Mae West: Louis Calhern

MAE WEST often met Julia Hoyt and Louis Calhern at Texas Guinan's clubs.
• • Hoping to advance her stage career, Julia Hoyt [15 September 1897 - 31 October 1955] hooked up with debonair leading man LOUIS CALHERN [1895 — 1956], whom she met when both were cast in a 1927 drama The Dark, which had a brief run at the Lyceum Theatre. Julia Hoyt and Louis Calhern were seen together often at Texas Guinan's during their short-lived marriage [1927 — 1932].
• • Known for starring roles on Broadway, Louis Calhern took bit parts on screen until he hit his stride during the 1950s with a string of big-budget hits ("Asphalt Jungle," etc.) that gave him a higher profile.
• • One of his earliest minor movie roles was an appearance in a Mae West vehicle. Louis Calhern played "Dick Bolton" in "Night After Night." Calhern had one scene in this picture. Starring MAE WEST and GEORGE RAFT, the film opened at the Paramount Theatre on 31 October 1932.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Louis Calhern • • 1943 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West Confessions

MAE WEST posed for the magazine True Confessions for a two-part interview that was serialized in their December 1933 and January 1934 issues.

• • Meant to promote Mae's latest photoplay "I'm No Angel," the eye-catching feature was titled "Mae West - - Queen of Sex" and its contrarian appeal ran so far afield of all the other woman-as-clinging-vine "confessions" in this edition that the distaff-readership must have been astonished, to say the least.
• • A man in Mae's life, her friend Jack LaRue, offered charming encomiums that were used as large captions.
• • No stay-at-home-wife-life would do for the versatile performer from Brooklyn, New York, explained the editors. Mae West "learned how to do black-face imitations at an age when other children were doing long division."
• • Announcing that the actress is "more than forty today," the text continued: "There is practically no line of stage work that one can mention that Mae West has not tackled. By twelve years of age, she was a fully developed woman. Her curves were as solid and firm and alluring then as they are today. Imitations and child-parts, to which she had graduated, were discarded and Mae became a burlesque Queen at $500 a week when she was thirteen." [N.B.: Mae West was 13 years old in 1906. Did child labor laws in America permit a minor to strip in a burlesque revue in 1906??]
• • The writer added: "Vaudeville, musical comedies, even engagements at Coney Island. She became a strong woman in an acrobatic act. Dancing lessons with Ned Weyburn [sic] led the way to musical comedies. Big money in burlesque, pin money in small roles in comedies. Any job that came along - - Mae West could do it." . . .
• • In 1933 True Confessions was owned by Fawcett Publications with editorial offices in Minneapolis. Photographs printed with this lengthy piece were very interesting and show Mae in male drag, posing with animal trainers, etc.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • October 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Dorothy Peterson

Unlike MAE WEST, Dorothy Peterson did not acquire stardust.

• • Born in Minnesota on 25 December 1897, the pretty brunette became a stage actress. In 1930, she made her screen debut in "Mothers Cry," a weepy domestic melodrama that required the 29-year-old actress to age nearly three decades in the course of the film. Unfortunately, "Mothers Cry" instantly typecast Peterson in careworn maternal roles.
• • Dorothy Peterson played Thelma in the MAE WEST hit "I'm No Angel." This promotional photo was taken during October 1933 and the movie opened the following month.
• • Her last screen appearance was as Shirley Temple's mother in That Hagen Girl [1947], however, Dorothy Peterson remained active on the New York theatrical scene and on TV until the early 1960s.
• • She died in New York City in the month of October: 3 October 1979.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West with Dorothy Peterson (as Thelma) • • October 1933 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: October 1932

Screened for critics on October 28th, Night After Night premiered to the public on Friday night October 31st, 1932 at the Times Square Paramount and the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre. MAE WEST got the lion's share of attention. "She stole everything but the cameras," admitted co-star George Raft.
• • A stage show accompanied this screen gem: Lew Leslie's "Dixie to Broadway" with Ethel Waters, the Mills Brothers, and Adelaide Hall.
Night after Night [1932] was directed by Archie Mayo.
Writing credits Louis Bromfield (novel) and Vincent Lawrence.
• • Night after Night cast: • •
George Raft as .... Joe Anton
Constance Cummings as .... Jerry Healy
Wynne Gibson as .... Iris Dawn
MAE WEST as .... Maudie Triplett

