Long Live Mae West

A week-long celebration of MAE WEST occurred in her hometown, New York City, to commemorate the 120th birthday of the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • The focus was on "Diamond Lil" by Mae West — — in a new 85-minute adaptation for the stage by LindaAnn Loschiavo — — and costumed in 1890s Bowery style
• • Cast: Starring Darlene Violette as Diamond Lil, Queen of the Bowery and also featuring Sidney Myer, Anthony DiCarlo, Joanna Bonaro, Gary Napoli, Juan Sebastian Cortes, Kimmy Foskett, Jim Gallagher and live music by Brian McInnis
• • Updates: http://Mae West.blogspot.com
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I always liked a man in uniform." 
• • Mae West said: "He's the kind of guy you'd have to marry to get rid of."
• • Mae West said: "All my life, I have been misunderstood."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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 • • "Diamond Lil" restaged in 2013 • •
NYC
Mae West.

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.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1913 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West on February 2nd

It was February 2nd when Variety Magazine wrote about MAE WEST's arrest as well as the production of "The Drag" that had been screened for a private audience and a few critics. Variety tsk-tsked in dismay noting that "often the audience laughs when it should weep."
• • Pole-vaulted out of the ghetto of the clubby entertainment section, Mae West suddenly became notoriously noteworthy in national news headlines on 2 February 1927.
• • On Tuesday February 1st at 5:30 AM, the Brooklyn bombshell was arrested along with her sister and the director Edward Elsner in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
• • According to The New York Times, Edwin [sic] Elsner of New York, stage director of "The Drag," which opened here last night, and Miss Beverly West of New York, sister of Mae West, author of the play, were arrested at 5:30 o'clock this morning in Miss West's room at the Arcade Hotel and will be arraigned in the City Court on Wednesday on technical charges of breach of the peace.
• • The police allege misconduct, but both Elsner and Miss West deny there was any wrongdoing, explaining that they were in the room going over the events of the opening night and possible changes in the play.
• • Elsner, known for his work in staging "Within the Law," "Bought and Paid For," "Pygmalion," "Sex," and other plays, was released under bond of $250, as was Miss West, after spending several hours locked up at Police Headquarters following a ride from the hotel in the police patrol wagon. . . .
• • The arrest at the Arcade Hotel is dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West." Beverly's drunken antics and Mae's strategies are featured in Act I, Scene 2. Watch a portion of this scene on YouTube.
• • The "scene of the crime" is still in business: Arcade Hotel — 1001 Main St, Bridgeport, CT 06604; Tel (203) 333-9376.
• • "Courting Mae West" has been nominated for several awards. Get ready to come up and see Mae wearing laurels during April 2009 at the official award ceremony in Manhattan. Join us there.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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

Mae West: In New York City

MAE WEST leads the parade of screen gems when Film Forum rolls out the red carpet this coming Friday in Manhattan.
• • This new series — — "Breadlines and Champagne" — — is focused on Depression movies, pre-Code classics, screwball comedies, and the socially conscious plots that worked their way to the silver screen. There will be Prohibition Era treats such as the Tuesday special which is being billed as "Bank Nites."
• • Programmed by Bruce Goldstein, and featuring all 35mm prints, this is the best news since bathtub gin was perfected.
• • The opening night stars Mae West and Cary Grant, in a screenplay written by the Brooklyn bombshell and inspired by her awe of Bostock's lions in Coney Island, which she enjoyed as a child. Those trips to Dreamland with her father created Mae's desire to be a lion tamer — — and in "I'm No Angel" Tira will get her chance to enter the big cage and eyeball the king of beasts.
• • Here is what some critics have said about "I'm No Angel."
• • • • "Mae West was the sensation of 1933. A total delight to watch." — Andrew Bergman
• • • • "Going to help redistribute a nice chunk of the nation's coin. Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber and all-around box office bet in the country." — Variety (1933)
• • • • "Arguably West's best film, certainly one of her funniest." — Pauline Kael
• • "There weren't that many films that dealt directly with the Depression," says Bruce Goldstein, repertory director at Manhattan's Film Forum. "But you got a feeling of the desperation — — the lower-class rooms, the spartan look of things. There's an almost palpable atmosphere."
• • "Breadlines and Champagne," Goldstein's upcoming retrospective at the Forum, offers New Yorkers the thrill of enjoying 50 Depression-era movies in new prints. Friday's opening night showcases Mae West's "I'm No Angel," and a 1933 admission price of 35 cents.
• • Why weren't there more of these classics? "Cycles come and go," says Goldstein. "I think people were tired of those Depression-era movies, and the studios wanted to make more escapist entertainment. And after the Production Code came in (in 1934) everything got sanitized — — there were certain kinds of characters and certain kinds of stories you just couldn't do anymore."
• • For the complete schedule, stop by Film Forum.
• • Every Tuesday movie-goers will enjoy the revival of an old-time tradition of giveaways so prepare for some good old-fashion fun.
• • "Breadlines and Champagne" runs from Friday February 6th through March 5 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info is available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West's Father

