Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Mae West: Curvaceous Lady

Her tongue was quick, her witticisms could stick, and MAE WEST is still quoted every day, whether it be in a magazine, newspaper, Reddit riposte, memoir, or blog.  Since we have tracked this phenom for the past 12 years, we've seen it in black and white.
• • Famous for Her Curves • •
• • Laura Richards wrote:  She was as famous for her curves as she was for her raunchy films and plays. In fact, the first quotation for ‘curvaceous’ in the OED is a description of Mae West:  1936   Screen Book Mag. Feb. 61   The curvaceous lady [sc. Mae West] receives from Paramount just as many dollars per week for her scenario work as she receives for her acting.
• • Laura Richards wrote: So legendary, it seems, that they needed a new word to describe them, Mae West’s curves became a part of popular culture, and it’s no surprise that other objects were likened to them. The early life jackets issued during WWII gave the wearer a puffed-up chest and feminine figure, swiftly earning them the moniker ‘Mae West’. . .
• • Source: Article by Laura Richards for the Oxford Dictionaries; published on Friday, 16 August 2013.
• • On Tuesday, 16 August 1927 • •
• • The 1927 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies opened on Tuesday, 16 August 1927.  The show was staged at the New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 West 42nd Street, New York, NY.  Irving Berlin recommended Ruth Etting and she was hired.  (That must have been a nice paycheck, too, because the show ran for 167 performances.)
• • Mae West noticed newcomer Ruth Etting in the Ziegfeld Follies.  Mae said: "The curtains opened, and here was this girl. Not what you’d call a classic beauty — — but unusual. She had a sex quality that seemed to mesmerize the audience. And when she finished singing, they just kind of went crazy."
• • On Sunday, 16 August 1964 • •
• • An article "Return Engagement" appeared in The New York Times on Sunday, 16 August 1964. Plans were then in the works for Mae to be featured on the TV sit-com "Mister Ed" for a second episode. Mae was to have played a saloon keeper. This TV project fizzled out, it seems.
• • Save the Date: Wednesday, 17 August 2016 • •
• • Mae West: New Yorker, Vaudevillian, Upstart, Jailbird — — a Birthday Celebration! • •
 
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Her first starring feature, "She Done Him Wrong," based on her sensational stage success, "Diamond Lil," has been an unusual hit, particularly in the larger cities, during a season of indifferent theatre attendance.   . . .
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "What d'you mean — I'm old-fashioned?"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Queens Ledger mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae West's Secret Italian Husband" • •
• • Tiziano Dossena wrote:  There are not many times when you have the occasion to be exposed to such interesting and well researched presentations as "Mae West's Secret Italian Husband" (Thursday, 16 August 2012, 6:30 pm, at the Italian American Museum). LindaAnn Loschiavo, the speaker and the genius behind it all, is a well-known dramatist, journalist, and long-time columnist for L'IDEA Magazine, a Brooklyn based quarterly. With her stage play "Courting Mae West" just recently seen in Australia, a challenging and refreshing essay in "Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice" (NY: Macmillan, 2011), and her new book . . . .
• • Source: Article in The Queens Ledger; published on Thursday, 26 July 2012
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 12th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past twelve years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,500 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started twelve years ago in July 2004.
You are reading the 3509th 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 • arrested in 1927

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