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!
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• • 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 Sentenced

April 19th was a memorable date for MAE WEST.
• • By 19 April 1911, while touring on the vaudeville circuit in Minneapolis, Mae had uttered five obscenities and owed Little Gorman, treasurer of their Curse Club, fifty cents for these infractions. In truth, by cursing and acting up, Mae was showing the troupe how rapidly dissatisfied she had become with "marital bliss" and her limp biscuit of a bridegroom Frank Wallace.
• • On 19 April 1933, bombshell Jayne Mansfield [1933 —1967] was born. Twenty-three years later, the starlet would be making the moves on Mickey Hargitay, then starring in the Mae West Revue. Miss Mansfield married the muscleman in 1957.
• • On 19 April 1962, Curtis Cooksey, who had co-starred with Mae in "Diamond Lil" [1928], and had created the leading man role of the handsome Captain Cummings during the play's maiden voyage on Broadway, committed suicide. Charismatic Curtis Cooksey, who was born on 9 December 1891 in Indiana, had contracted cancer and did away with himself at age 70.
• • • • Sentenced on 19 April 1927 • • • •
• • Most unforgettably, on 19 April 1927, actress Mae West was sentenced for her performance in "Sex," the Broadway play she wrote, cast, and starred in. She was given ten days in prison and the jail time seems to have done her good — — from a publicity standpoint. As she left the courtroom, followed by reporters, friends, fans, and gawkers, Mae predicted, "I expect this will be the making of me!"
• • Though Mae West was sentenced to 10 days, she actually only served 8 days. The actress received "time off for good behavior."
• • Last summer (July 2008), the cast of "Courting Mae West" acted out the chaos inside that Greenwich Village courtroom on 5 April 1927. The scintillating Yvonne Sayers, who portrayed Mae West, was on trial with Eric Eastman, who played her "Sex" co-star and co-defendant, Barry O'Neill. The judge's verdict ended Act I.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes surrounding "The Drag" and "Sex." Scenes in Act I dramatize Mae's interactions with her drag queen cast, the police raid on 9 February 1927, and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: April 5

April was the cruelest month for MAE WEST in 1927.
• • On 5 April 1927 at Jefferson Market Court [on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village], the jury returned with a guilty verdict. As she left the courtroom, followed by reporters, photographers, and a mob of well-wishers, Mae told them, "You've got to fight in this world!" She added, "You've got to fight to get there — — and fight to stay there."
• • On 19 April 1927, actress MAE WEST was sentenced for her performance in "Sex," the Broadway play she wrote, cast, and starred in. She was given ten days in prison and the jail time seems to have done her good — — from a publicity standpoint. As she left the courtroom, followed by reporters, friends, fans, and gawkers, Mae predicted, "I expect this will be the making of me!"
• • Though Mae West was sentenced to 10 days, she actually only served 8 days. The actress received "time off for good behavior."
• • Here is the cast of "Courting Mae West" acting out the chaos inside that Greenwich Village courtroom on 5 April 1927. The scintillating Yvonne Sayers, who portrays Mae West, is in the center of the frame, supported by Eric Eastman who plays her co-star and co-defendant, Barry O'Neill.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The serious-minded comedy "Courting Mae West" by Greenwich Village playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo, set during 1926 — 1932, explores Mae West's legal woes surrounding "The Drag" and "Sex." Scenes in Act I dramatize Mae's interactions with her drag queen cast, the police raid on 9 February 1927, and the tense aftermath at Jefferson Market Police Court.
• • Using fictional elements, the text is anchored by true events and has several characters who are based on real people: actress Mae West; Beverly West; Jim Timony; Texas Guinan; a news seller on Sixth Avenue and West 9th Street; and Sara Starr, based on the Greenwich Village flapper Starr Faithfull, whose death inspired John O'Hara's novel "Butterfield 8" and a dozen other books.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" has attracted the attention of a theatre owner and Is now seeking a co-producer.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1927 trial • •
NYC
Mae West.

