Mae West: Life and Kentucky

Imagine mingling with movie screen legend MAE WEST or feeling the force from Princess Leia of "Star Wars" — — that is the enticing first sentence of a notification about this year's Small Business Expo in Northern Kentucky organized by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. These clever planners selected a Tinseltown theme for their annual event, scheduled for 28 April 2011 — — "Hollywood: Small businesses are the stars of the community!"
• • Writing for nky.cincinnati.com, Gannett reporter Jeff McKinney explains that Northern Kentucky's exhibitors will be dressed as Mae West and other celebrities, "representing small businesses that are stars in the local economy. ..."
• • The half-day gathering will be at Receptions Inc. on 1379 Donaldson Road, Erlanger, Kentucky. Title sponsor is Hollywood Casino and the exhibitor booth space has already been sold out. If you are in the Bluegrass State, let us know how well the Mae West impersonator was chosen and did her job.
• • 18 April 1969 • •
• • Nationally, the news racks on 18 April 1969 held the hot-off-the-presses issue of Life Magazine with Mae West on the front cover.
• • The rather startling visual composition revealed the 75-year-old actress in her mirrored bed, garbed in white satin, and — — in the foreground — — was the exotic black long-tailed Tricky, Mae's pet woolly monkey, who had joined her Hollywood household in Apartment 611 just two years before. Reflecting on his 20 hours of conversations with the screen legend, reporter Richard Meryman called the actress a "masterpiece of self-preservation" and acknowledged with admiration her "mind-spinning version of the world" ["76 — — And Still Going Strong" in Life Magazine, issue for the week 18 April 1969].
• • Mae was photographed for Life by the 63-year-old lensman Philippe Halsman, who was born in Latvia on 2 May 1906. Aided by his friend Albert Einstein, Halsman emigrated to the United States. A portrait he took of the scientist became a US postage stamp in 1966.
• • Philippe Halsman began working with Salvador Dali and also with Life Magazine (from 1942 onwards).
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Writing about a popular hide-away and tavern in Castella, California where JFK may have rendezvoused with Marilyn Monroe, local historian Dottie Smith writes: "Marilyn Monroe signed her name in lipstick on the wall at Mike Padula's bar. That in itself wasn't unusual, because many other stars' signatures such as Mae West, Jimmy Dorsey, Lena Horn and Cary Grant graced the mirrors and the walls of Mike's Place bar. ..."
• • Source: Column: "Travelin' in Time: JFK, Monroe stayed here, so goes the story" written by Dottie Smith for Redding Record Searchlight; posted on 15 April 2011.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1903rd blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1969 • •
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