Despite having an ambivalent relationship with her father, MAE WEST took after him and also worked for him when he peddled fruit in Brooklyn and when he helmed a "detective agency" in New Jersey and New York City.
• • Born on Manhattan's Lower East Side in March 1866, John West [called "Jack"] grew up feisty, impatient, and strong. As a child he boasted that he'd rather fight than eat. He got his Irish up rather quickly, remembered Mae. He was easily angered and "always ready to do physical violence when the urge was on him." In 1969, Mae revealed in an interview that she thought her father was cruel — — but realized "all his fighting was done doing other people's fighting for them."
• • Jack West was 7 years old in 1873 when his family moved to Brooklyn, settling first in Red Hook, and then in Greenpoint.
• • Though he had no inclination to follow his father's vocation as a ship rigger, Jack knew his parents wanted him to learn a trade; they apprenticed him to a boilermaker in 1880 when he was 14.
• • But Jack West was contemplating starting a fire in the arena. At 11 years old, "Battling Jack" had fought in his first boxing match as a featherweight and yearned to become a bare-knuckles champion. These matches were often arranged by local racketeers. His favorite place to hang out was the gymnasium. His closest companions were weightlifters and boxers — — both black and Caucasian.
• • During the late 1880s, Jack was sidetracked from his vigorous athletic routine after meeting a buxom young lady named Matilda Delker [born in 1870 in Bavaria]. Youthful rebels, Jack and Tillie had much in common. Both defied their parents' expectations, Jack through boxing and Tillie through entertaining the idea of a theatrical career.
• • Initially, the couple forged a passionate bond. Mae explained, "My father had swept her off her feet." But Tillie's youthful transgressive ambitions met an end with Jack West.
• • On 19 January 1889, in Greenpoint, Battling Jack West and Tillie Delker took their wedding vows before a local minister with Jack's sister Julia West acting as maid of honor.
• • On 5 January 1935, "Battling Jack" heard the final countdown; he passed away in Oakland, California of a stroke. The previous November, Mae's father had a severe heart attack and was under the care of a Bay Area heart specialist. A funeral was held in Hollywood within days. Shortly thereafter, the deceased was taken back to Brooklyn to be placed next to his wife in the West's family crypt. Accompanying the body was his son John, his daughter Beverly, and Jim Timony.
• • On this date we remember John Patrick West with love and respect.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Jack West at the fights in 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Over-Booked

While you may think MAE WEST passed from your life on 22 November 1980, the happy news is that authors are keeping the Empress of Sex very much alive.
• • Remember Charlotte Chandler — — whose second book, The Ultimate Seduction, included conversations with Mae West, Tennessee Williams, Henry Moore, and others? Well, Charlotte Chandler's newest book is She Always Knew How — — Mae West, a Personal Biography [NY: Simon & Schuster]; this hardcover will be released on 10 February 2009.
• • Charlotte Chandler is a member of the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and is active in film preservation. She lives in New York City — — and is currently finishing a book on Bette Davis.
• • On the West Coast, former film critic Kevin Thomas — — who enjoyed conversing with Mae for many years — — is busy doing a book about her.
• • On the East Coast, who is a native New Yorker — — as Mae West was — — is at work writing an illustrated book: Mae West's New York.
• • Mae West — — many individuals have said that to know her was to love her.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Beverly's divorce after the raid