Barry O'Neill, leading man

A 95-minute serious-minded comedy, "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — based on true events when actress-author MAE WEST was arrested and jailed for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway (New York City) — — combines real-life people and fictional personae. The story begins in December 1926, when Mae West is celebrating the 300th performance of her play "Sex" at a Greenwich Village speakeasy where she has hired some gay males and drag-queens to star in her upcoming production "The Drag." The final scene, set in December 1932, shows Mae West in her Hollywood dressing room, preparing to shoot a scene for a Paramount Pictures motion picture called "She Done Him Wrong" — — a screenplay based on her 1928 Broadway smash "Diamond Lil."
• • The cast of "Courting Mae West" includes some colorful characters. Meet Barry O'Neill [1898?-1952?], called "Barry O'Neill" in the play.
• • In reality, tall, dark, handsome Barry O'Neill had served during World War I as a lieutenant on a mine-sweeper. He was decorated for his bravery with the King George medal. In 1925, his Broadway career began and he starred in several dramas on The Great White Way until 1933. Since O'Neill played Lt. Gregg in "Sex," he was arrested with the cast.
• • This photo from March 1927 shows a less courageous leading man seated next to his co-defendant Mae West during their obscenity trial held at Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village. When the verdict came in on 5 April 1927, reporters took note of him. Barry O'Neill, wrote a news man, "wore an expression of fear in contrast to that display of levity which had characterized his attitude during the trial." Mae tried to cheer him up with soothing remarks such as "Don't worry, Barry! It'll come out all right" — — to no avail. "When the verdict had been recorded and the clerk of the court began to take the pedigrees of the convicted men and women, O'Neill face took on a deep red," according to The New York Times. As Mae "patted him on the back and spoke words of consolation," O'Neill buried his face in his hands and wept openly.
• • Learn about him: MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • In "Courting Mae West," Barry O'Neill's fictional counterpart BARRY O'NEILL is Mae's co-defendant. Apprehensive about the outcome, O'Neill retains his composure and a more realistic view of the jurors than Mae. Plagued by trouble with her vision, MAE WEST insists she can detect the jury's "love in laughter." But In ACT I, Scene 5, the audience sees the courtroom more clearly through Barry O'Neill's eyes.

• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets"
• • Cast size: seven [4 females, 3 males play rotating roles — — except for the MAE WEST role]
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• • SYNOPSIS [100 words] • •

• • Based on true events during the Prohibition Era, this 95-minute play follows a vaudeville veteran whose frustrations with the rules of male-dominated Broadway have led her to write her own material and cast her own shows. Is the Gay White Way ready for love stories that feature New York City drag queens instead of card-carrying members of the union? Is the legitimate theatre ripe for racially integrated melodramas set in Harlem? Is the Rialto raring to reward a working-class heroine determined to sin and win?
• • Come up and see Mae West as she challenges bigotry, fights City Hall, and climbs the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
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Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West and Barry O'Neill • • 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Courting Mae West - Onstage

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• • The event's board of directors met and approved my director's pitch — — and my play "COURTING MAE WEST" has cleared the first hurdle to be onstage during their annual early July festival in a theatre in Manhattan.
• • The festival offers over 30 live acts. Mine is one of the two plays they will produce. My 95-minute serious-minded comedy will be shown FOUR times onstage [in a theatre with fewer than 99 seats].
• • After the 9 February 1927 performance of "SEX," Mae was hauled off to Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue and Greenwich, where she spent the night locked up with streetwalkers and drug addicts.
• • "Courting Mae West" is based on true events during 1926-1932 when Mae West was arrested and jailed for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway.
• • Details and ticket prices will be posted when available.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West • • artist Michael DiMotta • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Star Sex

