Mae West: “No Angels” Trio

MAE WEST was the genesis of the Berlin Film Festival’s 27-movie tribute to Mae West, Rosalind Russell, and Carole Lombard. Let’s hear more from the German coordinators.
• • Berlin’s Mae West, Rosalind Russell and Carole Lombard Retro Delivers Sparkling Pics for Unsparkling Times • •
• • Berlin: Jessica Kiang wrote: The “No Angels” Film Retrospective, which co-ordinator Annika Haupts says had been conceived as “mood-lightening” counter-programming during Germany’s first corona lockdown, comprises comedies that were themselves developed during America’s Great Depression. ...

• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Mae West was the genesis of the program, says curator Rainer Rother. Carole Lombard quickly followed, as West’s “opposite extreme,” with Russell chosen as a “bridge” between them. But what comes through is the actresses’ individuality and the delightful contrast between — respectively — the brassy, classy and sassy modes of pre-war femininity they represent.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Even in a sample group of three, however, hands on hips, smirk on lips, Mae West stands apart.
• • Mae West was a matronly sex symbol persona no one dared attempt thereafter • •

• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Basically her own weather system since she gate-crashed Hollywood aged 39 with a matronly sex symbol persona no one dared attempt thereafter, she is repped here by her first nine features.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Most of them, admittedly, bleed into one another with Mae West a showgirl/ circus performer/ movie star/ nightclub singer about whom men talk in tumescent terms and who purrs her dialogue (usually penned by West) so heavily that any double meanings get squished down to single entendres.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: But there are standouts: “She Done Him Wrong” and “I’m No Angel” are fun for spotting her catchphrases as they debut and also for a game, if not wholly assured, the British actor Cary Grant at an early stage in his self-creation.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Best of all, there’s “My Little Chickadee,” a terrific early example of crossover IP as the Mae West and WC Fields Cinematic Universes vie for supremacy (the stars co-wrote the screenplay), with verbose and very funny results. ...
• • Source: Variety; published on Thursday, 10 February 2022
• • On Sunday, 22 April 1928 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • On Sunday, 22 April 1928, The New York Times was purring about Mae West. On the theatre page was an announcement that "Diamond Lil" was the most prosperous of all the recent stage productions. Broadway backers paid attention, noticing that Mae had given the Royale Theatre its first hit — — a non-musical, no less.
• • The New York Times wrote: Seldom, if ever, does an actress spring suddenly into the New York arena panoplied in the outward accouterments of stardom as did the singing comedienne Mae West in "Sex" two years ago come next Thursday …
• • On Tuesday, 22 April 2008 • •
• • It was on Tuesday, 22 April 2008, that the DVD "Mae West — The Glamour Collection" was released for sale.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Shortest quest for inspiration: Mae West's announcement that she would go to bed and there write a new screen play for herself. The title: "Not Bad."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "It's what they see in my eyes that counts."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The N.Y. Times mentioned Mae West.
• • "Just a Maid in Movies, But Not Forgotten" • •
• • Manohla Dargis writes: These were the other women in women’s pictures: the black cooks, nurses and maids, maids, maids who, breaking out of the margins if only a little, joked with Mae West, fretted about Claudette Colbert, and they stood by white woman after white woman, scolding them and appealing to their better selves if every so often, like Chico, also playing their laughing co-conspirator. Sometimes these women did not have names, and they didn’t necessarily make it into the credits. Still, they were there. ...
• • Source: The New York Times; posted on Thursday, 21 April 2011
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,978th 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 1934 • •
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Mae West: Broad Minded

