Mae West: Kinseying

It's probable that MAE WEST counted on a fair share of press coverage for the springtime opening of her 1926 show "Sex" on Broadway.  And it did. Walter Winchell called it "a vulgar affair ... amateurish in script and cast."
• • A native New Yorker, Walter Winchell [7 April 1897 — 20 February 1972] was a newspaper as well as a radio commentator.
• • While Winchell was at The New York Evening Graphic (whose staff included reporter Ed Sullivan), he invented the gossip column.
• • But as Mae's popularity grew, Winchell's harsh tone grew less strident and more gentle. In this column written 22 years later, Winchell can no longer deny her some praise.
• • "Walter Winchell Agrees Mae West Can Still Get Big Audience" • •
• • The First Nights: . . . Some adventurous reviewers were lured across the Hudson [to New Jersey] to ogle Mae West recapturing the bad old days via the 20-year-old "Diamond Lil." Mae's kinseying was relished by the aisle boys. They agreed she can still put up a better front than Jane Russell but "what seemed ris-gay 2 decades ago is now no more sinful than an ice cream soda."
• • Reviewer Brooks Atkinson's mashnote: "Miss West puts on an amazing performance."

• • Source:  Winchell's syndicated column; published on Monday, 6 December 1948.
• • On Saturday, 22 March 1924 in The Lone Star State • •
• • An application for a marriage license was filed in Texas on Saturday, 22 March 1924 by R. A. "Bud" Burmeister, who intended to wed Mae West.
• • Then on tour through the southwest, the spunky vaudevillian was noticed by the reporters who reviewed for the San Antonio Light, where an article on her appeared in the paper the next day on Sunday, 23 March 1924.
• • On Saturday, 22 March 1930 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • On Saturday, 22 March 1930, the headline in The N.Y. Times read like this: MAE WEST COUNSEL ASSAILES CAPT. COY; Police Officer Admits Relying More on Sergeant's Notes Than Own in Testimony. SAYS TWO MADE 'SYNOPSIS' Too Dark in Theatre to Write Clearly, He Asserts — — Reveals He Acted 28 Years Ago.
• • Captain James J. Coy of Inspector Mulrooney's staff, who appeared Thursday in General Sessions, told Judge Amadeo Bertini and a jury why he had raided Mae West's play "Pleasure Man" in October 1928.
• • Broadcast on Sunday, 22 March 1964 • •
• • "Mae West Meets Mister Ed" is the twenty-first episode of the fourth season of "Mister Ed," and the ninety-ninth episode overall. Director was Arthur Lubin. Airdate was on Sunday, 22 March 1964.
• • Guest Stars: Mae West (Herself), Nick Stewart (Charles), Mae West (Herself), Jacques Shelton (1st Groom), Roger Torrey (2nd Groom).
• • On Sunday, 22 March 2009 • •
• • The paperback version of "She Always Knew How: Mae West — A Personal Biography" by Charlotte Chandler was released a year after the hardcover edition was out — — and the earlier edition was published on 22 March 2010. The soft cover version (317 pages) was printed by Applause.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street, Los Angeles.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   “If you can't go straight, you've got to go around.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A journal mentioned Mae West.
• • We've never read David Premack's 3-page article: "Intentionality: How to tell Mae West from a crocodile" but please let us know if you have. (And, of course, we know you adored it!)
• • Source: Article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 11, Issue 3; published in the edition dated for September 1988
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3403rd 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 • • news in 1948 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC  Mae West

