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 23 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Mae's appeal was “attainable” — — unlike Garbo’s • •
• • Mae West fan letter from Kay Newton • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: As it continues: “A little more fat here, a few more curves there, hips to the right of us, busts to the left of us, every mother’s daughter trying to develop. A million ‘inviting’ little Maes, acting like no angel ever acted, are all about us. We now have the Mae West habit.”
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: This letter written by film fan Kay Newton is interesting in that it shows West had become so popular as to be juxtaposed with one of the biggest stars at the time: Greta Garbo.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: However, what is more important is how the letter by Kay Newton treats Garbo and West differently.
• • Mae West: Garbo’s a goddess but Mae is “all about us” • • ...
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Wednesday, 18 November 1936 • •
• • It was a busy time for the screen queen when "Go West Young Man" was released on Wednesday, 18 November 1936 in the USA.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper will appear in one picture each per year.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "The reason I don't read fiction is because I can do my own dreaming. I want to know things that are real."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article in The N.Y. Observer discussed Mae West.
• • "Come Up and Signify Me: Mae West Meets Academia" • •
• • Robert Gottlieb explained: But lucky Mae West, too ― the slow but sure progress until she had kootchy-kootched and shimmied her way up the showbiz ladder and was starring in her own plays on Broadway; overnight stardom in Hollywood in 1932, when she was 39; tremendous box office, huge salary, almost unparalleled control over her movies-writing her own dialogue, overseeing casting, slipping and sliding around the dread Production Code until even she couldn’t get away with her innuendoes and provocations; enjoying as many comebacks as Judy Garland (though unlike Garland, she remained in strict control of her work, her image and her money). ...
• • Source: The New York Observer; posted on Sunday, 4 November 2001
• • 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 4,868th 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 an animated cartoon, in 1933 • •
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