Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Mae West: Brooklyn Daily Errors

Though MAE WEST spent years in Brooklyn, there is no proof she ever lived on Franklin Avenue, a thoroughfare situated in the Greenpoint section of Kings County. And though primary sources have shown where John and Matilda West were living when their feisty little daughter was born at home — — the delivery assisted by a mid-wife "on a cool night in a hot month" — — reporters keep getting it wrong and spreading misinformation that bobbleheads will copy and paste.
• • Let's do the math. Since Mae West started life in August 1893, publications and writers have had over 115 years to nail down her birthplace, eh?
• • Vernon Parker reminds us that Greenpoint was designated as an historic district in 1982, the area where Charles Pratt’s Astral Oil Works refined kerosene. "One point of interest in Greenpoint today is the Astral Apartments at 184 Franklin Avenue, originally built to house workers from Pratt’s Astral Oil (and where it is believed that screen star Mae West was born in 1893)," writes columnist Vernon Parker in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle [located at 30 Henry Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 — www.brooklyneagle.com —] on 14 September 2009.

• •
Wrong, false, and incorrect. Moreover, Mae West was not born anywhere in Greenpoint.
• • Sheesh, fellas! Don't make us come down there.
• • The Brooklyn Daily Eagle can be reached at 718-422-7400.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Add to Google
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
Mae West.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:25 PM

    Franklin avenue is in Bed -Stuy . It is Franklin STREET that is in Greenpoint Brooklyn 11222

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura Hofmann4:53 PM

    There is no Franklin Ave in Greenpoint. There is a Franklin St. Perhaps that's the reason for the confusion.
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  3. She was also said to have lived at 810 Humboldt St., between Calyer St. and Meserole Ave. An uncle on her mother's side, Pete Doelger, owned a saloon, located at 96 Berry Street. It's still there; it's called teddy's Bar and Grill now.

    ReplyDelete