MAE WEST was surrounded by a large cast when she starred in "Catherine Was Great," which opened at the Shubert Theatre in August 1944. When Don De Leo was offered the role of Ambassador Murad Pasha, it was the 40-year-old actor first time on Broadway. After that show, he was seen as Jerry Bonanza in "Billion Dollar Baby" and in "Don't Drink the Water" among other productions.
• • Born in the month of June — — on 30 June 1904 — — Italian American actor Don De Leo typically was cast in ethnic roles. In his first motion picture "Lying Lips" [1939] he played Farina, a brutish Italian American club owner. In his final film, "The Incident" [1967] he played a father, Mr. Carmatti. After being involved with 14 productions on the big screen and on TV, De Leo concluded his professional career as a standby in the long-running comedy "Don't Drink the Water" written by Woody Allen and produced by David Merrick. Don De Leo died in New York City on 14 August 1979. He was 75.
• • Where They Lived — — Jimmy Walker • • 
• • Born in Greenwich Village in June 1881, James John Walker was the Mayor of New York City from 1926 — 1932. A ladies man, Beau James lived with his wife on Saint Luke's Place and shared a love-nest with his mistress Betty Compton, a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, on Gay Street, a curvaceous lane in the shadow of Jefferson Market Court.
• • Handsome, well-connected, and smartly dressed, Walker waltzed into City Hall during a time of great prosperity and the initial years of his mayoralty were filled with many public works projects.
• • However, Walker's term was also known for the proliferation of speakeasies during the Prohibition Era. His romances with "chorus girls" and visits to night clubs were widely known. And he was reluctant to play the part of City Hall Grinch when it came to muzzling frisky Broadway plays — — such as "Sex" — — until his Deputy Mayor forced his hand in February 1927. Eventually, a corruption scandal pressured him to resign. He did leave his wife, Janet, for his lover Betty without impairing his popularity though.
• • In Her Own Words • • 
• • This hilarious conversation between Mae West and Queen Marie of Romania appeared in the magazine Vanity Fair — — "Impossible Interviews — no. 7" [June 1932 issue].
• • Miguel Covarrubias’s “Impossible Interviews” series traditionally portrayed two contemporary figures from opposite ends of the political, social, ideological, or artistic spectrum, in other words individuals who, in reality, would not have ever met nor cozied up to a fireside to chat.
• • DOWAGER-QUEEN MARIE: . . . feel so neglected these days. Nobody reads what I write, nobody wants my autobiography, takes my picture for the newsreel, or interviews me or asks me to endorse a cold cream. Nobody cares if my little heart breaks — — into print.
• • MAE WEST: What I mean, Sister, lemme put you wise. Royalty don't get you any place, any more. Today they only want the kind of a Queen they can hold on their laps. Lookit me, for instance. Every other inch a Queen, from hips to whoozis.
• • MARIE (proudly): Do you mean I'm not a Queen?
• • MAE WEST: In that outfit, Sister, you ain't even a two spot. Why, you haven't got a royal air.
• • MARIE (thoughtfully): You may be right although Carol gave me the royal air a year ago.
• • MAE WEST: If you want to be a real Queen like I am you got to grin and bare it! Take off those black veils. Be yourself, Queen! Show 'em a royal flush!
• • MARIE: Then will I really be a Queen, like you, Mae?
• • MAE WEST (reassuringly): Of course, dearie. Aren't we all sisters under the skin?
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • California reporter Douglas Alger wrote: A billboard of a woman in a low-cut bra, lace underwear, stockings and high heels has angered a group of residents who say the image demeans women and is inappropriate for children. During the month that the sign — — an advertisement for the Naughty But Nice lingerie shop in Saugus — — has been on Soledad Canyon Road, offended citizens have gathered more than 1,500 signatures asking that the city do something about it. The billboard's critics say the advertisement — — which shows the woman straddling a chair and also includes the Mae West quote,"When women go wrong men go right after them" — — is more suitable for an adult magazine. ...
• • Source: Article: "Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Lingerie Shop's Revealing Billboard Is Criticized by Residents" written by Douglas Alger, Los Angeles Times; published on 16 June 1994
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1977th 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 • • June 1932 • •
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The hot number that MAE WEST performed with Rock Hudson during the annual Oscar ceremony in 1958 — — "Baby, It's Cold Outside" — — was a pop standard with words and music created fourteen years earlier by Frank Loesser.
