• • Shaw Festival revives Mae West’s racy Broadway hit “Sex” • •
• • For Canadian theatregoers, Sex’s appeal is its setting: Montreal • •
• • J. Kelly Nestruck wrote: Nevertheless, Broadway continued to be a home for Mae West – and, in 1928, she opened Diamond Lil, the stage comedy [sic] that she’d later adapt into the 1933 Oscar-nominated, box-office smash She Done Him Wrong (which features classic West-isms such as “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” and “Listen, when women go wrong, men go right after them").
• • Set in Montreal • •
• • J. Kelly Nestruck wrote: For Canadian theatre-goers today, Sex’s appeal is not just its history with the censors but its setting; it’s hard to think of another play from the period that takes place, even in part, in Montreal.
• • J. Kelly Nestruck wrote: Diana Donnelly will be the first Montrealer to play the Montrealer Margy LaMont — — “Marguerite?” she speculates — — a character who, admittedly, speaks more like a streetwise Brooklynite than a French Canadian.
• • a street in the red-light district called Cadieux • • . . .
• • This preview article will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The Globe and Mail; published on Monday, 6 May 2019.
• • On Wednesday, 6 June 1934 • •
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • On 6 June 2009, a Mae West Look-Alike contest was held in Ithaca, New York at Felicia's Bar. No word on the individual who won, however, contestants were requested to don a blonde wig and look glamourous.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I wash my face with bottled water and good Castile soap."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A British physician scrutinized Mae West.
• • "Film Stars Criticised — Mae West's Weight" • •
• • London, June 2nd — Good and bad words for film stars were said respectively by Mr. George Arliss at a meeting of the Royal Society of Arts and Dr. H. W. Taylor at a meeting of the Library Association.
• • Dr. H. W. Taylor scathingly criticised British film actresses. 'They are all thin-lipped,' he said, 'and about two nutmegs in weight. All appear to be from about 14 to 17 years or age. I am told that Mae West weighs more than one or two nutmegs — — but she is not British.'
• • Source: Article: "Mae West's Weight" — rpt in The Courier-Mail (Brisbane); published on Friday, 4 June 1937
• • 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 4,200 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4229th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC Mae West
As I wrap my research on my l-o-n-g promised biography of Mae West, I snap to attention when I encounter a Canadian reference to her. During West's early vaudeville career, it is uncertain if she crossed the U.S. / Canadian border to appear on the various theatre pinwheel circuits at the time. She did certainly appear in a revival of "Diamond Lil" in Montreal in 1951. Montreal certainly had a wild reputation at the time of West's play Sex, and this no doubt provided fodder for her. One thing for certain, this locale she chose did not go unnoticed. "Jook Joint” was an expression used to describe the flavor of African American drinking establishments in the South at the turn of the century. In the “The Jazz Revolution” by Kathy J. Ogren, African American author, Zora Neale Hurston commented on a song Mae West sang during the stage production of Sex. “I know the piece she played on the piano is a very old Jook composition. ‘Honey Let Your Drawers Hang Low’ has been sung in every Jook in the South for at least 35 years. It always puzzled me why she thought it likely to be played in a Canadian bawdy house.”
ReplyDelete• • JOOK = from the Gullah word for "disorderly."
ReplyDelete• • Originally, a "jook joint" was the euphemism for a brothel. Over time, it came to mean the brothel's parlor where there was always a piano and a pianist -- playing music to entertain male customers who were next in line.
• • "Jook box" = the brothel's piano or the pianola (i.e., a self-playing piano).
• • Since Mae West paid her researchers for material on Harlem (and other frisky locations), it is possible a researcher misspelled the street name or Jim Timony suggested a slightly different Montreal street name to avoid a lawsuit.
• • Yes, Mae toured in Canada -- but she was probably too busy onstage to do any sightseeing there.