Mae West: A 42-Page Bio

A new slim paperback about MAE WEST was published.
• • No, we have not read this 42-page fan book, so this is merely "a courtesy mention" — — and not a recommendation. Any publisher who describes a new title with cliches [i.e., up to speed, how much of the forest is lost for the trees, etc.] will never get our vote. Our suspicion is that it's a cut-and-paste job with no new research.  But if you bought this slender pocket-book, please let us know your opinion of it.
• • "American Legends: The Life of Mae West" was published by Charles River Editors. Publication date was on Thursday, 21 November 2013.
• • The British publisher gave this statement about their series: A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
• • On Friday, 23 June 1922 in Variety • •

• • Mae West and Harry Richman performed together in Manhattan during June 1922, billing their act "Bits of Musical Comedy — — Mae West assisted by Harry Richman," and most of the material was written by The Firefly of Broadway herself.
• • In their edition dated for Friday, 23 June 1922, Variety's review appeared, praising the partnership because it offered ideal opposites. Variety's man on the aisle reported: "Mae West, once known to vaudeville fans as a girl who shook a wicked shoulder, will prove a revelation to her former acquaintances in her new act."
• • Variety, though often reluctant to pay Mae a compliment, decided to be enthusiastic for once: "She rises to heights undreamed of for her and reveals unsuspected depths as a delineator of character songs, a dramatic reader of ability, and a girl with a flair for farce that will some day land her on the legitimate Olympus."
• • On Tuesday, 23 June 1970 • •
• • "Myra Breckinridge" had its red-carpet, star-studded premiere in New York at the Criterion Theatre (1514 Broadway) on Tuesday, 23 June 1970. The movie went into general release in the USA one day later.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • New York State refuses to allow Mae West's picture "It Ain't No Sin" to be shown.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "If a picture of mine didn't get an X rating, I'd be insulted." 
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A film review in Australia discussed Mae West.
• • "Entertainments at Cremorne Theatre" • •          
• • In her new Paramount film, "Now I'm a Lady," which is screening for to-night at the Cremorne Theatre, Mae West undergoes the strange and eventful transition, from a cattle ranch girl to a sweetheart of society, without losing her poise or her wise-cracking ability.
Mae West's adventures in her new film, which presents her in modern clothes and up-to-date settings, start back in the cattle country when she inherits the money of a cattle baron and decides to go after a handsome young Englishman on whom she had an eye for some time.   ...
• • Source: Article: "At Cremorne Theatre" for Kalgoorlie Miner; published on Wednesday, 17 June 1936
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2941st 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 1922 • •
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Mae West: Steals the Show

Harry Richman wrote about Mae West in 1934

"MAE WEST Steals the Show" ran the headline in mid-April 1962. She liked the odds, she admitted, because she was the sole female attendee among 500 gentlemen — — breaking a long tradition of no women at the Friar stag parties.  Put on the Ritz and revisit this gala occasion, shall we?
• • Hollywood, April 17 — (AP)— Reporter James Bacon wrote: Mae West made a surprise visit to a Friars Club stag testimonial last night and wiggled off with the show, the only women among 500 men, including some of the nation’s top comics and song writers, who gathered to pay tribute to Harry Richman, a show business great.
• • The syndicated columnist explained:  Near the end of the show, Mae West, with her famous strut, ambled onto the platform and sexily glanced over the house. ”I like the odds.” she quipped. “Wall to wall men.” Mae recalled that Harry Richman got his start in show business as her piano player in 1922.
• • James Bacon noted:  Her surprise appearance, tradition-breaking at Friar stag testimonials, so shook up Richman that he forgot to sing when his turn came. “Mae always was a tough act to follow,” Richman confessed. After the party was over, Richman sat down at a piano and belted out “Sunny Side of the Street,” a song he first introduced on Broadway. Among performers who paid homage to Harry Richman were George Jessel, George Burns, Bob Hope. Jimmy Durante, Jack Oakie, and James Mason.
• • Source:  Syndicated column rpt in The Kansas City Star; published on Tuesday, 17 April 1962.
• • On Thursday, 18 April 1935 • •
• • "Mae West Wants Everything to Be Clean" • •
• • Mae West told a foreign journalist: "I'm for clean pictures and clean everything."
• • Source: Article in The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld); published on Thursday, 18 April 1935.
• • On 18 April 1969 in Life Magazine • •
• • Nationally, the news racks on 18 April 1969 held the iconic issue of Life Magazine with Mae West front and center [1969 cover price: 40 cents].
• • On page 60 was this headline: "Mae West: A Cherished, Bemusing Masterpiece of Self–Preservation Plans a Movie and a TV Show and Looks Back Over 75 Very Full Years" — — and Life's exclusive interview was done by veteran news man Richard Meryman. Reflecting on his 20 hours of conversations with the screen legend, Richard Meryman acknowledged with admiration Mae's "mind-spinning version of the world."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West says she will not do another movie "until something really great comes along."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Tell him I use all my spare time making myself beautiful."
• • Mae West said: "A curved line is the loveliest distance between two points"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Hollywood columnist Erskine Johnson interviewed Mae West
• • "Mae West's Fulltime Career Now Is Fighting the Battle of Age" • •
• • Erskine Johnson wrote:  Her life in the present is amazing enough to team her in song with Rock Hudson on last year's Oscar telecast and to take her, in exchange for big money, to Las Vegas currently to star in the floor show of the Sahara Hotel. In her act. she has those musclemen on her leash again and they will chorus: "Let's Try Mae West for President." Some lyrics are: "When she slips out of her sable / And leans across the table / Even Khrushchev will lose his self-command."  . . .
• • Source:  Syndicated column "Hollywood Today" written by Erskine Johnson rpt in The Corpus Christi Caller-Times; published on Tuesday, 31 March 1959
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2895th 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 • • with Harry Richman • •
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Mae West: Laugh Vamp

