When Helen Lawrenson came up to see MAE WEST, Esquire's first female journalist was closing in on her sixtieth birthday and the Brooklyn bombshell was 73. A color photo by Diane Arbus flashed across the double-page-spread, hunched under half the title as if warding off a punch in the nose.
• • Enjoy her seldom seen interview. This is Part 32 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Is Studying the Guitar • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Herbert Kupferberg, the New York critic, recommended the LP “for some lively rock-and-roll singing,” and wrote: “Miss West always had a keen rhythmic sense in her voice as well as in her gait.”
• • “Wild Christmas” • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She is planning more albums and is studying the guitar. “I used to play a little on the ukulele. Yeah, I play a little piano, too — boogie-woogie, you know. I wrote a lot of my own songs in the old days and in other people’s songs I always change the words to suit my personality. The songs today are kind of sexy anyway, so I don’t have to do much changing.”
• • Mae West: Sang Ragtime and Dialect Songs • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Tuesday, 24 November 1931 • •
• • On Tuesday, 24 November 1931 the newspaper Washington Herald reviewed "Constant Sinner." The D.C.-based drama critic wrote about the Greek-American actor George Givot's portrayal of the Harlem pimp Money Johnson as well as "the aroma of Mae West's hybrid dialogue."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West starred in "I'm No Angel" [1933] and Laura Treadwell was seen as Mrs. Fletcher, her onscreen debut. Fortunate enough to work with Mae a second time, Laura Treadwell was also cast as a society lady in "Goin' to Town" [1935].
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I like my clothes to be tight enough to show I'm a woman, but loose enough to show I'm a lady."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article was dedicated to Mae West.
• • “Mae West, Hollywood's Sex Symbol, Dies” • •
• • "Goodness, what diamonds!" exclaimed an on-screen hat check girl. who saw Miss West enter a speakeasy with her slinky frame aglitter with jewels.
• • "Goodness," retorted Miss West, who wrote many or most of her own lines, "had nothing to do with it."
• • That was just the sort of thing that enthusiastic and appreciative audiences came to expect from Miss West, who to her millions of admirers (and to herself as well), was in real life the woman she played on stage, the Gay 1890s Bowery Queen of "Diamond Lil," her smash Broadway hit. ...
• • Source: Washington Post; published on Sunday, 23 November 1980
• • 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 16th 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 4,600 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,611th 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 • • her 1966 LP "Wild Christmas" • •
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