Mae West: Gabilla of Paris

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 44 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: The box is inscribed with some of her quips • •  
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: The bottle not only carries her signature (printed), but the box is generously inscribed with some of her pet sayings.

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: As for the perfume, it’s very fine, and terribly intriguing. First made by Gabilla of Paris for Miss West personally, and now made by the same people for all of us.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: This passage tells us that the Mae West perfume was available nationwide at the time, and it repeats the same point as the advertisement ― ― that Mae West herself wears this perfume. Read the text from American Druggist in 1934 (below).
• • Mio Hatokai quoted: "Gabilla, parfumeur of Paris, blended a fragrance for Mae West several years ago, and it now makes its appearance to the consumer public as Parfum Mae West. A large advertising campaign will publicize Parfum Mae West nationally in February or March."
• • Mae West: Her fragrance was “loaded with lure” • • ...      
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Monday, 20 December 1926 • •
• • It was on Monday, 20 December 1926 that the controversial tabloid Evening Graphic printed a publicity picture of Mae West onstage, costumed as Margy LaMont, actor Barry O'Neill sprawled out in a chair, under her. In her 1926 Broadway play, Mae wanted to depict a woman who has power over her men, a novel idea at the time for theatrical dramas.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • “Motion picture actresses had always sold sex,” writes historian Thomas Doherty in Pre-Code Hollywood. “But Mae West was the first motion picture actress to sell sex talk.”
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "My mother always understood me. I found out all there was to know about me. Then when I grew up, I changed the things I didn't like and spotlighted the things I admired."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The New Yorker featured an article on Mae West.
• • “The Strong Woman: Mae West” • •
• • Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote: Mae West made sure that the myth was more real than the woman. …
• • 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 4,890th 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 • • ad campaign in 1933-1934 • •
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