Mae West: December 10th

Mention Jascha Heifetz and few would suspect a link to MAE WEST during the Prohibition Era.
• • Born in 1901 in Vilnius (then the Russian Empire, now Lithuania), Jascha Heifetz was a violin virtuoso. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time and people who follow classical music know about his other career highlights and recordings.
• • In 1930, the 29-year-old Heifetz lived next door to Mae West in Manhattan.
• • Heifetz died in Los Angeles during the month of December — — on 10 December 1987 at the age of 86.
• • Shadow and Substance: My Time with Charlie Chaplin • •
• • St. Louis, Missouri writer Gerry Mandel turned his extensive knowledge about early Hollywood, the Jazz Age, and Chaplin into his first novel. Douglas Fairbanks is seen bending elbows with Chaplin at a Los Angeles bar, and Mae West, Buster Keaton, and Cary Grant are noticed in local hang-outs, too. If you enjoy fiction that swirls around celebrity names and seethes with Chaplinesque mysteries, check this out. And good luck to Mr. Mandel.
• • On 10 December 2010 help restore a vaudeville gem! • •
• • Speaking of Mae West and Buster Keaton, these vaudeville greats once performed at the Lyric Theatre on Third Avenue North in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. That magnificent old vaudeville palace has become, alas, quite dilapidated and thus it's been shuttered for decades. Tsk! But the non-profit group Birmingham Landmarks Inc. is hosting a Benefit, hoping to raise enough green to restore this playhouse. The fundraiser is set for the Spring Street Firehouse in Avondale tonight — — on Friday, 10 December 2010 at 7 PM. Tell them the Mae West Blog gave you a nudge.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Heart of Dixie

Preservationists, theatre historians, and big-hearted culture mavens in the heart of Dixie are bravely trying to rescue a formerly superb (but now neglected) vaudeville house where MAE WEST once electrified the audience.
• • According to Jesse Chambers, a fundraising effort is afoot this weekend. It's a cause worthy of your time and contributions, so please read on.
• • From Birmingham, reporter Jesse Chambers writes: All the greats played the Lyric — — including Mae West, Bob Hope, Will Rogers, Buster Keaton, George Burns, Billie Burke, and the Marx Brothers. ...
• • The Lyric Theatre, the magnificent old vaudeville palace at Third Avenue and 18th Street North downtown, was built by theatrical impresario Jake Wells in 1913 when Birmingham was a raucous boomtown with a thriving entertainment district. Wells gave the Lyric 1,200 great seats, pin-drop acoustics, and elegant decor, and it quickly became the premier venue in Birmingham. ...
• • However, the good times for the Lyric, and for vaudeville, ended with the stock market crash of 1929. Jake Wells lost his theatres, including the Lyric, to the mortgage company. The theatre was sold to the Waters family of Birmingham in the mid-1930s and became a second-run movie house. It closed in 1958 and, since then, has been all but forgotten, in urgent need of renovation and rediscovery. ...
• • However, Birmingham Landmarks has so far been unable to achieve a critical mass of support for the renovation. One problem is that few people in Birmingham are old enough to remember the Lyric or have any nostalgia for it. “It’s easy to raise money for the Alabama, but people who had positive Lyric memories — — who saw Mae West and Will Rogers — — they’re all dead,” Liles says. “In my generation it was B-movies, C-movies. It’s been Birmingham’s best-kept secret.”
• • Open House on Sunday 13 December 2009 • •
• • This weekend, the people of Birmingham will have a rare opportunity to get in on the secret of the Lyric and, perhaps, develop their own sense of enthusiasm about the venue’s exciting possibilities. The 2009 Holiday Open House at the Alabama Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, and the Hill Arts Center is scheduled for Sunday, 13 December 2009, beginning at 2:00 in the afternoon. Phone: (205) 252-2262.
• • • • Tell them the MAE WEST BLOG told you to come up and see 'em.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Open house takes you inside Alabama and Lyric theatres"
• • BY: Jesse Chambers
• • Published by: The Birmingham Weekly — — www.bhamweekly.com
• • Published on: 9 December 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: March 1913

