Mae West: August 17th

MAE WEST [17 August 1893 – 22 November 1980] — — the only actress who wrote the plays that she starred in on Broadway and who penned the motion picture dialogue she performed on the silver screen — — was never nominated for a "best actress" theatre award nor an Oscar. Ironically, this may have helped to assure some of Mae West's 1930s [and pre-Code] films an enduring cachet.
• • Too complete a victory, after all, would have led to a loss of credibility. Hip is (by definition) an oppositional stance that the embrace of the establishment can only compromise.
• • Mae was hip. She was so cool-headed in her films: unflappable, in control, and one step ahead.
• • If Hollywood toasts Mae mainly for her celluloid side, then New Yorkers salute her also for the merriment the comedienne brought to the footlights — — along with the equal opportunity angling she tried to bring about for gays and blacks on the rialto.
• • A one-of-a-kind lady she was — — that industrial-strength Brooklyn accent and all.
• • Meet the "wild WEST" side of Mae West on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's MAE WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate.
• • On August 17th the tour begins on Broadway and West 50th Street [NE corner] at 7:00 PM. As participants visit over a dozen WESTside locations significant to Mae West, they will enjoy rare antique photographs that show how each building looked when the actress rehearsed, performed, socialized, or got into mischief there. These startling vintage views also show how Mae looked when she was inside.
• • [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below for the tour price and details.]
• • Today — — all day — — is Mae's birthday: August 17th!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Age 114

By enjoying herself until age 87, Mae West [17 August 1893 – 22 November 1980] outlived many of her contemporaries, for example, writer Dorothy Parker [ 22 August 1893 – 7 June 1967].
• • It's extraordinary to learn that a Japanese woman Yone Minagawa, who was born on 4 January 1893 — — seven months before Mae West — — has just died at age 114. Briefly considered to be the world's oldest person, Yone Minagawa was as alert and lively as ever until the moment she got into bed for her eternal rest, according to her caretaker. Mrs. Minagawa, who enjoyed good food and a bit of alcohol, died Monday [13 August 2007] at a nursing home in Japan's southwestern Fukuoka prefecture. "She was sprightly until a day before," the caretaker told AFP. "When I found her, she looked as if she was sleeping peacefully."
• • Though she achieved a fleeting bit of fame by living so long, this Japanese "celebrity" did not enjoy a lot of pampering. Minagawa was widowed at an early age. She raised her five children by selling flowers and vegetables in a coal mining town.
• • Minagawa — — born the same year as Mao Zedong and Mae West — — counted her healthy appetite and getting a good night's sleep as the key to her longevity. . . .
• • Next in line for the title of "the world's oldest person" is an American woman, according to the International Committee on Supercentenarians, a US-based group which documents longevity records.
• • Edna Parker, who lives in the midwestern state of Indiana, is also 114, having been born on 20 April 1893 — — which was four months before Mae West's August 17th birthdate. ...
• • Supposedly, Japanese women are the world's oldest humans, with a life expectancy of 85.81 years; experts attribute this to a healthy diet and a high standard of medical care. More than 28,000 Japanese are 100 years or older, up from a mere 1,000 at the start of the 1980s.
• • Following Minagawa, the oldest person in Japan is Shitsu Nakano, 113, who also lives in a nursing home in Fukuoka prefecture. Now Mrs. Nakano ranks fourth among the world's supercentenarians. Southern Japan, with its more balmy climate, is particularly renowned for longevity. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Source: AFP
• • Byline: Harumi Ozawa
• • Published on: 14 August 2007
• • Sashay to the "wild WEST" for a lively time with Mae West on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's MAE WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate.
• • On August 17th the tour begins on Broadway and West 50th Street [NE corner] at 7:00 PM. As participants visit over a dozen WESTside locations significant to Mae West, they will enjoy rare antique photographs that show how the building looked when the actress rehearsed, performed, socialized, or got into mischief there. These startling vintage views also show how Mae looked when she was inside.
• • [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below for the tour price and details.]
• • Only 2 more days until Mae's birthday on August 17th!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: In Chinatown

