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 • •
NYC
Mae West.