Mae West: Picture Grosses

It was on Saturday, 7 March 1936 when Motion Picture Herald was discussing MAE WEST, whose box office figures were holding their head up higher and higher despite the campaign against her by Hearst.
• • “Klondike Annie” Brings Trouble, and Emanuel Cohen Gets Mae West • •
• • Picture Grossing $2,500―$8,500 over Average Per Box Office in Face of Hearst Editorials Against Film • •
• • Motion Picture Herald wrote: The illuminated marquee of San Francisco's Warfield theatre the other day advertised the following double bill: “Here Comes Trouble” ― “Klondike Annie” with Mae West. The trouble is here, all right.

• • Motion Picture Herald wrote: William Randolph Hearst brought it, in the role of public champion of motion picture morals, to Miss West, to her producers, the Paramount Pictures Corporation; to Will H. Hays and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America; to Joseph Ignatius Breen, the Production Code Administrator in Hollywood; to some of the exhibitors playing "Klondike Annie"; and to the motion picture industry institutionally.
• • "Ceiling Zero" and Campbell Soups • •
• • MPH wrote: Mr. Hearst's method was an attack on the aforementioned, specifically or otherwise, for the "immorality" and "indecency" of "Klondike Annie."
• • MPH wrote: His medium was the editorial pages of the 28 newspapers that he controls. His motive: The grapevine from Hollywood reports that the production community, looking about for the provocation for Mr. Hearst's swift outburst, saw as a possibility Production Code Administration attention to "Ceiling Zero," produced by Mr. Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures.
• • MPH wrote: Along Hollywood Boulevard there was comment that a story was about that Miss West had not so long before rather firmly declined an invitation to appear as a guest star on a "Hollywood Hotel" program, the radio hour sponsored by Campbell Soups and conducted by the influential Miss Louella Parsons, motion picture editor of Mr. Hearst's Universal News Service.
• • Source: Motion Picture Herald; published on Saturday, 7 March 1936.
• • Will Hays [5 November 1879 — 7 March 1954] • •
• • Will Hays did battle with Mae West, bleaching her scripts of fun and friskiness, and earning his title as the Hitler of Hollywood.
• • The first president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), Will Hays began his new job, at a $100,000 annual salary, in the month of March — — on 6 March 1922.
• • After his retirement in 1945, Will H. Hays returned to his hometown in Indiana where he died in the month of March — — on Sunday, 7 March 1954. He was 74.
• • On Saturday, 7 March 1936 • •

• • The movie "Klondike Annie" starring Mae West (with actor Victor McLaglen as her co-star) was reviewed in Motion Picture Herald (on page 19) on Saturday, 7 March 1936.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • From the perfumed, silk cushioned boudoirs of a Barbary coast gambling-drive to the frozen reaches of the Arctic circle may seem like a far pump, but that grand gal, Mae West, does it easily, and as gracefully as ever, in "Klondike Annie,” her new film.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Keep a diary and one day it'll keep you."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Hollywood Reporter mentioned Mae West.
• • The Hollywood Reporter reported that there were sixteen stories in the March 1934 Movie Mirror "and they all, individually, are worth the price of the magazine." Mae West appeared on the front cover of Movie Mirror.
• • Inside, Harry Lang, the Boswell of Tinseltown, concluded his three-part series of the life story of Mae West. …
• • Note: The fan magazine Movie Mirror was 96 pages and cost only a dime.
• • Source: The Hollywood Reporter; published on Wednesday, 7 March 1934
• • 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 4,944th 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: Cast as Chuck Connors

