In April 1930 the midtown Manhattan census-takers found bachelor John E. West living with his two actress-sisters in an upscale apartment house: 200 West 57th Street [corner of Seventh Avenue] across the street from Carnegie Hall. Working as a real estate broker, 30-year-old John [born in 1900] seems to have suddenly grown "older" than his eldest sister Mae, whose age is listed as 27; Mildred (Beverly) West is listed as 28. Both females were unemployed.
• • The WEST household is the only one enumerated there that has no servants in residence. Even their neighbor Theodore Dreiser, 58, and his "wife" Helen, 29, lived with a maid (Pearl Ollie). Violinist Jascha Heifetz and artist Wayman Adams were neighbors along with many society bluebloods, one countess, and one Turkish princess.
• • It did not seem to affect the building's appeal that a great number of suicidal adults chose to close their life there. And in May 1928 Spanish dancer Maria Montero was slain there by a married Argentinian who tried to force the beauty to elope with him.
• • During their first months of tenancy on West 57th Street, the WEST siblings saw each other as often in the courtroom as at home. Mae was white-knuckling her way through the "Pleasure Man" trial, which resulted in a hung jury in early April 1930. Texas Guinan covered the trial clad in furs and festooned with ropes of pearls down to her knees.
• • In mourning for their mother, the WEST siblings were demurely clad in black, the frills kept to a minimum. After the verdict, Mae was so broke that she couldn't afford to pay her expensive high-powered attorney Nathan Burkan. She couldn't get a job in vaudeville, which had run out of steam thanks to the Wall Street crash and the influx of "talkies." In short, Mae had nowhere to go - - but up!
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: 200 West 57th Street • • MAE WEST was living here with her brother and sister in 1930 • •
NYC
Mae West.
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