Mae West: Inviting

MAE WEST was born in the Bushwick area (of Kings County) on Thursday, 17 August 1893. Many folks come from near and far to commemorate the Brooklyn bombshell in her hometown this month. The public is invited to 155 Mulberry Street, NYC on Thursday, 16 August 2012.

• • "Meet Mae West's Secret Italian Husband" • •

• • When they met in August 1913, the 26-year-old was a vaudeville headliner, an accordionist and a composer who recorded for the Columbia label, a star who earned $600 a week.  Mae was a hopeful 19-year-old, a singing comedienne, who opened for larger acts.  They fell in love, married, and developed a vaudeville routine together. 

• • On Thursday evening, 16 August 2012 you will learn the untold story of Guido Deiro, born in Italy's Piedmont region (Salto Canavese), and Mae West, born in Brooklyn, NY, who became his second wife and, eventually, a star on Broadway and in Hollywood motion pictures.  Come and hear the music Guido Deiro composed for the Broadway show "Kismet" and some of the other pieces that delighted Mae and his audience.  Come watch clips of Guido Deiro performing in 1928 on the piano-accordion.

• • The speaker on August 16th is LindaAnn Loschiavo, a dramatist, journalist, and long-time columnist for L'IDEA Magazine.  LindaAnn Loschiavo's stage play "Courting Mae West" was recently seen in Melbourne, Australia in January 2012.  Her writing appears in "Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice" (NY: Macmillan, 2011), in her column for L'IDEA Magazine, and elsewhere.  Her new book "Flirting with the Fire Gods: Writing with an Italian Accent" will be out soon. 

• • This musical event concludes with an exciting raffle, Italian wine, and light refreshments to celebrate the birthday of Mae West (17 August 1893). 

• • • • WHEN: 6:30 pm on Thursday, 16 August 2012

• • • • WHERE: Italian American Museum: 155 Mulberry Street (at Grand St.), New York, NY 10013

• • • • Suggested donation of $10 per person helps support the museum

• • • • Phone number for publication: (212) 965-9000

• • • • Subway: B or D to Grand Street station; N, Q, J, Z to Canal Street station

• • Long Lasting Love Fest in L.A. • •

• • Musician Ramfis Diaz [1963 — 2011], who held the first Mae West Birthday Tribute back in 1984, as a small scale spaghetti supper, continued this festive tradition until 17 August 2010.

• • R. Mark Desjardins wrote:  Throughout her long life,  Mae West sought out the company of  fun, unique and interesting  individuals.  Her Los Angeles apartment lair at the Ravenswood, suite 611, was often  the gathering place of her entourage.  She  firmly believed in the magic of the number 8. 

• • R. Mark Desjardins continued: A lifelong Mae West fan, Ramfis Diaz lived in suite 701 at the Gramercy Towers.  August 17th, the date of Mae West's birthday, was an event Ramfis felt was worthy of commemorating.   

• • R. Mark Desjardins explained: At these fabled annual events, guests mingled in his apartment, a virtual shrine to Mae, and alternated between the visual delights provided there, up the stairway leading to the rooftop where tables laden with food, beverages of all kinds and live entertainment beckoned.  In the background, stately palm trees swayed, as if in beat to the music.  The iconic Hollywood sign in the distance added just the right surreal touch. 

• • Written by: R. Mark Desjardins of Vancouver, B.C. Canada

• • Brooklyn Tribute to Mae on September 29th • •

• • The West Cafe will host an artistic Mae West-themed event on September 29th.

• • Owner Esther Bell (currently on vacation) will provide details shortly. Meanwhile, save the date.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1913 • •

NYC
Mae West.

Mae West In Love: Event

It was August 1913 when MAE WEST was nearing her 20th birthday.

• • On Monday, 4 August 1913 Mae West opened for Evelyn Nesbit, who gave ballroom dancing lessons to an adoring audience at Hammerstein's Victoria on 42nd Street. Overshadowed by the notorious Nesbit, Mae's good work was unappreciated that evening.

• • But Mae would soon encounter an Italian gentleman who immediately appreciated her beauty, sex appeal, and talent, who swept her off her feet, and who suggested they tour together.  Her passionate relationship with Guido Deiro [1886 — 1950] affected Mae so thoroughly, she was afraid to tell her parents.  When she wrote her memoir in 1959, she avoided mentioning his name.

• • "Mae West's Secret Italian Husband" • •

• • When they met in Detroit in August 1913, the 26-year-old was a vaudeville headliner, an accordionist and a composer who recorded for the Columbia label, a star who often earned $600 a week.  Mae was a hopeful 19-year-old, a singing comedienne, who opened for larger acts.  They fell in love, married, and developed a vaudeville routine together. 

• • On Thursday, 16 August 2012 you will learn the untold story of Guido Deiro, born in Salto Canavese, Italy, and Mae West, born in Brooklyn, NY, who became his second wife and, eventually, a star on Broadway and in Hollywood motion pictures.  Come and hear the music Guido Deiro composed for the Broadway show "Kismet" and some of the other pieces that delighted Mae and his vaudeville audience.  Clips of Guido Deiro performing in 1928 on the piano-accordion will also be shown.

• • The speaker on August 16th is LindaAnn Loschiavo, a dramatist, journalist, and long-time columnist for L'IDEA Magazine.  LindaAnn Loschiavo's stage play "Courting Mae West" was recently seen in Melbourne, Australia in January 2012.  Her writing appears in "Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice" (NY: Macmillan, 2011), in her column for L'IDEA Magazine, and elsewhere.  Her new book "Flirting with the Fire Gods: Writing with an Italian Accent" will be out soon. 

• • This musical event concludes with an exciting raffle and light refreshments to celebrate the birthday of Mae West (17 August 1893). 

• • • • WHEN: 6:30 pm on Thursday, 16 August 2012

• • • • WHERE: Italian American Museum: 155 Mulberry Street (at Grand St.), New York, NY 10013

• • • • Suggested donation of $10 per person helps support the museum

• • • • RSVP:  T. (212) 965-9000
• • • • Subway: B or D to Grand Street station; N, Q, J, Z to Canal Street station
• • • • Website: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1913 • •

NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Frank Rich's Errors

It is so fabulous to see MAE WEST featured in New York Magazine — — in a sassy shortie scripted by the venerable Frank Rich, formerly The N.Y. Times's chief drama desk dragon.
• • Rich's fascinating feature is here, in its entirety. It behooves us to clarify the account, however, and correct errors of fact made by Frank Rich directly underneath his text.
• • • Mae West “Sex” Capade! • • •
• • • Plays prostie on the Great White Way, wears silk undies in jail • • •
• • • By Frank Rich, New York Magazine, on 1 April 2012 • • •
• • • • • • 1927 • • • • • •
• • • Frank Rich writes: In a 1925 — 1926 New York theater season with acclaimed new plays by O’Neill (The Great God Brown), O’Casey (Juno and the Paycock), and Coward (Hay Fever), critics agreed that the rock bottom was Sex, the first Broadway vehicle written by and starring the voluptuous vaudeville trouper Mae West. Sex was “street sweepings,” in the verdict of The New Yorker, and “a crude, inept play, cheaply produced and poorly acted,” according to the Times. The paper’s review did helpfully note that the show’s “one torrid love scene” lived up to its title. An ad warning patrons who “cannot stand excitement” to “see your doctor before visiting Mae West” didn’t hurt either. The play outlasted nearly all the competition. Variety christened its heroine, a Montreal lady of the evening with a fondness for sailors, “the Babe Ruth of stage prosties.”
• • • Frank Rich writes: Politics turned a hit into a Jazz Age phenomenon. When New York’s rakish mayor, Jimmy Walker, took a Havana holiday in February 1927, the acting mayor, Joseph V. (“Holy Joe”) McKee, raided three risqué Broadway shows. West was the prime target: Sex, then in the tenth month of its run, had been seen by 325,000 theatergoers. To the delight of the tabloid press, its twenty actors were hauled off to a police station in Hell’s Kitchen. The star spent the night in the Jefferson Market Women’s Prison.
• • • Frank Rich writes: West bailed out her company. The court had offered to drop charges if she would close the show. But she knew that in showbiz, crime paid. The grand jury’s claim that her “obscene, indecent, immoral, and impure drama” would abet “the corruption of the morals of youth” was better than any rave review. Festooned with white roses, she rode a limo [sic] to incarceration on Welfare Island and boasted of wearing silk underwear throughout her eight-day stay there. When Liberty magazine paid her $1,000 for an exit interview, she used it to start a Mae West Memorial Library for female prisoners.
• • • Frank Rich writes: A later West play — — The Pleasure Man, awash in female impersonators and homosexuality — — would be raided and shut down at its second Broadway performance [sic] in 1928. Undaunted, she eventually revived Sex and toured the Depression-era Midwest without incident, before arriving in Hollywood, where, paired with Cary Grant and W. C. Fields, she hit superstardom as she was reaching 40. The Bushwick-born, self-invented West (1893 — 1980) wrote the Ur-text for Madonna and Lady Gaga, repeatedly breaking gender and sexual barriers over a marathon career as a writer, performer, free-speech provocateur, and showbiz entrepreneur. Her pioneering playbook for turning scandal into profits remains the gold standard in American pop culture to this day. [ Download the Complete History of Scandals ]
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Corrections about Mae's ride to the Workhouse in April 1927 • •
• • A New York City police van drove Mae West along with two Black inmates and two police matrons to the Women's Workhouse. There were no flowers and no limousine mentioned in any news accounts nor in Mae's own article about the experience, printed in Liberty Magazine.
• • On 20 April 1927 several newspaper headlines read: "Mae West Goes to Workhouse to Start Sentence" and the subhead explained further: Actress-Author of "Sex" Taken to Welfare Island With Two Negresses.
• • Here is one front page headline: MAE WEST GOES TO WORKHOUSE IN VAN WITH TWO NEGRESSES. In the middle of the bridge, a huge elevator lowered the vehicle onto the island.
• • Here is another front page headline along with a news item: MAE WEST BEGINS TEN DAYS TERM IN PRISON — — Mae West, the star and the co-author of SEX, and two negresses and two white women as fellow passengers left Jefferson Market Women's Prison today for the workhouse on Welfare Island where she will serve nine days of the ten days sentence imposed yesterday for giving an obscene performance. Clarence W. Morganstern manager of the production and James A. Timony are serving their ten day sentences at the Tombs. ... [Source: Associated Press, printed in Frederick News Post on 20 April 1927 on the front page]
• • Corrections about "The Pleasure Man" police raid October 1928 • •
• • Mae West's play "The Pleasure Man" was staged at the Biltmore Theatre. The raid at the Biltmore is dramatized in Act I, Scene 1 of "Courting Mae West." At the Royale Theatre, as Mae puts on her costume and prepares to go onstage as Diamond Lil, Texas Guinan comes backstage to tell her police have already surrounded the playhouse on West 47th Street and are prepared for a raid on opening night, Monday, 1 October 1928.
• • Producer Carl Reed and lawyer James Timony secured an injunction. "The Pleasure Man" was able to give a second performance on Tuesday, 2 October 1928, then the police padlocked the show for good.
• • Headlines in The N.Y. Times on Tuesday, 2 October 1928 (front page) — —
• • • • RAID MAE WEST PLAY, SEIZE 56 at OPENING; Police Arrest Entire Cast of "Pleasure Man" After Last Act at Biltmore Theatre. INDECENCY IS CHARGED Law Hits Actress-Author a 2nd Time — — Playhouse Is Surrounded After Show. No Theatre Attaches Held. Police Guard Exits. RAID MAE WEST PLAY, Order Treated Lightly. Author Freed on Bail. 21 Seized in Raid on "Sex." WEST PLAY A "HODGE-PODGE." "Pleasure Man," With Vaudeville Background, Scrambled in Theme. NY Times. Oct 2, 1928. p. 1 (of 2 pages)
• • Headlines in The N.Y. Times on Wednesday, 3 October 1928 (page 33) — —
• • • • COURT STAYS POLICE on MAE WEST PLAY; Writ Bars Interference Until Friday and 'Pleasure Man' Is Performed to Full House. CASES OF 56 UP TOMORROW Cant Pleads Not Guilty and Bail Is Continued — — Walker Revealed as Instigator of Raid. Seeks Conference With Warren. Arrests May Still Be Made. Author Appears Concerned. NY Times, Oct 3, 1928. p. 33
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • in court, 3 October 1928 • •NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Sex Backers Vexed

