Mae West: Lower-Class Sex

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 9 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Sexuality wrapped in a veil of irony • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Yet, in 1928, West eventually succeeded in appealing to a broader public with her play, “Diamond Lil,” by “wrapp[ing] her sexual style in a veil of irony and detachment,” according to Marybeth Hamilton’s book.

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: The Broadway stage play “Diamond Lil” (1928), on which the Paramount Pictures motion picture “She Done Him Wrong” is based, served as a bridge between “seamy” and “lower-class” sex and Mae West’s nation-wide success in Hollywood.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Since what West presented on Broadway (especially in “Sex”) greatly differs from her screen personae, her pull with female film spectators requires an explanation from a different angle.
• • Mae West: Her female fan base was captured by this • • ...  
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Saturday, 29 October 1932 • •
• • Paramount Pictures held a star-dusted premiere of their speakeasy movie starring George Raft — — and which introduced Mae West to the silver screen — — on Saturday, 29 October 1932. This was the red carpet debut for "Night After Night" in Hollywood. Mae was seen in a few scenes as Maudie Triplett.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West was perhaps the only truly autonomous female star of the screen in the 1930s and 1940s. (Or maybe of any decade.) She did as she pleased and she was pleased with what she did.  
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "The box office business in the entire industry has dropped off 30 per cent in the past four months."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Liz Smith mentioned Mae West.
• • "Trailblazer and Friend Remembered" • •
• • Liz Smith wrote: "Too much of a good thing is wonderful," said Mae West. And leaving the Helen Gurley Brown memorial the other day reminded me of that quote. ...
• • Source: Huff-Post; posted on Monday, 22 October 2012
• • 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 seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,854th 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 • • onstage in 1928 • •
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