Mae West: Ryman

MAE WEST entertained the crowds at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in Tennessee.
• • These days, a self-guided tour starts with an immersive film in a theater upstairs. Lula C. Naff, the Ryman’s promoter and manager from 1904 to 1955, narrates (via an actress portraying her). It was Lula Naff who invited the famous acts of the day to the Ryman — performers such as Mae West, Charlie Chapman, Harry Houdini, as well as singers, dancers, and Broadway shows.
• • The exhibits take visitors through the Ryman’s many years as a venue for world-famous artists — — including Enrico Caruso and Al Jolson — — to its three decades as home to the Grand Old Opry beginning in 1943.
• • On Saturday, 15 June 1935 • •
• • It was on  Saturday, 15 June 1935 that Mae West made headlines in The Hutchinson News [Hutchinson, Kansas].  Here's the story:  A controversy developed over Hollywood starlet Mae West's sometimes marriages. Her latest film "Goin' to Town" at the air-conditioned Fox Theatre, featured West as a married woman taking two husbands and the third — — who had met an untimely demise — — all to get her clutches on the one she actually wanted.
• • On Friday, 15 June 1951 in New York, NY • •
• • According to the pre-trial coverage, Sarah Allen had appeared in the cast of "Diamond Lil" during its 1949 tour.  She then developed her own act impersonating Mae who, at first, was so charmed that she gave the younger woman permission to include the number "Come Up and See Me Sometime." But after Miss Allen "wowed them in Bayonne, NJ with a stand-out performance," Mae's admiration cooled.
• • Taking her beef to the New York Supreme Court, and claiming she was slandered, Sarah Allen slapped a million dollar suit against the screen queen.
• • On Friday, 15 June 1951 there was an examination before trial in Manhattan. 
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Richard Coogan was still appearing on Broadway in the role of Captain Cummings opposite Mae West in "Diamond Lil" when he auditioned for a TV series. 
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said (about Sarah Allen): "It takes more than platinum blonde hair and shapely hips to be like Mae West."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • A national magazine mentioned Mae West.
• • Time Magazine wrote:  At the age of 15, Mae West watched with haughty interest as two Brooklyn street gangs — the Eagle Nesters and the Red Hooks — fought a battle over her charms. Nearly 50 years later, men were still at it. While Mae was touring U.S. nightclubs in 1956 with a troupe of male weight lifters, she was again an interested onlooker (or so she says in her autobiography) as one of her musclemen punched another in the jaw in a quarrel over her beldame favors.  . . .
• • Source: Article in Time Magazine; published on Monday,  28 September 1959    
• • 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 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3200th 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 1956 • •
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