Mae West: “White” Ticket

Who was going to triumph in the end: Hearst or MAE WEST? The tug-of-war over “Klondike Annie” in 1936 became a national phenomenon.
• • "Annie" Passed the Local Censor Board with a “White” Ticket • •
• • Motion Picture Herald wrote: "Klondike Annie," the Mae West picture which has received such a deluge of publicity throughout the nation and which passed the local censor board with a "white" ticket after a special showing was given to break a tie vote, goes into the Chicago theatre this week for a two weeks' engagement.

• • Motion Picture Herald wrote: This motion picture first was set for the Roosevelt theatre. But after the violent editorial attack launched on the picture by the William Randolph Hearst newspapers locally it was booked for the Chicago instead.  
• • Motion Picture Herald wrote: Local theatre and exchange men feel that the results of business elsewhere on the picture, especially since the Hearst outburst, will warrant the two-week engagement.
• • Motion Picture Herald wrote: Jan Garber and his orchestra, local favorites, will provide the stage attraction.
• • Source: Motion Picture Herald; published on Saturday, 21 March 1936.
• • On Wednesday, 11 March 1936 • •

• • The reviews of "Klondike Annie" starring Mae West — — as The Frisco Doll, Rose Carlton, Sister Annie Alden — — began appearing during the month of March.
• • In Manhattan, there was an exclusive engagement at the Paramount Theatre, 1501 Broadway, N.Y., for the week of 11 March 1936
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Paramount certainly hands Mae West the poor stories. No wonder the trade papers are saying she's all washed up.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Don't be dumb when it comes to men."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Screenland Magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • Despite all the talk that has been floating around about Mae West's come-back definitely being in a modern story, insiders insist that Mae can never do a present day story because she needs those voluminous gay nineties skirts to hide the build-up system that makes her appear taller. …
• • Source: Screenland Magazine; published in the issue dated for May 1941
• • 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 4,948th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • lobby card in 1936 • •
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Mae West: Scripps-Howard

“Newspapers have sunk pretty low when we reach the point that, to get circulation, we are willing to glorify a tart like MAE WEST!”
• • You are invited to read the shocking contents of a private [unpublished] letter written in 1933 when “I’m No Angel” was breaking box office records and one of the largest newspaper chains in American had to decide if Mae was worthy of the ink — — or if she was a strumpet who set a bad example. 
• • “Selling Mae West is bad for Scripps-Howard” • •
• • On Wednesday, 18 October 1933, Frederic S. Ferguson wrote this personal letter to Roy W. Howard [New York Central Building, 230 Park Avenue, NYC]:
• • — — and this is not because I am getting old.

• • I think that we as newspaper have sunk pretty low when we reach the point that, to get circulation, we are willing to glorify a tart like Mae West to the extent of selling this message to young girls — — I presume we still have some among our readers — — that it's the smart thing to be tartish, and that female virtue is no longer anything more than a target for jest.
• • I quote from your first page of promotion on Mae West's "Cleverest and snappiest lines of the year” — — "When girls are good, they're very, very good — — but when they're bad, they're better."
• • — — “The girl I play in 'I'm No Angel' is the kind who is intimate only with her friends but she hasn't an enemy in the world."
• • — — "There are girls who have climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong."
• • — — "I've heard of many a girl who could lose her reputation and never miss it.”
• • Fine for The New Yorker — — which no one buys with the idea that it is a "home paper" even in sophisticated New York.  I think it is pretty lousy stuff for papers of our sort — — with a circulation largely out where the United States are located.
• • Faithfully yours, F. S. Ferguson, Esq., NEA Service, Inc.
• • Source: “Selling Mae West is bad for Scripps-Howard” — — from Frederic S. Ferguson’s letter to Roy W. Howard.
• • Note: Roy W. Howard (1883—1964) was an American newspaperman with a long association with E. W. Scripps Company. He was president of E. W. Scripps Company and the United Press, and chairman of Scripps Howard Newspapers.
• • On Friday, 28 January 1938 • •
• • "Radio Officials, 'No Gentlemen,' Let Her Down, Says Mae West" was a page 3 article in The Washington Post. It was published on Friday, 28 January 1938.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • With shock-proof punches but with haymakers nevertheless, Mae West uncorks a flashy, melodramatic entertainment of the 1890s in "Belle of the Nineties," trippingly gay and gaudy for the most part but lingering in spots.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “Jail life is not so bad after all. It may be the making of me." 
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Motion Picture Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • New Orleans Stays Calm • •
• • New Orleans, July 31 — Mae West's latest, "The Gay Nineties," has been booked into the Saenger for Aug. 3, and the city is quite calm about it.
• • About three weeks ago, when it was proposed to call the feature "Belle of New Orleans," all the women's clubs and other civic groups got all "het up," claiming aspersions were being cast on the city. …
• • Source: The Motion Picture Daily; published on Wednesday, 1 August 1934
• • 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 15th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,300 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,397th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • portion of a letter from 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Danced Naked in Front

