skip to main |
skip to sidebar
For a publication called The Star, Richard Ouzounian interviewed Alan Alda, who launched his career by working with MAE WEST when he was still a teenager.
• • Born in NYC on 28 January 1936, Alan Alda was asked about his first job in entertainment.
• • Alan Alda replied: "I was an apprentice in summer stock for $25 a week. Built the scenery, set it up, painted it, cleaned out the toilets, and then went on stage to play one of the leads. Near Mauk Chunk, Penn. I acted with Mae West, watched Buster Keaton and I used to stand behind the scenery and listen to Victor Jory and Alexis Smith do Private Lives."
— — excerpt — — • • Source: The Star — — www.thestar.com/
• • Interviewer: Richard Ouzounian
• • Published on: 15 September 2007
• • 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's life is a tale of two cities: New York City and Los Angeles. And the memoir she started putting together in the mid-1950s — — Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It — — is certainly her side of the story. How much is a first edition worth? Mae-mavens might prefer that the sale price be left politely unconsidered.
• • Selfridges, the high-end department store in London's West End, has a number for you Mae collectors out there. The British emporium decided that a first edition of Mae West's autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, is justiably worth £600 [or $1,300)].
• • And speaking of rare books by pneumatic blondes, it is now possible, at Selfridge's Wonder Room, to buy a copy of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (an edition written under Plath's pen name Victoria Lucas and displayed on a shelf under a bell jar).
• • Call ahead to make sure these books are still available before you head off to Oxford Street. If you misplaced your phone, and feel that a jeweled cellphone is more your image, then Selfridges has a model in stock for £53,000 [or $113,000].
• • In case your inner Zen Buddist is about to protest, consider this. Alannah Weston, Selfridges' creative director, opines that shopping is not really about acquiring material objects that will have to be dusted. Au contraire.
• • "It's about an unusual experience, a wondrous experience, not just buying luxury brands," Alannah Weston told the press. Wondrous indeed.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • artist: Kim Leone • •
NYC
Mae West.
During the 1950s, MAE WEST developed a professional relationship with two men who were born (like Mae) in the month of August — — but who didn't take tea together.
• • In 1955, while working on her new album The Fabulous Mae West, Mae West recorded a rather lame song — — "Criswell Predicts" — — about a rather lame psychic.
• • Who's this Criswell character?
• • All but forgotten, Jeron Criswell King [18 August 1907 — 4 October 1982], who was born Jeron Criswell Konig, was known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell. Criswell was Mae's personal psychic for awhile. Curiously, Criswell was most famous for his inaccurate, bizarre, and hilariously improbable predictions. One prediction was that Mae West would be president — — another forecast was that Mae West would fly to the moon with Liberace.• • "Criswell Predicts" was written — — at Mae's request — — by Bob Thompson [a native Californian who was born on 22 August 1924 in San Jose].
• • In the mid 1950s, Bob Thompson toured with Mae West and her entourage of musclemen. Impressed by Bob, Mae West demanded that he be her piano teacher.
• • After building a musical reputation playing with a big name like Mae West, Bob Thompson got his big break in 1958 with a record deal from RCA. Thompson was signed alongside Esquivel, Billy May, Nelson Riddle, and a crop of other musicians destined to be Hollywood stars.
• • 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.
High altitude — — at almost 8,500 feet in the Rockies — — did not deter MAE WEST from an invitation to perform in Central City, Colorado. 
• • The Colorado mountains are a magnet for ticket-holders and notable names, Robert Weller, Associated Press, reminded his readers.
• • According to Robert Weller, the European immigrants who came here during the rough and tumble mining days of the 19th century brought their musical traditions with them. A town's mark of civilization included having a sheriff, a courthouse, and an opera house. Theaters wouldn't do because they often also housed brothels or put on "leg shows."
• • Though opera dominated the scene, Colorado cleverly also offered a wide variety of selections to pleasure-seekers.
• • Sarah Bernhardt and Edwin Booth appeared here, wrote Robert Weller, as did John Philip Sousa and his band — — and the original Christy Minstrels. In 1937, Evalyn Walsh McLean wore the Hope Diamond on opening night of the play "A Doll's House," noted Robert Weller.
• • Opera headliners such as Beverly Sills, Paul Plishka, Jerome Hines, and dozens more have been featured on stages 40 miles away from Denver. Actors and actresses who appeared at Central City included MAE WEST, Walter Huston, Ruth Gordon, Sam Jaffe, Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, and Michael Redgrave.
