Thursday, May 21, 2020

Mae West: Loses Cooch

After the huge acclaim “Diamond Lil” enjoyed on Broadway, a box office bonanza and critical darling both, it would seem that the future would forever look bright for MAE WEST.
• • Certainly, a false and distorted ideal of one career success after another was described in her memoir. 
• • But if you flip through Variety during 1930, especially a number of several dismal entries for Mae West during May, bitter truths emerge.
• • Let’s have a look at what Mae was up against just one month after the nerve-wracking “Pleasure Man” trial — — another battle that she fought her way through.
• • “Mae West Blue: Loses Cooch” • •
• • Variety wrote: Operation for removal of her cooch dance on Mae West’s act, after the opening at Fox’s Audubon, was Mae West’s first date on a Fox percentage route.
• • Variety wrote:The West turn at the uptown Fox Theatre was reported to have reached a new level in blue stuff. Management decided to cut out all the dirt, but later, from accounts, discovered that if cutting the dirt, nothing would be left. Decision was to let it go as was — —all but the cooch.
• • Variety wrote: Prior to going with Fox, Mae West was submitted to R-K-O and Loew’s — — and rejected by both.
• • Note: Built in 1912, Fox’s Audubon, 3950 Broadway, NYC, had 2,368 seats.
• • Source: Variety; published on Wednesday, 7 May 1930.
• • On Monday, 21 May 1973 in Variety • •
• • A brief item appeared in Variety on Monday, 21 May 1973.  Mae West mentioned she was writing a new book "Sex Drive," that would include real names and be largely autobiographical.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “If you can’t go straight, you have to go around.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Time Magazine reviewed a film starring Mae West.
• • Cinema: The New Pictures • •
• • Time Magazine wrote: “Goin' to Town” (Paramount). “She Done Him Wrong,” the first picture in which Mae West was starred, was her funniest.
• • Time Magazine wrote: “I'm No Angel” made the most money, $3,000,000. The cleanest was “Belle of the Nineties,” at the height of last summer's Legion of Decency Campaign.
• • Time Magazine wrote: “Goin' to Town” is the only one which deals with the contemporary scene [sic] but, aside from this detail, it is distinguished mainly by the strictness with which it adheres to the basic Mae West formula which, as the constant element in all four of her productions, can now ...
• • Source: Time Magazine; published on Monday, 20 May 1935 
• • 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 4,479th 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 • • news in May 1930 • •
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2 comments:

  1. While Mae West's proposed book "Sex Drive" announced in 1973 never materialized, her Sex, Health & E.S.P" was published in Great Britain in 1975.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Mae West knew the power of having a book published with her name on it.

    ReplyDelete