Babe “would not have known what a moral was if it could be made to dance naked in front of her,” wrote MAE WEST of her 18-year-old heroine in her novel Babe Gordon. As a publicity stunt, the publisher ran a contest asking readers to give this controversial bestseller a fresh title. Effie Mattison of New York won and the book was renamed with her suggestion: The Constant Sinner. Set in Harlem and first published on 5 November 1930, this work of fiction was reprinted as a paperback by Virago Press in 1995 [212 pages].
• • "A prizefighter's tart" who enjoys black men as well as Caucasians, Babe, the luscious blonde teenage protagonist, would now be 81 years old. The digits for 18 have been reversed.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • From Babe Gordon by Mae West [NY: The Macaulay Company, 5 November 1930] • •
• • • • "Well, it was a woman. A beautiful woman. She was seated at a table in a corner of the room with a big negro — — actually enjoying him, fascinated by him."
• • • • "Do you mean that stunning blonde woman in an ermine wrap?" asked Jack Rathburne. "I did notice her, but I didn't see the negro."
• • • • "Well, he came in later," explained Wayne Baldwin. "Come to think of it, you were at the opposite side of the table. Your back was to them. How in the name of all that's decent, Jack, could a woman like that, obviously a person of refinement, allow a black to make love to her?"
• • • • Jack crushed out his cigarette in a green-glass tray.
• • • • "A matter of taste, Wayne. In this case, a very depraved taste."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Mae West on the Menu • •
• • Order the Mae West at Sticky Lips barbecue place and you will be served a tender 6-ounce chicken breast and your choice of pulled pork or beef brisket. This selection is $11.95 currently.
• • WHERE: Sticky Lips Pit BBQ: 625 Culver Road, Rochester, NY.
• • Tell them you heard about their menu on the Mae West Blog.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1930 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West: "The Drag" in Iowa

Here's another opportunity to see "The Drag" by MAE WEST — — or to be cast in the production.
• • In Iowa Dreamwell's Artistic Director decided to present a season with a theme of "Inciting Theatre."
• • Their season opens with Ibsen's “An Enemy of the People," a play from 1882. Dreamwell is using a new translation and has cast women in several male roles to modernize it.
• • Then in late June, Dreamwell Theatre will present a play written by 1930s screen legend and sex symbol Mae West.
• • Rachael Lindhart, secretary and active member of the volunteer company, does not expect insurgence, rioting, padlocks, nor police raids in Iowa City even though she is aware that "The Drag" (which was doing its out-of-town tryouts back in January 1927) opened to an “avalanche of condemnation,” as one of Mae's biographers phrased it. Rachael Lindhart says Mae West’s “The Drag” was one of the first plays to portray gay men in a sympathetic light. Before “The Drag,” homosexual characters were used to add a more comedic element.
• • Subjects that were deemed unlawful or offensive to good citizens are considerably less so these days, however, Rachael Lindhart insists that the theater’s history of sparking debate is essential to the development of today’s dramas. By presenting a bill of old controversies, Dreamwell pays tribute to those brave playwrights who paved the way for modern vanguards of the stage.
• • “We have a history of somebody’s gotta be first,” Rachael Lindhart says. “There are a lot of things that we need to talk about from the stage that aren’t easy. I hope that this season will make people think that they should perhaps see a play before they condemn it.”
• • Auditions for "The Drag" will be held in Iowa during April and May in 2009. To audition, contact Brian Tanner: brian@dreamwell.com.
• • Dreamwell Theatre’s 2009 Season includes these four: “An Enemy of the People” [written by Henrik Ibsen]; “The Drag” [written by Mae West and directed by Chuck Dufano] on June 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th, 2009; “Master Harold and the Boys” [written by Athol Fugard]; “Playboy of the Western World” [written by J.M. Synge].
• • All performances take place at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 10 S. Gilbert Street, Iowa City. Tickets are $12 with discounts available for seniors and students.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes surrounding "The Drag" and "Sex." Scenes in Act I dramatize Mae's interactions with her drag queen cast, the police raid on 9 February 1927, and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 trial • •
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Mae West.