Friday, November 16, 2007

Mae West: 22 November 1980

Mae West, whose 1926 Broadway play "SEX" is having a revival in a West Coast theatre this season, breathed her last on 22 November 1980. 

• • These somber moments are described by her biographer Jill Watts: 
• • Soon [Mae West's] personal physician arrived. He announced that nothing more could be done. [Paul] Novak summoned a priest from the church just down the block, who gave Mae a blessing. Only a few minutes later, at 10:30 A.M., Mae West passed away [at the age of 87 years old].
• • ... At [Stanley] Musgrove's urging, Paul Novak organized a private service. On the afternoon of November 25, 1980, one hundred of Mae's family, friends, and acquaintance gathered at Forest Lawn's Old North Church to memorialize Mae West.
• • ... That night Mae's body was flown home to Brooklyn, New York and the following morning Paul Novak and Dolly Dempsey arrived at Cypress Hills for the interment. Two priests and a bishop offered short prayers and blessed the casket.
 • • [Source: Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Author: Jill Watts. NY: Oxford University Press, 2001.]

• • Her funeral was invitation only, at the Old North Church in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, California. 100 mourners attended. Mae was laid out in a white negligee in an open casket. The lower half was covered in white roses. A Presbyterian minister characterized her as a "good woman," and that "goodness had everything to do with it," a play on her famous line. As mourners left, "Frankie and Johnny," the song she sang in Diamond Lil, was being played on the organ. 
• • [Source: Mae West page on "Find a Death" website.]

 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Mae West was born on 17 August 1893 in Brooklyn, NY.
• • Mae West died on 22 November 1980 in Los Angeles, CA. 
• • The Empress of Sex lives forever in our hearts.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________ Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml


• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • • 


Mae West.

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