Mae West: Birdie

MAE WEST was mentioned in SFGate.com — — in Amelia Glynn's column "Tails of the City" [17 October 2008].

• • Musing on the phrase "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," Glynn reminded her audience of a Mae West connection, to wit: "The sexpot American actress Mae West parodied the phrase in the 1934 movie Belle of the Nineties as, "A man in the house is worth two in the street."
• • Mae had even more quotes about men than she did about birds — — and we'll pick that up in another post.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: In NYC Oct. 17th

Come up and see MAE WEST today — — and you will be glad you did.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" — — a Staged Reading of a new version of this play — — based on true events during the Prohibition Era.
• • Address: 1501 Broadway [on Broadway at West 43rd Street], New York, NY 10036
• • Room: The Dramatists Guild, the Frederick Loewe Room, Suite 701
• • When: Friday October 17th starting at 5:45 PM — — you must show photo ID to get into the building
• • We have been given a 90-minute time slot and the reading will END at 7:30 PM.
• • The reading is free and open to the public and there are about 50 seats for producers and members of the audience.
• • Portraying various people in Mae West's life, the excellent cast of seven features the scintillating Yvonne Sayers as Mae West and includes: Gloria M. Buccino, Mary Murphy, Neal Sims, Steven Viola (who performed these roles onstage July 19 — 22, 2008), and Duvall O'Steen and Christopher Yustin.
• • The building, built by Paramount Pictures, was a popular stopping place for Mae West when she was in New York City.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Courting Mae West • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: George Hamilton

Sextette is a 1978 Crown International motion picture starring MAE WEST. The cast includes Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, and Walter Pidgeon.
• • The role of Vance Norton fell to George Hamilton [born in Memphis on 12 August 1939] — — who was 39 years old at the time. Known chiefly for being well-tanned and as impeccably groomed as a circus poodle, the actor has turned his Hollywood compost heap into an autobiography he is hoping will prove to be a page turner.
• • "Don't Mind if I Do" is his 305-page memoir (published by Touchstone) that trades on tidbits from motion pictures he was cast in, the women he dated (including Elizabeth Taylor, in the mid-1980s) along with the other Hollywood legends he knew (such as Mae West, Cary Grant, and Judy Garland).
• • I take issue with that sneaky word KNEW. How well does an actor "know" Mae West because the man had one scene with her, eh?
• • But if you are broken up because Hugh Hefner is no longer "dating" Holly Madison, then you may wish to console yourself with a box of truffles and the sugar-coated flaky leavings from Hamilton's Hollywood exhaust valve.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Christiana Delker

MAE WEST seemed to have been closer to her paternal relatives [the Irish side] than her maternal kin [the German — Alsatian side].
• • For some reason, Mae felt a need to improve upon her family tree. By the time she got to Hollywood, for instance, she was telling visitors she had traced her roots and her family was related to Alfred the Great. She even had a fancy crest drawn up.
• • Insecure about her lack of formal education perhaps, Mae also told people that she had a French tutor when she was young. If the Brooklyn bombshell could indeed speak French, then she learned it at her grandmother's knee — — because Christiana [Brimier] Delker had Alsatian French heritage.
• • Christiana was born in Germany in October 1838. When Mae referred to her, she called Mrs. Delker her "rich" grandmother. What does "rich" mean to a little Brooklyn girl? Mae was only eight years old when her grandmother died.
• • Brooklyn transplant Christiana Delker: we pay you tribute today, remembering that you passed from Mae's life on 15 October 1901 when you were 63 years old.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: 1501 Broadway

