Mae West: Inherent Talent

MAE WEST met her fans on the silver screen and between the pages of the day’s popular fan magazines, all of whom skated dizzily on the surface of facts and never did any fact-checking. This is the first section, Part 1, segment 6 of 32.
• • "The Real Mae West" • •
• • Mae West: From the Bushwick section of Brooklyn • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West's strong individuality and her firm willpower are as responsible for her success as her inherent talent — a talent which was as apparent at the age of five as the strong little personality which bossed all the children on the block, and was the terror of the brownstone house district of Brooklyn — the Bushwick Section.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West the child, as with Mae West the show-woman, never allowed anything to swerve her from her purpose.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: During her long career, which has taken her into all phases of the theater, stock, vaudeville, burlesque, musical comedy, producer of her own plays, she pressed forward.  
• • Mae West: Wanted to reach the top • •  ...   
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The New Movie Magazine; issue dated for June 1934.
• • On Friday, 24 May 1929 • •
• • It was 1929 and Broadway star Mae West was feeling fine, touring from coast to coast with "Diamond Lil" — — specifically on Friday, 24 May 1929. And when a news man for a Midwestern tabloid approached, she agreed to an interview.
• • Mae told him that she had performed with Van Tenni's Arab Acrobatic Troupe. "I lifted three of the Arabs in the pinwheel formation," Mae affirmed, "and did other acts which required great strength."
• • She credited the hands-on training in gymnastics and acrobatics she received, coached by her father to develop her strength to the point where (she would claim later on) she was able to lift 500 pounds [sic] and support three athletes.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Colgate toothpaste propaganda points out that brighter smiles are more important in Hollywood than perfect figures. But Mae West complains she can't get anyone to admire her smile.  
• • 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.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • A Florida newspaper mentioned Mae West.
• • Sun Sentinel staffer Ivette M. Yee wrote: "Red Grooms delved in 3-D, and his celebrities often appear like caricatures in a pop-up book." 
• • Sun Sentinel staffer Ivette M. Yee wrote: In “Mae West Visits New England,” the voluptuous bombshell's breasts protrude from a slinky dress, drawing more attention than her sparkling diamond necklace. ...
• • Note: Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, 7 June 1937, Red Grooms is an American multimedia artist who is best known for his colorful pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life.
• • Source: The Sun Sentinel; published on Saturday, 24 May 2003
• • 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,000th 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 • • drawing made in 1935 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Her Own Code

MAE WEST met her fans on the silver screen and between the pages of the day’s popular fan magazines, all of whom skated dizzily on the surface of facts and never did any fact-checking. This is the first section, Part 1, segment 5 of 32.
• • "The Real Mae West" • •
• • Mae West: A code of her own • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: But unconventional as she certainly is, Miss West, as we shall see, has a code of her own.  
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: She has a reason, as well as a wisecrack, for everything.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West's success was not an accident.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: A lifetime, with all but five years (the first five) spent tirelessly in the theater, lay behind that first entrance upon the screen — years of experience, incessant labor, well-directed energy, firm adherence to purpose in the face of many discouragements and setbacks, in spite of which she never lost sight of her goal.
• • Mae West: From the Bushwick section of Brooklyn • • ...  
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The New Movie Magazine; issue dated for June 1934.
• • On Wednesday, 23 May 1928 • •
• • "Diamond Lil" • •
• • Variety discussed the costumes designed by Dolly Tree for Mae West and also Mae's lingerie created for all her boudoir scenes, daring nighties of "heavy cream lace and yellow chiffon flounces."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West learned a lot about comic timing by observing Ed Wynn. Wynn perfected a character called “the perfect fool.”
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "White men can't play black music."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Massachusetts newspaper mentioned Mae West.
• • Metropolitan Theatre • •
• • Stars of the screen, stage and radio are featured, starting Friday.
• • Mae West, in her new Paramount hit, “Goin’ to Town”; Olga Baclanova in person; “Hollywood Hooey,” a hilarious revue with Ernie Stanton and a big company of headliners, and the special engagement of Joaquin Garay, Hollywood’s newest singer, are the four big units.
• • Mae West drops her “gay nineties” cycle and goes modem as a gal of the wide open spaces who inherits a fortune and starts out to be a society lady on the money. In a novel trip behind the scenes at Hollywood, Miss Baclanova is supported by Ernie Stanton, Smith, Fields and Smith, Townsend and Boles, George Freems, twelve gorgeous Hollywood beauties and the Elida Ballet.
• • Sevitzky and the Grand Orchestra — — excellent, as usual. …
• • Source: Cambridge Sentinel (Massachusetts); published on Saturday, 18 May 1935
• • 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,999th 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 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Sex? Seriously?

