Mae West: Curve-Kissing Costumes

MAE WEST’s plump, curvaceous body was a vital element in her comedy. Academics have emphasized that “excessive body is one of the qualities of female unruliness, suggesting that she is unwilling or unable to control her physical appetites.” Japanese film historian Mio Hatokai discusses how Hollywood publicists and fan zines responded to this “fatness” in 1933. This is Part 52 of a lengthy piece — — and our final segment of it.
• • Laughing off the “Fatness” ― Mae West’s Body Image and Female Spectators in the Early 1930s • •
• • Mae West: Sequins made costumes sparkle to spotlight curves • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Once Lady Lou comes up on the stage, the camera occasionally turns to the floor, panning to show us the faces of the charmed audience.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: It is noteworthy that we see a glimpse of the troop’s performance when Chick Clark tries to strangle Lou.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote:Here, Lou is wearing a glittering, revealing sequined dress that emphasizes her voluptuous figure to the maximum.

• • Mio Hatokai wrote: Giving up the idea of killing her, Chick drops his knees, and clings on to her waist, and tearfully begs for her love.  
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: This moment signifies Chick’s submission to the allure of Lou’s body, and in the next shot, we see the dancing troop twirling around, kicking up their legs to a gleeful tune.
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: This inserted shot underlines the victorious power of female body.
• • “You Don’t Have to Have Feet to Be a Dancer” • •
• • Mio Hatokai wrote: In her next film, “I’m No Angel,” Mae West plays a circus performer named Tira. Loved by men, Tira gets luxurious gifts from her admirers.
• • Mio Hatokai’s lengthy excerpts of his article have now ended. However, you can read his entire 22-page article at Waseda University.
• • Source: Academic anthology on film stars released by Waseda University, 2015.
• • On Saturday, 30 December 1933 • •
• • Picturegoer, a British publication sold in movie houses, ran a three part series: "Making Love to Mae West." The first installment ran on 10 December 1933, it continued on Saturday, 30 December 1993, and the final portion appeared on 6 January 1934.
• • Cary Grant's byline appeared. The actor either wrote it or (perhaps) merely signed it.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The trouble with writing a biography of someone like Mae West is that her image is not only larger than life, it's also big enough to dwarf the portrait you are trying to create. For most of her life, unto the very brink of the grave, she was engaged in imprinting that image of the sexiest of sexy women. Every action, every word, every gesture, off screen and on, seemed to be devoted to making indelible that persona.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “I have to tell you you're the greatest of all the funny men, Groucho. Whenever you're in L.A. come up and see me."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on a new accessories line mentioned Mae West.
• • "Vintage Glamour: Mae West gets a makeover" • •
• • As uncertain times push consumers to seek comfort in nostalgia, screen legend Mae West is returning in a modern form. Jo Roberts reports.
• • Jo Roberts wrote: Old-style glamour is making a comeback. Legendary Hollywood actress and playwright Mae West is to become the face of a fashion brand — — 29 years after her death. It is hoped the late icon will bring some star quality to a range of bags and wallets, which will be sold in boutique stores from spring 2009.
• • Jo Roberts wrote: Using the well-known faces of a bygone era in advertising is not unusual. Gene Kelly has danced to Singing in the Rain for Volkswagen, while Elvis adorned the television screen for defunct mobile brand One-to-One. But featuring a dead celebrity on new products is less common. Could this manner of generating comforting nostalgia in difficult economic times become a wider trend? ...
• • Source: Brand Strategy Magazine; published on Wednesday, 10 December 2008
• • 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 seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,898th 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 • • onscreen in 1933 • •
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Mae West: Telegramming

That a MAE WEST motion picture such as "Belle of New Orleans" was capable of discrediting the celebrated Louisiana city was the opinion in 1934 of the electorate and women's clubs. 
• • Even the secretary of the National Board of Review Bettina Gunczy, who died in San Diego, California on Thursday, 2 November 1972, sent a telegram to the Hays Office. Let's learn more about this tsunami of protest, an effort made louder by the voice of Ohio native Bettina Gunczy [1 June 1895 —  2 November 1972], who was secretary of the National Board of Review in 1934.
• • "New Orleans Is Agitated" • •
• • New Orleans, July 11th — This fair home of the Sazerac, suh, is worried about its reputation. More, it's agitated.
• • Somebody suggested that calling Mae West's new opus "Belle of New Orleans" would — er — ah — would convey the wrong impression. The suggestion swelled into a chorus, and now everybody except Huey Long is talking — or telegramming.
• • First it was the Association of Commerce, then it was the Kiwanis Club, now it's the Federation of Women's Clubs and the Better Films Council.  Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley has joined those who are sending telegrams to Will H. Hays.
• • J. K. Byrne had the Kiwanis Club pass a resolution saying the title would give a "false impression" of New Orleans. Frank Martin of Kiwanis objected and said the title would be good advertising for the city and would bring tourists to a liberal city without blue laws, but he was greeted with raised eyebrows and just a trace of pained surprise.
• • Mrs. Isabel Giefers, president of the women's federation; Mrs. A. S. Tucker, president of the Better Films Council, and Mrs. Bettina Gunczy, secretary of the National Board of Review, were among those who wired Will Hays.
• • It's the biggest disturbance since the last time the levee broke and flooded St. Louis and Basin Streets.
• • Source: Item in Motion Picture Daily; published on  Thursday, 12 July 1934.
• • On Tuesday, 9 November 1920 • •
• • Mae filed for divorce from Guido Deiro on the grounds of adultery on 14 July 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on Tuesday, 9 November 1920. Guido almost immediately re-married for the third time. Mae later said, "Marriage is a great institution. But I'm not ready for an institution."
• • On Wednesday, 9 November 1927 • •
• • Variety discussed "The Wicked Age" in their issue dated for Wednesday, 9 November 1927.  Variety wrote: "Miss West is well fortified with masculine support. None is less than six feet and a couple are above the 6' 3" mark.  No one will believe that Babe is exactly a lily of the valley. She knows too many fly comebacks. ..."
• • Unfortunately, Mae's bathing suit stills and other cheesecake promotional shots provoked sneers from Variety, whose man-on-the-aisle decried the show as "a choice piece of limburger."  Too brutal.
• • On Wednesday, 9 November 1932 • •

