Monday, March 23, 2015

Mae West: Texas Romance

In 1935, MAE WEST was battling the charges raised by Frank Wallace that they were still man and wife when another marriage license surfaced in Texas.
• • What really happened in March 1924? Was it a touch of Cupid or career capitulation that made Mae entertain the idea of settling down? Maybe Mae was overcome by the heat of hormones — — or did she have a pregnancy scare? And how long could she have known Mr. R.A. "Bud" Burmeister, a 34-year-old resident of Harris County, Texas anyway?
• • "Texas Romance of Mae West Is Told in Record" • •
• • HOUSTON, April 24 [U.P) — — Whether Mae West, Hollywood's "Diamond Lil," is or isn't married to Frank Wallace, or ever had been wed to anyone was still moot today, but it seemed pretty definitely established that she never tied the connubial knot with R. A. (Bud) Burmeister, now a Fort Worth publicity man.
• • The Harris County clerk's records show that Miss West obtained a marriage license with Mr. Burmeister, then a newspaper man, on Saturday, 22 March 1924. The license record shows no return to indicate it was ever used. Mr. Burmeister, now in Fort Worth, refused to discuss it, saying he thought it "very bad taste to bring up such a matter."
• • Deputy Clerk Don H. Kennedy, who issued the license, still works in the clerk's office. The license, No. 52,812, bore the notation signed by Burmeister, "I swear that Miss Mae West is over I5 years of age, that I am over 21 years of age, and that there is no legal objection to our marriage."
• • Eddie Bremer, theater manager, admitted he remembered Miss West "vividly" as a vaudeville hoofer, "because he had a little trouble with the censor."
• • Article on page 13 in The Mexia Weekly Herald (Mexia, Texas); published on Friday, 25 April 1935.
• • On Saturday, 22 March 1924 in The Lone Star State • •
• • An application for a marriage license was filed in Texas on Saturday, 22 March 1924 by R. A. "Bud" Burmeister, who intended to wed Mae West.
• • Then on tour through the southwest, the spunky vaudevillian was noticed by the reporters who reviewed for the San Antonio Light, where an article on her appeared in the paper on Sunday, 23 March 1924.
• • On Friday, 23 March 1934 • •
• • French magazine Hebdo (No. 50), released on a Friday, 23 March 1934, flashed a beautiful Mae West cover. At the time, Jean Esters was the Editor-in-Chief and Hebdo was being published by Baudiniere, Paris. Hebdo means weekly (shortened from "hebdomadaire").
• • On Monday, 23 March 1964 • •
• • Rick Du Brow, a Hollywood columnist, discussed the episode "Mae West Meets Mister Ed" (broadcast on Sunday, 22 March 1964) on page 4 of Cumberland Evening Times, on Monday, 23 March 1964. The headline was "Mae West Could Be Star of Own Situation Comedy." Du Brow was favorably impressed. Papers in the U.K. and the USA reviewed the TV episode.
• • "Mae West Meets Mister Ed" is the twenty-first episode of the fourth season of "Mister Ed," and the ninety-ninth episode overall. Director was Arthur Lubin. Airdate was on Sunday, 22 March 1964.
• • Guest Stars: Mae West (Herself), Nick Stewart (Charles), Mae West (Herself), Jacques Shelton (1st Groom), Roger Torrey (2nd Groom).
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It takes more than merely acting to become a national figure — an emblem — which, strange and contradictory as it may seem, is exactly what Mae West is.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "I like restraint if it doesn't go too far."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A London newspaper discussed Diane Arbus and Mae West.
• • Sir: While I was art editor of Show Magazine in New York during the 1960s, I commissioned the great Diane Arbus to photograph the (by then) forgotten Mae West (Books, 16 March) at home in Los Angeles.
• • The results revealed that Miss West had a fearsome fetish for symmetry — matching grubby white grand pianos bearing vast identical plaster statues of her naked self, duplicate papier-maiché urns of dusty mock camellias, place settings mirrored either side of the plates, etc.  Mae also slept between two (real) apes called Toughie and Pretty-boy.
• • As Cecil Beaton once said about Josephine Baker, if that is not camp, I don't know what is!
• • Written by: Nicholas Haslam, 12 Holbein Place, London SW1
• • Source: Letter (page 29) in London's Spectator; published on Saturday, 23 March 1996 
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. The other day we entertained 1,430 visitors. We reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,100 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3140th 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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• • Mae West • marriage license in 1924

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