• • Source: Robert Weller, Associated Press
• • Published: 13 September 2007
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1940s • •
NYC
Mae West.
When is a model motor like Mae West?
• • Rating a new motorcycle, which is being marketed to the female ridership, Chicago Tribune journalist Susan Carpenter had lots of interesting things to say about "Miss Behavin" (a new model manufactured by Big Bear Choppers).
• • • • According to Susan Carpenter — —
• • If I were in charge of the world and asked to design a bike for women, I would make one that's a little more Mae West. Instead of the sloped and pointy swing arm and widow's peak fenders, I would make the bodywork curvaceous, juicy, plump. I also would rig the handgrip into a secret lipstick hold and build a make-up compartment into the tank and turn the mirrors into glove compartments because you can't wear a purse on a bike like this without looking totally dumb. ...
• • Source: The Chicago Tribune — — www.chicagotribune.com/
• • Byline: Susan Carpenter
• • Published: 12 September 2007
• • 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.
In her 1935 release "Goin' to Town," MAE WEST's character — — newly rich Cleo Borden — — has an evening soiree and decides to impress the guests by "throwing an opera." Always envisioning herself as a seductress, Mae (hilariously costumed) performs an erotic French aria by Camille Saint-Saëns: "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix."
• • In her attempt to ensnare Samson, this is Delilah's most famous aria. In her 7-minute song, the Philistine temptress tells the long-haired Hebrew warrior, "My heart opens to your voice as the flowers open to dawn's kisses."
• • San Jose Mercury News opera critic Richard Scheinin, fondly remembering Mae's performance, was disappointed in the season-opening revival of "Samson and Delilah" at the War Memorial Opera House [in San Francisco, California]. Richard Scheinin described the production as "bland kitsch that gets ignited by the sumptuous voice of Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina, as Delilah, and goes over the top with sets stimulating our movie memories." He added: It's a wonder than an opera can so successfully merge sensuality and boredom and still get produced — — yet "S&D" manages. [Source: San Jose Mercury News on 11 September 2007.]
• • First staged 130 years ago in 1877, "Samson and Delilah" is on tap in the Bay area through 28 September 2007.
• • For a lot less, you can rent "Goin' to Town" [1935] and get a kick out of Mae goin' to town on her campy impression of Delilah.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
NYC
Mae West.
New York City, Mae West's hometown (and mine), was a cauldron of smoke-fed fear and unimaginable horror on 11 September 2001. 
• • Innocent people, gathering inside the World Trade Center for peaceful purposes and/ or work-related duties, were blasted by madmen in the sky. Lucky were those who managed to get out of the North Tower or the South Tower before these iconic skyscrapers collapsed in flames.
• • The United States was changed forever on that date and the days following.
• • Remember us in The Big Apple today, on September 11th, as New Yorkers come together to mourn the loved ones we lost.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • God Bless America • • 
• • "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
• • Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
• • Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
• • As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer."
• • God Bless America,
• • Land that I love.
• • Stand beside her, and guide her
• • Thru the night with a light from above.
• • From the mountains, to the prairies,
• • To the oceans, white with foam
• • God bless America, My home sweet home.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Words and music by Irving Berlin
© Copyright 1938, 1939 by Irving Berlin
© Copyright Renewed 1965, 1966 by Irving Berlin
© Copyright Assigned to the Trustees of the God Bless America Fund
International Copyright Secured.
• • All Rights Reserved.
• • Used by Permission • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Who knew that karaoke is the Mae West of entertainment?
• • In a recent issue of Time Magazine, entertainment reporter James Poniewozik discussed one more TV series that appeals to the idle: "American Idol."
• • On American Idol, calling a performance "bad karaoke" is the worst insult the judges can hurl, wrote Poniewozik. It is also the greatest compliment they can bestow. Idol viewers, after all, have made the caterwauling audition episodes the highest-rated — — except for the finale.
• • Jim Poniewozik added: In their eyes, karaoke is the Mae West of entertainment: when it's bad, it's better. ...
— — — excerpt — — —• • Source: Time Magazine
• • Byline: James Poniewozik [article: "No Talent Required"]
• • Published on: 30 August 2007• • 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.
Is the rapper 50 Cent really and truly the MAE WEST of hip-hop?
