Winslet, Vera Farmiga, Naomi Watts, Nicole, they're all genetic miracles who represent the next step in our evolution, knock on wood, and the sexually active party girls, like Paris Hilton, aren't really movie stars (the Paris equivalent of the time would have been Peggy Hopkins Joyce).
• • No, the merely semi-attractive women — the ones for whom finding dates is actual work — have no one to champion them, no one like Mae West or Bette Davis to star in movies where they're adored as beautiful and desirable beyond words while all the straight men in the room go "What? I don't get it." Instead, the non-goddesses have to make do with martyrdom, the dregs of the coffee cup. I guess the closest we have at the moment are those British soul singer tarts across the sea, but I'm too old to know anything about that.
• • All I know is, I watch Bette in some of these DVDs, like Now Voyager, and I long for the blurriness of VHS. As our world moves more and more to high definition and blu-ray, that eye of the beholder is going to see some things better left obscured by Blanche's paper lantern, that's all I'm saying, with all the format changes. Even the most airbrushed and metallic of goddesses won't catch any fanboys if they can see "that" much. You know what I mean, bro? Do I got to underline it in highlighter marker? Darkness makes everyone equally attractive. It's key! The high-def future will mean the end of sex for all but the supermodels. The rest of us will punch our way through days so gray and isolated they make Gilliam's Brazil look like Christmas with Bing Crosby. No matter how lovely you think you are, we'll be able to see into your pores from the back row.
• • Spend some time in France or England and you'll see a whole different approach to casual hooking up for sex. It's not that big a deal. People feel better, eat better, look better, when they're having steady sexual relations, say twice a week minimum. In America, somewhere along the line we got the idea that it's better not to have sex unless the partner is gorgeous, rich, famous, or you're very drunk; otherwise, we're "saving" ourselves. If we take home someone unattractive, we slump home the next day, guilty, as if we were so hungry and poor we ended up eating at McDonald's and now feel sick. But we don't really feel sick, my friends, that's social conditioning! That's why we need a Mae West or a Bette Davis to come along and sashay their weight around, or smile their crooked teeth and still have Tyrone Power or Cary Grant grow mad with desire for them. Maybe we don't want it, but we need it. We're a nation that's grown sexually anorexic.
• • Help us, Mae! Show us how to enjoy our food again.
— — Source: — —
• • Desperation and Divinity — — "Help us, Mae!"
• • • • Hazy thoughts on the transition from real sex to digital hallucinations
• • Byline: Erich Kuersten | Columnist
• • Published in: Bright Lights Film Journal — — www.brightlightsfilm.com
• • Published on: May 2009 | Issue 64
• • Copyright © 2009 by Erich Kuersten
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: The Observer

"Diamond Lil Still Sparkles," writes New York-based reviewer Sara Vilkomerson, referring to the latest biography of MAE WEST — — which she approaches most patiently, wearing velvet gloves and willing to overlook flaws.
• • • • She Always Knew How: Mae West — A Personal Biography
• • • • By Charlotte Chandler
• • • • Simon & Schuster, 317 pages
• • It’s hard to think of any of today’s shiny and carefully coddled stars who could hold their own when it comes to the utter cool that was Mae West. Seriously! Just try to imagine an Angelina or Scarlett or Reese trying to match the sultry vamp of the tiny and curvy blonde in films like I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Go West Young Man (1936), let alone writing their own plays and scripts, and crafting quips like “When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.” Madonna — who has most definitely studied the Mae West playbook — has pushed the boundaries (and then some) throughout her career, but she never spent 10 days [sic] in jail on obscenity charges (as Ms. West did in 1927, after she wrote, performed, directed [sic], and produced the very popular Broadway play Sex).
• • Mae West set out to rule her world in her own inimitable way, defining all of her own terms. As Charlotte Chandler writes in her new biography, She Always Knew How, “when Mae began her career, doors were opened for women. When she finished her career, doors were open to women.”
