Saturday, November 19, 2011

Mae West: Dick Cavett

MAE WEST was a guest on "Dick Cavett's Backlot USA" (a CBS TV special that aired in March 1976). When they sat down for this interview, Cavett was 39 years old and Mae was 83. One topic they discussed was censorship. Mae said she would add extra things to her script, on purpose, to give the Hays office something to take out and to add a little distraction. When Cavett wondered where Mae did her writing, she told him she writes in long hand in bed and she never learned to type. Throughout she displayed enormous poise and bubbled with a sense of fun. Delightful footage.
• • Born in Gibbon, Nebraska on 19 November 1936, Richard Alva Cavett is 75 years old today. He's had a varied career and one year ago, at the age of 74, he added a new title to his list of achievements: a husband. Happy Birthday to Dick Cavett today.
• • In November, Let's Remember Louise Dahl-Wolfe [1895 — 1989] • •
• • Born in San Francisco in the month of November, Louise Emma Augusta Dahl [19 November 1895 — 11 December 1989] was a noted photographer. She is known primarily for her work for Harper's Bazaar, in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland, and also for "discovering" a fresh-faced teenage model who became the actress Lauren Bacall.
• • Louise Dahl-Wolfe's best known celebrity portraits includes this one: Mae West, Hollywood, for Harper's Bazaar, 1944.
• • On 19 November 1927 • •
• • When Mae's play "The Wicked Age" opened, The New York Times reacted with alarm: "The whole was in the best Mae West school of playwriting . . . ." Yes, you're right; this was never meant to be a compliment.
• • The curtain clanged down on "The Wicked Age" on 19 November 1927.
• • In November 1933 in The Nation • •
• • In the November 1933 issue of The Nation, an article on Mae West appeared on page 68. This piece is reprinted in the anthology "Cinema nation: The Best Writing on Film, from the Nation, 1913
2000."
• • On 19 November 1936 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • J.T.M. penned the movie review of "Go West Young Man," which was printed in the Times on 19 November 1936. His title read "May West at the Paramount in Go West, Young Man" [sic]. During the 1930s, publications were still spelling the star's first name as either "May" or "Mae," sometimes using both spellings in the same article.
• • J.T.M. wrote: "The suasively undulating Mae West is back on the Paramount screen with a new and engagingly robustious . . . ." Robustious, yes. Exactly.
• • On 19 November 1996 • •
• • A CD by Mae West "I'm No Angel" was released on the British label Jasmine on this date: 19 November 1996.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this line for the character Mavis Arden, an actress, in 1936: "I don't know, Morgan. I talked it over with myself last night — — and we both went to sleep." [Movie dialogue from "Go West Young Man"]
• • Mae West said: "I've no time for broads who want to rule the world alone. Without men, who'd do up the zipper on the back of your dress?"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about what you must not miss on TV [16 November 2011] mentioned Mae West.
• • British TV reporter Andrew Ryan writes: She Done Him Wrong on TCM, 11:30 p.m. ET; 8:30 p.m. PT — — Why is Mae West still considered the original big-screen sexpot? Watch this classic 1933 feature that made instantly made her one of Hollywood's biggest box-office draws. With hips a-swishing, West plays the wisecracking Lady Lou, who works as a singer at a rowdy saloon. The lowlife owner Gus (Noah Beery Sr.) gives Lou diamonds to win her affection, but the femme fatale is more attracted to the handsome temperance leader Captain Cummings, played by Cary Grant in one of his earliest film roles."...
• • Source: Article: "A select viewing guide for Wednesday, Nov. 16th" written by Andrew Ryan for The Globe and Mail [UK]; posted on 16 November 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2120th 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 • • 1976 • •
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1 comment:

  1. It made me tear up a bit at the part about her mother. I watched the interview on youtube. It made me wonder more about she and her mother's relationship. I know she loved her very dearly.

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