MAE WEST met her fans on the silver screen and between the pages of the day’s popular fan magazines, all of whom skated dizzily on the surface of facts and never did any fact-checking. This is the first section, Part 1, segment 4 of 32.
• • "The Real Mae West" • •
• • Mae West: Boisterous philosophy • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Somehow, through her utter frankness and honesty, her double meanings are not offensive even to the most sensitive.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West shattered every tradition of the screen as well as the box office, and has contradicted every theory of stardom by her unconventionality, her ribaldry, her boisterous philosophy.  
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: She doesn't believe that sex should be taken seriously, but with a laugh.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: She is unconventional, she says, because Joan of Arc was unconventional, and look at what she did for France.
• • Mae West: A code of her own • • ...   
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The New Movie Magazine; issue dated for June 1934.
• • On Sunday, 20 May 1934 in The L.A. Times • •
• • The article "So Mae West's Slipping? Not So She Can Notice It!" was published in The Los Angeles Times in their weekend edition on Sunday, 20 May 1934. By then Mae had two motion picture hits behind her and her third "Belle of the Nineties" would be released in September 1934.
• • Plan Ahead: Saturday, 21 May 2022 • •
• • Women and Cocaine will present Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong" (Paramount, 1933).
• • Where: London's Cinema Museum on Dugard Way.
• • British Mae mavens, head’s up, mates.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Compared to Brando, Beatty, or Stewart Granger, actress Mae West was a paragon of the Protestant work ethic. Few worked harder in Hollywood. Her famous sexual innuendo and throwaway style were the products of much rewriting and rehearsal. She remains a theatrical, and rather Victorian, figure and the film career was limited by censorship battles and studio politics.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Since man started giving woman any sort of an even chance, the female of our species has got ahead quickly. More swiftly than has man, when you think of the comparative time woman has been free to act and think for herself."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about a movie mentioned Mae West.
• • "Bridesmaids, why women are funny, and who makes you laugh?" • •
• • Reviewing the new screen comedy "Bridesmaids," Carrie Rickey wrote: Instead, I submit Exhibits A through J as proof of Why Women Are Funny.
• • Exhibit A: Mae West calculating Cary Grant's assets while explaining her hobby in “She Done Him Wrong” [1933]: "It was a toss-up whether I went out for diamonds or sang in the choir. The choir lost." ...
• • Source: Philly (dot) com; posted on Wednesday, 18 May 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,998th 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 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Hollywood Blushed

MAE WEST met her fans on the silver screen and between the pages of the day’s popular fan magazines, all of whom skated dizzily on the surface of facts and never did any fact-checking. This is the first section, Part 1, segment 3 of 32.
• • "The Real Mae West" • •
• • Mae West: The only reason that a speakeasy film was re-booked • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West had only a "bit" in that picture, but it was her name that went up in electric lights.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West was the reason "Night After Night" was re-booked in 5,000 motion-picture theaters.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: She started an era — the Mae West era.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: She brought a rowdy spirit to the films, which made Hollywood blush.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: But this boisterous, rowdy quality made Mae West the sensation, not only of the United States of America, but she became the toast of Europe, too.  
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: In fact, Mae took Paris, France by storm — fastidious, critical Paris, the rendezvous of the elegant, the suave, la politesse.  
• • Mae West: Boisterous philosophy • •  ...   
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The New Movie Magazine; issue dated for June 1934.
• • On Sunday, 19 May 1935 • •
• • Coverage of Frank Wallace's claims, that he was married to movie queen Mae West, appeared in The L.A. Times on 19 May 1935 along with Mae's firm denials and scoffing.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Miss Mae West, publicised as the "girl with the 50,000 dollars treasure chest," now holds a policy for that amount from Lloyds of London.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I've been things and seen places."  
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • New Movie Magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • There was a unique reunion at the opening of Mae West's newest opus, "I'm No Angel," at Grauman's Chinese.  
• • Cary Grant, Mae's leading man, made a personal appearance with other members of the cast.  
• • On the prologue bill was a troupe of stilt walkers and it was immediately Old Home Week.  
• • Cary Grant ran away from home to join a circus when he was a kid and became a stilt walker, and this was his old gang. …
• • Source: New Movie Magazine; published in the issue dated for June 1934
• • 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,997th 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 1936 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Swaggered Onscreen

MAE WEST met her fans on the silver screen and between the pages of the day’s popular fan magazines, all of whom skated dizzily on the surface of facts and never did any fact-checking. This is the first section, Part 1, segment 2 of 32.
• • "The Real Mae West" • •
• • Mae West: Blonde, bold, bad, and buxom • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: All the others — Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, and the late Wallace Reid — served an apprenticeship before the cameras of at least two or three pictures — in some instances, years — but when Mae West, blonde, bold, bad, and buxom, swaggered onto the screen for the first  time, 20,000,000 people started listening to her song.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: The scene showed her checking in at a swanky night club. The check girl admired her jewels.
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: "Goodness," she exclaimed, "what beautiful diamonds!"
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: "Goodness," retorted Mae West in that insinuating drawl of hers, "had nothing to do with them, dearie."
• • Note: Mae was tossing off a well-worn quip by Texas Guinan.
• • Note: And did Aileen see “Night After Night” [1932] starring George Raft? Because the checkroom scene certainly was not Mae’s first appearance onscreen. She's seen on the sidewalk, then entering..
• • Mae West: The only reason that a speakeasy film was re-booked • • …
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The New Movie Magazine; issue dated for June 1934.
• • On Saturday, 18 May 1912 in Variety • •
• • Frank Bohm bought a generous ad in Variety (issue dated for 18 May 1912) to help publicize his client Mae West as "The Scintillating Singing Comedienne, Late of Ziegfeld's Moulin Rouge." Billboard gave the vaudevillian's act a favorable review the following month.
• • On Thursday, 18 May 1933 in Camperdown Chronicle • •
• • Costume designer Travis Banton spoke about beauty standards in motion pictures and the measurements of Mae West, Claudette Colbert, and other top actresses. The Australian newspaper Camperdown Chronicle printed the article in a Thursday issue on 18 May 1933.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Decades ago, a saucy wiggle from Mae West or an off-color mumble from W.C. Fields could trigger the wrath of movie censors.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • New Movie Magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • “Good Dame” — B [Directed by Marion Gering. Paramount] • •
• • The same old carnival background that has served for Mae West's "I'm No Angel" and Clara Bow's "Hoop-la" has been drafted again for this item.  
• • The set hasn't deteriorated but the photoplays acted before it are getting steadily worse.
• • "Good Dame" has an acute case of story trouble. …
• • Source: New Movie Magazine; published in the issue dated for June 1934
• • 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,996th 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 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest