skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"The Beaux arts-style Palace, originally called the Loew's Poli Theater, opened in 1922 and was once the biggest venue in the state, seating about 3,600 for live entertainers including MAE WEST," writes Ken Dixon today in his article for the CT Post. "It closed about 35 years ago. ... Scared off by estimates that a study of Bridgeport's long-vacant vaudeville-era theaters would cost about $619,000, a legislative committee Monday voted to require state officials to perform the study with existing funds. ..."
• • Mae-mavens already know that in 1927, "The Drag" premiered at Poli's, a stock burlesque house in Bridgeport, Connecticut located on the most prominent boulevard downtown.
• • During the early 1920s, impresario Sylvestre Poli brought the Poli Palace to the Nutmeg State.
• • Designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb and eventually renamed Loew's Palace Theater [1325 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604], this landmark was the biggest movie theater ever erected in Connecticut — — and the largest among Bridgeport's 20-plus theaters. Poli's was actually one of two theaters built inside a single building (the other being the Majestic).
• • Despite the public's curiosity about the controversial vaudevillian Mae West, and her latest play "The Drag," Jim Timony could only manage to secure half a week at Poli's Park, which was then in use as a burlesque house in Bridgeport. It was a dreary and wintery Monday on 31 January 1927 when the Morals Production Company hoisted a banner over the trolley cars criss-crossing Main Street. Pedestrians were intrigued by this saucy announcement: "The Drag" by the author of SEX — — more sensational than Rain or The Captive!"
• • While they were lodging at the Arcade Hotel, Beverly West and Edward Elsner (Mae's sister and director) were arrested at 5 AM on 2 February 1927. Both the play and the arrest were the talk of Bridgeport.
• • 19 April 1927 • • 
• • The sentencing of Mae West, Jim Timony, and the cast of "Sex" took place on 19 April 1927 in Jefferson Market Court. That trial and the dramatic verdict end Act I of the stage play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets."
• • This is a photo of that pivotal moment in the courtroom when the play was last presented in New York City at the Algonquin Theatre in July 2008. Mae West was portrayed by actress Yvonne Sayers. The role of Texas Guinan went to Eileen Glenn and Gloria M. Buccino was Matilda West.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The British author Graham Greene [2 October 1904 — 3 April 1991] was inspired by Mae West when he was creating his character Ida, a barmaid, buxom and sentimental, and a busybody-ish Good Samaritan.
• • Writing about the cinema version of Brighton Rock, Peter Craven notes: Brighton Rock may be an advertisement for Graham Greene's novel and an introduction of it to a new audience. The thing that's so hard to film — — perhaps to dramatise in any medium — — is indicated by Greene's outline of what he was after. On 9 April 1939, he wrote to his agent Nancy Pearn: "The real point ... is the contrast between the ethical mind (Ida's) and the religious (the Boy's and Rose's) in thriller terms." In the novel Ida — — who, believe it or not, Greene partly based on Mae West — — is preoccupied with a world of an eye for an eye. Murder has been committed and justice — — conceived of as the vengeance of society — — must prevail. ..."
• • Source: Article: "Greene's pastures" written by Peter Craven for The Australian; posted on 16 April 2011.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1904th 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/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • "Courting Mae West" in 2008 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.
On December 12th — — the date of the old "Chase and Sanborn Hour" tempest — — what often comes to mind is how much was political and how much MAE WEST was merely a pawn in a Catholic reformers game. It's ironic that a skit set in the Garden of Eden could lead to Eve's banishment from the airwaves, an expulsion by the lords of the Legion of Decency.
• • For a well-researched analysis of this, Steve Craig's article — — "Out of Eden: The Legion of Decency, the FCC, and Mae West's 1937 Appearance on The Chase & Sanborn Hour" — — in The Journal of Radio Studies [November 2006] is most enlightening.
• • Helen Menken's birthday is December 12th • •
• • How many performers could say they were arrested with Mae West? 
• • It was on 9 February 1927 that Mae — — along with the cast of "Sex," and the cast of "The Captive," and the cast of "The Virgin Man" — — was cuffed and dragged in to Night Court.
• • Broadway ingenue Dorothy Hall [1906 — 1953] was the youngest actress to face the judge after the raid; Hall was 21 years old. Helen Menken was 26 and Mae was 33 at the time of this arrest.
• • Native New Yorker Helen Menken [12 December 1901 — 27 March 1966] was born Helen Meinken to a German-French father, Frederick Meinken, and an Irish-born mother, Mary Madden. She was still a newly-wed, having married Humphrey Bogart in May 1926, when discussions started about an American version of a French sensation called "The Captive" (a controversial new drama about a lesbian who leaves her husband for a woman).
