Tuesday, November 02, 2021

Mae West: Was a Sensation

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 11 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Not only caused a sensation • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: I would like to focus on the time around the release of Mae West’s first two starring vehicles, “She Done Him Wrong” and “I’m No Angel,” because these two films not only caused a sensation with unprecedented box office results — — but also enjoyed more freedom in terms of content than her later films, with less influence of the Production Code.

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Mae West’s first two star vehicles were both released in 1933, out of the range of “the golden age” of fan magazines. But since the focus is on young women’s reception, the articles and the readers’ letters in Photoplay, Motion Picture, and other fan magazines function as the primary resource in this paper.
• • "curvaceous" as a code word for "excessive body" • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: 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.”
• • Mae West: The pros and cons of Hollywood's female screen stars with an “excessive body” • • ... 
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Sunday, 2 November 1969 • •
• • A lengthy article appeared in the Sunday magazine section of The N.Y. Times on Sunday, 2 November 1969: "76 — — and Still Diamond Lil" written by Steven V. Roberts and punctuated with several photos of the Brooklyn Bombshell at various career points. The first portrait showed Mae costumed by Edith Head for her role as Leticia Van Allen.
• • From Hollywood, Steven V. Roberts's interview with Mae West produced this sentiment: "I hold records all over the world. That's my ego, breaking records. So don't say they put me in someone else's room."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • “Belle of the Nineties”— Paramount — La West comes through again with a knock-out performance. Roger Pryor, John Mack Brown, Katherine De Mille do well. But the film is a major triumph of Mae over matter.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "There are women who keep right on thinking they can be something special to a man — — and they are."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Los Angeles Times mentioned Mae West.
• • Mae West said: "The movies, in picturing erring women as doomed to suffer heartbreak and misery, have only been half right.  Maybe years ago that situation prevailed.  But not today.  People are more broad-minded." ...
• • Source: The L.A. Times; published on Sunday, 22 October 1933

• • 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 4,856th 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 • • Garbo's slimness vs Mae's curves
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