In March 1927 MAE WEST did not take the stand but many witnesses did.
• • The N.Y. Times reported: Harry Cohen, a clothier at 260 Fifth Avenue, testifying yesterday for the prosecution in General Sessions at the trial of the three producers and twenty-three members of the cast of the play "Sex" produced (until recently) at Daly's Sixty-third Street Theatre, testified he advanced the first $2,500 for the production of the play in Waterbury, Connecticut.
• • Jim Timony convinced Harry Cohen to invest an additional $1,500 in the Broadway production. The garment manufacturer grew suspicious. On the stand he insisted that the "Sex" backers (i.e., Mae West and Timony) wanted a police raid. The N.Y. Times printed this headline the day after Cohen aired his grievances in court: "Witness Testifies Mae West Rewrote Play and Insisted on the Spicy Scenes Because City Liked Them. Clothier Also Asserts He Put In $4,000 and Started Suit When He Was Counted Out of the Profits."
• • The play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship & Secrets" dramatizes the trials of 1927 and 1930 in New York City that threatened to topple Mae's towering ambitions. This serious-minded comedy was last featured before a sold-out audience in January 2012 in Melbourne, Australia as part of their MidSumma Festival.
• • Photo: Mae West and Barry O'Neill in March 1927 in Jefferson Market Court looking very concerned. Don't you adore that woolen tri-corn on her head though? If she was going to be accused in a tribunal and pointed at, she would be the Napoleon of crime!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • in court, 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: True to Life

How many performers could say they were arrested with MAE WEST?
• • "Police Raid Three Shows: Sex, Captive, and Virgin Man — Hold Actors and Managers" announced The N.Y. Times in boldfaced print on 10 February 1927.
• • On Wednesday, 9 February 1927 Mae West — — along with the cast of "Sex," and the cast of "The Captive," and the cast of "The Virgin Man" — — was cuffed and brought to Night Court. At the Empire Theatre, where "The Captive" was staged, James P. Sinnott, Secretary of the Police Department, personally supervised the arrest of the leading lady, Helen Menken, wrapped in elegant gray furs. Five principals from the cast were ushered into a waiting Police Department limousine. Since "Sex" had a huge cast of several dozen, it took ten policemen, accompanied by Deputy Chief Inspector James S. Bolan to arrest Mae West and twenty others at Daly's West 63rd Street Theatre and herd them into vehicles.
• • Three lawyers represented this tarnished trinity of Broadway producers and their casts.. James A. Timony was on hand for Mae West and her "Sex" mates (soon to be inmates). Nathan Burkan represented Menken, Basil Rathbone, producer Gilbert Miller, and the rest of the troupe from "The Captive." Attorney Fred M. Wolf looked after the group from "The Virgin Man."
• • After 10:00 PM, Helen Menken [1901 — 1966], Dorothy Hall [1906 — 1953], and Mae West were charged with "contributing to a common nuisance" and "obscene exhibition" and found that their actions were answerable to Magistrate John Flood Wells, who set bail at $1,000 each.
• • On 10 February 1927, some of the local newspapers focused more on Miss Hall and Miss Menken than on Mae West. All three producers sought restraining orders permitting them to reopen. Under fire, Dorothy Hall immediately quit the play and Lucille Lortel replaced her. Benefiting from the arrest and press attention, the comedy "The Virgin Man" remained on stage until March for a total of 63 performances.
• • On Tuesday, 1 March 1927 in Olean Evening Times • •
• • Born in Bradford, PA in 1906, 21-year-old ingenue Dorothy Hall was the youngest actress to be charged with a misdemeanor. And unlike the 10-month-long box-office bonanza "Sex" had become, "The Virgin Man" had only debuted three weeks before on 18 January 1927 at the Princess Theatre (at 104 West 39th Street) and was struggling to find an audience before the purity police targeted it, creating fresh interest.
• • When The Olean Evening Times did their article, they actually quoted Mae West more than Miss Hall. The daughter of a staid Methodist family in Bradford, PA, the young woman had only been allowed to come to NYC on the pretext of studying interior decorating. But a talent agent spotted her and she was cast as a movie extra. Embarrassed after notifying everyone to see the film, only to learn her scenes had been cut, she decided that the theatre was more reliable than the cinema.
• • "The Drag" — an exposition of psychopathic conduct . . . • •
• • The Olean Evening Times took Mae to task for "Sex" as well as "The Drag," which the reporter Virginia Swan described as "an exposition of psychopathic conduct." Was Mae West chastened after the arrest? "Sure, I know what audiences like," Mae assured the news reporters. "And when it comes in sex portrayals, I know my onions. My play is true to life. And how can anyone suppress truth?"
• • In contrast, Dorothy Hall told Virginia Swan: "The truth is no excuse. Many things are true which are not entertainment. Even when a play is sincere and restrained it may be dangerous." She added: "It's reached the place when lovers of the theatre must look even to the theatre's most dreaded foe, censorship, to rescue it from destruction. If censorship will rescue the drama, I'm for it."
• • Dorothy Hall continued her Broadway career, starring in a number of plays until 1941. Hall died in New York City on 3 February 1953. She was 47. Her obituary did not mention her cause of death nor if there were any close relatives left behind to mourn. Few pictures remain so it was fortunate to have this March 1st, 1927 newspaper clipping.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Dorothy Hall, 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: MidSumma Memories

