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In 1933, Charles Gates Sheldon did a magnificent portrait in delicate pastels of MAE WEST, which appeared on the cover of the January 1934 issue of Screenland. Oftentimes a movie star would have about three sessions with this artist as he worked on the right pose and other preliminaries. Mae was painted wearing a blonde wig with marcelled finger waves and diamond door-knocker earrings. This 1933 original was offered (as Lot #900, with a reserve of $1,000) in MastroNet's May 2002 auction. The lucky buyer got it for $10,330. 
• • Born in 1889 in Massachusetts, Charles Gates Sheldon studied under George Bridgeman at the prestigious Art Students League in New York City, and later in Paris under the maestro of Art Nouveau illustration, Alphonse Mucha. He decided he would specialize in "pretty woman" portraiture, which made him constantly in demand for lucrative advertising assignments. Prior to 1926, his work was seen on the front cover of Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. Additionally, he often did fashion illustrations for Woman's Home Companion and Ladies' Home Journal. But his smartest career move was a transition into colorful movie star portraits.
• • During the 1920s and 1930, when color photography was still rare, the preferred way to publicize and showcase the Hollywood mystique was via the fan magazines of the age. When it came to the denizens of the silver screen, Sheldon became the da Vinci of his day. From 1924 onward, pastelist Charles Sheldon was commissioned by Photoplay Magazine to produce ethereal, graceful renderings of the stars of stage and screen, especially screen. He was ranked as one of the top commercial artists of his day.
• • Supposedly, Sheldon had Eastman Kodak build custom cameras for his use, and he would take the photo studies of the stars in his Carnegie Hall Studio in New York City; the apartments sat atop Carnegie Hall on West 57th Street, right opposite the Art Students League. Hundreds of portraits were executed over the next decade. His distinctive style can be spotted on the front covers of Radio Digest, Screenland, Photoplay, ScreenBook, Motion Picture, and Motion Picture Classics, and other fanzines.
• • Later in his career, in 1936, Charles Sheldon was hired by Breck Shampoo to sketch dreamy, fanciful images of a "Breck Girl" in his well-known sophisticated glamour-girl style. Over the next 25 years he produced over 100 different unsigned "Breck Girl" images for the company's use. During his retirement years in New England, he spent a lot of time gardening. The pastel artist passed away in 1961 at his home in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• • Texas Guinan [1884 — 1933] • •
• • Born in Waco, Texas during the month of January — — on 12 January 1884 — — Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan played a gun-slinger and rode bareback in silent films, took New York by storm in 1906, and earned a salary of $700,000 as a speakeasy hostess. The versatile stage star led a noisy and joyful life at full speed until 5 November 1933. One month later, Prohibition was repealed.
• • A good friend to Mae West who invested in her Broadway shows, Texas also held seances with her. We fondly remember the one and only Queen of the Night Clubs on her birthday.
• • On Saturday, 12 January 1929 • •
• • "Diamond Lil" was staged at the Royale Theatre in New York City on 9 April 1928 and closed on Saturday night, 12 January 1929 after 323 performances.
• • Mae West & the Memory Quilt in 1937 • •
• • Positioned by Ethel Sampson's head is a section labeled "Mae West." Here's an explanation of this curious artifact. 
• • From a news account: Washington, DC, August 1937 — Joseph's coat of many colors had nothing on this unique quilt which is now being completed by Mrs. Ethel Sampson of Evanston, Illinois, after six years of collecting. Parts of wearing apparel from President Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt, members of the Cabinet, diplomats and notables from all over. From Hollywood Bing Crosby sent a tie while Mae West and Shirley Temple contributed parts of dresses. Former Emperor Haile Selassie's neckties and a linen of Windsor, are also included on the quilt. Diapers from the Dionne Quintuplets are also prominently displayed. ...
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Ken Hughes [19 January 1922 — 28 April 2001], who once worked with Mae West, was born in January. Then 56 years old when he was at the helm of "Sextette" in 1978, the British director had many career highs and low-points. "Sextette" was the middle-aged director's first American film — — as well as Mae West's final screen appearance.
• • Hughes developed Alzheimer's disease and died on 28 April 2001 in Los Angeles.