Alison Skipworth as .... Mabel Jellyman
Roscoe Karns as .... Leo
Louis Calhern as .... Dick Bolton
Bradley Page as .... Frankie Guard
Al Hill as .... Blainey
Harry Wallace as .... Jerky
George Templeton as .... Patsy (as Dink Templeton)
Marty Martyn as .... Malloy
Tom Kennedy as .... Tom (bartender)
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West shows her star power in Night After Night • • released 1932 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: October 1959

No doubt you've saved acres of back issues of Time Magazine, especially the copies that offered newsworthy morsels on MAE WEST. To save you a trip to the attic, however, here's what Time [edition: Monday 26 October 1959] noted about CBS news correspondent Charles Collingwood, who came up to see Mae:

• • CBS-TV brass sat down and privately took in a video-taped Person to Person interview with the aging Sex Goddess Mae West - - and promptly canceled the earthy program because parts of it "might be misconstrued." Had Author West (Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It) said or done anything naughty before the cameras? "Certain minds always misconstrue everything," said the past mistress of double-meaning ribaldry. "I have a very big public that understands what I say." Exactly what happened when CBS Interviewer Charles Collingwood came up and saw Mae in her Hollywood apartment?
• • One of the droller exchanges came when the newsman commented on all the mirrors in Mae's plushy bedroom. "They're for personal observation," said Mae, deadpan. "I always like to know how I'm doing."
• • Sensing that the going was getting a bit hot, Collingwood suggested that they switch the subject to foreign affairs. Said Mae: "I've always had a weakness for foreign affairs."
• • Born in Michigan, Charles Collingwood [4 June 1917 - 3 October 1985] was a pioneering CBS television newscaster. Collingwood was a protege of Edward R. Murrow during the Second World War and became known as an eloquent on-air journalist. He was part of a group of distinguished early television journalists that included Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Murrow himself.
• • Despite a constant battle with the bottle and a feverish addiction to gambling, Collingwood went on to become chief correspondent of CBS and host of its "Eyewitness to History" series. He led in CBS's expansion to include international coverage. He reported from the Normandy invasion (at Omaha Beach), Vietnam, the White House, and other sites known for causing death and destruction.
• • Collingwood retired in 1982. The chronic alcoholic died on October 3rd, 1985 at age 68.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West shows her apartment to Charles Collingwood • • 1959 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Hello, Dalí

An industrial strength dosage of surrealism starring MAE WEST will spike the arts scene in London next spring. The show, Other Surreal Things, is slated for the Victoria & Albert Museum.
• • The exhibition will run from March 29 to July 22, 2007 in Great Britain.
• • Salvador Dalí's Mae West creations, a lobster telephone, a table with bird's legs, and a hat made from bouillabaisse will be among the highlights. Dalí is well represented among an array of 300 objects that explore the influence of surrealism on the worlds of design, interiors, clothes, film, and theatre. Dresses by Elsa Schiaparelli, the Paris fashion designer who collaborated with Jean Cocteau and Dalí, notably on a "Tear" and a "Skeleton" dress, will also be on view.
• • Ghislaine Woods, the curator, said: "Although there have been many exhibitions on surrealism, this is the first to explore the impact of the movement on design and the decorative arts."
• • More than 20 objects are being lent by the West Dean Foundation, the estate in Sussex owned by the late Edward James. James was the first English patron of the surrealists and filled his house, painted purple on the outside, with his collection of their works.
• • Genesis of the Mae West Lips Sofa (1937): Dalí had first painted The Face of Mae West (Usable as a Surrealist Apartment) in 1934. Later on, Edward James, a rich British patron of the Surrealists in the 1930s, commissioned this companion piece from Dalí. The Mae West sofa is the same color as the "shocking pink" lipstick shade inspired by the actress, and developed by the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
• • The most highly paid Paramount Pictures' star during the 1930s, Mae West's image (and drawings based on her face and shape) rapidly became part of popular culture. As the Brooklyn bombshell became a commodity, artists such as Salvador Dalí, perfumers such as Rochas, designers such as Schiaparelli, etc., naturally responded to her influential position in the media.
• • Around 1938, the Mae West Lips Sofa was designed by Salvador Dalí with Edward James, and made by Green & Abbott. This 20th century icon has a wooden carcase, upholstered in felted, woven wool fabric. The Mae West Lips Sofa was purchased by the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from the Edward James Foundation in 1983.
• • Dali's fascination with Mae West was a long one.
• • Salvador Dalí [11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989] was a Catalan-Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the 20th century. A gouache now in Chicago illustrates his original plan executed during the early 1930s for a "paranoiac-critical room" based on the features of her face. When the Dalí Museum in Figueras was being constructed during the early 1970s, his Mae West Room was finally built to his specifications.
• • MAE WEST used to say, "I like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign." Therefore, it's assumed that Mae appreciated Dalí's dalliance with her image.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Illustration: The Face of Mae West (Usable as a Surrealist Apartment) • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West & Valentino

