Mae West: Bloomers

Playing to the balcony and the barbell crowd till the very end, MAE WEST was starring in a Hollywood movie well into her seventh decade.
• • Feeling glum on his birthday, a West Coast columnist pulled this fact out of his favorite reference work: "Tolstoy's Bicycle" by Jeremy Baker.
• • According to John Bogert, who's been thumbing the pages since 1982, "The book is nothing more, and nothing less, than a collection of birthday facts telling us what the famous and infamous were doing on certain birthdays. . . . The book's premise feeds into the natural human desire to measure ourselves against others, especially the rich and famous or talented and famous or just famous and famous."
• • While Mae-mavens often know what the busy performer would have been involved in during mid-August, it may come as a surprise to see what other notable names were up to on their birthdays. John Bogert reminds his readers that at age 17 Henry VIII ascended the throne and Jack London became a sailor; at 18 Humphrey Bogart was expelled from school, Cary Grant was a Coney Island stilt-walker at 18, and Chubby Checker recorded "The Twist" at 18.
• • Bogert also marvels at mature achievement, for instance, that, at 69, Ronald Reagan became president and John McCain is still rolling at 73. At 70, Simon Wiesenthal was still hunting Nazis.
• • John Bogert adds: When she was 77, Mae West made her last film, while Amos Alonzo Stagg was named college coach of the year. At 81, George Burns made "Oh, God." At 88, Michelangelo died. So did Hearst, while Leopold Stokowski signed a six-year recording contract at 94. ...
• • No late bloomer Mae.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Is there still time to be a late bloomer?"
• • BY: John Bogert, Staff Columnist | The Daily Breeze
• • Published in: The Daily Breeze [Torrance, CA 90503] — — www.dailybreeze.com
• • Published on: 8 October 2009
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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