Download or read book The Legendary Mae West written by Tabatha Yeatts and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2000-02-01 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mae West written by Carol M. Ward and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1989-03-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative work analyzes Mae West's long life and productive career in three major phases: the early theater years, her meteoric film career in the thirties, and her subsequent life as a popular culture legend. It examines her theatrical approach to life and her unique talent for translating a low comic variety style into a subtle satire of melodramatic conventions. West's attempts to control her comic creation led her into many public battles over her claims to authorship of her plays and filmscripts. The book's bibliography explores her talents as a writer, summarizing the plays and books she wrote and investigating the validity of those claims. A thorough study of West's background and attitudes, this volume combines the approaches of both biographical and critical/artistic analysis and broadens our understanding of how Mae West fits into American popular culture. The book examines West's philosophy of success and how it was reflected in her personal and professional life, and places her in a historical and cultural perspective without forcing her personality into predetermined categories. This bio-bibliography provides a fresh view of the legendary Mae West, and a new insight into the complexity of her artistry and social vision. It will be a valuable addition to all public libraries, and a useful resource in the study of American popular culture and film history.
Download or read book Mae West written by Simon Louvish and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-11-14 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Louvish's research cements West's reputation as the definitive siren of suggestion, without whom there would never have been any Sex and the City." ---Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Three Plays by Mae West written by Lillian Schlissel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mae West, wise-cracking vaudeville performer, was one of the most controversial figures of her era. Rarely, however, do people think of Mae West as a writer. In Three Plays By Mae West, Lillian Schlissel brings this underexplored part of West's career to the fore by offering for the first time in book form, three of the plays West wrote in the 1920s--Sex (1926), The Drag (1927) and Pleasure Man (1928). With an insightful introduction by Schlissel, this book offers a unique look into to the life and early career of this legendary stage and screen actress.
Download or read book She Always Knew How written by Charlotte Chandler and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex goddess Mae West is responsible for some of the most quoted lines in film history: * Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? * When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better. * It's not the men in my life that counts - it's the life in my men. She was a performer from childhood and debuted on Broadway in a play she wrote entitled "Sex" which was a success until it was raided for immorality and Mae was jailed for ten days. This book is packed with stars from George Raft to Cary Grant and W.C. Fields, with whom she made "My Little Chickadee", the most successful film of Fields' career. Charlotte Chandler recorded Mae West over a period of roughly a month towards the end of the star's life. She was still as vital and lively as ever, and this book will convey all of Mae West's legendary attitude.
Download or read book Mae West written by Clive Hirschhorn and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1968, noted film and theatre critic Clive Hirschhorn was a young feature writer for the London Sunday Express. In Hollywood on assignment, he heard that the legendary Mae West "loved British accents" and was able to get an interview with the 75-year-old film star. His observations on the "official" Mae and the actual woman behind the public persona provide new insights into this complex, much caricatured, and compelling cultural icon. This book offers a funny, touching, and revealing account of the life of the woman who made it possible to say "sex" in public. Her scripted quips are legendary, and she was able to zing them in real life. When Hirschhorn asked her how she managed to look so uncannily young-at 75 her skin was flawless and her face unlined-she replied: "No secret. I go to bed early. I meditate. I eat all the correct foods, I don't smoke or drink, and I believe with a passion in myself. You can only beat nature when you show the bitch who's boss " Leonard Maltin in his Foreword says, "Mae West was an absolute-and resolute-original. There has never been anyone else quite like her. Her reputation has survived the decades. Young people might not know of her, but she is still widely quoted and referred to in articles and books. How many other show business personalities who flourished in the 1920s and '30s can say the same in the first decade of the 21st century?" Clive Hirschhorn is the author of the best-selling The Hollywood Musical, as well as Gene Kelly: A Biography, The Films of James Mason, The Warner Bros. Story, The Universal Story, and The Columbia Story.
Download or read book Dirty Blonde written by Claudia Shear and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 2002 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A funny, bawdy New York hit with dream roles for actors, Dirty Blonde combines transformation and drama with a fabulous dollop of show biz magic.
