Mae West: Breast Size

Like MAE WEST, Diane Arbus was a native New Yorker. An Australian stage play, inspired by their Los Angeles meeting and photo session, was widely reviewed. To commemorate Arbus’s untimely death, age 48, in the month of July, let’s ponder some of those critiques.
• • Let’s hear from another Australian drama critic now. This is Part 4 of of 10 segments.
• • In Stephen Sewell’s charming “Arbus and West,” feminism boils to the surface • •
• • Sewell’s scenes unfold as duologues • •
• • Sandra D’Urso wrote: Many scenes unfold as duologues between Diane Arbus (Diana Glenn) and Mae West (Melita Jurisic), but also between West and her live-in dresser and devoted assistant Ruby (Jennifer Vuletic).
• • Sandra D’Urso wrote: The play begins with Ruby eagerly preparing to assist West with her costume changes during a stage performance. We hear but do not see West singing before an adoring audience – a master of ceremony refers to the size of her breasts as the fictional crowd roars.
• • Sandra D’Urso wrote:  The play is a series of duologues between Arbus and West, and between West and her assistant Ruby.
• • A sense of creeping nostalgia • •  . . . 
• • Sandra D’Urso’s review will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: The Conversation; published on Wednesday, 6 March 2019.
• • On Wednesday, 26 July 1950 • •
• • On Wednesday, 26 July 1950 Guido Deiro, age 63, died after a long illness. He was Mae West’s second husband. She wed Frank Wallace in April 1911. Without getting a divorce, she married the much handsomer Italian musician in Spring of 1914.
• • July 2004: Mae West Blog launches • •

• • What are we up to, writing about the Brooklyn-born bombshell for fifteen years now?
• • We’re here to keep Mae mavens up to date, correct errors, celebrate each revival of a play she wrote, post the latest Westian stage and book reviews. And answer our fan mail!
• • The light’s still on. Come up and see Mae every day.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Borrowing manner and voice of Mae West, Zasu Pitts and others, well trained monkeys enact an old fashioned melodrama in the approved new fashioned manner in the talky “You Can Be Had.”
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "All my pictures have made big money."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Motion Picture Herald mentioned Mae West.
• • Reported Mr. Joseph Mitchell: "Barbara Blair was not polite to Hollywood. She thought the majority of picture executives were dopes, and told them so. She insulted producers, and they kept her on the payroll, paying her $1,500 a week. She was in Hollywood for more than a year, and didn't make a single picture, because they wanted her to be a second Mae West, a second Joan Blondell, a second Glenda Farrell, and Barbara Blair told them she did not plan to be a second anything. . . .
• • Source: Motion Picture Herald;  published on Saturday, 25 January 1936
• • 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 15th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen 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 fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4265th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml   
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as Diamond Lil in 1949 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC  Mae West