It feels like 1927 even though our calendar's stamped 2007. Theatre-goers are assembling at 8 o'clock, clutching programs printed with a familiar phrase: "Sex" — — written by Mae West.
• • And a Bay Area publication led off with this: Delia MacDougall revs up Mae West's "SEX"! Oh, don't you wish you were in sunny California this week, inhaling an a-MAE-zing West Coast revival onstage?
• • Columnist Chad Jones interviewed the leading lady. His article follows.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • THIS MONTH, if you're looking for good "Sex," you may need to head for Berkeley.
• • Last night, the Aurora Theatre Company opened Mae West's 1926 show "Sex" starring Delia MacDougall as Margy LaMont, the role West originated herself.
• • MacDougall, a familiar face to Bay Area audiences (she most recently died onstage in California Shakespeare Theater's "King Lear"), grew up in Mountain View and remembers her mother taking her to Palo Alto's Stanford Theatre to see old movies.
• • "My mom was a big fan of Mae West's and would quote her all the time," MacDougall says from her San Francisco home. "I loved all those sexy pre-Code 1930s ladies. I think Mae West had something to her that was more powerful than any of them — more sexual but not very sexy. She was a powerful, sexual woman."
• • Of course, young Delia didn't necessarily know what West was talking about. "It still takes me a while to catch on — she makes innuendo out of everything."
• • Even before MacDougall was approached by Aurora artistic director Tom Ross about playing West's role in "Sex," the busy actor/ director was something of a West aficionado.
• • "I saw her films then started reading the biographies. I was impressed by the paths she cut," MacDougall says.
• • After an audition for another Aurora show, MacDougall was sensing she didn't get the part when Ross handed her the "Sex" script. The first few pages had MacDougall hooked, and she knew she wanted to do the show.
• • "The character, Margy LaMont, is clearly a prostitute, and that's what was so upsetting to people at the time," MacDougall explains. "She's very real — — which is a funny thing to associate with Mae West. In the '20s, prostitutes onstage had to suffer and die at the end. Audiences had to believe there was good in them somewhere. But with Margy, it's not like that."
• • "Sex" got bad reviews when it opened, but, as you might imagine, audiences adored it. It ran for a year before The City of New York sent the police in to shut it down. West was arrested on a morals charge and served eight days in prison (though legend has it she was allowed to wear her silk underwear in jail).
• • Of course, being the Madonna of her day, West turned all the publicity to her advantage, wrote more plays (most of which were shut down or forced out of town) and made her way to Hollywood.
• • Because "Sex" emerged before the West persona was set in curvy stone, the character of Margy is, as MacDougall puts it, "more man-angry and society-angry than later West characters. Mae had a better sense of humor than Margy."
• • Consequently, MacDougall does not have to do an out-and-out West imitation, though she is working on her shimmy.
• • "I think it's a good play — — it's not 'Inherit the Wind' but it moves quickly, you don't know where it's going and it has characters you love," MacDougall says. "And Mae always wrote that Margy is in a clinch, so I love playing the part because I'm always in the arms of some guy."
• • This will be the year MacDougall chose "Sex" over "Christmas" (the sex jokes just never end with a title like that). She was all set to go back into American Conservatory Theater's annual "A Christmas Carol," but decided to opt for West's play.
• • "I don't know how many more years I can be in a play called 'Sex,'" she says.
• • If you'd like to sample a little of Mae West at her best before you head to "Sex," which is directed by Ross and features Maureen McVerry, Danny Wolohan, Steve Irish, Robert Brewer, Kristin Stokes, and Craig Jessup, Delia MacDougall recommends West's first movie, "Night After Night," in which a hat-check girl says to West, "Goodness, what lovely diamonds." To which West replies, "Dearie, goodness had nothing to do with it."
• • MacDougall also recommends listening to West's song "A Guy What Takes His Time."
• • The Aurora's "Sex" continues through December 9th, 2007 at the Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, California; T: 510-843-4822
• • Source: InsideBayArea.com
• • Byline: Chad Jones
• • Published: 6 November 2007
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo • • Mae West in "Sex" • • 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Hijinks on 6th Avenue