• • Could Mae West's drama "Diamond Lil" make the leap from the page to the stage to the silver screen?
• • On Wednesday, 9 November 1932, Paramount Pictures executive Harold Hurley wrote a memo to William LeBaron indicating the lines that must be cut in order to pacify the screenplay screeners. These included: "I ain't running no Sunday school!"; "Diamond Lil would do anything for diamonds, eh?"; "Enter a convent!"; "Gawd! You gotta give a man more than clothes!"; and "I always knew you could be had." 
• • If you saw the movie, then you know which lines Mae West actually sneaked back in. Tee-hee, tee-hee!
• • On Saturday, 9 November 1935 • •
• • On Saturday, 9 November 1935, Mae West's name popped up in an odd front page news item of The Cornell Daily Sun, about a performer who could imitate the Brooklyn bombshell as well as King Kong.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Renaming of Mae West's "It Ain't No Sin" as "The Belle of New Orleans" drew protests today from civic and political bodies here.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Pour him out of here."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The trade papers mentioned Mae West.
• • "New Mae West Title" • •
• • Hollywood, July 10 — Mae West's new picture, originally called "It Ain't No Sin" by Paramount, has been changed to "The Belle of New Orleans" and will be released under that title.   . . .
• • Source: Item in Motion Picture Daily; published on Wednesday, 11 July 1934 
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3306th 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 • • in 1933 • •
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Mae West: Ample Mountings

MAE WEST was a notable presence at "Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen," a colorful exhibition that was on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston until 8 March 2015. After previewing this expensive display, Janet Zapata wrote an article for Antiques Magazine. This section of her feature focused on Mae West and her brand of style and chic.
• • "The democratization of glamour" • •
• • Jewelry historian Janet Zapata wrote: The actress who epitomized, or pos­sibly caricatured, ex­travagance was Mae West.  Her line "Without diamonds, honey, I'd feel undressed" encapsulates the importance of jewelry to her and to the film business of the period. If Dietrich radi­ated a sexy toughness, West was all diamond-encrusted excess, a conscious vulgarity that was meant to make her larger than life, though she was only five feet tall. All swagger and suggestiveness, in one publicity shot she wears multiple bracelets on each arm, a ring with a large cabochon gemstone on one hand, a diamond on the other, earrings, and multiple brooches pinned to her décolleté.  ... The two-part diamond bracelet joined by two trefoil connectors in Figure 8 may be one of the brace­lets she is wearing in the studio photograph.
• • Gemstones set into ample geometrically designed mountings • •
• • Janet Zapata continued: Suites of jewelry radiating a pronounced glam­our of excess were popular. West's aquamarine and diamond set . . . consists of a bracelet, brooch, and ring in the art moderne style of the late 1930s and early 1940s, which was characterized by large gemstones set into ample geometrically designed mountings.  . . .
• • Source: Excerpt from  "The democratization of glamour" written by Janet Zapata for Antiques; published in September 2014. The magazine article shows several superb pieces of jewelry personally owned by Mae West. Outstanding.
• • On Saturday, 8 May 1926 • •
• • Unflattering comments about Mae West's play "Sex" (the phrase "street sweepings" was in the description) were printed in The New Yorker, their issue dated for Saturday, 8 May 1926.  Aww. Somebody was not swayed by all that free beer Mae was pouring backstage. Tsk tsk.
• • On Tuesday, 8 May 1934 • •
• • Tuesday, 8 May 1934 Mae West recorded the ending of "My Old Flame."  This collaboration between New York City lyricist Sam Coslow and composer Arthur Johnson was created for the motion picture "Belle of the Nineties." Backed by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, Mae archived her performance in the recording studio. The Duke himself was on the piano.
• • On Saturday, 8 May 1937 • •
• • "Buxom Mae West Gives Trial Deposition" • •
• • An article by an Associated Press reporter that was published on Saturday, 8 May 1937 (in numerous newspapers) provided a Technicolor glimpse of the drama surrounding Mae West's "forgotten" 1911 trip to the altar.
• • On Wednesday, 8 May 1940 • •
• • An article about Mae West called "A Little Warm for Wax" was reprinted in Goulburn Evening Post [Australia] and published on Wednesday, 8 May 1940.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • Owen Moore is back from New York to play with Mae West in her first Paramount starring vehicle, "Ruby Red." He is abandoning a personal appearance tour which started in Hollywood last April and which has taken him through the South and East. 
• • Other cast assignments add Noah Beery, David Landau, and Dewey Robinson to this story of the rowdy nineties on the Bowery.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "If we can send a man to the moon, why don’t we send all of 'em?"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Niagara Falls Gazette quoted Mae West.
• • There are no missing husbands in her life, she says, because "no guy ever led me to the altar."  And that, said the buxom Mae decisively, goes for the startling discovery of a marriage license issued to a Mae West and a Frank Wallace in Milwaukee op April 11, 1911. 
• • "Me a Milwaukee bride?" said Mae.   "No — it must have been two other people."  . . .
• • Source: Article in The Niagara Falls Gazette; published on Thursday, 25 April 1935
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,100 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3174th 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 • • with Owen Moore in 1932 • •
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