Mae West: Proper Protection

Jerry Orbach recalled that his first troupe mates, in summer stock at the Chevy Chase Playhouse in Wheeling, Illinois, were MAE WEST, Vincent Price, and January baby John Ireland [30 January 1914 — 21 March 1992]. 
• • It was 1952 and Orbach had just graduated from high school, wrote David Hiltbrand for Knight-Ridder on Sunday, 4 January 2004.
• • Jerry Orbach [20 October 1935 — 28 December 2004] was not onstage with these notables, however. The 17-year-old was hired to be an apprentice, a general factotum. Orbach remembered:  "My first job in summer stock, right out of Waukegan High School, the director handed me the keys to his 1947 Cadillac and told me to pick up Mae West, who was touring in ‘Come On Up, Ring Twice.' When the run was over, she tossed me a $100 bill. It was like four weeks' pay. I was making $25 a week, so it was the most money I'd ever had."
• • On Tuesday, 4 January 1938 in Los Angeles Herald Examiner • •
• • ... the only proper protection ... • •
• • The Los Angeles Herald Examiner used to run a "Views and Reviews" column. It was on Tuesday, 4 January 1938 that readers noticed a short item deriding Mae West: "The name of Mae West — — much more of a miss than a hit — — has been banned from use on its radio programs by the National Broadcasting Company. Such action is the only proper protection for the homes of decent American citizens. ..." Startling, eh?
• • During January 1938 • •
• • In early January 1938, The New York Times jumped into this debate as well. Their headline was "Mae West Script Brings Sharp Rebuke From FCC; NBC Is Censured for 'Vulgar' Broadcast of 'Adam and Eve'" and the article ran on page 59.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "But above all, you've gotta have a certain something."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article in Westfield Republican mentioned Mae West.
• • Westfield Republican wrote: Out of the past came none other than the inimitable Mae West, portrayed by guest impersonator Alice O'Grady, to tell a bit of her experiences at a recent Westfield-Mayville Rotary Club meeting.
• • Westfield Republican wrote: No one thought it unusual to welcome a "woman known by all" for her outspoken view of life. For instance, someone said to her as she was introduced, "Goodness, Ms. West, your diamonds are so beautiful." O'Grady responded as West, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, Dearie." That was Mae West.
• • Westfield Republican wrote: Mae West lived her life as she pleased, particularly during the Roaring Twenties, when life was rather free and unrestricted. One of her greatest shows was on Broadway in the hit, "Diamond Lil," which was full of double entendres. ...
• • Source: Article: "Rotary hears from SUNY Fredonia’s first female president, holds annual dinner" for Westfield Republican; posted on Wednesday, 2 January 2013
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2536th 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 • • 1952 • •
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Mae West: Louis Nizer

Louis Nizer's death notice, printed in the month of November, mentioned he had once represented MAE WEST.
• • Louis Nizer [6 February 1902 — 10 November 1994] • •
• • Born in London, Louis Nizer [6 February 1902 — 10 November 1994] was a noted Jewish-American trial lawyer and senior partner of the law firm Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim and Ballon.
• • As a trial lawyer, Louis Nizer made himself an authority on contract, copyright, libel, divorce, plagiarism and antitrust law, and various legal matters involving the entertainment world. His celebrity clients included Mae West, Johnny Carson, Charlie Chaplin, Salvador Dali, Eddie Fisher, Alan Jay Lerner, basketball star Julius Erving, and Spyros Skouros, once board chairman of 20th Century Fox films. 
• • Louis Nizer died in NYC on Thursday, 10 November 1994.  He was 92.
• • Jerome Kern [27 January 1885 — 11 November 1945] • •
• • Mae West was cast in "A Winsome Widow," a 1912 Broadway success.
• • Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., "A Winsome Widow" had several numbers created by a diverse group of songwriters and composers, for instance, Jerome Kern, then 27 years old.
• • A native New Yorker like Mae West, Jerome Kern was a composer of musical theatre and popular music who was raised in Manhattan. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "A Fine Romance," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "All the Things You Are," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Long Ago (and Far Away)," "Who?" — — and songs intended to be performed in "A Winsome Widow" by Mae West.
• • On 5 November 1945, Jerome Kern suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the south west corner of Park Avenue and 57th street, apparently in search of a drugstore for the pills he depended on, but had forgotten to bring with him. He died six days later on Sunday, 11 November 1945. He was 60.
• • On Tuesday, 11 November 1913 • •
• • Mae West's vaudeville routine was noticed by an entertainment critic for the Philadelphia Times, where some quotes appeared on Tuesday, 11 November 1913.
• • On Friday, 11 November 1932 • •
• • Behind the scenes, a tug-of-war was going on in Tinseltown. On one hand, Will Hays argued that Mae West would bring blantant indecency to the silver screen. On the other hand, studio executives sensed there was money to be made.  Fortunately,  two men obligated to enforce the code — — Jason Joy, who was the head of the Committee until 1932, and his successor Dr. James Wingate — — were fairly ineffective.  Nevertheless, the letters flew.
• • On Friday, 11 November 1932, James Wingate wrote a warning to Mr. McKenzie: "The basic story of Ruby Red is Diamond Lil." Moreover, "If the picture went through this way it would be recognized as the old story and looked upon as a subterfuge and a violation of the agreement ..."  
• • On Monday, 11 November 1996 • •
• • An article by Claudia Roth Pierpont — — "The Strong Woman: What Was Mae West Really Fighting For" — — was printed (page 105) in The New Yorker's issue dated for Monday, 11 November 1996.
• • On Sunday, 11 November 2012 • •

