MAE WEST’s plump, curvaceous body was a vital element in her comedy. Academics have emphasized that “excessive body is one of the qualities of female unruliness, suggesting that she is unwilling or unable to control her physical appetites.” Japanese film historian Mio Hatokai discusses how Hollywood publicists and fan zines responded to this “fatness” in 1933. This is Part 6 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Was “Sex” merely “bald, crass porn? • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: According to Hamilton, contemporary theater critics condemned Sex as bald, crass pornography. Despite that, the show “drew massive and heavily female crowds,” and such patronage worried powerful morality traditionalists, eventually leading to West’s arrest [sic] on charges of public obscenity.
• • Note: Mae West's gay play "The Drag" was the play that really worried the authorities and which led to her imprisonment. The play "Courting Mae West" dramatizes the issues behind the real-life events and the trials.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: In the 1920s Broadway, young middle-class women seeking for an outlet for their revolt against prudery were its most avid patrons, and the producers rushed to present “sex plays” to comply with their taste, according to Hamilton’s book.
• • Mae West: New demand for sex plays onstage • • …
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Thursday, 26 October 1995 • •
• • "Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her" [57 minutes] — — the VHS format was released on Thursday, 26 October 1995.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • There’s a key difference between Mae West and most of the actresses who are remembered as sexy comediennes, like Marilyn Monroe: Monroe was a limited actress who, in her quest to be famous, learned to use what nature had given her. Mae West, who wrote all her best material, chose sex as her subject matter, and if the audience accepted her as sexy, it was because there was clearly no percentage in arguing with her.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I was ten years ahead of my time. Someday, I'm going to produce those plays again."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Variety mentioned Mae West.
• • Mae West Sails Thursday to Do "Diamond Lil" in England • •
• • Mae West and her manager, James Timony, plus a couple of key actors, sail tomorrow (Thurs.) on the Queen Mary to ready a British touring (and ultimately London) production of "Diamond Lil," the play in which the actress appeared on Broadway 20 years ago.
• • It will be the first time the show has been done in England.
• • Under the terms of a deal set last week by London's Harry Foster with the William Morris agency in Hollywood, Miss West's personal share of the production is around $5,000 a week.
• • It was figured the British Government would permit her to take half of that amount out of the country. …
• • Source: Variety; published on Wednesday, 10 September 1947
• • 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 17th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,800 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,851st 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 • • in 1926 • •
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