Mae West: Jules Stein

When MAE WEST assembled her Chicago band, she hired at least one Caucasian. Jules Stein, the founder of MCA, fondly recalled playing in it. Roger Ebert wrote: Jules Stein said he played the violin for Miss West's stage act in Chicago when he was 18 and she was 26; that would have made her 92 years old (when she died). He asked her out and she turned him down, he recalled with a twinge of regret 66 years later. 
• • Mae was born in 1893. Geeez, Jules, can't you telling when a lady is pulling your leg?
• • Jules Stein [26 April 1896 — 29 April 1981] • •    
• • Born in South Bend, Indiana to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, Jules Stein came into the world on Sunday, 26 April 1896.  During his college years in Chicago, Stein earned a few bucks playing the violin and saxophone at weddings and bar mitzvahs.
• • In the book "The Last Mogul," Dennis McDougal wrote: Musically, the timing for his arrival in Chicago couldn't have been better. During World War I, Chicago became the capital of dance-hall ragtime. While still an undergraduate, Jules Stein organized dance bands to defray living costs. One of his earliest gigs was playing back-up fiddle to a busty young vaudevillian from Brooklyn named Mary Jane West. Stein remembered her, even in 1913, as "voluptuous." She was one of the first white performers he'd ever seen stand on stage and shimmy her ample bosom like a hot young soul singer. Mary Jane let Jules accompany her to the South Side black joints where she could study hootchy-kootchy technique up close, but she never dated her fiddle player. She was too old for him, she teased. For the next sixty years, long after she'd changed her name to Mae West, she reminded Jules Stein often about his missed chance. ...
• • In 1921, he earned his medical degree from Rush Medical College and then studied for one year in Europe. When he came back to The Windy City, he was appointed chief resident at Cook County Hospital. Stein continued to book bands on the side and eventually left his secure life as an opthamologist for the entertainment industry.
• • In 1924, Dr. Stein founded Music Corporation of America (MCA).
• • Jules Stein died in Los Angeles in the month of April — — on Wednesday, 29 April 1981. He was 85.
• • On Sunday, 29 April 1928 • •
• • Percy Hammond wrote an article about Mae West. The title was “The Rewards of Virtue” and it was published in the New York Tribune on Sunday, 29 April 1928.
• • Drama Magazine, April 1928 • •
• • Mae West's troubles with the stage censors and City Hall in 1927 were mentioned in Barrett H. Clark's article "The Padlock Law in New York" (page 200). His essay was printed in Drama Magazine's issue # 18, issue dated for April 1928.
• • On Friday, 29 April 1938 in Boston • •
• • Beantown readers were treated to this titillation on 29 April 1938, announced with a boldface headline: "Clutching, Squealing Crowd Greets Mae West with Mob Scene Here."
• • The Boston Herald reporter wrote: Complete with the publicized curves and husky, slurring accents that have made her practically a symbol of what she is pleased to call “the sex personality,” Mae West crashed into Boston yesterday morning through a clutching, squealing crowd of 3000 eager admirers who turned the South station into a mob scene.
• • The Boston Herald reporter noted: Cries of pain mingled with shouts of “There she is!” and “Give us a smile, Mae!” as the mob, in a surging onslaught, trampled on toes and barked shins to get closer to the object of it all. The plump blonde actress, in a trailing satin dress, with make-up thick on her features and a huge bunch of orchids clutched in a heavily jeweled hand, gave them the smile and was taken off to the Ritz-Carlton, where she is staying while appearing in person at the RKO Boston Theater this week.
• • On Saturday, 29 April 1950 in Pittsburgh • •

• • Pittsburgh's Mayor David Lawrence and Mae West shared the stage of the Nixon Theater on Saturday night, 29 April 1950, after the final performance of her play, "Diamond Lil." The 47-year-old playhouse was booked for bulldozing, making way for the new headquarters of the Aluminum Company of America.  Tsk.  But what do the citizens of Pittsburgh know about the magnificence of the theatre arts anyway?
• • On Sunday, 29 April 1984 • •
• • N.Y. Times reporter Francis X. Clines was reviewing Peter Conrad's book and gave his Sunday, 29 April 1984 column this spunky title: "Walt Whitman's and Mae West's New York."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Love can not live on insults, neither can it live on fur coats, but a fur coat helps."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Advertiser mentioned Mae West. 
• • "Mae West Disappears — Star in Retreat" • •
• • From London, the snippy gossip columnist Greville Bain wrote: It cannot have escaped the notice of the film public that it is a long while since we had any news or even rumors of Mae West.
• • Greville Bain wrote: Not so long ago she was said to vie with Shirley Temple as the greatest film attraction in the United States. ...
• • Source: Article: "Mae West Disappears" by Greville Bain in The Advertiser (Adelaide); published on Saturday, 17 April 1937
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2637th 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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