Mae West: Sex with Harpo

MAE WEST didn’t like working with W.C. Fields. But fans continue to appreciate the “Old West” comedy they made together in 1940. This is Part 2 of 2.
• • DVD Review: Mae West: The Glamour Collection on Universal Home Video. • •
• • Five fine Mae West films thrown together in a shoddy white plastic package. • •
• • Dan Callahan wrote: The DVD set concludes with the semi-classic “My Little Chickadee,” where Mae West met her match, W.C. Fields.
• • Mae West: Sex with Harpo Marx • •

• • Dan Callahan wrote: All this Old West-style comedy really needed was for the Marx Brothers to show up and the whole world to break down into sex (Mae West), drink (Fields), and self-defeating puns (Marx Bros.), concluding in the end of life as we know it: the sexual congress of Mae West and Harpo Marx, as Groucho watches and W.C. Fields passes out.
• • Dan Callahan wrote: “My Little Chickadee” is like a movie you dream of but can’t imagine actually happening, which is why it’s always a little prosaic, a tad disappointing.
• • Dan Callahan wrote: W.C. Fields gets the lion’s share of the laughs.
• • Dan Callahan wrote: But Mae West gets in her innings during a schoolroom scene where she counsels some unruly boys: “Two and two are four, and five’ll get ya ten if ya know how to woik it,” she advises.

• • Dan Callahan wrote: Mae West did one more disastrous movie after “Chickadee,” called “The Heat’s On,” then returned to the stage and later to nightclubs.  …
• • Dan Callahan’s very entertaining article continues on Slant, however, this excerpt ends here.
• • Source: Slant Magazine; published on Thursday, 30 March 2006.
• • On Sunday, 9 September 1934 • •
• • "Me and My Past" was reprinted in Delaware Star on Sunday, 9 September 1934. Among other matters, Mae West discusses ("How Her Famous Gait Was Born with Ed Wynn and Frank Tinney") the development of her slow, studied, slouchy strut while appearing on Broadway in "Sometime" with Ed Wynn, a comedian who moved very quickly across the stage.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Joyce Haber wrote: Arthur, the West Coast replica of the Manhattan discotheque, opened on La Cienega on Wednesday night. Everyone was there except Warren Beatty, because almost everyone is an investor.  ... And Mae West. Mae West in the flesh. Mae West with a long platinum mane, in a flip hairdo. Mae West in folds of white satin, crystal-beaded at the neckline. Mae West with Reg Lewis, who was Mr. Universal (sic) in an unidentified year.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I'd have a little writing to do here and there, so he'd work mostly in the in the mornings. I'd come in after lunch... it was easier to for me to work in the afternoons. But [W.C. Fields] would be late. Or he'd delay shooting the scenes. Fields knew all the time what he was doin'. The director came to me one day and said that Bill was on the sound stage, and that he'd been drinking. I said if he's been drinking let's get him out of here for the rest of the day. I had to go down to work, and I saw him there, showing off in front of about two hundred extras. The director told him, "Tomorrow morning, Bill," so he left. Tipped his hat to me on the way out. He was humorous, maybe. We didn't talk too often. When you're a star, you don't get much time for conversation, unless it's part of a scene."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Variety mentioned Mae West and the cast of “The Wicked Age.”
• • Variety was not impressed with Mae West's harmonica playing in "The Wicked Age."  They were not amused by "Satisfied" nor the other songs she thought up like "My Baby's Kisses."  But the most startling element was her racy, tummy-tossing physicality.  
• • Variety reprimanded her in their review: "Miss West is getting away at $3.85 with something the [burlesque] wheels don't dare at $1.65."
• • Source: Variety; published on Friday, 9 September 1927
• • 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 4,800 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,818th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • onscreen in 1943 • •
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Mae West: David Newell

MAE WEST worked with an actor whose screen time was cut short, though not his career.
• • Mae West cast David Newell in “The Wicked Age"  (1927).
• • David Newell [1905 ― 1980] • •
• • Born in Carthage, Missouri on Monday, 23 January 1905, David Newell was 22 when Mae West tapped him for the role of Bob Miles in "The Wicked Age;" the cast numbered 70 players.