There was nonstop applause when actress Marie-Therese Byrne gave a diamond dazzling performance in the role of MAE WEST in "Courting Mae West," a serious-minded comedy written by LindaAnn Loschiavo. For this presentation Down Under, the play had a rehearsed reading under the direction of Cameron Menzies during the Midsumma Festival, now in its 24th year.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • MAE WEST: Sweetie, because of you I got BIGGER this week.
• • SHORTIE: Dio mio. Making miracles on my pauper’s paycheck? What magic did I do?
• • MAE WEST: I liked your review, took your advice, made my finale kickier. I just took ten curtain calls. TEN — oooh — ten big ones! Wait till MY MOTHER hears how they LOVED ME tonight.
• • SHORTIE: Bravissimo! Soon they’ll be slapping a gold star on your (pause) savings account.
• • MAE WEST: Daly’s hung a banner — “Our 300th Night of Sex!” MY show — 300 sold-out performances on Broadway. (long pause) That’s 11 months of LUCK. Hmmm. Will I STAY lucky?
• • SHORTIE: I’m the one with problems. You’ve arrived! Enjoy the red carpet.
• • MAE WEST: I love being onstage more than Napoleon loved war. But theatre owners want to book pictures — NOT LIVE SHOWS. (pause) I’m wondering — will there be anything better than Sex?
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship & Secrets [Act I, Scene 1, a drag cabaret in Greenwich Village, New York in December 1926]
• • Playwright: LindaAnn Loschiavo
• • This text has been copyrighted. It is used here with permission.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Artistic Director of Fly-on-the Wall Robert Chuter said: The director did the reading in the style of an old 1930s-style radio broadcast. It was stunning and the audience loved it. Full house.

We will look at Courting Mae West for possible programming in 2012.

• • In character as the pre-Hollywood Mae West, Ms. Byrne looks every inch the star as she shows her determination to climb the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
• • Australia's trendy L.O.T.L. Magazine said: "Those in the mood for some titillating theatre should consider 'Courting Mae West,' part of Midsumma's Playing in the Raw season."
• • Special thanks to Robert Chuter for selecting "Courting Mae West" for Midsumma Playing-In-The-Raw's series.
• • WHEN: Saturday, 28 January 2012 — — from 2.00pm — 4:30pm
• • WHERE: Midsumma Playing-In-The-Raw at The Chapel [Melbourne, Australia]
• • Tell them you heard about Midsumma on The Courting Mae West Blog.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Marie-Therese Byrne on 28 January 2012 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Courting Mae Down Under in 2012

There was a full house on 28 January 2012 when actress Marie-Therese Byrne took the role of MAE WEST in "Courting Mae West," a serious-minded comedy written by LindaAnn Loschiavo. A one-time only presentation Down Under, the play had a rehearsed reading under the direction of Cameron Menzies during the Midsumma Festival, now in its 24th year.
• • In character as the pre-Hollywood Mae West, Ms. Byrne looks every inch the star as she shows her determination to climb the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
• • Artistic Director of Fly-on-the Wall Robert Chuter said the entire affair went very well.
• • Australia's trendy L.O.T.L. Magazine said: "Those in the mood for some titillating theatre should consider 'Courting Mae West,' part of Midsumma's Playing in the Raw season."
• • Special thanks to Robert Chuter for selecting "Courting Mae West" for Midsumma Playing-In-The-Raw's series.
• • WHEN: Saturday, 28 January 2012 — — from 2.00pm — 4:30pm
• • WHERE: Midsumma Playing-In-The-Raw at The Chapel [Melbourne, Australia]
• • Tell them you heard about Midsumma on The Courting Mae West Blog.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Marie-Therese Byrne on 28 January 2012 • •
NYC
Mae West.