Mae West: Bedizened

Dazzling in her diamonds, MAE WEST as Lady Lou "lives in a bedizened apartment over a saloon" and, for those of you who do not often use that adjective, "bedizened" means dressed up or decorated gaudily. This piece was published in April 1933. Let's enjoy it together.
• • "She Done Him Wrong" • •
• • Mae West — And A Vivid Picture • •
• • Sex that makes all other sex pictures seem puny and pale! Mae West's unabashed performance of a mistress of the Nineties is one of the most startling characterizations seen on the screen this year. She does not play a lady of dubious morals. There is not the slightest doubt about the morals of Diamond Lil, who lives in a bedizened apartment over a saloon, and has a nude painting of herself hung above the bar below.
• • her gowns, parasols, jewels, and drooping glances • •
• • She sings frank songs in the beer garden revue, and nearly every line she speaks has a double meaning.  But with all the bravado there is something honest and vital about this motion picture which robs it of offense. And whatever you may think of the sensational career of the heroine with her gowns, parasols, jewels, and drooping glances you will cheer the presence of Mae West's colorful personality in the movies.
• • Cary Grant, Gilbert Roland, Owen Moore and Noah Beery all help nobly.
• • Source: Article-review in Motion Picture; issue dated for April 1933.
• • On Wednesday, 25 April 1934 • •
• • An article about Mae West was printed in Britain's Evening Standard on Wednesday, 25 April 1934.  The "London after Dark" column by John Betjeman [28 August 1906 — 19 May 1984]  carried this sub-title: "I'm No Anna (Karina), Says Mae West."
• • On Thursday, 25 April 1935 • •
• • It was on a Thursday that Mae West's latest motion picture was released in the USA.on Thursday, 25 April 1935.
• • An enormous international cast was assembled to do justice to Mae West's ambitious screenplay "Now I'm a Lady" centered around the main character Cleo Borden, who wishes to be part of the tony horsey set. Script approval was granted, at last, by the Hays Commission on Monday, 1 April 1935. Produced by Emanuel Cohen Productions (as Major Pictures), the 74-minute comedy was released on 25 April 1935 under the new title "Goin' to Town."
• • On Tuesday, 25 April 1950 in Pittsburgh • •
• • An article "Mae West Saying a Lurid Farewell to Nixon Theater," written by Karl Krug, was printed in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph on Tuesday, 25 April 1950.
• • On Sunday, 25 April 1982 • •
• • George Eells' Letter to the Editor (discussing Mae West and the black artists she helped break into films) was printed on page 95 in The Los Angeles Times on Sunday, 25 April 1982.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West, after finishing her third week at the Times Square Paramount, goes to Detroit and Chicago for appearances, then to the coast for her next Paramount picture.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   "No, I don't want to sit down and have my dress wrinkle."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A trade daily mentioned Mae West.
• • "Stars for Motion Picture Club Ball" • •

• • Among celebrities who already have accepted invitations to the Motion Picture Inaugural Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria on March 4th are Lupe Velez, Mae West, Jimmy Durante, Jack Pearl, George Jessel, Edward G. Robinson, Ethel Merman, Lillian Gish, Beatrice Lillie, Clark and McCullough, Dorothy Gish, Ina Claire, Charles Butterworth and others.  ...
• • Source: Item in Film Daily;  published on Thursday, 23 February 1933 
• • 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 3,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3427th 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 1933 • •
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Mae West: Mysterious Denials