• • In September 1928, Newell portrayed Lieutenant Jean-Marc Marrien in "The Phantom Lover," another short-lived Broadway production.
• • By 1929, the handsome six-foot-two newcomer was attracting leading man attention in "The Marriage Playground" (1929), based on an Edith Wharton novel, "Murder on the Roof" (1930), "Runaway Bride" (1930). But by the early 1930s, he was slotted into supporting character parts, then only filling uncredited roles.
• • As a character actor, used for minor parts, he amassed 148 credits.
• • Unfortunately, David Newell suffered a serious disfigurement in an auto accident. Consequently, he switched his focus, becoming a motion picture and TV make-up artist until his retirement in 1967.  
• • David Newell died on Friday, 25 January 1980 in Los Angeles, California. He was 75.
• • On Thursday, 12 July 1934 in Hollywood Reporter • •
• • Hollywood Reporter printed an article about Mae West's upcoming project. "New Orleans Kicks on Mae West's 'Belle'" was printed on the front page in the issue dated for Thursday, 12 July 1934.
• • July 2004: Mae West Blog launches • •

• • What are we up to, writing about the Brooklyn-born bombshell for 17 years now?
• • We’re here to keep Mae mavens up to date, correct errors, celebrate each revival of a play she wrote, post the latest Westian stage and book reviews. And answer our fan mail!
• • The light’s still on. Come up and see Mae every day.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Rifts in Tinseltown — — For David Newell, former Broadway leading man for Mae West and Ethel Barrymore, and Katharine Lewis, Hollywood actress.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "He who hesitates is a damned fool."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A fan magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • "Goin' to Town" — Paramount — Mae West, pursuing the man instead of being pursued, in a fast-moving, wise-cracking film, that will keep you laughing. (May)
• • Source: Photoplay Magazine; published in the issue dated for July 1935
• • Note: In case you assumed that script was solely meant for Mae West, think again.
• • In her syndicated column, Motion Picture Editor Louelle O. Parsons wrote this in 1933:  Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola have written an original for Jimmy Cagney called "Goin' to Town" and, although Jimmy plays a race track Jockey, he tries no rough tactics. In fact, he breaks into society and becomes the idol of the Four Hundred. "Goin' to Town" follows "The Heir Chaser" and it's one to a million he will have Joan Blondell with him on account of popular demand.  ...
• • Source: A syndicated gossip column item rpt in The Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania); published on Saturday, 2 December 1933
• • 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 4,700 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,775th 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with the Marx Brothers in 1928 • •
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Mae West: Silver Screen's Gold

