Mae West: Kliph-hanger

MAE WEST starred in the motion picture "Go West Young Man" [1936].
• • Film editing was done by Ray Curtiss who was born on 17 February 1896 in California. Ray Curtiss died at age 69 in Los Angeles in the month of March — — on 17 March 1965.
• • Happy St. Patrick's Day • •
• • An Interview with Steve Rossi — Part Two • •
• • Interviewer Kliph Nesteroff writes: I understand that your first major show business gig was in a Mae West revue.
• • Steve Rossi replies: Yes, I did that in 1953. I had just turned twenty-one. I had been playing the lead in several operettas in university; Desert Song, Oklahoma... I got signed to the Civic Light Opera Company by Edwin Lester, who was the head of that in Los Angeles. Mae West saw me in "Vagabond King" at the Carthay Circle. She came backstage with her manager. They told me they wanted me to play a straight man and singing role in her new show Muscle Men. She had ten muscle men in the show and then she had Charlie O'Karn as director and choreographer of the show. She didn't like his ideas, so she fired him and asked me to help her put the show together (laughs). Which I did. In fact, I wrote the opening song for her and it was a huge hit. It was called "Everyone Knows It's a Man's World." I directed the number and we had ten guys on pedestals. You'd step on a pedal and it would turn them around. They were just wearing G-strings and they were all greased up behind a screen. Before she came down the staircase, this was at The Sahara Hotel, she'd walk down... there was no introduction, just her walking down in the spotlight. She walks down to the front to a little raised area in front of the orchestra. ...
• • Continue reading Kliph's interview and find out what else Steve Rossi says about Mae West: http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2011/03/interview-with-steve-rossi-part-two.html
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • City Historian Mark Simonson writes from Oneonta, NY: The Molinari's menu had no date but appears to be of post-Prohibition vintage. Molinari's was once found on South Main Street. The most expensive item on the menu was a "Porterhouse Steak" for 75 cents. One half of the inside menu is food, the other half lists adult beverages. The "Bonded Whiskey Highball" and "Brandy Egg Nogg" were the most expensive drinks, at 45 cents. I chuckled at cocktails called "Boop-Oop-a-Doop" for 25 cents and a "Mae West" at 35 cents. One has to wonder what was in a "Molinari's Special," at 35 cents. ...
• • Source: Column "Interesting mail from Croatia, Florida, Otego and Cooperstown" written by Mark Simonson — The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY; posted on 12 March 2011
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Richard DuBois, 1953 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.