Mae West: Virtually Unknown

A cunning cartoon showed MAE WEST yanking G.B. Shaw's beard. If only the two controversial writers could chat during Shaw Fest, which is presenting “Sex” in Canada. Broadway World sent Michael Rabice to review it. This is Part 1 of 9 segments.
• • BWW Review: SEX is Alive and Well at Shaw Festival • •
• • Michael Rabice wrote: How does an author title a play? Well, there should be something descriptive, enticing or informative to engage an audience from the outset.
• • Michael Rabice wrote: The Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake has gone out of a limb and programmed a virtually unknown play that is rarely, if ever produced. Oh, and the title is simply SEX. And its author is no other than the infamous Mae West!

• • Michael Rabice wrote: But did Mae West really write plays? She most certainly did and did so for her own star turns.
• • Michael Rabice wrote: Written in 1926, unable to advertise using the title, and later raided after running for a year, SEX was almost forgotten. Happily, this highly polished and entertaining production now running through October turns out to be the sleeper of the season.
• • In “Sex” we meet a call girl, her pimp, folks who rely on drugs and liquor • • . . .
• • Mr. Radice’s stage review continues on the next post.
• • Source: BWW Review; published on Friday, 2 August 2019.
• • On Wednesday, 3 September 1930 • •
• • According to Variety, the Wall Street crash clobbered the box office. When "Sex" starring Mae West enjoyed a ten-week engagement at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago, Variety noted that The Windy City had only three other plays in production during that interval.  Variety's issue dated for Wednesday, 3 September 1930 noted that a dozen legitimate Chicago playhouses had gone dark.  It was a lucky break for Mae, all the same.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Another gym addict is Warren William. He builds the Body Beautiful at the bars — and not the horizontal ones like some of the boys around town. So there should be one waistline, anyhow, in Mae West's new epic.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “Don’t make the same mistake twice — — unless it pays.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Valley daily mentioned Mae West.
• • Jim Wilson and Walter Mendenhall of the Planning Commission, who led the opposition in the Commission to prevent the dining car becoming a permanent operating establishment on Van Nuys boulevard. Formerly, the dining car was used as feeding quartets for employees of a circus and was purchased by Mae West, who asked for a zoning on her Circle Drive property to utilise the structure as a restaurant.
• • The Planning Commission denied the variance and since that time the car has idly occupied a small plot of Miss West's property which was already commercially zoned.  …
• • Source: The Van Nuys News; published on Thursday, 3 November 1938  
• • 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 4293rd 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 1926 • •
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