Unoa Zero seems much more delicate and tall but Unoss seems so much more casual and easygoing

British Real Photograph postcard, no. 68.A. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Dortmund, April 2014

It was one of the first warm days here in Dortmund, everybody was like "let's get in the sun, let's get something to drink, let's go in the park, fast fast fast!"

Then I saw this man. Black coat, long jeans, hands crossed behind his back, walking very slowly like he didn't care about all the stress.

Thanks for the favs,views and following me!

Dutch collectors card in the series 'Filmsterren: een Portret' by Edito Service, 1992. Photo: Universal / The Kobal Collection. Mae West in My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940).

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Momo is always easygoing.

Bessaflex TM x Konishiroku Hexar 3.5/75 Enlarger x Fujicolor C200

I was crossing the intersection and took a photo of this worker when she was facing forward. Standing about four feet from her, she must have felt my presence. Suddenly, she look at me and smile, and at this very moment I took this picture. After, I asked her if it was okay - She replied yeah, in an easy going way! P7900

Buddhist monks and novices in Myanmar (Burma)

Buddhist novice studying in Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung, Nyaungshwe, Inle Lake.

Another novice of my series of the "happy monks and novices in Myanmar". The novices in Myanmar have a quite easygoing life. They only have to keep 10 precepts (a fully ordained monk has 227 precepts). Young novices are allowed to play football, watching TV, playing video games and having fun - which is great to see, because all in all they are just normal kids!

Blog: Dietmar Temps, travel blog

Website, gallery: Dietmar Temps, photography

I decided to try the craze I am seeing on Instagram for smoothie bowls. Basically it's a thicker smoothie that you eat with a spoon. So this is a green smoothie topped with blueberries, pistachios, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and some chocolate shavings (can't really see those). It was good! Kept it simple and took two shots only.

Front façade and front yard of Gråsten Palace (in Danish: "Gråsten Slot") in the town of Gråsten on the Jutland peninsula, Syddanmark region, Denmark

Some background information:

Gråsten Palace is located in the town of Gråsten on the Jutland Juland peninsula in the Danish region of Syddanmark. It is best known for being the summer residence of the Danish royal family. Its Danish name is "Gråsten Slot" and its German name "Schloss Gravenstein". The main house has a modern, all-white facade, with Venetian doors opening onto sweeping, manicured lawns and gravel walkways. The grounds include a huge stables court and an extensive landscaped garden.

The history of Gråsten Palace began in the middle of the 16th century, when it was built as a small hunting château. Shortly after it was erected, it was destroyed by a fire. In 1603, a second structure was built on the site, where the hunting château was located. But under the ownership of Carl von Ahlefeldt, Earl of Langeland, governor-general of Schleswig-Holstein and a member of the inner circle of the Danish King Frederick IV, also the second palace was demolished in favour of a grand Baroque style palace built in the years leading up to 1700.

However, this third palace was again devastated by a fire in 1757, when it was owned by Frederick Christian I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. Only the palace chapel and two pavilions survived. Already two years later, in 1759, the duke commissioned the German-Danish architect Johann Gottfried Rosenberg to rebuild the fourth and current palace in Rococo-style, though considerably smaller than its predecessor building.

In 1852, then Duke Christian August II was exiled due to his pro-German stance in the Schleswig-Holstein War. In the same year, he transferred his estates, including Gråsten Palace, to the Danish state. In 1863, his eldest son Friedrich declared himself Duke of Schleswig-Holstein. However, after the German-Danish War of 1864, Friedrich‘s younger brother Christian was forbidden by Bismarck, to spend his honeymoon there with his English wife, Helena of Great Britain and Ireland.

After Schleswig-Holstein had become a Prussian province in 1867, Friedrich regained the palace. Following the cession of Northern Schleswig to Denmark in 1920, the mansion returned to the Danish state, which granted its use to the royal family in 1935. At that time it was given as a summer residence to Crown Prince Frederik (later King Frederik IX) and his Swedish-born Crown Princess Ingrid (later Queen Ingrid), who especially adored the palace until her death in November 2000.

Today, Gråsten Palace is still the summer residence of the Danish royal family. During the royal fami‘y's stays, parades and changing of the guard take place. The guard marches from Ahlefeldvej, where the Royal Guards gather at around 11:30 am, through the town of Gråsten to the palace, where the changing of the guard takes place at 12:00 pm.

The interior of the building is not open to the public, but the beautiful extensive garden is. It is designed in the style of an English landscaped garden. Queen Ingrid, with her great interest in flowers and gardens, had a significant influence on the current appearance of the grounds. The park also features a swimming pool and a tennis court, and the entire estate is located by a lake. For former Queen Margrethe II’s 80th birthday, the park was expanded with a kitchen garden, a gift from Danish entrepreneurs.

The town of Gråsten is located on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark at an inlet of the Flensburg Fjord. It has more than 4,300 residents and belongs to the Sønderborg municipality. The Egernsund Bridge, which crosses the Egern Strait, connects Gråsten with the town of Egernsund. Gråsten evolved around the first hunting château in the second half of the 16th century. In its early days, it was just a feudal estate belonging to the larger Seegaard manor, which was the largest noble estate in the dukedom of Schleswig by far.

In 1725, Gråsten became an independent estate. Being under the duke’s protection, its residents could exercise their businesses freely. After the 1920 referendum, Northern Schleswig became part of the Kingdom of Denmark and Gråsten became a parish municipality in the Aabenraa County. In 1957, Gråsten and Adsbøl were merged to form the parish municipality of Gråsten-Adsbøl. Although Gråsten advocated for continued independence, the municipality was merged into the larger Sønderborg municipality in 2007.

Another year has passed for you, sweetheart;

It's time to cut the cake and celebrate.

And once again, my love, I start to think

Of things about you I appreciate.

It means so much to have you in my life;

Your loving care fills up my days with pleasure.

Your warm and giving nature helps create

Close, special times together that I treasure.

I live within a safe and steady world,

Because you love me unconditionally.

Your easygoing ways mean that I'm blessed

With peace and joy and blissful harmony.

To me your birthday is a precious day;

I hope it brings you joy in every way.

Kohuke is a Toa of Stone, a member of the Toa Toiri who joined the Toa Rangi to help them complete their mission. Tasked with the protection and large-scale maintenance of Le-Metru Moto-Hubs and Chute Stations, Kohuke is an easygoing and friendly Toa. He's always eager to help and provide his insight, and is the "heart" of the Toa Toiri, often serving as a mediator between Tinoro and Kōpera.

He's an experienced hand-to-hand combatant, enhancing his blows with his Crystal Blasters which are capable of creating and shooting pure elemental energy as well as creating crystal and gem-like protodermis formations. His Great Tipu, Mask of Growth, is especially powerful and allows him to have total control of the battlefield.

Mask of Growth by @rothanaki

Symmetrical Flames by Vahki6

A small live music bar in Nan, northern Thailand, during an intimate unplugged performance at night. Three local musicians sit close together on a compact stage area. In the center, a female singer holds the microphone and sings with a relaxed smile. On the right, a male guitarist plays an acoustic guitar while singing into a microphone. On the left, another musician adds rhythm on percussion. Behind them, large glowing letters light up the dark background and give the room a modern nightlife feel. In the foreground stands a small round table with books and a pink lamp, adding a casual and personal touch. The whole scene feels warm, easygoing and genuine, the kind of place where people come for music rather than show.

tap to see more: www.strangphotography.com/

Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy team during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" (by Hollywood composer T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats.

Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had appeared in The Lucky Dog (1921), but were not teamed at the time. They first appeared together in a short film in 1926, when they signed separate contracts with the Hal Roach film studio. They officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared in the silent short Putting Pants on Philip. They remained with Roach until 1940, and then appeared in eight B movie comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1945. After finishing their film commitments at the end of 1944, they concentrated on performing stage shows, and embarked on a music hall tour of England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. They made their last film in 1950, a French–Italian co-production called Atoll K.

They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances, including in the Galaxy of Stars promotional film of 1936. On December 1, 1954, they made their sole American television appearance, when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. Since the 1930s, their works have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home videos. In 2005, they were voted the seventh-greatest comedy act of all time by a UK poll of professional comedians. The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is The Sons of the Desert, after a fictional fraternal society in the film of the same name.

History as Laurel and Hardy

Hal Roach

Hal Roach recounted how Laurel and Hardy became a team: Hardy was already working for Roach (and others) when Roach hired Laurel, whom he had seen in vaudeville. Laurel had very light blue eyes, and Roach discovered that, due to the technology of film at that time, Laurel's eyes wouldn't photograph properly—blue photographed as white. This problem is apparent in their first silent film together, The Lucky Dog, where an attempt was made to compensate for the problem by applying heavy makeup to Laurel's eyes. For about a year, Roach had Laurel work at the studio as a writer. Then panchromatic film was developed; they tested Laurel, and found the problem was solved. Laurel and Hardy were then put together in a film, and they seemed to complement each other. Comedy teams were usually composed of a straight man and a funny man, but these two were both comedians; however, each knew how to play the straight man when the script required it. Roach said, "You could always cut to a close-up of either one, and their reaction was good for another laugh."

Style of comedy and characterizations

The humor of Laurel and Hardy was highly visual, with slapstick used for emphasis. They often had physical arguments (in character) which were quite complex and involved a cartoonish style of violence. Their ineptitude and misfortune precluded them from making any real progress, even in the simplest endeavors. Much of their comedy involves "milking" a joke, where a simple idea provides a basis for multiple, ongoing gags without following a defined narrative.

Stan Laurel was of average height and weight, but appeared comparatively small and slight next to Oliver Hardy, who was 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) and weighed about 280 lb (127 kg; 20 st 0 lb) in his prime. Details of their hair and clothing were used to enhance this natural contrast. Laurel kept his hair short on the sides and back, growing it long on top to create a natural "fright wig". Typically, at times of shock, he simultaneously screwed up his face to appear as if crying while pulling up his hair. In contrast, Hardy's thinning hair was pasted on his forehead in spit curls and he sported a toothbrush moustache. To achieve a flat-footed walk, Laurel removed the heels from his shoes. Both wore bowler hats, with Laurel's being narrower than Hardy's, and with a flattened brim. The characters' normal attire called for wing collar shirts, with Hardy wearing a necktie which he would twiddle when he was particularly self-conscious; and Laurel, a bow tie. Hardy's sports jacket was a little small and done up with one straining button, whereas Laurel's double-breasted jacket was loose-fitting.

