Mae West: Was It Gay?

MAE WEST was a soft touch for a hard luck story. Mae rarely discussed her generosity in an interview, however, which makes this seldom seen piece in Screenland worth reading. This is Part 10 of 18 segments.
• • Mae West’s Secret Self • •
• • Mae West: Unless you’re bad, you don’t get a break • •
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Mae West swears that nobody remembers a good girl, and that you've got to be bad to make the world give you a break.  
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: Well, listen to this:
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: She gave her first Hollywood party the other day.

• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: "Come on, boys," she said, with that husky, insinuating drawl of hers, "let's go!"    
• • Aileen St. John Brenon wrote: And they went, with a will! Was that party gay? Did they yell and scream? Did they make whoopee?  
• • Mae West: Joy unrefined • • …
• • This will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Screenland; issue dated for October 1933.
• • On Thursday, 29 July 1937 • •
• • Frank Wallace and the on-going lawsuit he initiated, to get the court to recognize his marriage in 1911 to Mae West, made enough waves in the news media. However, an item in the Los Angeles Citizen-News on Thursday, 29 July 1937 reported that Paramount Pictures "announced 98% of her fan mail had been favorable" despite the drawn-out divorce debacle.  
• • July 2004: Mae West Blog launches • •
• • What are we up to, writing about the Brooklyn-born bombshell for eighteen years now?
• • We’re here to keep Mae mavens up to date, correct errors, celebrate each revival of a play she wrote, post the latest Westian stage and book reviews. And answer our fan mail!
• • The light’s still on. Come up and see Mae every day.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • I doubt that Mae West is the last of her line. More subtle approaches are distinctly possible.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Men and jewels are my hobby."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media mentioned Mae West.
• • "Why women go to the movies" • •
• • Marc Silberman wrote: The vamp represents one of the few female images that is allowed to look at men freely. Mae West couples her disparaging meat-tester's gaze directly with carnal motives: after a few knowledgeable glances she taps the men on their rear ends. In contrast to this is Marilyn Monroe's constantly veiled stare.  ...
• • Source: Excerpt from an article written in German by Gertrud Koch, translated into English by Marc Silberman; published in Jump Cut, number 27, pp. 51-53, issue dated for July 1982
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,048th 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 • • Mae West with orphans in 1933 • •
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Mae West: Tira Takes October

On 6 October 1933, MAE WEST wowed the world when Paramount released "I'm No Angel" directed by Wesley Ruggles and co-starring Cary Grant (in the role of Jack Clayton).
• • Writing about this new release by Paramount Pictures, Variety's reporter Land weighed in, calling Mae West "as hot an issue as Hitler." Remarkable, eh? Land wrote: Needless to say this opus will scarcely get on the reformers' recommended lists. But with the tide running the opposite way, perhaps the spleen of the moralists isn't such a factor right now. And anyway, Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler.
• • Source: Variety [edition 17 October 1933]
• • Milton and "Big Boy" in October • •
• • It was during October 1924 that Mae West attached herself to the subversive song sheet for "Big Boy," a run-away hit by the lyricist Jack Yellen [1892 — 1991] and the composer Milton Ager who was born in the month of October — — on 6 October 1893. "Big Boy," with explicit lyrics about a darktown sheik who drives both pale and brown-skinned women wild in bed, was offered by Advanced Music Corp. on a song sheet disguised with artwork depicting a jaunty white male.
• • When the Wolverines recorded "Big Boy" in October 1924, this number had already become hugely popular. Though Mae was offered no opportunity to record this, she did pose quite fetchingly on the song sheet.
• • On 6 October 1959 • •
• • In early October — — on 6 October 1959 — — newscaster Charles Collingwood had taped an interview in the screen queen's apartment. Questioned about the title of her new memoir Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, Mae West replied, "It's about my private transgressions — — that's a long word for sin." The suits viewed the footage and were afraid to air it.
• • Born in Michigan, Charles Collingwood [4 June 1917 — 3 October 1985] was a pioneering CBS television newscaster. Collingwood was a protege of Edward R. Murrow during the Second World War and became known as an eloquent on-air journalist. He was part of a group of distinguished early television journalists that included Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Murrow himself.
• • Despite a constant battle with the bottle and a feverish addiction to gambling, Collingwood went on to become chief correspondent of CBS and host of its "Eyewitness to History" series.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “Beulah, peel me a grape.” [Tira said it in "I'm No Angel," 1933.]
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about the Hotel Fauchere's history mentioned Mae West.
• • Tina Traster writes: The hotel was originally founded by Louis Fauchere, a Swiss man who had been the master chef at Delmonico’s in New York, in 1852. Over the years, Andrew Carnegie, Mae West, Sarah Bernhardt, Babe Ruth, and Presidents Roosevelt (both of them) and Kennedy bedded down here. The Fauchere family closed the hotel in 1976. Like John Berendt, other writers and artists have been inspired by Milford, Pennsylvania . . . .
• • Source: Article: "Marvelous Milford" written by Tina Traster for The N.Y. Post; posted on 5 October, 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2075th 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 Cary Grant in 1933 • •
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Mae West: 6 October 1933

