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One songwriter provided MAE WEST with jazzy cinema numbers — — and several are still memorable. 
Though he worked in California for years, Sam Coslow died in New York City, his hometown, in the month of April.• • Preparing for the release of her latest movie "Every Day's a Holiday" in 1937, Mae was busy rehearsing and taping Sam Coslow's number "Mademoiselle Fifi." The song was recorded during October 1937 with "Chorus and Paramount Studio." Wielding the baton was LeRoy Prinz. • • A native New Yorker like Mae, Sam Coslow [7 December 1902 — 2 April 1982] — — was educated at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn — — and became an Oscar-winning producer and songwriter. In 1928 he formed the music publishing company Spier and Coslow in The Big Apple, where he often wrote show tunes.
• • He wrote several songs for Mae West's motion pictures. These include "My Old Flame," "Troubled Waters," and "When a St. Louis Woman Comes Down to New Orleans" for "Belle of the Nineties"; "Now I'm a Lady" for "Goin' to Town"; and "Mademoiselle Fifi" for "Every Day's a Holiday."
• • Orchestra conductor LeRoy Prinz [1895 — 1983] first found work as a dance director on Broadway. Relocating to California, Prinz worked for Paramount Pictures (1933 — 1941) and Warner Brothers (1942 — 1957) among others.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's song scribe • • Sam Coslow • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
In September 1934, MAE WEST was involved in promoting her fourth feature for Paramount Pictures: "Belle of the Nineties." This motion picture was released on September 21st. And here is the review published in The New York Times on 22 September 1934. "Of course, Miss West is her own plot," wrote critic Andre Sennwald.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Mae West and Her Gaudy Retinue in "Belle of the Nineties"
• • By ANDRE SENNWALD
• • Although Mae West has graciously permitted the New York censors to make an honest woman of her in her new picture, she has not adopted the emblematic blue-nose. Back in the days when "Belle of the Nineties" — alias "Belle of New Orleans" and "It Ain't No Sin" — was locked in a death grip with the local censorship board, one of the major points of dissension was the shocking fade-out in which Miss West won her man without the assistance of a justice of the peace. In the new and approved version there is a wedding ceremony and Miss West is now safe for her large following to visit.
• • It is pretty futile to strive for an air of detachment toward Miss West and her new work. A continuously hilarious burlesque of the mustache cup, celluloid collar, and family entrance era of the naughty Nineties, it immediately takes its place among the best screen comedies of the year. Its incomparable star has been bolstered by a smart and funny script, an excellent physical production, and a generally buoyant comic spirit. There are gags for every taste and most of them are outrageously funny according to almost any standard of humor.
• • Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow have provided four crimson chansons — "My Old Flame," "Troubled Waters," "My American Beauty," and "When a St. Louis Woman Comes Down to New Orleans" — which are quite perfect, and Miss West delivers them in her inimitable adenoidal contralto.
• • Amid the lithographic Police Gazette settings of the Sensation House in New Orleans, Ruby Carter (in Miss West's classic person) rules the sporting world with queenly insolence. As she herself sagely observes, "It is better to be looked over than to be overlooked" — — and her serpentine gowns, hayloft coiffure, and hour-glass figure insure her against neglect. Ruby's expressed preference is for two kinds of men — domestic and foreign — and the gentlemen moths, in their tight pants, bowler hats, and Ascot cravats, flock to the flame. Even the bartenders with their walrus mustaches and spit-curls silently yearn for her.
