• • This is Part 2 of 3 excerpts. Hope you have been enjoying this personal glimpse of Mae.
• • "An Interview with Mae" — — written by Mike Connolly • •
• • What Mae would prefer playing is herself in the movie version of her new autobiography.
Producers Jim Geller and Murray Feil have already pitched her for it. She sees "Goodness" as a three-act screenplay with a child actress in the first act, a "Marilyn Monroe-type" midway, and herself at the grand finale.
• • Mae will be 68 years old next August 17th. She looks anywhere from 45 to 50 and, under certain lights, even younger. Her figure is great. I didn't ask her how she does it. The others had asked her that. I asked what she'll be doing professionally after her "Person-to-Person" TV show next Friday, in which the producers are hoping they’ll be able to show her bedroom in her home (the same one on the cover of her book) with its ceiling mirrors.
• • “I like TV,” she said. “I got a lot of good reaction to the Academy Awards show I did with Rock Hudson. I also have three writing projects going, or perhaps I should call them rewriting projects.
• • "One is a novelization of my 1926 play, 'The Drag.' They requested me not to bring it to Broadway after the try-out tour. It was 20 years ahead of its time. But now that we've had 'Compulsion' and 'Tea and Sympathy’ I think it’s high time for 'The Drag'," Mae continued.
• • "I'm also adapting two other stage plays of mine, ’Catherine Was Great’ and ‘Come On Up,' as screenplays.”
• • She showed me a gilt-edged, hand-tooled presentation copy of her autobiography, a gift from the publishers. "Pretty nice to have it all in a beautiful edition like this,” she sighed. “All my achievements and transgressions. That’s a big word for ‘sins.’ ” . . .
• • This concludes Part 2. Look for Part 3 on Tuesday, 13 October 2015.
• • Source: "An Interview with Mae" written by Mike Connolly for Desert Sun; published on Friday, 9 October 1959.
• • John Edwin West [11 February 1900 — 12 October 1964] • •
• • Though Mae had taken good care of her health, shortly after her 71st birthday she was hospitalized and her ailments were scrutinized. The diagnosis was diabetes.
• • As Mae was quietly convalescing at home, with Paul Novak at her side, she received the worst news. Her beloved brother John Edwin West, 64, had suffered a massive heart attack.
• • As he matured, her kid brother's career had stalled. More than once, he had turned to his movie-queen sister for assistance. But Mae also remembered how much she had counted on John's unfailing loyalty during her court trials. In 1930, for instance, when the "Pleasure Man" court trial had bankrupted her, and she was too upset to seek work, John supported his two unemployed sisters and set up a nice household for the three of them in an apartment building on West 57th Street (across the street from Carnegie Hall).
• • Born on 11 February 1900, John Edwin West died during October — — on Monday, 12 October 1964. He was 64. Mae made arrangements for her beloved brother's body to be sent back to Brooklyn to the family crypt.
• • On this day, we mourn and remember a good brother who loved his sister.
• • On Thursday, 12 October 1933 • •
• • The premiere of "I'm No Angel," starring Mae West was held on Thursday, 12 October 1933 in Hollywood. A triumphant date in Hollywood for the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • On Thursday, 12 October 1933 • •
• • Mae West is irresistible, as she sits at the counter, totally distracting the soda jerk in the animated feature "Soda Squirt" released in the USA on 12 October 1933.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • William Diehl, successful suspense author, saw the Hindenburg explode, had Mae West for a baby sitter, and served as Martin Luther King's personal photographer. (Mae "baby sat"?)
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I started it — — years ago."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mike Connolly wrote: Mae West is still wig-waggin Mickey Hargitay, erstwhile Top Banana in her muscleman lineup before Jayne Mansfield latched onto him (or did Mickey latch onto Jayne?) Anyway, Mae wants the Mick to sign that release showing he's no longer under contract to her.
• • Mike Connolly added: It's the same piece of paper she shoved at him when the "bust-up’’ came, saying. "Here, sign!” Mickey mumbled, “You know I can’t write.” And Mae said, "So do like you do when you cash those $250-a-week paychecks I’ve been making out in your name — — make an X!”
• • Source: Hollywood gossip column written by Mike Connolly for The Desert Sun; published on Monday, 12 October 1959
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. 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 3286th 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 • • at home in 1959 • •
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