• • In 1944, Loesser wrote the contrapuntal duet and premiered the song with his wife at their Navarro Hotel house-warming party. The female voice in the song is called "The Mouse" and the male "The Wolf." The lyrics consist of The Wolf's attempts to convince her to stay with him at the end of a date; her indecisive protests reveal that although she feels obligated to go home, she is tempted to stay, partially because, as the title suggests, "it's cold outside."
• • It's a bit ironic that a cool guy born at the end of a very hot month [June 1910 was a scorcher in The Big Apple] is most known for the refrain "it's cold outside."
• • A native New Yorker like Mae West, Frank Henry Loesser [29 June 1910 — 26 July 1969] was a versatile composer and lyricist.
• • Frank never studied music formally, though he couldn't help coming under its influence in his childhood. His father was a distinguished German-born teacher of classical piano and his older brother, Arthur, was a renowned concert pianist, musicologist, and music critic. Frank wrote his first song at the age of six.
• • During World War II, he wrote 1942's "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Formerly a successful lyricist in collaboration with other composers, this was the first song for which Loesser composed the melody in addition to the lyric.
• • Frank Loesser was awarded a Grammy Award in 1961 for Best Original Cast Show Album for "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying."
• • However, he wrote well-known number for several Broadway musicals including hits for "Guys and Dolls" (1950).
• • A lifelong smoker, Frank Loesser died of lung cancer at age 59.
• • "Myra Breckinridge" came to the wide screen in June 1970 • • 
• • The novel begins, "I am Myra Breckinridge whom no man will ever possess."
• • The very busy Leticia Van Allen character, who sang "You've Gotta Taste All the Fruit," was costumed by Edith Head. This gown was designed for Mae West.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • In August 1950 "Sunset Boulevard" was released in the USA.
• • Adam Jahnke writes: Today, it's impossible to picture anyone as faded silent film star Norma Desmond other than Gloria Swanson. Try to imagine how different the film would have been with Wilder's first choice, Mae West. Mae West turned it down, claiming she was too young, and after considering such luminaries from the silent era as Mary Pickford and Pola Negri, Wilder found the perfect choice in Swanson. . . .
• • Source: Article: "An Honor To Be Nominated: Sunset Blvd." written by Adam Jahnke, Columnist, The Morton Report; posted on 27 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1976th 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 • • Leticia costume, 1970 • •
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In 1912, MAE WEST, already proficient at the piano keyboard, learned how to play drums. Her boyfriend Joe Schenck, who had his own band, taught her. Then 19 years old, Mae was living in the Ridgewood section of New York City.
• • Joe Schenck rehearsed with Mae and his musicians in a clubhouse located at 70-12 Cypress Hills, Ridgewood, NY.
• • Born in Brooklyn, New York on 2 June 1891, Joseph Thuma Schenck was a musician, a pianist, and a singer with strong ambitions. During the day, Schenck held a conductor's job on a trolleycar line in Canarsie. In 1912, the five-foot-nine hopeful began chatting with his motorman August Von Glahn, a genial baritone five years his senior. In their spare time, they put together a variety act featuring Joe Schenck on piano providing lively accompaniment as the duo sang and did comedy routines. Before long, Von Glahn assumed his stage name "Gus Van" and thus they became Van and Schenck, a vaudeville team and the best known of all the two-men singing combinations. Before long, the clean-cut Brooklynites became vaudeville stars and made appearances in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921. Additionally, they cut numerous phonograph records for the Victor, Emerson, and Columbia record companies.
• • By 1923, Joe Schenck had married his first wife but he and Mae kept in touch. When Van and Schenck opened The Silver Slipper, a new night spot on Broadway, Mae was in the audience. When they weren't in the Follies, they were booked across the country in every major vaudeville theater and seen on song sheets that promised the buyer that the number was "successfully introduced by Van and Schenck." Schenck soon hooked up with his second wife Lillian Broderick [1895 — 1946], although he remained childless. Then he and Gus starred in a motion picture with sexy Bessie Love "They Learned About Women" [1930]. Despite the professional heights they hit for 18 years, there was one unfortunate circumstance. Joe had developed heart disease.
• • Schenck died at age 39 while working in Detroit in the month of June — — on 28 June 1930. Heartbroken, Lillian never remarried. She bought a family plot and buried her young husband in The Evergreens Cemetery, 1629 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, where they share a headstone.
