AS may be noted from our "On this day" feature at the foot of the facing page, today would have been the celebrated actress Mae West's birthday – she arrived into this world on August 15, 1892, born to prizefighter "Battlin' Jack West" and fashion model Matilda Doelger, and departed it at the ripe old age of 88, in 1980. In between, she shocked, scandalised and richly entertained millions, including a legion of fans on these shores.
Mae West, Film Actress. Arriving in Southampton on Queen Mary. 17th Sep 1947
Actress Mae West arriving at The Central Station, Glasgow, to produce the play " Diamond Lil " at the Alhambra Theatre
ÃChildren adore me,à said screen siren Mae West when she arrived in Glasgow. She was right à this young fan looks entranced by MaeÃs presence and outsize hat. But it wasnÃt only kids who liked Mae ... everybody cherished her sense of timing, and her way with the one-liners. November 1947.
In Diamond Lil she played a wisecracking tart-with-a-heart who strolls through the show singing a few songs, and being chased by a string of men. So not really typecast then.
The play, when it opened, went down well with the Glasgow Herald’s man in the stalls. “Here,” he wrote, “is a piece of magnificent nonsense, a full-blooded melodrama of the ‘nineties ... The period is amazingly well recreated: the players get the spirit of it, and ‘ham’ it with zest.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here