Mae West: Detached Immorality

In case you missed a fascinating review of a book analyzing MAE WEST, here it is. This is Part 5 of 6 parts.
• • “Mae West, Diamond in the Rough” • •
• • saw the insinuating walk, the knowing drawl • •
• • Gerald Weales wrote: She was embraced by the intelligentsia — — who saw the insinuating walk, the knowing drawl that could make a double-entendre out of almost any innocuous phrase and the air of detached immorality as irony or parody — — and by the mainstream audience, who came to be amused, not shocked.

• • Gerald Weales wrote: In Hollywood in 1933, she re-created Lil as Lou in "She Done Him Wrong" and placed her in a contemporary setting in "I'm No Angel," the two films that set off a nationwide craze for Westisms. Under pressure from the professional viewers-with-alarm, Joseph Breen, the new tough guy at the Hays Office, the film industry's self-regulatory body, trashed her third film, "Belle of the Nineties," which prefigured the string of inept echoes of Lil that ended with "The Heat's On" in 1943.
• • Mae West became a camp icon • • . . .
• • This book review by Gerald Weales will be concluded on the next post.
• • Source: The Washington Post; published on Thursday, 11 January 1996.
• • On Friday, 4 February 1949 on WOR • •
• • NYC broadcast journalist John Wingate interviewed Mae West backstage before the opening of a revival of "Diamond Lil" on Broadway. Their 2-minute exchange is quite funny and was heard in the NYC area over the popular radio station WOR.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Paramount and Metro have two troublesome women on their hands. At Paramount, it's a gal named Mae West. At Metro, it is a more platinum blonde named Jean Harlow.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Motion Picture Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • Insiders Outlook • •
• • As we get the slant, the fuss on the part of various religious groups is to clean up where the broom should have been applied by the industry on its own many months back.
• • This is not to say that Clark Gable will have to do his acting while dancing around a May pole, although Mae West and Jean Harlow, it is true, may find trouble finding places to go. The movement means what this column pointed out some days back: That Hollywood will have to prove its brain superiority by finding the middle course which is the safe course.  …
• • Source: Motion Picture Daily; published on Friday, 27 July 1934
• • 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 4,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,402nd 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 1932 • •
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