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

Mae heads back to Broadway

MAE WEST and Paramount Pictures — — for awhile, it was a happy marriage, and the actress's latest release would always be booked at the Paramount Theatres in her hometown: Brooklyn and Manhattan.
• • Built in 1926 — — right in the heart of Times Square — — was the 40-story Paramount Building [at 1501 Broadway], originally a home to the late, great Paramount Theater and also the eastern headquarters of the production company that was to become Paramount Pictures.
• • Like the movie giant it wanted to be, the structure commands attention, spanning an entire city block on Broadway between West 43rd and West 44th Streets. The architects were Cornelius W. Rapp and George Leslie Rapp.
• • On 19 November 1926, the eight-story Paramount Theatre had its star-dusted opening with an elaborate live show staged by John Murray Anderson, and the motion picture God Gave Me Twenty Cents starring Lya de Putti.
• • All of Mae West's motion pictures for Paramount opened with exclusive engagements promoted with great fanfare. The Brooklyn bombshell once caused a frenzy by arriving at 1501 Broadway with an escort of handsome New York City policemen on motorcycles.
• • The house could seat 3664 ticket-holders.
• • The lobby of the [now demolished] Paramount Theatre was modeled after the Paris Opera House with white marble columns, balustrades, and an opening arms grand staircase. Inside the auditorium, the drapes were red velvet and the rugs were a similar red. The theater had a grand organ as well as an orchestra pit that rose up to the stage level. The ceilings were fresco and gilt. The railings were brass, the seats plush. There were Greek statues and busts in wall niches. The rest rooms and waiting rooms were as impressive as the facilities at Radio City or the Roxy. The main lobby was decorated with an enormous crystal chandelier.
• • Over the years, many of the top stars performed there, including Sinatra and dozens of the era's luminaries.
• • Though the Paramount Theatre is no more, 1501 Broadway continues to be the elite address of many talent agents, entertainment companies, and theatre industry professionals. And it is the NYC headquarters of the Dramatists Guild.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" — — a Staged Reading of a new version of this play — — based on true events during the Prohibition Era.
• • Address: 1501 Broadway [on Broadway at West 43rd Street], New York, NY 10036
• • Room: The Dramatists Guild, the Frederick Loewe Room, Suite 701
• • When: Friday October 17th starting at 5:45 PM — — you must show photo ID to get into the building
• • We have been given a 90-minute time slot and the reading will END at 7:30 PM.
• • The reading is free and open to the public and there are about 50 seats for producers and members of the audience.
• • Portraying various people in Mae West's life, the excellent cast of seven features the scintillating Yvonne Sayers as Mae West and includes: Gloria M. Buccino, Mary Murphy, Neal Sims, Steven Viola (who performed these roles onstage July 19 — 22, 2008), and Duvall O'Steen and Christopher Yustin.
• • The building, built by Paramount Pictures, was a popular stopping place for Mae West when she was in New York City.
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Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Friday 17 October 2008