• • Floyd Dell, Eugene O'Neill, and "The Drag" • •
• • During the 1920s, Mae West and Jim Timony spent time at the most popular gay nightspot — — Paul and Joe's on West Ninth Street — — famous for its drag cabaret. In coded language, Paul and Joe's (run by two Italian family men who lived in New Jersey) was careful to drop hints about being a place that welcomed pansies. These skillfully worded pansy ads appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere.
• • Floyd Dell's book "Love in Greenwich Village" (1926) described this former speakeasy on West Ninth Street, raising people's awareness about the drag performers there. This is the night spot that inspired Mae's first gay play "The Drag."
• • Born in Barry, Illinois in the month of June — — on 28 June 1887 — — Floyd Dell was a radical journalist and novelist whose fiction examined the changing mores in sex and politics among American bohemians before and after World War I.
• • From 1910 until 1920 Floyd Dell was a major force in American literature. In Greenwich Village, with his buddy George Cram Cook, Dell was at the center of the Provincetown Players who fostered the career of Eugene O'Neill and invented the modern American drama. Floyd Dell died on 23 July 1969 in Bethesda, Maryland.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • On 27 June 1954, "The Mae West Review" made its debut in Las Vegas at the Sahara Hotel. 
• • Variety's man-on-the-aisle was in the room and reported on the scene: “In the same Congo Room that saw the Vegas debut of Marlene Dietrich 10 months ago, and the sensation caused by her ‘topless’ gown, Diamond Lil . . . swayed her ball-bearing hips on a nightclub floor for the first time in her career. Unlike Miss Dietrich, she bares nothing — — yet reveals everything. . . .”
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1975th 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 • • 1954 • •
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MAE WEST worked with John L. Golden, who was given credit for "Call Me Flo," one of the musical numbers created for "A Winsome Widow" [1912] and later published. Hired to play the role of La Petite Daffy, Mae was involved in this musical through its entire run from 11 April — 7 September 1912.
• • Born in New York City during the month of June — — on 27 June 1974 — — John L. Golden attended New York University and spent time employed as a reporter before turning his pen to stage plays. Whether as an actor, a theatre owner, producer, or lyricist/ composer, Golden was actively engaged in a Broadway production from 1900 for 55 years (when he died). This formidable font of energy was an ASCAP charter member, founder of the Stage Door Canteen and Stage Relief Fund, owner of the Golden Theatre, and a legendary figure in the Times Square area.
• • John Golden died of a heart attack in Bayside, New York on 17 June 1955. He was ten days away from his 81st birthday.
• • On 27 June 1954 in Las Vegas • • 
• • "We didn't know what to expect when the Mae West Review opened at The Sahara on June 27th," Steve Rossi told me. "But as soon as the women in the audience saw the bodybuilders, my God, they started to storm the stage. Well-dressed ladies in gowns and furs and diamonds — — and the hotel security had to do something fast. This had never been done before. There was quite a delay until they got everybody back in their seats!" Rossi recalled about their highly anticipated debut in Vegas.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Setting his prologue in Chicago in January 1933, N.Y. Times reporter Don Van Natta, Jr. writes: The owners of the Palace were especially worried. Built just six years earlier to take advantage of all the shrillness of America's giddiest and gaudiest decade, with embellishments designed to evoke the royal palaces at Versailles and Fontainebleau, this monument to Roaring Twenties excess was now struggling for survival. Formerly the tough-ticket showplace for headliners such as Mae West, Jimmy Durante, Sophie Tucker, and Bob Hope, the Palace had been relegated to featuring also-rans performing before a valley of vacant maroon seats. It seemed that everyone in Chicago was hoarding their nickels and dimes for the city's new movie houses or staying home to listen to Eddie Cantor and Bing Crosby on the radio. ...
• • Source: Excerpt: "Prologue: Matinee at the Palace" written by Don Van Natta, Jr. at the start of his biography "Wonder Girl"; published by Little, Brown & Co. in 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1974th 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 • • June 1954 • •
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MAE WEST worked with several Broadway veterans in her motion picture "Go West Young Man" [1936], the cinema version of a blockbuster hit onstage.
• • Stage star G. P. Huntley was briefly seen as Philip in the "Drifting Lady" sequence. Born in Boston on 26 February 1904, Bruce Timothy Huntley was the son of two stage players G. P. Huntley (1868 — 1927) and Eva Kelly (1880 — 1948). During his long tenure on The Great White Way, the versatile performer was seen in musicals, sad melodramas such as "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" [1924], as well as romantic comedies such as "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" [1926], and Shakespearean tragedies such as "Othello" [1937].