Since October is "Italian Culture Month" in New York and other cities, it is the season to highlight an Italian actor who impressed MAE WEST. When she was 33 years old, Mae West adopted Rudolph Valentino [6 May 1895 - 23 August 1926] as her spiritual adviser.

• • On Sunday 25 July 1926, Mae met Valentino at Tommy Guinan's speakeasy. Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was on West 52nd Street (east of Broadway). Its generous square footage made it ideal for events and James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, hosted a Reception in honor of Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" there.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan were there to greet the Apulian heartthrob. No doubt Texas fancied Jadaan, a superb Arabian stallion Valentino had ridden in this melodrama. An expert equestrienne herself, the following year Texas would ride an Arabian stallion into the Shubert Theatre at the start of "Padlocks of 1927."

• • Maybe Mae West was charmed more by the Italian stallion himself - - and piqued by the abrupt end to his life that occurred one month later when the actor was only 31. Something about Rudy impressed Mae, encouraging her to think that he could link her to the unquiet dead up and down Times Square.
• • According to Whitney Bolton, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a week after the Italian-born actor Rudolph Valentino died [1895-1926], Mae West and her friend Texas Guinan arranged for a séance in a Manhattan loft. Suspicious that the 31-year-old heartthrob was secretly poisoned by a rival, Mae summoned an Italian Medium to officiate. At the table sitting opposite Mae were Texas, her brother Tommy Guinan, and the gangster Owney Madden who owned The Cotton Club, a man remembered more for violence than his spiritual side.
• • And the rendezvous with Rudolph in 1926 must have been memorable because two years later Mae was holding séances in the smoking room of the Royale Theatre to communicate again with him. Visiting New York to see “Diamond Lil” on Broadway, the actor Jean Hersholt was invited backstage and yanked into a darkened room where a Medium was channeling Caruso and Valentino. Hersholt recalled that Rudy called upon Mae and said: “Mae, you have a lot of enemies and don’t trust any of them.”
• • During the 1920s, Sri Deva Ram Sukul supplanted Valentino as Mae West's spiritual guide when he healed the actress's agonizing stomach pains.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Valentino and "Son of the Sheik" • • 1926 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West as Tintype

Their book was published in October 1930. Soon everybody was talking about it.

• • On 12 October 1930, here's what The New York Times wrote about Times Square Tintypes by Sidney Skolsky, illustrated by Alex Gard:
• • "Sidney Skolsky's Times Square Tintypes is a unique biographical compendium. In it he recounts the things one does not usually hear of the famous and near famous figures of Broadway. . . . As a press agent and more recently as a columnist, he has lived closely enveloped in the maze of our stage gossip. In a field of activity where exhibitionism is a virtue, he has been quick to see or hear about each new gesture of vanity or temperamental pique . . . ."
• • MAE WEST was one of their famous Times Square Tintypes.
• • Mae West and Sidney Skolsky [1905-1983] stayed on good terms. He was an extra in her film "I'm No Angel," he wrote about her often in his column, he cheered when the Masquers honored her in April 1973, and he attended some of the seances Mae held at her California beach house.
• • Artist Alex Gard [1900-1948] was Sardi's caricaturist. He painted Mae colorfully for Vincent Sardi's restaurant - - and his neat black and white sketch was printed next to Skolsky's typewriter portrait.
• • If you chance upon this book, it's a worthwhile and amusing close-up.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West by Alex Gard • • early 1930s • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West & Schiaparelli

Since October is "Italian Culture Month" in New York and other cities, it is the season to highlight an Italian designer who worked with MAE WEST.