• • In an article for The L.A. Times published in 1997, dementia-aflicted director Ken Hughes was (supposedly) recollecting his first experiences with Mae West. Or perhaps someone else scratched it out and attached his byline. Who knows?
• • Ken Hughes wrote: The next morning I was on a plane for Los Angeles, and soon I was having dinner with the producers — — two young kids in their 20s. The money was in place, they had booked two stages at (where else?) Paramount Studios, they had a great script by Herb Baker — — but they did not have a director. One small fact had, it seemed, been overlooked: Mae West had director approval.
• • Ken Hughes noted: Not that there was any shortage of volunteers; she had already turned down a string of Hollywood veterans. "These are old guys," was her explanation. "And not only that, they are just not couth." The honor fell to me, and to quote her own words: "The guy is a gentleman." Whether that was because of my British accent, or because I came through a door that said so, has never been made clear.
• • Ken Hughes recalled: I had a few secret suppers with Mae in exclusive Hollywood restaurants, and as far as I could see she wasn't in a wheelchair, she didn't walk with a stick, all her marbles seemed to be in place. Most important, we liked each other.
• • Ken Hughes continued his account: Filming commences about two weeks later in a Paramount sound stage designed to look like the magnificent bridal suite of London's most exclusive hotel. The double doors swing open, revealing Miss West in all her legendary glory and one of Edith Head's most sensational creations. Right on time the good lady does her slow-motion shuffle onto the set, trailing 50 yards of white chiffon behind her.
• • "I got here as soon as I could," Mae says. "I didn't want to find you'd started without me."
• • I take her gently by the arm: "Let's just walk through it, shall we?"
• • "You're the boss, sweetheart."
• • I lead her forward. The doors open. "This is the first time we see you in the show. . . . You make the big entrance. . . .
• • Source: Article: "Acting Had Nothing to Do With It. How was it to direct Mae West in her final film? Don't ask." attributed to Ken Hughes for The L.A. Times; published on 23 February 1997
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2175th 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 • • painted by Charles Sheldon • •
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Mae West.
Cliff Shirpser was a camera assistant for "She Done Him Wrong" starring MAE WEST.
• • Born in San Francisco on 4 August 1906, he began his Tinseltown career during the silent era with the classic "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" [1921] when he was 15 years old. Always plying his trade within the confines of the studio's Camera and Electrical Department, Cliff Shirpser was attached to a diverse number of motion pictures including several Marx Brothers classics, "Destry Rides Again," and "Gone with the Wind." Eventually, he switched to children's series on TV. For six decades, from 1921 — 1981, he was behind the camera on 188 projects. He also distinguished himself as a producer.
• • Cliff Shirpser died in Los Angeles in December — — on 18 December 1977. He was 71.
• • Internet-Only Auction • •
• • An Internet-only auction, featuring rare autographed photos of Mae West in 1933, etc., will end on Tuesday, 20 December 2011 at 5 o'clock in the evening (Pacific).
• • Contact: Nate D. Sanders Auctions at 11901 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025 to see the list and view all the lot numbers.
• • In December, Let's Remember Legs Diamond [1929 — 2009] • •
• • The blue-eyed writer-actress was already comfortable with convicts, jailbirds, con artists, pistol-packing bodyguards, and killers when she moved into shoot-out central, the mob-controlled hotel on West 54th Street where she worked on her play "Diamond Lil" in 1927. The storyline was incited by the actions of angry inmate Chick Clark and his plot to escape and confront the dame who done him wrong, Diamond Lil.
• • Persistent efforts to kill a dapper neighbor nicknamed Legs Diamond were afoot when Mae West and George Raft were in residence, a few floors above Texas Guinan's speakeasy in the cellar.
• • Born in Philadelphia on 10 July 1897 to two Irish immigrants, Jack Nolan became known on the street as Legs Diamond and sometimes as Gentleman Jack. The handsome risk-taker rose to fame on the East Coast during the Prohibition era. A close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein and a bootlegger, the flamboyant criminal survived a number of attempts on his life between 1916 and 1931, causing him to be known as the "clay pigeon of the underworld."