The public and Mae-mavens are invited to attend a Staged Reading of "COURTING MAE WEST" at 5:45 PM on Friday — — 17 October 2008 — — on Broadway and West 43rd Street at the Dramatists Guild. [See details below.]
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • YVONNE SAYERS, who plays MAE WEST, is rejoining the "Courting Mae West" cast. Miss Sayers studied with Mary Boyer at T. Schreiber Studio. The five-foot-five stunner has been seen on TV in “Chappelle’s Show,” CourtTV’s “Till Death Do Us Part,” “The Maury Show,” etc. Miss Sayers has been cast in NYC productions at the American Globe Theatre, the Samuel French Festival, the PIT, Village Playwrights, the Wings Theatre, as well as in several shows at the 45th Street Theatre. A proud member of the Michael Chekhov Theatre Co., her favorite role was portraying Mae West in “Mad Dog Blues.”
• • GLORIA BUCCINO, a retired police sergeant, is rejoining the "Courting Mae West" cast in the pivotal roles of Matilda West, Peg Rourke, and others. Moving from law enforcement to a career in entertainment, she studied with Howard Meyer at HM Acting Studio. Miss Buccino was seen in HM Acting Workshop Productions: "Girl Talk" and "Into the Deep." She is a member of The Axial Theatre Company, and was recently accepted into The Actor's Project NYC. Gloria is a member of AFTRA.
• • MARY MURPHY, who plays Eliza Rourke and other roles, is rejoining the "Courting Mae West" cast. Her credits include: "Jane Eyre," "Artist Descending a Staircase," "Stonewall Voices," "Why Does it Sting…," "Jailbirds," "Wait Until Dark," and "All Night Meeting." She has also lent her voice to the cartoon Pokemon, various radio, film, and television projects, along with an award-winning children’s audio adventure series.
• • DUVALL O'STEEN participated in a March 2008 reading of "Courting Mae West" and joins the cast in the pivotal roles of Beverly West, Sara Starr, and others. Miss O’Steen is a proud graduate of the William Esper Studio and a member of the Michael Chekhov Theatre Co. Her MCTC credits include: "Talking Heads"; "The Rock Garden"; "Goldberg Street"; and many others. On-screen credits include the title role in "Gina’s Music" among other roles.
• • NEAL SIMS, who plays Edward Elsner, Jim Timony, Barry O'Neill, and other roles, is rejoining the "Courting Mae West" cast. Trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, his credits include: "Charles Busch's Sleeping Beauty, or Coma"; "Psycho Sorority Girl"; "Bad Dames Go to Hell"; etc. Mr. Sims also directed and acted in two shows for NYC's International Fringe Festival: "The Greatest B-Movie Ever Told" [2005] and "Vice Girl Confidential" [2006].
• • STEVEN VIOLA, who plays Declan Rourke and other roles, is rejoining the "Courting Mae West" cast. He portrayed Iago in an acclaimed production of "Othello" directed by Elfin Vogel at Theatre 22. Mr. Viola studied acting with Gloria Maddox and Carol Prescott at T. Schreiber Studio. Theatre credits include: "The Man who Corrupted Hadley Burg," "A Doll's House," and many others. He is a founding member of The Cranston and Spade W-WOW Radio Mystery Theatre Company.
• • CHRISTOPHER YUSTIN — — who plays news man Mario "Shortie" De Angelis — — can be seen in "Speed Demons" at the monthly Saloon Series at The Vampire Cowboys' Battle Ranch. His past roles have included: super hero, transvestite ninja, ghost, fast talking district attorney, gunslinger, burn victim, hapless actor, two different aliens, lunatic, bashful groom, alcoholic 1940s crooner, polite boxer, scarecrow, riverboat captain, 8-year-old Japanese boy, The Smartest Man Alive, and many others.
• • Native New Yorker LindaAnn Loschiavo is a journalist and dramatist caught in the spell of a courthouse with Verdi-worthy villains rising up against an actress who lost her reputation and never missed it. True events that took place during the Prohibition Era in Jefferson Market's judicial chambers inspired the comedy-drama “Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets.” A regular contributor to several newspapers and magazines, she insists that some of her witticisms are not to be lightly tossed aside but rather shaken and stirred. She's also at work on a book: "Mae West's New York, 1899 — 1959." The playwright is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" — — a Staged Reading of a new version of this play — — based on true events during the Prohibition Era.
• • Address: 1501 Broadway [on Broadway at West 43rd Street], New York, NY 10036
• • Room: The Dramatists Guild, the Frederick Loewe Room, Suite 701
• • When: Friday October 17th starting at 5:45 PM — — you must show photo ID to get into the building
• • We have been given a 90-minute time slot and the reading will END at 7:30 PM.
• • The reading is free and open to the public and there are about 50 seats for producers and members of the audience.
• • The building, built by Paramount Pictures, was a popular stopping place for Mae West when she was in New York City.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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

