Mae West: A Man in Mansfield

MAE WEST, a formidable woman, preferred to remain the spunky heroine of her own dramas. She was a no-holds-barred affront to feminine passivity.
• • Nonetheless, recall that Eve was not passive — — and yet a viper invaded her garden.
• • Likewise for Mae West (who played Eve in December 1937, remember?), whose vacuum-packed perceptions about her sultry hold on the bodybuilders who comprised "The Mae West Revue" were shattered when a blonde vixen slithered into the nightclub. The serpent's stage name was Jayne Mansfield [1933-1967].
• • Like the light in summer, the starlet was young and wholly unsupervised. When she espied Mickey Hargitay, he was done for.
• • These edenic moments from the 1950s were recently recounted by sports journalist Mr. Flip. In his Baltimore Sun column "The Flip Side" [31 December 2007], he revisits the calamitous evening.
• • He writes: And let Mr. Flip veer off a bit more by passing along this perhaps apocryphal anecdote: Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay supposedly met when the actress spotted him as part of Mae West's revue at a nightclub. His job was to pose and show off his impressive physique. When Mansfield's dinner partner asked her what she wanted, she replied, "I'll have a steak and the man on the left."
• • Well, presumably Mansfield got her steak along with her stake in Hargitay's happiness. We all know how it ended, of course, but for one moment there in a New York City nightspot, Mae was forced to share the spotlight. Ignis aurum probat!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.