Mae Calls for Bourbon

Vaudevillian, actor, female impersonator, risque performer Ray Bourbon [August 1892? - July 1971] was admired by MAE WEST, who cast him in her 1944 Broadway production of Catherine Was Great at the Shubert Theatre in Times Square.

Bourbon played Florian, a "swishy" court tailor (as the Program notes indicate), a role created expressly for him.
• • When Ray Bourbon performed at the Cinderella Club [82 West Third Street, NYC], Mae West often went to see his show.

The Cinderella Club's house pianist during its heyday was Theolonious Monk [1917 - 1982], when even Frank Sinatra could be found in the audience. The best singers appeared in this Greenwich Village cabaret including Billie Holiday and Sylvia Syms - - another one of Mae West's discoveries.
• • Ray Bourbon was also cast in Mae's revival of Diamond Lil [1948-1950]; he played the role of Bowery Rose, a "pansy shoplifter," a humorous cameo designed for his talents.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West's friend • • Ray Bourbon • • 1940s • •
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Mae West.

Arresting Drama 'til Oct. 7

Peculiar, all right. Out of the night at the intersection of 9th Street and Sixth Avenue there dashed a frantic, frazzled man shouting that he was a drama critic and that the police had just invaded a theater up on 14th Street and carted the star away — — a certain Miss Mae West (several decades before Off-Off-Broadway) — — to the Jefferson Market Jailhouse, right where we were now standing, explains reporter Jerry Tallmer.

Once there had also been a women's prison that provided bed and board from time to time to such grandes dames of Off-Off-Broadway as Judith Malina and Ellen Stewart, according to Jerry Tallmer, drama critic, writing about these events in The Villager.
• • Only now it was no longer the jail nor the long-gone Women’s House of Detention. It was an anonymous overgrown swath of greenery, and the principal witnesses to all this were a dozen journalists who had been invited to accompany and observe a preview of “OFF Stage: the West Village Fragments,” an on-foot, two-hour revisit of some of the sites and sounds of the Off-Off-Broadway classics of the 1960s. Déjà OOB all over again, reports Jerry Taller.
• • “Look, she’s out!” somebody yelled. And there she was, Miss Mae West herself (more or less) to inform the world, or this tiny corner of it, how deeply women disliked having to “spread ourselves across the public table like platters at a banquet.” [This, too, from Jerry Tallmer's coverage.]
• • Just then a half-dozen agitated persons burst on the scene waving signs and yelling things like: “Art before taxes! Let freedom ring!”
As the police (well, one pseudo-policeman) closed in, the journalists were sent trotting down Christopher Street . . . . [Continue reading Jerry Tallmer's reportage of this site-specific theatrical offering: www.TheVillager.com/]
• • • • Off Stage: The West Village Fragments • • • •
• • An intriguing site-specific multi-venue performance, Off Stage: The West Village Fragments will travel along historic West Village streets. Along the way, short scenes from over a dozen landmark Off-Off Broadway plays will reawaken the actual sites where they premiered. There will also be original performances between stops. A special treat for lovers of theater and the history of Greenwich Village. Equally recommended for New Yorkers and tourists alike. The journey begins at Sixth Avenue & West 9th Street.
• • Meet @ the Traffic Circle: 6th Avenue & West Ninth Street, NY
• • Three shows nightly until 7 October 2006
• • Peculiar Works Project: 212-529-3626
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • obscenity trial at Jefferson Market Court • • March 1927 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West & George Raft

Mae West remembers her former lover on his birthday: September 26th.

• • George Raft [26 September 1895 - - 24 November 1980] was an American film actor most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s.
• • Born George Ranft in Hell's Kitchen, New York City to Conrad Ranft (a German immigrant), he adopted a slick "tough guy" persona that he would later use in his films.
• • His mother, who taught dancing to theatre people, gave him lessons. His smooth tango and dance-floor style led to performances at some of Times Square's most fashionable nightspots. He became part of the stage act of "Texas Guinan and Her Gang."
• • In 1929 Raft moved to Hollywood and took small roles. His success came in Scarface [1932], the role that was originally offered to Jack LaRue, an actor who played opposite Mae West in her 1928 Broadway hit Diamond Lil. George Raft's convincing portrayal of the gangster led to speculation that he himself was a mobster - - not far from the truth.
• • When the studio was casting Raft's next feature Night after Night, the role of Maudie Triplett, a former girlfriend, was to go to a very well known actress and personality: Texas Guinan. Raft suggested Mae West for this cameo, and Mae's three little scenes set the so-so film on fire. "Mae stole everything but the cameras," admitted Raft.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • George Raft • • 1932 • •
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Mae West.

Mae: 1 Chap from Chickadee

On September 28th he died.

William B. Davidson, a tall, strapping leading man in American silent films, went on to portray men of authority in films such as "My Little Chickadee" [1940]; he took the role of the Sheriff of Little Bend in this classic that starred Mae West and W.C. Fields.
• • Born on 16 June 1888 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, William B. Davidson died on 28 September 1947 in Santa Monica, California.
• • This busy actor also played the Assistant District Attorney who clashed mightily with Texas Guinan in "The Queen of the Night Clubs" [1929].
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West's castmate • • William B. Davidson • • 1939 • •
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Mae West.