• • Of course, Miss West is her own plot, but there are a fixed prize-fight, some stolen jools, an envious siren, a fire, and a pair of rival claimants for her affections to add the necessary business. While Ruby's personal philosophy is, in her own words, to keep cool and collect, she has a healthy admiration for a good man, and the Tiger Kid fills the bill. Sinister interests conspire to separate them, and Ruby Carter is forced to fight for what she politely refers to as her honor against the evil and wax-mustached Ace Lamont, proprietor of the Sensation House. This last is of a vintage so objectionable as to cause the amiable Ruby to remark, "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
• • Roger Pryor as the Tiger Kid, John Miljan as the contemptible Ace, and Katherine DeMille as the jealous mistress of Ace Lamont all contribute excellently to the comedy, while Duke Ellington's boys provide the sulphurous musical background for Miss West's songs. If the great lady's public expects a cool and reasoned appraisal of "Belle of the Nineties" this morning, it will have to be disappointed. Not being immune to the common human failing of magnifying the virtues of the past, this reporter will always consider "She Done Him Wrong" her greatest show. At any rate, her present masterpiece is superior on every count to "I'm No Angel." As for its morality, you have Miss West's own testimony, when she tells an overwrought admirer, "Remember, I'm a lady, you worm."
• • You will have to take her word for it.
• • BELLE OF THE NINETIES, adapted from a story by Mae West; music and lyrics by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow; directed by Leo McCarey; a Paramount production. At the Paramount.
• • Source: The New York Times
• • Critic: Andre Sennwald
• • Originally published on: 22 September 1934• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
Starting in March 1934, MAE WEST was involved in her fourth feature for Paramount Pictures: "Belle of the Nineties." After an ongoing battle with the censors, this "Naughty 90s-theme" motion picture was wrestled from the Paramount wringer on September 21st looking and sounding very different from its original model — — Mae's Broadway drama "The Constant Sinner" set in Harlem where 18-year-old Babe Gordon is a "prizefighter's tart" during the 1920s.
• • Mae West was beset with other concerns, too, during the unpredictable month of March. Quarrels with her manager Jim Timony resulted in his moving out of the Ravenswood and bedding down in a modest home behind the Hollytown Theatre, where he resumed his old involvement in stage plays.
• • Meanwhile, "Battling Jack" West left his Florida flat and showed up in Los Angeles. Unwilling to have her father interfere with her private life, Mae had him moved to her San Fernando Valley Ranch. Nevertheless, she had the studio put him on the payroll to lend his expertise to staging the Tiger Kid scenes. A Paramount press release alerted the media that their boxing consultant was a former prizefighter — — a "stocky, well-built man, bearing none of the usual physiological mementos of the ring."
• • Adding to the tense atmosphere was Joe Breen's determination to make an honest woman out of Mae's character Ruby Carter.
• • Reflecting on this sudden upsurge of family values in 1934, The New York Times wrote: Back in the days when "Belle of the Nineties" — — alias "Belle of New Orleans" and "It Ain't No Sin" — — was locked in a death grip with the local censorship board, one of the major points of dissension was the shocking fade-out in which Miss West won her man without the assistance of a justice of the peace. In the new and approved version there is a wedding ceremony and Miss West is now safe for her large following to visit. ..."
• • Retracing Mae's stressful journey in 1934 will bring us to Arthur Mayer, that sprite inside Paramount's publicity office, and his idea about training several dozen African parrots to promote the film. Toucan, anyone? More anon.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
It was on 9th February 1927 that MAE WEST was arrested in New York City. And coincidentally or not, Mae also had a lot of her screen and stage projects opening on the ninth day of February.
• • Keeping Mae in mind is the actor and vocalist Bill Krakauer [born in 1926], who will perform "Songs by Women of Tin Pan Alley" in Manhattan on two upcoming evenings.
• • The songs — — either composed by females or performed by women — — will feature the famous Mae West number "My Old Flame" from the motion picture "Belle of the Nineties" [1934].
• • Other favorites will be "Starting at the Bottom," "Can This Be Love," and "Nobody Breaks My Heart" [1930] from "Fine and Dandy" by Kay Swift; "Baby's Birthday Party" [1930] by Ann Ronell; and "Moanin' Low" sung by Libby Holman and featured in "The Little Show" [1929]; and the stirring "Love Me or Leave me" made famous by Ruth Etting in "Whoopee" [1928]; and many more.