Mae West: Rudolph G. Kopp

Original music was written specially for "I'm No Angel" [1933] starring MAE WEST.
• • One of several uncredited collaborators was Rudolph G. Kopp, who worked on more than five dozen projects in Hollywood from 1931 — 1955.
• • Born in Vienna on 22 March 1887, Rudolph G. Kopp composed the score for many cinema stand-outs. His work amplified big screen documentaries, family entertainment, dramas, comedies, mysteries, and more.
• • Rudolph G. Kopp died at age 84 in Woodland Hills, California during the month of February — — on 20 February 1972.
• • Walter Winchell died 20 February 1972 • •
• • Mae West received copious amounts of snarky press coverage for her 1926 show "Sex." For instance, Walter Winchell called it "a vulgar affair ... amateurish in script and cast."
• • Four years later, in 1930, when Texas Guinan was covering the "Pleasure Man" trial, she invited Mae to perform at a fundraiser she was co-hosting at the Imperial Theatre [249 West 45th Street], a spacious playhouse with 1443 seats. Jobless herself, Mae agreed to sing a few numbers to raise money at the "Give a Job Benefit" taking place on 12 April 1930.
• • Rudy Vallee and his orchestra backed Mae as she sang "Frankie and Johnny" and a few other favorites on the wide proscenium stage of the Imperial. Walter Winchell was one of several co-hosts in a group of luminaries such as Texas Guinan, Mark Hellinger, Jack Donahue, and the event's organizer Heywood Broun.
• • A native New Yorker, Walter Winchell [7 April 1897 — 20 February 1972] was a newspaper as well as a prominent radio commentator.
• • While Winchell was at The New York Evening Graphic (whose staff included reporter Ed Sullivan), he invented the gossip column.
• • While still in his teens, natural show-off Winchell was drawn to performing in vaudeville. His career as a journalist began with his fondness for posting gossipy notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards.
• • During the Prohibition Era, he became a journalist. Walter Winchell, who was a regular at Barney Gallant's Greenwich Village speakeasies and Texas Guinan's midtown clubs, credited his buddies with opening the insider Broadway scene and cafe society to him when he was starting out as a columnist. The gatekeeper of gossip, Texas Guinan claimed that scandals did not officially break unless they broke at her establishments.
• • By the 1930s, he was an intimate friend of ganster Owney Madden, owner of the Cotton Club and a backer of Texas Guinan's nightspots and Mae West's Broadway productions. backers.
• • Always ambitious, Winchell disregarded the media's taboo against exposing the private lives of public figures, permanently altering the shape of journalism and celebrity. He was a top gossip reporter, whose newspaper column and radio show could make or break a celebrity. He became influential for decades in shaping public opinion, notoriously aiding and ruining the careers of many entertainers.
• • In his heyday, Winchell's gossip column ran in more than 2,000 daily papers, written with the same frantic pace as his radio show. Fifty-five million radio listeners tuned in to hear his distinctive rapid-fire delivery of his column during the 1940s — 1950s.
• • In the 1950s, Winchell veered away from his leftist sympathies and supported the right-wing Senator Joseph McCarthy. As Joe McCarthy's Red Scare tactics became more extreme and unbelievable, Winchell lost credibility along with McCarthy. He had a weekly radio broadcast which was simulcast on ABC television until he left in a dispute with ABC executives in 1955. An attempt to revive his commentary program five years later proved to be a disaster and Winchell was canceled after half a dozen broadcasts.
• • He did, however, receive $25,000 an episode to narrate "The Untouchables" on the ABC-TV network for five seasons beginning in 1959.
• • His readership gradually dropped. When his home paper, the New York Daily Mirror, for which he worked for 34 years, closed in 1963, he faded from the public eye. He still holds a fascination and several actors have portrayed him on the big screen and on TV.
• • In 1972, Walter Winchell died of prostate cancer at the age of 74 in the month of February — — on 20 February 1972.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as Tira in 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Walter Winchell

MAE WEST probably counted on the fact that the opening of her 1926 show "Sex" would attract press coverage. And it did. Walter Winchell called it "a vulgar affair ... amateurish in script and cast."
• • A native New Yorker, Walter Winchell [7 April 1897 — 20 February 1972] was a newspaper as well as a radio commentator.
• • While Winchell was at The New York Evening Graphic (whose staff included reporter Ed Sullivan), he invented the gossip column.
• • While still in his teens, natural show-off Winchell was drawn to performing in vaudeville. His career as a journalist began with his fondness for posting gossipy notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards.
• • During the Prohibition Era, he became a journalist. Walter Winchell, who was a regular at Barney Gallant's Greenwich Village speakeasies and Texas Guinan's midtown clubs, credited his buddies with opening the insider Broadway scene and cafe society to him when he was starting out as a columnist. The gatekeeper of gossip, Texas Guinan claimed that scandals did not officially break unless they broke at her establishments.
• • By the 1930s, he was an intimate friend of ganster Owney Madden, owner of the Cotton Club and a backer of Texas Guinan's nightspots and Mae West's Broadway productions. backers.
• • Always ambitious, Winchell disregarded the media's taboo against exposing the private lives of public figures, permanently altering the shape of journalism and celebrity. He was a top gossip reporter, whose newspaper column and radio show could make or break a celebrity. He became influential for decades in shaping public opinion, notoriously aiding and ruining the careers of many entertainers.
• • In his heyday, Winchell's gossip column ran in more than 2,000 daily papers, written with the same frantic pace as his radio show. Fifty-five million radio listeners tuned in to hear his distinctive rapid-fire delivery of his column during the 1940s — 1950s.
• • In the 1950s, Winchell veered away from his leftist sympathies and supported the right-wing Senator Joseph McCarthy. As Joe McCarthy's Red Scare tactics became more extreme and unbelievable, Winchell lost credibility along with McCarthy. He had a weekly radio broadcast which was simulcast on ABC television until he left in a dispute with ABC executives in 1955. An attempt to revive his commentary program five years later proved to be a disaster and Winchell was canceled after half a dozen broadcasts.
• • He did, however, receive $25,000 an episode to narrate "The Untouchables" on the ABC-TV network for five seasons beginning in 1959.
• • His readership gradually dropped. When his home paper, the New York Daily Mirror, for which he worked for 34 years, closed in 1963, he faded from the public eye. He still holds a fascination and several actors have portrayed him on the big screen and on TV.
• • In 1972, Walter Winchell died of prostate cancer at the age of 74.
• • 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.

