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On Sunday, 2 May 1982, the MAE WEST bio-pic received a carefully considered review by John J. O'Connor in The New York Times. This is Part 2.
• • TV View: "Ann Jillian Delivers a Fresh Portrait of Mae West" • •
• • John J. O'Connor wrote: In the process, the woman behind the public image emerges as a trailblazing feminist and a brave denouncer of censorship. Her detractors, however, are offered a measure of comfort in the depiction of her private love life as a mess. The wicked, presumably, will still be punished.
• • Going back to around 1900, the film spans nearly five decades in a rather awkward fashion. Miss West, played by Ann Jillian, is first seen in 1927 as the New York police are raiding a performance of ''Sex,'' a Broadway play she had written as a vehicle for herself. ''Mae, I'm afraid you'll have to come with me,'' says one of the arresting officers. ''What's there to be afraid of, honey?'' purrs Mae, showing a sudden spark of flirtatiousness. As she prepares for the subsequent trial, Mae looks in a mirror and the scene returns to her childhood. Seven-year-old Mae watches her crude father bully her long-suffering mother, who is determined that her daughter have a stage career. The impudent tot makes her vaudeville debut giving explicit directions about how the spotlight should be kept on her at all times.
• • "Mama warns that it's a man's world" • •
• • Papa is not especially enthusiastic about Mae's theatrical aspirations, and when, several years later, he discovers her necking with a young man on the family sofa, he explodes in anger. But Mama, played with saintly reserve by Piper Laurie, insists, explaining that Mae is ''different.'' In private, Mama warns that it's a man's world. Mae says, ''I hate it, Mama, . . .
• • This was Part 2. Tomorrow you can read Part 3.
• • Source: TV Review by John J. O'Connor for The N.Y. Times; published on Sunday, 2 May 1982.
• • On Tuesday, 4 May 1886 • •
• • On Tuesday, 4 May 1886 the black composer Shelton Brooks was born. Mae and Beverly performed his dance novelty "Walking the Dog" when they toured with their act "Mae West and Sister." In her 1928 Bowery melodrama "Diamond Lil," Mae performed his jaunty song "Where Has My Easy Rider Gone?" and this jaunty toe-tapping number would be reprised in "She Done Him Wrong" [filmed in 1932].
• • On Saturday, 4 May 1935 • •
• • A Los Angeles Times columnist noted on Saturday, 4 May 1935, that the news about Mae West's secret marriage to Frank Wallace had "chased Hitler, the NRA, and the quintuplets off the front page of every newspaper in America for two weeks."
• • On Sunday, 4 May 1969 • •
• • Reporter Whitney Bolton wrote an article, a first person remembrance: "Critic Impressed by Mae West Role of Siren at Seance." Bolton had attended one of Mae's backstage seances and his piece was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in its weekend edition on Sunday, 4 May 1969.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Paramount is saying that the sentence, "Come up 'n' see me some- time" — is driving the whole world mad.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "They don't have any shame! You'll never catch me in pants. I take that fashion as a personal insult!"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A fan magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • "News and Gossip of the Studios" • •
• • Young John Cabot Lodge, the blueblood Boston lawyer who gave up his career to become a movie actor when the studios spied his Gable-ish good looks during a visit to Hollywood, may not play opposite Mae West, after all.
• • Still, the studio is reluctant to abandon "Honky Tonk" with the two of them in the cast. The contrast between their backgrounds would make such good publicity stuff, they feel. . . .
• • Source: Motion Picture; issue dated for February 1933
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •
• • Thank
you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these
past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we
reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,400 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3434th
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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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1933 • •
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MAE WEST was always doing battle with the censors. Once the Brooklyn bombshell was under contract to Paramount Pictures, Joseph Breen, "the Hitler of Hollywood," took a hatchet to all of Mae's scripts. Since Joe Breen — — who died at age 75 during the month of December (on 5 December 1965) — — held the power, some folks might believe he wrote the Production Code. He did not.
• • Gregory D. Black outlines the history of The Hays Code thoroughly in his book, The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies, 1940 — 1975.
• • During the 1920s, celebrity scandals threatened to rock Hollywood. Celebrities were dying in freak sex accidents, lurid private lifestyles were being revealed in the media, and extramarital affairs among screen stars spiced up the tabloids. These shockers, as well as a declining morality portrayed in motion pictures, shook the movie-goer's faith and threatened government censorship in cinema. This new film industry, fearful of alienating ticket-buyers, felt it must boost its image from within — — and created the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) in 1922.
• • The MPAA appointed William Hays, a stout Presbyterian politician, to be the front man for the organization and to ward off government censorship bills while creating a code calling for self-regulation by creators of films. The code Hays created prohibited nudity and profanity as well as other elements. However, the code allowed for each director’s interpretation, therefore, morality in film improved only a little.
• • The Catholic Church furnished a solution. The Church felt that if the Catholic hierarchy supported a moral code, its influence would be strong enough to eliminate the need for political censorship. Because of the enormous and centralized nature of the Roman Catholic Church, the industry would be forced to conform to their standards.
• • Martin Quigley, owner of the trade journals Motion Picture Daily and Motion Picture Herald, together with Father Daniel Lord, S.J., teamed to write a document presenting the Catholic position on the new medium.
• • A portion of the code follows:
• • • • Reasons Supporting Preamble of Code • • • •
• • • • Correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation. Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living conditions and moral ideas of a race.[…]
• • • • They [motion pictures] reproduce the morality of the men who use the pictures as a medium for the expression of their ideas and ideals. They affect the moral standards of those who through the screen take in these ideas and ideals. […]
• • • • Reasons Supporting the General Principles • • • •
• • • • No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it… This is done:
• • • • When evil is made to appear attractive or alluring and good is made to appear unattractive.
• • • • When the sympathy of the audience is thrown to the side of crime wrong-doing, evil, sin. The same thing is true of a film that would throw sympathy against goodness, honor, innocence, purity or honesty. […]
• • • • …throughout, the audience feels sure that evil is wrong and good is right. […]
• • • • Crimes against the Law • • • •
• • • • Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. […]
• • • • Sex • • • •
• • • • Impure love must not be presented as attractive or beautiful. […]
• • • • In general, it must not be detailed in methods and manner.
• • • • Costume • • • •
• • • • The effect of nudity or semi-nudity upon the normal man or woman and much more upon the young and immature person, has been honestly recognized by all lawmakers and moralists. […]
• • • • Nudity can never be permitted as being necessary for the plot. Semi-nudity must not result in indecent exposure. […]
• • • • Dances • • • •
• • • • …dances which suggest or represent sexual actions, whether performed solo or with two or more, dances intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience, dances with movement of the breasts, excessive body movements while the feet are stationary, violate decency and are wrong.
• • • • Religion • • • •
• • • • The reason why ministers of religion may not be comic characters or villains is simply because the attitude taken toward them may easily become the attitude taken toward religion in general. […]
• • Martin J. Quigley and Daniel Lord presented their code to Hays, who felt it was just what he had been looking for. Despite the many restrictions put on their art, the industry accepted the “Hays Code” with little resistance.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