In 1932, Tammany Young was in one motion picture with MAE WEST.
• • Born in New York City in September, Tammany Young [9 September 1886 — 26 April 1936] appeared on Broadway in "The Front Page" [1928] by Ben Hecht and "The New Yorkers" [1930] by Herbert Fields and Cole Porter. He acquired the rep of being a “good luck actor” by Broadway producers. Consequently, he was often cast in bit parts by the likes of the Shubert brothers, Jed Harris, and David Belasco as a way of attracting good luck to their productions. This high regard paid off and Alex Gard drew his likeness for Sardi's restaurant.
• • In Hollywood, Young started out in silent films and then was cast in talkies. Although frequently uncredited, he eventually appeared in over 100 movies with such stars as Mae West, Myrna Loy, Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, and Judy Garland.
• • Tammany Young as Chuck Connors, “The Mayor of Chinatown” • •
• • In "She Done Him Wrong," Tammany Young portrayed the colorful Chuck Connors, who had been a well-known figure on the Bowery. The huckster and fast-talking tourist magnet died of pneumonia in the House of Relief in Hudson Street on 10 May 1913. [Mae was almost 20 by then, so she probably heard her share of Chuck Connors stories. His autobiography had been ghostwritten by Richard K. Fox.] On Broadway, Mae West had cast Chuck Connors, Jr. in the role of Chuck Connors in "Diamond Lil" for an air of authenticity.
• • One day I'll post my photo of Chuck Connors and see if Tammany Young bore any resemblance to this fast-talking con artist.
• • Tammany Young was known most notably for his role as the stooge (straight man) to W.C. Fields, with whom he appeared in seven screen comedies: Sally of the Sawdust (1925), Six of a Kind (1934), You're Telling Me! (1934), The Old Fashioned Way (1934), It's a Gift (1934), Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935), and Poppy (1936).
• • Tammany Young also was an infamous gate crasher. By claiming to be an ice man, he worked his way into the 1921 Dempsey — Carpentier prize fight in New Jersey, for instance; in 1932 he found his way into the Los Angeles Olympics. These exploits often popped up in the columns of sportswriters who knew him.
• • It was on 26 April 1936 that Tammany Young died in his sleep in Hollywood at the age of 49. At the news of Young's untimely demise in California, W.C. Fields became severely depressed and stopped eating and sleeping. One wonders: did he also stop drinking while in mourning?
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this in The Hussy: "An interested husband is an interesting husband."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mae West didn't discover curves. She only uncovered them. Along the line, she discovered Cary Grant and Steve Cochran, too.
• • Writes L.A. Daily's Gregory Moore: "For my dough, the hottest, butchest, tough-guy hunk in Hollywood, circa late 40's-early 50's: Steve Cochran. "He was Mae West's discovery and longtime stud well into her 60's. (According to Mamie Van Doren, they both 'shared' him... and according to Mamie, he had the biggest dick in Hollywood). "You'll see some evidence of that in the final triptych I did of 3 screencaps from a 1952 film called The Lion and the Horse (guess who he played?), in which his jean-covered crotch should have gotten co-star billing! ...
• • Source: Photo Feature: "Beefcake Shots Of The Hottest Butch Number Of The 1950s" written by Gregory Moore and reprinted by Michael Musto for The Village Voice; posted on Thursday, 8 September 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2048th 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: Time's Up for Tim

