Mae West: Decade-ism?

MAE WEST popped up between the sheets of The London Review of Books, whose critics seem to be so derailed by deadlines that they never heard of the Gay Nineties Broadway hit "Diamond Lil" [onstage in 1928] nor the 1890s drama set on the Bowery "She Done Him Wrong" [1933], a motion picture classic by Paramount. They have heard plenty about the Brooklyn bombshell, though.
• • Obviously, Mae West was not the only writer to revive the 1890s era on the Bowery and in Chinatown. In May 1904, for instance, married actors Mr. and Mrs. Terry McGovern starred in Theodore Kremer's stirring melodrama "The Bowery After Dark" at the People's Theatre. Kremer set his scenes in Suicide Hall, Chatham Square, Chinatown, etc.
• • During the 1890s, The New York World commissioned artist Julius C. Fireman to illustrate the interior of Suicide Hall.
• • Decade-ism • •
• • Scrutinizing a new release "When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies," reviewer Ian Jack wonders: When did ‘decade-ism’ — — history as wine gums — — start?
• • Ian Jack writes: The first decades that took a retrospective grip on the popular imagination were the 1890s and the 1920s. It may not be a coincidence that both have been characterised as fun-loving eras that chucked out staid manners and stale customs, whose social revolutionaries were libertines (Mae West) and gangsters (James Cagney).
• • Perhaps more than any other agency, it was Hollywood that defined those decades for people too young to know them. The American experience became the way the 1920s were remembered, even though only a tiny proportion of the world’s population in 1925 drank hard liquor out of teapots in speakeasies; or danced — — danced, danced, danced! — — often in a cloche hat and with a long cigarette-holder pointed riskily at their partner’s crotch.
• • It took thirty years for the 1890s to become established as ‘naughty’ or ‘gay’ — — Mae West’s "Belle of the Nineties" came out in 1934 — — but the 1920s were quicker off the mark. "The Roaring Twenties," with James Cagney as its star, branded the decade only nine years after it ended. The Wall Street Crash and the ending of Prohibition, by utterly changing American life, had quickly sealed off the 1920s as history.
• • Subsequent decades didn’t easily offer themselves for styling. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Book Review: "Downhill from Here"
• • Title being reviewed: When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies by Andy Beckett
• • BY: Ian Jack | Literary Critic
• • The London Review of Books — — http://www.lrb.co.uk/
• • Published on: 27 August 2009
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• • 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: Bowery Singer

MAE WEST was not the only one fascinated by the Bowery.
• • In 1905, Singer took over the firm Wheeler and Wilson Sewing Machines. In December they released intriguing bits of New York City history as part of the promotional material celebrating the merger.
• • Mae West's mother — — who made all of the costumes for "Baby Mae" — — perhaps even saw one of these give-aways. One featured a large photo of the Bowery and here's a portion of what it said.
• • The glamour is gone from "Thieves' Paradise," as the block on the right-hand side — — between Houston and First Streets — — towards the head of the thoroughfare used to be known. "Suicide Hall" was closed during the administration of Mayor Low, and the proprietor fled the city to escape arrest. More recently the Volks' Garten, adjoining it, has been taken over for the establishment of a Methodist mission.
• • At the head of the Bowery, just visible in the photograph, is . . . .
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1928 • •
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Mae West: Suicide Man

The role of Captain Cummings — — in Mae West's play "Diamond Lil" — — required a handsome, charismatic man with stage training. For the Broadway cast, Mae chose Curtis Cooksey, who was born on 9 December 1891 in Indiana, as her leading man.
• • Set in a Bowery dive known as Suicide Hall, "Diamond Lil" debuted at the Royale Theatre [242 West 45th Street, NYC] on 9 April 1928. It was a box office success as well as a favorite with drama critics.
• • Since 1916, the 25-year-old actor began winning leading roles on The Great White Way. Curtis Cooksey had starred in over a dozen productions before stepping into his Salvation Army uniform to make an impact on a beautiful saloon singer, a vivacious blonde bombshell who told him, "Diamonds is my career."
• • Since 1911, Curtis Cooksey had also been cast in silent films [debut: "Taming a Tyrant"] and he made a smooth transition into talkies.
• • In the film version of Mae's play, Cary Grant played Captain Cummings [a.k.a. "The Hawk"].
• • After a long career in Tinseltown, Cooksey contracted cancer. He committed suicide in Hollywood on 19 April 1962.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as "Diamond Lil" • • 1928 • •
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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 • •
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