• • You can enjoy this salute to both famous and forgotten female songs, directed by Jonathan Cerullo, on Monday, 16 February and again on Monday, 2 March 2009 at 8:00 PM. The venue is The Cell Performance Salon, located in Chelsea at 338 West 23rd Street [between 8th and 9th Avenues], NYC 10011.
• • The Cell — — operated by THE CELL THEATRE COMPANY — — is a new performance salon located in a former art gallery on West 23rd; it provides a space for artists from multiple disciplines to present their work.
• • For info about this show, phone 212-724-7933 — — and tell them you heard about all this whoopee from the Mae West Blog.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Where was MAE WEST during October 1937? • • Preparing for the release of her latest movie "Every Day's a Holiday" on 18 December 1937, Mae was busy rehearsing and taping Sam Coslow's number "Mademoiselle Fifi." The song was recorded during October 1937 with "Chorus and Paramount Studio." Wielding the baton was LeRoy Prinz. • • Native New Yorker Sam Coslow [1902 — 1982] — — educated at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn — — was an Oscar-winning producer and songwriter. He wrote several songs for Mae West's motion pictures. These include "My Old Flame," "Troubled Waters," and "When a St. Louis Woman Comes Down to New Orleans" for "Belle of the Nineties"; "Now I'm a Lady" for "Goin' to Town"; and "Mademoiselle Fifi" for "Every Day's a Holiday."
• • Orchestra conductor LeRoy Prinz [1895 — 1983] first found work as a dance director on Broadway. Relocating to California, Prinz worked for Paramount Pictures (1933 — 1941) and Warner Brothers (1942 — 1957) among others. • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • composer Sam Coslow • • c. 1937 • •
NYC
Mae West.
In September 1934, MAE WEST was involved in promoting her fourth feature for Paramount Pictures: "Belle of the Nineties." This motion picture was released on September 21st. And here is the review published in The New York Times on 22 September 1934. "Of course, Miss West is her own plot," wrote critic Andre Sennwald.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Mae West and Her Gaudy Retinue in "Belle of the Nineties"
• • By ANDRE SENNWALD
• • Although Mae West has graciously permitted the New York censors to make an honest woman of her in her new picture, she has not adopted the emblematic blue-nose. Back in the days when "Belle of the Nineties" — alias "Belle of New Orleans" and "It Ain't No Sin" — was locked in a death grip with the local censorship board, one of the major points of dissension was the shocking fade-out in which Miss West won her man without the assistance of a justice of the peace. In the new and approved version there is a wedding ceremony and Miss West is now safe for her large following to visit.
• • It is pretty futile to strive for an air of detachment toward Miss West and her new work. A continuously hilarious burlesque of the mustache cup, celluloid collar, and family entrance era of the naughty Nineties, it immediately takes its place among the best screen comedies of the year. Its incomparable star has been bolstered by a smart and funny script, an excellent physical production, and a generally buoyant comic spirit. There are gags for every taste and most of them are outrageously funny according to almost any standard of humor.
• • Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow have provided four crimson chansons — "My Old Flame," "Troubled Waters," "My American Beauty," and "When a St. Louis Woman Comes Down to New Orleans" — which are quite perfect, and Miss West delivers them in her inimitable adenoidal contralto.
• • Amid the lithographic Police Gazette settings of the Sensation House in New Orleans, Ruby Carter (in Miss West's classic person) rules the sporting world with queenly insolence. As she herself sagely observes, "It is better to be looked over than to be overlooked" — — and her serpentine gowns, hayloft coiffure, and hour-glass figure insure her against neglect. Ruby's expressed preference is for two kinds of men — domestic and foreign — and the gentlemen moths, in their tight pants, bowler hats, and Ascot cravats, flock to the flame. Even the bartenders with their walrus mustaches and spit-curls silently yearn for her.