• • In 1930, after several unsuccessful attempts to rub him out in his rooms on West 54th Street went awry, Diamond's nemesis Dutch Schultz remarked to his own gang, "Ain't there nobody that can shoot this guy so he don't bounce back?" It's interesting that when the police contacted his wife at home in Albany to inform her that her husband had been shot several times and wounded, Alice's first words were, "It wasn't me."
• • In the month of December — — on 18 December 1931 — — 34-year-old "Legs" Diamond was finished off when he was laying low on Dove Street in his Albany, NY hideout after a night party. Alice Diamond, his long suffering wife, was murdered two years after Legs was buried. It's been suspected that the local police did him in.
• • On 18 December 1937 • •
• • "Every Day's a Holiday," a Gay Nineties motion picture comedy film starring and co-written by Mae West, was released in the USA in December — — on 18 December 1937.
• • On 18 December 1993, Auction in NYC • •
• • Christie's held a "Collectibles & Hollywood Entertainment" sale in New York City on 18 December 1993.
• • Among the rare star-dusted keepsakes was this curiosity: "Lot Description: A Letter to Groucho Marx from Mae West." The catalogue notes that this was an original letter on Mae West's stationary signed in black ink to Mr. Marx. Dated 29 September 1971 it states in part ... "I've always been crazy about your crazy comedy. I remember how I howled watching your rushes in the projection room at Paramount, when I was there too, waiting to watch my own. ... I have to tell you you're the greatest of all the funny men ... whenever you're in L.A. come up and see me." Price realized was $2,530.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: ”Too much of a good thing can be wonderful."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A book review of a bio on Oscar Levant mentioned Mae West.
• • Alexander Milne wrote: Oscar Levant’s post-movie career as a TV chat show host came to a grinding halt in 1960, when TV executives got tired of apologising to Eisenhower-era corporate sponsors for their star’s risque quips about then-unspeakable topics such as Mae West’s sex life. In retrospect, it is amazing that he survived on air so long in that censorious and puritanical climate. He had even managed to keep his job after making the following remark about Marilyn Monroe’s conversion to Judaism: “Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her.” ...
• • It is ironic that he was canned for joking about Mae West’s bedroom behaviour; after all, she made a whole career out of self-penned jokes and double entendres about her sex life . ...
• • Source: Review: “The Memoirs of an Amnesiac” by Oscar Levant (1906 — 1972) written by Alexander Milne, a freelance features writer based in South-East England; posted 12 July 2009
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2149th 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 • • filming in 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
It was Tuesday, 5 December 1933 and Beverly West, MAE WEST's only sister, was performing in Chicago, Illinois. She had bookings for her popular "Mae West Act" in the heartland during most of the winter of 1933.
• • Meanwhile, in sunny California on 5 December 1933, the date Prohibition was repealed, Mae was being photographed in a Hollywood speakeasy with Gary Cooper. What a huge glass of beer they are embracing.
• • Numerous pictures were snapped that night showing Mae, wearing a dark, long dress with a large glittering brooch and a server's cap, standing behind the bar pulling a draft; or standing next to "the Coop" holding a Bavarian pretzel, etc. I hope they had a chance to have a tall cold one themselves, after all that posing.• • Mae's friend, speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, had died the month before.• • In December, Let's Remember Paul Harvey [1882 — 1955] • •
• • In 1935, Paul Harvey was in one motion picture with Mae West.
• • A versatile actor, Paul Harvey hailed from Sandwich, Illinois where he was born on 10 September 1882. The dapper six-foot-two leading man enjoyed success on Broadway, creating several memorable roles from 1916 — 1933.
• • When he went out to Hollywood, he was cast in nearly 180 motion pictures. Fans will remember him as Donovan in "Goin' to Town" [1935].
• • Paul Harvey died in Los Angeles due to a coronary thrombosis in December — — on 5 December 1955. He was 73.
