Mae West: Aspired to Be

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 35 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: True or not • •  

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: True or not, these two gossips, along with the Motion Picture article entitled “Curves! Hollywood Wants Them ― and So Will You!” mentioned above, suggest that with West’s screen success, fan magazines became more and more inclined to discuss Mae West’s curvy body as something desirable, even for conventionally slim actresses of Hollywood such as Claudette Colbert.
• • What Advertisements Tell Us • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Adding to these discourses are advertisements for products to lose weight and control body shape ― ― as well as a Mae West perfume marketed in 1933.  
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: First, with the nation-wide success of “She Done Him Wrong” and “I’m No Angel,” Mae West became a star that fans aspired to be, or at least popular enough for the advertiser and the magazine publisher to think that way.
• • Mae West: The woman and the screen figure presented as one • • …  
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Monday, 7 December 1936 in Life Magazine • •
• • The issue of December 7th, 1936 in Life Magazine featured two people on page 33: Mae West and Napoleon.
• • On Friday, 7 December 1973 in Colorado • •
• • Mae West was in Telluride for a special ski area dedication gala that took place from December 7 — 10, 1973.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • "Everyone talks about Mae West," he said. "I'd never seen Mae West on the screen and it was a blast to see her."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I put some flag waving into my act to match the torso waving."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The New Yorker featured an article on Mae West.
• • “The Strong Woman: Mae West” • •
• • Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote: What happens to a highly sexual woman past a certain age who rejects the "sexless dignity" that Colette, a great admirer of West, and Simone de Beauvoir prescribed? …
• • Source: The New Yorker; published on Sunday, 3 November 1996
• • 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 4,881st 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 1933 • •
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