Mae West: Maryville Vaudeville

A vaudeville event in Missouri tomorrow night will star MAE WEST on stage.
• • Fr. Martin DeMeulenaere, OSB, Pastor of St. Gregory’s Church said their group tries to host a Mardi Gras event each year and on Saturday, 18 February 2012 they organized an evening of old-fashioned variety artists. Performing live with Mae West will be Shirley Temple and comedy teams Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello.
• • “We will have BJ Talley, a magician, and Georgi Lane, a singer, coming in to entertain,” Pam VanSicale, business manager of the church, said. “Also, there will be singing, music, and skits put on by our parishioners.” Attendees were asked to wear a costume from the 1920s — 1940s era. There is a contest for best costume during the event.
• • This lively vaudeville presentation is open to both the public and church parishioners who have advance reservations. The J.C. Wyatt House will provide dinner before the stage show. A cash bar will serve adults who are 21 and older. Proceeds benefit St. Gregory Barbarigo Catholic Community, which is located in Northwest Missouri in Maryville, MO 64468-2817. Phone for info: (660) 582-3833. This night out sounds too good to miss.
• • Tell them you heard about it on The Mae West Blog.
• • Kathleen Freeman [17 February 1919 — 23 August 2001] • •
• • A laugh-getter who appeared with Mae in "Myra Breckinridge" [released in the USA on 24 June 1970] also had ties to variety. Chicago native Kathleen Freeman made her vaudeville debut at age 2, becoming a part of her parents' act.
• • Born on 17 February 1919, the heavy-set comedienne portrayed Bobby Dean Loner in the screen version of Gore Vidal's bestseller. The UCLA graduate's first goal had been to shine as a professional pianist but, after thoroughly enjoying her work with several stock productions, she changed gears. Kathleen Freeman once said: "I think comedy is more powerful than drama in the long run. Comedy is more difficult. It's very easy to make people cry."
• • She made her first motion picture appearance in 1948 at 29 years old. The reliable character actress was used as a comic foil by Jerry Lewis in several of his films. Her stocky figure, expressive face, energetic laugh, and supple voice-craft served her well, keeping her in demand and busy juggling parts on the silver screen, TV, and also on Broadway.
• • Kathleen Freeman, 82 years old, was cast in a Broadway production when she died in New York City on 23 August 2001 of lung cancer. Engaged on stage until the very end, the octogenarian had given her final Tony nomination performance for her role as the piano player in Broadway's musical hit "The Full Monty" on August 18th, and five days later she was gone.
• • Remembering Bess Streeter Aldrich on 17 February • •
• • Bess Streeter Aldrich [17 February 1881 — 3 August 1954] was an author born in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
• • Mae West appears in a very playful short story by Bess Streeter Aldrich: "How Far Is it to Hollywood?" [published in Cosmopolitan Magazine's July 1934 issue].
• • Aldrich's whimsical piece of short fiction begins this way:
• • Greta Garbo and Mae West sat on the back fence and swung their legs over the tops of the milkweeds and the boxes of empty tin cans. ...
• • On Saturday, 17 February 1951 in Los Angeles • •
• • In Los Angeles on February 17th, Pete Ermalinger, manager of the Biltmore Theatre, was negotiating for "Diamond Lil" the Mae West starrer currently in Texas.
• • "Hollywood Biltmore Seeks Lil Date" was the headline and the piece was datelined Hollywood, Saturday 17 February 1951. The popular show starring Mae West was, at that time, onstage in The Lone Star State.
• • Here's Mae looking ravishing in her Lil costume in 1951. She did bring the show to Los Angeles for an acclaimed run at the Biltmore.
• • This item ran in Billboard Magazine on 24 February 1951.
• • On Monday, 17 February 2003 in Sun-Sentinel • •
• • Reporting on an upcoming Gem and Jewelry Show in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, 17 February 2003, The Sun-Sentinel wrote that pieces owned by Mae West would be on display and available for purchase.
• • The Florida editors noted: Pearls, rubies and diamonds will be among the sparkling pieces displayed at the upcoming International Gem and Jewelry Show. The show, Friday through Sunday, will feature 80 vendors and two exhibits at the Broward County Convention Center, 1960 Eisenhower Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. One exhibit, "Fabulous Jewelry of the Stars," has a pair of Marilyn Monroe's earrings and pieces owned by Mae West, Cher, Jack Nicholson, Lucille Ball and others. All items are for sale.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “When it comes to finances, remember that there are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on shame and disgrace mentioned Mae West.
• • Marina Hyde wrote: The idea of disgrace being a career opportunity is not especially new. "I expect it will be the making of me," Mae West purred in 1927 of her arrest on vice charges relating to her play Sex, and indeed it was. But it has never been easier to bounce back, and TV is the primary redemptive force. ...
• • Source: Article: "Shamelessness: the TV route to rehabilitation" written by Marina Hyde for The Guardian [UK]; posted on Friday, 16 February 2007
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2212th 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 • • "Diamond Lil" in 1951 • •
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Mae West: In the Show-Me State

