Mae West: Tiger’s Inamorata

It was the MAE WEST motion picture, “Belle of the Nineties” [1934] that helped Joe Breen consolidate his position as an administrator, according to the authors of “The Dame in the Kimono.” What a fascinating insider’s look. This is Part 8 of 9 parts.
• • Mae West: “I’ll cool it off!” • •
• • Leff and Simmons wrote: “If they think it’s too warm,” Mae West purred, “I’ll cool it off.”
• • Leff and Simmons wrote: Mae West and Paramount must have reasoned that other censors would follow the New York lead, for Manny Cohen suspended not only the New York premiere but the national release of the picture until he could make the requested cuts.

• • Leff and Simmons wrote: For the next month, Manny Cohen worked on the motion picture; he even shot a new conclusion that showed the Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor) and his inamorata exchanging wedding vows.
• • Leff and Simmons wrote: Variety called the “benefit-of-clergy finale” an “obvious curtsey to Joe Breen.”
• • Mae West: Uproar over “objectionable pictures” • •  …   
• • This brief excerpt from the book will be concluded on the next post.
• • Source: “The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code” by Leonard J. Leff and Jerold L. Simmons [University Press of Kentucky, Paperback; 6 July 2001].
• • On Wednesday, 20 April 1927 • •
• • Bruce Gould's article "'Sex' on Trial" was printed in New Republic on Wednesday, 20 April 1927 on pages 246 — 248.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • Louella Parsons wrote: Mae West got herself a movie job. Yes, indeed! She signed a contract with William Shapiro who brought Bobby Breen to the coast. Shapiro, at one time associated with Sol Lesser, has obtained capital to finance the Mae West movie.
• • Now here's the part that to me should even make the sphinx smile. Shapiro has an option on John Barrymore's services and is trying to get him to play opposite La West.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “Brains are an asset, if you hide them.”
• • Mae West said: “My play 'Sex' was a work of art.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • National newspapers mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae West Starts on Jail Term" • •
• • "Found Prison Inmates 'Very Interesting' on First Night" • •
• • The Scranton Times wrote: Mae West, star and coauthor of "Sex," with two negresses and three white women as fellow passengers, left Jefferson Market women's prison today in a prison van for the workhouse on Welfare Island, where she will serve nine days of the ten-day sentence imposed yesterday for giving an obscene play. ...
• • Note the words “in a prison van.”
• • Note: The stage play “Courting Mae West” dramatizes Mae’s prison trials.
• • Source: The Scranton Times; published on Wednesday, 20 April 1927
• • 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 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,976th 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 1934 • •
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Mae West: Fistie Hero

MAE WEST returned to the 1890s era for "Belle of the Nineties," released in the USA on 21 September 1934 and then screened in foreign countries.
• • One of Mae's co-stars was actress Katherine DeMille, who was born on Thursday, 29 June 1911 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (with a birth name of Katherine Lester). Here is a vintage article that became available only recently —  — and mentioned this June baby.
• • "Naughty 'Nineties — — A Glamorous Picture" • •
• • Mae West at Her Best • •
• • Mae West, who admits that she is at her best when she is acting a woman at her worst, is at her very best in her newest, and gayest contribution to the screen, "Belle of the Nineties," screening on Saturday and Monday. 
• • As the queen of hearts and diamonds who takes Dixie by storm and charm, Miss West returns to the period of the Gay and Naughty Nineties in a lavishly dressed, handsomely mounted, and thoroughly engrossing entertainment.
• • Mae is surrounded by three new "tall, dark and handsomes," Roger Pryor, Johnny Mack Brown, and John Miljan — — with Duke Ellington and his orchestra — — and  Katherine DeMille, Libby Taylor, Stuart Holmes, and Warren Hymer in the supporting cast.  Miss West acts the part of a St. Louis burlesque to win the hearts of the Southern cavaliers.
• • In New Orleans she encounters Miljan who, as the proprietor of the South's most famous night-club, lays siege to her heart and her diamonds. John Mack Brown enters into the picture as the unsophisticated youth who pours adulation on Miss West, and gems at her feet.
• • Miss West falls in love with Roger Pryor, a current fistie hero • •
• • As the plot moves forward at a breathless pace, Miss West falls in love with Roger Pryor, a current fistie hero, and later, because she believes that he has double-crossed her, causes him to lose his most important fight.  But it all ends happily with Miljan, the true villain, getting his just desserts and Pryor and Miss West happily reunited.  Miss West sings several new songs.
• • Source:  Article on page 5 in Geraldton Guardian and Express (Western Australia); published on Thursday, 23 April 1936.
• • On Friday, 23 June 1922 in Variety • •