Since MAE WEST had her eye on Tammany Hall perhaps for the entire time she lived in New York, she could spot a fixer. One of them didn't fix his abrupt end though, which arrived rather shabbily at the end of August on some railroad tracks well north of his Chinatown clubhouse.
• • "Big" Tim Sullivan [23 July 1862 — 31 August 1913] was a fixer extraordinaire and a born ward-heeler. This New York politician who controlled Manhattan's Bowery and Lower East Side districts as a prominent figure within Tammany Hall was the model for Mae's character Gus Jordan in "Diamond Lil."
• • Similarly, in "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] the bejeweled chanteuse and brash entertainer Lady Lou (Mae West) works in the 1890s Bowery saloon of her boss and benefactor Gus Jordan (Noah Beery, Sr.), who has given her many diamonds.
• • Several of the regulars who could be found bending an elbow at Gus Jordan's barroom were drawn from life. In 1928, many ticket-holders lining up in front of the Royale Theatre [located at 242 West 45th Street] probably would have recognized the name, for instance, of the legendary Bowery notable Chuck Connors, and relished seeing Chuck Connors, Jr. in the cast portraying his infamous Dad — — called "Lefty Eddie" in Mae's play.
• • "Big" Tim reworked as Gus Jordan • •
• • Unbeknownst to Lady Lou, slick and sleazy Gus Jordan trafficks in white slavery (prostitution) and runs a counterfeiting ring (to help finance Lou's expensive rock collection). He also sends young women to San Francisco to be pickpockets. Gus works with two other crooked entertainer-assistants, Russian Rita (Rafaela Ottiano) and Rita's lover, the suave Serge Stanieff (Gilbert Roland).
• • Not as handsome as Beery and certainly far heavier, "Big" Tim Sullivan was born to poor Irish parents in the notorious Five Points neighborhood. Determined to be successful, "Big" Tim Sullivan cultivated careers in business and politics. Over the course of 25 years beginning in 1886, Sullivan assembled a political machine that ruled the districts of lower Manhattan. A legitimate entrepreneur in the world of entertainment, Sullivan forged an effective brand of urban politics by fusing the traditional tactics of the machine with his influence in commercial leisure and organized crime.
• • Staging theatrical entertainments and athletic competitions, handing out food and clothing to constituents, and offering employment and social services to ordinary citizens won him many followers, but Sullivan's protection of key figures in the vice economy of the Lower East Side made him a rather controversial figure. Despite his frequent use of physical intimidation, "Big" Tim nonetheless worked to expand the franchise and give the disadvantaged a voice in municipal politics.
• • Both Mae West's character Gus Jordan and Tim Sullivan were active in a number of illegal activities including prostitution, white slavery, gambling, and extortion.
• • On 31 August 1913, "Big" Tim's body was found on the tracks in the Eastchester area of the Bronx, New York. He was 51 years old.
• • Sullivan's wake was held at his clubhouse — — located at 203 Bowery.
• • More than 25,000 people turned out for his funeral at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, New York on Mott Street. Perhaps some "mourners" turned up solely to make sure this politico was dead.
• • Tim's clubhouse was down the block from the notorious Bowery "resort" near Houston Street, namely McGurk's Suicide Hall [295 Bowery]. The second chapter of "Diamond Lil" (a 256-page novelization of the play published by Macaulay in 1932) is Suicide Hall.
— — Source for some of this information: — —
• • Article: "Underworlds and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889 — 1913"
• • Byline: Daniel Czitrom
• • Published in: The Journal of American History, vol. 78, no.2
• • Published on: September 1991
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Lady Lou with "Gus Jordan" in 1932 • •
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Mae West: Garden State

MAE WEST and Cary Grant will delight film buffs in The Garden State next month.
• • As part of Monmouth County Library's popular series, Thursday Afternoon Films, the iconic comedy "She Done Him Wrong" [1933, Paramount Pictures] will be shown on Thursday, 15 October 2009 — — from 2:00 PM — 3:10 PM.
• • Starring Mae West and Cary Grant, and inspired by Mae's Broadway hit "Diamond Lil," this 66 minute pre-Code screen classic is set during the 1890s in the lively downtown district where Chinatown meets the Bowery.
• • Location: Monmouth County Library [Eastern Branch, 1001 Route 35, Shrewsbury, NJ 07702-4398]. Tell the Eastern Branch that the Mae West Blog sent you.
• • For details, please phone: 866-941-8188.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Decade-ism?