If there is a compendium about motion picture comedy, then it must include the great comedienne MAE WEST — — and this new title discusses her unique contribution with well-shaped language.
• • A critique of ANOTHER FINE MESS: A History of American Film Comedy by Saul Austerlitz [Chicago Review, 512 pages] was spotted in The Boston Globe. A portion appears below.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Reviewer James Sullivan writes: Film comedy, Woody Allen once claimed, is harder to produce than drama. Still, the perpetually unsatisfied director was convinced that comedy is “less valuable than serious stuff.’’
• • In “Another Fine Mess,’’ a survey of the most significant artists — — yes, artists — — to make us laugh at the movies, from Charlie Chaplin to Will Ferrell, writer and critic Saul Austerlitz takes rigorous exception to Allen’s line of thinking. Addressing sexual, racial, economic, or political tensions, comedy has always helped its audience sort through the vagaries of the way we live now. Slapstick, screwball or spoof, comedy serves a function.
• • “We turn to drama to experience a heightened version of the world as we know it — — life, puffed up,’’ writes the author. “Comedy releases all that hot air; our laughter is a bemused acknowledgment of our own collective foibles and inadequacies.’’
• • Perilously, Austerlitz set for himself the task of identifying the 30 most representative comic figures in Hollywood history. Many are obvious — — Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, the Marx Brothers, Peter Sellers. Others, such as Dustin Hoffman, a dramatic actor who has done lots of comedies, or Judd Apatow, the director of a recent spate of ribald, dude-centric cash cows, might need a little splainin’.
• • But the writer, who contributes occasionally to the Boston Globe, and whose first book was a history of the music video, makes his case as deftly as Groucho lanced metaphorical balloons. W.C. Fields, the master of the withering aside, was in his early silent-film appearances “a juggler performing with one hand tied behind his back,’’ the critic observes. And if Preston Sturges, director of the classic comic testimonial “Sullivan’s Travels,’’ gave frequent leading man Joel McCrea the power to bend “the world to his will,’’ McCrea’s successor, the “pint-sized neurotic’’ Eddie Bracken, “could hardly convince his own extremities to comply.’’
• • Austerlitz notes that his biographical chapters are intended to create a conversation among comedy’s most influential practitioners. Arranged in rough chronological order, the effect is cumulative. Mae West’s brazen sexuality primps the pillow for Marilyn Monroe’s bombshell self-awareness; unlikely bedfellows Jerry Lewis and Richard Pryor somehow manage to conceive Eddie Murphy. ...
• • ... The author would not be the first to linger over the genius of Chaplin’s beloved Tramp, or the directors Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder, or Cary Grant’s canny subversion of his own good looks. “If Mount Rushmore were dedicated to comedians instead of statesmen,’’ he suggests, “Grant would have found himself climbing across his own face in ‘North By Northwest.’ ’’ ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Book Review: "Great film comics help us live with ourselves"
• • By: James Sullivan
• • Published in: The Boston Globe — — boston.com
• • Published on: 14 September 2010
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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Tell the bookseller you heard about it on the MAE WEST BLOG.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Hooray for Mercer

MAE WEST did not fill her household with any remnants from old wedding albums, even though she was legally married twice. But she did not mind playing the oft-married blushing bride Marlo Manners, who enters a posh London hotel lobby on the arm of her sixth husband, only to be greeted by an adoring mob of Marlo fans in "Sextette" [1978]. There is a very impressive rendition of "Hooray for Hollywood" by a large cast of performers. The iconic song was written by Johnny Mercer, who died in the month of June — — on 25 June 1976 — — from a brain tumor at age 66.
• • Unlike Mae West, the singer—songwriter has been honored by the United States Postal Service with his portrait placed on a stamp in 1996. Amazing who gets on an American postage stamp and who does not, eh?
• • Born in Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer [18 November 1909 — 25 June 1976] was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer. Though he is best known as a lyricist, he composed music, too. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others. From the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s, many of the songs Mercer wrote and performed were among the most popular hits of the time. The prolific musician wrote the lyrics to more than fifteen hundred songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Academy Award nominations, and won four. Mercer was also a co-founder of Capitol Records.
• • "Hooray for Hollywood" • •
• • "Hooray for Hollywood" is a film song first featured in the motion picture "Hollywood Hotel" [1937], a number that has since become the staple soundtrack element of any Academy Awards ceremony. Curiously enough, "Hooray for Hollywood" is even frequently played during non-American movie ceremonies, e.g. the French César Awards. The popularity of the song is notably due to the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, which reference the American movie industry and satirize the illusory desire of many people to become famous as actors. Richard A. Whiting [1891 — 1938] composed the music, then had a heart attack at the height of his fame.
• • When I die, you are going to be very surprised! • •
• • In connection with a special Pride show on Thursday, 24 June 2010 in Manhattan, Joan Rivers got a column devoted to her in The Villager, whose hard-working reporter asked the Botoxed-to-death comedienne if there was anything yet to be revealed. “Only for you,” Joan Rivers said, referring our plea for an exclusive nugget: “I am a man. Mae West did that all her life. Mae would say to her audiences, ‘When I die, you are going to be very surprised!' Then she died and there was no surprise — — but how clever.” [Source: The Villager, Volume 80, Number 4 | June 23 - 29, 2010.]
• • 25 June 1926 • •
• • Speaking of Benefits and good deeds that were scheduled right after the first day of summer, on 25 June 1926, Mae West appeared with Houdini and other entertainers (such as George M. Cohan, Fanny Brice, the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson, Ann Pennington, Hazel Dawn, Eddie Foy, etc.) at the Polo Grounds on West 155th Street in Manhattan's Washington Heights area [zipcode 10032].
• • The fundraiser, organized for the benefit of the United Jewish Campaign, was staged by Mae's old dancing teacher Ned Wayburn.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Alabama Variety