• • Mae West and Harry Richman performed together in Manhattan during June 1922, billing their act "Bits of Musical Comedy — — Mae West assisted by Harry Richman," and most of the material was written by The Firefly of Broadway herself.
• • In their edition dated for Friday, 23 June 1922, Variety's review appeared, praising the partnership because it offered ideal opposites. Referring to Mae, Variety (often reluctant to pay Mae a compliment) was enthusiastic for once: "She rises to heights undreamed of for her and reveals unsuspected depths as a delineator of character songs, a dramatic reader of ability, and a girl with a flair for farce that will some day land her on the legitimate Olympus."
• • On Tuesday, 23 June 1970 • •
• • "Myra Breckinridge" had its red-carpet, star-studded premiere in New York at the Criterion Theatre (1514 Broadway) on Tuesday, 23 June 1970. The movie went into general release in the USA one day later.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The 1978 film "Sextette," in which Ringo Starr appeared with Mae West, be re-released in New York.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "To err is human, but it feels divine."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Billboard Magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • Mike Todd has penciled In "Catherine Was Great," the Mae West opus for late June.
• • Source: Item in Billboard Magazine; published on Saturday, 3 June 1944 
• • 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 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3206th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1922 • •
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Mae West: Harry D. Mills

In 1934, when MAE WEST was working on "Belle of the Nineties," there was an interesting article printed about technical difficulties during kissing scenes between Ruby Carter and the Tiger Kid, her leading man Roger Pryor [27 August 1901 — 31 January 1974].
• • Sound Mixer Harry D. Mills [30 January 1901 — 19 April 1977] had to figure it out. 
• • "Asides and Interludes" by James Cunningham • •
• • James Cunningham  wrote:  The problems of corporate reorganization are not the sole cause of the occasional headaches of the Paramount Picture management. Mae West's kisses are another source.

• • James Cunningham  explained:  It seems that the recording technicians at the studio in Hollywood who were putting Mae's dialogue onto film during the production of "It Ain't No Sin," had found the blonde "siren's" voice a "cinch" to handle, until Mae started a love scene with Roger Pryor, her young leading man. Then the trouble started.
• • "Smack!" went the first kiss, and E. L. Kerr, technician in charge, asked for another "take" so that he could pull the microphone back a bit and diminish the intensity of Mae's osculation.
• • "Smack!" went the second, and Harry D. Mills, the sound mixer, reported too much volume sizzling through the wires into his sound booth.
• • James Cunningham continued:  Director Leo McCarey cautioned Mae to take it easy, and she agreed. But a third attempt shocked the recording apparatus again.
• • James Cunningham  noted:  Mae, a bit nonplussed over the reactionary effects of her love making on science, informed all present that if she kissed her leading man at all, she would have to do it roundly — let the sound tracks fall where they might.
• • And so the Paramount Pictures Corporation wrapped a piece of silk around the microphone to dampen the vibrations.
• • Source:  Article written by James Cunningham for Motion Picture Herald; published on Saturday, 30 June 1934. 
• • On Saturday, 7 January 1939 • •
• • On Saturday, 7 January 1939 Australian movie buffs were eager to see Mae West.  Her motion picture "Go West Young Man" had finally been released in the movie houses Down Under.  Exciting.
• • On Friday, 7 January 2000 in Newsday • •
• • An article on Cary Grant written by Blake Green began with Mae West's name in the first sentence. Blake Green wrote: Few quips have achieved the immortality of Mae West's sultry invitation, "Come up and see me sometime."
• • Newsday, a Long Island newspaper, published this feature on Friday, 7 January 2000.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West never forgets a friend nor a kindness, and seems to have an inexhaustible memory for the faces of those who have crossed her pathway in her long journey from Brooklyn to Broadway.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I'm Mae West, I can't wear the same clothes twice."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A book discussed Mae West in 1930, returning to vaudeville.
• • Anthony Slide wrote:  Prior to starring in "The Constant Sinner, Mae West had returned to vaudeville with a fourteen-minute act which made its debut at the Fox Audubon — — where the cooch dance was ordered removed in May 1930.   ...
• • Source: Entry on Mae West in "The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville" written by Anthony Slide; published in 2012
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. Yesterday we entertained 1,430 visitors. 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3087th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1934 • •
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