MAE WEST popped up between the sheets of The London Review of Books, whose critics seem to be so derailed by deadlines that they never heard of the Gay Nineties Broadway hit "Diamond Lil" [onstage in 1928] nor the 1890s drama set on the Bowery "She Done Him Wrong" [1933], a motion picture classic by Paramount. They have heard plenty about the Brooklyn bombshell, though.
• • Obviously, Mae West was not the only writer to revive the 1890s era on the Bowery and in Chinatown. In May 1904, for instance, married actors Mr. and Mrs. Terry McGovern starred in Theodore Kremer's stirring melodrama "The Bowery After Dark" at the People's Theatre. Kremer set his scenes in Suicide Hall, Chatham Square, Chinatown, etc.
• • During the 1890s, The New York World commissioned artist Julius C. Fireman to illustrate the interior of Suicide Hall.
• • Decade-ism • •
• • Scrutinizing a new release "When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies," reviewer Ian Jack wonders: When did ‘decade-ism’ — — history as wine gums — — start?
• • Ian Jack writes: The first decades that took a retrospective grip on the popular imagination were the 1890s and the 1920s. It may not be a coincidence that both have been characterised as fun-loving eras that chucked out staid manners and stale customs, whose social revolutionaries were libertines (Mae West) and gangsters (James Cagney).
• • Perhaps more than any other agency, it was Hollywood that defined those decades for people too young to know them. The American experience became the way the 1920s were remembered, even though only a tiny proportion of the world’s population in 1925 drank hard liquor out of teapots in speakeasies; or danced — — danced, danced, danced! — — often in a cloche hat and with a long cigarette-holder pointed riskily at their partner’s crotch.
• • It took thirty years for the 1890s to become established as ‘naughty’ or ‘gay’ — — Mae West’s "Belle of the Nineties" came out in 1934 — — but the 1920s were quicker off the mark. "The Roaring Twenties," with James Cagney as its star, branded the decade only nine years after it ended. The Wall Street Crash and the ending of Prohibition, by utterly changing American life, had quickly sealed off the 1920s as history.
• • Subsequent decades didn’t easily offer themselves for styling. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Book Review: "Downhill from Here"
• • Title being reviewed: When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies by Andy Beckett
• • BY: Ian Jack | Literary Critic
• • The London Review of Books — — http://www.lrb.co.uk/
• • Published on: 27 August 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Ziegfeld

As a child, MAE WEST heard fascinating recollections about New York City's Chinatown and the Bowery. Aware of the attractiveness of these lively locales, authors found creative ways to situate their narratives in these neighborhoods.
• • Charles H. Hoyt, for instance, wrote the immensely popular musical comedy "A Trip to Chinatown." The story focuses on a widow who connives and contrives to bring romance to several couples and herself in a big city restaurant [think of "Hello, Dolly!"].
• • Still capitalizing on the "Trip to Chinatown" craze, clever showmen reworked the play again and presented it under a new title: "A Winsome Widow."
• • Nineteen-year-old brunette Mae West was featured in the show "A Winsome Widow" as La Petite Daffy in 1912.
• • The musical was presented at the Moulin Rouge, then located at 1514-16 Broadway [West 44th Street], New York, NY. This showplace was demolished in 1935.
• • This extravaganza was produced by Flo Ziegfeld, and during its latest revision the Eastside musical was relocated to the West Coast — — to San Francisco's Chinatown.
• • As La Petite Daffy, Mae West won acclaim for her vivacity and sauciness. "Mae West assaults the welkin vigorously," applauded the New York Dramatic Mirror from their tony perch on West 42nd Street right opposite the New York Public Library.
• • Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. • •
• • Born in Chicago, Illinois, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. [1867 — 1932] was a Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies [1907 — 1931], inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris. Ziegfeld, who also built his own theatre on The Great White Way, earned a reputation as the "glorifier of the American girl."
• • At 65 years old, Flo Ziegfeld died in Hollywood, California during the month of July — — on 22 July 1932 — — from pleurisy related to a former lung infection.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Vaude

Fifty-five years ago, a book was published that discussed many aspects of MAE WEST's career in variety. Here is a tiny selection from a fascinating book written from a first-person perspective by Joe Laurie, Jr., who had worked with Mae and composer-pianist Raymond Walker [born 1883]..
• • Joe Laurie, Jr. writes: When vaude fell apart, many of the piano players did very well writing hit songs, and others spread around cafes and night clubs.
• • Many, too many, have changed their piano for a harp!
• • Of all the old-time vaude accompanists, there are still two who are working at their trade and doing great. Raymond Walker (writer of "Good Night, Nurse" in 1912 and other songs), who played for Sophie Tucker, Mae West, and Marie Fenton when they first started, and who has played everything from the Chatham Club in New York's Chinatown to vaude and then to night clubs, now at the age of seventy is still accompanying the future greats in the plush cafes of Florida. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Vaudeville: From the Honky-tonks to the Palace
• • Chapter: ACCOMPANIED BY . . .
• • Author: Joe Laurie, Jr.
• • [NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1953]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1912 • •
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Mae West: In Chinatown

