Mae West: Gay Sympathy

At the end of last year, British scholar Dr. Will Visconti was writing about MAE WEST. This is Part 3.
• • Public indecency and the making of Mae West • •
• • for tighter restrictions on material • •
• • Dr. Will Visconti wrote: Similarly, “The Drag” portrayed gay men and drag queens sympathetically, and treated the female impersonator Paradise, as one of the heroines of “Pleasure Man.” At the same time, however, groups like the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice were agitating for tighter restrictions on material shown in performances that they deemed to be indecent or immoral.
• • the story of same-sex desire between women • •
• • Dr. Will Visconti wrote: Édouard Bourdet’s melodrama “The Captive,” which tells the story of same-sex desire between women while never actually using the word ‘lesbian,’ was also raided at the same time as "The Drag." This formed part of the backdrop against which Mae West’s play’s publicity was set, and something on which she capitalised, when her later play “The Drag” was dubbed ‘a male Captive’ by the press.
• • Eva Tanguay — — an ‘eccentric comedienne’ • • …
• • His article will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Talking Humanities, S.A.S., University of London; published on Thursday, 7 December 2017.
• • On Friday, 18 October 1918 • •

• • In Billboard's review of "Sometime" printed on 18 October 1918, they reserved several sentences filled with praise for Mae West.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West goes back to her favorite period, the nineties of last century, for her latest film, "Every Day's a Holiday," a Paramount picture.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Sex is an emotion in motion."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A travel site mentioned Mae West.
• • Dearly Departed Museum • •
• • A macabre tour of Hollywood’s deadly history. • •
• • If you’d like to see Mae West’s false teeth, Karen Carpenter’s sink, or the parts of the bed that Rock Hudson died in, the hotel room door where drag icon Divine died, and a tile from the Ambassador Hotel where Robert F. Kennedy was shot, then this morbid museum is a must-visit.  …
• • Source: Atlas Obscura; published on (undated)
• • 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 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,000 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4065th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • onstage in 1918 • •
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Mae West: An Illegal Body

Many great minds have contemplated MAE WEST — — but great minds don’t think alike. Academic and author Chase Dimock has written an interesting article on Mae as a playwright. This is Part 28, the finale.
• • Why Don’t You Come Up Sometime and Queer Me? • •
• • Reclaiming Mae West as Author and Sexual Philosopher • •
• • the naturalization of criminality • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote: The problem is ultimately then the naturalization of criminality. If homosexuality is a crime and homosexuality is presumed to be in born, then the homosexual is an innate criminal inhabiting an illegal body.
• • Chase Dimock wrote: This is the essence of Foucault’s juridico-medical complex.   
• • Chase Dimock wrote: Although “The Drag” never made it to the stage on Broadway due to the preemptive force of the law that caught word of the extravagant drag ball performance that Mae West planned to recreate, had it been performed, the local law enforcement would have found its greatest threat to not be the spectacle of fairies and inverts on parade, but instead its nuanced critique of the legal prohibition of sodomy and the use and abuse of medical discourse to justify a prejudiced status quo. 
• • Post Script: For an excellent analysis of Mae West’s iconography as a movie star, read University of Illinois professor Ramona Curry’s book “Too Much of a Good Thing.”  
• • [Note: Chase Dimock’s article first appeared on “The Qouch” on 14 November 2012.]
• • His article has now concluded with this post. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
• • Source: As It Ought to Be
• • Chase Dimock, who teaches Literature and Composition at College of the Canyons, is Managing Editor of As It Ought to Be.
• • On Tuesday, 10 October 1933 in Variety • •

• • Many articles appeared in the trade magazine Variety testifying to the run-away success "I'm No Angel" had become, thanks to Mae West.  "'Angel' Forces Open a Second House for Day-and-Date Run" was printed in Variety on Tuesday, 10 October 1933.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Rick Du Brow interviewed Mae West and inquired if she could cook. Mae replied, "Honey, nobody ever asked me." 
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "No, I can't talk about salary. It's getting me down. Now, you take interviews.  I gotta be careful."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Variety mentioned Mae West.
• • "Is Show Dirt Box-Office Pay Dirt?" • •
• • “Stage plays are currently about the decadent world” • •
• • Variety wrote:  The remaining two are quite skeptical for box office longevity. One is a musical ["Chee Chee"] with a theme not dissimilar to the Mae West play "The Pleasure Man," and the other by an egocentric roustabout freak litterateur [i.e., "Jarnegan" by Jim Tully, a novel about the decadent world of silent film era Hollywood, which inspired a stage play in 1928], who conceived the happily commercial idea of capitalizing himself at the expense of a powerful industry — — the cinema. …
• • Source: Variety; published on Wednesday, 10 October 1928
• • 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 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,000 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4061st 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: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml   
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC  Mae West