Mae West: Open-Door Policy

The sensational front-page headline "MAE WEST Denies Living with Negro Boxer" appeared as far away as the Malay Peninsula in the Singapore Free Press as well in American and British newspapers.  Hollywood stars began to join her to form an anti-scandal coalition. Let's revisit this touchy subject, shall we?
• • "Mae West Linked To Negro Boxer" • •
• • LOS ANGELES. Aug. 21 — — Defendant Fred Meade testified at the Confidential Magazine libel trial today that the late Negro boxer Chalky Wright gave him a statement "that detailed the year he spent living in the apartment with Mae West." Meade also testified a band leader named Daniel Terry gave him the story of a tryst in the Lake Tahoe woods with singer Dorothy Dandridge.   ...
• • The Meades, the prosecution contends, gathered material in filmland with their organization Hollywood Research, Inc.  Defense attorney Arthur Crowley asked Meade if he and his wife checked information for the Confidential story, "Mae West's Open-door Policy." "Yes," Meade replied. He said the inception of the assignment was a letter from Confidential publisher Robert Harrison, who enclosed a news clipping and a letter from Dale Wright dated 11 November 1954. The clipping stated that Mae West's newest beau is bound to start a bit of talk.  . . .   
• • Fred Meade said Chalky Wright was paid $200 for the information. ...
• • Source: Page 1 article rpt in The Morning Herald (Hagerstown, Maryland); published on Thursday, 22 August 1957.
• • On Monday, 22 August 1932 • •
• • On this date production began for the motion picture "Night After Night," which offered Mae West her first chance to be in pictures.
• • On Saturday, 22 August 1936 • •
• • Elizabeth Yeaman wrote an article, "Mae West to Abandon Corsets, Wear Modem Apparel in New Picture." Her piece was published in Hollywood Citizen-News on Saturday, 22 August 1936.
• • On Sunday, 22 August 1993 • •
• • Ron Alexander wrote a tribute to Mae called "Peel Her a Grape." His charming essay, which mentioned a gala Mae West centennial bus tour, ran in Sunday's New York Times, Section 9, on 22 August 1993.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Miss Mae West remains busy. She has finished a couple of screenplays, is discussing with Paramount the possibility of appearing in a sequel to "Paper Moon," and answers the fan mail of youngsters who have flipped over her movies on television.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I couldn't help it if I exuded a 'sex personality.' And I did it with the most innocent of lines and with high-necked dresses."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A book review mentioned Mae West.
• • "Hollywood by Starlight" • •
• • Book reviewer R. J. Whitney wrote:  Californian banalities (Chapman and Hall, 7s. ad.), though described by its blurb as being a frank exposition in naked relief of the Hollywood mind, is actually a very casual and indiscriminate account of Mr. Minney's adventures with the show-pieces of the film world. Few of its characters seem to have the mentality that lends itself satisfactorily to an exposition (even one as superficial as Mr. Minney's) and Charlie Chaplin is the only one who comes through with any success.
• • "Mae West is a person you would expect to meet at the Vicarage" • •
• • At the same time, we learn that Douglas Fairbanks is very fond of playing practical jokes; that Mae West, in private life, is the sort of person you would expect to meet at the Vicarage; and life in Hollywood, in spite of the fact that Harold Lloyd's children must always be accompanied by detectives and every girl with a small salary is a possible black-mailer, is in reality anything but the crude, unprincipled existence described by the newspapers, and that its supper parties are comparable to the dignity of a reception at Londonderry House.  ...
• • Source: Review published by The Spectator [U.K.]; published on Thursday, 22 August 1935 
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2987th 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 1955 • •
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