A popular routine was a "tit for tat" fight with an adversary. It could be with their wives—often played by Mae Busch, Anita Garvin, or Daphne Pollard—or with a neighbor, often played by Charlie Hall or James Finlayson. Laurel and Hardy would accidentally damage someone's property, and the injured party would retaliate by ruining something belonging to Laurel or Hardy. After calmly surveying the damage, one or the other of the "offended" parties found something else to vandalize, and the conflict escalated until both sides were simultaneously destroying items in front of each other. An early example of the routine occurs in their classic short Big Business (1929), which was added to the National Film Registry in 1992. Another short film which revolves around such an altercation was titled Tit for Tat (1935).

One of their best-remembered dialogue devices was the "Tell me that again" routine. Laurel would tell Hardy a genuinely smart idea he came up with, and Hardy would reply, "Tell me that again." Laurel would then try to repeat the idea, but, having instantly forgotten it, babble utter nonsense. Hardy, who had difficulty understanding Laurel's idea when expressed clearly, would then understand the jumbled version perfectly. While much of their comedy remained visual, humorous dialogue often occurred in Laurel and Hardy's talking films as well. Examples include:

"You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be led." (Laurel, Brats)

"I was dreaming I was awake, but I woke up and found meself asleep." (Laurel, Oliver the Eighth)

"A lot of weather we've been having lately." (Hardy, Way Out West)

In some cases, their comedy bordered on the surreal, in a style Laurel called "white magic". For example, in the 1937 film Way Out West, Laurel flicks his thumb upward as if working a lighter. His thumb ignites and he matter-of-factly lights Hardy's pipe. Amazed at seeing this, Hardy unsuccessfully attempts to duplicate it throughout the film. Much later he finally succeeds, only to be terrified when his thumb catches fire. Laurel expands the joke in the 1938 film Block-Heads by pouring tobacco into his clenched fist and smoking it as though it were a pipe, again to Hardy's bemusement. This time, the joke ends when a match Laurel was using relights itself, Hardy throws it into the fireplace, and it explodes with a loud bang.

Rather than showing Hardy suffering the pain of misfortunes, such as falling down stairs or being beaten by a thug, banging and crashing sound effects were often used so the audience could visualize the mayhem. The 1927 film Sailors, Beware! was a significant one for Hardy because two of his enduring trademarks were developed. The first was his "tie twiddle" to demonstrate embarrassment. Hardy, while acting, had received a pail of water in the face. He said, "I had been expecting it, but I didn't expect it at that particular moment. It threw me mentally and I couldn't think what to do next, so I waved the tie in a kind of tiddly-widdly fashion to show embarrassment while trying to look friendly." His second trademark was the "camera look", where he breaks the fourth wall and, in frustration, stares directly at the audience. Hardy said: "I had to become exasperated, so I just stared right into the camera and registered my disgust." Offscreen, Laurel and Hardy were quite the opposite of their movie characters: Laurel was the industrious "idea man", while Hardy was more easygoing.

Catchphrases

Laurel and Hardy's best-known catchphrase is, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" It was earlier used by W. S. Gilbert in both The Mikado (1885) and The Grand Duke (1896). It was first used by Hardy in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case in 1930. In popular culture, the catchphrase is often misquoted as "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into", which was never spoken by Hardy—a misunderstanding that stems from the title of their film Another Fine Mess. When Hardy said the phrase, Laurel's frequent, iconic response was to start to cry, pull his hair up, exclaim "Well, I couldn't help it...", then whimper and speak gibberish.

Some variations on the phrase occurred. For example, in Chickens Come Home, Ollie impatiently says to Stan, "Well...", and Stan continues for him: "Here's another nice mess I've gotten you into." The films Thicker than Water and The Fixer Uppers use the phrase "Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you've pickled me in!" In Saps at Sea, the phrase becomes "Well, here's another nice bucket of suds you've gotten me into!" The catchphrase, in its original form, was used as the last line of dialogue in the duo's last film, Atoll K (1951).

In moments of particular distress or frustration, Hardy often exclaims, "Why don't you do something to help me?", as Laurel stands helplessly by.

"OH!" (or drawn out as "Ohhhhh-OH!") was another catchphrase used by Hardy. He uses the expression in the duo's first sound film, Unaccustomed As We Are (1929) when his character's wife smashes a record over his head.

Mustachioed Scottish actor James Finlayson, who appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films, used a variation: "D'oh!" The phrase, expressing surprise, impatience, or incredulity, inspired the trademark "D'oh!" of character Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) in the long-running animated comedy The Simpsons.

Films

Laurel's and Hardy's first film pairing, although as separate performers, was in the silent The Lucky Dog. Its production details have not survived, but film historian Bo Berglund has placed it between September 1920 and January 1921. According to interviews they gave in the 1930s, the pair's acquaintance at the time was casual, and both had forgotten their initial film entirely. The plot sees Laurel's character befriended by a stray dog which, after some lucky escapes, saves him from being blown up by dynamite. Hardy's character is a mugger attempting to rob Laurel. They later signed separate contracts with the Hal Roach Studios, and next appeared in the 1926 film 45 Minutes From Hollywood.

Hal Roach is considered the most important person in the development of Laurel's and Hardy's film careers. He brought them together, and they worked for Roach for almost 20 years. Director Charley Rogers, who worked closely with the three men for many years, said, "It could not have happened if Laurel, Hardy, and Roach had not met at the right place and the right time." Their first "official" film together was Putting Pants on Philip, released December 3, 1927. The plot involves Laurel as Philip, a young Scotsman who arrives in the United States in full kilted splendor, and suffers mishaps involving the kilts. His uncle, played by Hardy, tries to put trousers on him. Also in 1927, the pair starred in The Battle of the Century, a classic pie-throwing short involving over 3,000 real pies; only a fragment of the film was known to exist until the first half resurfaced in the 1970s; a more complete print was discovered in 2015 by historian Jon Mirsalis.

Laurel said to the duo's biographer John McCabe: "Of all the questions we're asked, the most frequent is, how did we come together? I always explain that we came together naturally." Laurel and Hardy were joined by accident and grew by indirection. In 1926, both were part of the Roach Comedy All Stars, a stock company of actors who took part in a series of films. Laurel's and Hardy's parts gradually grew larger, while those of their fellow stars diminished, because Laurel and Hardy had superior pantomime skills. Their teaming was suggested by Leo McCarey, their supervising director from 1927 and 1930. During that period, McCarey and Laurel jointly devised the team's format. McCarey also influenced the slowing of their comedy action from the silent era's typically frantic pace to a more natural one. The formula worked so well that Laurel and Hardy played the same characters for the next 30 years.

Although Roach employed writers and directors such as H. M. Walker, Leo McCarey, James Parrott, and James W. Horne on the Laurel and Hardy films, Laurel, who had a considerable background in comedy writing, often rewrote entire sequences and scripts. He also encouraged the cast and crew to improvise, then meticulously reviewed the footage during editing. By 1929, he was the pair's head writer, and it was reported that the writing sessions were gleefully chaotic. Stan had three or four writers who competed with him in a perpetual game of 'Can You Top This?' Hardy was quite happy to leave the writing to his partner. He said, "After all, just doing the gags was hard enough work, especially if you have taken as many falls and been dumped in as many mudholes as I have. I think I earned my money." Laurel eventually became so involved in their films' productions, many film historians and aficionados consider him an uncredited director. He ran the Laurel and Hardy set, no matter who was in the director's chair, but never asserted his authority. Roach remarked: "Laurel bossed the production. With any director, if Laurel said 'I don't like this idea,' the director didn't say 'Well, you're going to do it anyway.' That was understood." As Laurel made so many suggestions, there was not much left for the credited director to do.

Their 1929 silent Big Business is by far the most critically acclaimed. Laurel and Hardy are Christmas tree salesmen who are drawn into a classic tit-for-tat battle, with a character played by James Finlayson, that eventually destroys his house and their car. Big Business was added to the United States National Film Registry as a national treasure in 1992.

Sound films

In 1929 the silent era of film was coming to an end. Many silent-film actors failed to make the transition to "talkies"—some, because they felt sound was irrelevant to their craft of conveying stories with body language; and others, because their spoken voices were considered inadequate for the new medium. However, the addition of spoken dialogue only enhanced Laurel's and Hardy's performances; both had extensive theatrical experience, and could use their voices to great comic effect. Their films also continued to feature much visual comedy. In these ways, they made a seamless transition to their first sound film, Unaccustomed As We Are (1929) (whose title was a play on the familiar phrase, "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking"). In the opening dialogue, Laurel and Hardy began by spoofing the slow and self-conscious speech of the early talking actors which became a routine they would use regularly.

The Music Box (1932), with the pair delivering a piano up a long flight of steps, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject. The Music Box remains one of the duo's most widely known films.

Laurel and Hardy were favorites around the world, and Hal Roach catered to international audiences by filming many of their early talkies in other languages. They spoke their dialogue phonetically, in Spanish, Italian, French, or German. The plots remained similar to the English versions, although the supporting actors were often changed to those who were fluent in the native language. Pardon Us (1931) was reshot in all four foreign languages. Blotto, Hog Wild and Be Big! were remade in French and Spanish versions. Night Owls was remade in both Spanish and Italian, and Below Zero and Chickens Come Home in Spanish.

Feature films

Just as Laurel and Hardy's teaming was accidental, so was their entry into the field of feature films. In the words of biographer John McCabe, "Roach planned to use the MGM set [built for The Big House] for a simple prison-break two-reeler but MGM suddenly added a proviso: Laurel and Hardy would have to do a picture for them in exchange. Roach would not agree so he built his own prison set, a very expensive item for a two-reeler. So expensive was it indeed that he added four more reels to bring it into the feature category and, it was hoped, the bigger market." The experiment was successful, and the team continued to make features along with their established short subjects until 1935, when they converted to features exclusively.

