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During the Oscar rehearsals in late March 1958, MAE WEST was caught by the candid camera of Life Magazine photographer Leonard McCombe. He was a fly on the wall that year as stars from Mae West, Rock Hudson, Russ Tamblyn, Paul Newman, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Kirk Douglas came by to rehearse for the big event.
• • Leonard McCombe [1923 — — ] • •
• • Born in 1923 on the Isle of Man, off the coast of England, Leonard McCombe was able to create provocative images naturally. His abilities led him to become a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society at age 21. Through World War II, his images preserved the struggles and triumphs of the day. In 1945, at age 22, he began working for Life Magazine. By 1948, McCombe’s role in the US was solidified as a photographer for LIFE. In an article for Getty Images printed in 2006, McCombe was described as "now reclusive."
• • Photo [below and left]: Mae West and Rock Hudson playfully snuggle while rehearsing the flirty pop standard, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," as Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences president George Seaton glances over.
• • Photo [above and centered]: Russ Tamblyn, 23-year-old Best Supporting Actor nominee for "Peyton Place," stands in a group with other actors. But to the lower right of the frame Mae West looks over the script with Rock Hudson. Notice the eyeglasses (prescription sunglasses) worn by Mae West.
• • George Seaton [17 April 1911 — 28 July 1979] was an American screenwriter, playwright, film director and producer, and theatre director. In addition to his direct involvement in making movies, George Seaton was also very active within Hollywood organizations as President of the Screenwriter's Guild, President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences (1955 — 1958), and Vice President of the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
• • On Monday, 26 March 1934 • •
• • The soundtrack to the motion picture "Belle of the Nineties" was recorded at Hollywood Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. On Monday, 26 March 1934, Mae West did the vocals for "Hesitation Blues" backed by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra.
• • On Wednesday, 26 March 1958 • •
• • Rock Hudson, age 32, and Mae West performed the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” together, in point style, at the 30th Annual Academy Awards on Wednesday, 26 March 1958.
• • The 1957 Academy Awards were presented at the RKO Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, California and broadcast on NBC-TV.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West is now working on her new contract by the terms of which she gets $100,000 a picture.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "It cheers you up. Every time you see yourself in one of those table mirrors you get the feeling you're in the money. Cute, isn't it?"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Stanford Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • "Organizers for movie festival find surprises in hooker trends" • •
• • "We go to movies when we're young and we don't realize what formula we're being fed," said Lottie Da. "Sexually motivated women were usually shown as French or German. That was Hollywood's way of dealing with it. It was hard to show the all-American girl coming across." One of the featured films is a seldom-shown Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart classic, "Marked Woman." Lottie Da praised the film for showing women in a courageous role, but said that it minces by using the term "nightclub hostess" instead of prostitute.
• • "Klondike Annie" and "Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise," two other selections, present strong women characters, Da said, but they hedge on sexual realism. She said Mae West at the end of "Klondike Annie" is forced to say she's sorry for her life of sin and Miss Garbo at the end of Susan Lenox begs Clark Gable for forgiveness. ...
• • Source: Article in The Stanford Daily; published on Tuesday, 29 March 1977
• • 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 1,430 visitors. We reached a
milestone recently when we completed 3,100 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3143rd 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in March 1958 • •
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In her review of "Klondike Annie," Elizabeth Yeaman commented, "She is the same MAE WEST of all previous pictures." Yeaman's article "Big Crowds View Star's New Picture" was published in the Hollywood Citizen News on Friday, 28 February 1936.
• • Mae West — — Eternal Character • •
• • Interestingly, halfway across the world in Australia, the same opinion was being expressed at the end of February in 1936. One newspaper in Perth, announcing that "Goin' to Town" was about to debut there, wrote this: Paramount's "Now I'm a Lady," which comes to the Grand Theatre next Friday, brings Mae West back to the screen to win new laurels as a modern belle with ultra modern ideas. The costumes worn by Miss West in this motion picture are dashing and new, the situations are as up-to-date as tomorrow's newspapers, the backgrounds might even be termed ultra-modern, but Mae West is still the same — — grand Mae West. Shrewd, ingenious, robust, and full of sly humor and observation, she proves again that she is not necessarily a girl of the "Naughty Nighties" but an eternal character.
• • All these rosy reviews may have disguised the thorns that nettled the movie star. Will Hays was still sending scorching letters to Joseph Breen about "Klondike Annie."