Taking advantage of the legal woes of his sister-in-law MAE WEST, Beverly's husband Sergei Treshatny went to court to obtain a divorce on 15 April 1927 after a decade of marriage. Their divorce became final on 30 September 1927.
• • On 29 January 1917 Beverly West [1898 —1982] wed her first Russian husband Sergei Treshatny. An inventor, Treshatny had arrived in the United States in 1916. Vaudevillians Beverly and Mae West were both busy working in Paterson, New Jersey during January 1917 when Beverly took some time off to become a "missus" at Brooklyn City Hall on Joralemon Street. It had been a brief courtship. On 8 December 1916, the bride-to-be had celebrated her 18th birthday.
• • A decade later, when Mae and Beverly were arrested in Bridgeport, Connecticut on 2 February 1927, Sergei took advantage of the scandal, using the trial testimony as his grounds for divorce.
• • The union between the unhappy couple was dissolved by Supreme Court Justice George H. Taylor, Jr. in Newburgh, New York. The divorce action was based on a police raid on a room in the Arcade Hotel (Bridgeport) at 5:00 AM when Beverly West and Edward Elsner were charged with a "breach of the peace" [i.e., being drunk].
• • The arrest at the Arcade Hotel — — 1001 Main St, Bridgeport, CT 06604 — — is dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West." This scene can be viewed on YouTube.com.
• • Though the case against Edward Elsner and Beverly West was dropped the next day in the Bridgeport City Court, a stenographer took a transcript of the testimony for Mr. Treshatny — — the policeman who made the February 2nd arrests testified before Judge Taylor.
• • Sergei Treshatny, who was living in Stamford in 1927, had invented an air-cooled motor.
• • Beverly had tried to divorce him in Brooklyn in 1924 — — but dropped it after her plea for alimony and counsel fees pending a trial had been denied.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West's family • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Pre-Code Mae West

The Pre-Code MAE WEST is the best.
• • if you still have not seen the classic “I’m No Angel” on the big screen, this Sunday is your chance.
• • In this screen gem — — inspired by Bostock's lion exhibit in Coney Island that she adored as a little Brooklyn girl — — Mae West is a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. And she wants Cary Grant. Again. The bold Tira works as a hootchie-cootchie dancing beauty and a lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent need of money, she agrees to a risky new number — — she'll put her head into a lion's mouth.
• • The intrepid Mae West did all her own stunts in the lion's cage, too.
• • When: At 2:00 pm on Sunday, 21 September 2008.
• • Where: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art [4420 Warwick Blvd. Kansas City, Missouri 64111 — — T: 816-753-5784.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Arrested in Connecticut

An arrest after "The Drag" made for arresting headlines. Pole-vaulted out of the ghetto of the clubby entertainment section, MAE WEST suddenly became notoriously noteworthy in the national news on 2 February 1927.
• • On Tuesday February 1st at 5:00 AM, the Brooklyn bombshell was arrested along with her sister and the director Edward Elsner in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
• • According to The New York Times, Edwin [sic] Elsner of New York, stage director of "The Drag," which opened here last night, and Miss Beverly West of New York, sister of Mae West, author of the play, were arrested at 5:30 o'clock this morning in Miss West's room at the Arcade Hotel and will be arraigned in the City Court on Wednesday on technical charges of breach of the peace.
• • The police allege misconduct, but both Elsner and Miss West deny there was any wrongdoing, explaining that they were in the room going over the events of the opening night and possible changes in the play.
• • Elsner, known for his work in staging "Within the Law," "Bought and Paid For," "Pygmalion," "Sex," and other plays, was released under bond of $250, as was Miss West, after spending several hours locked up at Police Headquarters following a ride from the hotel in the police patrol wagon. . . .
• • The arrest at the Arcade Hotel is dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West." Beverly's drunken antics and Mae's strategies are featured in Act I, Scene 2.
• • Arcade Hotel — 1001 Main St, Bridgeport, CT 06604; Tel (203) 333-9376.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008 at the Algonquin Theatre.
________________________________________________________________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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