Download or read book Mae West written by Simon Louvish and published by . This book was released on 2009-05-01 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville brat -- Mae West remains the 20th century¿s greatest comedienne. She made an everlasting mark in trailblazing Broadway plays such as ¿Sex¿ and ¿The Constant Sinner¿ and in films such as ¿She Done Him Wrong,¿ ¿Klondike Annie,¿ and ¿I¿m No Angel.¿ This unparalleled biography charts her amazing seven decades in show business, from early years in teenage summer stock to her last reincarnation as 1960s gay icon and grande dame of Hollywood survivors. This is the first biography to make use of Mae¿s recently uncovered personal papers, offering an unprecedented view into the endless creative drive and daring wit of this legendary star. Photos.
Download or read book He Done Her Wrong written by Stuart M. Kaminsky and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2011-12-13 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Goodness has nothing to do with it as a hard-luck private eye in 1940s Hollywood takes a case for legendary silver screen sex symbol Mae West. In the early days of talking pictures, the greatest sex symbol in Hollywood was the platinum-blonde bad girl Mae West. Naughty and gorgeous with a razor-sharp wit, West wrote her own material and controlled her own image—until the censors came in and outlawed the racy repartee that made her famous. By the forties, her star has faded and she’s banking everything on a scandalous memoir that she hopes will set the stage for a comeback. When the only copy is stolen, she calls in a favor from an old beau—the brother of wisecracking PI Toby Peters. When Mae West asks, “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” you don’t say no. Peters arrives at a party at West’s house, where every guest is a man dressed as the woman herself—and one of them may be the thief who stole the manuscript. But before he can tear off the culprit’s wig, Peters finds that this is about more than theft. The crook wants to destroy Mae West, and he has murder on his mind. The star of Edgar Award winner Stuart M. Kaminsky’s fun forties private eye series, “Peters is a good guy with a sense of humor, and every appearance he makes is a welcome one” (Booklist).
Download or read book Mae West written by Jill Watts and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-17 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae West invited and promptly captured the imagination of generations. Even today, years after her death, the actress and author is still regarded as the pop archetype of sexual wantonness and ribald humor. But who was this saucy starlet, a woman who was controversial enough to be jailed, pursued by film censors and banned from the airwaves for the revolutionary content of her work, and yet would ascend to the status of film legend? Sifting through previously untapped sources, author Jill Watts unravels the enigmatic life of Mae West, tracing her early years spent in the Brooklyn subculture of boxers and underworld figures, and follows her journey through burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and, finally, Hollywood, where she quickly became one of the big screen's most popular--and colorful--stars. Exploring West's penchant for contradiction and her carefully perpetuated paradoxes, Watts convincingly argues that Mae West borrowed heavily from African American culture, music, dance and humor, creating a subversive voice for herself by which she artfully challenged society and its assumptions regarding race, class and gender. Viewing West as a trickster, Watts demonstrates that by appropriating for her character the black tradition of double-speak and "signifying," West also may have hinted at her own African-American ancestry and the phenomenon of a black woman passing for white. This absolutely fascinating study is the first comprehensive, interpretive account of Mae West's life and work. It reveals a beloved icon as a radically subversive artist consciously creating her own complex image.
Download or read book Outrageous Misfits written by Brian Bradley and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2020-10-24 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lights! Camera! Outrageous! Superstar female impersonator Craig Russell and the birth of drag on the international stage. Craig Russell was an internationally admired entertainer and actor, known for his outrageous impersonations of some of Hollywood's greatest female celebrities: Mae West, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Carol Channing, and Judy Garland, to name a few. Lori Russell Eadie, a shy theatre lover, was Craig's No. 1 fan and, eventually, his wife. Together they were fun, fabulous, and eschewed convention. But behind the curtains, Craig and Lori's lives were troubled by their mental health, drug addiction, sexual assault, and abuse. Through nearly one hundred interviews and extensive research, Outrageous Misfits reveals the life and legacy of one of the world's most popular female impersonators and his biggest fan.
