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 27 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Hollywood’s Beauty Experts define “beauty” • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Then a beauty expert of Warner Brothers says, “No woman cares to look ‘fat,’ but she will not mind looking curved if she knows it is fashionable. [...] The minute a woman’s figure borders on fat, it ceases to be up-to-date. Curves, yes. But curves haven’t been out, really.”
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: First, the actress Mae West is considered as an exceptional case in Hollywood in terms of proportions, because in Hollywood women are “half-starved ingénues” with “scrawny figures.”
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: As the letters from F. E. K. and Ethel Hitchcock suggest, fans seem to welcome Mae West’s curvy body as “being healthy.”
• • Mae West: Is “teetering on the edge of fatness” • • ...
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Saturday, 25 November 1911 in Variety • •
• • The opening night cast of "Vera Violetta" at the Winter Garden did not include the misbehaving and Gaby-upstaging Mae West. Her antics during the out-of-town try-outs brought about her dismissal. Variety (perhaps without knowing it) printed a face-saving explanation in their issue dated for Saturday, 25 November 1911, indicating Mae had pneumonia. Hmmm, no doubt brought about by standing in an icy draft when Gaby Deslys opened her mouth wide and blasted her.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • In 1934, Mae West's proposed film title gave offense in Louisiana. Somebody suggested that calling Mae West's new opus "Belle of New Orleans" would convey the wrong impression. The suggestion swelled into a chorus, and now everybody except Huey Long is talking — or telegramming.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I have given six life-stories but I can always give another."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A newspaper mentioned Mae West.
• • Glen Elsasser wrote: Oddly, Mae West's film career faded by the early 1940s, after only 10 movies. Contributing to her screen demise was her refusal to change her style, even after styles had long since changed.
• • Glen Elsasser wrote: No thanks, she said, to playing older women opposite Marlon Brando in Pal Joey or Elvis Presley in Roustabout.
• • Glen Elsasser wrote: Mae West chose, instead, to kindle her fame, mainly through occasional tours of her own plays. Adding oomph to her reputation, an inflatable life jacket became known during World War II as a Mae West and put her name in the dictionary. …
• • Source: Chicago Tribune; published on Sunday, 28 December 1997
• • 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 4,873rd 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 • • illustrator David Wolfe • •
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