MAE WEST and Paramount Pictures — — for awhile, it was a happy marriage, and the actress's latest release would always be booked at the Paramount Theatres in her hometown: Brooklyn and Manhattan.
• • Built in 1926 — — right in the heart of Times Square — — was the 40-story Paramount Building [at 1501 Broadway], originally a home to the late, great Paramount Theater and also the eastern headquarters of the production company that was to become Paramount Pictures.
• • Like the movie giant it wanted to be, the structure commands attention, spanning an entire city block on Broadway between West 43rd and West 44th Streets. The architects were Cornelius W. Rapp and George Leslie Rapp.
• • On 19 November 1926, the eight-story Paramount Theatre had its star-dusted opening with an elaborate live show staged by John Murray Anderson, and the motion picture God Gave Me Twenty Cents starring Lya de Putti.
• • All of Mae West's motion pictures for Paramount opened with exclusive engagements promoted with great fanfare. The Brooklyn bombshell once caused a frenzy by arriving at 1501 Broadway with an escort of handsome New York City policemen on motorcycles.
• • The house could seat 3664 ticket-holders.
• • The lobby of the [now demolished] Paramount Theatre was modeled after the Paris Opera House with white marble columns, balustrades, and an opening arms grand staircase. Inside the auditorium, the drapes were red velvet and the rugs were a similar red. The theater had a grand organ as well as an orchestra pit that rose up to the stage level. The ceilings were fresco and gilt. The railings were brass, the seats plush. There were Greek statues and busts in wall niches. The rest rooms and waiting rooms were as impressive as the facilities at Radio City or the Roxy. The main lobby was decorated with an enormous crystal chandelier.
• • Over the years, many of the top stars performed there, including Sinatra and dozens of the era's luminaries.
• • A who's who of entertainers performed or headlined here from Amos and Andy, Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Ray Bolger, Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Betty Hutton, Bob Hope, George Jessel, Dorothy Lamour, Gertrude Lawrence, Bea Lillie, Ethel Merman, Mary Pickford, Ginger Rogers and Buddy Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Rudy Vallee, etc.
• • Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had many sold-out shows here.
• • Frank Sinatra was one of many who began an illustrious career at The Paramount.
• • Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, and Paul Whiteman all led their bands there.
• • After years of showing movies and shows, after 1964 the theater was gutted to make way for office and retail space.
• • Today, the Paramount Building is occupied in part by the Times Square location of the Hard Rock Cafe.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: October 1918

It was ninety years ago this October — — when 25-year-old MAE WEST was cast in a show produced by Arthur Hammerstein: "Sometime."
• • This musical, which opened at the Shubert Theatre [225 West 44th Street, NYC] on 4 October 1918, closed in June 1919, after running for 283 performances.
• • One of the most repeated jokes in "Sometime" was Ed Wynn's line: What is a man to do in wartime when he can't make both ends meet? [Answer: Make one end vegetables.] But the somber echoes of the World War were growing less oppressive by the time autumn arrived. The Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 amid national fanfare and rejoicing.
• • Earlier that year (on 24 May 1918), Variety Magazine announced that "Mae West, known in vaudeville for some seasons as a 'single,' is going into Arthur Hammerstein's forthcoming musical play 'Sometime,' which starts rehearsals in July." Variety added this peculiar [incorrect] note: "It will be her first appearance in the legitimate."
• • Mae played an enticing flapper Mayme Dean who could not land a man. One of her songs — — written by Rida Johnson Young — — was "Vampire with No One to Vamp."
• • Born on 21 December 1872 and educated in New York City, Arthur Hammerstein was raised by a show-biz-savvy family; his brother was the theatre mogul Willie Hammerstein.
• • After the try-outs in Atlantic City, Ed Wynn replaced Herbert Corthell in the role of Loney Bright, upping the humor by lisping his lines, and effeminately reminiscing about the days when he used to double up in a production by performing female roles such as little Eva. Mae West told reporters that she had learned a lot about comic timing by observing Ed Wynn.
• • But in the end it was Ed Wynn who left Arthur Hammerstein in the lurch, leaving the successful Broadway crowd-pleaser when he no longer found their business relations to his liking.
• • After a long and successful career, Arthur Hammerstein died at age 82 during the month of October — — on 12 October 1955.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Shubert Theatre • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Arthur Budd

The play "Courting Mae West" opens in one of the popular 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.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" — — a Staged Reading of a new version of this play — — based on true events during the Prohibition Era.
• • Address: 1501 Broadway [on Broadway at West 43rd Street], New York, NY 10036
• • Room: The Dramatists Guild, the Frederick Loewe Room, Suite 701
• • When: Friday October 17th starting at 5:45 PM — — you must show photo ID to get into the building
• • We have been given a 90-minute time slot and the reading will END at 7:30 PM.
• • The reading is free and open to the public and there are about 50 seats for producers and members of the audience.
• • Portraying various people in Mae West's life, the excellent cast of seven features the scintillating Yvonne Sayers as Mae West and includes: Gloria M. Buccino, Mary Murphy, Neal Sims, Steven Viola (who performed these roles onstage July 19 — 22, 2008), and Duvall O'Steen and Christopher Yustin.
• • The building, built by Paramount Pictures, was a popular stopping place for Mae West when she was in New York City.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Jefferson Market Court • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Stark, Raving

