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MAE WEST recorded a popular old standard in her album "The Fabulous Mae West" [for MCA Records, Inc., 100 Universal Plaza, Universal City, California] — — "All of Me" by composer Gerald Marks.
• • Born in Saginaw, Michigan in the month of October — — on 13 October 1900 — — Gerald Marks began writing songs as a boy. He was best known for the song "All of Me," which he co-wrote in 1931 with bandleader Seymour Simons, and which has been recorded more than 1,000 times (including four versions by Frank Sinatra). Al Jolson was the first to make it a hit. Marks also wrote the songs "That's What I Want for Christmas" for a Shirley Temple film, and "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?" recorded by Al Jolson and Rudy Vallee.
• • After a long and exciting career, Gerald Marks died on 27 January 1997. He was 96 years old.
• • Mae West on the Bookshelf • •
• • Author Michael Bronski's new book "A Queer History of the USA" [Beacon Press, 286 pages] has been getting press attention and has attracted new awareness to Mae West's legal battles in 1927.
• • Writing for Gay City News, Doug Ireland had this to say about Mae West, "The Drag," and Bronski: Michael Bronski traces the crucial role the theatrical stage played as a transmission belt for discussions of a wider spectrum of sexualities. He’s unearthed examples that –– –– even though I consider myself fairly well versed in homo history –– –– were new to me. For example, “the opening scene of Mae West’s 1927 play ‘The Drag’ –– featuring homosexual characters and a drag ball –– –– has two characters discussing the ideas of Karl Ulrichs,” the 19th century German agitator for homosexual liberation who is considered the pioneer of the LGBT movements for sexual liberation. The play was closed down by authorities, as was the iconic Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch’s classic 1907 drama “The God of Vengeance” for its lesbian content.
• • Doug Ireland continued: Such widespread stage portrayals contributed to the Republican-controlled New York State Legislature’s vote to ban any theatrical performances “depicting or dealing with the subject of sex degenerates or sex perversion.” ...
• • Source: Article: "America Only Gets Queerer" written by Doug Ireland for Gay City News; posted: Wednesday, 12 October 2011
• • On 13 October 1928 • •
• • On 13 October 1928, an article appeared in Billboard Magazine (on page 42) covering the actions of the NYC police who had padlocked Mae's second homosexual play "Pleasure Man."
• • On 13 October 1932 • • 
• • During the middle of October in 1932, Mae's jewel robbery was in the newspaper headlines. It was a frightening episode — — and it occurred just a few months after Mae had relocated to Los Angeles, California to be in the speakeasy film "Night After Night" with George Raft.
• • Clip: Omaha-Bee News on 13 October 1932.• • On 13 October 1933 • •
• • Mordaunt Hall critiqued the motion picture "I'm No Angel" starring Mae West on 13 October 1933 for The New York Times. Hall gave this screen comedy a rave review.
• • On 13 October 1968 • •
• • It was on 13 October 1968 that The New York Times printed this teasing dispatch from their Rome-based journalist Mark Shivas: "Fellini's Back, and Mae West's Got Him!"
• • Federico Fellini [20 January 1920 — 31 October 1993] had met Mae West in 1963 and had been wooing her from then — — cooking her pots of pasta and coaxing her to appear in one of his projects, according to the eccentric filmmaker. "Mae West is the mother of the empress," announced Fellini. "An erotic witch. She knows everything about the ancient ritual of bedrooms. I met her five years ago and she looked more like 45 than 75. Molto Simpatico. Intelligent. Full of humor. . . ."
• • But Mae West was more interested in protecting her brand than chasing after Fellini's carrot. When asked by reporters to confirm her role in his next film, Mae replied: "I will not sign until I see the script" [17 October 1968].
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Goodness had nothing to do with it."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article in The New Masses discussed Mae West.
• • Robert Forsythe wrote: When you consider Madame Du Barry and Nell Gwynne, it is evident that Mae West has made a mistake in confining her immorality to stage and screen. Granted that a woman of her intelligence could be prevailed upon to favor, a Congressman or a Secretary of War, the spectacle of Miss West affecting state policy as well as private temperatures is something which no future historian could afford to overlook. It is plain that on any basis of comparison she belongs to the great line.
• • Robert Forsythe explained: There are so many indications of the breakdown of capitalist civilization that we are inclined to become tender and sympathetic in the midst of the debacle, much in the manner of "don't cheer, boys; the poor devils are dying," but it is obvious that Miss West, more than any of her associates, symbolizes the end of an epoch. Her stage plays, Sex and The Drag, uncovered such a horrifying picture of homosexuals, lesbians and ordinary degenerates that Miss West was sentenced to the work house for ten days as a way of restoring the faith of the populace in the great city. Her motives in presenting the plays were undoubtedly mercenary, but her attorneys overlooked a great opportunity of establishing her as a sociologist and humanitarian, moved solely by her concern for reform.
• • Robert Forsythe continued: The movies were more astute in their management of her films. They retained the spiciness, the lustiness and bawdiness, but they carefully confined them to the past. ...