• • On 5 December 1945 • •
• • The date was 5 December 1945 and five Grumman Avenger Torpedo bombers took off from the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on a routine patrol. The group of planes was designated Flight 19 and they were to fly a standard patrol pattern; 160 miles due east, then 40 miles north then 120 miles southwest on the home leg. There were fourteen crew members on board the five bombers, all with plenty of flight time under their belts, all wearing Mae West life jackets, and each plane was equipped with a self inflating life raft. ... [author unknown]
• • On 5 December 1965 • •
• • Joseph Breen died at age 75 during the month of December — — on 5 December 1965. It is doubtful that Mae West attended his funeral.
• • On 5 December 1999 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • Emily Wortis Leider's article ran in The New York Times on Sunday, 5 December 1999. The article was called "On Stage, Mae West Was Even Racier."
• • Emily Wortis Leider began her article like this: Impersonators and cartoonists have always gravitated to Mae West because in performance she usually seemed to be impersonating herself, exaggerating her femininity and commenting on her own outrageousness.
• • Emily Wortis Leider wrote: As she gained recognition in the 1920's and 30's, her highly stylized drawl and sashaying gait spawned imitation and invited caricature. Still later, before Miss Piggy stole her cleavage, long eyelashes and penchant for self-celebration, Disney used her as the model for the top-heavy Jenny Wren, and Edie Adams pitched cigars by borrowing her signature slogan (originally spoken with a slightly different word order to Cary Grant in the 1933 film "She Done Him Wrong"): "Why don't you come up and see me some time?" ...
• • On 5 December 2008 in Germany • •
• • Van Ham Fine Art Auctions held a Celebrity Photo Auction in Cologne, Germany on 5 December 2008. Two photographs by Diane Arbus were auctioned off. One gelatin silver print was "Mae West in a chair at home, Santa Monica, California."
• • On 5 December 2010 in Malibu • • 
• • In 1982 in Pittsburgh, Mae West fan Red Grooms first unveiled his 1981 work entitled "Mae West Visits New England." He positioned his figure of Mae West in a glittering gown before a severe New England church.
• • It's fitting that in 2010 the work traveled to the West Coast for a show that ended on December 5th. This very funky modern art group show was held at Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University [24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA 90263-4462]. The exhibition was on view to the public from 28 August 2010 — 5 December 2010. One of the amusing works chosen for this colorful array was Red Grooms's 1981 work "Mae West Visits New England" [mixed media].
• • Fascinated by theater as a child, the artist experimented with designing scenarios for underground films in the 1960s. Like good drama, the art of Red Grooms [born 1937] will often satirize the tension between image and reality. For example, in "Tut's Fever," Red Grooms had featured Mae West stationed behind a concession stand in a moviehouse [1986 — 1988, mixed media], and surrounded by other Hollywood icons who were manning the ticket booth, etc.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Some women know how to get what they want — — others don't. I always knew how."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Excerpt from a review of "Becoming Mae West" by biographer Emily Wortis Leider
• • Book critic Maria Braden wrote: Leider shows just how hard West worked to maintain her image as a sex goddess. For example, as she moved from vaudeville to theater to movies, West refused roles that cast her as a woman with children, because she thought mothers couldn't be sex symbols.
• • Book critic Maria Braden noted: She also hid that she had been married twice because she wanted to be perceived as single and available. And although West was a businesswoman, she refused to portray such a character on the screen because it might compromise her "femininity."
• • Book critic Maria Braden continued: West's mother had encouraged her to press the bounds of propriety, and she grew up admiring those who could flout social convention and still be successful. She had a gift for comic dialogue, and wrote much of her own material. She was bold in her use of language and enjoyed playing with double meanings. She peopled her work with strong women and characters at the fringes of conventional society. ...
• • Source: Book Review: "A Hollywood Legend Who Wasn't Always What She Seemed" written by Maria Braden, Knight-Ridder Newspapers; published on 7 August 1997
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2136th 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 • • Tuesday, 5 December 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
MAE WEST told a reporter that she almost married George Raft [26 September 1895 — 24 November 1980], a native New Yorker and an actor most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime dramas of the 1930s — 1940s.
• • Born George Ranft in Manhattan to Conrad Ranft (who was of German descent), he adopted a slick "tough guy" persona that he would later use in his films. 
• • In 1910, little Georgie was living with his sister and parents on West 163rd Street, which was the Washington Heights section.