• • In his recent article — — "Domination desperation" — — Jim Harrington, Staff Writer, writes:
• • Curtis James Jackson III, better known to the world as 50 Cent, has made a career out of cooking up beefs. It started back in 2000, when 50 Cent, at the time still basically unknown outside of the New York underground rap scene, released the independent single "How to Rob." The track detailed how the sassy upstart would steal from such famous artists as Jay-Z, DMX and Wu-Tang Clan. Those acts didn't dig the sentiment and thus replied back to the song, which, indirectly, validated 50 as a rapper of note and greatly boosted his career.
• • From that point forward, 50 Cent, who can be considered the Mae West of hip-hop, has continued to use adversarial relationships with other rap stars to garner much publicity. That stunt is once again paying off handsomely for 50 Cent as he prepares to release a new album this week . . .
— — — excerpt — — —
• • Source: Bay Area News Group
• • Byline: Jim Harrington
• • Published on: 9 September 2007
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1930s • •
NYC
Mae West.
Beefy biceps still define the muscular upper torso of Jim Morris, who played a gymnast in the MAE WEST vehicle "Sextette" [1978]. Thirty years later he is not letting his meat loaf — — even though he's 72. 
• • Mae West also exercised and kept fit well into her seventies, prodded and monitored by her longtime lover Paul Novak, a former bodybuilder. If Mae were here to watch, she's probably tell Jim Morris, ex-Mr. America, that he's doin' real good.
• • According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Jim Morris's Mr. America win in 1973 propelled him into Tinseltown's social turbine. "I was living by the Hollywood sign, I was known in the gay community, I was invited to all the A-list parties," he said. The former food company sales rep had a modest onscreen career, and even became a bodyguard for Elton John, but never really left the place he loves best: the gymnasium.
• • L.A. Times staffwriter Carla Hall writes: Mr. America of 1973 stood in a Marina del Rey gym of 2007, exhorting a new pupil to hold a little longer on the leg extension machine despite that torturous burning sensation in the quads. Curiously, Carla Hall adds, though he entered his final body building competition at age 61 — — he won — — and plans to stay a personal trainer as long as there's rent to pay, Jim Morris is now shy about the very thing that brought him fame: showing off his physique. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Source: Los Angeles Times
• • Byline: Carla Hall
• • Published: 9 September 2007
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West posing with Jim Morris and the gang • • 1977 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Come up and see MAE in the mid-WEST in mid-September. 
• • Not far from the Windy City is the sweet suburb called Plainfield.
• • On 16 September 2007, from 3:00 — 4:00 PM, there will be an excellent tribute to MAE WEST — — by impressionist Mary Anne Burkhalter.
• • Actress Mary Anne Burkhalter, who has portrayed Miss West across the USA for nearly a decade, revives Mae's songs and material during an hour-long show. Mary Anne Burkhalter takes great pride in keeping the great comedienne's work alive in her "Tribute to Mae West." During her astounding 80-year career, Miss West said she had "been things and seen places," and Mary Anne would like to take you on a tour of a great life, and bring you face-to-face with an American legend. • • The event is open to all adults. Registration is required.
• • Where: Plainfield Library: 705 N. Illinois Street, Plainfield, Illinois
• • To register, call: 815-436-6639.
• • Tell them you read about this a-MAE-zing celebration on the Mae West Blog.• • Sources for this info: Plainfield Library and The Suburban Chicago News
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was a good sport but how would she handle this comment?
• • Getting more mean-spirited as he ages is a trash-from-the-past singer — — ex-shock-rocker ALICE COOPER [who was born Vincent Damon Furnier on 4 February 1948]. To flog his memoir about getting thrills from golf, the 60-year-old ex-alcoholic is exhaling each and every anecdote about any famous person he encountered into any old microphone or ear.
• • Getting some mileage out of MAE WEST, for instance, Cooper revealed that he turned down the opportunity to bed the late great screen star — — why — — because he wasn't sure if the former sex symbol was truly a female.
• • Suspicions have arisen that Cooper was too boozed up to get it up in the 1970s. Laying the rumors to rest, Alice Cooper — — who had a tiny featured (blink and you'll miss it) role alongside the veteran actress in the movie "Sextette" in 1978 — — reveals West was keen to romance the then 30-year-old singer and even invited him back to her trailer — — an offer the skeletal musician refused.
• • Ungallantly he says, "Did she come on to me? You bet she did. We ended one of our scenes and Mae whispered to me, 'Why don't you come on back to my trailer?' I said, 'Because you're 86-years-old and I'm not sure if you're a woman or not!'"
• • What a gentleman, eh? In his black fright wig and crudely applied eye make-up, Cooper has been mugging for the camera often this year. However, no former groupies are coming out of the woodwork to praise his (ahem) performance.