It was early in March 1913 when Willie Hammerstein assembled variety artists for his mid-winter festival week — — and engaged MAE WEST for this saucy extravaganza.
• • In 1912 and 1913, Hammerstein booked the teenager for eleven week-long engagements at his vaudeville attraction situated in Longacre [later Times] Square. The location was popularly known by New Yorkers as "the corner."
• • In 1899, Oscar Hammerstein built his fifth showplace — — the Victoria Theatre — — at the corner of West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Stars like Mae West, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and Eva Tanguay were among the thousands of performers who made Hammerstein's Victoria the vaudeville "nut house" of Times Square.
• • Heading the bill for this mid-winter festival week was Fay Templeton [1865—1939], an accomplished singer on the light opera circuit.
• • Hammerstein also premiered "The Squealer," a dramatic sketch by William C. DeMille and Charley Case's newest monologue.
• • There will be moving pictures of the Scott South Pole Expedition, promised Willie Hammerstein. Other acts on the bill were Mae West, Genaro and Bailey, The Bird Millman Trio, The Bison City Four, Sharp and Turek, Marlin and a Pack of Cards, The Jack Dakota Trio, Violinsky, Bud & Nellie Helm, and several others.
• • How many bon-bons did a ticket-holder need to buy in Longacre Square in order to sit through such a staggering stagebill in March 1913?
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West venue • • Hammerstein's • •
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Mae West: December 25th

MAE WEST has a tie to two individuals linked to December 25th.
• • Evelyn Nesbit Thaw — — born on 25 December 1884
• • No doubt Mae, an aspiring entertainer, would never forget her booking on 4 August 1913 — — when Hammerstein had scheduled the vivacious teenager to perform at his vaudeville playhouse situated in Longacre [later Times] Square. The location was popularly known by New Yorkers as "the corner."
• • On this sultry August evening, Mae West was there to open for a world-famous star: Evelyn Nesbit [1884 — 1967]. Despite a low-cut gown and provocative songs, Mae failed to fire up the audience.
• • The critic from The New York Tribune [whose coverage ran on 5 August 1912] commented that even Mae's low neckline and raunchy bumps and grinds were not enough to sway the hoi polloi.
• • In 1899, Oscar Hammerstein built his fifth showplace — — the Victoria Theatre — — at the corner of West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Stars like MAE WEST, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Ethel Barrymore, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and Eva Tanguay were among the thousands of performers who made Hammerstein's Victoria the vaudeville "nut house" of Times Square.
• • W.C. Fields — — died on 25 December 1946
• • Fields co-starred with Mae in the motion picture "My Little Chickadee," which began production on 12 November 1939 and wrapped up in December just before Christmas.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
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Mae West: The Lyric

Some people in Alabama still remember their first visit to the Lyric, the magnificent old vaudeville and movie palace at Third Avenue and 18th Street North downtown, where MAE WEST once wowed the audience.
• • According to a local scribe Jesse Chambers: Built in 1914 when Birmingham, Alabama was a raucous young boomtown with a thriving entertainment district, the Lyric Theatre once played host to the greatest names in entertainment but is now all but forgotten — — in urgent need of both renovation and public rediscovery. . . .
• • The people of Birmingham get a rare opportunity to visit the Lyric and, perhaps, to experience the same thrill of discovery that Burrow did [i.e., Holly Burrow, Director of the new Hill Arts Center], this Sunday, December 7th, 2008, from 2 — 4 p.m., during the 2008 Christmas Open House at the Alabama, the Lyric, and the Hill Center. On hand to answer questions about the Lyric . . . will be Dan Liles, a former history instructor at Marion Institute who is now the unofficial historian of the Lyric and the Alabama. . . .
• • For event information, phone: (205) 252-2262.
• • Legendary theatrical promoter Jake Wells built the Lyric as a top-tier vaudeville house, with 1,200 great seats, magnificent acoustics and elegant decor, and it quickly became the premier venue in Birmingham. Vaudeville was the name used to describe the wildly eclectic, often bawdy variety shows that were the most popular form of entertainment in America before the coming of radio and sound films. All the greats played the Lyric — Mae West, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Buster Keaton, George Burns, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Sophie Tucker, Billie Burke, and the Marx Brothers.
• • The good times for the Lyric, and for vaudeville, came to an end with the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. Wells lost his theatres, including the Lyric, to the mortgage company. The Schubert organization leased the Lyric and continued to present vaudeville, but the form was dying and, by the mid 1930s, the theatre was sold to the Waters family of Birmingham and became a second-run movie house. It closed in 1958 and has been largely unused since then. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "The voice of the theatre: Holiday open house to showcase the Alabama Theatre and the lovely Lyric"
• • Byline: Jesse Chambers
• • Published in: Birmingham Weekly — — www.bhamweekly.com/
• • Published on: 5 December 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Marion, Ohio