• • As with the case of Mae West's maternal side, George's mother was also born in Germany; she emigrated to the USA in 1878. Eva Glockner Ranft taught dancing to theatre people — — and gave her son lessons. His smooth tango and dance-floor style led to performances at some of Times Square's most fashionable nightspots. He became part of the stage act of "Texas Guinan and Her Gang."
• • In 1923 George Raft wed Grayce Mulrooney. Though it was soon apparent that this was a bad move, the devout Roman Catholic refused to give him a divorce. Grayce finally died in 1970, when her husband was 75.
• • A former boxer, George Raft also ran errands for Owney — — such as retrieving his box office cut every evening after "Sex" and "Diamond Lil." Raft handled more than cash inside Mae's dressing room, where the dapper New Yorker staged a steamy (private) performance of his own on Broadway.
• • In 1928 Mae West tried to recruit him for the role of Juarez in "Diamond Lil" but George said he "wasn't ready." In truth, his lack of schooling made him worry that he might not be able to remember all the lines and cues for a stage play. As a dancer, he didn't have to worry about memorizing a lot.
• • In 1929 Raft moved to Hollywood and took small roles. His success came in Scarface [1932], the role that was originally offered to Jack LaRue, an actor who played opposite Mae West in her 1928 Broadway hit "Diamond Lil." George Raft's convincing portrayal of the gangster led to speculation that he himself was a mobster — — not far from the truth.
• • When the studio was casting Raft's new feature Night after Night, the role of Maudie Triplett, a former gal pal, was to be offered to a well regarded actress and night club personality: Texas Guinan. Raft suggested Mae West for this cameo, and Mae's three little scenes set the so-so film on fire. "Mae stole everything but the cameras," admitted George Raft.
• • One of his final film appearances was in "Sextette" (1978) with Mae West. He played himself in a brief cameo that went like this:
• • MAE WEST: "Why George Raft, I haven't seen you in 20 years. What have you been doing?"
• • GEORGE RAFT: "Oh, about 20 years!"
• • On 24 November 1980, George Raft died from leukemia at age 79 in Los Angeles, California. He was interred in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • • NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST's pal Texas Guinan got on the wrong side of Arthur Flegenheimer, better known as "Dutch Schultz" [6 August 1902 — 24 October 1935], the NYC-born mobster slaughtered at age 33 by a rival's gunmen in Newark, New Jersey. Briefly, during the 1920s, all three were regularly in the same premises on West 54th.
• • Indeed some New Yorkers still recall meeting Dutch Schultz. Nevertheless, if they were to read a script about the gangster, it might be startling how little it resembles memory. But, after all, fiction and plays are concerned with other things — — such as conflict, tension, balance, and how most women must wobble and wiggle to live, wearing youth and beauty as a suit of armor for close fighting.
• • Born during the month of August, Dutch Schultz pops up in a well-financed play set during the lawless decade. His enemy Texas Guinan is not in it. However, actress Jennifer Swiderski portrays Mae West in the critically razzed "Scandalous People: A Sizzling Jazzical," a musical that got on the wrong side of a number of New York reviewers, who lodged complaints about being forced to sit through a lavishly produced but poorly written two hour mess at this year's Fringe Fest. [Heck, no wonder so many call this annual noise-making "The Cringe."]
• • Created for a cast of 21 actors/ dancers, and set in an era juicy with mayhem and dramatic potential, this show found enough Benjamins to float on. Reviewer Matthew Murray offered this detailed autopsy of the slaughter he witnessed onstage in Minetta Lane that left ticket-bearers with post-dramatic stress disorder.
• • "Low-impact theatre of the most disappointing kind" • •
• • Lamenting the misfired sparkplugs in this limousine of a spectacle, Matthew Murray writes: When a musical has everything going for it except spark, you may find yourself wishing it were instead a colossal flop — — that way, you could at least delight in its destiny of nowhere. Unfortunately, no such reassurance is possible with Scandalous People: A Sizzling Jazzical. This show at the Minetta Lane Theatre, by Benny Russell (music) and Myla Churchill (libretto), must be one of the most professional, elaborately realized, and luxuriously appointed musicals ever seen at the New York International Fringe Festival. But its terrific cast and exquisite trappings cannot disguise the fact that it is low-impact theatre of the most disappointing kind.