• • By 1931 the six-footer had ventured into cinematic fare and was seen in 38 motion pictures such as "Two-Faced Woman" [1941] with Garbo. His final role on the big screen was as Rugged in "Journey for Margaret" [1942] when he was 38 years old. G. P. Huntley died at age 67 in Woodland Hills, California in the month of June — — on 26 June 1971.
• • Annual Mae West Tribute 2011 • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill" 
• • Mae West's birthday is August 17th. An upcoming Mae West event that is open to the public will be held on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." Rare vintage illustrations will show you how the buildings and blocks looked as these two theatre people saw them.• • Sites will include the Village speakeasies where Eugene drank himself into oblivion, and where Mae socialized and bent elbows with Texas Guinan, Walter Winchell, and Barney Gallant. Get ready to walk on the wild side.• • Each Mae West walking tour ends with a raffle of Mae-themed prizes. Sponsors may inquire about suitable product placements for August 14th.• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Short fiction author Danzy Senna has set one of her short stories in Hollywood. Setting the scene for her two bi-racial characters Helga and Dave, Ms Senna writes: The Chandler stood out on that strip of beautiful old buildings. It had been built a year before we moved in, despite protests from the old guard who said it was tacky, would ruin the row of otherwise historical buildings from the Golden Age of Hollywood, buildings that had housed the likes of Mae West, Ava Gardner, and Cary Grant. The Chandler was ugly and new and sat at the edge of the country club, with a banner in front that read now leasing — — the Chandler — — an elegant apartment enclave. As you walked up the ramp to the building, another sign, smaller, encouragingly said, "You're Almost Home!" ...
• • Source: Excerpt: "What's the Matter with Helga and Dave?" written by Danzy Senna in her short story collection "You Are Free"; published by Riverhead in 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1973rd 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 • • 1936 • •
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New York, the same municipality that jailed MAE WEST for the crime of staging her gay plays in a theatre during the 1920s, became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage legislation on Friday, 24 June 2011. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law. Too bad Mae, a native New Yorker, is not here to witness this historic moment, however, scores of American divorce lawyers are already shopping for expensive foreign sportscars and penthouses on Central Park South.
• • Tale of the Tape • •
• • When Mae West was fitted for her costumes for “Myra Breckinridge,” the actress was then 77 years old. Nevertheless, her waist size was a trim 26 inches. How many movie queens merit a starring role after age 65 anyway? Greta Garbo retired from the screen at age 36 and Marilyn Monroe was dead before her 37th birthday.
• • It is interesting that a much younger starlet (who was five and a half inches taller than Mae) recently had her iconic movieland outfits assessed by the tapemeasure last week. Guess what? It's easier to be thin at age 29 than at 77. Marilyn Monroe was 29 when she starred in "The Seven Year Itch" [1955]. The 5' 5½" actress fit into costumes that brought her measurements to light — — bust size 34 and waist size 22. These items were scrutinized in advance of the sale of Debbie Reynolds’s extraordinary collection of Hollywood costumes, props, and cinema memorabilia.
• • Virginia Postrel covered the Debbie Reynolds auction held at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Bloomberg News reporter Virginia Postrel writes: Despite decades of effort, Debbie Reynolds never managed to find funding for the Hollywood motion-picture history museum she envisioned. ...
• • The coordination required to display the costumes for photography and publicity also brought new insights into the Hollywood figures of the past. Virginia Postrel explains: In fact, the average waist measurement of the four Marilyn Monroe [1926 — 1962] dresses was a mere 22 inches, according to Lisa Urban, the Hollywood consultant who dressed the mannequins and took measurements for me. Even Monroe’s bust was a modest 34 inches. That’s not an anecdote. That’s data.
• • Virginia Postrel comments on Mae West's measurements and others: The other actresses’ costumes provided further context. “It’s like half a person,” marveled a visitor at the sight of Claudette Colbert’s gold-lame “Cleopatra” gown (waist 18 inches). “That waist is the size of my thigh,” said a tall, slim man, looking at Carole Lombard’s dress from “No Man of Her Own” (a slight exaggeration — — it was 21 inches). Approaching Katharine Hepburn’s “Mary of Scotland” costumes, a plump woman declared with a mixture of envy and disgust, “Another skinny one.” The pattern she noticed was real. At my request, Lisa Urban took waist measurements on garments worn by 16 different stars, from Mary Pickford in 1929 (20 inches) to Barbra Streisand in 1969 (24 inches). The thickest waist she found was Mae West’s 26 inches in “Myra Breckinridge,” when the actress was 77 years old. ...
• • Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg View columnist. Her article was "Auction Ends Myth of Plump Marilyn Monroe" written by Virginia Postrel for Bloomberg; posted on 24 June 2011
• • On 25 June 1926 • •
• • On this date Mae West entertained at a fundraiser held at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan.
• • Johnny Mercer [1909 — 1976] • •
• • In "Sextette" [1978], there is a very impressive rendition of "Hooray for Hollywood" by a large cast of performers. The iconic song was written by Johnny Mercer, who died in the month of June — — on 25 June 1976 — — from a brain tumor at age 66.
• • Notable • •
• • New Zealand-born Pamela Stephenson is promoting her book "Sex Life: How Our Sexual Encounters and Experiences Define Who We Are." The blonde and buxom author is a former comedienne, TV star, and (lately) a celebrity psychologist. Her new release is a 500-page voyage through the way of all flesh, liberally punctuated and peppered by quotations from such sexual luminaries as Mae West, Mick Jagger, etc. We wish the author well as she navigates her global book tour.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • One section of Brooklyn that Mae West called home (briefly) was Greenpoint.
• • Kylie Jane Wakefield begins her article this way: Greenpoint/ Williamsburg is where Frank Serpico was shot in the face, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs got their start, and the site of one of the largest oil spills in America. The neighborhood was and is home to screen legend Mae West, a bridge named after a Polish general who saved George Washington’s life, and the only licensed dealer of radioactive waste in New York City. On Tuesday, June 21st, these were just some of the many fascinating facts that were incorporated into Neighbors Allied for Good Growth’s (NAG) fundraiser and trivia night. ...
• • Source: Article: "Trivia Night with NAG" written by Kylie Jane Wakefield for The Greenpoint Gazette (Brooklyn, NY); published on 23 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1972nd 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 • • 1970 costume drawn by the talented Tom Tierney • •
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Frustrated with the legal machinery that caught her up in its gears, MAE WEST was happy to lampoon a courtroom trial in "I'm No Angel" [1933]. Bob the attorney was played by Irving Pichel.
• • Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the month of June — — on 24 June 1891 — — Pichel graduated from Harvard. The ambitious six-footer was a close friend of playwright George S. Kaufman, and this gave him the idea to go to Los Angeles and study at the Pasadena Playhouse. Often cast as an ethnic character villain (such as Fagin in "Oliver Twist" in 1933) in the pre-Code talkies, Pichel also did a number of voice-overs and then branched out into full-time directing for Twentieth Century-Fox. He directed two actors to Oscar nominations. As an actor, he was seen in 70 motion pictures between 1930 — 1953. Pichel died suddenly in 1954, only a week after completing his last film as a director, "Day of Triumph" [1954]. A fatal heart attack ended his life in Hollywood on 13 July 1954. He was 63.
• • • • Cast for "I'm No Angel" • • • •
• • Tira . . . Mae West
• • Jack Clayton . . . Cary Grant
• • Bill Barton . . . Edward Arnold
• • Slick . . . Ralf Harolde
• • Barker . . . Russel Hopton
• • Alicia Hatton . . . Gertrude Michael
• • Kirk . . . Kent Taylor
• • Thelma . . . Dorothy Peterson
• • Benny Pinkowitz . . . Gregory Ratoff
• • Beulah Thorndyke . . . Gertrude Howard
• • The Chump . . . William B. Davidson
• • Bob, the Attorney . . . Irving Pichel
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Annual Mae West Tribute 2011 • •
• • "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill"• • 
Mae West's birthday is August 17th. An upcoming Mae West event that is open to the public will be held on Sunday afternoon, 14 August 2011. The title of this illustrated historical theme walk is "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill." This walking tour starts on West Ninth Street near Sixth Avenue at the restaurant that inspired Mae's play "The Drag" and ends on LaGuardia Place and West Third by the Eugene O'Neill and Al Hirschfeld exhibition on view at the Kimmel Center. Further details and the fee will be announced shortly.