• • Source: Article: "Mae West: A Treatise on Decay" written by Robert Forsythe for The New Masses; published on 9 October 1934.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2082nd 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 • • in October 1932 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST as a guest — — performing on Judy Garland's TV show — — is the frame around Michael Holmes's mischievous portrait of classic Hollywod.
• • At the heart of his celebrity impressions is curly-locks Holmes's impersonation of the old "Judy Garland Show," her 1964 television variety show during which she played host to some of the greatest stars of Hollywood — — also portrayed by Mr. Holmes.
• • Judy's glamourous line-up includes Mae, Carol Channing, Bette Davis, and others, singing popular standards such as "Hello Dolly," "Stormy Weather," "I left my Heart in San Francisco," and many more as well as Judy's trademark number "Over the Rainbow."
• • WHERE: The Acorn Theater | 107 Generations Dr., Three Oaks, MI | 269-756-3879
• • Tell them 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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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
To raise funds for a venerable Michigan theatre, an impressionist will conjure up MAE WEST on 27 November 2009 — — and other late luminaries.
• • This Friday evening at 8 o'clock, the Park Theatre Foundation will present “Judy’s Old Fashioned Christmas” starring Michael Holmes and guest Cici Gramer. CiCi Gramer will open the show and will be followed by Michael Holmes as Mae West, Judy Garland, Carol Channing, and Bette Davis.
• • Costumed as Mae West and Judy Garland, Holmes has made appearances from Maui to Manhattan and many places on the map. The Palm Springs resident has appeared in such venues as the Queen Mary 2, BoarsHead Theater, and The Iao Theater in cities including New York, London, Chicago, Winston-Salem, Lexington, Indianapolis, and Palm Springs, California.
• • WHERE: Park Theatre, 248 River Avenue, Saugatuck, MI 49453.
• • Info: telephone 616-355-7275.
• • Tell them the MAE WEST Blog sent you.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
This weekend Michigan-based impressionist Michael Holmes will delight audiences as MAE WEST, Peggy Lee, Pearl Bailey, and — — most especially — — as Judy Garland.
• • This Friday and Saturday the Illinois-native, who fell in love with the theatre arts as a high school boy, will take to the stage at The Red Barn [Saugatuck, MI 49453], after being transformed by wigs and wizardry to resemble Judy Garland. “The Judy Show” builds its concept around Garland’s signature 1960’s TV series; the theme gives Holmes the flexibility to portray a rainbow of glammed-up celebrity guests including Mae West, "Hello, Dolly!" star Carol Channing, songbird Peggy Lee, bewitching Pearl Bailey, and others.
• • Unlike Mae, who wrote "The Drag" in 1926 and who was delighted by drag queens, the talented Mr. Holmes dislikes the label "drag" and is offended when people label him a "drag queen." His perspective is this: “What I do is theater. I just happen to do female characters. My show is a completely theatrical production with audience interaction and improvisational comedy, so every show is different. It’s really a celebration of the glory days of Hollywood.”
• • After this weekend's finale, Holmes will pack up his heel heels and wig boxes and head to the West Coast for an extended supper club engagement in Palm Springs. For details about his Red Barn extravaganza, telephone (269) 857-5300.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
Some exceedingly peculiar artists were fascinated by MAE WEST — — including Ray Johnson.
• • During the 1950s, Ray Johnson began using images of Mae in his artwork in a way that anticipated the 1960s works of Pop artists (such as Warhol).
• • Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ray Edward Johnson (1927 — 1995) was a seminal figure of the Pop Art movement. Primarily a collagist, Johnson was also an early performance and conceptual artist. Once called “New York’s most famous unknown artist," he is considered the “Founding Father of Mail Art" and pioneered the incorporation and use of language in the visual arts.
• • Until his death in 1995, Johnson continued his work in collage, sent out volumes of mail art, and staged numerous performances. He became increasingly reclusive, however. As his contemporaries became famous, Johnson cultivated his role as an outsider, parodying celebrity through performances, fake openings, and photocopy-machine art. From 1982 on, he repeatedly refused offers from numerous galleries to exhibit his art, and for the last five years of his life, he refused all public exhibitions of his works. On 13 January 1995, Ray Johnson’s body was found floating in a small cove in Sag Harbor, NY. He was 67 years old.
• • An ambitious posthumous show at the Richard L. Feigen Gallery — — which opened on 29 April 2009 (and which runs through the end of July 2009) — — illustrates the shared interests and iconography of Ray Johnson, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. This exhibition displays an exciting selection of previously unexhibited collages by Ray Johnson that showcase his distinct and incessant layering of re-appropriated imagery from Surrealism, high culture, and Pop Art. The three artists all exploited celebrity — — both their own and others’ — — and constructed powerful personae that were an integral part of their work. While Dali and Warhol sought the limelight in order to promote their art, Johnson was more interested in dodging in and out of it and became famous for being ‘unknown.’
• • Recently, Karen Rosenberg, Art Critic for The New York Times, visited the exhibition, which was organized by an independent curator, Frédérique Joseph-Lowery. She had many things to say about Ray's muses such as Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, the Mona Lisa, and Jackie Kennedy.