Sons of the Desert (1933) is often cited as Laurel and Hardy's best feature-length film. The situation-comedy script by actor-playwright Frank Craven and screenwriter Byron Morgan is stronger than usual for a Laurel & Hardy comedy. Stan and Ollie are henpecked husbands who want to attend a convention held by the Sons of the Desert fraternal lodge. They tell their wives that Ollie requires an ocean voyage to Honolulu for his health, and they sneak off to the convention. They are unaware that the Honolulu-bound ship they were supposedly aboard is sinking, and the wives confront their errant husbands when they get home.

Babes in Toyland (1934) remains a perennial on American television during the Christmas season. When interviewed, Hal Roach spoke scathingly about the film and Laurel's behavior. Roach himself had written a treatment detailing the characters and storyline, only to find that Laurel considered Roach's effort totally unsuitable. Roach, affronted, tried to argue in favor of his treatment, but Laurel was adamant. Roach angrily gave up and allowed Laurel to make the film his way. The rift damaged Roach-Laurel relations to the point that Roach said that after Toyland, he didn't want to produce for Laurel and Hardy. Although their association continued for another six years, Roach no longer took an active hand in Laurel and Hardy films.

Way Out West (1937) was a personal favorite of both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. A satire of the Gene Autry musical westerns sweeping America at the time, the film combines Laurel and Hardy's slapstick routines with songs and dances performed by the stars.

It appeared that the team would split permanently in 1938. Hal Roach had become dissatisfied with his distribution arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and had begun releasing his films through United Artists. He still owed MGM one last feature, and made the Laurel and Hardy comedy Block-Heads, with the announcement that this would be Laurel and Hardy's farewell film. Stan Laurel's contract with Roach then expired, and Roach did not renew it. Oliver Hardy's contract was still in force, however, and Roach starred Hardy solo in the antebellum comedy Zenobia (1939), with Harry Langdon as Hardy's comic foil. This fueled rumors that Laurel and Hardy had split on bad terms.

After Zenobia, Laurel rejoined Hardy and the team signed with independent producer Boris Morros for the comedy feature The Flying Deuces (1939). Meanwhile, Hal Roach wanted to demonstrate his new idea of making four-reel, 40-minute featurettes—twice the length of standard two-reel, 20-minute comedies—which Roach felt could fit more conveniently into double-feature programs. He referred to these extended films as "streamliners". To test his theory, Roach rehired Laurel and Hardy. The resulting films, A Chump at Oxford and Saps at Sea (both 1940), were prepared as featurettes. United Artists overruled Roach and insisted that they be released as full-length features.

Hoping for greater artistic freedom, Laurel and Hardy split with Roach, and signed with 20th Century-Fox in 1941 and MGM in 1942. However, their working conditions were now completely different: they were simply hired actors, relegated to both studios’ B-film units, and not initially allowed to contribute to the scripts or improvise, as they had always done. When their films proved popular, the studios allowed them more input, and they starred in eight features until the end of 1944. These films, while far from their best work, were still very successful. Budgeted between $300,000 and $450,000 each, they earned millions at the box office for Fox and MGM. The Fox films were so profitable that the studio kept making Laurel and Hardy comedies after it discontinued its other "B" series films.

The busy team decided to take a rest during 1946, but 1947 saw their first European tour in 15 years. A film based in the charters of "Robin Hood" was planned during the tour, but not realized. In 1947, Laurel and Hardy famously attended the reopening of the Dungeness loop of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, where they performed improvised routines with a steam locomotive for the benefit of local crowds and dignitaries.

In 1948, on the team's return to America, Laurel was sidelined by illness and temporarily unable to work. He encouraged Hardy to take movie roles on his own. Hardy's friend John Wayne hired him to co-star in The Fighting Kentuckian for Republic Pictures, and Bing Crosby got him a small part in Frank Capra's Riding High.

In 1950–51, Laurel and Hardy made their final feature-length film together, Atoll K. A French-Italian co-production directed by Léo Joannon, it was plagued by problems with language barriers, production issues, and both actors' serious health issues. When Laurel received the script's final draft, he felt its heavy political content overshadowed the comedy. He quickly rewrote it, with screen comic Monte Collins contributing visual gags, and hired old friend Alfred Goulding to direct the Laurel and Hardy scenes. During filming, Hardy developed an irregular heartbeat, while Laurel experienced painful prostate complications that caused his weight to drop to 114 pounds. Critics were disappointed with the storyline, English dubbing, and Laurel's sickly physical appearance. The film was not commercially successful on its first release, and brought an end to Laurel and Hardy's film careers. Atoll K did finally turn a profit when it was rereleased in other countries. In 1954, an American distributor removed 18 minutes of footage and released it as Utopia; widely released on film and video, it is the film's best-known version.

After Atoll K wrapped in April 1951, Laurel and Hardy returned to America and used the remainder of the year to rest. Stan appeared, in character, in a silent TV newsreel, Swim Meet, judging a local California swimming contest.

Most Laurel and Hardy films have survived and are still in circulation. Only three of their 107 films are considered lost and have not been seen in complete form since the 1930s. The silent film Hats Off from 1927 has vanished completely. The first half of Now I'll Tell One (1927) is lost, and the second half has yet to be released on video. The Battle of the Century (1927), after years of obscurity, is now almost complete but a few minutes are missing. In the 1930 operatic Technicolor musical The Rogue Song, Laurel and Hardy appeared as comedy relief in 10 sequences; only one exists. The complete soundtrack has survived.

Radio

Laurel and Hardy made at least two audition recordings for radio, a half-hour NBC series, based on the skit, Driver’s License, and a 1944 NBC pilot for "The Laurel and Hardy Show," casting Stan and Ollie in different occupations each episode. The surviving audition record, "Mr. Slater's Poultry Market," has Stan and Ollie as meat-market butchers mistaken for vicious gangsters. A third attempt was commissioned by BBC Radio in 1953: "Laurel and Hardy Go to the Moon," a series of science-fiction comedies. A sample script was written by Tony Hawes and Denis Gifford, and the comedians staged a read-through, which was not recorded. The team was forced to withdraw due to Hardy's declining health, and the project was abandoned.

Final years

Following the making of Atoll K, Laurel and Hardy took some months off to deal with health issues. On their return to the European stage in 1952, they undertook a well-received series of public appearances, performing a short Laurel-written sketch, "A Spot of Trouble". The following year, Laurel wrote a routine entitled "Birds of a Feather". On September 9, 1953, their boat arrived in Cobh in Ireland. Laurel recounted their reception:

The love and affection we found that day at Cobh was simply unbelievable. There were hundreds of boats blowing whistles and mobs and mobs of people screaming on the docks. We just couldn't understand what it was all about. And then something happened that I can never forget. All the church bells in Cobh started to ring out our theme song "Dance of the Cuckoos" and Babe (Oliver Hardy) looked at me and we cried. I'll never forget that day. Never.

On May 17, 1954, Laurel and Hardy made their last live stage performance in Plymouth, UK at the Palace Theatre. On December 1, 1954, they made their only American television appearance when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. Lured to the Knickerbocker Hotel under the pretense of a business meeting with producer Bernard Delfont, the doors opened to their suite, #205, flooding the room with light and Edwards' voice. The telecast was preserved on a kinescope and later released on home video. Partly due to the broadcast's positive response, the team began renegotiating with Hal Roach Jr. for a series of color NBC Television specials, to be called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables. However, the plans had to be shelved as the aging comedians continued to suffer from declining health. In 1955, America's magazine TV Guide ran a color spread on the team with current photos. That year, they made their final public appearance together while taking part in This Is Music Hall, a BBC Television program about the Grand Order of Water Rats, a British variety organization. Laurel and Hardy provided a filmed insert where they reminisced about their friends in British variety. They made their final appearance on camera in 1956 in a private home movie, shot by a family friend at the Reseda, California home of Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois. The three-minute film has no audio.

In 1956, while following his doctor's orders to improve his health due to a heart condition, Hardy lost over 100 pounds (45 kg; 7.1 st), but nonetheless suffered several strokes causing reduced mobility and speech. Despite his long and successful career, Hardy's home was sold to help cover his medical expenses. He died of a stroke on August 7, 1957, and longtime friend Bob Chatterton said Hardy weighed just 138 pounds (63 kg; 9.9 st) at the time of his death. Hardy was laid to rest at Pierce Brothers' Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood. Following Hardy's death, scenes from Laurel and Hardy's early films were seen once again in theaters, featured in Robert Youngson's silent-film compilation The Golden Age of Comedy.

For the remaining eight years of his life, Stan Laurel refused to perform, and declined Stanley Kramer's offer of a cameo in his landmark 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In 1960, Laurel was given a special Academy Award for his contributions to film comedy, but was unable to attend the ceremony due to poor health. Actor Danny Kaye accepted the award on his behalf. Despite not appearing on screen after Hardy's death, Laurel did contribute gags to several comedy filmmakers. His favorite TV comedy was Leonard B. Stern's I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, co-starring John Astin and Marty Ingels as carpenters. Laurel enjoyed the Astin-Ingels chemistry and sent two-man gags to Stern.

During this period, most of his communication was in the form of written correspondence, and he insisted on personally answering every fan letter. Late in life, he welcomed visitors from the new generation of comedians and celebrities, including Dick Cavett, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, Marcel Marceau, Johnny Carson, and Dick Van Dyke. Jerry Lewis offered Laurel a job as consultant, but he chose to help only on Lewis's 1960 feature The Bellboy.[citation needed]

Dick Van Dyke was a longtime fan, and based his comedy and dancing styles on Laurel's. When he discovered Laurel's home number in the phone book and called him, Laurel invited him over for the afternoon. Van Dyke hosted a television tribute to Stan Laurel the year he died.

Laurel lived to see the duo's work rediscovered through television and classic film revivals. He died on February 23, 1965, in Santa Monica and is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.

Supporting cast members

Laurel and Hardy's films included a supporting cast of comic actors, some of whom appeared regularly:

Harry Bernard (former vaudeville partner of Charley Chase) played supporting roles as a waiter, bartender, or policeman.

Mae Busch often played the formidable Mrs. Hardy and other characters, particularly sultry femmes fatales.

Charley Chase, the Hal Roach film star and brother of James Parrott, a writer/director of several Laurel and Hardy films, made four appearances.

Dorothy Coburn appeared in nearly a dozen early silent shorts.

