Mae West: Moral Lepers

Many great minds have contemplated MAE WEST — — but great minds don’t think alike. Academic and author Chase Dimock has written an interesting article on Mae as a playwright. This is Part 16.
• • Why Don’t You Come Up Sometime and Queer Me? • •
• • Reclaiming Mae West as Author and Sexual Philosopher • •
• • a frank discussion • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote: Thus Mae West uses the common tactic of legitimizing the frank discussion and depiction of homosexuality by framing the work in medical discourse.
• • degenerates and moral lepers • •
• • Chase Dimock wrote: Shortly after this scene, the Doctor is visited by a distraught, effeminate homosexual named David, who is, unbeknownst to him, the secret former lover of his son-in-law Rolly who is plotting Rolly’s eventual murder. David exclaims that he is “one of those damned creatures who are called degenerates and moral lepers for a thing they cannot help — a thing that has made me suffer!” David goes on to describe his previous affair with Rolly, that they were as happy as any married couple, and that he was not distraught about being dumped in order to marry a woman, but because Rolly is pursuing another man, a “normal man,” it has begun to turn him mad with jealousy.
• • a cure for homosexuality • •     . . .
• • His article will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: As It Ought to Be
• • Chase Dimock, who teaches Literature and Composition at College of the Canyons, is Managing Editor of As It Ought to Be.
• • Starting on Monday, 24 September 1928 • •

• • "Pleasure Man" written by Mae West was shown at the Bronx Opera House in New York from 17 September until 22 September 1928.  Then the play moved to the new Boulevard Theatre in Queens, NY for a single week starting on Monday, 24 September 1928.  Then Mae's provocative piece opened at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway on 1 October 1928, at which point the police padlocked it, despite its heavy advance sale.
• • The stage play "Courting Mae West" dramatizes the police raid and the aftermath.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West, age 72, was reported in "satisfactory" condition today in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital where she was admitted last Thursday for treatment of a "nervous collapse."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about a Massachusetts theatre being razed mentioned Mae West.
• • Lothrop’s Opera House (Olympia Theater), 17-27 Pleasant St. • •
• • Cyrus Moulton wrote: The oldest standing theater in the city, which once hosted Al Jolson and Mae West, the circa 1891 building is on the Worcester, Mass. Redevelopment Authority’s Downtown Urban Revitalization Plan as a potential building to be demolished.  . . . The theater was shuttered in January 2006 and remains vacant.  . . .
• • Source: The Telegram; published on Tuesday, 11 September 2018
• • 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 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,000 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4049th 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 • • Mae goes to court in 1928 • •
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