• • Elsa Schiaparelli [10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973] was the leading Parisian fashion designer of the 1920s and 30s after Coco Chanel.
• • She was born in Rome, Italy of Italian and Egyptian heritage. She was a great-niece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, who discovered the canals of Mars.
• • Schiaparelli opened her first salon, "stupidir le Sport," in 1927; the focus was on sportswear and athletic attire. In 1935 Schiaparelli moved to a salon overlooking the Place Vendôme in Paris.
• • In addition to apparel, Schiaparelli designed a number of perfumes. The first and best known - - Shocking - - was created in 1936. Shocking is famous less for the fragrance itself than for its packaging: inside a shocking pink box, the bottle was shaped like a woman's torso - - and based on the curvaceous body of one of Schiaparelli's clients, film star Mae West. For Mae West, Schiaparelli designed costumes for the film Every Day's a Holiday.

• • Released in 1938, Every Day’s a Holiday was MAE WEST's most expensive film to date. Its lavish recreation of 1890s New York was the setting for Mae's character - - charming blonde con artist Peaches O’Day - - who sells the Brooklyn Bridge to the gullible. After an enforced departure, Peaches O'Day returns disguised as a chic brunette Mademoiselle Fifi, draped in Schiaparelli gowns.
• • Enjoy this example: a powder-blue wool crepe gown with soutache trim at the shoulders and hemline worn by Mae West. Created by Schiaparelli, the gown features a sewn-in wardrobe label on the inside lining that reads: "United Costumers Inc., Mae West #6." [Actress Debbie Reynolds acquired this costume.]
• • By World War II, Elsa Schiaparelli's output had decreased. Trendsetters began pursuing younger designers such as Christian Dior. In 1954, her couture house declared bankruptcy and she moved to the USA.
• • Elsa Schiaparelli was briefly married to Count William de Wendt de Kerlor [born 1883], a Franco-Swiss psychic medium, and moved with him to New York's Greenwich Village, where she sold clothing designed by the French couturier Paul Poiret. The couple had one child, Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha, known as Gogo, born in New York City. Schiaparelli's grandchildren are the actress Marisa Berenson and the late photographer Berry Berenson (Mrs. Anthony Perkins).
• • She died at age 80 on 13 November 1973.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West costumed by designer Elsa Schiaparelli • • 1938 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West by George

Always wanting to spend Hallowe'en with MAE WEST, one clever New Yorker figured out how to do it, permanently. Author George Baxt [11 June 1923 — 28 June 2003], who specialized in thrillers set during the 1930s, penned a novel The Mae West Murder Case (published November 1993). The climax is set during a Hallowe'en party in one of Hollywood's most decadent nightspots.
• • Here is the flap copy written by George Baxt. The year is 1936, and Mae West has all of Hollywood wrapped around her little finger: a place many a man would kill to be. The legendary screen siren has, however, one critic — — one with deadly fangs in place of a poison pen — — who is knocking off Mae West impersonators along his way to the real thing. But if there's one thing Mae West knows, it's that no no-account vampire is going to upstage Tinseltown's most celebrated vamp. Brought back larger than life as only George Baxt can do it, Mae herself takes charge of the investigation in an adventure brimming with her doubles and her double entendres. This time she's hoping he won't have a gun in his pocket, and that he won't be glad to see her. Armed with glamour, gossip, and curves of every kind, Mae leaps headlong into a web of blackmail and corruption without so much as a trace of fear. Says Mae West: "You don't know danger until you've faced the New York critics on an opening night."
• • And when a Hallowe'en party at one of Hollywood's spookiest, seamiest clubs brings hunter and hunted together, it's no longer clear who is after whom. What is clear, however, is that once Mae West gets in on the act, no sucker is safe.
• • George Baxt penned over a dozen titles in his Cinema Murder Case series, including The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case, and The William Powell and Myra Loy Murder Case.
• • He also wrote screenplays for television.
• • During surgery in a New York hospital, the octagenarian died in 2003.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West bookcover • • author George Baxt • • 1993 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: October 1933