Baldwin Cooke (former vaudeville partner of Stan Laurel) played supporting roles as a waiter, colleague, or neighbor.

Richard Cramer appeared as a scowling, menacing villain or opponent.

Peter Cushing, well before becoming a star in Hammer Horror films, played one of the students in A Chump at Oxford.

Bobby Dunn appeared as a cross-eyed bartender and telegram messenger, as well as the genial shoplifter in Tit for Tat.

Eddie Dunn made several appearances, notably as the belligerent taxi driver in Me and My Pal.

James Finlayson, a balding, mustachioed Scotsman known for displays of indignation and squinting, pop-eyed "double takes," made 33 appearances and is perhaps their most celebrated foil.

Anita Garvin appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy films, often cast as Mrs. Laurel.

Billy Gilbert made many appearances, most notably as bombastic, blustery characters such as those in The Music Box (1932) and Block-Heads.

Charlie Hall, who usually played angry, diminutive adversaries, appeared nearly 50 times.

Jean Harlow had a small role in the silent short Double Whoopee (1929) and two other films in the early part of her career.

Arthur Housman made several appearances as a comic drunk.

Isabelle Keith was the only actress to appear as wife to both Laurel and Hardy (in Perfect Day and Be Big!, respectively).

Edgar Kennedy, master of the "slow burn," often appeared as a cop, a hostile neighbor, or a relative.

Walter Long played grizzled, unshaven, physically threatening villains.

Sam Lufkin appeared several times, usually as a husky authority figure.

Charles Middleton made a handful of appearances, usually as a sourpuss adversary.

James C. Morton appeared as a bartender or exasperated policeman.

Vivien Oakland appeared in several early silent films, and later talkies including Scram! and Way Out West.

Blanche Payson, a former policewoman, was featured in several sound shorts, including Oliver's formidable wife in Helpmates.

Daphne Pollard was featured as Oliver's diminutive but daunting wife.

Viola Richard appeared in several early silent films, most notably as the beautiful cave girl in Flying Elephants (1928).

Charley Rogers, an English actor and gag writer, appeared several times.

Tiny Sandford was a tall, burly, physically imposing character actor who played authority figures, usually policemen.

Thelma Todd appeared several times before her own career as a comic leading lady.

Ben Turpin, the cross-eyed Mack Sennett comedy star, made two memorable appearances.

Ellinor Vanderveer made many appearances as a dowager, high society matron, or posh party guest.

Music

The duo's famous signature tune, known variously as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku" or "The Dance of the Cuckoos", was composed by Roach musical director Marvin Hatley as the on-the-hour chime for KFVD, the Roach studio's radio station. Laurel heard the tune on the station and asked Hatley if they could use it as the Laurel and Hardy theme song. The original theme, recorded by two clarinets in 1930, was recorded again with a full orchestra in 1935. Leroy Shield composed the majority of the music used in the Laurel and Hardy short sound films. A compilation of songs from their films, titled Trail of the Lonesome Pine, was released in 1975. The title track was released as a single in the UK and reached #2 in the charts.

Influence and legacy

Laurel and Hardy's influence over a very broad range of comedy and other genres has been considerable. Lou Costello of the famed duo of Abbott and Costello, stated "They were the funniest comedy team in the world." Most critics and film scholars throughout the years have agreed with this assessment; writers, artists, and performers as diverse as Samuel Beckett, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, Marcel Marceau Steve Martin, John Cleese, Harold Pinter, Alec Guinness, J. D. Salinger, René Magritte and Kurt Vonnegut among many others, have acknowledged an artistic debt. Starting in the 1960s, the exposure on television of (especially) their short films has ensured a continued influence on generations of comedians and fans.

Posthumous revivals and popular culture

Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been released again in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals (broadcast, especially public television and cable), 16 mm and 8 mm home movies, feature-film compilations and home video. After Stan Laurel's death in 1965, there were two major motion-picture tributes: Laurel and Hardy's Laughing '20s was Robert Youngson's compilation of the team's silent-film highlights, and The Great Race was a large-scale salute to slapstick that director Blake Edwards dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy". For many years the duo were impersonated by Jim MacGeorge (as Laurel) and Chuck McCann (as Hardy) in children's TV shows and television commercials for various products.

Numerous colorized versions of Laurel and Hardy features and shorts have been reproduced by several studios. The process was introduced in 1983 by Colorization, Inc. in partnership with Hal Roach Studios, then a Canadian concern licensing its name and films from Hal Roach. Early efforts were the famous Laurel & Hardy films Helpmates, Way Out West, and The Music Box, which were released to television and issued on VHS videocassettes. Most of the Laurel & Hardy sound shorts were ultimately colorized for distribution in Europe; The pixel-based color process and the conversion from the American NTSC system to the European PAL system often affected the sharpness of the image, so since 2011 video distributors have issued the original, more accurately rendered black-and-white editions.

There are three Laurel and Hardy museums. One is in Laurel's birthplace of Ulverston, England and another is in Hardy's birthplace of Harlem, Georgia, United States. The third is located in Solingen, Germany. Maurice Sendak showed three identical Oliver Hardy figures as bakers preparing cakes for the morning in his award-winning 1970 children's book In the Night Kitchen. This is treated as a clear example of "interpretative illustration" wherein the comedians' inclusion harked back to the author's childhood. The Beatles used cut-outs of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the cutout celebrity crowd for the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A 2005 poll by fellow comedians and comedy insiders of the top 50 comedians for The Comedian's Comedian, a TV documentary broadcast on UK's Channel 4, voted the duo the seventh-greatest comedy act ever, making them the top double act on the list.

Merchandiser Larry Harmon claimed ownership of Laurel's and Hardy's likenesses and has issued Laurel and Hardy toys and coloring books. He also co-produced a series of Laurel and Hardy cartoons in 1966 with Hanna-Barbera Productions. His animated versions of Laurel and Hardy guest-starred in a 1972 episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies. In 1999, Harmon produced a direct-to-video feature live-action comedy entitled The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in For Love or Mummy. Actors Bronson Pinchot and Gailard Sartain were cast playing the lookalike nephews of Laurel and Hardy named Stanley Thinneus Laurel and Oliver Fatteus Hardy.

Currently, the North American rights to a majority of the Laurel & Hardy library are owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, successor-in-interest to the companies that previously held such rights (Cabin Fever, RHI, Hallmark, and Sonar), while the CCA owns international rights, and Larry Harmon's estate owns the likenesses and trademarks to Laurel & Hardy.

The Indian comedy duo Ghory and Dixit was known as the Indian Laurel and Hardy. In 2011 the German/French TV station Arte released in co-production with the German TV station ZDF the 90-minute documentary Laurel & Hardy: Their Lives and Magic. The film, titled in the original German Laurel and Hardy: Die komische Liebesgeschichte von "Dick & Doof", was written and directed by German film-maker Andreas Baum. It includes many movie clips, rare and unpublished photographs, interviews with family, fans, friends, showbiz pals and newly recovered footage. Laurel's daughter Lois Laurel Hawes said of the film: "The best documentary about Laurel and Hardy I have ever seen!". It has also been released as a Director's Cut with a length of 105 minutes, plus 70 minutes of bonus materials on DVD.

Appreciation society

Main article: The Sons of the Desert

The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as The Sons of the Desert, after a fraternal society in their film of the same name (1933). It was established in New York City in 1965 by Laurel and Hardy biographer John McCabe, with Orson Bean, Al Kilgore, Chuck McCann, and John Municino as founding members, with the sanction of Stan Laurel. Since the group's inception, well over 150 chapters of the organization have formed across North America, Europe, and Australia. An Emmy-winning film documentary about the group, Revenge of the Sons of the Desert, has been released on DVD as part of The Laurel and Hardy Collection, Vol. 1.

Around the world

Laurel and Hardy are popular around the world but are known under different names in various countries and languages.

CountryNickname

Poland"Flip i Flap" (Flip and Flap)

Germany"Dick und Doof" (Fat and Dumb)

Brazil"O Gordo e o Magro" (The Fat One and the Skinny One)

Sweden"Helan och Halvan" (The Whole and the Half)

Norway"Helan og Halvan" (The Whole and the Half)

Spanish-speaking countries"El Gordo y el Flaco" (The Fat One and the Skinny One)

Italy"Stanlio e Ollio" also as "Cric e Croc" up to the 1970s

Hungary"Stan és Pan" (Stan and Pan)

Romania"Stan și Bran" (Stan and Bran)

The Netherlands, Flemish Belgium"Laurel en Hardy", "Stan en Ollie", "De Dikke en de Dunne" (The Fat [One] and the Skinny [One])

Denmark"Gøg og Gokke" (Roughly translates to Wacky and Pompous)

Portugal"O Bucha e o Estica" (The Fat One and the Skinny One)

Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro"Stanlio i Olio" (Cyrillic: Станлио и Олио)

Slovenia"Stan in Olio"

Greece"Hondros kai Lignos" (Χοντρός και Λιγνός) (Fat and Skinny)

India (Marathi)"जाड्या आणि रड्या" (Fatso and the Crybaby)

India (Punjabi)"Moota Paatla" (Laurel and Hardy) (Fat and Skinny)

India (Telugu)"Lamboo Jamboo" (లంబూ జంబూ) (Laurel and Hardy) (Fat and Skinny)

FinlandOhukainen ja Paksukainen (Thin one and Thick one)

Iceland"Steini og Olli"

Israel"השמן והרזה" (ha-Shamen ve ha-Raze, The Fat and the Skinny)

Vietnam (South)"Mập – Ốm" (The Fat and the Skinny)

Korea (South)"뚱뚱이와 홀쭉이" (The Fat and the Skinny)

Malta"L-Oħxon u l-Irqiq" ("The Fat and the Thin One")

Thailand"อ้วนผอมจอมยุ่ง" ("The Clumsy Fat and Thin")

Biopic

A biographical film titled Stan & Ollie directed by Jon S. Baird and starring Steve Coogan as Stan and John C. Reilly as Oliver was released in 2018 and chronicled the duo's 1953 tour of Great Britain and Ireland. The film received positive reviews from critics, garnering a 94% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For their performances, Reilly and Coogan were nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award respectively.

British postcard by Film-Kurier, London, no. 22. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Momo is always easygoing.

