Mae West: Why a Hiatus?

The MAE WEST Blog, started in July 2004 when there was very little content online about the Brooklyn bombshell (except for vintage film reviews and her best known witticisms), has been an abiding presence for eighteen and a half years on Blogger, now owned by Google.
• • Censorship by Google • •

• • You might think that a long-standing Mae West Blog that attracts over 100 international visitors a day would get some respect from Big Tech. Sorry but you’d be wrong.
• • As two examples of disrespect from Google, our ads have been deactivated and “sensitive content” warnings have been slapped on some posts.
• • Why, Google? Why? • •
• • There is no “objectionable” content here, in my opinion.
• • If Mae West were here, she’d probably say, “Censors again!”
• • Mae West Blog Goes on Hiatus • •
• • Therefore, the blog will go on hiatus and the focus will shift to allowing more time to complete a fascinating, heavily illustrated book: “Mae West’s New York, 1895-1970.”
• • Pictorial Biography in Progress • •
• • Filled with rare pictures of a lost New York, the fascinating city Mae West grew up in, the sights that inspired her writing, the vaudeville houses and theatres that welcomed her performances, this will be the first bio-pictorial written by a native New Yorker. 

• • Most Westian biographers have (curiously) hailed from England or from California. Unfortunately, books written by out-of-towners have had noticeable gaps in Mae’s life story — — and have lacked the perspective of a native New Yorker, someone intimately acquainted with Big Apple history and the socio-political forces unique to Mae’s birthplace.
• • A new domain? • •
• • Due to Google’s censorship, the blog may also be moved to its own domain.
• • If you wish to know more about “Mae West’s New York, 1895-1970,” feel free to leave a comment with your contact info. Personal comments will not be published; only I will see them.
• • Thank you for visiting today.
• • Please follow this blog to keep up with announcements.
• • Occasional updates on the forthcoming Mae West book will be posted — — so come up and see us sometime.
• • On Wednesday, 9 January 1889 in Brooklyn, NY • •
• • On this date, John West took his best girlfriend Tillie Decker to Brooklyn's Borough Hall to apply for a marriage license. Mae's mother's name appears as "Tillie Decker" on the form, not as "Matilda."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • Q. Did Mae West really make all those wisecracks, spontaneously, over the telephone to the thirteen editors in the nation-wide interview, or did she have rehearsals?
• • A. She did not have rehearsals. Mae's wit, both off the screen and on, is, apparently, as endless and as spectacular as her wardrobe.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "That's why I want you to see her story — — because her-story is the real lowdown."
• • Mae West said: "Sure, they are completely right when they say I make a parody of sex. That's my stock in trade. Any gal can get really sexy but it takes a smart dame to make guys and women both laugh at it."
• • Mae West said: "Every script presented to me, no matter how imaginative a story, was built around a man and a woman. Mae West pictures, as written by me, were built around a woman and men — — and the more the merrier."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Australian newspapers mentioned the high salary of Mae West.
• • "Big Incomes in the USA" • •
• • Among motion picture people, Mae West led the list with 339,000 dollars (£67,800).
• • Others were: Marlene Dietrich, 145,000 dollars (£29,000); W. C. Fields, 155,000 dollars (£31,000); Miriam Hopkins, 71,000 dollars (£14,200); Gary Cooper, 139,000 dollars (£27,000); Charles Chaplin, 143,000 dollars (£28,600); Claudette Colbert, 85,000 dollars (£17,000).  . . .
• • Source: The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.); published on Thursday, 9 January 1936
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,150 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,151st 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  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • colorized in 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Obscene Play Trial

Did MAE WEST spend nearly as much time in a courtroom as she did on a sound stage? Sometimes it seems that way, doesn't it? Let's turn back the Westian clock.
• • Mae West Freed • •
• • Jury Disagrees; State Not to Ask Retrial of 22 in Obscene Play Case • •
• • New York, A.P. ― A disagreement having ended the first trial, the district attorney's office indicated today that it would not ask a retrial of Mae West and her co-defendants on charges of presenting an indecent play.
• • A Jury, which had watched policemen reenact scenes from the play "Pleasure Man," written by Miss West, deliberated 10 hours, then reported to Judge Amedeo A. Bertini on Thursday night that it could not agree.

