Mae West: Secure Niche

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 45 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Never Subtle • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Mae's jokes were never subtle. It was her delivery of them that made them hilarious. This is straight out of burlesque. It’s not Greta Garbo.

• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Mae was a great entertainer and she has a secure niche in show-business history. Perhaps it is best to leave it at that.  
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Today, she delves into spiritualist seances, E.S.P., other psychic phenomena. She watches TV maybe three nights a week but has little interest in modern films.
• • Mae West: Always interesting but never vulgar • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be concluded on the next post with excerpt 46.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Monday, 11 December 1939 • •
• • W.C. Fields sent Mae notes and script suggestions. Often these musings did not make it into the "My Little Chickadee" script.
• • In a note dated for Monday, 11 December 1939 — — Dressing Room, Fields wrote:
• • Dear Mae, Eddie [Sutherland, a director] told me that you asked him if I had any suggestions for the finish. This is it. The finish leaves us just the two of us at the end of the picture with no attempts at comedy or wise cracks from either of us. I think it will leave a nice human, homey feeling in the audience's mind. . . .
• • However, this vague, unfunny conclusion Fields sketched out was rather toothless and too wispy to be used. Wiser heads prevailed.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West is occupied at the moment with plans for a Klondike picture and is mulling over a scheme to do an Aimee McPherson caricature in a subsequent film.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “A woman in love can’t be reasonable – or she probably wouldn’t be in love.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article was dedicated to Mae West.
• • “Mae West, Hollywood's Sex Symbol, Dies” • •
• • The careful creator of her own legend became in 1934 and 1935 the highest paid woman in the United States, a fact that no doubt helped enhance the easygoing egotism for which she was known.
• • "I don't like myself," she once told an interviewer, "I'm crazy about myself."
• • After 24 years out of the movies, Miss West, still flaunting her public image of egregious and self-parodying bad taste, left her mirror-lined bedroom to appear in 1970 in "Myra Breckenridge." "Sextette," in 1977 was her last movie, her 12th.  ...
• • 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 4,624th 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 • • a drawing done in 1933 • •
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