In her “Vox Pop” column for PopMatters, Meta Wagner (who voices observations on pop culture — — particularly as it intersects with our lives) devoted her April 29th column to MAE WEST along with that nearly extinct species: "broads."
• • Interestingly, Meta Wagner shares the same initials with the Brooklyn bombshell: M.W. That's worthy of attention right there.
• • Meta Wagner asks: What ever happened to broads? You know, those larger-than-life women who swore like sailors, threw back shots of whiskey, sounded like they’d swallowed whole packs of cigarettes, and aged without apology.
• • Meta Wagner notes: Mae West was a pioneer broad back in the 1930s, tossing out double entendres in a saucy tone that left no mistake as to her meaning. Some of the most famous and infamous women over the next several decades followed her lead, surprising and delighting men and women alike with their in-your-face attitude, among them the actress Roslyn Russell (Auntie Mame), the Broadway “belter” Ethel Merman, the controversial playwright Lillian Hellman, the feminist leader Bella Abzug (the one with the ubiquitous hat), and the former governor of Texas Ann Richards, and her pal the columnist Molly Ivins. Sadly, they are no longer with us. But their legacy remains.
• • Is that a gun in your pocket . . . ?
• • Meta Wagner muses: It’s amazing to me how the quips Mae West famously uttered still serve as quotable quotes today: “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.” “A man in the house is worth two in the street.” Now, that’s a broad! . . .
• • Currently back on Broadway is "South Pacific," the World War II-themed musical that immortalized a catchy number "There Is Nothing Like a Dame." Mae West was a swell dame (not to mention a triple A-all-right broad).
• • To find out Meta Wagner's definition of "broad," read her column [posted on 29 April 2008] "Vox Pop: Broads Don’t Blog, Especially in Haiku" — — http://www.popmatters.com
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • December 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Strong Women

MAE WEST made a brief appearance in an article about strong women even though the focus was on Bette Davis who was, Johann Hari wrote, "self-confident enough to demand to look bad on camera."
• • Johann Hari's column observed: Precisely a century ago, in a suburb of Boston, a child called Bette Davis erupted into the world. She was not only a woman; she was an electrical storm with skin. With nothing but raw talent and raw determination, she became the most famous woman in the world, taking on the Hollywood studio system, the FBI and the Catholic Church.
• • For a while, this not-especially-beautiful woman in her forties ruled Hollywood, playing tough women who chose their careers and their own desires over sacrificing for men or children or a picket fence. She never pretended to be dumb, or a little girl. She didn't do soft, or simpering. She had a voice like sour cream, and eyes like a raven. Humphrey Bogart said about her: "Unless you're very big she can knock you down." And she was one of the great events of her time.
• • She was popular with the mostly-female movie audience - women like my grandmother, who gave me my first glimpse of Bette Davis movies from her lap - in part because her characters will not accept 'their place.' They want more, more, more. It was not easy to be a strong woman then; she said, "When a man gives his opinion he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion she's a bitch." But she fought, and women responded to it. She was only the most shimmering example of a generation of tough Hollywood women whose characters saw the world as a place not to cower from or simper at, but to conquer: MAE WEST (who made her first film at 40), Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Barbra Stanwyck, Rosalind Russell, Marlene Dietrich, and more. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • "Where have all the strong women gone?"
• • Byline: Johann Hari
• • Published in: The London Independent — — www.independent.co.uk/
• • Published on: 27 March 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West: Travis Banton

Waco, Texas natives figured in the life of MAE WEST. The first was Texas Guinan. The second was Travis Banton [18 August 1894 — 2 February 1958], the chief designer at Paramount Pictures. Banton is considered one of Tinseltown's key wardrobe wizards during the 1920s-1930s.
• • When he was young, Travis Banton's family moved to New York City, where he was schooled at Columbia University and at the Art Students League where he studied art and fashion design. An early apprenticeship with a blue-blooded dressmaker earned him fame. When Mary Pickford selected his gown for her wedding to Douglas Fairbanks, his reputation was established.
• • During the 1920s he created costumes for many leading actresses such as Bebe Daniels, Pola Negri, and Clara Bow. During the 1930s he forged the style of Mae West — — in I'm No Angel, 1933 and Belle of the Nineties, 1934. He also dressed Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Kay Francis, Greta Garbo, and Carole Lombard. In 1927, he became Designer in Chief at Paramount and set the hallmark of elegant, sensuous clothes, often cut on the bias. For 12 years his assistant was Edith Head, teaching her everything she knew. Meanwhile, the practical Edith covered up for him, filling in when he disappeared.
• • In the film Belle of the Nineties [1934], Travis Banton went to town on Mae. The film opens with a vaudevillian styled production full of scantily-clad dancers. Set in the 1890s, the famous opening features Ruby Carter [Mae West] appearing in front of various backgrounds such as a rose, a butterfly, a spider, and finally as the Statue of Liberty.
• • During his illustrious film career, Travis Banton designed costumes for 200 or more productions. His last challenge was dressing Rosalind Russell for "Auntie Mame." He died at the age of 63 — — on 2 February 1958.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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