Born in Mississippi on October 11th was a drama critic who wrote about MAE WEST.
• • Stark Young [11 October 1881 — 6 January 1963] was an American teacher, playwright, novelist, painter, literary critic, and essayist.
• • In her book Mae West: An Icon in Black and White [2001], author Jill Watts discusses Stark Young's reaction to Mae West onstage.
• • According to Jill Watts, critic Stark Young viewed Diamond Lil and Mae West as a riddle: Here is a stage figure who is not one of those players, however admirable, with whom we can feel at home, knowing that they are the same sort of human beings as we are, save for a desire to imitate or to exhibit themselves, or both. You watch Miss West without this easy understanding and also without falling asleep. Whatever ideas or conceptions she may or may not have, she is alive on the stage as no one is in life, she shines, she astonishes — — shocks, if you like — — engages and puzzles you.
• • Jill Watts includes another remark about Mae West's portrayal of Diamond Lil by Stark Young: "You may watch her performance and take it any way you like," Stark Young wrote. "The theatre, you perceive is a place for your pleasure."
• • Stark Young compared the gritty realism of "Sex" [in 1926-1927] with the more nostalgic theatricality of the Suicide Hall setting of "Diamond Lil" [1928]. He writes: "Diamond Lil" is as daring in the end [as "Sex"], the same sexy morsels, embraces, and interventions of the law with rank suspenses, frank speeches, underworld, and so on. But it is more covered, continuous, and studied than the other production, and the crowd of characters, the costuming and vaudevillistic intervals, pull the whole of this later play into a more familiar style, less crudely, and sheerly singular than "Sex" appeared to be. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • "Diamond Lil" by Stark Young, drama critic [New Republic, 27 June 1928]
• • In 1959, a stroke derailled his life. Stark Young died in 1963 at age 81.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Ann Jillian

When she was 32, Ann Jillian portrayed MAE WEST in a woeful made-for-TV movie [1982] that actually got her an Emmy nod — — if not an actual award. Though it is partially the fault of the excruciating dialogue and partially the fault of the director, watching Ann Jillian mince around as Mae sends my cringe reflex into over-drive.
• • Remember the part where she is in the courtroom defending her play by sassing the judge, and wearing a foolish hat? If anyone bothers to recall, Mae West was right in style during the 1920s with bobbed hair and a tight-fitting cloche — — not some precariously balanced party hat. And Mae's line about trying to conceal her contempt [swiped from her movie "I'm No Angel"] betrays the seriousness she brought to her own defense. Deplorable. And let's not even discuss that boorishness with Roddy as "Rene Valentine." Get the barf bag, Edna.
• • Born on 29 January 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ann Jillian is now a breast cancer survivor for more than 23 years. She will be sharing her personal battle with the disease with luncheon guests at the first Northeast Hospital Foundation’s “In the Pink of Health” luncheon — — on Friday 17 October 2008.
• • WHERE: Houston Airport Marriott Hotel, 18700 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Houston, Texas
• • INFO: 281-540-7700
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Miss Rona

MAE WEST's friend Rona Barrett turned 72 years old this month. Her birthdate is 8 October 1936. Born (like Mae) in New York City, Rona Burstein was intelligent, ambitious, and starstruck enough by 13 years old to begin a fan club for a fellow landsman — — Jewish crooner Eddie Fisher.
• • During the 1950s, Rona Barrett began penning an entertainment news column which appeared in newspapers around the country. By the time she launched a broadcast career, she was becoming as famous as the Hollywoodites she covered. She became the go-to-gal for gossip, taking over the throne that once belonged to Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. Instead of Hopper’s hats, Rona's trademark was her silvery-blonde poodle bob.
• • Rona Barrett hosted her own primetime TV specials and series along with publishing three successful magazines, including Rona Barrett's Hollywood, Rona Barrett's Gossip, and one about daytime TV.
• • She played herself in the Mae West movie "Sextette."
• • She also spoke about the Brooklyn sexpot for a TV documentary — — "Mae West: An Intimate Portrait."
• • Rona Barrett liked to call herself "a pussycat — — with an iron tail."
• • Happy Birthday to Rona, now cultivating lavender [Lavandula] on her California ranch.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Marble

