Mae West: Greta, by George

MAE WEST spent an evening with Greta Garbo at the home of director George Cukor, by George! Interviewed years later, the Hollywood host gave a different (i.e., more honest) account. However, in 1968, Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas painted a rosier version of the supper party.
• • "Greta Garbo and Mae West Meet, Get along Famously" • •

• • Hollywood — — Bob Thomas wrote: The summit meeting of two film immortals took place one recent evening in the sumptuous salon of George Cukor, the director. The principals: Greta Garbo and Mae West. Miss Garbo had surprised her longtime friend and director by expressing a desire to meet Miss West. Cukor arranged a dinner.
• • Bob Thomas continued: Garbo, always prompt, arrived first. Miss West, who dearly loves an entrance, came later. She disarmed Garbo at once by greeting her with a “Hello, dear” and a Hollywood-style kiss on the cheek.
• • “From that moment on, they got along famously,” says Cukor. “Garbo wanted to know about Mae’s muscle-men, and Mae explained that this one and that one were infatuated with her.”
• • Miss Garbo was unavailable for comment. 
• • Bob Thomas noted: But Miss West said she enjoyed the evening. What did they talk about? “Well, she said that she loved my pictures, and I said the same about hers,” Mae recounted. “I said to her, ‘You know, you really ought to make another picture — you look great.’ She said, ‘I dunno; I’ll think it over.’”
• • Bob Thomas added: The meeting with Garbo was another event in the recent renaissance of Mae West, who has had an amazing number of careers in her 74 years.  . . .
• • Source: Syndicated feature by Bob Thomas, Movie-Television Writer, Associated Press, rpt on page 17 in Wilmington News-Journal; published on Wednesday, 15 May 1968.
• • On Wednesday, 15 May 1935 in the N.Y. Mirror • •
• • "Back in 1909 I was playing as a single at the Canarsie Music Hall in Brooklyn on the Fox circuit . . . One day after my performance a swell-looking woman came around back stage and told me she had a daughter who was a comer.  She had seen my act, she said, and thought I could help her kid," Frank Wallace told the reporter from the New York Mirror.
• • The kid was a sweet 16-year-old brunette named Mae West. Frank and Mae immediately began rehearsing in the cellar of the West's Bushwick Avenue residence — — or so the hoofer claimed to recall (because other records dispute that address).
• • On Saturday, 15 May 1948 • •
• • Mae West and Jim Timony boarded the Queen Mary on Saturday, 15 May 1948 at Southampton, England for a return voyage to New York City, arriving in their home port on Wednesday, 19 May 1948.
• • On Friday, 15 May 1964 • •
• • Conservative Catholic publisher Martin Quigley owned the trade journals Motion Picture Daily and Motion Picture Herald.
• • Mae West was interviewed by journalist Martin J. Quigley for Motion Picture Herald. The article appeared in the Friday, 15 May 1964 issue of this popular fan magazine devoted to the doings (and the grave undoing) of the major screen stars.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Now there is talk that Jim Aubrey and Hunt Stromberg Jr. will produce for Warner Brothers-Seven Arts a film version of a Mae West play, “Sextet,” starring Mae. It would be her first film since “The Heat’s On” 25 years ago.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I was off the screen for awhile because just couldn’t find anything I wanted to do. Also there were years when my income tax was such that I would have ended up working for the government. And I was always busy doing plays and night clubs."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Ottawa Evening Citizen mentioned  Mae West.
• • E.W.H. wrote:  Thursday, May 16th — — So finished my stint and then to see Mae West In "Goin' to Town," a roaring comedie in which the swaggering, bejeweled, and predatory Mae continues her variations upon the theme that to women love is a "business" and shouldn't be taken seriously, and her practice of eyeing males solely as — — males. Some of her tricks grow tedious, but she is still a striking person.      . . .
• • Source: Article by E.W.H. for The Ottawa Evening Citizen; published on Friday, 17 May 1935
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2914th 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 • • with Garbo in 1934 • •
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