Saturday, March 24, 2012

Mae West: New Haven

MAE WEST will be featured this weekend in New Haven when "She Done Him Wrong" will be on the silver screen.
• • WHAT: A Pre-Code program was scheduled for March 2012. "The Movies and Mimosas" series at Criterion Cinemas is offering a history lesson in “Pre-Code Films,” movies made before a jittery Hollywood initiated its own self-censoring Production Code of moral and aesthetic standards following a series of scandals in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
• • WHERE: Criterion Cinemas, 86 Temple St., New Haven, CT; T. 203 - 498 - 2500.
• • WHEN: Saturday, 24 March 2012 and Sunday, 25 March 2012.
• • Tell them you heard about it on the Mae West Blog.
• • Harry Houdini [24 March 1874 — 31 October 1926] • •
• • Mae West appeared on the same bill with Houdini in New York City a few times.
• • Born Erik Weisz in the month of March on 24 March 1874, the Hungarian-American magician took the stage name of Harry Houdini.
• • Harry Houdini, the popular escape artist and stunt performer (as well as a debunker of sham spiritualists and an amateur aviator), has been the subject of numerous biographies. In 2007, one author's book raised the suspicion that the physically fit vaudevillian was murdered, perhaps by poison. His body, buried in November 1926 in a Jewish cemetery in Glendale, Queens, New York, was going to be exhumed based on that research.
• • Thanks to Oscar Hammerstein, Mae West and Houdini were on the same stage for seven days during August 1913. On 4 August 1913, Mae (almost 20 years old then) began a week-long engagement at Hammerstein's Victoria. She was hired to open for Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, whose act was promoted in a hand-painted sign with four-feet high letters: "Modern Ballroom Dancing performed by Evelyn Nesbit Thaw!"
• • Also featured on the same stagebill with Evelyn and Mae were: vaudevillian Aida Overton Walker, reprising her role as Salome; Harry Houdini; Edgar Berger; Fields and Carroll; Dan the talking dog; and the usual "nut" acts.
• • It was on 25 June 1926 that Mae West (32 years old then) appeared with Houdini, age 52, on the same stage for one last time. The star of "Sex" was performing with the magician and other entertainers (such as George M. Cohan, Fannie Brice, the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson, Ann Pennington, Hazel Dawn, Eddie Foy, etc.) at the Polo Grounds on West 155th Street in Manhattan's Washington Heights area. The fundraiser, organized for the benefit of the United Jewish Campaign, was staged by Mae's old dancing teacher Ned Wayburn.
• • Harry Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix on 31 October 1926. He was only 52 years old.
• • On Saturday, 24 March 1934 in California • •
• • The recording of "My Old Flame" performed by Mae West, backed by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, took place on Saturday, 24 March 1934.
• • Initially, it was released on an audio single. "My Old Flame" was first heard in the motion picture "Belle of the Nineties" [Paramount Pictures, 1934].
• • On Saturday, 24 March 1934 in Sydney • •
• • The Sydney Morning Herald announced on page 10, in the issue dated for Saturday, 24 March 1934, that "I'm No Angel" with Mae West is at the Prince Edward Theatre. "This Day and Age" is on the same programme.
• • On Saturday, 24 March 1951 in NYC • •
• • Billboard Magazine ran this item: NEW YORK, March 24 — Monte Proser is negotiating with Mae West to star in a tab version of "Diamond Lil" for his Cafe Theater. If the deal jells, "Lil" will come in to replace the current "Billion Dollar Baby," which is on a week-to-week notice.
• • On Tuesday, 24 March 1970 in Look Magazine • •
• • "Raquel Welch, Mae West Talk about Men, Morals and Myra Breckinridge," on page 45 in Look Magazine's weekly issue dated for Tuesday, 24 March 1970.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I was told I could pay the fine and get out of going to jail, but I made up my own mind. I decided it would be more interesting to go to prison. I was always fascinated by prisons and mental institutions... I wasn't going to be deprived of that experience. I saw those as 10 very valuable days, a kind of working vacation." [Mae was released from the Workhouse after eight days.]
• • Mae West said: "It's better to be looked over than overlooked."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on Dubai eateries mentioned Mae West.
• • Time Out Dubai Magazine wrote: Replete with candy-coloured stripy wallpaper, oversized white lampshades (that evoke tagliatelle/ ribbons), and illustrations of Mae West alongside animal skull-hat-hooks, Circle is one of Dubai’s most creative cafes, both in terms of decor and food selection. Fortunately, its retro quirkiness works to pull in a loyal crowd of arty couples, young families and ladies who lunch. …
• • Source: Restaurant Review: "Replete with candy-coloured wallpaper and illustrations of Mae West alongside animal skull-hat-hooks, Circle is one of Dubai’s most creative cafes" in Time Out Dubai; published on 11 August 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2248th 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 • 1933 • •
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