Mae West: Curtains in Cleveland

MAE WEST, who avoided discussing death or illness, might have been horrified to learn that a death cab was shuttling her back and forth to a Cleveland theatre. In 1941, however, when Mae was booked for a week at the Palace Theatre, her chauffeur was the local funeral home director.
• • Born in 1914, Howard W. Edwards had proudly displayed in his home a photo of himself with Mae West. He often retold the tale of driving the brassy blonde from the Statler Hotel to Mass every morning — — and on to the Palace during her weeklong engagement. Edwards was hired to drive the limousine that was leased from Cleveland Memorial Temple Funeral Home, where he worked, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer [3 October 2007].
• • Plain Dealer Reporter Maggi Martin wrote: "At 14, Edwards decided on a funeral career when he worked as a professional pallbearer in New York City [in 1928] as an apprentice at Walter B. Cook Inc., the busiest funeral parlor in the city. He earned 50 cents for carrying the casket out of the home and another 50 cents for carrying it into church."
• • A native Clevelander, Howard W. Edwards became a licensed Ohio funeral director in 1936. He owned Edwards Funeral Home in East Cleveland for nearly 40 years.
• • After he died on 28 September 2007 at age 93, his friends told the media that none of his passengers had left the lasting impression that Mae West did.
• • Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
• • Byline: Maggi Martin wrote the obituary that this info was extracted from.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.