Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Mae West: Empowering Image

A portrait of MAE WEST was in a photo exhibition focused on empowering images.
• • Ruth Halikman covered the Sander Gallery's (then current) photographic exhibition, "Empowering Images: Women in the Twentieth Century," offering 43 photographs of women.  She writes:  The most visually engaging photographs in the show, in general, are those of famous women, such as Frieda Kahlo, Daisy Fellowes, Mae West, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.  . . .
• • Ruth Halikman continued:   Strikingly different is Otto Fenn's portrait of Mae West (ca. 1950 — 1955), in which the actress is seen reflected in the mirror of her dressing table as she applies her makeup. The table in front of her, which the photograph strongly emphasizes, is strewn with cosmetic items of all sorts — — makeup brushes, perfumes, lotions, etc. The message implied by including this photograph in an exhibition about power is rather ambiguous: does West's power rest in her ability to create her own image, to define herself? Or is her power simply that she can seduce men?
• • Source:  Article for Columbia Daily Spectator; published on Wednesday, 4 August 1993.
• • On Monday, 4 August 1913 • •
• • "Mae West sang loud enough to be distinctly heard in the rear" • •
• • On Monday, 4 August 1913 Mae West opened for Evelyn Nesbit, who gave ballroom dancing lessons to an adoring audience at Hammerstein's Victoria on 42nd Street. Overshadowed by the notorious Nesbit, Mae's good work was unappreciated that evening.
• • Though most of the reporters ignored the 19-year-old's attempts to woo the crowd, and did not even mention her name in their reviews, at least Variety's columnist Joshua Lowe [whose critique was published on 8 August 1913] noticed how hard she was working. "Mae West sang loud enough to be distinctly heard in the rear," wrote Lowe. Oh, my goodness!
• • On Wednesday, 4 August 1954 • •
• • "The Mae West Revue," which opened in Las Vegas, was a song-and-dance show that lasted only thirty-nine minutes. Variety printed their coverage on Wednesday, 4 August 1954.
• • Save the Dates: 3 Mondays in August 2015 • •
• • Onstage Outlaws — — Mae West and Texas Guinan during the Lawless Prohibition Era • •
• • 3 events commemorate the Brooklyn bombshell’s August birthday in the room where she faced a judge who sent her to jail • •
• • New York's Annual Mae West Tribute: to celebrate the birthday of Brooklyn bombshell Mae West, on August 3rd and on August 10th, her films will be shown at 6:00pm. The first one, "Sextette" [1978] was screened on August 3rd. "Go West Young Man" [1936] will be screened next week on August 10th. The August 17th multi-media presentation will feature light refreshments (courtesy of East Village Cheese) and a raffle. You could win rare films starring Texas Guinan. Or maybe a rare reprint by The New Yorker’s caricaturist Alfred Freuh or by a famous N. Y. Times illustrator.
• • Refreshment sponsor: East Village Cheese

• • Details — — Mae West Tribute: Triple Treat in 2015 
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Warner Brothers even made a picture called "The Finger Man" which stars Jimmy Cagney as a former gangster who comes to Hollywood and becomes a big picture name. In case you don't savvy the term, the "finger man" of a mob is the fellow who points out the victim and the location to nab him. Mae West, Betty Compson, and one of the many Marxes are only a few of those who are reputed to have had the "finger" put on them at various times.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Jimmy Cagney is the only one in Hollywood that's got anything like my style. Animal personality. Gives them the rough stuff right out like I do."  
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Australian mentioned Mae West.
• • "Glenfiddich and Glenmorangie move Orwell, Churchill and Mae West to dram appreciation" • •
• • Tim Douglas wrote:  Laphraoig, 24 years, another expensive dram for a “young’un”; but this, asserted our grain-fed guru, was no trifling post-deadline booze-up. “This, my boys, is an investment in your futures.”   
• • Tim Douglas continued: As the months progressed, there were quotes from Mae West, the authors Raymond Chandler and George Orwell, as well as a quip from Sir Winston Churchill about water and whisky during the war.   . . .
• • Source: Article for The Australian; published on Saturday, 25 July 2015 
• • Note: Unfortunately, no one's quote was offered in this article. Why could Mae have said about whisky?
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3237th 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 the 1930s

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