Mae West: Lush and Rowdy

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 33 of a lengthy piece.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West was the “lush and rowdy” favorite • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: In the May 1933 issue of Picture Play, the caption of a photograph of the screen star Mae West posing in a doorway reads, “The new lush and rowdy favorite, Mae West, arrived just in time to save a lot of women from inferiority complexes about their figures.”  

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: This caption underscores obsessions about weight that the female movie-goers and female readers of these fan magazines most probably had.  
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Another article in the gossip section of Photoplay March 1934 issue goes, “Maybe Mae West actually did start something.”
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: At any rate, the millennium has arrived.
• • Mae West: Weighty concerns • • ...  
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy article will continue on the next post.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Tuesday, 3 December 1935 • •

• • The Cornell Daily Sun on 3 December 1935 ran an interesting article — "The Champ Meets a Notable." Illustrating the text was a photo of Mae West standing between two men: heavyweight champ Jim Braddock and his buddy Joe Zigg. It seems that Mae gave these handsome fellows a tour of Hollywood film studios
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • In "South of Pago Pago," there's Frances Farmer tossing off wiseacre lines like a junior Mae West, Victor McLaglen leading and laughing it up villainously.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "You've got to keep cool and calm to collect when you're in there trading punches."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The New Yorker featured an article on Mae West.
• • “The Strong Woman: Mae West” • •
• • Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote: Mae West remained world famous, but as an artifact, a cartoon.
• • Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote: Several long-term relationships have been suggested: with Timony, former muscleman Paul Novak, and her chauffeur Chalky Wright. …
• • 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 4,879th 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 and in 1935 • •
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