Thursday, April 04, 2013

Mae West: Gorgeous Corolla

"As highly staminate Flower Belle Lee, MAE WEST spread her gorgeous corolla (including a butterfly bow that coyly punctuates her posterior rhythms in Greasewood City, one of the West's wide open spaces," wrote an entertainment editor with a sense of humor at The Cornell Daily Sun in Ithaca, NY on Sunday, 4 April 1973. "There she gets mixed up with Masked Bandit disguised as a Cagoulard. Flower Belle's throaty account of their first meeting; 'I was in a tight spot, but I managed to wriggle out of it.' She also fakes a marriage with Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields) because she thinks his bag of fake money is real, but substitutes a goat for herself in the nuptial chamber when she finds it isn't."
• • Staminate literally means "bearing stamens" — — and has nothing to do with stamina, a trait Mae West teasingly boasted about.
• • Rarely has a newspaper's entertainment editor been so (what's the word?), yes, entertaining when describing "My Little Chickadee." And don't you agree?
• • Source: The Cornell Daily Sun (page 14), Volume 89, Number 119; published on Sunday, 4 April 1973.
• • On April 4th • •
• • The fourth day of the fourth month turned out to be full of many unforgettable moments. Three of these are below.
• • It was on 4 April 1928 that Mae's successful Bowery drama "Diamond Lil" first opened at Teller's in Brooklyn, NY. Lil's stage costumes were designed by Dolly Tree.
• • It was on 4 April 1930 that the infamous "Pleasure Man" obscenity trial came to an end.
• • On 4 April 1976 Mae was a guest on CBS-TV. This would be her final televised appearance on a show called "Back Lot, USA" with the elfin host Dick Cavett. During this prime time program, the screen queen discussed her colorful life and performed a long, elaborately staged medley of her jaunty 1930s hits. Mae was 72 years old at the time.
• • April 1975 • •
• • What a beautiful hand-colored image of Mae West on the front cover of Nostalgia Illustrated Magazine dated for April 1975. Seems that the internet killed magazines like that, alas.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “A thrill a day keeps the chill away."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • April is National Poetry Month. During the time she was in the Women's Workhouse, Mae West wrote poetry that was published. The lines rhymed and were amusingly phrased — — and sounded nothing like Gertrude Stein. But it's nice that Mae's wit comes to mind so often.
• • Canadian reporter George Elliott Clarke wrote: A Gertrude Stein-like phrase, "the ins and outs of you and I," is matched later by another, "Life without you is like life for worse / or better. And right now / I like better better." You can almost hear Mae West speaking it. ...
• • Source: "Very fine verse of Heller, Holt" written by George Elliott Clarke for The Chronicle Herald of Canada; posted on Sunday, 3 April 2011
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2620th 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 caricature 1940

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