On Monday, 22 April 1935, MAE WEST found herself in a Milwaukee pickle.
• • Married? Not Me, Says Mae • •
• • "Never Heard of Him," Screen Star Declares When Report of Purported Husband Is Dug up
• • Hollywood  [U .P.] — — Mae West, the buxom blonde movie thriller, decided today someone had done her wrong when they dug up a report she once had a husband.
• • Reports from Milwaukee, Wis., said a wedding certificate was discovered in the dusty files of a clerk's office listing the marriage of Mae West, actress to an actor, Frank Wallace.
• • "Whew," said Miss West, after spending a busy day issuing firm — if somewhat mysterious — denials. "I've had lots of rabbits given me for Easter — — but never a husband before."
• • Permit Dated in 1911 • •
• • The certificate found in Milwaukee was dated April 11, 1911, according to reports. The Miss West was 18 years old and Wallace 21. The bride gave her father's name as John West and her mother's maiden name as Matilda Dilker, and gave her birthplace as Brooklyn, N. Y.
• • "I never visited Milwaukee until four years ago," Mae said, "and I never heard of Frank Wallace."
• • Beverly West, Miss West's sister, said the report was absurd. "It must have been another Mae West," she said. "There are two or three of them, you know."
• • Parents' Names Check • •
• • The Miss Wests — Mae and Beverly — both admitted, however, that their father's name was John West and their mother's name was Matilda Dilker.  Mae was born in Brooklyn.
• • Wallace, who is reported to have been haunting vaudeville agencies in New York recently, could not be located today.
• • Most of the Broadway old-timers knew a Frank Wallace, who used to be a vaudeville song and dance man, but few of them were able to connect him with the early career of the famous blonde siren of the screen .
• • Several of his friends recalled, however, that he had played a minor part in Mae's sensational stage success, "Diamond Lil," and a check-up in newspaper morgues confirmed this.
• • Source:  United Press news rpt in Urbana Daily Courier; published on Monday, 22 April 1935.
• • On Sunday, 22 April 1928 • •
• • On Sunday, 22 April 1928, The New York Times was purring about Mae West.
• • On the theatre page was an announcement that "Diamond Lil" was the most prosperous of all the recent stage productions. Broadway backers paid attention, noticing that Mae had given the Royale Theatre its first hit — — a non-musical, no less, but with a cast of 35 and a piano man.
• • Sold on Friday, 22 April 1994 • •
• • The silver gelatin print "Mae West and Adoring Musclemen" by Dean Loomis was sold at an auction held at Swann Galleries on Friday, 22 April 1994.  Someone at this NYC auction house mis-dated the original as 1961 when this photo was clearly taken six years earlier.  Tsk.
• • On Tuesday, 22 April 2008 • •
• • It was on Tuesday,  22 April 2008, that the DVD  "Mae West — The Glamour Collection" was released for sale.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • A new kind of record has been hung up for Mae West's "She Done Him Wrong." It played two weeks at the Broadway Paramount, then to the Brooklyn Paramount for a week, and returned again to the Broadway house for another week and now it is back at the Brooklyn theater for a return engagement while it opened at the Rialto for an extended run yesterday.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "So far as plots are concerned, I have gathered them by the hundreds in my years of stage experience. The rule that 'the plot is the thing' still holds good. As particular as I am with selection of characters and their dialogue, I realize that the story must hold together. It must build and never let down."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • A trade daily mentioned Mae West.
• • The Film Daily staffwriters observed:  Without trying to detract from the clearly proven box-office qualities of "She Done Him Wrong" — — the Mae West vehicle — — we were disappointed when some slim modern misses appeared to do the ole time scene of the soubrettes of the 1890s.  They should have employed a bunch of hefty dames a la Billy Watson's Beef Trust and then the skit would have been a laugh riot appealing to all us ole timers who knew them when they were that way.
• • Source: Item in Film Daily; published on Tuesday, 28 February 1933
• • 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 3,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3426th 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 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West: Brassy, Bawdy

In April 1982, Associated Press did an article on the TV bio-pic about MAE WEST.
• • "Ann Jillian portrays Mae West" • •
• • By Jerry Buck, AP Television Writer, Los Angeles (A.P. ) • •
• • Associated Press writer Jerry Buck wrote:  Ann Jillian captures Mae West's drive, humor and insinuating way of talking in ABC's Sunday special on the brassy, bawdy, mocking entertainer who delighted millions and shocked the blue-noses. She plays the legendary Miss West from age 17 to 55, when her double entendres and frank sexuality earned her applause from vaudeville to the pinnacle of success on the Broadway stage and the movie screen. Miss West died in 1980 at age 87.
• • "She was way ahead of her time in male-female relationships and in women's liberation," said Miss Jillian, the platinum blonde singer-actress of ABC's "It's a Living" and the Broadway musical "Sugar Babies."
• • "I'd say more than anything she was for individual rights," Miss Jillian said. "She was shocked when she was censured by the movie censors for obscenity. To her, obscenity was war. She wanted to know if they were going to censure Hitler and Mussolini. All she wanted to do was make people laugh."
• • "Mae West," which ABC will telecast Sunday, also stars James Brolin as Jim Timony, her long-time lover and manager; Piper Laurie as her mother, Matilda West, largely responsible for her independence and attitude toward men; and Roddy McDowell as a female impersonator who helped her find her own original style.
• • Miss Jillian was interviewed during a break from the taping of her pilot for NBC "The Rainbow Girl." . . .   She wears a silver horseshoe around her neck; a present from her late manager and discoverer, Joyce Selznick, who died last year. "I wore it in every scene of 'Mae West,'" she said. "I'd wear it under my dress or hide it in the folds of my skirt.  I couldn't wear it where it would show because it's a very contemporary piece of jewelry. It's my good luck piece. It's a very sentimental piece."  . . .
• • Source: A.P. article rpt in The Gettysburg Times; published on  Friday, 30 April 1982.
• • On Saturday, 21 April 1934 • • 
• • Mae West on the front page of Picture Show Magazine thrilled her British fans.
• • What a beautiful cover of Picture Show Magazine with that celluloid couple, Mae and Cary Grant. This very collectible United Kingdom publication was dated for Saturday, 21 April 1934.  Mae was happy to promote her film "I'm No Angel" to the English movie-goers.
• • On Thursday, 21 April 1938 • •