MAE WEST was fascinated by New York City's Chinatown and the Bowery. And a hundred or so years ago, other authors were also intrigued and inspired by these neighborhoods.
• • Charles H. Hoyt, for instance, who was born in Concord, New Hampshire in July — — on 26 July 1859 — — wrote the immensely popular musical comedy "A Trip to Chinatown" (featuring a score by Percy Gaunt). Fifty years later, "A Trip to Chinatown" was turned into a silent film that starred the beautiful Anna May Wong. And that's not all. In 1891, the play premiered at Broadway’s Madison Square Theater and enjoyed a run close to two years (or 657 performances). Two of the most popular numbers from the show are still known: "The Bowery" and "Reuben and Cynthia."
• • The plot of "A Trip to Chinatown" is centered on a widow who connives and contrives to bring romance to several couples and herself in a big city restaurant [think of "Hello, Dolly!].
• • Still capitalizing on the "Trip to Chinatown" craze, clever showmen reworked the play again and presented it under a new title: "A Winsome Widow." Nineteen-year-old and fresh-faced Mae West was featured in the show "A Winsome Widow" as La Petite Daffy in 1912.
• • This extravaganza was produced by Flo Ziegfeld, and this time the Eastside musical was relocated to the West Coast — — to San Francisco's Chinatown.
• • As La Petite Daffy, Mae West won acclaim for her vivacity and sauciness. "Mae West assaults the welkin vigorously," applauded the New York Dramatic Mirror from their tony offices on West 42nd Street right opposite the New York Public Library.
• • Drawing inspiration from her past and the NYC neighborhoods that she always loved, Mae West set her hit play "Diamond Lil" [1928] along the entertaining stretch of the Bowery closest to Chatham Square, the liveliest mile in New York at one time. The song "The Bowery" was featured, performed by the character Ragtime Kelly.
• • In Mae West's novelization of "Diamond Lil," she situates scenes right on Chinatown's exotic side streets, for instance, Mae's amusing chapter "A Night on Division Street."
• • Not through yet with Chinatown's local color, Mae West opens her screenplay for "Klondike Annie" in Chinatown. The Paramount Pictures film set the mood in San Francisco's Chinatown, however, not in New York.
• • To learn more about Mae West's eastside productions, come walk on the WEST side, starting right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below for details and ticket pricing.]
• • Only 17 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West immortalized Suicide Hall at 293 Bowery • • 1914 • •
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Mae West: Man Fook

MAE WEST knew men but she also had a special place in her heart for Man Fook Low. In Los Angeles, her favorite Oriental eatery was Man Fook Low in Market Chinatown, one of the first places to feature the dumplings now known as dim sum.
• • In the 1930s, Hollywood started patronizing the top Chinatown restaurants. Repeat attenders included chopstick-wielders such as Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, Walt Disney, and the Marx Brothers. During the Depression, when movie people could afford to eat well at a time when many Americans were jobless, the West Coast gossip columns and movie magazines would mention Tuey Far Low alongside showbiz hang-outs such as the Brown Derby, Sardi's, and the Coconut Grove. (Tuey Far Low courted customers by staying open until 5 A.M.)
• • Celebrities also flocked to Man Jen Low and the Dragon's Den.
• • In Mae's opinion, however, Man Fook Low was THE PLACE for "authentic" Chinese chow. In 1959 their shui mai dumplings were 35 cents each.
• • The Lunar Year 2007 begins the year of the pig.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1954 • •
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