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When it premiered at the Biltmore Theatre on 1 October 1928, MAE WEST's gay play "Pleasure Man" had a $200,000 box office advance. The police raided the show, however, and shut it down the same night. Perhaps this was an easy target, since the Biltmore Theatre was on the same block as the precinct: 47th Street, west of Broadway.
• • The infamous raid at the Biltmore on 1 October 1928 is dramatized via a backstage visit to Mae's dressing room at the Royale Theatre, as the actress prepares to go onstage as the diamond-draped Bowery queen and consort of mobster Gus Jordan.• • "Courting Mae West" is seeking a co-producer and backers for a for-profit production.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • "Courting Mae West" — — excerpt from ACT II, Scene 1 • •
• • • MAE WEST
That you, Jim?
• • • TEXAS GUINAN (TEXAS, age 44, enters MAE’s room clad in furs and diamonds)
The “butter and egg man” sent me, angel-pie.
• • • MAE WEST
The speakeasy hostess film-star herself! Still shooting in Flatbush? How’s it rolling, Texas?
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
It’s top-hat heavy. There’s a comical danse macabre with a District Attorney and a Judge.
• • • MAE WEST
Legal beagles! Don’t spoil my mood. Backers shouldn’t come backstage. It’s unlucky.
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
Pat from Variety visited the set of Queen of the Night Clubs. I steered her to your show tonight.
• • • MAE WEST
Oy! Variety’s always given me a black eye in print. They get my knickers in a knot.
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
This chick is a FAN. Pat admires the up-from-nothing Fellatio Alger characters in your plays.
• • • MAE WEST
My stomach’s full of “opening night” butterflies. Got enough congrats to wallpaper with.
(MAE shows TEXAS telegrams that arrived via Western Union)• • • TEXAS GUINAN (TEXAS examines the telegrams)
• • • MAE WEST (MAE puts on stage jewelry for her role as the star of Diamond Lil)
Bet it warms Pat’s heart — to sit with you, basking in the glow of your investment-grade jewelry.
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
We would’ve had yuks. (pause) But you’ll be busy tonight — a little grape told me as it whined.
• • • MAE WEST
The Bowery Queen here is about to go on! Diamonds is my career…. NIX the BAD NEWS!
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
You need to know! Before he left for D.C., our Mayor gave his okay for a raid — at the Biltmore.
• • • MAE WEST (MAE is outraged and jumps out of her seat)
WHAT! It’s our opening night at the Biltmore! Tex, who told you there’ll be a raid tonight?
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
Walter Winchell doesn’t call me the gatekeeper of gossip for nothing.
• • • MAE WEST
Pleasure Man has a $200,000 advance. Who wants to sink my ship on its maiden voyage?
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
It’s pressure from the Prevention of Vice cranks. They’d convict the 12 apostles, if they could.
• • • MAE WEST
Convict! Stop with the unlucky words. My mother suffered when they jailed me last year.
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
I’ve learned to see the sunny side. Prison is one place where my diamonds seem safe.
• • • MAE WEST
Sunny! My trial ate my bankbook. I wanted to buy my parents a house. Now another raid!
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
Scandal is a career move. This time play the damsel in distress on the witness stand.
• • • MAE WEST
Mae West doesn’t do PATHETIC. (pause) Tex, what can be done to trouble-shoot this?
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
Honey-child, the problem with trouble-shooting is that, invariably, trouble shoots back.
• • • MAE WEST
Aww! My butterflies just went into battle formation. Diamond Lil goes on in thirty minutes.
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
Relax. You’ll get fried on the front page and it’ll boost your box office higher than a zeppelin.
• • • MAE WEST
Our Biltmore premier was sold out. An injunction can keep the show on — maybe. (MAE exits, bad posture revealing her agony from stomach cramps)
• • • TEXAS GUINAN
Never met a chick who was hurt by a headline. Give the little girl a nice big (pause) handcuff. (TEXAS exits with great style)
• • • • • • [LIGHTS: dim lights in MAE’s dressing room, Royale Theatre]
— — Excerpt: — —
• • • © "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" by LindaAnn Loschiavo
• • • This play is protected under U.S. copyright law.
• • • NO permission is being given to duplicate this text anywhere else. Thank you.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYCMae West.
MAE WEST's controversial play "The Drag" will be onstage not far from the cornfields of the Midwest this weekend. Don't miss it.
• • Deanna Howard's feature in The Iowa City Press-Citizen gives some background. 
