Mae West: St. Louis

Actor John Huston, enthralled by Diamond Lil's rendition of "Frankie and Johnny" on Broadway in 1928, gave MAE WEST a copy of this fascinatin' news clipping that had appeared in the St. Louis-Post Dispatch on the 19th of October in 1899.
• • Note: Frankie Baker's weapon was a knife — — not a noisy gun [in the newspaper account].
• • The unnamed third party in this fatal love triangle was Alice Pryar, an 18-year-old prostitute [nine years younger than Frankie Baker]. In the song, the "other woman" is called Nellie Bly.

• • Amid the Suffering . . . • •
• • .Allen Britt's brief experience in the art of love cost him his life. He died at the City Hospital Wednesday night from knife wounds inflicted by Frankie Baker, an ebony hued cake-walker. Britt was also colored. He was seventeen years old. He met Frankie at the Orange Blossom's ball — — and was smitten with her. Thereafter they were lovers.
• • In the rear of 212 Targee Street lived Britt. There his sweetheart wended her way a few night's ago and lectured Allen for his alleged duplicity. Allen's reply was not intended to cheer the dusky damsel and a glint of steel gleamed in the darkness. An instant later the boy fell to the floor mortally wounded.
• • Frankie Baker is locked up at the Four Courts.
• • The City Hospital's account was quite different.
• • According to a doctor, Allen Britt died at 2:15 AM on the 19th of October 1899 with a bullet wound of the liver. He lived seventeen years in the city [St. Louis, Missouri] before his death. He was born in Kentucky.
• • Allen Britt's occupation at the time of entering the emergency room was given as "job worker."
• • George and Nancy Britt, Allen's parents, buried their son in St. Peter's Cemetery on 22 October 1899.
• • Why was the ballad called "Frankie and Johnny" and not "Frankie and Allen"?
• • When John Huston interviewed her in 1929, Nancy Britt was still living at 32 Johnson [formerly Targee] Street in St. Louis. Mrs. Britt had asked the composer, she claimed, not to use her son's name. Perhaps because a "john" is a customer of a prostitute, Johnny was substituted.
• • These details were provided to the Mae West blog exclusively by NYC historian LindaAnn Loschiavo, author of the play "Courting Mae West." If you copy this info, please affix this CREDIT LINE in full.
• • Tring to escape notoriety, Frankie Baker moved around. She wound up at the Eastern Oregon State Hospital. According to news accounts, she was eventually committed to this facility, where she died shortly thereafter on 10 January 1952.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Cartoon: • • Mae West as Diamond Lil/ Lady Lou • • 1933 • •
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