Mae West: Ed Hearn

MAE WEST wanted to give her gay friends a chance to be seen on Broadway. In 1928, she cast the 40-year-old gay actor Ed Hearn in "Pleasure Man" as Toto, a retired performer who hosts a colorful drag ball in Act 3, which is set in the drawing room of Toto's apartment. On 1 October 1928, Hearn was arrested with the rest of the cast the Biltmore Theatre and, along with Mae West, he had to defend the play in court.
• • The raid at the Biltmore opens Act II of "Courting Mae West," a play based on true events during the Prohibition Era [from December 1926 — December 1932].
• • PHOTO: Texas Guinn (actress Eileen Glenn) tells Mae West (actress Yvonne Sayers) that the NYC police have surrounded the Biltmore on West 47th Street, as Mae is about to go onstage at the Royale Theatre in "Diamond Lil" on 1 October 1928.
• • Born in Dayton, Washington as Guy Edward Hearn in early September — — on 6 September 1888 — — the six-foot-one hopeful set his cap for the screen trade and went to California. He was first used in a short subject "The Fool's Heart" [1915] when he was 27. Married at the time to Tryna Saindon, the couple had a son, born in Los Angeles during the summer of 1916, and they named their only child Edward.
• • Hollywood kept him hopping. Between 1915 — 1955, Hearn appeared in over 350 films and was an assistant director on two of them. Edward Hearn had a chance to work with Mae twice; he was seen onscreen as the croupier in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934].
• • Ed Hearn died in Los Angeles on 15 April 1963 at age 74. It is unclear if he was still with the mother of his son by then, however, Tryna Saindon Hearn kept his name and died in 1971.
• • Irving Bacon [1893 — 1965] • •
• • In "Every Day's a Holiday" (1937), Mae West worked with Irving Bacon. The seasoned six-footer was seen (briefly) as a quartet member. The busy bit parts player was better known for an on-going role in "Blondie," however.
• • Born in the month of September — — on 6 September 1893 — — in St. Joseph, Missouri, Irving Bacon launched his cinema career in 1913 at the Keystone Studios, where his craggy features and athletic ability was most suitable for broad slapstick.
• • There were literally hundreds of casting directors who hired him to portray a flustered foreman, bartender, soda jerk, mailman, clerk, chauffeur, handyman, cabbie, etc. — — especially if the role called for amusing frustration or pop-eyed perplexity. During the 1930s — 1940s Irving Bacon found his calling as Mr. Crumb, the postman whose bundle of mail is pre-destined to collide with late-for-work Dagwood Bumstead in the "Blondie" series.
• • Irving Bacon died in Hollywood, California on 5 February 1965. He was 71.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this: "When I'm good, I'm very good — — but when I'm bad, I'm better."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A statue, that once stood behind a Chicago mansion, is known as Mae West. Why?
• • Marcia Lane writes: Slip around to the back of the Lightner Museum [in St. Augustine, FL] and you can contemplate a mystery. Situated atop a tall pedestal is the mystery lady that Otto Lightner and his staff referred to as "Mae West."
• • Marcia Lane continues: Mae West was an extremely popular early actress whose dialogue had a way of sending movie censors rushing for a scalpel to use on her scripts. Short and well-endowed, she was an early version of the perennial Hollywood favorite — — a blonde bombshell. The Lightner statue is part of every tour bus operator's spiel ....
• • Mae West arrives
• • Marcia Lane adds: A clipping from The St. Augustine Record in 1949 notes that "'Mae West' arrived yesterday lying down in a truck ... and will be set on a concrete pedestal to dominate the park of the Lightner Museum." ...
• • Source: Article: "'Mae West' stands tall in city — — Statue behind museum was once in Lightner's Chicago mansion" written by Marcia Lane for St. Augustine Record; posted on 5 September 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2045th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • scene from "Courting Mae West" Act II • •
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