• • Deanna Howard writes: The second play of Dreamwell Theatre's season of "inciting theatre" is none other than Mae West's play, "The Drag." Organizers chose "The Drag" to coincide with local Gay Pride festivities.
• • "It's a chance for today's LGBT population to see how far we've come in the way of the social mindset, as how familiar some of the struggles are to our own today," said director Chuck Dufano.
• • "Things might get a little bizarre ... which is all in keeping with any good gay pride festival."
• • Dreamwell presents "The Drag" at 7:30 p.m. this Friday and Saturday and June 26—27, 2009 at the Universalist Unitarian Society. ...
• • Mae West wrote the play in the mid-1920s.
• • "For its time, it was a daring script," Dufano said. "She allowed gay men to speak in their own voice."
• • It's an interesting play because while it was cutting-edge then, by today's standards it's rather backwards, Dufano said.
• • "The Drag" centers on Rolly Kingsbury, a judge's son, who is set to inherit the family's ironworks business.
• • Kingsbury's marriage crumbles when the secret of a past affair with a man comes to light, as well as an affiliation with the local drag community.
• • Iowa City resident Gary Tyrrell plays one of the drag queens, Clem, in the production.
• • Growing up, Tyrrell was often encouraged to suppress his feminine side, to be ashamed of it.
• • Being in "The Drag" has allowed Tyrrell to come to grips with his childhood. He's enjoying the opportunity to show off his feminine side on stage. "It's been a lot of fun," Tyrrell said. "It's a good story. It has a lot of fun music from the Roaring 1920s."
• • WHERE: Universalist Unitarian Society — — 10 S. Gilbert Street, Iowa City, Iowa 52240.
— — Source: — —
• • Article: "Dreamwell presents 'The Drag'"
• • Play part of local Gay Pride events
• • Byline: Deanna Howard | Staffwriter
• • Published in: The Iowa City Press-Citizen — — www.press-citizen.com/
• • Published on: 18 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 28 March 1927 court trial • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST, best known for her friendships with homosexuals and drag queens, also had gay women in her circle. 
• • New Jersey native Marion Morgan [born on 4 January 1881] — — in the spotlight as a young dancer and then as a 34-year-old choreographer — — relocated to the West Coast. In 1930, she moved into the Hollywood Hills house owned by her lover, film director Dorothy Arzner. They lived openly together for over 40 years until Marion's death in 1971.
• • Morphing into a screenwriter, the very versatile and attractive Marion Morgan worked on the script for "Goin' to Town" [1935] and "Klondike Annie" [1936].
• • This career move was quite a change. Audiences and critics had known her because of the Marion Morgan Dancers, formed in 1915, which was originally comprised of six young women who had studied with Marion Morgan in California. The troupe specialized in ballets adapted from classical legends, such as 'Helen of Troy,' and usually danced in togas and bare feet.
• • In this photo, Arnold Genthe captures Marion Morgan as she glides across the stage, wearing a flowing costume and carrying a drum head.
• • Marion Morgan lived to be 90 years old. She died in the month of November — — on 10 November 1971 — — in Los Angeles, California.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's collaborator • • Marion Morgan • •
NYC
Mae West.
The Biltmore Theatre will never forget MAE WEST's gay show "Pleasure Man" and its infamous police raid eighty years ago on 1 October 1928. 
• • But in a few years people might no longer remember the Biltmore because on 4 September 2008 this playhouse, which has seen its ups and downs, will be renamed The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre at 7:30 PM.
• • Born and raised in New York City, Samuel J. Friedman (1912 — 1974) was a pioneer in theatrical publicity, according to the Manhattan Theatre Club. "Legendary for his stunts, personality, and press agentry, Mr. Friedman began his career in 1937 at the Shubert Organization on a Cole Porter musical You Never Know, starring Clifton Webb, Libby Holman, and Lupe Velez.
• • In
the early 1950s he opened National Press Agents with partner Bill Doll.
• • He was a lifetime member and officer of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.
• • Along the way he worked with Mae West, promoting her 1950 revival of "Diamond Lil."
• • Friedman also worked with such legendary performers as Gypsy Rose Lee (Star and Garter, 1942), Montgomery Clift (The Searching Wing, 1944), Billy Rose (Diamond Horseshoe, 1946) Josephine Baker (Paris Sings Again, 1947), Bette Davis (Two's Company, 1952), Lotte Lenya (The Threepenny Opera, 1954), Jerry Orbach (The Threepenny Opera, 1955), Shirley Booth (Miss Isobel, 1957), Peter Ustinov (Romanoff and Juliet, 1957), Jackie Gleason (Take Me Along, 1959), Roddy McDowall (Compulsion, 1959), Jon Voight (That Summer, That Fall, 1967), and Tammy Grimes (The Only Game in Town, 1968) — — among his other clients.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1 October 1928 • • NYC
Mae West.
