Mae West: Living as Legend

Tinseltown chronicler James Bacon once wrote, "Roll me over. I'm in love with MAE WEST all over again!" Sit on the divan and listen in as he interviews the diamond-draped diva in late April 1973.
• • "Mae West — — Living As Legend" • •

• • Hollywood (NANA) — James Bacon wrote: Spent an afternoon with one of our living legends — — my favorite Mae West. It's as if she invented sex yesterday, not in the 1920s. It was Mae who once observed that she was pure as the driven snow, but added "Then I drifted."
• • James Bacon continued: Mae told me she had friends, long dead, come to visit her right in this room. She said, "I believe there is a hereafter." Then the talk turned to sex. This was the first time I ever visited Mae that we didn't conduct the interview in her bedroom, under her famous mirrored ceilings. And Mae gave me an added treat — — her famous recitation from her 1926 play "Sex." 
• • "When I wrote my first play, we were going to call it 'Follow the Fleet' but I thought about that for a few days and then announced to the director that we should call it 'Sex,' because that is what people are interested in. And It caused a sensation."  . . .
• • James Bacon noted: Mae West is ageless. She hasn't changed in 30 years. Mae is a great believer in ESP.  "I thought the Ten Commandments were good rules to live by," she explained. "But I could never live my life by conditions someone else set."  . . .
• • Source:  Article by James Bacon rpt in The Daily Times-News (No. Carolina); published on Monday, 30 April 1973.
• • James Bacon [12 May 1914 — 18 September 2010] • •
• • West Coast columnist James Bacon had a walk-on part in "Sextette" [1978] as a reporter. The industrious news man, born in Buffalo, NY in the month of May — — on 12 May 1914 — — was awarded his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work as a Hollywood columnist on 6 April 2007.
• • James Bacon died of congestive heart failure in Northridge, California on 18 September 2010. He was 96 years old.
• • On Friday, 30 April 1926 • •
• • Mae's hometown paper, New York Daily Mirror, printed a diatribe about her Broadway play "Sex" on day, 30 April 1926 under the headline "SEX: an Offensive Play. Monstrosity Plucked From Garbage Can, Destined to Sewer."
• • Clearly all riled up, the New York based critic explained:  "This production is not for the police. It comes rather in the province of our Health Department. It is a sore spot in the midst of our fair city that needs disinfecting."  . . .
• • On Monday, 30 April 1956 in N.Y. World-Telegram Sun • •
• • It was on Monday, 30 April 1956 that Robert W. Dana's felicitous coverage of "The Mae West Review" appeared.
• • Robert Dana's popular daily dish "Tips on Tables" was published in the now defunct New York World-Telegram and Sun.
• • His column "Mae West's Show Grows" [dated April 30th] indicated Dana had seen the routine previously.
• • Robert W. Dana wrote: The old belief that everything should be bigger and better — — a thought most forcefully pronounced by Hollywood trailers — — can be applied with forthright honesty to Mae West, who has returned to the Latin Quarter [in New York City on West 48th Street], where she scored heavily in the fall [sic] of 1954.  ...
• • On Wednesday, 30 April 1969 in Los Angeles • •
• • On Wednesday, 30 April 1969, on light blue note paper (engraved Miss Mae West at the top), the Hollywood icon took time out to send a warm letter to her cousin Tillie.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • "Record N. Y. Paramount Run" • •
• • By holding over for a fifth week, Mae West's "Goin' to Town" sets the Iong-run record at the New York Paramount, it was pointed out yesterday by Moris Morros, managing director. Previous record of four weeks also was held by a Mae West film, "I'm No Angel."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "No, I don't have a vision of an ideal man.  A girl's got to realize that there ain't such a person. If a man's too perfect, he can get awfully dull."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article in Australia praised Mae West.
• • "Mae West" • •
• • Morning Bulletin wrote: The new star, Mae West, will be at the Wintergarden and Karl's Court Saturday next. All Mae West's repertoire has been added to this gay story of a diamond-loving lady of the gay 1890s. The "come up and see me sometime" girl is original and merry in a story she wrote herself, and her two songs, "Frankie and Johnny Were Lovers" and "Haven't Got No Peace ol Mind," will also be heard. 
• • The cast includes Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, and others. Mae West brings a totally new style of comedy to the screen and "She Done Him Wrong" has been much acclaimed wherever it has been screened.  ...
• • Source: Item in Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.); published on Saturday, 28 April 1934
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2903rd 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 • • in 1973 • •
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