• • Perhaps the prestige this play enjoyed in Paris persuaded Helen Menken to accept the leading role. "The Captive" was produced at the Empire Theatre, opening on 29 September 1926.
• • During December 1926 both "The Captive" and "Sex" were doing brisk business at the box office. While Mae did everything possible to get more publicity to attract men to see her show, Helen Menken reached out to women theatre-goers.
• • Unknown to her fans (nor revealed to reporters) was this alarming coincidence. Though Helen appeared so confident onstage in her role as the unconventional heroine Irene De Montcel, at home her alcoholic husband was getting drunk and beating her. Not long after the police padlocked the play on 9 February 1927 [after 160 performances], Helen would divorce the brutish Bogart.
• • The police stopped the play during a scene between Basil Rathbone and Helen Menken. • • Playing the role of Mr. Clean, attempting to disinfect the sewer Broadway had become, New York City's Acting Mayor Joseph V. McKee made sure the news men were informed the evening before.
• • After 10:00 PM, Helen Menken, Dorothy Hall, and Mae West were charged with "contributing to a common nuisance" and "obscene exhibition" and found themselves shoulder to shoulder with each other and answerable to Magistrate John Flood Wells, who set bail at $1,000 each.
• • On February 10th, the local newspapers focused more on Miss Hall and Miss Menken than on Mae West. All three producers sought restraining orders permitting them to reopen. Under fire, Dorothy Hall immediately quit the play — — and Lucille Lortel replaced her.
• • Helen Menken continued her Broadway career, starring in a number of plays until the mid-1930s. One of her greatest stage triumphs was "The Old Maid," the Pulitzer Prize-winning play that starred Menken and Judith Anderson from January — September 1935. [Bette Davis would recreate Menken's role as the spinster with a secret in the 1939 film version.] Menken's final Broadway appearance was in an unsuccessful piece named "The Laughing Woman," which closed after a few weeks in 1937. She was active on radio in the 1940s (notably recreating her performance opposite Judith Anderson in a 1946 radio adaption of "The Old Maid") and a major presence behind the scenes in the theater world, especially at the American Theatre Wing. She received a special Tony Award posthumously in 1966 for her work.
• • Don't you wish you could have been there when the door to the police paddy wagon opened on 9 February 1927 and the 26-year-old Helen Menken came face to face with Mae West for the first time?• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Broadway rivals in 1927 Menken with Rathbone • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex," the cast of "The Virgin Man," and the cast of "The Captive." 
• • • • Playing the role of Mr. Clean, attempting to disinfect the sewer Broadway had become, New York City's Acting Mayor Joseph V. McKee made sure the news men were informed the night before.
• • After 10:00 PM, Helen Menken, Dorothy Hall, and Mae West were charged with "contributing to a common nuisance" and "obscene exhibition" and found themselves face to face with each other and answerable to Magistrate John Flood Wells, who set bail at $1,000 each.
• • On February 10th, the local newspapers actually focused more on Miss Hall and Miss Menken than on Mae West, who was still an unknown and not the Broadway star Helen Menken was during the 1920s. • • The raid and arrest in 1927 are dramatized in the full-length play "Courting Mae West." Watch a scene on YouTube. This is a copyrighted image from the Courting Mae West Comic Book; the original is in color.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 2 February 1927 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex," the cast of "The Virgin Man," and the cast of "The Captive."
• • Snooty Basil Rathbone, who died during the month of July — — on 21 July 1967 in New York, NY — — was cuffed and brought downtown to Jefferson Market Police Court along with Helen Menken and their co-stars. 
• • Born in South Africa on 13 June 1892, Basil Rathbone was one year older than Mae West — — but in his mind, he was worlds apart even though they were both starring on Broadway in 1927.
• • During the 1920s, most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the legitimate theater. For many of his Broadway roles he portrayed a suave, sophisticated seducer of susceptible women — — quite a change from the legendary ascetic Baker Street detective he would play later in his career.
• • Making a sensation at the Empire Theatre was a drama that had been highly regarded in Paris: "The Captive." Basil Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques Virieu, a young man engaged to be married, only to discover that his fiancée [played by Helen Menken] is in love with someone else — — a woman. Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the Roaring Twenties, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed right after the police raid.
• • Basil Rathbone was very angry about the censorship of his work, but even more aggrieved that show people would start whispering that he was arrested and booked — — with Mae West.
