Malaspina Great Books, Established 1995; Created by Russell McNeil, PhD, Visitors:

With the growing importance of global warming, Climate News Live provides up-to-date news and information. This is a non-partisan source of timely news articles, current events, and the relevant topics that are shaping the public policy debate in the United States and elsewhere. ... (click on picture or headline above for more)

title author

Malaspina Great Books Blog

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated and Explained Russell McNeil, PhD Editor, Malaspina Great Books In 1862 the English literary critic and poet Matthew Arnold described Marcus Aurelius as "the most beautiful figure in history." The Stoicism of Aurelius is grounded in rationality and rests solidly on an ethical approach rooted in nature. Stoicism promises real happiness and joy in this life and a serenity that can never be soured by personal misfortune. This philosophy has universal appeal with practical implications on problems ranging from climate change and terrorism to the personal management of sickness, aging, depression and addiction. I truly believe that the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius has much to offer us now...(Click on book cover for more)

Category:	Modern Theatre Cinema
Name:	Mae West - GLBT & Feminist Series
Birth Year:	1893
Death Year:	1980
Representative Image:
Biography, Lectures, and Research Links:	Biography - GLBT Series, Feminist Series Blog Mae West SEARCH NOW: by title by author Find your favorite art: barewalls.com Mary Jane West was born, in Brooklyn, New York, on August 17, 1893 to parents involved in prize-fighting and vaudeville. Mae, herself, worked on the stage and in vaudeville from the time she was five years old. She never was academically inclined because she was too busy performing. She studied dance as a child and by the time she was 14, she was billed as "The Baby Vamp" for her performances on stage. Later Mae began writing her own plays. One of those plays, entitled Sex, landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges in 1926. Two years later her play, Diamond Lil, became a huge Broadway success. Mae caught the attention of the Hollywood moguls and was given her first movie role with George Raft in 1932's Night After Night. Although a small role, she was able to display a wit that was to make her world famous. Raft, himself, said of Mae, "She stole everything but the cameras." The movie going public fell in love with the first woman to make racy comments on film. She became a box-office smash hit breaking all sorts of attendance records. Her second film, She Done Him Wrong (1933), was based on her earlier and popular play that she had written herself. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture. It also made Cary Grant a star. Her third film later that year was I'm No Angel. These two films resulted in the Motion Picture Production Code which regulated what content could be shown or said in pictures. As a result of these codes, Mae began to double talk so that a person could take a word or phrase anyway they wished. This was so she could get her material past the censors. It worked. She really felt she had a vested interest because it was her written work being scrutinized. She had already written and performed these for the stage with the very material now being filmed. Her next film, Belle of the Nineties made in 1934 was an equal hit. By 1936, with the films, Klondike Annie and Go West Young Man, made her, at that time, the highest paid woman in the US. After the 1937 film, Everyday's a Holiday, she didn't make another film until 1940, when she co-starred with W.C. Fields in another Mae West written movie, My Little Chickadee. It was well known she had little use for Field and his crude ways, even for her. After The Heat's On in 1943, Mae took a respite from the film world. The reason was the censors were getting stricter. She decided she would be able to have greater expression in her work if she went back to the stage. Mae continued to be a success there. When censors began to let up, she returned to film work in 1970 in Myra Breckenridge. Her last film was in 1978 called Sextette. Mae suffered a series of strokes which finally resulted in her death on November 22, 1980 in Hollywood, California and was buried in New York. She was 87. 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 innuendoes 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. [ Adapted from IMDb (Denny Jackson) ] The Great Books: Mae (Mary Jane) West Please browse our Amazon list of titles about Mae (Mary Jane) West. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Mae (Mary Jane) West. Post Comments, Questions or Suggestions! This database is maintained by Malaspina Great Books.
	Great Books Online: Amazon Search Search: Books Classical Music DVD Popular Music Software Video magazines Toys & Games Baby Computer & Video Games Electronics Wireless Phones Tools & Hardware Outdoor Living Kitchen & Housewares Camera & Photo All Products Keywords:
	Biographical & Documentary Video Research
Best Choice Books, Music, Art:	Mae West Three Plays by Mae West When I'm Bad, I'm Better
	DVD: I'm No Angel DVD: Klondike Annie DVD: Myra Breckinridge
Browse Books, Music, Art & Book Reviews:	Books from Alibris: Mae West Books from Amazon: Mae West
	Films: Mae West
	Audiobooks at iTunes: Thousands of Classics
Library Catalogs:	COPAC UK: Mae West Library of Canada Search Form Library of Congress: Mae West Other Library Catalogs: Mae West
External Links:	Research Links: Mae West Malaspina Canada Links: Mae West
Online Research:	Cinema Research Online at Questia
Records from Related Period and Category:	Modern Theatre Modern Cinema

About this Database:

This web page is part of a biographical database on Great Ideas. These are living ideas that have shaped, defined and directed world culture for over 2,500 years. By definition the Great Ideas are radical. As such they are sometimes misread, or distorted by popular simplifications. Understanding a Great Idea demands personal engagement. Our selection of Great Ideas is drawn from literature and philosophy, science, art, music, theatre, and cinema. We also include biographies of pivotal historical and religious figures, as well as contributions from women and other historically under-represented minorities. The result is an integrated multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary database built upon the framework of the always controversial Great Books Core List published in 1940 by the late Great Books Pioneer Mortimer Adler (1902-2001). Most of the works on that list are available in the 60 volume Great Books of the Western World.