MAE WEST wrote a wonderful role for herself when she created her character Tira, a novice lion-tamer who uses her whip as a career move.
• • Enjoy "I’m No Angel" on Wednesday 27 April 2011 in the Show-Me State. Ragtag Cinema's program director noted: Flush with the success of "She Done Him Wrong," Mae West was allowed full control of "I'm No Angel," and she obliged by producing perhaps her best film, a non-stop parade of brilliant one-liners and racy repartee. Director: Wesley Ruggles. Length: 87 minutes.
• • The series “Forbidden Hollywood 2” will screen a different Pre-Code motion picture on Wednesday evenings through 11 May 2011.
• • WHERE: Ragtag Cinema is located at 10 Hitt Street [half a block south of Broadway between Tenth and Short Streets], Columbia, Missouri 65201; T. 573-443-4359.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Anyone remember the Mae West Fest in Seattle, Wash.?
• • Ivana Cheong writes: Stone Soup is picking up where the Mae West Fest — — an annual Seattle event that highlighted original work of female writers, producers, directors, and actors — — left off when it ended in 2007 after 10 years. One of the highlights of this event is the theatre’s first ever 24-hour, all-female playfest. ...
• • Source: Article: "The Double (XX) Fest Puts Focus On Women" written by Ivana Cheong, Fremont Universe; posted on 24 March 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1899th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • costumed as Tira in 1933 • •
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Mae West: Al Hirschfeld

Many pens, pencils, paintbrushes, and pastels have swirled around the famous face and figure of MAE WEST, especially when she brought her revival of "Diamond Lil" to Broadway and played there from 1949 — 1951.
• • One illustrator who had sketched Mae West in 1940 for The New York Times when she was starring in "My Little Chickadee" also got a second chance to draw her for that newspaper a decade later. Since he was born during the month of June — — on 21 June 1903 — — a few words will be said.
• • Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Al Hirschfeld [21 June 1903 – 20 January 2003] was a Jewish caricaturist best known for his simple black and white satirical portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. After he relocated to New York City, he took classes at the Art Students League.
• • After his cartoon appeared in the Times, Al Hirschfeld autographed and sold a limited edition of his etching of Mae West; the original sketch was done in pencil and its dimensions were 14 1/2 inches x 19 inches.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • circa 1949/ 1950 • •
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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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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West: Bostock's Fan

The Pre-Code MAE WEST is the best.
• • if you still have not seen the classic “I’m No Angel” on the big screen, this Sunday is your chance.
• • In this screen gem — — inspired by Bostock's lion exhibit in Coney Island that she adored as a little Brooklyn girl — — Mae West is a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. And she wants Cary Grant. Again. The bold Tira works as a hootchie-cootchie dancing beauty and a lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent need of money, she agrees to a risky new number — — she'll put her head into a lion's mouth.
• • The intrepid Mae West did all her own stunts in the lion's cage, too.
• • When: At 2:00 pm on Sunday, 21 September 2008.
• • Where: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art [4420 Warwick Blvd. Kansas City, Missouri 64111 — — T: 816-753-5784.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West: Kansas City

Come up and see MAE in Kansas City next month — — and it won't cost you any coins. Okay, that's enough for the "hard C" sound.
• • Pre-Code cinema from the early 1930s is a category that Mae did especially well in before the Hitler of Hollywood put his foot down.
• • The Kemper Museum’s series of pre-Code films will continue with four motion pictures that will be shown on Sundays at 2:00 PM. Screenings are free.
• • September 7th is the first showing — — “Beast of the City” starring Jean Harlow and Walter Huston.
• • September 21st is the second feature — — “I’m No Angel” starring Mae West as Tira, the gal who knew you didn't need feet in order to dance. Mae knows what she wants and how to get it in this 1933 effort co-starring Cary Grant. Her unapologetic sexuality is one reason the blue noses decided Hollywood needed to police itself.
• • Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art [4420 Warwick Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri 64111]; T 816-753-5784. They offer some neat freebies, too, such as free admission and parking. Tell them you heard about this on the MAE WEST BLOG.
• • By the way, the phrase "I'm No Angel" was first uttered by the heroine of Vanity Fair [published in 1848], a novel written by William Makepeace Thackeray. Here's the line: '''Revenge may be wicked, but it's natural,'' answered Miss Rebecca. ''I'm no angel.'' And, to say the truth, she certainly was not.'
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West: St. Louis

