Mae West: Richard Allen

MAE WEST starred in "Klondike Annie" and Richard Allen was seen as a miner.
• • Richard Allen [10 June 1871 — 1 November 1940] • •
• • Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana on 10 June 1871, Frank Richard Allen was trained for the stage.  By 1913, the 42-year-old was popping up in amusing screen shorts and transitioned to talkies in 1934. Casting directors placed him in minor authority roles: private investigator, policeman, detective, court bailiff, morgue guard, train conductor, doorman.
• • From 1913 — 1940, he was in 32 feature films. Dick Allen died in NYC's borough of the Bronx on 1 November 1940.  He was 69.

• • Texas Guinan [12 January 1884 — 5 November 1933] • •
• • Born in Waco, Texas  on 12 January 1884, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan played a gun-slinger and rode bareback in silent films, took New York by storm in 1906, and earned a salary of $700,000 as a speakeasy hostess. The versatile stage star led a noisy and joyful life at full speed until Sunday, 5 November 1933. One month later, Prohibition was repealed.
• • A good friend to Mae West who invested in her Broadway shows, Texas also held seances with her.
• • Texas Guinan is one of several strong roles for actresses in the play "Courting Mae West" based on true events during the Prohibition Era.  Producers and aspiring stars, take note.
• • On Wednesday, 5 November 1930 • •
• • "A prizefighter's tart" who enjoys black men as well as Caucasians, Babe Gordon, the frisky blonde teenage protagonist, was Mae's idea of an uptown temptress, footloose, fearless, and unfettered in Harlem.
• • The novel "Babe Gordon" by Mae West was published in New York City by The Macaulay Company on Wednesday, 5 November 1930.
• • On Saturday, 5 November 1932 • •
• • On Saturday, 5 November 1932, a cable was wired to Colonel Joy.  It assured him that Zukor and Hertz promised that they will abandon "Diamond Lil" and will make an announcement to that effect tonight. [Hmmm. We know how that turned out.]
• • On Wednesday, 5 November 1969 in Ithaca • •
• • On Wednesday, 5 November 1969 Cornell University students were treated to a  screening of "My Little Chickadee" starring Mae West and W.C. Fields at 7:00 pm and again at 9:15 pm. Details were announced in The Cornell Daily Sun on page 10.
• • On Monday, 5 November 1991 in London • •
• • Marybeth Hamilton gave a lecture "The Rise of Mae West" in London on Monday, 5 November 1991. Don't you wish you had been there?
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I see good in every man. That's why I'm not married."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A review in Slate mentioned Mae West.
• • Melanie Rehak wrote: Lyle Talbot was cast in pictures with Carole Lombard, with whom he also had one of many (many!) affairs; Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart; Barbara Stanwyck (in Talbot’s marvelous words, a woman “who seemed to be built for quick escapes and tight corners”); James Cagney; Mae West; and countless other stars of the 1930s. They were all, it seems, utterly charmed by him, and he by them. As he recalled many years later about “Miss West”: “She’d say, in that voice, ‘Where are you gonna have lunch? I think I’ll have a hamburger,’ and she’d sound, you know, like Mae West.” ...
• • Source: Excerpt from book review: "A Seeker After Beauty, Wherever It Might Be Found" written by Melanie Rehak for Slate; posted on Friday, 2 November 2012

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2475th 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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