• • In 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, an armistice (that is, a truce) between Germany and the Allied nations came into effect. Then in the USA in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the 11th of November as Armistice Day to honor the heroism of military personnel from the United States who gave their lives for their country. 
• • On 13 May 1938, an Act of Congress was approved making November 11th a legal holiday known as Armistice Day or Veterans Day.
• • During the second World War, Americans were asked to join together to fight Hitler and stem the tide of Nazism. During this conflict, a flotation device was named for Hollywood star Mae West. New York City holds a parade today on Fifth Avenue for our veterans. Many will be watching.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Don't you see how my life is?  I gotta top myself in my pictures and I gotta watch myself in everything else. My private life has gotta be a model."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An item on auto shows mentioned Mae West.
• • New York Magazine wrote: On view through November 12th . . . and cars from the garages of Mae West, Delores del Rio, and Arthur Godfrey. ...
• • Source: Item: New York Magazine; published on Monday, 6 November 1972

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2482nd 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 • • holding the vest named for her in 1952 • •
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Mae West: Overland in Ashland

MAE WEST is being commemorated in Ashland, Oregon today, 18 August 2012.

• • At the restaurant Blue, Greek on Granite (5 Granite Street), performer Gwen Overland will portray the legendary screen queen, singing 16 songs from her motion pictures in between offering mouthfuls from Mae's biography. Showtime is 6 o'clock this evening. Sounds like such fun.  

• • Jeron Criswell King [18 August 1907 — 4 October 1982] • •

• • All but forgotten is the man born in the month of August as Jeron Criswell King, who became known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell. Criswell was Mae's personal psychic for awhile.

• • Born in Princeton, Indiana on Sunday, 18 August 1907, Jeron Criswell King wrote several books of (erroneous) predictions, including 1968's "Criswell Predicts: From Now to the Year 2000." In it, he offered peculiar predictions about Mae West, forecasting that she would be president — — or that Mae would fly to the moon with Liberace.  Hmmmf.

• • The record "Criswell Predicts" was written — — at Mae's request — — by Bob Thompson [a native Californian who was born on 22 August 1924 in San Jose].

• • Criswell died of cardiac arrest in Burbank, California on 4 October 1982. He was 75 years old.

• • On Sunday, 18 August 1935 • •

• • In 1935 the discovery of Mae West's marriage license was still big enough news that The Gleaner carried a story on 18 August 1935 saying that Frank Wallace and Trixie LeMae were visiting her mother, Lena Carey.

• • "Yesterday, incidentally, was Miss West's birthday," revealed her former husband Frank Wallace to the news media, "and — — she was 42."

• • "The nerve of a brass monkey," was Mae West's response.

• • On Monday, 18 August 1952 • •

• • The Lake Whalom Playhouse in Fitchburg, Massachusetts was happy to invite a Broadway star to delight its New England audience. Mae West was featured in their Program dated for the week of 18 August 1952.  Mae was starring in the play "Come On Up" (first known as "Ring Twice Tonight").

• • On Wednesday, 18 August 1954 • •

• • In her Hollywood column, syndicated on Wednesday, 18 August 1954, Louella Parsons wrote: "Mae West, who knocked them for a loop in Las Vegas, is at Malibu taking a vacation before she opens in Reno."

• • Mae West Movie Dialogue • •

• • Enjoy this frisky dialogue between Mae West as Flower Belle Lee and actor Dick Foran as Wayne Carter.

• • Wayne Carter: Yes, and I think that you could turn a man’s head very easily — — if he wasn’t careful.

• • Flower Belle Lee: Mmm, well there’s no fun in being too careful.

• • Wayne Carter: Aren’t you forgetting that you’re married?

• • Flower Belle Lee: I’m doing my best.

• • Source: "My Little Chickadee" [1940]

• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "If you don't think you're wonderful, why should anyone else?"

• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • A new DVD set and its reviewer mentioned Mae West.

• • Dave Kehr wrote: The first thing you may notice about “Universal Rarities: Films of the 1930s,” a fine new box set from TCM’s limited edition Vault Collection, is that all four features it contains were actually produced and released by Paramount Pictures. “Million Dollar Legs” (1932), “Belle of the Nineties” (1934), “Artists and Models” (1937) and “Souls at Sea” (1937) are indeed Universal rarities in the sense that (a) they are rare and (b) they figure among the 700 or so pre-1950 Paramount sound films that through a series of acquisitions and mergers, ended up under the control of Universal’s television division. ...

• • Dave Kehr explained: Mae West was Paramount’s biggest star in the early 1930s, and the objections of church and civic groups to her exuberantly risqué humor was a major reason the Production Code was fortified in 1934. Her screenplay for “Belle of the Nineties” suffered major interference at the hands of the industry censors, though even with her character forcibly watered-down (she’s a blues-belting nightclub entertainer who heads for New Orleans when St. Louis gets too hot for her), her delivery turns even the most innocuous line into an invitation to unspeakable delights. It’s West’s film all the way, although the director, Leo McCarey (“The Awful Truth”), allows his fine hand to show in a few scenes that allow West to drop her mask and utter some world-weary asides, humanizing her in a way that her other films do not. ...

• • Source: Article: "New on DVD: ‘Universal Rarities: Films of the 1930s’" written by Dave Kehr for The N.Y. Times; published on 17 August 2012

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2399th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1952 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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