• • Faced with the realities of a shrinking vaudeville circuit in 1922 and lacking opportunities in upcoming Broadway productions, Mae West began to write stage plays for herself with the help of an experienced female collaborator. It's obvious that she was following the career of Eugene O'Neill, and mocking him in the number "Eugene O'Neill, You've Put a Curse on Broadway" (part of the program for "The Ginger Box Review").
• • "The Hairy Ape" is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill (1922), and this was the drama being parodied in Mae's song. "Lemme up! I'll show ya who's an ape!" Imagine it, if you will.
• • O'Neill's involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Four years later, his first published play, "Beyond the Horizon," opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. O'Neill also received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his writing.
• • Illustration: Eugene O'Neill is shown at the Greenwich Village speakeasy The Golden Swan, a.k.a. The Hell-Hole, once located on West Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue under the din of the el. O’Neill, who often had to be fished out of the Golden Swan for rehearsals at the nearby Provincetown Playhouse, set The Iceman Cometh there.• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A sojourn in Switzerland reminds one travel writer of Mae West. Richard Bangs writes: Legend holds that the Mönch ("Monk") peak is protecting the Jungfrau ("Virgin") from the nearby Eiger ("Ogre"). But to me, here at this viewpoint, it looks to be the other way around. "It is a good name, Jungfrau — — Virgin. Nothing could be whiter; nothing could be purer; nothing could be saintlier of aspect," wrote Mark Twain on his 1891 visit. But when I read this uncharacteristically sincere sentiment, all I can think of is Mae West's line: "I used to be Snow White, but I drifted." ...
• • Source: Article: "Here Be Dragons: Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland" written by Richard Bangs for The Huffington Post; published on 23 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1971st 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 • • 1933 • •
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MAE WEST and Harry Richman performed together in Manhattan during June 1922, billing their act "Bits of Musical Comedy — — Mae West assisted by Harry Richman," and most of the material was written by The Firefly of Broadway herself. One skit presented Mae as a demanding Roman empress who is interviewing for a new gladiator. Job requirements include a scanty, revealing uniform.
• • On 23 June 1922, Variety's review appeared, praising the partnership because it offered ideal opposites. Referring to Mae, Variety (normally stingy about paying her a compliment) was enthusiastic for once: "She rises to heights undreamed of for her and reveals unsuspected depths as a delineator of character songs, a dramatic reader of ability, and a girl with a flair for farce that will some day land her on the legitimate Olympus."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Edgar Bergen once said: Even if she (Mae West) says "appendecitis," it sounds like sex.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • N.Y. Times columnist Margo Jefferson wrote: No, I must disagree with Woody Allen: Mae West is a comic genius. He rated her just below Chaplin and Buster Keaton in a recent interview, and it's true that she lacks their near-infinite physical variety. She's a physical minimalist whose comedy depends on words that incessantly praise and mock her own deeds. As for Mr. Allen's other designated geniuses, W. C. Fields and Groucho and Harpo Marx, West is more daring than Fields, as smart as Groucho and has no more interest in Harpo's puckishness than she has in Chaplin's pathos or Keaton's stringent mournfulness. But she belongs in their band, as an original and an originator. ...
• • Source: Article: "REVISIONS: She Sidled Up to a Man's World and Made It Hers" written by Margo Jefferson for The N.Y. Times; published on 7 February 2000
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1970th 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 • • 1923 • •
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"Go West Young Man" [1936] starred MAE WEST and the Art Direction credit went to Wiard Ihnen.
• • Born on the East Coast (either in Jersey City or New York City, depending on the source), Wiard Boppo Ihnen came into this world on 5 August 1897. His father was an architect and he trained for his father's profession at Columbia University. Nicknamed Bill, the college student was undecided and left for Paris to devote himself to painting.
• • According to The AllMovie Guide: Working as an architect, he designed a few estates in New York. Ihnen began working with Adolph Zukor at the Manhattan studios of Famous Players — Lasky in 1919 and remained there through the early 1930s when he moved to the Long Island-based Astoria studios of Paramount. Eventually, Ihnen worked for a number of major studios and worked with some of the world's greatest filmmakers. ...
• • In 1940, 43-year-old Bill Ihnen wed the notable costume designer Edith Head. He won two Oscars during the 1940s for Art Direction and retired from the screen trade in 1960, after working on 49 productions. Still married to Edith Head at the time of his death, he died in Los Angeles in the month of June — — on 22 June 1979. He was 81.