• • Court attaches said the Jury deadlocked with seven for conviction, five for acquittal. Miss West and 22 others, including the managers and actors in the company, were continued under bail.
• • Charges against 34 • •
• • Asst. District Attorney James G. Wallace, criticized the failure to reach a verdict but indicated he would recommend to District Attorney Crain that the State drop the case.
• • In dismissing the jury, Judge Bertini said: “The difficulties of legal administration and moral regulation of the theatre-going public, and the fact that it will never again be presented, may make it undesirable to try this case again. It may be just as well to let it go and consider that we have done our duty. “
• • The play was closed at its opening, Oct. 1, two nights after.
• • Source: Associated Press; published on Friday, 4 April 1930.
• • Note: The play had its Broadway debut on Monday, 1 October 1928. When the curtain fell, the entire cast was arrested. The play "Courting Mae West" dramatizes these true events.
• • On Thursday, 16 June 1932 • •
• • Mae West arrives on The Chief • •
• • It was on Thursday, 16 June 1932 when Mae West arrived in Pasadena, California on The Chief. She was unimpressed by the motion picture landscape she surveyed from the train station. "I'm a big girl from a big town," Mae told the Los Angeles reporters, "coming to a little town."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It is no trick at all to publicize a Will Rogers picture or one of Mae West's.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "So this is the place where a leaf falls up in some canyon and they tell you it's winter."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about summer stock in Rhode Island mentioned Mae West.
• • Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent, writes: Rhode Island is a place noted for its watery location (hence its nickname, "The Ocean State"), and proliferation of theater offerings. Combing both, Theatre By The Sea in Matunuck, a classic old barn-style theater near the ocean that when summer stock was the rage had the likes of Mae West, Marlon Brando, Art Carney, and other notables treading its boards, has opened for a season hosting four Tony Award-winning shows. ...
• • Source: Article: "Legendary RI summer theater opens for season" written by Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent, Globe Staff, Boston Globe; posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011
• • 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 16th 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 4,700 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,757th 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  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1930 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Tom Herbert

MAE WEST starred in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934] and Tom Herbert was seen as Gilbert in a (rare) credited role.
• • Born in New York City on 25 November 1888, Tom Herbert had an older brother Hugh Herbert [1884 — 1952] who set his cap for the entertainment business first.
• • Hugh Herbert was a stage actor who also enjoyed some success as a playwright and a writer of vaudeville sketches. During the 1930s, Hugh was under contract to Warner Brothers, cultivating his trademark exclamation "woo-woo," and often cast as an eccentric tycoon, ditzy millionaire, or fuzzy-brained professor.
• • With their under-eye bags, arched eyebrows, and jelly-shaking jowls, both of the Herbert brothers had the kind of face that makes an audience grin. Aside from his bushy mustache and comical expressions, however, Tom failed to set himself apart and was often relegated to minor, uncredited stints such as the comic bartender, annoying waiter, cab driver, drunk, servant, card player, elevator operator, hobo, seasick passenger, and hen-pecked motorist, and invariably used in one shot for a quick laugh.
• • Onscreen from 1931— 1946, Tom Herbert was a member of the stock company at 20th Century Fox. He took part in 77 Hollywood films and was employed up to the end of his life. He died in Los Angeles in the month of April — — on Wednesday, 3 April 1946. Tom Herbert was 57.
• • Charles Lang [27 March 1902 — 3 April 1998] • •
• • Born in Bluff, Utah on 27 March 1902, Charles Bryant Lang, Jr., A.S.C. was the American cinematographer who gave a distinct look to "She Done Him Wrong," starring Mae West.
• • Charles Lang died of pneumonia at St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica, California in the month of April — — on 3 April 1998. He was 96.
• • On Sunday, 3 April 1927 • •
• • On page 184 of his biography of Mae West, Simon Louvish wrote: "But, on 3 April, the jury had to inform Judge Bertini that they could not agree ..."
• • Gee, must have been the proof-reader's day off. April 3rd was a Sunday. The court was not in session on the weekend.
• • Portions of this trial are dramatized in the full-length play "Courting Mae West." In the case of both obscenity trials [1927 and 1930] in New York City, the outcome would possibly be known by an audience of die-hard Mae mavens: a guilty verdict and jail in 1927 and a hung jury in 1930. But the playwright was determined to stick to the facts and also surprise the audience regarding the outcome. How? Well, you'll just have to see the play to enjoy how cleverly this is managed. Ideally, a producer who likes to have a full house at his/ her productions will bring this play to a theatre once again.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond."
• • Mae West said: “"When women go wrong, men go right after them."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about Graham Greene mentioned Mae West.
• • The British author Graham Greene [2 October 1904 — 3 April 1991] was inspired by Mae West when he was creating his character Ida.
• • Peter Craven wrote: The primary virtue of the beautifully acted but ultimately unsteady new film of Brighton Rock may be as an advertisement for Greene's novel and an introduction of it to a new audience. The thing that's so hard to film — — perhaps to dramatise in any medium — — is indicated by Greene's outline of what he was after. On 9 April 1939, he wrote to his agent Nancy Pearn: "The real point ... is the contrast between the ethical mind (Ida's) and the religious (the Boy's and Rose's) in thriller terms."
• • Peter Craven wrote: In the novel Ida — — who, believe it or not, Graham Greene partly based on Mae West — — is preoccupied with a world of an eye for an eye. Murder has been committed and justice — — conceived of as the vengeance of society — — must prevail: " 'You want to do what's right, Rose?' she implored. Rose whispered again, 'You let us be.' ". .
• • Source: Article: "Greene's pastures" written by Peter Craven for The Australian; posted on 16 April 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2258th 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 • • in court, 1930 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Heart of Texas