A BUDD-ing Drag Artist

The play "Courting Mae West" opens in one of the popular drag cabarets in the Village that MAE WEST used to visit. In Act I, Scene 1, Mae waves to a cigarette girl in drag known as Rosebud. Mae explains to her date, "I just cast Rosebud over there in 'The Drag'. . . ."
• • In 1923, Arthur C. Budd was 21 years old and residing at 25 West 52nd Street. Known as “Rosebud,” Arthur C. Budd worked as a female impersonator in “The Lady in Ermine” at The Century Theater.
• • A New York Times article published on 5 February 1923 — — “Village Raid Nets 4 Women and 9 Men: Detectives Thought They Had Five Females, but Misjudged One Person by Clothing” — — paints a picture of the Greenwich Village circles Rosebud traveled in.
• • The police continue to pay special attention to Greenwich Village, according to The N.Y. Times. Every tearoom and cabaret in the village was visited yesterday morning by Deputy Inspector Joseph A. Howard and Captain Edward J. Dempsey of the Charles Street Station, and a party of ten detectives.
• • Detectives Joseph Massie and Dewey Hughes of the Special Service Squad were at the Black Parrot Tea Shoppe Hobo-Hemia, 46 Charles Street, to witness what they had been informed would be a “circus.” They arrested what they thought were five women and eight men. It developed later, however, that one of the “women” was a man, Harry Bernhammer, 21 years old, living at 36 Hackensack Avenue, West Hoboken, N.J. He is familiarly known in the Village as “Ruby,” according to the police. The charge against him is disorderly conduct for giving what the police termed an indecent dance.
• • The other prisoners, all of whom were bailed out at the station house, were Lucy Smith, 22 years old, of 46 Charles Street, and Patricia Rogers, 24 years old, of 16 Charles Street, alleged proprietors of the establishment, charged with violating the Mullan-Gage law; . . . Arthur C. Budd, 21 years old, of 25 West Fifty-second Street; . . . Paul Warring, 21 years old, of 75 West Seventy-second Street; . . . . The real name of the Smith woman, according to the police, is Vera Black, and the real name of the Rogers woman is Nan Paddock.
• • Arthur C. Budd, according to the police, is known as “Rosebud,” and claimed when arrested that he is a female impersonator in “The Lady in Ermine” at The Century Theater.
• • Paul Warring, the police say, is pianist at the Black Parrot and was formerly employed at a Broadway cabaret. . . . Reilly is accused of doing “a suggestive dance.”
• • The detectives allege that before the raid early yesterday morning they bought eight drinks of whiskey at $1 a drink.
• • The “circus” did not actually take place, the detectives said, for just before the time for it to begin Patricia Rogers stepped out on the floor and announced: “There are two policemen here and I am afraid to put on the circus."
• • The joyful soiree at the Black Parrot Tea Shoppe Hobo-Hemia [46 Charles Street, New York, NY 10014] ended rather abruptly with a paddy wagon conveying the arrested individuals to Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue on 5 February 1923.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • "COURTING MAE WEST: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" — — a Staged Reading of a new version of this play — — based on true events during the Prohibition Era.
• • Address: 1501 Broadway [on Broadway at West 43rd Street], New York, NY 10036
• • Room: The Dramatists Guild, the Frederick Loewe Room, Suite 701
• • When: Friday October 17th starting at 5:45 PM — — you must show photo ID to get into the building
• • We have been given a 90-minute time slot and the reading will END at 7:30 PM.
• • The reading is free and open to the public and there are about 50 seats for producers and members of the audience.
• • Portraying various people in Mae West's life, the excellent cast of seven features the scintillating Yvonne Sayers as Mae West and includes: Gloria M. Buccino, Mary Murphy, Neal Sims, Steven Viola (who performed these roles onstage July 19 — 22, 2008), and Duvall O'Steen and Christopher Yustin.
• • The building, built by Paramount Pictures, was a popular stopping place for Mae West when she was in New York City.
___________
Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Courting Mae West
Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Jefferson Market Courthouse • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Sepia

Among several intriguing studies on the American actress MAE WEST there is one written by Marybeth Hamilton, who holds a doctorate in history from Princeton University and teaches American History at Birkbeck College, University of London.
• • In When I'm Bad, I'm Better, Marybeth Hamilton discusses how Mae West's former lover George Raft, who was becoming a matinee idol in Hollywood during 1932, was instrumental in getting Mae a cameo role as Maudie Triplett, his blowsy ex-girlfriend in "Night After Night." Hamilton also explains how Mae was aghast at being cast in such a colorless bit part — — and then went on to revise her dialogue and win all the applause. "If nothing else," writes Hamilton, "[Mae West] showed Paramount that they were dealing with an expert scene stealer."
• • It is not surprising that Marybeth Hamilton mentions the hatcheck girl's line: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!" and Maudie Triplett's famous comeback: "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie!" [Mae borrowed the routine from her diamond-draped pal Texas Guinan.]
• • What was left unsaid in this study (and other Mae West books) about that film scene?
• • Curiously, no writer ever mentions that Paramount made the 21-year-old actress Patricia Farley [born 22 August 1911] play the role of the hatcheck girl in blackface.
• • Take a peek. Do you remember the sepia-skinned beauty in the scene — — or not? How come no one ever mentions the deliberately darkened skin? Why not?
• • Here's another question: which house in the West 50s inspired the plot of "Night After Night" [originally titled "Number 55"]? Which heiress was raised in that stately residence? Which Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote the short story that Hollywood adapted for the screenplay? Which gangster met his death on the marble staircase?
• • Since Mae West was known to champion dark-skinned actors in her Broadway projects, it was probably assumed that the hatcheck girl in this scene was one more sepia beauty out of Harlem.
• • Production on "Night After Night" began in August 1932.
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Source:http://courtingmaewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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