• • Worse yet, scrappy opportunist Frank Wallace had realized his former wife was a goldmine and got out his pickaxe. On Friday, 28 February 1936, Mae West told a reporter: "The guy's trying to cash in again! I got a new picture out and he's pulling the same stunt he pulled the last time one was released."
• • February 1934 in the Hollywood Reporter • •
• • The Hollywood Reporter ran an article: "Mae West Captures Paris Fans."
• • They wrote: Mae West has taken Paris like the revolutionists took the Bastille. "I'm No Angel" is packing them in at Gaumont-Elysee, with long lines being turned away daily.
• • The Hollywood Reporter also ran this article in February 1934: "Mae West Not So Hot In Icy Stockholm."
• • A Stockholm reviewer wrote: The Swedes can't get the slant of America and England on Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong." Censorship board had to view picture twice before making up its mind. Now, while picture is doing well, critics and patrons don't care so much either for the subject matter of the film, or for the wiggles of Mae.
• • The Hollywood Reporter ran this interesting item, too: "Prinz Quits Paramount With Indie Pic Plans." Mae West was going to be a puppet. The article explained: Leroy Prinz, who has been at Paramount for the past year directing musical numbers, has handed in his resignation and plans to go into independent production. Prinz plans on making a series of shorts with puppets. The puppets are to be patterned after screen characters. He has already finished the first short, with the Mae West character featured.
• • On Friday, 28 February 2003 • •
• • In London, England Dr. James Pitt-Payne (in association with Doug Grierson) did a sequence and karaoke of "Good Night Nurse" by Mae West from 1912. Music by W. Raymond Walker; lyrics by Thomas J. Gray; copyright MCMXII by Jerome H. Remick and Co., N.Y. and Boston. You can download the midi of "Good Night Nurse" from his web site. The men completed this project on Friday, 28 February 2003 at 00.21.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Sometimes a little lie will save a lot of trouble."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about the Oscars mentioned Mae West.
• • Ireland's Daily Edge wrote: As Hollywood prepares for the biggest night on its calendar, TheJournal.ie looks back over some of the bigger controversies to have struck the Academy Awards show through the years, from a racy rendition of "Baby It’s Cold Outside" in the late 1950s to Marlon Brando’s award refusal in 1973. . . . Rock Hudson and Mae West caused a stir with their ‘kingsize’ rendition of "Baby It’s Cold Outside" at the 1957 awards show . . .
• • Source: Article: "Video: 5 of the biggest Oscar night controversies" printed in The Daily Edge, Dublin, Ireland; published on Sunday, 26 February 2012
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2223nd 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1936 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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MAE WEST was so well known during the 1930s that even an unfortunate experience would lead to mega-watt attention. The media capitalized on this, naturally. Her terrifying jewel robbery became a popular episode on the radio show "Calling All Cars" — — The Mae West Jewel Robbery.
• • And the heist even made the cover of True Detective Mysteries [issue for November 1934 — — "The Mae West Extortion Plot"]. When you're a movie queen, it seems that nothing is too gruesome to be commercialized. You can believe that this robbery was the real thing, too, not some flimsy hoax dreamed up by a press agent for the news men's attention. Phew!
• • In November, Let's Remember Rock Hudson [1925 — 1985] • •
• • Under the golden gaze of Oscar, Mae West made an appearance with this discretely gay actor who was born during the eleventh month — — on 17 November 1925. In 1958, the tall, dark, and handsome heart-throb sang a memorable duet with Mae — — "Baby, It's Cold Outside" — — during an Academy Awards Show.
• • Hailing from Winnetka, Illinois, handsome Rock Hudson [17 November 1925 — 2 October 1985] was a film and television actor who was a popular leading man during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably in several romantic screen romps with his most famous co-star Doris Day.
• • Rock Hudson was voted "Star of the Year," "Favorite Leading Man," and similar titles by numerous movie magazines, and was one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time. He completed nearly 70 motion pictures and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over four decades. Hudson was also one of the first major Hollywood celebrities to die from an AIDS related illness.
• • On 17 November 1933 • •
• • It was in November — — on 17 November 1933 — — when Penrhyn Stanlaws [1877 — 1957] was interviewed about painting the face of Mae West, noted the Jackson Hole Star Tribune.
