Mae West: Seen as a “Freak”

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 13 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Variety called her “one of the many freak persons” • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: For example, Steve Seidman observes that Mae West was seen as a “freak,” citing a review from Variety: “The notion of the comedian as a freak is pointedly evidenced in  this Variety review of Mae West’s act: ‘She’s one of the many freak persons on the vaudeville stage where freakishness often carries more weight than talent.”
• • Mae West compared to Bert Savoy, a female impressionist • •

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Also, foreshadowing her later popularity in drag and gay subculture, Mae West was called “the greatest female impersonator of all time” as early as 1934 in Vanity Fair Magazine: “I can pay you no greater tribute, dear lady, than to say it has healed the wound in my heart caused by the death of the one and Bert Savoy. I love you, Miss West, because YOU are the greatest female impersonator of all time,” wrote George Davis.
• • Mae West: Her “excessive femininity” seemed “campy” • • ... 
• • Note: George Davis [4 February 1906 — 25 November 1957] was a magazine columnist and a fiction editor who wrote one gay novel, “The Opening of a Door,” published when he was 24.
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Wednesday, 4 November 1931 • •
• • After enormous effort, on Wednesday, 4 November 1931 the final curtain came down at the Royale Theatre on "The Constant Sinner" starring and written by Mae West.
• • Set in Harlem, the play opened on 14 September 1931 and ran for 64 performances on Broadway.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It is extraordinary the number of quiet mousy little males who seem to get a bang out of Mae West. Look around you, next time you see one of her pictures. All the henpecked husbands in town will be there.
• • "Here is a woman who really understands men," their rapt concentrations seem to say. "Mae West would never be a nag or a chatter-box or take away our rights. We could tell her anything and she would comprehend it."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "A book author had more freedom of expression than the stage permitted at that time."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Photoplay mentioned Mae West.
• • “Why Was Hollywood Jealous of Mae West?” • •
• • No star in Hollywood has been more miserably treated by the Cinema City than this famous blonde. Usually, Hollywood admires success, but in this case Hollywood resented it.
• • Here is the inside story, never before told in a movie magazine.
• • All of the absorbingly interesting feature articles described above and many, many more appear in the big March [1935] issue of Movie Mirror, the great movie magazine edited direct from Hollywood.
• • If you have not already done so, by all means get your copy today and see for yourself why Movie Mirror is fast becoming America's most popular movie magazine regardless of price. …
• • Source: Photoplay; published in the issue dated for February 1935
• • 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 4,858th 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 • • Savoy and Brennan, Greenwich Village Follies, in 1920 • •
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