Mae West: Sex in August

Hot: August in New York City — — especially over on the westside when MAE WEST was starring in "Sex" as the unapologetic prostitute Margy LaMont. By the summer of 1926, the show had been booked in Daly's West 63rd Street Theatre for a couple of months but the boxoffice was still sizzling. Onstage Mae was shimmying. All this in the days before air-conditioning, too.
• • As with most writers or actors, Mae West did not want to be ignored.
• • Even before "Sex" officially opened in Manhattan during April 1926, it attracted strong reactions. Mostly, it received a black eye in print.
• • It was "feeble and disjointed," The New York Times critic said.
• • It was a "disgrace," The New Yorker announced.
• • Walter Winchell called it "a vulgar affair ... amateurish in script and cast."
• • The Daily Mirror, a William Randolph Hearst paper, was less mellow. This was, it said, "a monstrosity plucked from the garbage can, destined for the sewer."
• • Theatre critics had a different perspective on scarlet women back in '26.
• • Mae West's play looked at the social mores of the time, she claimed, but John Q. Public was not so sure. The first attempt to close "Sex" failed; the police department convened a play jury but the officials barely missed getting the required three-fourths vote of a citizens' panel.
• • Moreover, celebrities and certain authors [for example, Robert Benchley and Zora Neale Hurston] had favorable things to say about "Sex." Some newspapers carried second reviews, reversing their first opinion.
• • After making a profit on the show, West was fined $500 and sentenced to 10 days in jail. "This will be the making of me," she predicted.
• • That prediction, however, would take a while. Five years later, and nearing her 40th birthday, Mae West finally made her presence felt in the motion picture world. She often wrote her own lines, oozing sexual references. She died in 1980 at 87, having outlived the era she mocked.
• • David Thompson wrote of Mae West: "The real conclusion of her work is that sex is an idea, an obsession for the human being, and one of the most reliable distractions from the equally potent idea that life is tragic."
• • Stage-manage your weekend and make some time for Mae West 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.]
• • Only 4 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Daly's Theatre (briefly renamed Coburn) in 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: April 1930

During April 1930, when MAE WEST was enmeshed by the infamous "Pleasure Man" trial, she had no choice but to remain in Manhattan for the duration of these court proceedings.
• • At the time, Mae was living with her brother and sister in furnished rooms on West 57th Street. The Depression had forced many people out of work. In April 1930, the census takers enumerated both Mae and Beverly as unemployed actresses. Their brother John West, a real estate broker at the time, was supporting the household. It was a sad time for all of them, following the death of their mother Matilda West. Mae profoundly mourned her closest ally.
• • One day Texas Guinan, who was covering the trial, invited Mae to perform at a fundraiser she was co-hosting at the Imperial Theatre [249 West 45th Street]. This playhouse had 1443 seats. Guinan had tapped entertainers such as Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting, Charles Butterworth, Lily Damita, De Wolf Hopper, Paul Ash, and Harry Richman.
• • Jobless herself, Mae agreed to sing a few numbers to raise money at the "Give a Job Benefit" taking place on 12 April 1930.
• • Rudy Vallee and his orchestra backed Mae as she sang "Frankie and Johnny" and a few other favorites on the wide proscenium stage of the Imperial. Other co-hosts were Walter Winchell, Mark Hellinger, Jack Donahue, and the event's organizer Heywood Broun.
• • By the end of the "Pleasure Man" trial, Mae West was bankrupt.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West venue • • circa 1924 • •
NYC
Mae West.