Harnessing excitement on East 24th

She was born on a cool night in a hot month in Bushwick (Brooklyn, NY) — — August 1893.
• • Her hard-working father, formerly a bare-knuckle boxer whose arena-name was "Battling Jack," muscled his way into a growing business centered on the horse and harness. For years his trade was bridle-maker. In between jobs, Jack West would rent a horse and wagon and sell fruit in his neighborhood. As a kid, his daughter would go to Rockaway Avenue to pick up the horse and cart.
• • That was the lucrative "carriage trade" era when master harness makers headed to New York City. In 1907, Mayer Miller launched his business, setting up his own harness shop in Manhattan near Madison Square Park, in the center of what was then the horsemarket of the east, an area devoted primarily to stables, the workhorse, and the busy horse auction market. In 1917, Mayer Miller established The Miller Harness Company, Inc., which moved in 1939 to its commodious headquarters at 117-123 East 24th Street. When he died n 1962, Miller's Harness Company, by then managed by his son, was considered the largest horse emporium in the world. The cavernous basement space, with its high ceilings, was used for decades as their chic selling space. Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein were regular customers, stocking up on refined horse haberdashery and developing their own fashion concepts from the expensive equestrian apparel sold by Miller's.
• • East 24th Street in Manhattan • •
• • For over 130 years, New Yorkers who ride headed to East 24th Street, which held its own as the equine epicenter, the location for emporiums such as Manhattan Saddlery (formerly known as Miller's Harness Company) and H. Kauffman & Sons Saddlery.
• • A portion of the old Miller Harness Company is now a New York City-funded non-profit theatre complex.
• • The Algonquin Theatre (at 123 East 24th Street, NYC 10010) houses two air-conditioned performance spaces: the 99-seat "Kaufman" and the 40-seat "Parker." The Kaufman features a proscenium stage that is 21 feet wide and 23 feet deep.
• • The larger playhouse is named in honor of George S. Kaufman [16 November 1889 — 2 June 1961], an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. The petite playing space honors another Algonquin Round Table member: author Dorothy Parker [22 August 1893 — 7 June 1967]. Both writers attended performances of Mae West's plays during the 1920s and critiqued them.
• • During July 9th-20th, 2008, the history play, "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" will be staged at the Algonquin Theatre, as part of the Annual Fresh Fruit Festival, announced NYC director Louis Lopardi, who capably helms A Company Of Players. Established in 1979 by Founding Director Ken Bachtold, A Company Of Players is dedicated to developing the skills of actors and others in the performing arts community, and to presenting plays that reflect the social, political, and human issues of our time. Their motto: "Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer to shape it." — — Vladimir Mayakovsky.
• • Set during the Prohibition Era, when actress-playwright Mae West was arrested and jailed for staging two gay plays on Broadway, "Courting Mae West" will shortly begin a workshop under the direction of Mr. Lopardi, who will oversee the casting of the play and the rehearsals, an exciting process that will shepherd the 95-minute serious-minded comedy into readiness for a July production at The Algonquin.
• • This summer, Mae West will be back onstage, enjoying the limelight. The theatre of excitement is about to raise its curtain and harness its audience's expectations.
• • Algonquin Theatre 123 East 24th Street [between Park Avenue South & Lexington Avenue], New York, NY 10010
• • Subways: #6 Train to East 23rd or 28th Street @ Park Avenue; the N, R or W train to West 23rd Street @ Broadway
• • Parking at 111 East 24th Street, NYC
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
________________________________________________________________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Courting Mae West • • Maebill • •
• • Photo: The Algonquin Theatre • • 2007 • •
NYC
Mae West.