When MAE WEST performed in Dixie, those lovely Southern gentleman gave her a good hand — — the kind of applause that makes paint flake from the walls.
• • One of the many playhouses Mae appeared in was the Lyric Theatre.
• • The grandly decorated auditorium opened as the premier entertainment venue in Birmingham during the years 1914 —1926. In addition to boasting of the famous live acts featured here — — such as Mae West, Will Rogers [1879 — 1935], the Marx Brothers — — the playhouse once called the "King of Vaudeville" in Birmingham is very proud of its history. The Lyric is the oldest surviving theater in a city that once offered great variety to entertainment seekers: over sixty theatres, opera houses, nickelodeons, and silent movie houses. This sturdy corner building has withstood many decades of neglect and changes in the downtown community to become a lasting testament to Birmingham architecture and to vaudeville theatre.
• • The Lyric Theater is located at 1800 3rd Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama. According to Bobby Horton, of Birmingham Landmarks: "It's just our history. It's tied to our history. You know in 1914 when this thing was opened Birmingham was booming. This is a theater where the greatest names came through. This was a major, major stop on the vaudeville circuit . . . ."
• • Restoration efforts are afoot. The plan is to raise funds to renovate the Lyric in time for its 100th anniversary in 2014 — — and we wish them the best of luck.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Grand Opera House

MAE WEST performed in The Lone Star State — — to an appreciative crowd of 1,040 fans — — at the Grand Opera House located at 2020 Postoffice Street, near Galveston's central business district and the historic Strand. Built in 1894, the Grand Opera House is accessible by the island's trolley system.
• • Canadian reporter Ian Robertson writes: Like many such entertainment palaces, it became a vaudeville house after being rebuilt following the 1900 hurricane, then a cinema. Famous performers have included actresses Mae West, Sarah Bernhardt, Helen Hayes, and the Marx brothers.
• • Ian Robertson adds: A derelict, until $8 million and 13 years was spent on its restoration, today it hosts performances by stars such as Willie Nelson. Famous patrons include former U.S. President George W. Bush and his father, ex-President George H. W. Bush, the latter a Houston resident.
• • For an informative, up-beat armchair tour of Galveston, Texas, check out the link below.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Can't resist Galveston"
• • By: By IAN ROBERTSON, QMI Agency
• • Published in: Toronto Sun — — www.torontosun.com
• • Published on: 2 May 2010
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Erotic Turbulence

MAE WEST was part of the "golden age of turbulence" in Hollywood history, explains a British film fanatic. A few morsels from his juicy column appear below.
• • Geoffrey Macnab writes: Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s was a wildly contradictory place — — and its stars reflected this.
• • Geoffrey Macnab continues: On the one hand, in the early 1930s, the “golden age of turbulence” — — Mae West, Jean Harlow, James Cagney, and the Marx brothers were transgressive and risqué. This was the Depression era, and the sense of reckless desperation could be felt in musicals, gangster films and screwball comedies alike.
• • Geoffrey Macnab adds: But it was also the period in which Hollywood’s tendency toward self-censorship became evident. The so-called Hays Code had existed since the late 1920s, but its enforcement now became stricter. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "100 years of movie: The golden years — — In the dark decades of the 1930s and 1940s, the stars of the big screen shone more brightly than ever"
• • BY: Geoffrey Macnab, Film Columnist
• • Published by: The Independent [UK] — — www.independent.co.uk
• • Published on: 26 January 2010
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Punchy