In 1927 Mae West was prosecuted here on Sixth Avenue for obscenity — — particularly because of the homosexual content of her shows. But more recently the nineteenth century landmark was about to be raped by the pencil-pushers who rule The New York Public Library. Fortunately, Greenwich Village residents rallied in the name of justice and won.
• • The Villager recently published this news about the beloved Jefferson Market Courthouse turned library.
• • In his front page feature "Long-overdue library facade repairs finally fully funded," staffwriter Albert Amateau explained the cause for jubilation. He wrote: "Villagers who have long been demanding the renovation of the Jefferson Market Library’s exterior celebrated the announcement on Tuesday [21 August 2007] that new city funding has assured the project.
• • Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined State Senator Tom Duane, New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc and Village leaders in the community room of the landmarked library to announce that the new funding brings the total allocation to more than $7 million for renovating the facade, windows, roof, and tower of the landmarked building erected in 1877 as a courthouse.
• • The beginning of construction is planned for June 2009 and is expected to be completed in two years. A two-month design phase includes review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the building is a designated New York City landmark. A final design and development of construction documents will follow and be submitted to contractors for bidding.
• • Several Greenwich Village Block Associations ... renewed the call for preserving the deteriorating exterior of the library. Since 2003, the Sixth Avenue and West 10th Street sides of the library have been obscured by a sidewalk shed erected to protect people from fragments of limestone and brick falling from the facade.
• • “We all know that the Jefferson Market Library is one of the great library buildings in the city,” Quinn said. “In 1880, it was cited as one of the 10 most beautiful buildings in the country. But in the past few years you had to squint to see it because of the scaffold.”
• • Quinn recalled that when Duane was city councilmember for the Village in 1992 — — and she was then on his staff — — he was able to get more than $700,000 allocated for restoring the building. Added to that, Quinn this year allocated $2.7 million in addition to $1.39 million she earmarked in previous years. Also this year, Mayor Bloomberg provided matching funds of $2.2 million for the library restoration.
• • It was uncertain last year whether previous funds appropriated for a redesign of the library’s interior could be reallocated for facade and structural work. But in February 2007, LI/ Salzman Architects completed a report funded by Quinn and Duane that concluded that because of significant deterioration of the sandstone and brickwork, plus open mortar joints and cracked stone, water had penetrated the facade causing the stonework to shift and settle and allowing the building’s iron structure to rust.
• • In addition, it was found that the Sixth Avenue portico has detached slightly from the facade and leans slightly toward the street.
• • All but $184,000 — — spent for interior design work [a design that would have reconfigured the library's reference room into a music lounge for teens] — — of more than $2 million previously funded will be transferred to the exterior project. The work includes shoring up deficiencies that contributed to the deterioration and returning the building to its original splendor.
• • Community Board 2 called the library "the most iconic building in the Village.”
• • Designed by Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux in 1875 and completed two years later, the courthouse was where Harry K. Thaw was found guilty of murdering the architect Stanford White and where Mae West was prosecuted for the sexual content of her shows.
• • The courthouse was erected on the site of the Jefferson Market, where a 100-foot-tall wooden fire tower kept watch over the Village. The courthouse tower is also 100 feet tall and holds the original fire bell from its wooden precursor.
• • By 1945 the building was no longer used as a courthouse and other agencies had occupied it. A 1958 decision to demolish the building was fought by Village advocates . . .
— — excerpt — —
• • Source: The Villager — — www.TheVillager.com
• • Byline: Albert Amateau
• • Published on: 23 August 2007
• • Unfortunately, this landmark has not preserved the building's cultural history via a plaque nor a permanent exhibition inside, where there's lots of space for it — — and now the funding. MAE WEST and a heap of women's history-makers tramped through these corridors. Maybe. . . .
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Illustration • • Mae West's obscenity trial • • 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.