Mae West: Pearl-Clutching Pose

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. Toronto drama critic Karen Fricker has critiqued the play. This is Part 2 of 9 segments.
• • Shaw Festival gives Mae West’s 1926 play “Sex” a thrillingly modern sensibility • •
• • North America’s sin city • •
• • Karen Fricker wrote: Sex is the story of Margy LaMont, a prostitute based in Montreal (North America’s sin city during Prohibition), who attempts in the course of the play to move into mainstream society.
• • despite pearl-clutching reviews • •

• • Karen Fricker wrote: Mae West wrote the play as a vehicle for herself, and it played for (almost) a year in a New York’s 63rd Street Theatre despite (or perhaps thanks to?) pearl-clutching reviews: Walter Winchell called it “a vulgar affair” and the New York Post a “monstrosity.”
• • Karen Fricker wrote: It was shut down by the New York police in 1927, some historians believe as a way to prevent West’s even more provocative play The Drag — a largely improvised staging of a gay drag ball, starring homosexual men who were at the time refused Actors’ Equity membership — from coming to town.
• • What's thrilling about Sex at ShawFest • • ...  
• • This review by Karen Fricker will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Opinion, Toronto Star; published on Monday, 8 July 2019.
• • On Sunday, 11 October 1936 • •
• • On Sunday, 11 October 1936, Los Angeles Times readers saw this intriguing news item: "Mae West's Driver Hunted." Provocative, eh?
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Emanuel Cohen is back with Paramount Pictures and will produce eight pictures yearly for three years, starting next season with Mae West's "Personal Appearance," on June 1st, and he will be working at the General Service rental studios in Hollywood.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I always have somebody with me during interviews, ever since that Mickey Hargitay mess. He and that Jayne Mansfield were getting all the good publicity. I was getting roughed up. No more of that for Mae West."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Motion Picture Herald mentioned Mae West.
• • “In Old Kentucky,” starring Will Rogers — Rogers is still the great drawing card. Best house since October 1933, with Mae West.  …
• • Source: Motion Picture Herald; published on Saturday, 16 May 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 4,300 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4321st 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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