Showing posts with label 1888. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1888. Show all posts

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Mae West: Eugene O'Neill

According to biographer Emily Wortis Leider: The Ginger Box served up wall-to-wall MAE WEST. In addition to featuring her as Circe, turning her lovers into swine, it presented Mae West as a Broadway vamp (played to Harry Richman's victim), Mae West singing "I Want a Cave Man," Mae West clowning to Tommy Gray's "I'm a Night School Teacher," and torching a song whose regretful tone she would later rule out: "Sorry I Made You Cry."
• • The libretto credit went to Paul Dupont, and the music credit went to Arthur H. Gutman. Promotional material printed by Jerome H. Remick & Co. indicated the first number was to be Mae's introductory song "Come Over" followed by "Canoodle-Ooodle-Oo," then "Eugene O'Neill, You've Put a Curse on Broadway" — — also meant for Mae.
• • Born during the month of October, Eugene O'Neill started his life in a Broadway (New York City) hotel room in Times Square. The site is now a Starbucks (1500 Broadway, Northeast corner of West 43rd & Broadway). A commemorative plaque is posted on the outside wall with the inscription: "Eugene O'Neill, October 16, 1888 — November 27, 1953 America's greatest playwright was born on this site then called Barrett Hotel, Presented by Circle in the Square."
• • During the 1910s, Eugene O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party founder John Reed.
• • "The Hairy Ape" is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill (1922), and this was the drama being mocked in Mae's song. "Lemme up! I'll show ya who's an ape!" Imagine it, if you will.
• • O'Neill's involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Four years later, his first published play, "Beyond the Horizon," opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. O'Neill also received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his writing. Then in 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Despite this outstanding acclaim, however, his portraits invariably show the unsmiling author with the most miserable expression.
• • Across the street from O'Neill's birthplace, Paramount Pictures established their iconic headquarters at 1501 Broadway and debuted many Mae West motion pictures in their street-level theatre during the 1930s.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Add to Google
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Eugene O'Neill in 1931 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
Mae West.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Mae West: James Donlan

James Donlan appeared in one cinema classic with MAE WEST.
• • Born in San Francisco on 23 July 1888, James Donlan dove into the motion picture whirl during 1929 when he was 41 years old.
• • Though he sang in two motion pictures, his forte was his versatility as a character actor.
• • Between 1929 and 1938, he appeared in over 100 movies including "Belle of the Nineties" [1934], portraying Kirby, the manager of boxer Tiger Kid. He also was cast in a few comedies with the Three Stooges.
• • He is the father of actress Yolande Donlan, who was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on 2 June 1920. Her mother (and Donlan's wife) Therese was a singer. In 1976 Yolande published her autobiography, "Shake the Stars Down," which explores her childhood, her father's hectic schedule doing bit parts in a dozen pictures a year, and growing up in Tinseltown during the 1930s.
• • James Donlan died in Hollywood of a heart attack during the month of June — — on 7 June 1938 — — a month shy of his 50th birthday.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Add to Google
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 cast member • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
Mae West.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Mae West: I, Lovett

When MAE WEST watched Rafaela Ottiano portray the sinister Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd" during its 1924 Broadway run at the Frazee Theatre, she knew where to find an actress who could ably play a villainess.
• • Born in Venice on 4 March 1888 of Italian parents, Rafaela Ottiano distinguished herself in Europe before relocating to New York City in 1910 when she was 22 years old. By 1912 she was winning critical praise for her performances onstage in Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre [31 West 28th Street].
• • By 1920, she was living in a boarding house in the theatre district - - 49 West 37th Street - - where many actresses and artists were in residence. In between bookings, the five-foot-five brunette worked as a sales lady in a department store.
• • For the acclaimed Broadway production of "Diamond Lil" [1928-29] Ottiano created the role of Spanish Rita. She was the only member of the Royale Theatre's cast who was retained for the filmed version, where she reprised her role, renamed Russian Rita by cautious executives at Paramount Pictures who feared that they might alienate Hispanic ticket-buyers.
• • Never married, and guiding her career herself, plucky Ottiano managed to stay employed in Hollywood from 1924-1942 in between theatre work.
• • She died at age 54 of intestinal cancer in mid-August 1942 at the East Boston home of her late parents.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Add to Google

• • Photo: • • Mae West's co-stars • • "She Done Him Wrong" • • 1933

Mae West.