• • Karen Rosenberg writes: It’s a scholarly undertaking with a mischievous edge, replete with dissertation-worthy dissections of Johnson’s wordplay and iconography but able to wink at his subversions of gender and other nods to gay subculture. There’s also a frisson of glamour. Songs by the Velvet Underground, Debbie Harry and other Factory scenesters play in the gallery, along with audio excerpts from movies starring Mae West and Marilyn Monroe.
• • Karen Rosenberg observes: Mae West’s famous line becomes “Come Op and See Me Sometime,” a reference to Op Art. Likewise, Meret Oppenheim’s surname is rewritten as “Openheim” and her most famous work — — the fur-lined teacup — — conjured with a patch of plush leopard-print fabric. . . . .
• • If you happen to be in Manhattan (or en route to The Big Apple), the playful, mischievous, and provocative exhibit “Ray Johnson ... Dalí/ Warhol/ and Others” continues through 31 July 2009 at Richard L. Feigen & Company, 34 East 69th Street, New York, NY 10021; T. (212) 628-0700.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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During her career, diamond diva MAE WEST loved to pile on the glitter — — thereby inspiring one man's career and personal outlook.
• • The famed costume jewelry designer Kenneth Jay Lane, now 77 years old, launched his career as a shoe designer.
• • However, as a little boy in Detroit, he said, he liked to draw and he had never planned to be a jewelry designer. And when he saw Mae West, wearing "lots and lots" of jewelry in a movie, he began to draw sketches of her. "I once drew a picture of my mother," he told a reporter. "She came out looking like Mae West."
• • Now enjoying a retrospective showing of his "Fabulous Fakes" collection in Long Island [at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay], Kenneth Jay Lane is yukking it up with news men and dropping names to polish up his anecdotes.
• • Young Kenny from Michigan, totally fascinated by Diamond Lil, eventually found his stairway to success. And bling went the strings of some hearts.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Thanks to Michael Holmes and his amusing new show — — "Holmes for the Holiday" — — MAE WEST will be onstage in Michigan this month.
• • Scripted for this year's Mason Street production, “Holmes for the Holidays” features all the traditional red-and-green musical favorites and more than a dash of gender-bending.
• • Holmes portrays a wickedly funny Judy Garland and has her host this performance along with her Hollywood cohorts Carol Channing and Bette Davis. And then this threesome is joined by an all-new character in the voluptuous shape of Mae West.
• • These comedic capers will be available at Mason Street Warehouse only on Saturday at 8:00 PM, 29 November 2008.
• • The Saugatuck Center for the Arts seems to be the only equity theatre in western Michigan. For ticket information, please phone the Mason Street Warehouse in Saugatuck, MI at 269-857-4898.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
MAE WEST fan and drama critic Glenn Loney pens a fascinatin' column for New York Theatre Wire called "Glenn Loney's Show Notes." 
• • The text below is a brief excerpt from Glenn Loney's in-depth article that appeared in the month of March eight years ago [on 1 March 2000].
• • Glenn Loney wrote: Over a decade ago, the trio of talents who run Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre asked me to get them a copy of "Sex." They wanted to produce it as part of their brilliantly eclectic repertory.
• • I found it impossible to get a copy of the script. Nor were performance rights available.
• • When I was advising Dr. Richard Helfer on his CUNY PhD Dissertation research for a study of Mae West and her banned plays we found it impossible even to quote lines from the plays.
• • The Mae West Estate must have had a recent change of heart. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Sex" a Play by Mae West
• • Byline: Glenn Loney
• • Published on: www.nytheatre-wire.com/
• • Published on: 1 March 2000
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Since that bleak black-out period, "Sex" has been performed by companies in New York City; by Icarus Falling in Lansing, Michigan during October 2005; and (most recently) by the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, California, where the well-received production starring Delia MacDougall was held over until 23 December 2007.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in New York City when the Annual Fresh Fruit Festival presents "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" (based on true events 1926 — 1932 when Mae West was arrested and jailed) under the direction of Louis Lopardi at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, NYC 10010] July 19th — 22nd, 2008.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1926 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST pops up this week in Pontiac. That is "a city in Michigan" — — not the vehicle.
• • The Museum of New Art (MONA) in Pontiac has made space for eighteen talented art students from Oakland University. It is hoped that the exhibition "New Kids on the Block" will be more exciting that the lame name chosen by curator Candace O'Leary, an Oakland senior who happens to be the assistant director of MONA.
• • [If you've ever read those dreadful squibs known as (ahem!) "The Artist's Statement," you know this crew is better off wielding a brush not a fountain pen.]
• • Describing the FREE exhibition for The Detroit News, Michael H. Hodges writes: "Also worth a peek is Thomas Rowland's Mae West video that lightly mocks the art-gallery experience. The image of Mae West never changes — — but beneath it appear constantly changing captions with contradictory, interpretations."
• • "New Kids on the Block" will not over-stay its welcome, so get to the Museum of New Art [7 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac, Michigan; Tel: 248-210-7560] this week.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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