MAE WEST was on the front page of the August 1922 issue of Broadway Brevities. The editor described the 29-year-old performer as a "laugh vamp." Bet you have not see this before.

• • On Our Cover: MAE WEST • •

• • Broadway Brevities wrote:  She's still most engagingly young, but we do remember Miss West's former feats in the varieties at the time when she was in the throes of the shimmey (sic) epidemic, and did her palpitations in a manner that was the ruin of many a Presbyterian divine. Especially do we recall her work at the Capitol, not long after it opened. Miss West is now in a middle phase of subtler artistry, still inflected by the shiver but adorned with much remarkable dramatic exhibition. Recently at the Palace, she accomplished an unbroken triumph, doing her act in protean role, now a "laugh vamp," now a prima donna, comical and serious by turns. In short Miss West was a fine and consummate surprise, with a finesse and versatility, a dashing vitality and sure authority that ought to send the legitimate managers trailing her holding contracts in their hands ready to be autographed by her on the dotted line. By looking at her most fetching pose on our cover, you will admit that Mae is no company for a nervous person. 
• • In 1922 Broadway Brevities wrote:  "She's still most engagingly young" — — why? — — because Mae was telling the stage directors that she was born in the year 1900.

• • Edna Ferber [15 August 1885 — 16 April 1968] • •

• • On Monday evening, 16 April 1928, Algonquin Round Table member Edna Ferber was at the Royale Theatre watching "Diamond Lil" starring Mae West

• • Author Edna Ferber had no children, never married, and is not known to have engaged in a romance or sexual relationship. Ferber died at her home in New York City, of stomach cancer, on 16 April 1968. She was 82.

• • On Monday, 15 August 1921 • •

• • It was Monday, 15 August 1921 and Mae West was enjoying her debut in "The Mimic World" playing controversial characters such as Shifty Liz.

• • With "The Mimic World of 1921," the Shuberts had hoped for a big hit. Additionally, this revue was inaugurating their new roof theatre, Century Promenade, that featured a restaurant and a promenade overlooking Central Park. However, the show opened to mixed reviews from a number of top critics.

• • Mae West wore a daring black velvet dress onstage, "cut at either side to display her bare hips," wrote Women's Wear [24 August 1921], quaking under such a sartorial shock. Clearly, this was Whoopee Wear.

• • On Sunday, 15 August 1993 • •

• • Molly Haskell wrote an article "Mae West's Bawdy Spirit Spans the Gay 90s" and it ran in The New York Times, Section 2, on Sunday, 15 August 1993.

• • Molly Haskell wrote:  Mae West, the blond, diamond-studded, wisecracking, sashaying vamp from Brooklyn who lit up the stage in the 1920's and the screen in the 30's with a special brand of gender-bending sexuality, still defies categories and refuses to be conscripted into any one ideological army.  ...

• • Bob Thomas, with AP in Los Angeles, wrote an article "Mae West Remains a Hot Number." This charming piece was syndicated,  It was printed in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette on Sunday, 15 August 1993, and also in other papers.

• • Save the Date: Thursday, August 16th • •

• • Thursday, 16 August 2012 will be the next Mae West Tribute in Manhattan and the evening affair will start at 6:30 pm at 155 Mulberry Street.  This year Mae-mavens will enjoy an indoor event (ahhh, air conditioning), music written by Mae West's Italian husband will be played, and attendees will be seated.

• • At the Reception, Italian wine and light refreshments will be served. The ever-popular Mae West Raffle will offer rare prizes once again to a number of lucky attendees. The public is invited.

• • Mae West was born in Brooklyn, NY on Thursday, 17 August 1893.

• • Closest MTA subway stations: Grand St. or Canal St.

• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "I can't see myself horsing around with hockey players in a business way. It would make me feel unappealing. Any time I show my authority over the male sex, it's got to be 100 percent emotional."

• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An article about Mae West celebrated the 100th year of her birth.

• • Molly Haskell wrote:  Feminists have found her both liberating and awkward: Her frank obsession with men as both lust objects and figures of identification have made her dubious as a "sister," but she's talking only to us when she says life is a man's game and "I just happen to be smart enough to play it their way." ... 

• • Source: Article: "Mae West's Bawdy Spirit Spans the Gay 90s" written by Molly Haskell for The New York Times; published on Sunday, 15 August 1993

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2395th 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 • • 1922 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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