• • Of course, Miss West is her own plot, but there are a fixed prize-fight, some stolen jools, an envious siren, a fire, and a pair of rival claimants for her affections to add the necessary business. While Ruby's personal philosophy is, in her own words, to keep cool and collect, she has a healthy admiration for a good man, and the Tiger Kid fills the bill. Sinister interests conspire to separate them, and Ruby Carter is forced to fight for what she politely refers to as her honor against the evil and wax-mustached Ace Lamont, proprietor of the Sensation House. This last is of a vintage so objectionable as to cause the amiable Ruby to remark, "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
• • Roger Pryor as the Tiger Kid, John Miljan as the contemptible Ace, and Katherine DeMille as the jealous mistress of Ace Lamont all contribute excellently to the comedy, while Duke Ellington's boys provide the sulphurous musical background for Miss West's songs. If the great lady's public expects a cool and reasoned appraisal of "Belle of the Nineties" this morning, it will have to be disappointed. Not being immune to the common human failing of magnifying the virtues of the past, this reporter will always consider "She Done Him Wrong" her greatest show. At any rate, her present masterpiece is superior on every count to "I'm No Angel." As for its morality, you have Miss West's own testimony, when she tells an overwrought admirer, "Remember, I'm a lady, you worm."
• • You will have to take her word for it.
• • BELLE OF THE NINETIES, adapted from a story by Mae West; music and lyrics by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow; directed by Leo McCarey; a Paramount production. At the Paramount.
• • Source: The New York Times
• • Critic: Andre Sennwald
• • Originally published on: 22 September 1934• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • • NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST had to fight with Paramount Pictures to get the musician Duke Ellington into her film "Belle of the Nineties." 
• • Always the champion of the African-American talents she met, Mae insisted that the studio hire him to play and also appear in the movie. The studio didn't want to hire Ellington, at first, because they said the famed Cotton Club headliner would be "too expensive." When Paramount finally gave in to Mae, they agreed to let Ellington and his orchestra play — — however, they insisting on having all white musicians on the set.
• • Mae West marched into the head office at Paramount and said, "White men can't play black music in my picture!" And it was done. Ellington and his band were used and shown onscreen, thanks to Mae (who refused to budge on this).
• • Hollywood's censors did have the final say, though; they refused to let Mae appear next to the musicians in the same scene.
• • "Belle of the Nineties" was in production from 19 March 1934 until June 1934.
• • Backed by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, Mae West performed "My Old Flame" [written by Arthhur Johnston and Sam Coslow] — — as entertainer Ruby Carter. Covered by the screen queen in 1934, the song was brought back to popularity almost 30 years later by The Ray Charles Singers in 1961. Ella Fitzgerald covered it with Joe Pass in 1976; Linda Ronstadt revived it in 1984.
• • During the 1920s, Mae West met Duke Ellington at Owney Madden's speakeasy. An autographed photo of Mae given to the "Duke" was among his most cherished possessions.
• • Born in Washington, D.C. on 29 April 1899, Duke Ellington died in May — — 24 May 1974.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
It was 19 March 1934 and MAE WEST had sin on her mind. Her new screen gem for Paramount Pictures began production on that date with a spunky working title: "It Ain't No Sin." 
• • Yes, yes, talk about waving a wide red handkerchief in front of Joe Breen's blue nose.
• • In his fascinating All Movie Guide, cinema critic Hal Erickson had this to say: 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.
• • Mae West is cast as cabaret entertainer Ruby Carter, plying her trade along the Mississippi. Having no trouble surviving on her own terms in a man's world, Ruby fends off the unwarranted attentions of a steady stream of libidinous males, reserving her affections for a muscular boxer called The Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor).
• • In keeping with the star's casual liberality, a number of black entertainers and athletes are given ample opportunities in this film, notably Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. The surest sign that the Code had "tamed" West a bit is the fact that she actually marries the hero at film's end. The musical highlights include West's unforgettable rendition of "My Old Flame."