The play "Courting Mae West" opens in one of the drag cabarets in the Village that MAE WEST used to visit. In Act I, Scene 1, Mae waves to a cigarette girl in drag known as Rosebud. Mae explains to her date, "I just cast Rosebud over there in 'The Drag'. . . ." 
• • In 1923, Arthur C. Budd was 21 years old and residing at 25 West 52nd Street. Known as “Rosebud,” Arthur C. Budd worked as a female impersonator in “The Lady in Ermine” at The Century Theater.
• • A New York Times article published on 5 February 1923 — — “Village Raid Nets 4 Women and 9 Men: Detectives Thought They Had Five Females, but Misjudged One Person by Clothing” — — paints a picture of the Greenwich Village circles Rosebud traveled in.
• • The police continue to pay special attention to Greenwich Village, according to The N.Y. Times. Every tearoom and cabaret in the village was visited yesterday morning by Deputy Inspector Joseph A. Howard and Captain Edward J. Dempsey of the Charles Street Station, and a party of ten detectives.
• • Detectives Joseph Massie and Dewey Hughes of the Special Service Squad were at the Black Parrot Tea Shoppe Hobo-Hemia, 46 Charles Street, to witness what they had been informed would be a “circus.” They arrested what they thought were five women and eight men. It developed later, however, that one of the “women” was a man, Harry Bernhammer, 21 years old, living at 36 Hackensack Avenue, West Hoboken, N.J. He is familiarly known in the Village as “Ruby,” according to the police. The charge against him is disorderly conduct for giving what the police termed an indecent dance.
• • The other prisoners, all of whom were bailed out at the station house, were Lucy Smith, 22 years old, of 46 Charles Street, and Patricia Rogers, 24 years old, of 16 Charles Street, alleged proprietors of the establishment, charged with violating the Mullan-Gage law; . . . Arthur C. Budd, 21 years old, of 25 West Fifty-second Street; . . . Paul Warring, 21 years old, of 75 West Seventy-second Street; . . . . The real name of the Smith woman, according to the police, is Vera Black, and the real name of the Rogers woman is Nan Paddock.
• • Arthur C. Budd, according to the police, is known as “Rosebud,” and claimed when arrested that he is a female impersonator in “The Lady in Ermine” at The Century Theater.
• • Paul Warring, the police say, is pianist at the Black Parrot and was formerly employed at a Broadway cabaret. . . . Reilly is accused of doing “a suggestive dance.”
• • The detectives allege that before the raid early yesterday morning they bought eight drinks of whiskey at $1 a drink.
• • The “circus” did not actually take place, the detectives said, for just before the time for it to begin Patricia Rogers stepped out on the floor and announced: “There are two policemen here and I am afraid to put on the circus."
• • The joyful soiree at the Black Parrot Tea Shoppe Hobo-Hemia [46 Charles Street, New York, NY 10014] ended rather abruptly with a paddy wagon conveying the arrested individuals to Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue on 5 February 1923.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Jefferson Market Police Court • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST defined camp as "the kinda comedy where they imitate me." In "Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna" [Duke University Press, 1996] Pamela Robertson saw things differently.
• • In her book review, Harmony H. Wu writes: Pamela Robertson has set out a difficult task for herself in GUILTY PLEASURES: FEMINIST CAMP FROM MAE WEST TO MADONNA. Never mind that “traditional” notions of camp are contentious and hard to pin down, Robertson wants to define a “feminist camp” sensibility, one that has relationships to but is distinct from more familiar conceptions of gay camp. She argues that while women have historically been active participants in camp, discourse AROUND camp has increasingly posited an exclusively gay male agent of camp, distancing women from the site of camp production. Robertson seeks to re-center women in camp, drawing on popular culture texts and gay constructions of camp to argue for a specifically feminist camp sensibility and practice.
• • Harmony H. Wu explains: In a brief genealogy of the term, Robertson finds that “camp” can be located as far back as 1909. By 1945, the term was understood to connote gay or lesbian . . .