• • Saint Louis, April 21 (INS) — — Boys in their early teens prefer Mae West to Shirley Temple, but they would rather take part in some athletic event than to attend a movie.  ...
• • These were some of the conclusions drawn by officers of Optimist International, a service club with headquarters in St. Louis, on the basis of questionnaires answered by members of representative Junior Optimist Clubs in twenty-two cities scattered throughout the USA and Canada.
• • Source: Item on page 7 in The Kane Republican; published on Thursday, 21 April 1938. 
• • Image: a  charming soft sculpture of Mae West, W.C. Fields, and little Shirley Temple created in 1967
• • On Monday, 21 April 1975 • •
• • Released in a hardcover edition on Monday, 21 April 1975 was "Mae West on Sex, Health and E.S.P." written by Mae West.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Instead of going to the dogs, Mae West has elected to go to the horses. She has just purchased three two-year-olds.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I do things right because I follow what my astrologer says."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An Ithaca, NY paper mentioned Mae West.
• • Lent's Music Store, 116 N. Aurora St.  — — Week's Best Platters . . .
• • Lent's Record of the Month — Easy Rider — I Like a Guy What Takes His Time — Sung by Mae West . . . 
• • Source: Item in The Cornell Daily Sun; published on Friday, 21 April 1933 
• • 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 3,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3425th 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 • • artwork with Mae, W.C. Fields, Shirley Temple, 1967 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West: Hottest Sex

MAE WEST's first motion picture appearance was in 1932. But it was such a stunning debut that the rather anemic speakeasy film "Night after Night" was re-booked in movie houses in the Spring of 1933.
• • "Mae West at National" • •
• • Hollywood's hottest spot has been located. It’s not the set where the hero and heroine embrace passionately. Rather, it’s the foundry operated In the Paramount studio.
• • George Raft, virile young star, is featured with Constance Cummings, Wynne Gibson, Mae West and Alison Skipworth in "Night after Night,” screen adaptation of Bromfield's novel, “Single Night,” which comes to the National theatre Sunday, spent as much of his time between scenes as he could spare watching the workmen In the model foundry. The process kept him continually fascinated.
• • Source:  Item in Madera Tribune (California); published in Thursday, 20 April 1933.
• • On Wednesday, 20 April 1927 • •
• • The New York Herald Tribune ran with this fascinating headline — — Mae West and Two Men In Jail For Play "Sex" — — on Wednesday, 20 April 1927. Think of all the different ways a reader might have interpreted that headline.
• • Some other headlines announced: "Mae West Starts on Jail Term" and the sub-head was "Found Prison Inmates 'Very Interesting' On First Night."
• • 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.
• • On Tuesday, 20 April 1943 • •
• • The Los Angeles headline read:  "Threatened Death to Mae West" — — Russell Alexanderson, aged 18, farm boy, was convicted of sending extortion notes to Betty Grable, film actress, and has been placed on probation for five years. Federal agents charged Alexanderson with demanding $26,000. Reportage was printed in Gloucester Citizen [U.K.] on Tuesday, 20 April 1943.  
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Change of bill at the New York Paramount takes place on Thursday again this week. Mae West in person on the stage and the Mae West film, "She Done Him Wrong," are the chief portions of the program. Stage show also will include Georges Metaxa, Cliff Edwards and others.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:   “My play 'Sex' was a work of art.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A European journal discussed Mae West.

• • Will Visconti wrote:   In a career that lasted over eighty years, the performances of Mae West were famous, or infamous, for their power to shock, their transgression of boundaries of class, gender, sexuality and propriety, and for the frequent opprobrium that West seemed to attract. 
• • Will Visconti added: Moreover, there was no subject matter considered “off-limits” within Mae West’s work, and her plays and films were marked by her fearless approach to topics that even today are often seen as problematic (substance abuse, abortion, rape, and the idea of the “expiry date” of the female performer and her sexuality)  . . .
• • Source: Article: "Too far West (dangerous curves ahead)" by Will Visconti for The European Journal of Humor Research; published in 2014 
• • 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 3,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3424th 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 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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