• • This portrait artist, who became famous for his paintings of beautiful women commissioned for the covers of magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, complained that Hollywood starlets were far from perfect beauties. The reporter for the Casper Tribune-Herald listed Penrhyn Stanlaws's critiques of stars such as Mae West, Katherine Hepburn, Constance Bennett, and Greta Garbo. His only criticism of Kay Francis, however, was that she had overdeveloped triceps but otherwise had "nicely balanced features."
• • On 17 November 2005 • •
• • One man looks at a pink corset and thinks of lacy lingerie covering a beauteous bustline. Another man might discover his ideal lass in glass.• • The exhibition "Decades in Glass: The 1960s" had a gala opening at the West Bridge of Museum [Corning, NY] on 17 November 2005; the show remained in place and could be viewed until 2 April 2006. 
The talented American artist Richard Marquis (born in 1945) created the Mae West Cup and it was on display. The catalogue credit for the piece read: Richard Marquis and Italy, Murano, Venini Glassworks, 1969-1970; Blown a canne glass; zippered cloth container; H: 8 cm, W: 12 cm, D: 10.5 cm. The Corning Museum of Glass.
• • Image: The delightful Mae West Cup by Richard Marquis• • Mae West Radio Trivia • •
• • The following is an account by radio script writer Arch Obler, who put together the Garden of Eden skit for "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" on short notice in 1937. He discusses Mae's nearsightedness and how she would never wear her eyeglasses in public.
• • "Now one thing the powers-that-be forgot," recalled Arch Oboler, "that in those days, unlike today, there were three things that an actress could not do. One was to have a child out of wedlock. Two, she could not swear. And three, she could not wear glasses. It was thought terrible for an actress to be seen in spectacles. Well, Miss Mae West, having all the usual good sense of all of us, did not wear her glasses during the rehearsals so she, being very nearsighted never saw my script. She bluffed her way through. It wasn’t until air time that she walked on stage waving these glasses, put them on . . . and for the first time saw the script. The result was a disaster. What she did to ‘Adam and Eve’ the Arabs had never done so miserably."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this line for the character Cleo Borden in 1935: "I'm a good woman for a bad man." [Movie dialogue from "Goin' to Town"]
• • Mae West said: "Cigarette me, Cossack!" [Movie dialogue from "Goin' to Town"]
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Several teenagers, ages 15 — 19, were competing for the Miss Tehachapi title recently and one costumed herself as Mae West.
• • Tehachapi, California Community Reporter Shirley Given writes that "the young ladies brought a sense of confidence and maturity to the stage. The girls’ first appearance on stage was that of a star or character they admired. Among those portrayed were Dorothy, from Wizard of Oz, Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, Mae West, Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn, Olivia Newton-John, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and Bette Davis." ...
• • Source: Article: "Tehachapi has new ‘royalty’" written by Shirley Given, Community Reporter for Tehachapi News; posted on Tuesday, 15 November 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2118th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
In the name of Oscar, two jolly parties took place — — and MAE WEST graced each event with her celebrity and panache. The Olympic Peninsula in Washington is a superb place filled with good-hearted individuals. 
Two galas offered those on the North Olympic Peninsula a chance to don their finery, walk the red carpet, and watch the Academy Awards on Sunday night, 7 March 2010 while raising funds for worthy local causes.
• • It was the second annual "Hollywood Nights" salute taking place at Port Angeles, for which nearly 300 merry-makers bought a ticket, tripling the overall take from last year's festivities, said Olympic Medical Center Foundation Executive Director Bruce Skinner, whose institution benefited. Attendees were gaily garbed in gowns and formal attire or as Hollywood notables such as Mae West, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and others.
• • And at the Oscars Red Carpet party held at the American Legion Hall in Port Townsend, Washington, Mae West was busy on the Reception Line greeting guests and (later on) posing with the golden statuette. The Port Townsend event raised a nice sum on behalf of the Port Townsend Film Festival, thanks to the generosity and goodwill of over 125 ticket-holders and movie buffs.
• • PHOTO: Mae West, aka Katherine Jensen, a most genial actress with the Key City Players, and Jeanette Force, executive director of the Port Townsend Film Festival, greet arriving guests at the Oscars Red Carpet party at the American Legion Hall in Port Townsend, Washington.
• • Photo by Steve Mullensky, courtesy of The Peninsula Daily News — — www.peninsuladailynews.com• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • aka Katherine Jensen • •
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Mae West.