• • Harmony H. Wu focuses on the MAE WEST section: The chapter on Mae West most successfully illustrates that feminist camp both resides within and extends beyond the sphere of gay males. Noting that Mae West was/is frequently referred to as doing “female drag,” Robertson notes that West actually modeled her performance on contemporary female impersonators, which would have been recognized by her audience. Furthermore, the gay male played a significant role in West's act and functioned as a crucial element of her proto-feminist camp sensibility. From stage plays to Hollywood movies, “West did not simply copy gay style but linked certain aspects of gay culture to aspects of a female sensibility” (33). While, as Robertson points out, West's acts were in collusion with the inversion theory of gay men, on the other hand, West clearly believed that women and gay men were aligned because of their shared oppression by straight men. In her hyperbolic performances of femininity, Robertson suggests that West rewrites the gay male drag performance, extracting the masculine characteristics and “articulate[s] a specifically feminine form of aggressivity… She paradoxically reappropriates — and hyperbolizes — the image of the woman from male female impersonators so that the object of her joke is not the woman but the idea that an essential feminine identity exists prior to the image” (34). It is within this reinscription of a gay male camp activity (female drag) that Robertson locates West's feminist camp. Furthermore, she suggests that female VIEWERS have access to the critical stance of West's feminist camp — not only through watching the narratives but also in the female spectators' practice of West imitation, a practice alluded to by contemporary fan magazines and reviews, giving women “imaginary access to [West's] autonomy, transgression, and humor” (51). . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: Book Review of "Guilty Pleasure: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna"
• • Written by: Ms. Harmony H. Wu
• • Publication: International Gay & Lesbian Review, Los Angeles, CA — — www.gaybookreviews.info
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
NYC
Mae West.
For the record, MAE WEST began making films in 1932 — — not the 1920s. 
• • Director Todd Stephens credits the screen queen with being his muse and guidepost. A recent article in the Sydney Star Observer, written by John Burfitt, offers Stephens's comments on his idol.
• • This is an excerpt from an interview by Australian columnist John Burfitt:
• • While filming Another Gay Movie, director Todd Stephens believed the project had an unexpected guardian angel watching over it.
• • For a film depicting a group of young gay men’s desperate efforts to lose their virginity, Stephens believed it is appropriate that guardian angel was the long-dead screen siren, Mae West — — the woman who introduced sex to the movies in the 1920s [sic], and scandalised Hollywood as a result.
• • Todd Stephens is a Mae West fan, and even has some of her old furniture in his apartment. But while he was filming Another Gay Movie, he discovered an even closer connection with West.
• • “She was one of my big idols as I was growing up, and a big influence on me,” Stephens says from his New York home.
• • “When I was living in Hollywood while making this film, I discovered I was living right next door to where Mae lived for 50 years, and that was a total coincidence. I liked that as this is a very sex-positive movie, and certainly Mae was into that.
• • “She never apologised for exploring sexuality on screen, and neither do I with this film. So I felt I had her spirit watching over me the entire time I was making this film.”
• • . . . Another Gay Movie, which played at the recent Mardi Gras Film Festival, will be released on DVD 18 April 2007.
• • Source: Sydney Star Observer — — /www.ssonet.com.au — — Issue 860
• • Published on 29 March 2007• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • defending herself at Criminal Court for writing a gay play • • October 1928NYC
Mae West.
Mae West's "Pleasure Man" trial began on 16 March 1930.
• • The courtroom proceedings had a certain entertainment value. Cast member Chuck Connors II sang the controversial "She's the Queen of the Beaches" for Judge Amedeo Bertini and the jury. Though somber, bereaved, and wearing mourning for her late mother, Mae West had to stuff a black handkerchief in her mouth to keep from laughing at this performance.
• • Actor Alan Brooks [1888-1936] - - who played the title role in "Pleasure Man"- - swore on the witness stand that he was astonished to discover that his character had died from being castrated. The debonair 42-year-old leading man testified in smart-looking spats and a gorgeous suit.
• • Performer, director, and writer Alan Brooks was born in New York City on 25 January 1888 as Irving Hayward.
• • Alan Brooks made his Broadway debut - - on his 21st birthday - - playing a tutor in the musical "Stubborn Cinderella" (which ran from 25 January 1909 - 10 April 1909).
• • On 1 October 1928, Alan Brooks played the role of Rodney Terrill in Mae West's "Pleasure Man," which was raided during its premiere at the Biltmore Theatre. The play was completely shut down after its second performance.
• • His last Broadway show was "The Metropolitan Players" (December 1932) and, ironically, he played the Counsel's Opinion.
• • At age 48 Alan Brooks died 29 September 1936, Saranac Lake, NY.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Alan Brooks [wearing spats] during the trial • • 1930 • •
NYC
Mae West.
