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It's doubtful that MAE WEST would have had much to discuss with Ethel Barrymore. But she kept tabs on her career.
• • When Mae brought "Diamond Lil" to California, she was interviewed by Edgar Waite of the San Francisco Examiner. She spoke of the box-office uplift that followed her out West during the cash-crunched winter of 1929.
• • Mae West assured Waite: "Last Monday at the Curran, we took in $300 more than Ethel Barrymore on her opening night last summer. . . ."
• • The year before, critic Robert Garland compared the Brooklyn bombshell and the stately dramatic actress.
• • "You'd have thought that a favorite bootlegger had come back from Atlanta," wrote drama critic Robert Garland in the New York Evening Telegram [5 April 1928]. "Mae West makes Miss Ethel Barrymore look like the late lamented Bert Savoy."
• • Born on 15 August 1879, Ethel Barrymore died during the month of June — — on 18 June 1959. Praised for her work on the stage, Ethel was an Academy Award-winning screen actress and a member of the famous Barrymore family.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST knew she had a real hit on her hands, at last. On 4 April 1928, if you were standing outside of Leo Teller's Broadway Theatre in Brooklyn, New York [once located at Court Street and Stockton Street], you would have heard thunderous applause and cheers. 
• • "You'd have thought that a favorite bootlegger had come back from Atlanta," wrote drama critic Robert Garland in the New York Evening Telegram on 5 April 1928. "[Mae] makes Miss Ethel Barrymore look like the late lamented Bert Savoy."
• • Mae West and her producers had decided to try out her play "Diamond Lil" in the actress's hometown before bringing it to Manhattan. Apparently, the show brought down the house. It was a clean sweep: both the critics and the public adored it.
• • It's always been said that Mae selected an 1890s Bowery setting because the corsetted turn-of-the-century fashions were more flattering to her curvy figure. No one has yet given her credit for recognizing that an old-fashioned saloon setting - - showing bar-goers enjoying their beer - - would touch the right nerve during the "parched" Prohibition Era.
• • So consider it said: Mae West understood her audience and gave them onstage what they missed very much in 1928 - - freedom to bend an elbow and imbibe in public. Brilliant, Mae!• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • April 1928 • •NYC
Mae West.