Mae Grooves to Golf

"The SCORE never interested me," said Mae West, "only the GAME." OK, so maybe she wasn't talking about golf. . . .

In 1918 Mae West was performing onstage in Los Angeles - - either with or without her musician husband Guido Deiro - - and grabbed the chance to get some fresh air. Still known as "May West" then, and less conscious about being photographed in casual attire, the energetic 25-year-old vaudevillian posed on the links with friends, each one claiming a golfbag.
• • The petite 5-foot tall actress is on the far left, half-hidden under a funky hat.
• • Though the hand-written inscription notes "May West, Orpheum," this 1918 photograph could not have referred to the Orpheum Theatre [which was built in 1926 on S. Broadway in L.A.]. So who (or what) was the mysterious "Orpheum" - - and where was it situated during the first World War? Do you know the answer?
• • Source: Mae West: An Icon in Black and White by Jill Watts [Oxford University Press, 2001].
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • a Los Angeles golf course • • 1918 • •
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Mae West.

Mae and her woolly wonka

In the summer months of 1933, Mae West - - fresh from a triumph in the box office battlefield, where she scored big with her script for "She Done Him Wrong" - - carried the victory into a new arena: the big top.
• • As Tira ["I'm No Angel"], Mae brought in reinforcements from home: her real-life maid Libby Taylor got a small role, and so did Mae's pet monkey Boogie. That's Boogie in the cage.
• • How many lion-tamers do you know who reside in a penthouse that looks like this Art Deco confection? Well, maybe Siegfried and Roy got some decorating tips from this film.
• • Released during November 1933, "I'm No Angel" toppled box office records with over $2 million in ticket sales faster than you could say "Circus Maximus" - - and that was quite a feat during the Depression.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West as Tira • • "I'm No Angel" was filmed July - September 1933 • •
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Mae West.

Mae Meets "Mr. Memory"

How many remember the opening sequence of the 1935 thriller "THE 39 STEPS"? Actor Wylie Watson [1889-1966] played the role of Mr. Memory. When a rowdy customer stands up during the Music Hall scene in Alfred Hitchcock's film classic, and repeatedly yells, "How old's Mae West?" Mr. Memory politely refuses to reveal the lady's age.

• • Scene 1 went something like this: • •
• • • Barker: Ladies and gentlemen... with your kind attention and permission... I have the honor of presenting to you... one of the most remarkable men in the world.
• • • Crowd: How remarkable?
• • • Crowd: He's sweating.
• • • Barker: Can you be surprised at that, gentlemen? Every day he commits to memory new facts... and remembers every one of them. Facts from history, from geography, from newspapers... from scientific books, millions and millions of them. Think of the strain involved by his prodigious feat.
• • • Crowd: His feet ain't half as big as yours, cully.
• • • Barker: I'm referring to his feats of memory. Test him, please. Ladies and gentlemen, ask him your questions... and he will answer you, fully and freely. Mr. Memory. I also add, ladies and gentlemen, before retiring... that Mr. Memory has left his brain to the British Museum.
• • • Crowd: Hurray!
• • • Barker: A question, please.
• • • Crowd: How old is Mae West?
• • • Mr. Memory: I know, sir, but I never tell a lady's age. Next, please.
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West.

Mae & Mickey Hargitay

Mae West launched the entertainment career of handsome hunk Mickey Hargitay [1926-2006]. This is how he looked (right) in 1955 when he was appearing onstage with Mae West and fellow muscleman (left) Paul Novak [1923-1999].

• • • • LOS ANGELES: Mickey Hargitay, the actor and world champion bodybuilder who was married to 1950s sex siren Jayne Mansfield, and whose daughter is Emmy-winning actress Mariska Hargitay, has died in Los Angeles last week, a spokesman said. He was 80.
• • Born Miklos Hargitay in 1926, he emigrated from his native Hungary to the United States after World War II. He became interested in bodybuilding in the 1950s and was named Mr. Universe, Mr. America, and Mr. Olympia in 1955.
• • He parlayed his perfect physique into a performing career when Mae West tapped him to be one of the musclemen in her stage show: "The Mae West Revue."
• • While performing with Mae West in Las Vegas, Mickey Hargitay met Jayne Mansfield [1933-1967], whom he married in 1957.
• • Some of his films were: "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" * * "The Loves of Hercules" * * "Promises! Promises!" * * "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"
• • Hargitay and Mansfield had three children together, including Mariska, before divorcing in 1964.
• • Arnold Schwarzenegger played Mickey Hargitay in a 1982 TV movie "The Jayne Mansfield Story."
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Mae West
• • Photo: Paul Novak, Mae West, Mickey Hargitay • • 1955 • •
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Mae West.