• • In June 1934 • •
• • A featured article "Come Up and Meet Mae West" by Frank Condon appeared in Collier's Magazine, issue of 16 June 1934.
• • In June 1973 • •
• • Hollywood Studio Magazine featured Mae West on its cheerful red cover for the June 1973 issue. Mae was shown in one of her costumes from "Klondike Annie." The cover line was "Hollywood's Hall of Fame — — Mae West."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: Love thy neighbor — — and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Dirk Pena writes: Santa Monica has usually had a historical past of currently being the area for the rich and powerful. In the past, the likes of Mae West, Will Rogers, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, Louis B. Mayer, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and William Randolph Hearst lived and mingled with rich visitors in the spot. ...
• • Source: Article: "Architectural Intended Houses In Hollywood Hills" written by Dirk Pena for Clarewood Mercado; posted on 20 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1969th 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/
________Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with handsome Randolph Scott, 1936 • •• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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MAE WEST selected songs written by two composers born on June 21st — — Henry and Harold.
• • Henry Creamer [1879 — 1930] • •
• • Born in Richmond, Virginia, Henry Creamer [21 June 1879 — 14 October 1930] was a pop song lyricist. He co-wrote many hits in the years from 1900 — 1929, often collaborating with Turner Layton, with whom he also appeared in vaudeville.
• • In 1918, Henry Creamer wrote the words for the hit "After You've Gone" — — an enduring classic and every major artist has covered it.
• • Mae West performed "After You've Gone" in "Sextette" [1978], a song she fondly remembered from her New York years when she frequented the hottest night spots in Harlem.
• • And on the LP "The Fabulous Mae West," Mae recorded "If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)," a favorite written in 1926 by lyricist Henry Creamer and the black composer and pianist James P. Johnson.
• • Harold Spina [1906 — 1997] • • 
• • Born in Mae's hometown, New York City, Harold Spina [21 June 1906 — 11 August 1997] earned a reputation as a composer of popular songs. During the early 1930s, when he was still in his twenties, he was turning out his best-loved numbers in collaboration with the lyricists Joe Young and Johnny Burke. However, he then went on to co-create several chart-toppers with the lyricist John Elliot — — including "It's So Nice To Have a Man Around the House," made famous by Dinah Shore, and most memorably performed by Mae West when she guest-starred in March 1960 on CBS-TV's "The Red Skelton Show" wearing a gorgeous red gown.
• • Mae Music Trivia • •
• • Which one of Mae West's albums offered songs by The Beatles and Bob Dylan?
• • On the LP "Way Out West" in the 1960s, she recorded with David Clark Allen and his band. Songs on this compilation included "Day Tripper" by The Beatles and "If You Gotta Go," written by Bob Dylan but never a hit for him nor anyone.
• • In June 1935 • •
• • Mae West made an appearance at the California Pacific Exposition as a celebrity guest.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mae West starred in "Klondike Annie" — — but how many know much about the actual place on the map?
• • Toronto, Canada based critic John Semley writes: Like Manhattan or Atlantis, the Klondike is one of those places that seems to exist largely in the manufactures of memory; a kind of shared cultural hallucination. Even the word — Klondike — conjures images of grizzled old prospectors with mangy beards, pickaxes slung over their shoulders, traipsing through the snowy wastes of the Yukon; of crooked card games and houses of ill-repute; of boiling a boot for supper. But because Americans have by-and-large monopolized these images (via Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, Jack London, that old Yukon Trail CD-ROM game and those irresistible chocolate- covered ice cream novelties), running roughshod over our geography and minting the noble Mountie mythology in the process, Zach Worton’s The Klondike radiates with a detectable sense of consequence. ...
• • Source: Book Review of "The Klondike" a graphic novel by Zach Worton by John Semley for The National Post (Canada); posted on 16 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1968th 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 • • March 1960 • •
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MAE WEST was in an amusing scene with Mahlon Hamilton. He was cast as a sideshow spectator in the opening scene of "I'm No Angel" [1933], one of the men pressing closer to ogle Tira in her hilariously over-the-top "Little Egypt" costume.