• • For years, Basil Rathbone and his wife made their home at 135 Central Park West. Mae lived in several westside locations, occasionally not far from Rathbone. But there is no record of their taking tea together to reminisce over their arrest on indecency charges in 1927.• • The Empire Theatre • • • • Built in 1893, the Empire Theatre had been situated at 1430 Broadway (between West 40th and West 41st) in Manhattan. An impressive playhouse, it seated about 1100. J.B. McElfatrick was the architect. Producer Charles Frohman had it built "uptown" at the suggestion of Al Hayman — — "Everything theatrical is moving uptown," he advised. Al Hayman took ownership after Frohman died on the Lusitania in 1915. In 1948, the Astor estate purchased the Empire Theatre and announced, in 1953, that it would be torn down to make way for an office tower. Waves of nostalgia spread through the theatre community, and performers gathered to celebrate the venue in a restrospective farewell performance. The bulldozers arrived in 1953 and an edifice was wrecked.
• • Brush up those zippy Mae West lines right on Broadway — — Sunday afternoon August 16th — — and forge a-Mae-zing memories.
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Subway: N or R [BMT] train to West 42nd Street; 1 [IRT] train to Times Square
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: T. 212-614-9683 — — or post your RSVP or tour question here
• • Online: MaeWest.blogspot.com — — TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • Who: Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo makes the tour educational and entertaining.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's history play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July 2008 at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She is working on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her unusual theatre memorabilia and vintage photos during the tour and reveal secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. These rare pictures show the area as it looked during the 1920s when Mae West and Texas Guinan had their name on several marquees.
• • Surprises: Prizes and other nice things are part of the fun
• • Members of the press may attend on August 16th as our guest. RSVP required.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • •
• • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's fellow offenders • • Rathbone & Menken, 1927 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex" and the cast of "The Captive."
• • Snooty Basil Rathbone, who died in July [on 21 July 1967 in New York, NY], was cuffed and brought downtown to Jefferson Market Police Court along with Helen Menken and their co-stars.
• • Born in South Africa on 13 June 1892, Basil Rathbone was one year older than Mae West — — but in his mind, he was worlds apart even though they were both starring on Broadway in 1927.
• • During the 1920s, most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the legitimate theater. For many of his Broadway roles he portrayed a suave, sophisticated seducer of women — — quite a change from the legendary ascetic Baker Street detective he would play later in his career.
• • Making a sensation at the Empire Theatre [on Broadway and West 40th Street] was a drama that had been highly regarded in Paris: "The Captive." Basil Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques Virieu, a young man engaged to be married, only to discover that his fiancée [played by Helen Menken] is in love with someone else — — a woman. Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the Roaring Twenties, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed.
• • Basil Rathbone was very angry about the censorship of his work, but even more aggrieved that show people would start whispering that he was arrested and booked — — with Mae West.
• • For years, Basil Rathbone and his wife made their home at 135 Central Park West. Mae lived in several westside locations, occasionally not far from Rathbone. But there is no record of their taking tea together to reminisce over their arrest on indecency charges in 1927.• • Brush up on your Mae West lines right on Broadway on Friday evening 11 July 2008 when the cast of "Courting Mae West" gives a free performance at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble at 7:30 PM. Visit B&N, 1972 Broadway at West 66th Street.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's arresting drama cohort • • Basil Rathbone • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was arrested on 9 February 1927 along with the cast of "Sex" and the cast of "The Captive." Snooty Basil Rathbone, who died in July [on 21 July 1967 in New York, NY], was cuffed and brought downtown to Jefferson Market Police Court along with Helen Menken and their co-stars.
• • Born in South Africa on 13 June 1892, Basil Rathbone was one year older than Mae West — — but in his mind, he was worlds apart even though they were both starring on Broadway in 1927.
• • During the 1920s, most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the legitimate theater. For many of his Broadway roles he portrayed a suave, sophisticated seducer of women — — quite a change from the legendary ascetic Baker Street detective he would play later in his career.
• • Making a sensation at the Empire Theatre [on Broadway and West 40th Street] was a drama that had been highly regarded in Paris: "The Captive." Basil Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques Virieu, a young man engaged to be married, only to discover that his fiancée [played by Helen Menken] is in love with someone else — — a woman. Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the Roaring Twenties, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed.
• • Rathbone was very angry about the censorship of his work, but even more aggrieved that show people would start whispering that he was arrested and booked — — with Mae West.
• • For years, Basil Rathbone and his wife made their home at 135 Central Park West. Mae lived in several westside locations, occasionally not far from Rathbone. But there is no record of their taking tea together to reminisce over their arrest on indecency charges in 1927.• • Brush up on your Mae West lines right on Broadway on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]• • Only 18 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's partners in crime, Rathbone and Menken • • 1926 • •
NYC
Mae West.
