Courting Mae West

The play "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship & Secrets" is based on true events during the 1920s when actress MAE WEST was arrested and jailed in New York City for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway. Maybe she broke the law - - but the LAW couldn't break HER!

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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Mae West: Raffle Winners

Members of the Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce met for a convivial networking evening on the westside and a dose of MAE WEST.
• • On Tuesday 27 May 2008, the happy hour crowd converged at Elmo's [156 Seventh Avenue] in its gracious spacious private party room.
• • In exchange for an opportunity to promote "Courting Mae West" to these nice people, there was a raffle. Winners were: Laura Petersen of Rr (the business partner of Glenn Podel, who helms Phigit); and Jane Asche of Jane Asche Art and Design. Laura and Jane won a pair of tickets to the 6:00 PM performance on Monday July 21st.
• • To thank the chamber for their gracious invitation to come and spread the word, we invited Executive Director Dirk McCall and Project Manager Sean Oakley to be our guest for the 6:00 PM performance on Monday as well.
• • Please spread the word to the other merrymakers from the Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — based on true events when Mae West was tried at the Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] July 19th 22nd, 2008.
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" opens at 6 o'clock on Saturday evening July 19, 2008.
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" — — showtimes
• • July 19th, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 20th, 2008 — — 2:00 PM Sunday matinee
• • July 21st, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 22nd, 2008 — — 9:00 PM
• • Tickets to COURTING MAE WEST will be $18 per person.
• • Discounts are available for GROUPS. Group Prices are available: write to artisticdirector@freshfruitfestival.com or phone 212-779-3051.
• • The play is 95 minutes long.
• • The air-conditioned theatre has 99 seats.
• • There are no reserved nor numbered seats. First come, first served.
• • SPECIAL: $100 $150 donation — — donor gets name in the Program — — and 1 free ticket to the play.
• • $151
$500 donation — — donor gets name in Program and TWO free tickets to the play and invited to all parties.
• • The Annual Fresh Festival: a non-profit group organizes this ambitious yearly festival [now in its 7th year]. The two-week arts festival is a money-losing venture sustained by funds from The New York City Council, a culture grant from New York State, a stipend from Senator Tom Duane, and donations from good people.

• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
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• • Photo: Mae West
• • 1927 • •

Mae West.

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

11 July 2008 at Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center's branch of Barnes & Noble Booksellers has invited MAE WEST to come up and see them.
• • On Friday evening 11 July 2008 — — by a special invitation from B&N — — a portion of the play "Courting Mae West" will be performed FREE for book-buyers and browsers at the Lincoln Triangle branch.
• • A private Reception will follow for invited guests of the playwright and the director at a nearby restaurant.
• • Details will follow.
• • Barnes & Noble Booksellers [1972 Broadway, New York, NY 10023] is located on the northeast corner of Broadway and West 66th Street, near the 66th Street stop of the 1 subway line.
• • Interestingly, the bookshop is not far from where Daly's 63rd Street Theatre was located. And once again it can be said that Mae West is right back where she always wanted to be — — on Broadway.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — based on true events when Mae West was tried at the Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] July 19th 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
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• • Photo: Mae West
• • 1926 • •

Mae West.

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Meet Champagne Til

Since it's Mother's Day, it's apt to mention that MAE WEST really adored her German-born mother Matilda [Dilker] West, whom Mae's father had nicknamed "Champagne Til."
• • Here they are in April 1927, as Mae leaves the women's workhouse, the female prison on Welfare Island.
• • Champagne Til makes her appearance in the serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" — — based on true events during the Prohibition Era when Mae West was arrested and jailed — — and this exciting full-length play opens at the Algonquin Theatre (123 East 24th Street, NYC) on Saturday 19 July 2008. Louis Lopardi will direct the seven-person cast.
• • Dedicating her autobiography, "Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It," Mae West wrote: "In loving memory of my mother, without whom I might have been somebody else."
• • Emily Wortis Leider writes: "Matilda [West] herself, a soft-spoken native of Bavaria whose stunning hourglass figure reminded people of the ripe and rounded opulence of reigning New York beauty, actress Lillian Russell, had married after a brief stint modeling corsets — — a scant seven years after her arrival in America. She had once harbored hopes for a stage career of her own, but her respectable merchant family, kin to proprietors of a New York brewery renowned for its lager, forbade it. They probably had also discouraged her forays into the corset-modeling profession, which she glamorized with a French word, modiste. ..."
• • Leider's book "Becoming Mae West" is a well-researched and engrossing biography.
• • In January 1930, Mae purchased a marble mausoleum for her beloved late mother in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
• • In 1980, Mae was interred there with the members of the West family.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — based on true events when Mae West was tried at the Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] July 19th 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
________________________________________________________________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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• • Photo: Mae West
• • 1927 • •

Mae West.

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