Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Mae West: Sneaked It In

MAE WEST did a very long interview with celebrity reporter Mike Connolly, a columnist for the Palm Springs chronicle Desert Sun.  We're guessing Mike was quite handsome.
• • This is Part 3 of 3 excerpts. Hope you have been enjoying this up-close and personal glimpse of Mae in 1959.
• • "An Interview with Mae" — — written by Mike Connolly • •
• • I reminded the star that all the pre-publication publicity about the book had referred to it as "The Empress of Sex."
• • Mae pouted. "The publishers made me change it to ‘Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It,’ which is a line of dialogue from an old movie of mine, when another actress said, ‘Goodness, what beautiful diamonds,’ and I said. 'Goodness had’ — — ."
• • "Well, anyway, I sneaked it in as the sub-title.” She pointed to the dust-jacket of the book I had brought along for her to autograph. There it was: “Mae West, Empress of Sex."
• • Her publishers and their wives were coming down from their own suite to take Mae and her muscleman and hairstylist to dinner in the hotel’s L’Escoffier Room. They had invited me too, but I was on my way to an autographing party of my own at the newly-remodeled Hollywood Brown Derby, where they were hanging some new caricatures of Hollywood columnists, including my own. I went into a long song-and-dance about the time I had spent trying to think of something clever to write on my cartoon.
• • Mae handed me her book, which she had autographed.  I thanked her, wished her luck with the book and the film version, her TV show, her new novel and her two screenplays. She thanked me and told me to be more careful about those Herman Hover and Tuesday Weld "plants,” gave me her phone number and told me to check with her whenever I get a news tip about any more roles some unauthorized persons might have in mind for her. Her bodyguards bowed me out.
• • I opened the book in the corridor outside of Mae’s hotel suite.  She had written: "To Mike Connely [sic] — — Sincerely, Mae West."
• • This concludes Part 3 of 3.
• • Source:  "An Interview with Mae" written by Mike Connolly for Desert Sun; published on  Friday, 9 October 1959. 
• • On Saturday, 13 October 1928 • •
• • On 13 October 1928, an item appeared in Billboard Magazine (on page 42) discussing how the NYC police had padlocked Mae's second homosexual play "Pleasure Man."  Billboard used the occasion of Mae's latest legal trouble to condemn her play, describing the script that focused on men in love as "an abomination."
• • Billboard wrote: "Pleasure Man" is prostitution of the rankest sort,  a flagrant attempt to capitalize filth and degeneracy and cash in on the resultant cheap publicity.
• • On Thursday, 13 October 1932 • •
• • During mid-October in 1932, Mae's jewel robbery was on the front page.  One headline "Diamond Lil Robbed of Jewels" ran in the Omaha-Bee News on Thursday, 13 October 1932.  This terrifying crime occurred just months after Mae had relocated to Los Angeles, California to be in the speakeasy film "Night After Night" with George Raft.
• • On Sunday, 13 October 1968 • •
• • On Sunday, 13 October 1968, The N.Y. Times printed a dispatch from journalist Mark Shivas with this headline: "Fellini's Back, and Mae West's Got Him!"
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West's next film for Paramount will be called "I'm a Lady."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "The box office business in the entire industry has dropped off 30 per cent in the past four months."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Motion Picture Daily mentioned Mae West.
• • Out on Sunday • •
• • Kansas City, Sept. 13. — — As a concession to some thing or other, the Kansas City Journal-Post, running a serialized feature by Mae West titled "Me and My Past," omitted the story on Sunday and carried the installment in the Monday edition instead.
• • An editor's note said the arrangement was requested by La West herself.
• • Source: Item in Motion Picture Daily; published on Friday, 14 September 1934 
• • Note: "Me and My Past" was a syndicated feature, charmingly illustrated with sketches, and the installments ran for a week
• • 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 3287th 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 • in 1934

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