• • Contrast Cooper's harsh remembrance of his brief experience in Mae's company with Sextette co-star Timothy Dalton's recollections of the 85-year-old actress playfully flirting with him on the set. Vive le difference. Timothy Dalton is still a dreamboat, too.• • Since Mae West died in November 1980 at age 87, Cooper did not get a chance to insult her in person a second time.
• • Source for this information: http://www.contactmusic.com/
• • 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 slipped the censor's noose in 1932 when she selected a number about an "easy rider" for her first major motion picture "She Done Him Wrong" — — because the "song police" did not understand Harlem slang. If they had, they might have realized Mae was singing about a pimp.
• • Today, on September 6th, it's a good time to toast the lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it around 1913.
• • While we're on the subject, let's pass the baton to Victoria Large, who writes for Brattle Theatre Film Notes, and who discussed the strong-willed star in this article (printed awhile back): • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Tough As Diamonds: Taboos, Censorship, and Mae West • • • • By Victoria Large
• • • • Even today Mae West would be breaking all the rules. There she is in all her glory in 1933’s She Done Him Wrong: defiant, smart, curvy, and past forty, declaring herself “the finest woman ever to walk the streets” and suggestively yowling her appreciation for “A Guy What Takes His Time” (“I’m a fast moving girl that likes ‘em slow,” she sings with cheerful vulgarity).
• • I came to Mae West already knowing the persona — — having already gleaned the distinctive voice and the mannerisms, the outrageous diamond jewelry, and the immortal “Come up and see me sometime” from clips and impersonations — — but I still found her brassy presence galvanizing the first time I saw one of her films.
• • In her own time West made a splash with her risqué humor, but even now her brazen onscreen persona and off-screen chutzpah carry more weight than simply that. She’s the anti-ingénue, tough and worldly and unapologetic. She made a career of playing women who took care of themselves, and was one of very few classic era actresses to wield a great deal of control over her own image.
• • West had a part in writing the majority of films she appeared in and based the screenplay for She Done Him Wrong on her own stage play, Diamond Lil. She also selected She Done Him Wrong’s leading man herself — — a young and fairly inexperienced fellow named Cary Grant.
• • It’s a kick to see Cary Grant [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986] opposite West before his own movie star image had solidified. The promise may be there, but Grant is not yet the polished and adroit comic leading man that he would be at the end of the thirties: here he’s baby-faced and no real match for West’s dominating presence.
• • Cary Grant wasn’t yet thirty the first time he starred opposite West, and his age adds another provocative element to West’s gleefully taboo-busting, sexually frank presence. “To be sexual with younger men has been, according to Hollywood, a female sin punishable by death or dishonor,” feminist film critic Kathi Maio writes in her book Popcorn and Sexual Politics. “There have only been rare exceptions. When Mae West encouraged Cary Grant, a much younger man, to come up and see her sometime, she wasn’t interested in baking him a batch of brownies. Mae was sexy, but her blatant bawdiness was never threatening because her come hither looks were played for comedy. And besides, Mae West got to break the rules governing female comportment because Mae West was a law unto herself.”
• • Maio is mostly right here — — West really does seem to be a law unto herself as she shimmies across the screen and swaps lascivious double entendres, but what Maio neglects to acknowledge is that there were a great number of people who did find West extremely threatening, and that her persona only emerged as the result of cleverness and persistence in the face of censorship.
• • Even before she hit the big screen Mae West was ruffling feathers. She and the rest of the cast of her play Sex were arrested in 1927 for corrupting the morals of youth, and, later that year, her play The Drag, “a homosexual comedy in three acts,” created such a public outcry that no theater in New York would book it [sic].
• • West made her Hollywood debut with a supporting role in the film Night After Night and put her own distinctive stamp on the role, responding to a hatcheck girl’s cry of “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds,” with a saucy, “Goodness has nothing to do with it.”
• • She made waves again with her first starring role in She Done Him Wrong. The Hays Office, responsible for the industry’s newly-instituted Production Code, used to regulate objectionable content in motion pictures in order to avoid government censorship, had already determined that Diamond Lil was unsuitable for filming when Paramount Studios and their new leading lady Mae West began conspiring to bring the ribald play to the screen. They made their way around the censors by cleaning up much of the script, still implying much but avoiding actually saying or showing it forthright. They also set about altering the names of several characters — — Lil became Lou — — and coming up with something new for the title.