Bessaflex TM x Konishiroku Hexar 3.5/75 Enlarger x Fujicolor C200

She's a Maine Coon cat, the biggest in the house & has a very sweet and easygoing personality.

Sweatpants, hair in my face, flip-flops and sitting in the dirt with my balloons...... this is my end-of-summer don't care self, because sometimes you just need to soak it all up.....

I have a firm believe that everyone has their own photographic eye, that is the way of seeing things and photographing them. While it is, of course, built from the repertoires of visual culture, it is also your own personal way of translating the sceneries you encounter to images that also contain something of yourself as a photographer. Think of it, for example, as your own visual language that repeats in the undercurrents of your own photography. However, as interesting as it sounds it is also difficult to find – which you definitely know if you have tried to search it – and one of the biggest obstacle against finding your own photographic eye is to photograph routinely. It is so easy to fall into habit of using same visual motifs again and again (been there, done that and trying to escape it all the time) and so difficult to challenge them by daily basis.

Here is one simple way how to resist the 'routine photography'. This one often works brilliantly with prime lenses but I don't see why one couldn't use a zoom lens too if he just decides in advance what focal length he is going to use (creative limits are important here). So, what I sometimes do when I find a photographically interesting place is that I decide, in advance, what prime lens I'm going to use to shoot that place. The place might call, for example, for a 50 mm lens, but I might choose something else on purpose just to make things more interesting. Or some days I just feel like using some particular lens so I decide to go with that one. The focal length you choose will of course define your approach, but it will not be determined by it because this technique will force you to be creative.

Then I define the limits of that place. For example, if it is a train tunnel I decide that I will not leave tunnel in the search for better images, instead I give myself a time limit, an hour for example, in which I have to use on that particular place and try to come up with one interesting shot. What usually happens that within the first ten minutes I have already taken the shots that come to mind routinely and by a habit. Once I've taken them my mind will naturally open up for different kind of shots as it is no point in repeating the ones that I've already taken and which I had in my mind when I came that particular space in the first place. Now here is where the real photographic exploration begins as I've emptied my mind from any pre-thoughts and I actually have to face that sometimes an unpleasant feeling that I don't have an idea how to shoot the place interestingly. This kind of position forces you to try out different things and searching for different angles, ideas and interpretations. Maybe you find that framing the place with something from the scenery is actually more interesting than your first ideas. Or maybe you end up capturing just some interesting detail of the place rather than representing it as a whole. However you end up solving the problem (and it might turn out that you find the best picture only later on when sitting on a computer) it is pretty much guaranteed that your solution most likely exceeds the ideas you had in the first place – and by doing so it will also represent your own photographic eye better than any standard visual imagery which often kicks in when you enter into these photographically interesting places.

This is also the kind of exercise that will eventually be very enjoyable experience if you just give yourself that half an hour or an hour just to explore without any artistic pressure. Of course not every place turns out to be interesting after an hour, but once you find your own way of interpreting the place it will give you great pleasure to step out of that standard visual imagery. I often find that especially the Loxias are perfect for this kind of easygoing photography as manual focusing each shot individually kind of supports this kind of thoughtful exploration. No 'beep-and-click' like with autofocus, but taking your time for each shot and having important pauses after each shot giving room to new ideas which will emerge into your mind. Try it, highly recommended!

Days of Zeiss: www.daysofzeiss.com

Hi there, my name is Jinsei.

Let me try to describe myself... or at least, what I know about myself: I'd say that I'm a rather complicated person. But after all, aren't we all complicated?

I'm an easygoing person, unless you say or do something that's against my principles. I can't stand prejudices, about emo/goth/other scene's, race, background or whatever. I hate drunks and droggies.

If you want my honest opinion, I'll give it to you, no exceptions. I'm not a backstabber, I always speak my mind.

I don't love going out when you're speaking of discotheques or ordinairy parties. What I prefer are gigs and festivals. Because, even though I'm a girl, I do love mushpits, crowdsurfing en stagediving.

Strangely enough, I am afraid of the dark. So after a concert, there always has to be someone to walk me home. I'm working on this though.

Oh, and I'm the kind of person that still actully BUYS CD's and LP's. That's not being stupid, it's just a matter of respect. All those bands make the effort to provide us with good music, put all there time and energy in it... than it's only fair to give them the money they earn.

French postcard, no. 30. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

American postcard by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, no. 9268. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art / Film Stills Archive. Caption: Publicity shot of Mae West, 1934.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Just a bunch of random shots.

Interesting how much more easygoing Daisy has become regarding my public picture taking. I wouldn't say she's exactly loving it....but at least she doesn't flip out over it anymore. 😉

Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Tom loves to squeeze himself into the smallest box he can find !

5/3/08: Our Tom has been missing since 2/16/08. He was a sweet cat with a friendly, easygoing disposition, and is much missed !

French postcard by EC, no. 14.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

In the island of Lombok, there is one version of the horse-drawn cart called the cidomo which is unique for it uses car wheels instead of the usual wooden spoked wheels. Cidomo is a contraction from three words:

CI, for cikar, a traditional handcart

DO, for dokar, a pony cart

MO, for mobil, or sometimes montor, the car

The cidomo is an easygoing and charming way to get around just about everywhere in Lombok. Think of bells chiming with the gallops, bright painted patterns competing with yarn bonbons and tassels, and well, some malodorous poop dropping here and there. This is what local color (or smell) should be- raw, earthy and memorable.

read more on the cidomo in colloidfarl.blogspot.com/

Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia

.… The "Master of Field" is the name of this carnival representation of Mezzojuso, it take the name from the principal character of this love story ….

.… Il "Mastro di Campo", questo il nome della rappresentazione carnascialesca di Mezzojuso, è il personaggio dal quale prende il nome questa storia d'amore ....

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the slideshow

Qi Bo's photos on Fluidr

Qi Bo's photos on Flickriver

Qi Bo's photos on FlickeFlu

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Mastro di campo Geo&Geo Mezzojuso

Mezzojuso & il Mastro di Campo RAI3 tgregione 19.2.1998

Mezzojuso - Piccola Grande Italia

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Domenico Modugno -Cantastorie

Domenico Modugno e Delia Scala in Rinaldo in campo di Garinei e Giovannini

Modugno e Delia Scala, duetto Si o No

Domenico Modugno - Notte Chiara

Tre Somari E Tre Briganti - Domenico Modugno

Domenico Modugno - Se Dio vorrà

Domenico Modugno - Calatafimi

Domenico Modugno -La Pizzica

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Mezzojuso was built by the Albanians, Arbëreshëc, mostly military people established near an uninhabited house, during the migration of Albanians in Italy; on1501 they came from Albania and they had brought with them their language, customs and the Orthodox rite. From 2 to 4 August 1862 Mezzojuso welcomes Garibaldi: this is to reconnect this long and short at the same time my report, to some passages of this feast: the characteristic carnival of Mezzojuso. The "Master of Field" is the name of this carnival representation and it take the name from the principal character: this is a love story, albeit in key easygoing, which contains the re-enactment of the assault the Count of Modica made to the Castle to capture the White Queen of Navarra. The representation begins with the arrival of the royal procession, made up of the King, the Queen, by the dignitaries of the Court, from the Dame, the Secretary, by guards and by the Moors, and the "Master of Home" soul procession . Performed a dance in the square, the group go up on a stage (which is the castle); after inside the "castle" begins a dance party; therefore appear masks tied to tradition, u Rimitu, the Wizards, the gardener; comes the Master of Field, wearing a red wax mask with a hooked nose and prominent lower lip, a white shirt full of colored ribbons, pants and red coat, he squirms and shake, with his left arm to the side and in the right arm he brings a short wooden sword. Appear numerous characters, the Drummer, the Ambassador, Garibaldi and his Boys, the Captain of Artillery, the Baron and Baroness on two donkeys, followed by their men on horses and mules loaded with firewood, trunks, various paraphernalia for manufacturing cheese, so the gardener, with laurel wreaths, then the Cavalry, formed by a dozen knights who throw sweets over the spectators.The "Foforio" kidnap the wealthy and releases them after paying a small ransom (in return will be able to eat and drink at will). There are Magicians who go in search of "Treasure" and they finally found it: a bedpan full of macaroni and sausage, shouting "forio forio maccarrunario" eat them with their hands. The war rages, with Garibaldi and his Boys clashes against the Saracens (with imaginative alienation of historical periods); The Master of Field goes up on the scale that leads to the castle, meets with the King that hurts him on the head, and he falls backward (from a good height ...) to be taken from the boys that in the meantime they were prepared under the stairs; But the Master of Field is not dead and he healed his wounds, he with army of Garibaldi climb stealthily for "fake scale" and, taking advantage of the moment of confusion, they surrounding the Court and bind the King: the Field of Master removes the mask, finally embracing the Queen, managing to crown their secret dream of love, and so ends the great feast of Mezzojuso, with the procession that will march in the streets the country and ... the king in chains....