The famous speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan backed Broadway shows including "Diamond Lil" starring MAE WEST. As New Yorkers prepare for the "Gaudy Girls on The Great White Way" walking tour on August 16th, here's a small section from the opening of ACT II of "Courting Mae West," a play based on true events during the Prohibition Era.
• • Mae West's gay play "Pleasure Man" had a $200,000 box office advance when it premiered at the Biltmore on 1 October 1928. 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" — — 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.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Previous walking tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog — — MaeWest.blogspot.com.
• • For more details, do read previous posts on this blog.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West [centerstage] portrayed by Yvonne Sayers, Texas Guinan [in white hat] played by Eileen Glenn • • 1927 trial scene in Courting Mae West • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: West Ninth

Announcing a new eatery on West Ninth Street, Page Six referred to MAE WEST.
• • Former Ninth Street resident and gossip guru Richard Johnson wrote this as his appetizer.
• • Johnson mentioned that: "WEST Ninth Street will soon have a new restaurant. Larry Poston, of the Waverly Inn and Pastis, has teamed up with Johnny Swet, of Balthazar and Freeman's, to take over the space that was once Marylou's, and the Penguin before that. They plan to go back to the building's original 1870 name, Hotel Griffou, an inn run by French-born Marie Griffou who served Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe [!!!], and the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. When Mae West was forced to appear at the nearby Jefferson Market Courthouse to answer obscenity charges, her first stop after the trial was the bar at the Hotel Griffou. The reincarnation will open in late June [New York Post — — 8 May 2009]."
• • If there was a bar at the Hotel Griffou in 1927, when Mae West was first arrested, it certainly was kept hush-hush — — during the Prohibition Era. Certainly by 1909, the "Griffou" was gone; the name had been changed to Hotel Europa by the new owner.
• • Madame Marie Griffou • •
• • The late Madame Griffou was a powerhouse who first established her special brand of Spanish and French hospitality on the corner of West Eighth Street and MacDougal Street, when this short comely stretch was still known as St. Clement's Place. Since the space was too small for Marie Griffou, she soon sublet it to an Italian widow, Madama Gonfarone, whose establishment took off once she teamed up with Ancleto Sermolino.
• • In the 1860s, Marie Griffou sailed to the USA with a Cuban Negro named Xavier Hernandez (and other people born into slavery whom she had purchased). These slaves became the backbone of Hotel Griffou, when Madame opened for business in 1874. Hotel Griffou stretched out between 19 — 23 West Ninth Street. At the basement level, its old-fashioned Rathskeller attracted men of letters and Oscar Wilde was a patron there in 1882 during his American tour. William Dean Howells dined there and it was respectable enough for the daughters of U.S. Presidents as well.
• • How many believe that Marie Griffou served Edgar Allan Poe [19 January 1809 — 7 October 1849] — — when the poet died several years before the Frenchwoman sailed to America?
• • How many believe that Marie Griffou served Mark Twain [1835 — 1910]? Naaaah!
• • The author of the book "Forgotten New York" apologized for his own error on page 157. In reference to Hotel Griffou, he noted, "It is doubtful Mark Twain could have been a regular at the hotel; in the 1880s he was living in Hartford, traveling in Europe, and spending his summers at Nook Farm in Elmira."
• • West 9th resident Thomas A. Janvier, fascinated by the odd Latin Americans who stayed there, featured the stopping place a few times. In one of his works, the restaurant was called "The White Pup." More notably, it was renamed "Casa Napoleon." Recrossing Washington Square and moving up Fifth Avenue, we find at 19 and 21 West Ninth Street the little Franco-Spanish South-American Hotel, which was the original of the Casa Napoleon, the modest and inviting hostelry where lived so many of Mr. Thomas Janvier's men and women . . . .
• • Thomas Janvier, who frequently bent an elbow here, dwelt at length (in his fiction) on the establishment's "attractive look," and the balcony that ran along the line of the second-story windows, in which flowers were growing in great green wooden tubs. The Louis Napoleon of Mr. Janvier's stories is Louis Napoleon Griffou. The Dunbars, Breams, Witherbys, and the rest have taken their departure, but in their place there has sprung up another coterie of newspaper men, flippantly and facetiously known as "the Griffou push."
• • Especially amused by the "Griffou Push" was William Dean Howells. The Casa Napoleon appeared briefly in his "The World of Chance." During the early 1900s, fans of his recognized Hotel Griffou thinly disguised as a little restaurant Howells sent his character Ray to during the young writer's first weeks in New York. And it was here also that the Marches of "A Hazard of New Fortunes" came to dine during the long weeks spent in futile flat-hunting. (The Howells very briefly lived at The Portsmouth on West 9th Street.)
• • There are many more fascinating stories linked to 21 West 9th that can be documented. Maybe some real-life narratives will be served up shortly as the restaurateurs try to unveil the newcomer.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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