• • Even with the changes, the film was severely edited in a number of states when the film was released (West’s performance of “A Guy What Takes His Time” received the brunt of the censorship, but many of her sexually charged jokes were also jettisoned in various parts of the country).
• • Similarly, West’s next film I’m No Angel sent the Hays Office to work nipping and tucking scenes, lyrics, and dialogue. Nevertheless, there was really no diluting West. She had to do little more than swagger across the screen for one to get a sense of who she was. She became a subversive success and eventually, an icon.
• • Humor isn’t a means of diffusing the potency of West’s persona so much as one of the sharpest weapons in her arsenal. She remains an intrinsically subversive figure for many of the reasons already mentioned — — her sexuality, to be sure, but more importantly her unmistakable independence, and the satiric edge of her indelicate wit. She isn’t only playing herself and her “blatant bawdiness” for laughs, but also highlighting the ridiculousness of lustful male admirers, most notably in I’m No Angel, where she plays a lion tamer who is equally adept at wrangling men. It’s telling that when searching for a title for her thinly-veiled adaptation of Diamond Lil, West rejected the suggestion He Done Her Wrong and chose to reverse the gender of the wronged party. She wanted the woman of the title to be the one performing the action, and that, ultimately, was only fitting. West was a woman who acted — — not one who was acted upon.
• • Hollywood films displayed a marked tendency to punish and vilify independent, sexualized women for years before West’s emergence and in years hence — — from the gold diggers of the 1920s to countless noir femme fatales — — but West’s Lady Lou not only escapes any form of punishment, she gets a diamond ring, and Cary Grant. More importantly, we know that she may want Grant and his diamond, but she doesn’t need either of them. She’s older, wiser, and stronger too — — Lady Lou can make it all on her own, and so could Mae West.
• • She Done Him Wrong USA, 1933. 66 minutes. Paramount
• • Source: Brattle Theatre Film Notes — — http://brattleblog.brattlefilm.org/
• • Byline: Victoria Large
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West with co-stars • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST remembers, in September, a man she almost married. 
• • George Raft [26 September 1895 — 24 November 1980] was an American film actor most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime dramas of the 1930s — 1940s.
• • Born George Ranft in Washington Heights [in New York City zip code 10032] to Conrad Ranft (who was of German descent), he adopted a slick "tough guy" persona that he would later use in his films.
• • In 1910, little Georgie was living with his sister and parents on West 163rd Street.• • As with Mae West, George's mother was born in Germany; she emigrated to the USA in 1878. Eva Ranft taught dancing to theatre people — — and gave her son lessons. His smooth tango and dance-floor style led to performances at some of Times Square's most fashionable nightspots. He became part of the stage act of "Texas Guinan and Her Gang."
• • Mae West tried to recruit him for the role of Juarez in "Diamond Lil" but George said he "wasn't ready." In truth, his lack of schooling made him worry that he might not be able to remember all the lines and cues for a stage play. As a dancer, he didn't have to worry about memorizing a lot. • • In 1929 Raft moved to Hollywood and took small roles. His success came in Scarface [1932], the role that was originally offered to Jack LaRue, an actor who played opposite Mae West in her 1928 Broadway hit Diamond Lil. George Raft's convincing portrayal of the gangster led to speculation that he himself was a mobster - - not far from the truth.
• • When the studio was casting Raft's new feature Night after Night, the role of Maudie Triplett, a former gal pal, was to be offered to a well regarded actress and night club personality: Texas Guinan. Raft suggested Mae West for this cameo, and Mae's three little scenes set the so-so film on fire. "Mae stole everything but the cameras," admitted George Raft.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West with co-star • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Nineteen-year-old MAE WEST claimed to be "The Original Brinkley Girl." 
• • During 1912-13, when Mae was billing herself as a "Nell Brinkley Girl," she was a fresh-faced brunette teenager with a penchant for energetic routines in vaudeville. Unlike other performers who had but one act to offer the audience, Mae was always testing new approaches and buying new material. She tried to dazzle the ticket-holders with her versatility: fast tap dancing and acrobatic feats onstage combined with "character" [novelty] songs often in an ethnic idiom.
• • What's there to remember about Nell Brinkley — — born in the month of September? Plenty.
• • Seven years older than the Brooklyn bombshell, beautiful Nell Brinkley [5 September 1886 — 21 October 1944] was born in Denver, Colorado, and taught herself portraiture. In 1903, while she was still in high school, the Denver Post hired her to draw romantic cartoons. Her enchanting "Brinkley Girls" — — with their free flowing dresses and curly hair depicting a vivacious feminine beauty — — were quite unlike the passive, sedate (and sedated looking) Gibson Girl.