MAE WEST got an unusual sort of recognition in October 1933 - - from the Governor of Kentucky. It was reported in the 30 October 1933 issue of TIME Magazine:

• • Kentucky colonel is an honorary title bestowed upon individuals by approval of the governor of Kentucky. It is not a military rank, requires no duties, and carries with it no pay or other compensation other than membership in the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. The title Kentucky Colonel originated in 1813.
• • Governor Ruby Laffoon made a Kentucky Colonel of Mae West, professional voluptuary. In the same batch he made a Colonel of Miss Betsy Helburn, graduate of the University of Kentucky, dietitian of The Bronx's Lebanon Hospital. Said Colonel West in Hollywood: "I guess he wants me to help him keep his troops under control. When do I get my uniform?"
• • Gov. Ruby Laffoon also inducted these new colonels: Tom Mix, Jack Dempsey, Louis McHenry Howe, Graham McNamee, Richard Evelyn Byrd, Morton Downey, Bebe Daniels. . . .
Source: Time Magazine
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West letter • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Spook in Seattle?

To hear the Washingtonians tell it, MAE WEST is sleepless in Seattle. Fresh intelligence comes from the Seattle Times:
• • Former mortuary and graveyard? Pike Place boasts of its ghosts • •

• • Wander the hallways, alleys, restaurants, and shops of the Pike Place Market in search of the ghosts said to be haunting there on guided Ghosts in the Market tours. Hear stories and try to catch a glimpse of ghostly characters - - including a young boy in the Bead Shop, a running high-heeled woman, victims of Doctor Hazzard, and even the actress MAE WEST, along with Chief Seattle's daughter Princess Angeline, and others who lived on the site before the market was built. . . .
• • MAE WEST! Our MAE WEST. . . wriggling through a market? A haunted marketplace in Seattle?
• • The market celebrates its 100th anniversary next year, and (besides its own rich history), the area is home to Seattle's first mortuary and the remnants of a Native American graveyard, providing a wealth of intriguing, unsettling, and eccentric local history. . . .
• • MARKET GHOST Tour guide Mercedes Yaeger [t. 206-322-1218].
Seattle must be over-run with spooks or supernatural thrills because the Washington State Ghost Society hosts a Spirit Walk tour, too [t. 360-420-7738].
• • Mention MaeWest.blogspot.com if you ring up these folks.
• • Source:Seattle Times [byline: Madeline McKenzie, Seattle Times staff]
• • Source:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West • • artist: V. O'Neill • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West & Fellini

Since October is "Italian Culture Month" in New York and other cities, it is the season to highlight an Italian filmmaker who wooed MAE WEST.

• • It was OCTOBER 1968. Newspapers were filled with up-dates from Rome: Federico Fellini planned to conjure up a silver-screen carnival called "Satyricon," with appearances by a host of American celebrities including walk-ons by John Lennon and Ringo Starr.
• • The N.Y. Times printed this dispatch from journalist Mark Shivas: "FELLINI'S BACK, AND MAE WEST'S GOT HIM!" [N.Y. Times 13 October 1968].
• • Federico Fellini [20 January 1920 - 31 October 1993] had met Mae West in 1963 and had been wooing her from then, cooking her pots of pasta and coaxing her to appear in one of his projects. "Mae West is the mother of the empress," announced Fellini. "An erotic witch. She knows everything about the ancient ritual of bedrooms. I met her five years ago and she looked more like 45 than 75. Molto Simpatico. Intelligent. Full of humor. . . ."
• • But Mae West was more interested in protecting her brand than chasing after Fellini's carrot. When asked by reporters to confirm her role in this film, Mae replied: "I will not sign until I see the script" [17 October 1968].
• • Meanwhile, Avant-Garde Magazine, armed with Fellini's press releases, placed ads in newspapers advertising that their next issue would show photos from Italy - - on the set with Fellini and a cast that included MAE WEST, Groucho Marx, Anna Magnani, Jimmy Durante, Michael Pollard, Danny Kaye, and the Beatles. . . all devotees of Petronius the Arbiter, no doubt.
• • Ultimately Mae West sent her regrets to the auteur. She refused to play a witch who is a mother.
• • Federico Fellini died in Rome of a heart attack on Hallowe'en 31 October 1993.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West types surround Fellini • • artist: Walter Molino • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West by Kesslere

Oh, to be kissed by Kesslere - - to be made love to by his lens. In those bygone days of "fixed focus," an ambitious camera king like George Maillard Kesslere could (and did) make his mark by snapping theatrical types as well as Park Avenue "royalty" and bluebloods.

