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 51 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Her body aroused desire • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: The painting is a celebration of the buxom female body, and arouses the desire for the power it represents.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: As the film progresses, we find more celebratory moments of female body, mostly in relation to vaudeville elements.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: This moment not only heightens the spectators’—— both diegetic and otherwise — — expectation for Mae West / Lady Lou’s stage act, but also celebrates the female body in a broader sense.
• • Mae West: Sequined costumes sparkle, spotlight curves • • ...
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article excerpts will conclude on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Wednesday, 29 December 1937 • •
• • Variety did an article on the ill-fated broadcast Mae did on NBC: "Mae West Case Big Dilemma in Washington." This piece was printed in Variety on Wednesday, 29 December 1937.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West had her own style. The colors of her living room were white, cream, beige, gold, and pale pink, with expansive arrangements of artificial flowers, polar bear rugs, coffee tables with mirrored tops backed in gold, and ornate lamps with bare-breasted women playing lutes.
• • But the pièce de résistance was a nude statue of Mae West’s likeness atop a white-and-gold piano. Her boudoir had mirrors everywhere, including on the ceiling.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Tired of all those jokes about my figure and my man talk? No, if people expect me to be the same off-stage — why I call that flattery."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article printed in People Magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • Brad Darrach wrote: Then one day Mae West got an eyeful of his sultry good looks. "If he can talk," she's supposed to have said, "I'll take him." Cary Grant disliked the woman [sic] but "She Done Him Wrong" made him faintly famous as the hunk she hooked with a notorious (and frequently misquoted) line: "Why dontcha come up sometime and see me?"
• • In People Magazine, Brad Darrach wrote: In my opinion, “Topper” [1937] made him a star. ...
• • Source: "Cary Grant Remembered" by Brad Darrach for People Magazine; written 15 December 1986; reposted on 27 April 2011
• • 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 4,897th 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 • • Mae West onscreen in 1933 • •
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