Mae West: Love Rush

For six months, a Canadian fan worked with MAE WEST in California as her “secretary-companion-slave” and all around general adorer. In his book ‘Outrageous Misfits,’ Brian Bradley explores their relationship. What began as an intimate friendship would go up in flames.  This is Part 9 of 9 parts.
• • Mae West: Craig felt a rush of love • •  
• • Brian Bradley wrote: “Ya know, you’re not a bad-looking chick,” she said with a laugh, and they went on to enjoy many evenings with Craig dressing up and performing routines for her.
• • Brian Bradley wrote: Craig felt a rush of love he hadn’t felt since he was a little boy who performed and impersonated others to impress his family. But this wasn’t about parental love or the novelty of playing dress-up.

• • Craig as Mae West • •
• • Brian Bradley wrote: It also wasn’t about gender identity or gender expression; Craig wanted to emulate the women entertainers he adored. He wanted to imitate them, entertain like them, perform like them, and pay tribute to them.
• • Brian Bradley wrote: In ‘Outrageous Misfits’ big wigs and bigger hopes mark Craig Russell’s early encounters with Mae West.
• • Brian Bradley's book preview has now been concluded with this post. We hope you found this sneak peek fascinating. Check out his biography.
• • Source: Toronto Star; published on Sunday, 25 October 2020.
• • On Thursday, 25 December 1919 • •
• • Cast in the successful Broadway hit "Sometime" [October 1918 — June 1919] as Mayme Dean, a vamp whose suitors always seem to decamp, Mae West was in the unusual position of putting across a few comically wistful laments in the show.
• • The 26-year-old performer was made up as a vamp, a la Theda Bara, after her appearance in Ned Wayburn's "Demitasse Revue" — — on the cover of a prestigious magazine, New York's Dramatic Mirror dated for Thursday, 25 December 1919. This was quite a front page and it has become a fabulous collector's item.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Diamonds sparkled at the home of Mae West. "Diamond Lil" justified her screen sobriquet by giving "sparklers" to her sister, brother, and father. A necklace, studded with similar stones, was the present she received in return.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about the latest nonfiction titles in print on December 2006 tackled a biography of Mae West.
• • Title under review: Mae West 'It Ain't No Sin' by biographer Simon Louvish, 492 pages
• • California critic Martin Rubin wrote: The trouble with writing a biography of someone like Mae West is that her image is not only larger than life, it's also big enough to dwarf the portrait you are trying to create.
• • Critic Martin Rubin wrote: For most of her life, unto the very brink of the grave, she was engaged in imprinting that image of the sexiest of sexy women. Every action, every word, every gesture, off screen and on, seemed to be devoted to making indelible that persona. Not to cast aspersion on the biographical skills of Simon Louvish in this intelligent, analytical study, but everywhere you go in the pages of "Mae West: 'It Ain't No Sin,'" it is hard to escape the feeling that she got there first. ...
• • Source: "The Saturday Read — — The self-creation that was Mae West" written by Martin Rubin | Special to The Los Angeles Times; published on Saturday, 23 December 2006
• • 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 4,636th 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 • • Craig as Mae in 1980 • •
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