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Mezzojuso fu costruito dagli albanesi, gli arbëreshë, principalmente militari stabilitisi nelle vicinanze di un casale disabitato, durante la migrazione degli albanesi in Italia; essi provenivano dall'Albania e avevano portato con se lingua, usi e il rito ortodosso, nel 1501 stabilizzarono la loro posizione nella zona. Dal 2 al 4 agosto 1862 Mezzojuso accoglie Garibaldi: questo per ricollegare questo breve incipt su alcuni passaggi di questo report, lungo e breve al tempo stesso, sul caratteristico carnevale di Mezzojuso, unico nel suo genere. Il "Mastro di Campo", questo il nome della rappresentazione carnascialesca, è il personaggio dal quale prende il nome questa storia d'amore, seppur in chiave scanzonata, che racchiude in sè la rievocazione dell'assalto che il Conte di Modica fece al Castello per conquistare la regina Bianca di Navarra. La rappresentazione inizia con l'arrivo del corteo reale, composto dal Re, dalla Regina, dai Dignitari di Corte, dalle Dame, dal Segretario, dall’Artificiere, da alcune guardie e dai Mori, mentre Il "Mastru ri Casa" anima il corteo. Eseguita una danza nella piazza, il gruppo sale su un palco che ne rappresenta il castello, e subito dopo sul "castello" ha inizio una festa danzante; appaiono quindi le maschere legate alla tradizione, u Rimitu, i Maghi, le Giardiniere; arriva il Mastro di Campo a cavallo, che indossa una maschera di cera rossa con il naso adunco ed il labbro inferiore prominente, una camicia bianca piena di nastri colorati, pantaloni e mantello rosso: egli si dimena, si agita, con la testa ben alta, il braccio sinistro al fianco e nel destro una piccola spada di legno. Compaiono numerosi personaggi, il Tammurinaru, l’Ambasciatore, Garibaldi con i Garibaldini, il Capitano d’Artiglieria, il Barone e la Baronessa su due asini, seguiti dai loro uomini sopra cavalli e muli carichi di legna, bauli, armamentari vari per la produzione del formaggio, quindi le Giardiniere, con le corone di alloro, infine la Cavalleria, formata da una decina di cavalieri che lanciano sopra gli spettatori confetti a più non posso, mentre nella piazza l'artiglieria spara "colpi di cannone". Il Foforio sequestra i più abbienti e li rilascia dietro il pagamento di un piccolo riscatto (in cambio potranno mangiare e bere a volontà). Ci sono i Maghi che vanno in cerca della "truvatura", scavano ed ecco finalmente la trovano: un cantaru pieno di maccheroni e salsiccia che, al grido di “forio forio maccarrunario”, mangiano con le mani. La guerra impazza, Garibaldi coi Garibaldini si scontra contro i Saraceni (con fantasiosa alienazione dei periodi storici); il Mastro di Campo sale sulla scala che conduce al castello, si scontra con il Re e rimane ferito in fronte, ed ecco che braccia allargate cade all'indietro (da una buona altezza...) per essere preso dai figuranti che nel frattempo si erano preparati sotto la scala; però Il Mastro di Campo non è morto e, guarito dalle ferite, si riporta in piazza con il suo esercito di Garibaldini, quindi salgono furtivamente per la "scala fausa"(un'ingrsso posteriore e nascosto)e, approfittando dell’attimo di confusione, circondano la Corte e incatenano il Re: il Mastro di Campo, tolta la maschera, finalmente abbraccia la Regina, riuscendo a coronare il loro segreto sogno d'amore, e termina così la grande festa di Mezzojuso, col corteo che sfilerà per le strade del paese ed...il re in catene.

American Arcade card. Caption: Sincerely, Mae West.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Not only is the Beagle an excellent hunting dog and loyal companion, it is also happy-go-lucky, funny, and thanks to its pleading expression cute. They were bred to hunt in packs, so they enjoy company and are generally easygoing.

Kohuke is a Toa of Stone, a member of the Toa Toiri who joined the Toa Rangi to help them complete their mission. Tasked with the protection and large-scale maintenance of Le-Metru Moto-Hubs and Chute Stations, Kohuke is an easygoing and friendly Toa. He's always eager to help and provide his insight, and is the "heart" of the Toa Toiri, often serving as a mediator between Tinoro and Kōpera.

He's an experienced hand-to-hand combatant, enhancing his blows with his Crystal Blasters which are capable of creating and shooting pure elemental energy as well as creating crystal and gem-like protodermis formations. His Great Tipu, Mask of Growth, is especially powerful and allows him to have total control of the battlefield.

Mask of Growth by @rothanaki

Symmetrical Flames by Vahki6

Explored 12.25.08 #57

1. i love dragonflies

2. can't spell for crap

3. i am a klutz

4. easygoing

5. love nature

6. love warm weather and where i live

7. flickr addict (who isn't?)

8. my fav colors are lavender and aqua

9. i am addicted to aromatherapy

10. love yoga

11. hate details and reading instructions

12. getting a lotus tatt soon! yay! i am addicted to tattoos, but have only two so far. dont like big ones...on me

13. i did not get along with two of my friends at first...and now we are very close! you cant judge anyone until you get to know them. i love life lessons like this.

14. it drives me crazy when people use these words wrong: There & Their...Too and To...and Here and Hear....I can't spell...but...I know what goes where! AHHH!

15. I have turned into a bokeh addict since joining flickr.

16. I like being spontaneous & I believe in karma!

I am tagging:

aleemsm

Ginger 71

jaroslavd

bob1217

Tracey

Clairey Hairey

i_love_u_get_away_from_me

skwigg

Deneenie

Bennie

Lena

mslori411

emmanuela

www.flickr.com/photos/focus-free/

moczkoś

An easygoing American Robin enjoying lunch.

Part 2 of the GoH Challenge Prologue.

Enjoy!

Feren sighed happily, breathing in the fresh night's air. Nothing like a walk in the night to freshen you up. Feren was taking another one of his nightly walks, pondering the change of leaders in Avalonia. Even though I will miss Lord Varis, Lord Simon is a very good friend of mine, and his loyalty to Avalonia is unquestionable. His leadership skills will prove useful in the coming times, as we will most likely soon learn what the Drow are up to, and what we need to do to defend. As he trudged through the alleyway, next to the tavern, his fine-tuned ears picked up a conversation. Cocking his head to one side, he concentrated on the source. It's coming from the 2nd floor of the tavern, he realized. Flattening himself next to the wall, he debated whether he should climb it, but discarded the idea. If someone walks by, that would be extremely embarrassing to be caught spying on 2 of my citizens. He listened in, and was just in time to hear them talking about their new leader.

~Matthew~

When a man uses profanity to support an argument, it indicates that either the man or the argument is weak - probably both.

Okay, so yeah. I was in a really, really, really ridiculously good mood Friday, as you know. But then tonight, I got into an argument with my best friend. It was over something stupid and trivial too! It was just about men and women. You know, how they flirt and how complicated (uncomplicated) each is. And he took it so personally!

The whole thing started off as me telling him what was on my mind. A boy, "Dan", and my aunt. I kept reliving the horrible week and day of her death. I just couldn't shake it. Then things progressed and we started arguing about men and women. Then he wrote shit about it, which I read, and was upset.

I don't think he knows how upset I got. If he knew, he'd probably think I was weak because I try not to get upset over stuff like that. I'm easy-going. But... I'm not trying to be dramatic. Unless you've gone through what I did that week, you have no idea what it's like to relive it over and over again. I had to stand around and watch someone I love, slowly die in front of me, and there was absolutely nothing I could do. I wanted to say so much, but I thought I had time. Just another thing I did wrong.

Well, anyway. I went to karate too. I took a ton of photos and filled up my last memory card. I need to buy another!!! Like, soon! And my computer yelled at me because I take too many photos, and it couldn't store any more >.< Whoops. I had a good time talking with "Eric" after classes :D

"For argument’s sake let’s pretend we could stop arguing

Over which of us is wrong and why it isn’t you

We’re barely awake before your head’s up in the clouds again

There’s nothing you like more than having nothing much to do

But oh, your smile can seem as far away as once upon a time."

("The Golden Age Of Aviation" by The Lucksmiths) I just saw the first line and was like, BAM, that's it. :D

.... to visit Mezzojuso gives a little bit the feeling of being abroad (while being in Sicily ...) a lively particular feeling; here a portrait of one of its friendly inhabitant ........

.... visitare Mezzojuso dona la sensazione stranissima e vivacissima di trovarsi un po' all'estero, pur stando in Sicilia; qui un ritratto di un suo gentilissimo abitante .........

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the slideshow

Qi Bo's photos on Fluidr

Qi Bo's photos on Flickriver

Qi Bo's photos on FlickeFlu

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Mezzojuso was built by the Albanians, Arbëreshëc, mostly military people established near an uninhabited house, during the migration of Albanians in Italy; on1501 they came from Albania and they had brought with them their language, customs and the Orthodox rite. From 2 to 4 August 1862 Mezzojuso welcomes Garibaldi: this is to reconnect this long and short at the same time my report, to some passages of this feast: the characteristic carnival of Mezzojuso. The "Master of Field" is the name of this carnival representation and it take the name from the principal character: this is a love story, albeit in key easygoing, which contains the re-enactment of the assault the Count of Modica made to the Castle to capture the White Queen of Navarra. The representation begins with the arrival of the royal procession, made up of the King, the Queen, by the dignitaries of the Court, from the Dame, the Secretary, by guards and by the Moors, and the "Master of Home" soul procession . Performed a dance in the square, the group go up on a stage (which is the castle); after inside the "castle" begins a dance party; therefore appear masks tied to tradition, u Rimitu, the Wizards, the gardener; comes the Master of Field, wearing a red wax mask with a hooked nose and prominent lower lip, a white shirt full of colored ribbons, pants and red coat, he squirms and shake, with his left arm to the side and in the right arm he brings a short wooden sword. Appear numerous characters, the Drummer, the Ambassador, Garibaldi and his Boys, the Captain of Artillery, the Baron and Baroness on two donkeys, followed by their men on horses and mules loaded with firewood, trunks, various paraphernalia for manufacturing cheese, so the gardener, with laurel wreaths, then the Cavalry, formed by a dozen knights who throw sweets over the spectators.The "Foforio" kidnap the wealthy and releases them after paying a small ransom (in return will be able to eat and drink at will). There are Magicians who go in search of "Treasure" and they finally found it: a bedpan full of macaroni and sausage, shouting "forio forio maccarrunario" eat them with their hands. The war rages, with Garibaldi and his Boys clashes against the Saracens (with imaginative alienation of historical periods); The Master of Field goes up on the scale that leads to the castle, meets with the King that hurts him on the head, and he falls backward (from a good height ...) to be taken from the boys that in the meantime they were prepared under the stairs; But the Master of Field is not dead and he healed his wounds, he with army of Garibaldi climb stealthily for "fake scale" and, taking advantage of the moment of confusion, they surrounding the Court and bind the King: the Field of Master removes the mask, finally embracing the Queen, managing to crown their secret dream of love, and so ends the great feast of Mezzojuso, with the procession that will march in the streets the country and ... the king in chains....