On 6 October 1933, MAE WEST wowed the world when Paramount released "I'm No Angel" directed by Wesley Ruggles and co-starring Cary Grant (in the role of Jack Clayton).
• • To celebrate that blockbuster — — in which Mae steps into a lion's cage, thereby making a childhood dream come true — — let's revisit a vintage scene [see below] along with a vintage film review.
• • Curiously, the critic concludes that Mae West is as hot as Hitler in his coverage that appeared in the venerable Variety [issue of 17 October 1933].
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • VARIETY's Film 1933 Review of "I'm No Angel" • •

• • "I'm No Angel" is going to help redistribute a nice chunk of the nation's coin. That the Mae West film is going to make tubs of coin was crystal-clear opening day at the Paramount. Ushers were riding herd on a permanent corral of waitees in the lobby.
• • As to quality, "I'm No Angel" can stand alone — — although without "She Done Him Wrong" as a benediction an a million bucks' worth of assorted publicity, high-brow, and hoi polloi, the gross probably wouldn't reach the big brackets now looming. Also it is fairly obvious that the same plot mechanics and situations without Mae West wouldn't be a motion picture at all. But that's no criticism. Simply chronicling the fact that it's all Miss West plus a good directing job by Wesley Ruggles and first rate studio production quality in all departments.
• • Comedy detail has been adroitly worked out and the picture is strongly fortified on laughs, all derived from the West innuendos and the general good-natured bawdiness of the heroine, whose progress from a carnival mugg-taker to a deluxe millionaire-annexer is marked by a succession of gentlemen friends, mostly temporary, and usually suckers. When reaching affluence, the carnival gal is serviced by four colored maids in an ultra-penthouse and garbed in the flashy manner of an Oriental potentate's pampered pet.
• • Every now and again Mae West bursts into a song, generally just a chorus or a strain. They're of the Frankie and Johnny genre, but primarily she plays a lion tamer, not a songstress.
• • Needless to say this opus will scarcely get on the reformers' recommended lists.
• • But with the tide running the opposite way, perhaps the spleen of the moralists isn't such a factor right now. And anyway, Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler.
• • Source: Variety [edition 17 October 1933]
• • Byline: "Land"
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West: Jack Bonavita

MAE WEST could never forget the summer of 1904.
• • In May 1904, Dreamland opened in Coney Island. To the right of the Surf Avenue entrance stood a building that Mae West entered, holding the hand of her father "Battling Jack" West. Almost 11 years old, but looking younger because of her petite frame, little Mae was nearly as transformed by the experience as Alice was when plunging into Wonderland.
• • For years, Mae talked about, and thought about, the impression Bostock's lions left on her. The lead lion tamer was Captain Jack Bonavita. Born in Philadelphia in 1866, his muscular frame and courage - - not to mention his sleek military garb, knee-high boots, and sinister moustache - - made him popular with the ladies. Actress Marie Dressler, then working a concession at Coney Island, caught Bonavita's act as often as she could. And it was an unparalleled performance that the 38-year-old trainer gave with his 26 trained lions.

• • Mae's fixation on Jack Bonavita and Bostock's lions inspired her to do "I'm No Angel," in which she fulfilled a lifelong dream of being inside the cage with the king of beasts. Born under the sun sign Leo, Mae felt destined for this - - and she insisted on performing her own stunts. The film begins with Mae riding an elephant. How many other 41-year-old actresses are eager to take risks like that?
• • Dreamland burned to the ground on May 1911.
• • Frank Bostock died, after a bout with influenza, in October 1912.
• • From 1913 -1917 Jack Bonavita focused on filmmaking, working as a stunt man, a director, and an actor. His silent films always co-starred wild animals and some of the lion or jaguar tamers he had worked with at Bostock's Circus. A few flickers he starred in were: "Avenged by Lions" [1916] and "The Woman, the Lion, and the Man" [1915].
• • Mae's hero Jack Bonavita died in the month of March from a polar bear attack at age 51 on 19 March 1917 in Los Angeles, California.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • lion lady • • 1934
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