• • According to Matthew Murray: Churchill's story follows the progression of Prohibition-era Harlem performing artists to legit stages in the run up to the Great Depression. Dewey Demarkov (Eugene Fleming) is the Ziegfeld-lite impresario behind the Do Drop Inn, an uptown speakeasy whose floor acts are filled with attractive chorus girls (that Dewey has personally, uh, hand-picked); two sisters, Desiree (Nicole Hill) and Cindy (Nirine S. Brown), the former a smoky vocalist and Dewey's wife, the latter a lithe and gifted hoofer who has long loved Dewey from afar; and enough talent and variety to attract the come-hither regular Mae West (Jennifer Swiderski). So popular is the club that it's also attracted the notice of a Bronx gangster, Dutch (Ryan Clardy), who wants to move the whole show to Broadway — — with, of course, a few small changes.
• • Matthew Murray observes: This is a premise rife with possibilities, and Russell and Churchill bypass none. Scandal, adultery, and depression play key roles in the characters' lives. The harsh realities of show business, both devastating and elevating, with individualism and working together both of paramount importance, receive their just due. The ensemble women are appropriately eye-popping, all frantic legs and perpetual shimmy as they pound through Obediah Wright's remarkable choreography, which cannily demonstrates the fusion of black (tap) and white (ballet) styles that was soon to revolutionize mainstream American musical theatre.
• • Topping the 21-person cast is a roaring nine-piece band. . . .
• • "A desperate, educational feel that prevents any part of it from catching fire" • •
• • Matthew Murray concludes: But despite everyone's best efforts, the show is plagued by a desperate, educational feel that prevents any part of it from catching fire for more than 10 consecutive seconds. It seems that Russell and Churchill were more interested in capturing the look, the sound, and the politics of the era than they were in bringing it to life theatrically. The inclusion of so many identifying features of 1929, from a Jolson-style blackface specialty to police raids for not just alcohol but also mixed-race dancing onstage to even Mae West's presence, does not so much immerse you in the time as ham-handedly point at it. That the songs — — sometimes torchy, sometimes steamy, sometimes vaudevillian, but always evanescently pleasant — — recall a raft of period styles without providing much originality of their own, also does not help.
• • If Russell and Churchill are looking for a model, they could examine Michael John LaChiusa's version of "The Wild Party," which is set around the same time and treats roughly the same subject, if from a very different perspective. In that show, LaChiusa melded the sounds of the late 1920s with his own distinct musical aesthetic, creating a score that sounded as fresh as it did familiar. When Russell and Churchill similarly learn that way they bring to their examination of pre-Depression black entertainment is every bit as important as what it did for America, chances are they'll find a way to grant "Scandalous People" the scorch its subtitle promises.
• • Right now, however, it is too chilly to cause anyone but the hard-working dancers to even break a sweat.
• • Scandalous People — — part of The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC)
— — Source: — —
• • Review: "Scandalous People"
• • BY: Matthew Murray | Theatre Critic
• • Published in: Talking Broadway.com — — http://www.talkinbroadway.com
• • Published in: August 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • 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.
MAE WEST was so busy during April 1934 with her Hollywood career in full bloom that she may have missed this newspaper item about her late friend and generous Broadway backer.• • On 2 April 1934, one of the armored cars owned by Texas Guinan — — always garaged on Washington Square South, two blocks from the speakeasy hostess's townhouse on West Eighth Street — — sailed to Liverpool, England and its new owner.
• • Texas Guinan, queen of the night clubs, died on 5 November 1933. Her jewelry, furs, and cars were auctioned and one of her showgirls snapped up the bullet-proof vehicle. Perhaps the chorine made a nice profit on the automobile when she resold it shortly afterward to an Englishman. Clearly, the gal was not overcome by the limousine's sentimental value.• • Texas Guinan loved to be driven out to Long Island for seafood after her club closed for the night, taking along a gaggle of girls who were known as "Texas Guinan's mob" to enjoy the fresh ocean air and the fresh catch.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1930 trial • •
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Mae West.
