Albatross

Dirty Blonde — Interesting vocabulary

Albatross: A large white ocean bird that has very long wings  Note: Mae West’s play entitled Sex was originally entitled The Albatross.  The title (The Albatross) is in reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem entitled The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

• Click to read a summary of The Albatross via Encyclopedia Britannica
• Click to read a Shmooped analysis articulating the significance of The Albatross in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
• View Spark Notes — The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Note: Director Edward Elsner was the only one of several experienced directors they approached who liked it (play entitled Sex).  As soon as he read it in her hotel room, he was enthusiastic.  He particularly liked the second act jazz band on stage, a feature all of the other directors had hated.  He told Mae that she had written a great play and she agreed.  Mae changed the title to Sex.  “I don’t think I had a winning title.  People were always asking me what an albatross was.  When I changed the title to Sex, nobody asked me what it was.  It was a simple title for a complex subject.  Many years later, Mae defined sex for film critic and friend Kevin Thomas as “emotion in motion” Source

Albatoss