Thursday, March 06, 2014

Mae West: Sizzle Fizzled

The new MAE WEST motion picture sounded hot, spicy, and properly prepped in the preview stage.  The star's "modern look" was publicized, the movie music seemed exciting. Oh, my. What happened to the sizzle?
• • Abilene Reporter-News announced:  Mae West will turn on the heat in "The Heat's On" at the Paramount Tuesday and Wednesday. Judging from the previews she still talks in that husky, cozy, let's-go-off-in-a-corner tone but her costumes will be up to date because she takes the part of a modern Broadway star. William Gaxton is the producer and Victor Moore is supposed to be a reformer of Broadway show morals. However, we've never seen anyone reform Mae yet and we have an idea of what happens to poor Victor. Music in the show is furnished by Hazel Scott, Mary Roche and Xavier Cugat. Opening feature at the Paramount.
• • Source:  Abilene Reporter-News (Texas); published on Sunday, 5 March 1944.
• • On Friday, 6 March 1934 in Perth, Australia • •
• • "Mae West Becomes a Lady" • •
• • On Friday, 6 March 1934 the West Australian wrote: A Mae West picture, and the first of a 'Father Brown' series, form the main portion of today's new programme at the Grand Theatre. Mae West is cast as a Western cattle rancher who inherits a small fortune when her partner-to-be in matrimony dies suddenly. She decides to become a lady, hence the title "Now I'm a Lady."  . . .  
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Emanuel Cohen, former Paramount executive, was credited with bringing Miss West to the screen and producing her greatest hit, "She Done Him Wrong," which was the screen's biggest money-maker of 1933.   
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I believe in treating sex with comedy, in having laughs with it to keep it from becoming too serious."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The United Press discussed the divorce between Paramount Pictures and Mae West.
• • "Studio Fed Up with Mae and Ends Contract" • •
• • "Blonde Signs With Cohen on Salary, Percentage Basis" • •
• • Hollywood, March 6  — — (UP) — — Blonde Mae West, the screen's leading siren, was through today at the studio which took her from stage to film stardom as Paramount disclosed the actress had been released from her contract. The studio notified Miss West that it considered her contract terminated and indicated it was "fed up on Miss West's temperament."
• • The actress had claimed the studio failed to live up to the terms of her contract by spending too much time on her last starring vehicle, "Klondike Annie."  . . .
• • Source: Syndicated column by United Press rpt in The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah); published on Friday, 6 March 1936 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2864th 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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• • Photo:
• • Mae West in 1943

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  Mae West

1 comment:

  1. R. Mark Desjardins2:06 PM

    Much of the lustre of Mae West's appearance in "The Heat's On" was lost when film censors cut out her entire "Lure" number from the final cut. Many stills of West's outrageous costume with the serpent headdress survive, but the actual musical production number appears to have been lost to the mists of time.

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