It's quite tempting to memorialize one or two of the famous palookas whose good looks and midnight maneuvers (temporarily) knocked out MAE WEST.
• • There are enough boxing bio-pics onscreen during the flag-draped weekend of May 30th — 31st that, inevitably, thoughts turn to the handsome (former) heavyweight champion of the world Jack "Manassa Mauler" Dempsey [24 June 1895 — 31 May 1983], who died at the end of May and wooed the actress during 1921 when she was performing in "The Mimic World of 1921."
• • However, the blog is in arrears when it comes to posting reviews on books written about Mae West. And so we make way for these jottings from the British critic Phil Bloomfield.
• • Phil Bloomfield writes: Mae West famously invited people to “come up and see me some time.” Well, the author [Charlotte Chandler] of this book did just that — — and took with her a tape recorder to capture the reminiscences of Mae West shortly before her death.
• • This, then, is a collection of those recordings, arranged chronologically and interspersed with brief, non-critical linking passages and summaries of some of her more successful plays and films.
• • Little in the way of thoughtful analysis . . . • •
• • It offers little in the way of thoughtful analysis of Mae West’s contribution, reading more like a ghosted celebrity autobiography than a serious addition to the film studies canon.
• • However, having said that, it does offer insights into the character and history of one of the more colorful characters to emerge from vaudeville into the Hollywood spotlights.
• • The Mae West character was an invention of May West, a spirited daughter of a Brooklyn immigrant family, who changed her name a little and then developed and honed herself on the variety stage, in a similar fashion to the pre-movies Marx Brothers.
• • Mae West’s character creation was a sexy brassy blonde, wisecracking with double entendres, and with a serious love of diamonds. She was the author of many plays featuring this character; some were very successfully produced on Broadway. One of them, Diamond Lil, had a sell-out run in London. Her first play, Sex, was judged to be an immoral theatrical performance, so West was sentenced to either a $500 fine or ten days in prison [sic].
• • She chose the latter, thinking it might provide material for a future play. It did give her huge publicity, which she built on in moving to Hollywood in the 1930s. There she made a dozen movies, of variable quality and success, including My Little Chickadee with W C Fields. She refused to allow anyone else to write her lines in these movies, thus maintaining the illusion of her character. The book gives few clues to Mae West’s real love life behind her blousy creation: she was married once early on, but unlike Monroe did not give it a second try [sic]; she did have two long-time devoted men friends who lived with her, although with separate beds, and who appear to have been gofers and fixers, or possibly bodyguards. And what about her famous collection of diamonds, given as gifts? The book ends with a sad little anecdote suggesting that she didn’t receive them all from admirers, but bought many of them herself.
— — Source: — —
• • Book Review: “She Always Knew How" by Charlotte Chandler (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
• • Byline: Phil Bloomfield, Oxford Times Book Critic
• • Published in: The Oxford Times — — www.oxfordtimes.co.uk
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: In Pittsburgh

MAE WEST will return to the Pittsburgh area tomorrow night in a rollicking nostalgia-rich stars and stripes production set during wartime.
• • "A USO Tribute Variety Show" will focus on the heyday of Bob Hope's tours, the World War II years of the 1940s. There are some GIs who still can remember when Bob Hope ventured out to the war zones taking with him a constellation of Broadway's best and Hollywood's biggest names.
• • Bob Hope would be accompanied by high-profile stars such as Mae West, Judy Garland, the Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, Rita Hayworth, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Shirley Temple, Jack Benny, and more.
• • All these famous entertainers (and many others) will come to life again through the 50-member — — the largest ever for ACT — — cast.
• • "A USO Tribute Variety Show" was written and organized by producer Paul Wright of North Buffalo and co-directors Cortney Bavera of Worthington and Laura Lloyd of Washington Township.
• • "A USO Tribute Variety Show" is being presented by Pennsylvania's Armstrong Community Theater
• • When: Thursday — Saturday on February 19, 20, and 21, 2009 at 7:30 PM.
• • Info: 724-763-3680
• • Location: Armstrong Community Theater Group at Lenape Technical High School [2215 Chaplin Avenue, Ford City, PA 16226-1608]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: St. Louis Woman