In Marion, Ohio, they fondly remember MAE WEST.
• • On August 30th and 31st, 2008, Ohio theater-goers will get a chance to party like it's 1928 at the kick-off event to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Palace Theatre — — and reminisce about the Brooklyn bombshell, too.
• • Elaine Merchant, executive director of the Palace, said she and other staff have done considerable research to re-enact the opening night in 1928, as closely as possible. Merchant calls this weekend's event a rewind to the entertainment the first Palace Theatre patrons would have seen in back then.
• • Performances will include some local folks who will bring a nostalgic flavor through tumbling, comedy, and vaudeville acts suggestive of such acts at Mae West, W.C. Fields, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Walters, Groucho Marx, Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foys, and more.
• • The anniversary event will open with the silent film "Sherlock Jr." starring Buster Keaton, accompanied by music on the Palace's Mighty Wurlitzer organ played by Dennis James.
• • The Palace Theatre [276 W. Center Street, Marion, Ohio 43302] can be phoned at (740) 383-2101 and they will tell you more about their 80th Jubilee.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 • •
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Mae West: Paul Johnson

MAE WEST is prominently profiled in Paul Johnson latest book on heroes, who peculiarly claims her ancestry can be traced to Buckinghamshire [sic] and gets a number of other details wrong.
• • This is an excerpt from "Why two blonde bombshells are in my list of all-time heroes" by Paul Johnson [London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, February 2008].
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Heroes are to be found in every age and in all kinds of places. Nor are they confined to one particular sex.
• • There are many women in my pantheon of heroes — — from Deborah and Judith in the Old Testament to Lady Jane Grey, Emily Dickinson, and Queen Boudica. It was in AD61 that, from her chariot, Boudica (or Boadicea, as her statue on Westminster Bridge calls her) bared the bruises where the Romans had flogged her and dared her fellow tribesmen to help her resist the invaders of England. . . .
• • But it was that very same spirit of independence and boldness that, two millennia after [Boudica], was to be found in a more modern hero — — the sassy and indestructible Miss Mae West.
• • From the start, West made a shrewd assessment of all the physical advantages her sex gave, capitalised on her strengths, kept her weaknesses in check, and ended a long, rich life with money in the bank, men on tap, and a few jokes to the good.
• • She was born Mary Jane West in 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, though her ancestry was English, from leafy Buckinghamshire [sic]. Her stage debut, aged seven, was Baby May — — Song And Dance.
• • As a teenager she changed her name to "Mae" because it was sexier, and by the time she was 20, she had played in Shakespeare [sic], toured in burlesque, danced on Broadway in a production of Les Folies Bergere [sic], and had her own vaudeville act.
• • She had also married and kicked out a no-good called Frank Wallace. He helped shape her views on men, which she set down in her "Ten Commandments" (there are actually 15).
• • Among "Things I'll Never Do", she swore not "to marry a man who is too handsome, a man who drinks to excess, a man who is easy to get, or is easily led into temptation — — unless I do the leading."
• • She said she would never "walk when I can sit, or sit when I can recline. I believe in saving my energy — — for important things".
• • And she would "never take another woman's man. Not intentionally, that is."
• • In her solo vaudeville act, she specialised in suggestive jokes and dressed to exploit her sexuality.
• • To theatre audiences in the 1920s, she was the personification of sex, an image she exploited by associating, for publicity purposes, with prizefighters, wrestlers, and athletes and musclemen.
• • Her ostensible choice in men did not change. Even in her 80s she still liked to be photographed with boxers, often admiring their physiques.
• • But was it all a stunt? There is no evidence that she had a particular interest in sex or wide sexual experience or knowledge, or salacious tastes.
