Mae West Takes a Back Seat

A Movie Queen & Her Cadillacs

. . . OLD-TIME MOVIE FANS can "come up and see" the 1934 V-12 Cadillac Town Cabriolet once owned by movie queen Mae West. The antique luxury Cadillac will star in the All-Car Shootout Show Sunday at the Long Island Arena, Veterans Memorial Highway, Commack.
Now owned by Joseph Amodei of the Long Island Dream Cars Club, the famous Hollywood car recently had a role in the film, "Batman Forever." Mae West had donated it to a convent in Sacramento, Calif. The vehicle was bought by Amodei in 1993.

The show is open to all makes and models, including trucks and vans. . . .
- - excerpt from an article written by Lynn Petry, Newsday [06-23-1995]
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1934 V-12 Fleetwood Town Cabriolet was owned by Mae West.
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Mae West had a 1938 Cadillac Fleetwood V-16 Limousine. [Model 9033F was purchased new by the actress.]
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Writing about MAE WEST, author Charles A. Johnson revealed this diva-detail:
For the 1949 play season, the Central City Opera House Association had chosen DIAMOND LIL starring Mae West. Miss West was an aging sex goddess whose charm and hourglass figure belonged more to the Gay Nineties that the mid-twentieth century. Nevertheless, she still exuded the magnetism that had attracted men . . .

During her stay in Central City, Miss West boasted to the press, "I brought sex out of the back room. I gave it a shove with personality. I can order a cup of coffee on the stage, and the censors will be on my neck!"

Miss West made sure her arrival in Central City was noticed. She demanded that two white Cadillac limousines be placed at her disposal courtesy of the Association. She gave a birthday party for herself and invited only men, including Colorado’s governor. (He attended.) [Reportedly,] Mae put mirrors on the ceiling of Penrose #3 where she was staying during the festival.
- - from "Opera in the Rockies: A History of the Central City Opera House Association" by Charles A. Johnson
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Ah, yes, once upon a time MAE WEST flirted with the idea of acquiring a Bohman & Schwartz Duesenberg Town Car in silver, with an open chauffeur, and with a "Pierce Silver Arrow" aero look. Though that Duesenberg had been designed for Mae West,she never bought it. Instead, the Town Car went to the heiress of the "Mars" candy bar fortune.
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Reported in the New York Daily News by Mitchell Fink: As a young actor trying to make it in Hollywood, Jerry Orbach (Law & Order, Dirty Dancing, F/X) was Mae West's chauffeur.