• • Born in 1894, George Maillard Kesslere had set up a showy photo studio on East 50th Street by the early 1920s. During his long career, the lensman took pictures of MAE WEST, Texas Guinan, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, Charlie Chaplin, Walter Damrosch, Arturo Toscanini, Rudy Vallee, Tallulah Bankhead, Alexander Woolcott, Beatrice Lillie, William H. Paley, Gertrude Lawrence, Charles Laughton, Helen Hayes, Jascha Heifetz, Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Marlon Brando, etc.
• • During Prohibition, his paintings were also attracting eyes and buyers. Kesslere's sassy canvasses for Earl Carroll's Vanities were published in the very early 1930s.
• • In October 1927 MAE WEST was rehearsing her newest play The Wicked Age, and preparing for out-of-town try-outs. [The Wicked Age, which focuses on corrupt beauty pageants, was shown at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre November 4 - 23, 1927, a brief Broadway run.]

• • During October 1927 Mae West posed with legs exposed for George Maillard Kesslere. Her cheesecake promotional shots did not evoke the desired euphoria among critics that Mae had hoped for. Instead Variety sneered, describing the entire enterprise as "a choice piece of limburger" [Variety 9 November 1927]. The New York Times was even harsher, labeling The Wicked Age as "the low point of the theatrical season of 1927-28." Tsk! The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune only spurred Mae West forward. By 1928 she would be the toast of the town, ruling the Rialto as Diamond Lil.
• • In 1952, the lifelong bachelor (who had resided on East 62nd Street for many decades) donated the G. Maillard Kesslere Collection of 6,000 photographs and 500 paintings to the New York Public Library for its permanent theatre collection. That's a well-kept secret. Kesslere's sister Hazel was his sole survivor when he died at age 84 on 1 January 1979 in a nursing home in Cresskill, NJ.
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Mae West
• • Photograph: Mae West • • 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: Eddie Cantor

The year was 1927. MAE WEST went to see an old vaudeville pal - - the comedian EDDIE CANTOR - - when he was 35 years old and starring on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. The hit opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 16 August 1927 and ran for 167 performances. By the time the show shuttered on 7 January 1927, it had also made the newcomer Ruth Etting a star.
• • Claire Luce (who worked for Texas Guinan) was also in this revue.
• • Later that year, on 4 November 1927 MAE WEST would debut in her new play "The Wicked Age" at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre . . . returning to the scene of the crime, as it were.

• • Born on the Lower Eastside of New York on 31 January 1892, Eddie Cantor was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter, and one of the most popular entertainers in the USA in the early and middle 20th century. He was known to Broadway, radio, and early television audiences as "Banjo Eyes" and "the Apostle of Pep." Cantor was regarded by millions as "a member of the family" because of his intimate radio shows that involved anecdotes and antics about his wife Ida and their five daughters.
• • Stages where MAE WEST and Eddie Cantor both performed in NYC include the Paramount (the one in Manhattan as well as the Brooklyn venue), The Palace, and many places in Coney Island.
• • On 20 January 1934, Eddie Cantor was the M.C. during a stage show at the Paramount Theatre (Broadway and West 43rd Street). In one number, he appeared in a Mae West costume. Yes, this actually happened onstage, so try to imagine it.
• • On 22 January 1934, both Mae West and Eddie Cantor entertained at the New Amsterdam Theatre - - at the 52nd annual benefit for the Actors' Fund.
• • For some time, Eddie Cantor paired with Mae West's idol: Bert Williams. Both vaudevillians performed in blackface, Eddie playing Bert Williams's son.
• • Eddie Cantor died in October [10 October 1964]. He is being remembered this month as a hard-working performer, a humanitarian, a native New Yorker, and an old trouper whose artistry Mae West enjoyed.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Eddie Cantor film • • 1953 • •
NYC
Mae West.