• • In some ways, she was prudish. She was never photographed in the nude or topless.
• • She never used four-letter words or crude, explicit expressions. She never kissed onstage or on film.
• • She devoted much of her life to derisory innuendos and double entendres of great variety and ingenuity, putting them across with remarkable skill.
• • But she never told a dirty story as such, onstage or in private.
• • Her greatest achievement was to retain control over her own career.
• • Mae was one of a generation of inspired comics, including Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, and Stan Laurel.
• • The competition among them was keen, and the need for fresh, first-class material and funny scenarios was constant.
• • She soon discovered she could write better jokes, dialogue, and scripts than the ones provided for her.
• • But she had no authorial amour-propre or artistic pretensions. Everything was done ad hoc, much of it at the last minute.
• • The only criteria were applause and box office. Yet her role as author and gag-writer enabled her to keep complete control and to present herself as she wanted.
• • As a result, between the wars she turned "Mae West" into one of the most enduring and indestructible showbiz images in the world. No other female star was so completely her own invention.
• • Her efforts made her the highest-paid entertainer in America in 1934, with an income of $399,166. The following year, her earnings went up to $480,833, exceeded only by the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
• • She made her fortune by working outside the Hollywood studio system, which kept most other actors in gilded slavery under long, exclusive contracts giving them no share in profits.
• • By making herself her own boss, she won freedom and affluence.
• • She invested her money in high-quality diamonds, which were also stage props, and by the end of the 1930s, she was probably the most celebrated owner of precious stones outside India. She wore them as often as possible.
• • When an usherette at the Hollywood Roxy exclaimed at a premiere in December 1936, "Goodness, what diamonds!" Mae West came back with her best spontaneous [sic] riposte ever — — "Goodness has nothing to do with it." ["Spontaneous"?? Mae West used that line in a motion picture "Night After Night" in 1932.]
• • This was in the great American tradition of one-liners: "A hard man is good to find"; "It ain't the men in my life; it's the life in my men"; "When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad I'm better."
• • There were also her suggestive songs such as Come Up And See Me Some Time, I Like A Man Who Takes His Time, What Do You Have To Do To Get It, and many more.
• • She worked hard on her gags, and her enormous gag book was, next to her diamonds, her most precious possession.
• • It eventually numbered 2,000 pages and 20,000 jokes. She took some from stock publications for stand-up comics, such as McNally's Bulletin and Digest Of Humour, some of them going back to the 19th century.
• • But most were originals or at least her own versions.
• • The only effective restraint upon her was censorship. In 1927 she was convicted of corrupting public morals with one of her plays — — Sex.
• • She was sentenced to ten days in jail and served eight, with two days off for good behaviour.
• • She wove her prison term into her public image. With a proto-feminist twist, she pointed out that all the lawyers in the case against her were men, the jury was all-male and no women witnesses were called.
• • "This," she said, "was a case of Men versus One Woman."
• • That summed her up. She set out to prove that a woman can outdo men in the grand and grim task of show business, and she succeeded.
• • If Mae West was a boss-heroine, then Marilyn Monroe was a victim-heroine. The actress Shelley Winters knew them both. "I admired Mae West but I wanted to be Marilyn — — she had all the assets."
• • Mae West agreed. She said of Monroe: "She was the only girl who ever came close to me in the sex department. All the others had were big boobs." . . .
— — excerpt — —
• ADAPTED from Heroes by Paul Johnson, to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on February 14 at £20. ° 2008, Paul Johnson.
• • Source: Daily Mail [UK] — — www.dailymail.co.uk
• • Published on: 4 February 2008
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West Needs You

