Friday, March 18, 2022

Mae West: Strictly Vital

Depending on the person who wielded the pen, the fan magazine Picture Play could worship MAE WEST in fragrant ink or scold her. A year before publishing Dorothy Herzog’s skeptical sourness [May 1934], the zine printed a much more enthusiastic feature by Ben Maddox [April 1933] emphasizing Mae’s work ethic and down-to-earth side. This is Part 5 of 16 segments.
• • “Mae West: Don't Call Her Lady” • •  
• • Mae West: Torrid talking pictures • •

• • Ben Maddox wrote: Underneath the platinum wig she dons for camera purposes is no baby face, but a challenging, openly alluring countenance.  
• • Ben Maddox wrote: Her eyes are not extraordinary, but they are emphatically come-hithery. There's a taunting curve to her lips.    
• • Ben Maddox wrote: She's got the most peculiar rhythm to her walk and a shape which is one of those good old-fashioned feminine figures.  
• • Ben Maddox wrote: Not strictly beautiful — strictly vital.
• • Mae West: Her crowning attribute • • …  
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Picture Play; published in the issue dated for April 1933.
• • On Wednesday, 18 March 1936 • •
• • Variety reviewed "Klondike Annie," calling the motion picture "chic" and starting the critique on the front page. But the man-on-the-aisle objected to several elements therein. "Miss West is handicapped by having to wear rather dowdy dresses in about half the footage. In other portions she struts fine feathers and wears a set of furs that will make the women gasp," he commented on page 17.
• • Variety Magazine's issue was dated for Wednesday, 18 March 1936.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West turned over her business affairs to the New York lawyer known as Big Jim; her savings and her activities had come to the point where they needed special management.
• • Jim Timony proved to be the sagacious manager Mae needed, and with his advice and grooming their associations became more and more profitable for both.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Do I love Jim Timony? Yes. We love each other like Potash loved Perlmutter or like Montgomery must love Ward. Like two old business cronies."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Connecticut newspaper mentioned Mae West.
• • Sex” by Mae West • •
• • Is Mae West chastened by her recent visit to the police station? She is not! She says she is going to go right on talking out loud in the theater, giving the people what they want.
• • “Sure, I know what audiences like,” she says. “And when it comes to sex portrayals I know my onions. My play is true to life. And how can anybody suppress truth?”
• • Mae West added, “I believe that whatever is, is fit material for the theater.”  …
• • Manchester Evening News (Manchester, Conn.); published on Tuesday, 1 March 1927

• • 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 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,953rd 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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