Mae West: In Bed with Popeye

MAE WEST always did like a man in a uniform.  Did she ever want to ask spinach-loving Popeye, "Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?"

• • Younger than the Brooklyn bombshell,  Popeye made his debut in the daily King Features comic strip "Thimble Theatre" on 17 January 1929 and quickly became a star. By 1933, there were Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. During the mid-1930s, a 16-page booklet starring Mae West and Popeye was sketched. 

• • "Around the World with Mae West" offers a skin-tillating cartoon voyage of her sexual adventures. Two of the sixteen pages feature Mae doing the deed with Popeye. Unlike the mass-produced comic books, drawn with panels and speech balloons, these X-rated affairs were more cheaply produced.  They would have a single page illustration with dialogue at the bottom and a staple-closure.

• • A vintage copy of "Around the World with Mae West" was sold by Hake's on Thursday, 27 May 2010.  Quite the collectible.

• • Ellinor Vanderveer [5 August 1887 — 27 May 1976] • •

• • Mae West worked with a large cast in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934] and one hometown gal was Ellinor Vanderveer, seen briefly as the New Orleans Dowager.

• • Supposedly, in Hollywood, Ellinor Vanderveer became known as "the queen of the dress extras." Launching a career in the cinema when she was a mature woman of 38 years old in 1925, the plucky native New Yorker was promptly featured as the Czarina, wife of Czar Nicholas, in 1926. More typically though, casting directors laced her into a tight background where she became one more faceless wedding guest, a banquet table fork holder, a theatre attendee, a slave girl, a hotel guest with a fan,  a committee women, a ballroom extra, a socialite, and oftentimes a dowager. With 146 bit part credits behind her, Ellinor Vanderveer retired her resume after portraying a Committee Woman in "The Eddie Cantor Story" [1953].

• • She died in Loma Linda, California in the month of May — — on Thursday, 27 May 1976. The actress was 88.

• • On Monday, 27 May 1935 • •

• • It was Monday, 27 May 1935 — — and Mae West fans were lining up to see the screen queen in "Goin' to Town" opening its exclusive engagement at the Capitol Theatre in Ontario, Canada.

• • That week in Ontario, these feature films were onscreen: "The Bride of Frankenstein" starring Boris Karloff and "Loves of a Dictator" starring Olive Brook (at the Tivoli).

• • On Friday, 27 May 2005 • •

• • Talented artist Tom Tierney released his wonderful "Mae West Paper Doll" book on Friday, 27 May 2005.  Dover published it.

• • Mae West on the Bookshelf • •

• • "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: From the Secret Files of Harry Pennypacker" was published in 2008.  Michael Druxman, a longtime Hollywood PR agent, has created a Walter Winchell-like gossip columnist called Harry who squeals and releases the sass as he gabs about the old time Hollywood scandals, even as studio bosses try to squelch scandals about their biggest stars.  Druxman's chapter about Mae and W.C. Fields will amuse you.

• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "The wolf at my door? Why I remember when he came right into my room and had pups."  [from "She Done Him Wrong," 1933]

• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An article about public sculpture mentioned Mae West.

• • Art Daily wrote: Mae West is McBride’s definition of the difference between ‘sculpture’ and ‘architecture’. In the exhibition, McBride exhibits Mae West 52-meter Drawing (2010), a one to one drawing in progress. A plotter will work daily during the exhibition to produce a one-to-one scale drawing of the Mae West tower.  ...

• • Source: Article: "Rita McBride undresses the Museu d'Art" written by Art Daily for ArtDaily.org; published on 19 May 2012    

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2313th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

 

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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