So far, MAE WEST ranks sixth as The Reader's Digest polls their audience to help choose the most side-splitting screen gems. Reader's Digest Editor Stefan Kanfer, who wrote about this quest to select the top hundred funniest films, listed these as the top ten.
• • THE GOLD RUSH (1925) — — Charlie Chaplin's greatest silent film.
• • THE FRESHMAN (1925) — — The third of the great silent film trio (the other two were Chaplin and Keaton), Harold Lloyd did all his own stunts, many of them dangerous, with skill and humor.
• • THE GENERAL (1927) — — Buster Keaton in an extraordinary silent comedy set during the Civil War.
• • DUCK SOUP (1933) — — Perhaps the purest film farce ever made — — directed con brio by Leo McCarey — — starring Harpo, Chico, and Groucho Marx at their manic peak.
• • DINNER AT EIGHT (1933) — — The "talkies" grew up with this adaptation of a Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Under George Cukor's canny direction John and Lionel Barrymore, sex goddess Jean Harlow, and comedians Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery enliven the narrative.
• • SHE DONE HIM WRONG (1933) — — Mae West became something of a joke in later life, but as her films prove, she was one of the best comedy writers in 1930s Hollywood. Here, she plays a Gay Nineties saloon singer in trouble with the law — — impersonated by Cary Grant in an early role. "When a woman goes wrong, the men go right after her." "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" The great lines are here, and Mae wrote 'em all. Lowell Sherman directed unobtrusively.
• • SONS OF THE DESERT (1933) — — Arguably Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's best film.
• • THE THIN MAN (1934) — — William Powell and Myrna Loy play Dashiell Hammett's sophisticated married sleuths, Nick and Nora Charles.
• • IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) — — Clark Gable is a cynical newspaperman who meets a pampered heiress (Claudette Colbert) in director Frank Capra's screwball comedy.
• • MY MAN GODFREY (1936) — — with Carole Lombard as the spoiled-rotten heiress and William Powell as the bum who becomes a butler and a guru in Gregory La Cava's rambunctious screwball farce.
• • As the publication is narrowing the field down to the top 100+ side-splitters of all time, write them and vote for Mae and more Mae.
• • Source: The Reader's Digest — — http://www.rd.com/ — —
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 ad • •
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Mae West: Hammerstein's

In June 1914 Willie Hammerstein died — — and, oh, what an angel he had been to MAE WEST. In 1912 and 1913, Hammerstein booked the teenager for eleven week-long engagements at his vaudeville attraction situated in Longacre [later Times] Square. The location was popularly known by New Yorkers as "the corner."
• • In 1899, Oscar Hammerstein built his fifth showplace — the Victoria Theatre — at the corner of West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Stars like MAE WEST, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and Eva Tanguay were among the thousands of performers who made Hammerstein's Victoria the vaudeville "nut house" of Times Square.
• • Mainly, it was Oscar's son Willie Hammerstein who deserves credit for the playhouse's 17-year successful run. Willie had the knack for booking crowd-pleasing stagebills along with a peacock's genius for public relations.
• • In 1900, Oscar Hammerstein built his sixth theatre — the Republic Theatre — next door to his Victoria Theatre on West 42nd Street and leased it to the immensely successful producer, David Belasco. Retaining roof rights of both buildings, Oscar opened Hammerstein's Roof Garden above both theatres. Mae West often played at "the Roof" as well.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West venue • • Hammerstein's Victoria • •
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Mae West: Brooklyn Roots

MAE WEST and other Kings County cut-ups are discussed in an excellent article published by the venerable Brooklyn Eagle. Written by Brooklyn historian John B. Manbeck, "When Brooklyn Lost its Groove" is worth looking at.
• • Enjoy a tiny bit below to whet your appetite:
• • According to John Manbeck, Comics on the radio and in the movies sustained the image of the dumb but lovable mug from Brooklyn. Vitagraph Films and Hollywood stole the Brooklyn bumpkin from vaudeville and moved him to Coney Island. There he was impersonated by Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, and John Bunny. Brooklyn women, although few had native roots, usually acted sharper than their counterparts act and were personified by MAE WEST, Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, Gloria Grahame, and Pamela Britton. Masie, played by Ann Sothern, became a female William Bendix.
• • Radio added an aural dimension to the portrait. . . .
Source: The Brooklyn Eagle - - http://www.brooklyneagle.com/
Byline: John B. Manbeck
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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