Mae: "Wicked Age" 1927

By September 1927 Mae West was rehearsing the new play she wrote: an expose of the crooked bathing beauty competitions of the 1920s. Anton F. Scibilla - - who was also a producer of Texas Guinan's revue "Padlocks of 1927" - - was billed as the producer of "The Wicked Age."
• • The play's setting is a small seaside town: Bridgeport, New Jersey.
• • The role Mae played was that of the high-strung, ambitious, impatient leading lady Evelyn "Babe" Carson. When her manager takes Babe to task for her ill temper, reminding her that she is hardly the Queen of Sheba, she shoots back with a spritz of Yiddish: "That piker. She was only queen over some Pollacks - - while I'm the queen of all the bathing beauties!"
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • circa 1927-1928 • •
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Mae West.

Vote for Mae!

In 1959, a few months before Mae West's autobiography would be published, The Las Vegas Sun ran a spoof headline about the presidential race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Which new candidate would be campaigning to run the White House? Mae West was about to launch her "third party" bid from the Sahara Hotel, said the Sun, all in fun. How many think that Mae West probably would have done a better job on Pennsylvania Avenue than actor Ronald Reagan did?
• • Maybe you can't vote for an actress in November, however, you CAN buy Simon Louvish's new biography Mae West: It Ain't No Sin, which will have its American release in mid-November 2006. You'll see this picture of Mae in his book and lots more.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: page 386 Mae West biography by Simon Louvish • • publication date: 16 November 2006 • •
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Mae West.

Mae: Theatre Mag 1928

Look who was profiled in the September 1928 issue of Theatre Magazine! Texas Guinan was written up because of her show "Padlocks of 1927" and Mae West, darling of Broadway, was depicted in her star-turn as Diamond Lil. What a versatile actress. In 1928, Mae was wearing many hats - - playwright, casting director, producer, charismatic star - - and wearing all of them so well.

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Mae West
• • Illustration: This is one panel from the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" that had been on display at Village Restaurant • • August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • • Mae West & Texas Guinan were featured in Theatre Magazine September 1928 • •
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Mae West.

Mae: 11 September 1933

On 11 September 1933 MAE WEST wrote an enthusiastic letter of encouragement to certain American theatres to help promote her new star-turn "I'm No Angel."
• • This letter {shown here} was mailed to the Manager, Affiliated Theatres, MAVINS THEATRE, Reseve, Louisiana.
• • Wrote Mae: "There never was any kind of dame, anywhere, that worried more about her figure than a showman does about his! I mean the one he reads and either weeps or sings about at the end of the week. . . ."
• • "I'm No Angel" grossed $2.2 million.


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Mae West
• • Photo: MAE WEST • • by George Hurrell, 1933 • •
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Mae West.

Uma Films Where Mae Wowed

The Norwalk Advocate printed an article about the Palace Theatre, a showplace that opened in 1914 and featured MAE WEST onstage along with other legendary performers.

- - - excerpt - - -
• • Crew preps Palace for 'In Bloom' • •
By Alexandra Fenwick, Staff Writer
The Norwalk Advocate

NORWALK -- The marquee at the Palace Theater in South Norwalk has not advertised show titles for several years. But recently, a crew of scenic artists working on an Uma Thurman movie put the names of fictitious films on the marquee for Palace Production Center.
• • The artists were preparing the facade of the historic North Main Street theater for its role in "In Bloom," based on Laura Kasischke's book "The Life Before Her Eyes," about the survivor of a school shooting.
• • The scene at the Palace is a flashback, and the fake movies billed on the marquee and in posters include clues to a plot twist, art director Miguel Lopez-Castillo said.
• • Scenes will be shot in the lobby of the nearby SoNo Regent 8 theater, said Zvi Cole, director of marketing for Crown Theatres nationwide.
• • After wrapping at the Regent, filming begins nightly outside the Palace. . . .
• • The Palace, opened in 1914, has hosted acts such as Mae West, Harry Houdini, and W.C. Fields. The director of "The Stepford Wives" screened dailies there in 2004, but the Palace hasn't been the setting for a film.
• • That may change.
• • Wendy Lambert, president of the Palace Production Center, said producers are exploring the tax break.
• • "We're intrigued about the idea and interested in opening our doors because . . . we've got a unique location and . . . a state-of-the-art facility," Lambert said.
• • Crown Theatres has worked with the Connecticut Film Commission to allow producers and directors to review footage at their multiplexes, but never was featured in a film, Cole said.
• • The scenic artists, members of United Scenic Artists Local 829 out of New York City, began working Tuesday at the Palace. . . .
Originally published: 7 September 2006
Source:www.norwalkadvocate.com/
- - excerpt - -
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Mae West
• • Photo: MAE WEST, 19, on a songsheet in early 1913 • •
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Mae West.

Mae at home: 200 W 57

After their mother died in January 1930, the three siblings decamped to Manhattan.

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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Mae West
• • Photo: 200 West 57th Street • • MAE WEST was living here with her brother and sister in 1930 • •
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Mae West.

Two More Days of Mae

Mae West's uninhibited exhibition will be on view only for a few more days. Come up and see Mae while her images are still at Village Restaurarant.

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Mae West
• • Photo: comments on the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage for the events in August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
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Mae West.

Mae-Days in America Oggi

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• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Mae West
• • Photo: comments on the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage in August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
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Mae West.