Mae West: Shimmy Sexpert

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 34 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Doing the Shimmy-shawobble • •

• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She also claims to have introduced the shimmy to New York in 1918, in a show starring Ed Wynn. She had seen the dance performed in Negro cafés on Chicago’s South Side, where it was known as the shimmy-shawobble.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: The first play she wrote was “Sex” (“My mother encouraged me to write it”), about a waterfront prostitute called Margie La Mont.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She wrote it in pencil and sent it to the Shuberts, who sent it right back. Thereupon, Mae, her mother, and the faithful Jim Timony produced it, in association with C.W. Morgenstern.  
• • Mae West: Society for the Suppression of Vice • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Thursday, 26 November 1931 • •
• • The New York Herald Tribune reported on the intense displeasure to white Washingtonians when Mae West brought her Harlem play "The Constant Sinner" to D.C. where the local D.A. was Leo K. Rover. Leo roared about the profanity and the dances performed by the black cast. The D.A., apparently, had been telling the media he would "arrest the entire company of fifty one if another performance were given," noted the Herald Tribune on Thursday, 26 November 1931. Racism reared its ugly head.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Johnnie Ray travels backstage of the Latin Quarter to pose for a few camera shots with Mae West.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "A dame that knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article was dedicated to Mae West.
• • “Mae West, Hollywood's Sex Symbol, Dies” • •
• • Perhaps paradoxically for a public symbol of sex and pleasure, Mae West led a private life characterized in many ways by rigid austerity and stern discipline. Shunning alcohol and tobacco, the five-foot-two star adhered to an organic diet, which included such delicacies as fresh fruits dusted with almond powder and honey.  ...
• • 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 4,613th 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 • • on a song sheet in 1918 • •
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