Mae West: Ladies I Love

MAE WEST comes to life onstage in Wales this evening thanks to a talented impressionist.
• • The popular female impersonator, cabaret artist, pantomime queen, live entertainer and Penarth, Wales resident Ceri Dupree returns to Barry's Memo with his show "The Ladies I Love!" this Friday evening, on January 20th, at 8:00 o'clock.
• • The show features memorable women from Mae West to Jordan, singer Lady Gaga to romance novelist Barbara Cartland, Shirley Temple to Shirley Bassey, and many, many more.
• • WHERE: Barry Memorial Hall Theatre in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
• • WHEN: Friday, 20 January 2012, at 8:00pm
• • Al Hirschfeld [1903 — 2003] • •
• • Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Albert Hirschfeld moved with his family to New York City where he received his art training at the Art Students League of New York.
• • Al Hirschfeld [21 June 1903 — 20 January 2003] was a caricaturist best known for his simple black and white portraits of Broadway stars, dancers, mimes, dramatists, and other celebrities of the stage and screen.
• • Hirschfeld sketched Mae West numerous times. When you've seen a lot of his work, you can tell which performers he admired or personally grooved to. In my opinion, judging by his portraits of Mae West, he didn't much care for her. What's your opinion?
• • George Burns [1896 — 1996] • •
• • Born in New York City in January, George Burns [20 January 1896 — 9 March 1996] toured in vaudeville, trodding the boards during the same years as Mae West. In 1923 the Jewish comedian partnered with Gracie Allen and they became a team.
• • Built in 1914, the Darress is an old gem of a playhouse in The Garden State. Its stage has been graced by Mae West, George Burns, and Abbot and Costello.
• • The Darress Theater is still standing: 615 Main St, Boonton, NJ 07005.
• • On Saturday, 20 January 1934 • •
• • Born on the Lower Eastside of New York in January — — on 31 January 1892 — — Eddie Cantor was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter, and one of the most popular entertainers in the USA in the early and middle 20th century.
• • On Saturday, 20 January 1934, Eddie Cantor was the M.C. during a stage show at the Paramount Theatre (Broadway and West 43rd Street). In one number, he appeared in a Mae West costume. Yes, this actually happened onstage, so try to imagine it.
• • Mae West & Sgt Pepper • •
• • Which of the people represented on the cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band along with Mae West have died?
• • One actor who died in the month of January is handsome Johnny Weissmuller, who left us on 20 January 1984. He died from pulmonary edema at the age of 79.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I freely chose the kind of life I led because I was convinced that a woman has as much right as a man to live the way she does if she does no actual harm to society."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about the Mapes Hotel in Nevada mentioned Mae West.
• • Filing his copy from Reno, AP reporter Scott Sonner wrote: Historic preservationists abandoned a last-ditch attempt at a federal court order to save the Mapes hotel on Wednesday but insisted they have other plans to block the January 30 demolition of the historic hotel-casino. ...
• • Scott Sonner explained: Built in 1947, the Mapes was the first building in the nation constructed specifically to house a hotel, casino, and live entertainment under one roof. During its heyday in the 1950s, entertainers such as Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr., and Ray Bolger performed in its top-floor, window-walled Sky Room with its spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada. ...
• • Source: Article: "Attempt to save Mapes abandoned" written by Scott Sonner for Associated Press; published in Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday, 20 January 2000
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2183rd 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/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1949 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Angus McBean

MAE WEST posed for Angus McBean and those portraits will be displayed next month in the United Kingdom.
• • Writing for London's paper The Sunday Times five years ago, Joanna Pitman remarked: One talismanic figure throughout his career was Mae West, who first visited McBean’s London studio in 1948 after a performance of her show Diamond Lil. It is lovely to see the model that McBean made of West, a bizarre stick-like creature, its arms and legs operated by long sticks like Malaysian puppets. West was amazed by the doll when she saw it and McBean was able to demonstrate that it could, like its progenitor, pat its hair and put its hand on its swinging hip. ...
• • Word comes that the National Museum Wales will host a series of events, exhibitions, and activities to celebrate LGBT History Month in February 2011.
• • Moreover at National Museum Cardiff, "People, Personalities and Power: Faces from Wales" is a display of Welsh portraits from the museum’s collection, assembled to celebrate LGBT History Month, that will be on view until Sunday, 8 May 2011.
• • Recently acquired pictures by Angus McBean will be displayed, including a surreal self-portrait by McBean and a pair of portraits of legendary Welsh actor and playwright Emlyn Williams. Angus McBean’s biographer and close friend, Adrian Woodhouse, will talk about McBean’s work on Friday, 11 February 2011.
• • Adrian Woodhouse will explain how McBean’s sexual orientation influenced his photography, for instance, his astonishing images of famous women and beautiful men. Woodhouse will focus particularly on McBean's notable images of screen stars like Mae West, Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shirley Bassey along with silver gelatin prints of ravishing males in their prime — — Howard Keel and Laurence Olivier and others.
• • Born in London, Angus McBean [8 June 1904 — 9 June 1990] was a Welsh photographer associated with surrealism.
• • WHERE: National Museum Cardiff, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP; Tel: (029) 2039 7951
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1948 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Poetic Salute

Dublin-born versifier John Jordan [1930-1988] waxed poetic about MAE WEST.
• • The mammary-minded academic, who lectured at University College [Dublin], was a leading light in the literary life of Ireland from the 1950s until his accidental death in Cardiff, Wales [June 1988] at age 58 years old.
• • A few months ago, Dedalus Press published a posthumous collection: Selected Poems by John Jordan. This body-obsessed salute to Mae on her 85th birthday — — referring to her breasts as "platinum alps" and "plastic dugs" — — would not have charmed the actress. Or would it?
You decide.
• • • • To Ms Mae West on Her 85th • • • •

What right have you?
Did you pat your platinum alps
When across the electric wire
The thrilling message came
That the pelvic muscles were tranquillized
The gluteal shivers forever fridged
That in fact (O lamentable extinction!)
Elvis had gone pop.

Or did you cable another Cadillac
To some lucky mother-doll of Christ’s
Or over caskets run your pensive eye,
Golden, placid, lined with peachy silk,
And have your self re-measured
For the last tango with the beautician
Who’ll set all curves in proper mould,
The plastic dugs on top?

I weep not for the ‘King’: he wasn’t my type.
(Well, give him some pink, false roses.)
But you, old-timer, had better go West
While the pickings (pan me a nugget, Beulah)
Are ripe. The blue jeans of yesteryear
Might yet reverence your mummy,
And e’en their grassed spawn be mesmerized.
• • [Vallodolid — 17 August 1977 — by John Jordan]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.