• • Born in Virginia on 15 June 1880, Mahlon Hamilton launched his movie career in 1914 and was seen in numerous featured roles for the next two decades. In 1929, he took part in "Honky Tonk," starring Sophie Tucker. After 1934, however, he often got work but mostly as an extra. Increasingly, he was patched into the background as a party guest, doorman, pedestrian, musician, doorman, businessman, etc. He worked in Hollywood films until 1950 when he was 70 years old; he has 98 big-screen titles to his credit. Stricken by cancer, the busy bit part player also died in the month of June — — on 20 June 1960 — — in Woodland Hills, California shortly after his 80th birthday.
• • "I'm No Angel" Blooper • •
• • During a close-up when Tira looks through a pile of phonograph records with different titles ("That Dallas Man," "That Frisco Man," etc.), all of the labels have same serial number.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Tira: What do you do for a living?
• • Ernest Brown: Oh, uh, sort of a politician.
• • Tira: I don't like work either.
• • [Source: Mae West wrote her own lines for "I'm No Angel," 1933.]
• • Quote, Unquote • • 
• • Is that Mae West disguised on a pack of Camels?
• • A recent article draws awareness to a few ‘hidden secrets’ on the Camel cigarettes pack. One is the mysterious ‘man/ woman in the Camel leg.’ According to urban legend, the front leg of the Camel on the packet in fact contains a woman standing with her hands on her hips (highlighted and labeled for your convenience). That’s what some people think. Others see a man, the Belgian ‘peeing boy’ and even Mae West! . ..
• • Source: Article: "Conspiracy: Smoke and mirrors" written by staff for The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine; posted on 19 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1967th 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 • • 1933 • •
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It was June 1954 and MAE WEST debuted her new muscleman act at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. One of her hot numbers was “Take It Easy, Boys,” which the prolific Lester Lee had originally written for Rita Hayworth to perform in her 1953 Columbia film "Miss Sadie Thompson" [Columbia Pictures, 1953], however, the censors deleted these scenes.
• • A native New Yorker (like Mae), Lester Lee was born in The Big Apple on 7 November 1904. He attended an all-boy school, Manual Trades High School in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. An accomplished author and composer, he joined ASCAP in 1942. Working with his chief musical collaborators, Ned Washington, Allan Roberts, Zeke Manners, and Bob Russell, Lester Lee turned out numerous pop songs. A versatile hit-factory in his prime, with numerous chart-toppers to his credit, Lester Lee wrote many musical-production tunes. In 1943, he signed a contract with a Hollywood film studio. From 1945 on, he was creating special material for radio.
• • Lester Lee died from a heart attack in Los Angeles in the month of June — — on 19 June 1956. He was 51 years old.
• • On 19 June 2009 • •
• • Dreamwell Theatre presented "The Drag" written by Mae West. The limited run began on 19 June 2009.
• • Since the beginning of May 2009, Chuck Dufano and his cast and crew had been rehearsing The Drag, a 20-century play written by silver-screen star Mae West. This presentation, a Dreamwell Theatre production, was performed at the Universalist Unitarian Society, 10 S. Gilbert St., at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and also on June 26-27, 2009.• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An enjoyable article appeared in The Independent (Ireland) with this title: "Funny girls. . . who says women aren't the Mae West?" — — but can someone please explain why it was offered in this Irish newspaper's farming section?
• • Originally published in Ireland Review, one of those staffwriters had explained: And if Hollywood's history is light on hilarious women, that's probably because men wrote most of the screenplays and preferred to cast females as the decorative butt of male jokes. But there are honourable exceptions to this rule, and the evidence shows that when given the chance female comediennes can more than match the efforts of the men.
• • The Irish staffwriter continued: Early Hollywood comediennes could be surprisingly bawdy, and Mae West was very much the Joan Rivers of her day. She didn't stand around waiting for men to tell jokes, she told them herself, and her salty witticisms became legendary. "When I'm good I'm very good," she once boasted, "but when I'm bad I'm better."
• • The Irish staffwriter clarified: Mae West became a huge Hollywood star in the early 1930s, and was famous for rewriting her scenes. In the 1932 film Night by Night, a hatcheck girl stopped West and said "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds." "Goodness has nothing to do with it dearie," was the actress's self-penned reply. ... If Mae West made her name playing the sassy blonde, Goldie Hawn resurrected the old stereotype of the dumb blonde. ...
• • Source: Article: "Funny girls. . . who says women aren't the Mae West?" written by staff of the Ireland Review, reprinted by The Independent (Ireland); posted on 18 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1966th 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 • • 1954 • •
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