• • Her exposure in a Denver newspaper led to an invitation, in October 1907, to come to The Big Apple as an illustrator/ reporter for publisher William Randolph Hearst (and his editor Arthur Brisbane) at the New York Evening Journal. Now her drawings became even more popular.
• • Soon Nell Brinkley was getting assignments as a reporter to interview celebrities such as Evelyn Nesbitt-Thaw, the wife of the millionaire murderer Harry Thaw (who had killed architect Stanford White).
• • Within a few months, her artistic talent inspired a spin-off onstage. Her "Brinkley Girl" became the theme for the 1908 Ziegfeld Follies, played by Mae Murray. A young Helen Hayes also played a Brinkley Girl in the play "Jack the Giant Killer" [1909].
• • As Mae West did in her plays, Nell Brinkley widened her scope to include pen and ink depictions of working women. Brinkley used her fame to campaign for better working conditions and higher pay for women who had joined in the war effort, and who were suffering economic and social dislocation due to acting on their patriotism.
• • Unlike most of her contemporaries, she drew women of different races and cultures.
• • Nell Brinkley's illustrations influenced many artists. Brinkley's career was the model for Dale Messick's "Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter" comic strip series.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1914 • •
NYC
Mae West.
During the 1920s, MAE WEST was written about only a few times by the oracle of Broadway, namely Theatre Magazine. For their September 1928 issue, however, Theatre Magazine commissioned a full-page Diamond Lil illustration from a local whiz-kid — — Irving Hoffman.
• • Coincidentally, Mae's friend Texas Guinan appeared in the same issue. Texas was still making headlines after her star turn in "Padlocks of 1927." Ah, but the queen of the nightclubs did not generate a zippy line drawing by the high-flying Hoffman.
• • Born in 1910, and the son of a Bronx schoolteacher, Irving Hoffman grew up wearing thick glasses due to defective corneas. His pal Damon Runyon described him as "a great document of a tall, loose-jointed fellow."
• • And, oh brother, what he documented! While still in his teens, Hoffman began feeding juicy scraps of Gotham's gossip to Walter Winchell. His pen also showed so much promise with amusing cartoons and caricatures that the Morning Telegraph hired him to illustrate its "Beau Broadway" column.
• • At 22, he began reviewing plays for the Hollywood Reporter, seldom wasting words. Example: Strange Fruit — "a lemon"; Billion Dollar Baby — "inflation." When one Broadway producer complained that Irving Hoffman was physically unqualified for his job because he "can't see," Hoffman squinted agreeably and said, "Yes, but there's nothing wrong with my nose."• • Look at the wayward strap 18-year-old Hoffman immortalized on Mae's gown.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Art: • • Mae West by Irving Hoffman • • 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST's former fan club president, female impersonator Craig Russell was married for eight years to Lori [1982-1990], a warm-hearted brunette.
• • Canadian blogger Nancy Paiva writes that Lori's first love was Craig Russell — — and a fabulously juicy memoir is in the works.
• • According to Nancy Paiva: Though he never made a secret of his homosexuality, they were married in 1982. Craig was a female impersonator during the 1970s and 1980s, and Lori was his biggest fan. Craig became famous after his starring role in the Canadian feature film Outrageous! (1977). He portrayed a gay hairdresser who wanted to be drag queen — — and it was one of the first North American films with a gay theme to receive widespread distribution.
• • According to Nancy Paiva: His impersonations included Mae West, Carol Channing, Bette Davis, Barbra Streisand, Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Midler, Anita Bryant, Peggy Lee, and Judy Garland. Unlike most drag queens today, he spoke and sang with his own voice and was able to sing abroad range of octaves. As a teenager, Russell became president of MaeWest's fan club, and briefly worked and lived in Los Angeles as West'ssecretary. He eventually returned to Toronto and worked as ahairdresser while pursuing his career as a stage performer. By 1971, he was a regular performer in Toronto gay clubs and had a widespread international following.
• • According to Nancy Paiva: Lori shared Craig's life for eight years — — as his wife. She also shared his battle with AIDS. Craig died of an AIDS-related stoke on October 30, 1990. She kept diaries of their time together and has started writing a book.
• • Lori, 49, has her own battle to overcome. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Source: Faces of Toronto: Lori — — http://blogto.com/
• • Byline: Nancy Paiva
• • Posted: 1 September 2007
• • 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.
