Monday, August 15, 2011

Mae West: August 1921

It was 15 August 1921 and MAE WEST was enjoying her debut in "The Mimic World."
• • With "The Mimic World of 1921," the Shuberts had hoped for a big hit. Additionally, this revue was inaugurating their new roof theatre that featured a restaurant and a promenade overlooking Central Park. However, the show opened to mixed reviews from a number of top critics. Mae West wore a daring black velvet dress onstage, "cut at either side to display her bare hips," wrote Women's Wear [24 August 1921], quaking under such a sartorial shock. Jack Dempsey must have liked what he saw because he went to Mae's dressing room on opening night — — and the two hit it off big-time.
• • Theatre Magazine offered a single page spotlight and described the singing comedienne with the right amount of promotional piffle. The staffwriter announced that "those who do not know African tribal customs credit Mae West with the invention of the shimmy."
• • And don't you adore this picture they ran? The actress had just toasted her 28th birthday.
• • 14 August 2011 A-MAE-Zing Mae West Walking Tour • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill"
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th, and it's time to celebrate the New York City life of the Brooklyn Bombshell.
• • Record rainfall in The Big Apple? No matter. "Mae West in Bohemia," a two hour walking tour that examined where Mae drank her gin, sinned, battled censorship, and kept tabs on Eugene O'Neill and his gang, went forth. Five lucky individuals won amazing raffle prizes at the finale.
• • Esther Tolkoff said: ‎"Mae" you were awesome — — all that info about the Village, Eugene O'Neill, the speakeasies, Texas Guinan, and (of course) your namesake, all new to me, the lifelong "new-yawka." And you delivered it all like a pro, very entertaining, Bravissima!!!

• • Francis Zuccarello said: I enjoyed the awesome and scholarly Mae West/ Eugene O‘Neill/ Greenwich Village tour. And I won such a valuable door prize!
• • PHOTO: Conrad Bradford
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I'd rather be looked over than overlooked.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Would Mae West have been enchanted by the romantic menace from Venice, Giacomo Casanova [2 April 1725 — 4 June 1798]?
• • Book reviewer Elizabeth Benedict wrote: Had the great matchmaker in the sky arranged for Giacomo Casanova and Mae West to meet, they surely would have been notches on each other's holsters, reveling in West's motto: "Too much of a good thing is wonderful.'' In this fecund season of Casanova — — a dazzling new biography, "Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women,'' and the paperback of his 12-volume autobiography have just appeared
— — we learn that it was not only seduction and dalliance that filled his calendar. By the time this Venetian-born Proteus died, in a castle in Bohemia in 1798, he had had a dozen careers . . .
• • Source: Book Review: "A REAL CASANOVA: THE MAN WHO GAVE HIS NAME TO LOVE WAS FAR, FAR MORE THAN A DASHING ROUE" written by Elizabeth Benedict for The Boston Globe; published on SUNDAY, 30 November 1997
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2023rd 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
Add to Google
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1921 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
Mae West.

No comments:

Post a Comment