• • Charlotte Chandler has written biographies of iconic celebrities before: Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Alfred Hitchcock. In She Always Knew How, she relies mainly on a series of interviews conducted months before the actress’ death, in 1980. From the opening pages, when West shows Ms. Chandler her extensive diamond collection, and immediately offers a few vehement opinions on makeup, spring water and enemas for soft skin, the voice of Mae West jumps off the page, sassy, bossy and clever. In fact, there are moments in the book when one might be forgiven for feeling one’s simply reading some forgotten transcript hidden away for decades in a musty attic.
• • (Ms. Chandler never gets around to explaining why she’s chosen to publish her book now, 29 years after the interviews took place.)
• • Because so much of She Always Knew How is Mae West talking about her favorite subject — herself — it’s hard to know what’s true and what’s the carefully constructed myth West created. (Ms. Chandler did talk to actors and friends who knew the star, but the meat of the book is Mae West herself.) There’s no doubt that Mae West had a brilliant and shrewd mind when it came to branding her own image: There was her private self, which only an inner circle of confidantes were allowed to see, and then there was Mae West, in her form-fitting Edith Head creations and 6-inch platform shoes (the secret to her deliberate walk), purring about how a hard man is good to find.
• • “Do you know what question I’m asked the most? About the mirrors on my bedroom ceiling. I say, ‘I like to see how I’m doin’.’ It’s the truth. It’s very exciting. You should try it,” West tells Charlotte Chandler during one of their conversations. “And the next question I’m most often asked is, am I always the Mae West everybody knows, or am I different when I’m alone? The answer is when I’m alone, I’m the same Mae West. But you’ll have to take my word for it, ’cause when I’m alone there isn’t anyone else here.’”
• • Ms. Chandler wisely organizes the book chronologically, and it’s through Mae West’s voice that we hear about her childhood in Brooklyn; the early marriage she didn’t admit to for many years; her Hollywood ascent; and the love she shared with Paul Novak, her constant companion for 27 years, who took faithful care of her at the end of her life. Along the way we get Mae’s sometimes true and sometimes wild assertions (that she discovered Cary Grant, that she saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy).
• • And if Charlotte Chandler neglects to provide supporting facts (or proof to the contrary), who cares? She Always Knew How succeeds in making the reader feel privy to a private conversation — a chance to overhear a singular voice that makes us wish a Mae West were around today.
• • Sara Vilkomerson is a reporter at The New York Observer.
— — Source: — —
• • Book Review by Sara Vilkomerson
• • Published in The New York Observer — — www.observer.com
• • Published on: 13 February 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: M & M

MAE WEST was Madonna's role model when she was still a wanna-be entertainer. Born in mid-August one day before her idol, the material girl was famously chided by her British husband for trying to stay youthful and sexy after her 50th birthday. Canadian Guy Barbineau meditated about this connection between M and M.
• • But before we line up his paragraphs for a moment in the spotlight, one correction must be made. Liberace's perceptive quote was: I cried all the way to the bank. "Laughed all the way to the bank" makes no sense, you know. You do know, Guy, we hope.
• • Writing for Xtra West, Vancouver resident Guy Barbineau observed: The one thing Madonna [born on 16 August 1958] has done that really offends people is being successful.
• • It's not religion. It isn't sex. It's all about who has power.
• • Society always did and still does get its knickers in a twist when smart, opinionated, and outspoken women and gay men come into power — — and have a public voice. To think otherwise is naive.
• • Now Madonna's being criticized for daring to be sexual at 50. Like Mae West, another gay icon, she's laughing all the way to the bank.
• • There are plenty of similarities between the two. West learned her walk, talk, and shtick from New York drag queens in the 1920s. She pushed buttons, landing herself in jail by writing and performing in plays like Sex and the homosexually themed The Drag — — thus drastically increasing their ticket sales — — before becoming the world's biggest movie star for several years in the 1930s.
• • "I believe in censorship. It made me a fortune," Mae West said. Madonna could say the same thing. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Why we love Madonna — — As Sticky & Sweet rolls into town, Xtra West pays tribute to one of the world's biggest gay icons"
• • Byline: Guy Babineau in Vancouver, Canada
• • Published in: Xtra West — — www.xtra.ca
• • Published on: Thursday, 23 October 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.