• • Source: Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST's co-star in "Belle of the Nineties" was a handsome native New Yorker Roger Pryor who came into the world (like Mae) in August; he was born on 27 August 1901. 
In Tinseltown, Roger Pryor was considered the "poor man's Clark Gable." Certainly he seems to sweep Ruby Carter [Mae's character] off her feet in his role as the prizefighter Tiger Kid.
• • Hollywood's censors, however, were a more formidable opponent than any palooka Tiger Kid faced in the ring. The Hays Office sparred with the studio over Mae's one-liners and many plot points. Perhaps the least harmful suggestion the censors made was that Mae's character — — entertainer Ruby Carter — — had to wed her boxer-lover, showing a touch of conventional respectability by the finale. Mae-mavens know that Mae always gets her man — — even if church bells don't chime.• • On September 21, 1934, this is what the Los Angeles Evening Herald Express had to say about Mae West's new picture.
• • MAE WEST’S LURE HOLDS IN NEW FILM • •• • By Harrison Carroll
• • After seeing Mae West’s new picture Belle of the Nineties, one can only borrow a current slogan and advise the censors: ”Next time, get Ethyl.”
• • The blonde star has played the game according to their rules and emerged with a much funnier film than her last effort, I’m No Angel, which paid a profit that would make your eyes bulge. Belle of the Nineties, now playing at the Paramount, is a typical Mae West film about a St. Louis burlesque queen who went south to New Orleans and did everything but make the Mississippi run backwards. [Note: Frankie Baker, of "Frankie and Johnny" fame, also was a St. Louis woman who went down to New Orleans, where she met a young mack named Johnny. Coincidence. . . ?]
• • Mae has cleaned up some of her gags, that’s a fact. But even her warmest admirers will admit they could stand a little cleaning.
• • The important thing is that the star’s personality is unimpaired.
SPIRIT IS SAME
• • The spirit of the new picture is the same as She Done Him Wrong, which took the cinema world by storm.
• • Another smart move on Mae’s part is to give other players a chance in Belle of Nineties. Roger Pryor, who plays the prize-fighter sweetheart in the new film, is a splendid actor and his part is more than a listening post.
• • Johnny Mack Brown (a New Orleans blue-blood), John Miljan (owner of the gambling palace), Katherine DeMille (Mae’s enemy), James Donlon (the boxer’s manager), and Warren Hymer (the palooka) also have definite identities in the tale.
• • It is a story of swaggering gallants, two-fisted fighters, and warm-blooded beauties that unfolds in Belle of the Nineties. Ruby Carter, the heroine, is a smart dame with a weakness for prize-fighters, particularly the Tiger Kid.
• • But she gives up her love rather than hinder his career, and moves south for more worlds to conquer. It isn’t her fault that Ace La Mont, her new employer, falls for her and wants to get rid of his old favorite, the tempestuous Molly.
MUCH EXCITEMENT
• • Between Molly’s plan for revenge, Ace’s double-crossing and the arrival of the Tiger Kid, there is plenty of excitement before Ruby and her fist-slinger tell it to a minister. This tag is undoubtedly for the benefit of the censors [true enough!], but it doesn’t hurt the story a bit.
• • Belle of the Nineties has a number of songs, some of them very amusing. “My Old Flame,” “When a St. Louis Woman Comes to Town” and “Memphis Blues” are in the list.
• • Leo McCarey’s direction of the film has a nice pace. What few slow spots there are seem to have developed in the cutting [or, more likely, due to the censors' objections].
• • You can write Belle of the Nineties down as a hit.
• • The Paramount Theatre shows it along with a Betty Boop color cartoon, a newsreel and the Fanchon and Marco revue, "Dance Follies."
• • Source: Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
• • Published: 21 September 1934• • 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.