Actor John Huston, enthralled by Diamond Lil's rendition of "Frankie and Johnny" on Broadway in 1928, gave MAE WEST a copy of this fascinatin' news clipping that had appeared in the St. Louis-Post Dispatch on the 19th of October in 1899.
• • Note: Frankie Baker's weapon was a knife — — not a noisy gun [in the newspaper account].
• • The unnamed third party in this fatal love triangle was Alice Pryar, an 18-year-old prostitute [nine years younger than Frankie Baker]. In the song, the "other woman" is called Nellie Bly.

• • Amid the Suffering . . . • •
• • .Allen Britt's brief experience in the art of love cost him his life. He died at the City Hospital Wednesday night from knife wounds inflicted by Frankie Baker, an ebony hued cake-walker. Britt was also colored. He was seventeen years old. He met Frankie at the Orange Blossom's ball — — and was smitten with her. Thereafter they were lovers.
• • In the rear of 212 Targee Street lived Britt. There his sweetheart wended her way a few night's ago and lectured Allen for his alleged duplicity. Allen's reply was not intended to cheer the dusky damsel and a glint of steel gleamed in the darkness. An instant later the boy fell to the floor mortally wounded.
• • Frankie Baker is locked up at the Four Courts.
• • The City Hospital's account was quite different.
• • According to a doctor, Allen Britt died at 2:15 AM on the 19th of October 1899 with a bullet wound of the liver. He lived seventeen years in the city [St. Louis, Missouri] before his death. He was born in Kentucky.
• • Allen Britt's occupation at the time of entering the emergency room was given as "job worker."
• • George and Nancy Britt, Allen's parents, buried their son in St. Peter's Cemetery on 22 October 1899.
• • Why was the ballad called "Frankie and Johnny" and not "Frankie and Allen"?
• • When John Huston interviewed her in 1929, Nancy Britt was still living at 32 Johnson [formerly Targee] Street in St. Louis. Mrs. Britt had asked the composer, she claimed, not to use her son's name. Perhaps because a "john" is a customer of a prostitute, Johnny was substituted.
• • These details were provided to the Mae West blog exclusively by NYC historian LindaAnn Loschiavo, author of the play "Courting Mae West." If you copy this info, please affix this CREDIT LINE in full.
• • Tring to escape notoriety, Frankie Baker moved around. She wound up at the Eastern Oregon State Hospital. According to news accounts, she was eventually committed to this facility, where she died shortly thereafter on 10 January 1952.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Cartoon: • • Mae West as Diamond Lil/ Lady Lou • • 1933 • •
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Mae West: Sketchy

One of the many illustrators who drew MAE WEST was the New York Times contributor Al Hirschfeld, who was born in June [21 June 1903].
• • Look at any of his Mae sketches, however, and it's easy to see that the Saint Louis, Missourian did not like the assignments that featured her plays. Do we need to see an ugly Hirschfeld caricature of Mae West? No.
• • Right before a Broadway theatre was to be renamed in his honor on his 100th birthday, the artist died on 20 January 2003 at 99 years old.
• • 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: Joy in Joplin

MAE WEST fans in Joplin, Missouri will get a nice freebie on 15 May 2007. The Classic Cinema offering of "Hollywood at the Joplin Public Library" stars Mae West and W.C. Fields in their hilarious pairing - - "My Little Chickadee" [released on 15 March 1940] - - a comedy set in the Old West.
• • Movietime is 6 o'clock in the evening and this Mae West film is free.
• • In Missouri, the Joplin Public Library is on Main Street between 3rd & 4th Streets.
• • Here's the plot of "My Little Chickadee" - - Suspected of illicit relations with the Masked Bandit, Flower Belle Lee [Mae West] is run out of Little Bend. On the train she meets con man Cuthbert J. Twillie [W.C. Fields] and pretends to marry him for "respectability." Arriving in Greasewood City with his unkissed bride, Cuthbert J. Twillie is named sheriff by the town boss Jeff Badger, who has an ulterior motive. Both stars display their comic capital onscreen.
• • As the film ends, Cuthbert J. Twillie says to Flower Belle, "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" It is, of course, a sly reference to Mae West's famous line in "She Done Him Wrong" [1933].
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Illustration: • • Mae West • • 1940 • •
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