Download or read book Myrna Loy written by Emily W. Leider and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-10-03 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning, Myrna Loy’s screen image conjured mystery, a sense of something withheld. "Who is she?" was a question posed in the first fan magazine article published about her in 1925. This first ever biography of the wry and sophisticated actress best known for her role as Nora Charles, wife to dapper detective William Powell in The Thin Man, offers an unprecedented picture of her life and an extraordinary movie career that spanned six decades. Opening with Loy’s rough-and-tumble upbringing in Montana, the book takes us to Los Angeles in the 1920s, where Loy’s striking looks caught the eye of Valentino, through the silent and early sound era to her films of the thirties, when Loy became a top box office draw, and to her robust post–World War II career. Throughout, Emily W. Leider illuminates the actress’s friendships with luminaries such as Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Joan Crawford and her collaborations with the likes of John Barrymore, David O. Selznick, Sam Goldwyn, and William Wyler, among many others. This highly engaging biography offers a fascinating slice of studio era history and gives us the first full picture of a very private woman who has often been overlooked despite her tremendous star power.
Download or read book Hattie McDaniel written by Jill Watts and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-02-06 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hattie McDaniel is best known for her performance as Mammy, the sassy foil to Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. Though the role called for yet another wide–grinned, subservient black domestic, McDaniel transformed her character into one who was loyal yet subversive, devoted yet bossy. Her powerful performance would win her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and catapult the hopes of Black Hollywood that the entertainment industry ––after decades of stereotypical characters–– was finally ready to write more multidimensional, fully realized roles for blacks. But racism was so entrenched in Hollywood that despite pleas by organizations such as the NAACP and SAG ––and the very examples that Black service men were setting as they fought against Hitler in WWII–– roles for blacks continued to denigrate the African American experience. So rather than see her stature increase in Hollywood, as did other Oscar–winning actresses, Hattie McDaniel, continued to play servants. And rather than see her popularity increase, her audience turned against her as an increasingly politicized black community criticized her and her peers for accepting degrading roles. "I'd rather play a maid then be a maid," Hattie McDaniel answered her critics but her flip response belied a woman who was herself emotionally conflicted about the roles she accepted but who tried to imbue each Mammy character with dignity and nuance.
Download or read book Mae West written by Simon Louvish and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-11-27 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville brat---Mae West remains the twentieth century's greatest comedienne. She made an everlasting mark in trailblazing Broadway plays such as Sex and The Constant Sinner and in films such as She Done Him Wrong, Klondike Annie, and I'm No Angel. Simon Louvish, biographer of W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and Keystone's Mack Sennett, brings Mae to vibrant life in this unparalleled new biography. He charts her amazing seven decades in show business, from early years in teenage summer stock to her last reincarnation as 1960s gay icon and grande dame of Hollywood survivors. Mae West: It Ain't No Sin is the first biography to make use of Mae's recently uncovered personal papers, offering an unprecedented view into the endless creative drive and daring wit of this legendary star.
Download or read book Hollywood Lesbians written by Boze Hadleigh and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dit boek is een vervolg op een eerdere gesprekkenreeks met homo's uit de wereld van film en theater. Enkele namen: Dorothy Arzner, Barbara Stanwyck en Marjorie Main. De gesprekken gaan natuurlijk vooral over film en de respectievelijke carrières van de geïnterviewden, maar er is ook plaats en tijd voor uitweidingen zoals bijvoorbeeld over vrouwen en politiek.
Download or read book George Raft written by Lewis Yablonsky and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2000-07-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 揧ablonsky, a sociologist and one of the foremost authorities in phychodrama, raises the book from ordinary show biz profiles to a penetrating insight into the relationship of personality to screen image, of character to social symbol. Like much about Raft, the book has class.?br>?i>Los Angeles Times 揟he most roguishly appealing movie bio since Errol Flynn抯 My Wicked, Wicked Ways.?br>?i>Kirkus Reviews 揟he story of my good friend George抯 climb from the rowdy speakeasy clubs on Broadway in the twenties to the top of Hollywood stardom is an exciting American saga. Reading George抯 biography by Lewis Yablonsky is the next best thing to being there.?br>?i>Frank Sinatra 揂 great story. George was an important and exciting star. When better men like George are made梩hen I'll make 抏m.?br>?i>Mae West
Download or read book Focus On 100 Most Popular Vaudeville Performers written by Wikipedia contributors and published by e-artnow sro. This book was released on with total page 1976 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