MAE WEST was fascinated by New York City's Chinatown and the Bowery. And a hundred or so years ago, other authors were also intrigued and inspired by these neighborhoods.
• • Charles H. Hoyt, for instance, who was born in Concord, New Hampshire in July — — on 26 July 1859 — — wrote the immensely popular musical comedy "A Trip to Chinatown" (featuring a score by Percy Gaunt). Fifty years later, "A Trip to Chinatown" was turned into a silent film that starred the beautiful Anna May Wong. And that's not all. In 1891, the play premiered at Broadway’s Madison Square Theater and enjoyed a run close to two years (or 657 performances). Two of the most popular numbers from the show are still known: "The Bowery" and "Reuben and Cynthia."
• • The plot of "A Trip to Chinatown" is centered on a widow who connives and contrives to bring romance to several couples and herself in a big city restaurant [think of "Hello, Dolly!].
• • Still capitalizing on the "Trip to Chinatown" craze, clever showmen reworked the play again and presented it under a new title: "A Winsome Widow." Nineteen-year-old and fresh-faced Mae West was featured in the show "A Winsome Widow" as La Petite Daffy in 1912.
• • This extravaganza was produced by Flo Ziegfeld, and this time the Eastside musical was relocated to the West Coast — — to San Francisco's Chinatown.
• • As La Petite Daffy, Mae West won acclaim for her vivacity and sauciness. "Mae West assaults the welkin vigorously," applauded the New York Dramatic Mirror from their tony offices on West 42nd Street right opposite the New York Public Library.
• • Drawing inspiration from her past and the NYC neighborhoods that she always loved, Mae West set her hit play "Diamond Lil" [1928] along the entertaining stretch of the Bowery closest to Chatham Square, the liveliest mile in New York at one time. The song "The Bowery" was featured, performed by the character Ragtime Kelly.
• • In Mae West's novelization of "Diamond Lil," she situates scenes right on Chinatown's exotic side streets, for instance, Mae's amusing chapter "A Night on Division Street."
• • Not through yet with Chinatown's local color, Mae West opens her screenplay for "Klondike Annie" in Chinatown. The Paramount Pictures film set the mood in San Francisco's Chinatown, however, not in New York.
• • To learn more about Mae West's eastside productions, come walk on the WEST side, starting right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below for details and ticket pricing.]
• • Only 17 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West immortalized Suicide Hall at 293 Bowery • • 1914 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: In Blackface

Among several intriguing studies on the American actress MAE WEST there is one written by Marybeth Hamilton, who holds a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University and teaches American History at Birkbeck College, University of London.
• • In When I'm Bad, I'm Better, Marybeth Hamilton discusses how Mae West's former lover George Raft, who was becoming a matinee idol in Hollywood during 1932, was instrumental in getting Mae a cameo role as Maudie Triplett, his blowsy ex-girlfriend in "Night After Night." Hamilton also explains how Mae was aghast at being cast in such a colorless bit part — — and then went on to revise her dialogue and win all the applause. "If nothing else," writes Hamilton, "[Mae West] showed Paramount that they were dealing with an expert scene stealer."
• • It is not surprising that Marybeth Hamilton mentions the hatcheck girl's line: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!" and Maudie Triplett's famous comeback: "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie!" [Mae borrowed the routine from her diamond-draped pal Texas Guinan.]
• • What was left unsaid in this study (and other Mae West books) about that film scene?
• • Curiously, no writer ever mentions that Paramount made the 21-year-old actress Patricia Farley play the role of the hatcheck girl in blackface.
• • Take a peek. Do you remember the sepia-skinned beauty in the scene — — or not? How come no one ever mentions the deliberately darkened skin? Why not?
• • Here's another question: which house in the West 50s inspired the plot of "Night After Night" [originally titled "Number 55"]? Which heiress was raised in that stately residence? Which Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote the short story that Hollywood adapted for the screenplay? Which gangster met his death on the marble staircase?
• • On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a guided tour will stop at that location in midtown Manhattan, that is, the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event, open to the public, is timed to salute the Brooklyn-born bombshell on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]
• • Speaking of blackface, Mae West "blacked up" for vaudeville performances and was known as an expert "coon shouter" in 1911. Other vaudevillians who "blacked up" were Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, and many more.
• • Only 23 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West in "Night After Night" • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.