Mae West: Guilt, Shame

MAE WEST staged "The Drag" in 1927 but her gay play was shut down by the authorities before it could reach the lights of Broadway. A British theatre director decided to dust it off and present it to an English audience this summer.
• • Polly Stenham wrote this article. This is Part 5.
• • "Brutal! Vulgar! Dirty! Mae West and the gay comedy that shocked 1920s America" • •
• • In 1928, Mae "sanitized" her play somewhat • •       
• • Polly Stenham  wrote:  Mae West rewrote the play a year later as "The Pleasure Man," sanitizing it by making the lead character straight, but she still faced criticism for it being too explicit. Like "Sex," her play "The Pleasure Man" eventually landed her in court.
• • Polly Stenham  wrote:  "The Drag" deals with guilt, shame and families falling apart over secrets. As the director of a new revival at the National Theatre, I have been fascinated by its strong elements of farce — — that’s quite a traditional form to explore such subversive content. It has an anarchic streak, too, which I’ve always liked and I hope there’s always one in my own plays, which have also been concerned with family dynamics.
• • "The Drag" is not judgmental • •   . . .
• • This was Part 5.  Part 6 continues on Monday.
• • Source: "Brutal! Vulgar! Dirty! ..." by Polly Stenham for The Guardian [U.K.]; published on Wednesday, 5 July 2017.
• • On Sunday, 25 August 1912 in Brooklyn • •
• • Mae West was seen on the stage of the New Brighton Theatre in Brooklyn's Coney Island area on 25 August 1912. The New Brighton always booked top tier vaudeville acts.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West, dripping with orchids, was spotted in a ringside seat with her boyfriend, Jim Timony.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Don't you see how my life is?  I gotta top myself in my pictures and I gotta watch myself in everything else. My private life has gotta be a model."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An article in a journal mentioned Mae West.
• • Dr. Jim Eckman wrote: Helen Gurley Brown, the “Cosmo Girl,” proudly displayed a Mae West quote in her office:  “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.”  ...
• • Source: Article for Issues in Perspective; published on Saturday, 25 August 2012
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 13th anniversary • •  
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,700 blog posts. Wow!   
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started thirteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3774th 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 • • with Jack LaRue in 1936 • •
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