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Mezzojuso fu costruito dagli albanesi, gli arbëreshë, principalmente militari stabilitisi nelle vicinanze di un casale disabitato, durante la migrazione degli albanesi in Italia; essi provenivano dall'Albania e avevano portato con se lingua, usi e il rito ortodosso, nel 1501 stabilizzarono la loro posizione nella zona. Dal 2 al 4 agosto 1862 Mezzojuso accoglie Garibaldi: questo per ricollegare questo breve incipt su alcuni passaggi di questo report, lungo e breve al tempo stesso, sul caratteristico carnevale di Mezzojuso, unico nel suo genere. Il "Mastro di Campo", questo il nome della rappresentazione carnascialesca, è il personaggio dal quale prende il nome questa storia d'amore, seppur in chiave scanzonata, che racchiude in sè la rievocazione dell'assalto che il Conte di Modica fece al Castello per conquistare la regina Bianca di Navarra. La rappresentazione inizia con l'arrivo del corteo reale, composto dal Re, dalla Regina, dai Dignitari di Corte, dalle Dame, dal Segretario, dall’Artificiere, da alcune guardie e dai Mori, mentre Il "Mastru ri Casa" anima il corteo. Eseguita una danza nella piazza, il gruppo sale su un palco che ne rappresenta il castello, e subito dopo sul "castello" ha inizio una festa danzante; appaiono quindi le maschere legate alla tradizione, u Rimitu, i Maghi, le Giardiniere; arriva il Mastro di Campo a cavallo, che indossa una maschera di cera rossa con il naso adunco ed il labbro inferiore prominente, una camicia bianca piena di nastri colorati, pantaloni e mantello rosso: egli si dimena, si agita, con la testa ben alta, il braccio sinistro al fianco e nel destro una piccola spada di legno. Compaiono numerosi personaggi, il Tammurinaru, l’Ambasciatore, Garibaldi con i Garibaldini, il Capitano d’Artiglieria, il Barone e la Baronessa su due asini, seguiti dai loro uomini sopra cavalli e muli carichi di legna, bauli, armamentari vari per la produzione del formaggio, quindi le Giardiniere, con le corone di alloro, infine la Cavalleria, formata da una decina di cavalieri che lanciano sopra gli spettatori confetti a più non posso, mentre nella piazza l'artiglieria spara "colpi di cannone". Il Foforio sequestra i più abbienti e li rilascia dietro il pagamento di un piccolo riscatto (in cambio potranno mangiare e bere a volontà). Ci sono i Maghi che vanno in cerca della "truvatura", scavano ed ecco finalmente la trovano: un cantaru pieno di maccheroni e salsiccia che, al grido di “forio forio maccarrunario”, mangiano con le mani. La guerra impazza, Garibaldi coi Garibaldini si scontra contro i Saraceni (con fantasiosa alienazione dei periodi storici); il Mastro di Campo sale sulla scala che conduce al castello, si scontra con il Re e rimane ferito in fronte, ed ecco che braccia allargate cade all'indietro (da una buona altezza...) per essere preso dai figuranti che nel frattempo si erano preparati sotto la scala; però Il Mastro di Campo non è morto e, guarito dalle ferite, si riporta in piazza con il suo esercito di Garibaldini, quindi salgono furtivamente per la "scala fausa"(un'ingrsso posteriore e nascosto)e, approfittando dell’attimo di confusione, circondano la Corte e incatenano il Re: il Mastro di Campo, tolta la maschera, finalmente abbraccia la Regina, riuscendo a coronare il loro segreto sogno d'amore, e termina così la grande festa di Mezzojuso, col corteo che sfilerà per le strade del paese ed...il re in catene.

Jim is Heather's S/O. Jim, was an easygoing, genuinely nice fellow. I could see why Heather and the girls really took to him.

Jim was the consummate father figure doing a command performance for Heather and the girls day of doing a family photo shoot.

I've been there. Actually, it's pretty easy duty . . . accept you can't get out of it. Just follow the directions of the three females 'til it's over. No thinking or planning required.

I wanted to post a tryptich of three different takes on the editing. I did one in which I blacked out the entire background so it looks like a pair of hands are holding a detached head. I may post it,. . . it really looks kind of creepy, especially with the smile on his face.

Not only is the Beagle an excellent hunting dog and loyal companion, it is also happy-go-lucky, funny, and thanks to its pleading expression cute. They were bred to hunt in packs, so they enjoy company and are generally easygoing.

Hi there, my name is Jinsei.

Let me try to describe myself... or at least, what I know about myself: I'd say that I'm a rather complicated person. But after all, aren't we all complicated?

I'm an easygoing person, unless you say or do something that's against my principles. I can't stand prejudices, about emo/goth/other scene's, race, background or whatever. I hate drunks and droggies.

If you want my honest opinion, I'll give it to you, no exceptions. I'm not a backstabber, I always speak my mind.

I don't love going out when you're speaking of discotheques or ordinairy parties. What I prefer are gigs and festivals. Because, even though I'm a girl, I do love mushpits, crowdsurfing en stagediving.

Strangely enough, I am afraid of the dark. So after a concert, there always has to be someone to walk me home. I'm working on this though.

Oh, and I'm the kind of person that still actully BUYS CD's and LP's. That's not being stupid, it's just a matter of respect. All those bands make the effort to provide us with good music, put all there time and energy in it... than it's only fair to give them the money they earn.

August 5, 2016. ©Copyright 2016 Karlton Huber Photography - all rights reserved.

Exploring Round Valley after a two year hiatus. I was hoping to return to this beautiful area with fresh eyes and a open mind. But, when the Good Lord throws scenes like this in your lap you just roll with it.

Little did I know that this was the early stages of what turned out to be a monster thunderstorm.

I was scouting the 5 Bridges Road area just northeast of Bishop looking for new photo opportunities. The sky was partly cloudy to the north which was creating some enjoyable light and relief from the plus 90 degree heat. I had just turned off of the main north/south dirt road (Chalk Bluff Road) on to a small over look of the Owens River when to my surprise it started to sprinkle. Ten seconds later the b-b sized rain drops turned to nickel sized drops and may be another ten seconds later the nickel sized drops turned to a thundering downpour of marble sized hail!

I have never in my life heard or seen hail this large! I said "heard first, because the metallic thundering of hail stones of that size colliding into my SUV's roof, hood and windshield totally held my attention. I sat in total amazement watching and listening to the total chaos going on outside my SUV. The first massive crack of thunder broke me from my trance and brought a new awareness to my mind. For some crazy reason I was now thinking that I had to get out of my vehicle and experience this hailstorm firsthand. So, I opened my door stepped down onto the now muddy ground and moved a few feet away from my vehicle. Within 15 seconds I was nailed three of four times on the top of my head and once in the cheek bone by ice missiles from above. Twenty five seconds after leaving my vehicle I was back inside with the door closed rubbing the top of my head with a new found understanding of why they call them hailstones.

A louder longer and more violent explosion of thunder shuck my vehicle and caused me to flinch in momentary panic. The hail pace quickened - pounding my vehicle and visibility dropped to about 15 feet. Now I was getting a little nervous. I was in the middle of nowhere parked in what was quickly becoming a mud pit. In a place that no one else would most likely be visiting or driving by anytime soon if I should need help. I decided to get back up to the main dirt road.

The "main dirt road" was covered in a shiny layer of hail and looked more like the top of a glacier than a dirt road. I sat there for a minute taking it all in. Shaking my head from side to side and smiling at the same time. What a rush and unexpected turn of events in what had been a very relaxing easygoing day!

Mother Nature is full of surprises!

My first J-doll finally arrived!! I'm sooooo happy :D

Her name is Himawari (but friends call her Hima-chan). She's an easygoing girl who loves cute things, animated characters and reading manga. Two of her best friends are makagas, so Himawari usually know what is going to happen in Japan's most popular shoujos before everyone else. Good thing she's great at keeping secrets! :)

See more of my work and connect with me on my website or Facebook page :)

Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

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When I saw how the lines converged in the background here, I was determined to use it for a portrait - I hadn't planned to wait around on that day necessarily, thinking I could always go back another time - but along came Molly! ;)

Molly is a media studies student at the uni of Westminster who wants to be a screenwriter after completing the course; she has recently finished working on a large scale film project (along with other students) that she wrote and did a lot of the other jobs for (styling, etc). It's about a 11 year old girl who learns about Marxism and starts a rebellion; they had to raise all the funds for the project themselves and it was a challenge so Molly is now thinking about how to next tackle this for her final year project next year.

It was very interesting to hear about her project and I look forward to watching the finished film! Molly was a pleasure to talk to, very easygoing and enthusiastic about her course which was so nice to hear! Best of luck with it all Molly! :)

Jim is Heather's S/O. Jim, was an easygoing, genuinely nice fellow. I could see why Heather and the girls really took to him.

Jim was the consummate father figure doing a command performance for Heather and the girls day of doing a family photo shoot.

I've been there. Actually, it's pretty easy duty . . . accept you can't get out of it. Just follow the directions of the three females 'til it's over. No thinking or planning required.

I wanted to post a tryptich of three different takes on the editing. I did one in which I blacked out the entire background so it looks like a pair of hands are holding a detached head. I may post it,. . . it really looks kind of creepy, especially with the smile on his face.

E52

In recent times many motor manufacturers, particularly those with a significant sporting heritage, have felt the need to reference iconic models from the past when launching their latest. BMW has proved adept at exploiting this 'retro' trend, commencing in 1996 with the Z3 coupé and convertible, the styling of which brilliantly recalled its fabulous '328' sports car of pre-war days. Its next effort along similar lines - the 'Z07' concept car of 1997 - took its inspiration from the post-war Albrecht von Goetz-designed '507', a luxurious limited-edition roadster.

The sensation of the 1997 Tokyo Auto Show, the Z07 was received so enthusiastically that BMW took the decision to press ahead with a production version: the Z8. For the most part the Z8 remained remarkably faithful to the original concept, retaining the 507-like twin-nostril front grille and distinctive front-wing vents. A period-style interior had been one of the Z07's most remarked upon features, and that too made it into the Z8.

The Z8's body panelling and spaceframe chassis were fabricated in lightweight and corrosion resistant aluminium, while the 32-valve 4.941 cc V8 engine, shared with the M5 saloon, was built by BMW's Motorsport division. With 400 bhp on tap, the Z8 raced to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds and only the built-in rev limiter stopped it from exceeding 250km/h (155mph). Power reached the run-flat tyres via a Getrag six-speed manual gearbox. Needless to say, the Z8 also came with all the modern appurtenances one would expect of a flagship model: traction control, stability control, front and side air bags, GPS navigation, climate control and power operation of the seats, steering wheel and convertible hood all being included in the package.

