• • Source: Article: "'Drayma' Lures La West Back — Returns to Stage Again in Typical Role" by Harold V. Cohen printed in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; published on Monday, 26 February 1945.
• • When Mae herself told the story about her former accompanist, she claimed that Jack Smith (born in May) didn't whisper so much back then.
• • Jack Smith [31 May 1898 — 13 May 1950] • •
• • Born in NYC's borough of the Bronx on Tuesday, 31 May 1898, Jack Schmidt began working as a teenager. In 1915 he was one of the singers in a male quartet regularly featured at a Bronx theater. During the first world war, he did his military service. Then in 1918, under the name Jack Smith, he was hired as a "song plugger" for the Irving Berlin Music Publishing Company. He also found work on the radio as a pianist and a singer.
• • "Whispering" Jack Smith was a popular singer and recording artist during the 1920s and 1930s. His unique and interesting "whispering" style of singing was a result of a necessity. A World War I injury (due to a poison gas attack) would prevent Smith from singing at full volume.
• • In the late 1940s, he made a brief come-back. But a fatal heart attack silenced him. He died in the month of May — — on Saturday, 13 May 1950. He was 51. The singer was buried next to his mother Anna Schmidt at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. He was survived by his wife.
• • On Sunday, 13 May 1956 • •
• • Blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield encountered the very handsome Mr. Universe 1956 Miklos (Mickey) Hargitay on 13 May 1956, while attending a performance of the "Mae West Revue" at the Latin Quarter night club in Manhattan.
• • Twenty months later, Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay wed on 13 January 1958. They had three children and, alas, would divorce in 1964.
• • On Saturday, 13 May 1961 • •
• • Mae West posed with Gary Cooper in a tavern to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. They socialized at several Tinseltown tete-a-tetes, too. On Saturday, 13 May 1961, the "Coop" lost his battle with cancer.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Women did better when they required a lot more attention from men, more waiting on. In the old days, even the "bad women" were at least glamourous. Glamourous — — you know what I mean? Such woman today are just plain cheap. They're not even good chiselers."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • George Jean Nathan mentioned Mae West.
• • George Jean Nathan wrote: If the innocent bystander is not driven to forsake Art and marry Mae West on the spot after vainly trying to make head or tail out of such literary dialect, I am the wrong candidate for Secretary of Culture and they had better start looking around for another man at once. ...
• • Source: "The Theatre Book of the Year, 1945-1946" written by George Jean Nathan
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2647th 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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