An intriguing article on the motion picture industry mentioned Paramount Pictures and MAE WEST.
• • No fan of today's "global popcorn" features, film critic Joe Williams had this to say:
• • It's no coincidence that when America entered the Great Depression, Hollywood entered its Golden Age. From 1929 until the end of World War II, the studios tailored their products for hard times.
• • The year of the stock market crash was also the first year that talkies outnumbered silent movies. Audiences came out in droves to experience sound — and a rarity called air conditioning.
• • In the 1930s, the studio system was at its peak of efficiency, producing prestige films featuring carefully groomed matinee idols as well as "B movies" and newsreels that kept audiences captive for hours.
• • The competing studios, which owned their own theater chains, each had different specialties. Industry leader MGM specialized in costume fare and glamorous musicals. Among its biggest stars were dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, whose characters wore evening attire and hobnobbed with the swells from Broadway to Brazil.
• • Paramount appealed to popular tastes with the comical Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields, heroic Gary Cooper, and the sexy Mae West.
• • Not all of the movies of the Depression era were escapist. Warner Bros. specialized in social realism. It was the studio for gangster films and hard-boiled dramas featuring independent women such as Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck. When the studio pushed too hard against moral conventions of the mid-1930s, there was a backlash from the Roman Catholic Church, which tamed American film for the next three decades.
• • Today's Hollywood is a far different place, run by corporations aiming for cross-platform penetration. Even in boom times, the new Hollywood specializes in "tentpole" spectaculars that translate easily overseas. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Studios package global popcorn"
• • By: Joe Williams, POST-DISPATCH FILM CRITIC
• • Published in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch — — www.stltoday.com — — St. Louis, MO 63101
• • Published on: 15 February 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Speaking of Saint Louis, Missouri, did you know that one Mae West movie was going to be called "Saint Louis Woman"?
• • Originally titled "It Ain't No Sin" until the censors prevailed, then "Saint Louis Woman" and "Belle of New Orleans" — — until complaints were registered from those two communities — — "Belle of the Nineties" [runtime: 73 minutes] was Mae West's first post-Production Code film.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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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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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Ivie Anderson

Gilroy, California native Ivie Anderson [10 July 1905 — 28 December 1949] appeared with MAE WEST in Hollywood.
• • The Gilroyan is known for these songs: "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," and "Stormy Weather."
• • According to The Gilroy Dispatch, Ivie Anderson also appeared in a few classic comedies such as "Belle of the Nineties" with Mae West and "A Day at the Races" with the Marx Brothers.
• • Considered by some to be Duke Ellington's greatest vocalist, Ivie studied voice at St. Mary's Convent and went to high school in the garlic capital of the USA.
• • She is the subject of a new book being written for the Duke Ellington Society: "Ivie Anderson: Legendary Vocalist of the Ellington Orchestra." Author Fred Glueckstein is asking Gilroyans for anything related to Ivie — — photos or information. Any details will be appreciated. Most accounts have her born in Gilroy (even as specific as 363 Old Gilroy Street), though one source says she was born in a Los Angeles suburb. If you know anything, call California's Gilroy Historical Museum at 846-0446.
— — Source for these details: — —
• • Byline: Mark Derry
• • Published on: 8 February 2008
• • Source: The Gilroy Dispatch: 6400 Monterey Street, Gilroy, CA 95020 — — www.gilroydispatch.com/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Houdini

MAE WEST appeared on the same bill with Houdini occasionally.

• • Born Erik Weisz in the month of March, the Hungarian-American magician took the stage name of Harry Houdini.
• • Harry Houdini [24 March 1874 – 31 October 1926], the popular escape artist and stunt performer (as well as a debunker of sham spiritualists and an amateur aviator) is in the news this month. A recent book about his life raised the suspicion that the physically fit vaudevillian was murdered, perhaps by poison. His body, buried in November 1926 in Queens, New York, is being exhumed.
• • On 25 June 1926, Mae West appeared with Houdini on the same stage for the last time. The star of "Sex" was performing with the magician and other entertainers (such as George M. Cohan, Fannie Brice, the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson, Ann Pennington, Hazel Dawn, Eddie Foy, etc.) at the Polo Grounds on West 155th Street in Manhattan's Washington Heights area [zipcode 10032].
• • The fundraiser, organized for the benefit of the United Jewish Campaign, was staged by Mae's old dancing teacher Ned Wayburn.
• • Happy Birthday, Houdini, born on March 24th.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Polo Grounds • • where Mae performed in 1926 • •
NYC
Mae West.