The fact that the Z8 was a low-volume model assembled, for the most part, by hand, enabled BMW to offer customers considerable freedom in personalising their cars. Further enhancing its appeal to collectors, the factory announced that a 50-year stockpile of Z8 parts would be maintained. Despite a (US) launch price of over $ 128.000, initial demand was so high that a bidding war broke out, with many Z8s selling for well in excess of that figure. By the time production ceased at the end of 2002, 5.703 of these fabulous cars had been built.

But that was not quite the end of the Z8 story, for BMW tuning specialist Alpina then introduced its own, even more exclusive version: the Alpina V8 Roadster. Alpina's product was less hard-edged and considerably more refined than the original, being equipped with a 4,8-litre engine from the 5-Series Alpina B10 V8 S and an Alpina-specified ZF five-speed 'Switchtronic' automatic transmission with paddle-shift operation. With a maximum of 375bhp on tap, the Roadster's slightly smaller engine was re-tuned for greater torque at lower revs, which better suited the automatic transmission. Top speed was limited to 161 mph, with 60 mph coming up in 5,0 seconds, only a couple of tenths slower than the original Z8.

The suspension was revised to provide a more supple ride, and the original 18" wheels and run-flat tyres replaced with 20" rims and tyres with taller sidewalls. Re-trimmed in softer Nappa leather, the interior boasted many Alpina-specific touches including the steering wheel, gauges, and gear selection display. As its specification suggests, the Alpina V8 was targeted at the North American market, which took 450 units out of the 555 scheduled for production.

Car & Driver reckoned the car was well suited to its newly acquired persona: 'In fact, some of us, who regard the Z8 more as a design icon than a serious sports car, reckon the Alpina Roadster V8, with its easygoing power delivery and automatic transmission, is what this car should have been all along.'

First registered on 1st September 2004, the limited edition Alpina V8 offered here has had only three owners – all collectors – from new. The first owner, David Michael of Florida, USA kept the car until March 2010 when it passed to a Mr Scholdra Germany. The current vendor purchased the BMW for his private collection in July 2014, by which time it had covered only 17.948 kilometres from new. The current odometer reading is circa 20.000 kilometres.

Superior to those of the original Z8, this car's special features include heated seats; climate control; AM/FM stereo; CD changer; centre-mounted Alpina gauges in blue; xenon headlights with Dynamic Auto-Levelling; hand-stitched Alpina steering wheel with shift buttons and Alpina centre cap; 20" Alpina Dynamic alloy wheels; and a battery charger for when the car is in storage. It has also had over mats fitted since new.

Finished in black with two-tone cream/black leather interior, the car comes complete with hardtop, hardtop cover, hardtop stand, and hardtop stand cover; wind deflector and cover; original tools; front cup holder; phone pack (new in box); original wallet; and the Alpina key pouch containing both numbered keys, chauffeurs key, and plastic key. Accompanying documentation consists of the original US Certificate of Title; original German registration document; German Klassische document (dated 2012) and a current UK V5C registration document and MoT certificate.

Recently serviced by Sytners BMW in the UK, this Z8 Alpina Roadster is in immaculate condition throughout.

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Estimated : € 320.000 - 380.000

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2017

British Real Photograph postcard, no. 68.A. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Dutch postcard, no. 576. Photo: Paramount.

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.

Mary Jane West was born in 1892, in Brooklyn, New York, to Matilda and John West. Family members called her Mae. Her father was a prizefighter known around the Brooklyn area as ‘Battlin' Jack’ West. Later, he worked as a "special policeman" (most likely as muscle for local business and crime bosses) and then as a private detective. Mae began working as an entertainer at age five at a church social. After a few years in stock, she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as ‘The Baby Vamp’. In 1907, 14-year-old West began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Claredon Stock Company. Her mother made all her costumes, drilled her on rehearsals, and managed her bookings and contracts. In 1909, West met Frank Wallace, an up-and-coming vaudeville song-and-dance man. They formed an act and went out on the burlesque circuit. In 1911, she married Frank Wallace. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate and kept the marriage secret from the public and her parents. She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York and the union remained a secret until 1935. In 1911, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, ‘A La Broadway’, a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J.J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of ‘Vera Violetta’, also featuring Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys. West got her big break in 1918 in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, playing opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out. As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast. In 1926 her first play, ‘Sex’, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong". She wrote and directed her second play, ‘Drag’ (1927) about homosexuality. She was an early supporter of gay rights and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. The play was a smash hit during a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, but she was warned by city officials, not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, her play ‘Diamond Lil’ (1928), about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. And, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood.

At Paramount Pictures, Mae West made her film debut in Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932), starring George Raft. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her ‘advanced years’ for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. At first, she balked at her small role in Night After Night but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes. One scene became a sensation. When a coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie". Mae was a hit and later George Raft said of Mae: "She stole everything but the cameras." In her second film, She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), West was able to bring her ‘Diamond Lil’ character to the screen in her first starring film role. Her co-star was newcomer Cary Grant in one of his first major roles. ‘Lil’ was renamed ‘Lady Lou’, and she uttered the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and did tremendously well at the box office. She Done Him Wrong is attributed to saving Paramount from bankruptcy. In her next film, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster and West became the highest-paid woman in the United States. However, her reputation as a provocative sexual figure and the steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups. The new Hays Office had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. In 1934, the organisation began to seriously and meticulously enforce the Production Code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them. West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. Her film Klondike Annie (Raoul Walsh, 1936) with Victor McLaglen, concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. William R. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his newspapers. However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. Throughout the 1930s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man (Henry Hathaway, 1936) and Everyday's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937) — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity. In 1937, she was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres.

In 1939, Mae West was approached by Universal Pictures to star in a film opposite comedian W.C. Fields. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film. Using the same Western genre, she wrote the script for My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Despite tension on the set between West and Fields (she was a teetotaler and he drank), the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. After making The Heat's On (Gregory Ratoff, 1943) for Columbia, she planned to retire from the screen and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theatres. Among her popular stage performances was the title role in ‘Catherine Was Great’ (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an ‘imperial guard’ of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. In 1954, West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention. The show ran for three years and was a great success. With this victory, she felt it was a good time to retire. In 1959, West released her bestselling autobiography, ‘Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It’, recounting her life in show business. She made a few guest appearances on the 1960s television comedy/variety shows like The Red Skelton Show and some situation comedies like Mister Ed. She also recorded a few albums in different genres including rock 'n' roll and a Christmas album which, of course, was more parody and innuendo than a religious celebration. In the 1970s, she appeared in two more films. She had s small part in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), starring Raquel Welch. She starred in Sextette (Ken Hughes, 1978), which she based on her own stage play. Both were box office flops, but are now seen as cult films. In 1980, Mae West died after suffering two strokes in Hollywood and was entombed in Brooklyn, New York. She was 88. Denny Jackson at IMDb: “The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.”

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Biography.com, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

One year after I took the previous images, I was back up on Crawford Hill - again. Of course there had been many times inbetween and this time I must have been working an eastbound that had to stop at the east end of two main tracks at "Rutland." The dozers and buckets have been plenty busy in that year, and if you compare this scene with the one I recorded a year before, it is evident that "Breezy Point" has been altered significantly. The curve was widened out, although it still is a horseshoe, and if you walked straight over that hill above the five GE's that are leading the westbound coal empties, you'd see the train starting around the curve. The hill that provided my vantage point from up above the old curve is now a lot smaller, although I did use it later for some elevation. Later on, the BN decided they wanted a service road on the outside of that curve instead of between the two mains that had been located far enough apart to allow for a possible third main. That distance between the new Mains One and Two had been used all the way from Belmont to Rutland as a service road, and even some foamers would drive through Nebraska's only - former - railroad tunnel at Belmont and use the service road crossing to get across Main One and travel down around "Breezy" and "Horseshoe" BUT at Rutland (actually the former site of it as the control point was eliminated) the two mains came back next to each other and the service road disappeared. The railroad had been pretty mellow about the non-company use UNTIL, of course, someone wound up getting stuck on the tracks at the former "Rutland" by either just refusing to believe the road was ending, or trying to to turn their car around where there was no room for it. Trains can show up pretty quickly, even at 20mph, and that brought an end to the easygoing days.

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Vancouver's West End is an easygoing residential neighbourhood that offers gay bars, chic fashion stores, and diverse dining. It is nestled between downtown and Stanley Park.

A few years ago, Vancouver city council voted unanimously in favour of naming eight West End laneways after prominent local figures. Here's the list:

Jepson-Young Lane (pictured)

Named after Dr. Peter Jepson-Young, 1957-1992, who was a Vancouver medical doctor who was diagnosed with AIDS and created the CBC TV series "Dr. Peter Diaries" and educated the public about HIV and AIDS.

Eihu Lane

Named after Hawaiian settler Eihu, who was one of original settlers at Kanaka Ranch on the south shore of Coal Harbour near Stanley Park.

See-em-ia Lane

Named after Mary See-em-ia, granddaughter of Chief Capilano and wife of Eihu.

Rosemary Brown Lane

Named after Rosemary Brown, 1930-2003, who was the first black woman to be elected to a Canadian provincial legislature. She was also a professor of Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University and later appointed Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Stovold Lane

Named after Kathleen (Kay) Stovold, 1911-2001, who was an advocate for seniors and people with disabilities. She was the co-founder and president of the West End Seniors Network.

Ted Northe Lane

Named after Ted Northe, 1937-2014, who was an LGBT activist involved in organizing the first Pride Parade in Vancouver.

Pantages Lane

Named after Peter Basil Pantages, 1901 -1971, a Greek immigrant who swam in English Bay all year round. He was the founder of the Polar Bear Club and served as its director for 51 years. He was also the proprietor of the Peter Pan Cafe.

Jung Lane

Named after Vivian Jung, 1924-2014, who was born in Merritt, B.C. She was the first Chinese-Canadian teacher hired by the Vancouver School Board. She also broke down racial barriers by being the first woman to use a swimming pool at a time when Chinese-Canadians had been barred from entering the pool if it was being used by white people.

As well, a plaza on the north side of City Hall is named Gutteridge Plaza, after Helena Gutteridge, 1880-1960, the labour activist who was the founder of the B.C. Women's Suffrage League.