During Prohibition, sin was in and Broadway was no exception, noticed MAE WEST.
• • The rialto was frequently overrun with crowd-pleasing "dirt plays," shows such as John Colton's Shanghai Gesture [Martin Beck Theatre, 1926], starring Florence Reed in the role of an Oriental madam Mother Goddam — — an occidental overlord who presided over an elaborate bordello with specialty suites such as the Gallery of Laughing Dolls. Other examples were The Half Caste [1926], White Cargo [1924], and Lulu Belle [1926].
• • Sin, however, had a black syntax.
• • All of these theatre pieces obeyed an unwritten rule that fallen women had to suffer and repent. And these exotic tanned temptresses were always positioned off-shore — — Samoa and the South Pacific being popular as the pants seat of Satan's circus.
• • "In Sex, Mae West broke with Broadway moralities," notes Lillian Schlissel, "and made sin a domestic product. The scenes in the brothel were set not in the tropics but in Montreal." The final act was set in Connecticut.
• • Sex opened in April 1926 at Daly 63rd Street Theatre and was still attracting ticker-buyers during the holiday season and beyond [December 1926 — February 1927].• • Eighty years later, in a neat mirror-image, Sex is back onstage [through 23 December 2007] and enjoying a healthy box office. • • Nicole Gluckstern gives it a mixed review for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Unfortunately, Gluckstern is unable to write well nor get to the bottom of what gives this script its febrile and uncanny life — — but it's only a "mini" so take a look.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Nicole Gluckstern writes: While the prostitute with the heart of gold is a character about as stock as Pantaloon, it has to be admitted that when Mae West played the role, she made it her own.
• • As well she might — seeing as she wrote the scripts too. West's brand of unapologetic sexuality and smart banter exemplified the brave new (and distressingly short-lived) social standards of the Jazz Age. But for all that, Sex can't avoid feeling a little dated, as would any play in which marriage equals the only possible happy ending.
• • You certainly can't fault the earnest cast of the Aurora Theatre's production for any lingering unease about the content. Their slapstick energy and open-armed embrace of the more farcical elements of the show make for acceptable entertainment of the uncerebral variety, and there are a couple of truly standout performances. West's breakout character Margy LaMott (Delia MacDougall) and her naval officer paramour Lt. Gregg (Steve Irish) share splendid chemistry, and Maureen McVerry manages to be both neurotically appealing and appalling as Clara Stanton, a society woman who holds a dirty little secret of her own. The hilariously sleazy calypso number "At the Café Port au Prince," sung by Danny Wolohan, is also memorable.
(Also see Picks.) (Nicole Gluckstern)
• • Sex Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison, Berk; (510) 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org. Extended run: through 23 December 2007.
— — Source: — — • • San Francisco Bay Guardian — — www.sfbg.com/
• • Mini Review written by: Nicole Gluckstern• • Stage listings are compiled by Deborah Giattina
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 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 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST knew she had a real hit on her hands, at last. On 4 April 1928, if you were standing outside of Leo Teller's Broadway Theatre in Brooklyn, New York [once located at Court Street and Stockton Street], you would have heard thunderous applause and cheers. 
• • "You'd have thought that a favorite bootlegger had come back from Atlanta," wrote drama critic Robert Garland in the New York Evening Telegram on 5 April 1928. "[Mae] makes Miss Ethel Barrymore look like the late lamented Bert Savoy."
• • Mae West and her producers had decided to try out her play "Diamond Lil" in the actress's hometown before bringing it to Manhattan. Apparently, the show brought down the house. It was a clean sweep: both the critics and the public adored it.
• • It's always been said that Mae selected an 1890s Bowery setting because the corsetted turn-of-the-century fashions were more flattering to her curvy figure. No one has yet given her credit for recognizing that an old-fashioned saloon setting - - showing bar-goers enjoying their beer - - would touch the right nerve during the "parched" Prohibition Era.
• • So consider it said: Mae West understood her audience and gave them onstage what they missed very much in 1928 - - freedom to bend an elbow and imbibe in public. Brilliant, Mae!• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • April 1928 • •NYC
Mae West.