MAE WEST popped up in her hometown newspaper: The New York Daily News.
• • In an intriguing article about male domination in The Big Apple's public sculpture sector, columnist Lion Calandra points out the sad fact that there is not a single statue of a woman found on public property in any borough outside Manhattan.
• • Lion Calandra writes: Manhattan has seven statues and one bust depicting women: Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, Gertrude Stein, Joan of Arc, Mother Goose, Alice in Wonderland, Juliet (with her Romeo), and Harriet Tubman, which was installed last year. But three of the statues are of fictional characters — — so those don't count.
• • Lion Calandra explains further: There are representations of women around town. There's Beauty and Freedom and winged angels, too. And we cannot forget the grande dame, Lady Liberty. But she's not a real lady so that doesn't count, either. Other cities honor women. . . .
• • In this city, there is certainly no shortage of women who are worthy of their own real estate. It's time to bring on the broads.
• • It would be great to honor Elizabeth Ann Seton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Dorothy Parker or Maria Callas. There's always Mae West, Amelia Earhart, Dorothy Day, Anne Frank or Mary Ewing Outerbridge. And how about Emily Warren Roebling, Edith Wharton or the Queens-born Marie Maynard Daly and Estee Lauder? Juliette Gordon Low, Marian Anderson and Bella Abzug would make fine neighbors.
• • There are still many more pioneering women who deserve to be honored, too many to mention here. So, instead of City Council members and at least one borough president flowing money to fictitious groups and nonprofits controlled by relatives, it might be a nice time to use those slush funds to construct a statue honoring a woman. Whaddaya say, lawmakers? . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Women on pedestals? About time!"
• • Byline: Lion Calandra, Daily News Columnist
• • Published in: The New York Daily News — — www.nydailynews.com
• • Published on: Tuesday, 7 October 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Sin & Cinema

MAE WEST said: When women go wrong, men go right after them.
• • Inspired by that quote and the intriguing subject of Cinema Vixens, Charlie Caballo offered his choice of the top three vamps for the publication Celebrity Examiner.
• • Movies that put bad girls where they belong — — in the spotlight. Take a look at some of cinema's most beloved man-manipulating vixens, dutifully rewarded in pop culture with some of the greatest one-liners and scenes of all time. What are your favorites? Here are my fave characters and quotes:
• • 1. "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better" — — Mae West
• • 2. "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" — — Jessica Rabbit, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
• • 3. "I know how you feel. You don't know if you want to hit me or kiss me; I get a lot of that." — — Madonna, "Dick Tracy"
— — Source: — —
• • Article: "Best Cinema Vixens"
• • Byline: Charlie Carballo
• • Published in: Celebrity Examiner — — www.examiner.com
• • Published on: 5 October 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Free on Oct. 17th

Spend an evening with MAE WEST, the Empress of Sex, portrayed by the ever fascinatin', scintillatin' sensation Yvonne Sayers.
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" — — a Staged Reading of a new version of this play
• • Address: 1501 Broadway [on Broadway at West 43rd Street], New York, NY
• • Room: The Dramatists Guild, the Frederick Loewe Room, Suite 701
• • When: Friday October 17th starting at 5:45 PM — — you must show photo ID to get into the building
• • We have been given a 90-minute time slot and the reading will END at 7:30 PM.
• • The reading is free and open to the public and there are about 50 seats for producers and members of the audience.
• • Portraying various people in Mae West's life, the excellent cast of seven includes: Gloria M. Buccino, Mary Murphy, Neal Sims, Steven Viola (who performed these roles onstage July 19 — 22, 2008), and others.
• • The building, built by Paramount Pictures, was a popular stopping place for Mae West when she was in New York City.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Yvonne Sayers • •
NYC
Mae West.