Mae West: Ciro’s with Steve

The Sunset Strip was once dotted with night clubs where all the big names performed live such as MAE WEST, Cab Calloway, Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, and more.
• • In 1940, Billy Wilkerson opened Ciro's at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.
• • When Jerry Fink interviewed Steve Rossi for the Las Vegas Sun, he mentioned Ciro’s.
• • Steve Rossi: Mae West came in to see me one night [in 1953] with her manager, Jerry Franks. I was 20 at the time. After the show, they knocked on my dressing room door and she walks in with all her jewels and false eyelashes an inch-and-a-half long and she says, "You're a terrific singer and you've got a great body and a great face. I'm doing a nightclub act with Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe and I want you be my leading man. You'll feed me lines and sing to me in the show." I told her I was a student at a Catholic university and she said, "I don't give a damn ... I want you in my show, and I'll sign you up with my agency, William Morris."

Steve Rossi and Mae West

• • Las Vegas Sun: How long were you with her?
• • Steve Rossi: For 14 months. And for a long time "The Mae West Revue" was at Ciro's Supper Club on the Sunset Strip, where all the biggest stars worked. Our sold-out show went on right after (Frank) Sinatra and just before Sammy Davis Jr. …
• • Source: Las Vegas Sun; published on Friday, 24 May 2002.
• • On Wednesday, 12 June 1946 • •
• • The Schuberts wanted to land "Come On Up" starring Mae West on Broadway, after her regional tour. They promoted this show with a full page of warm-hearted local reviews in Variety, in the issue dated for Wednesday, 12 June 1946.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West was doing the best she could between legit hits and flops, and mostly flops, in 1929, but she's a $6,600 picture name on the New York Paramount stage this week.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “I have always been too busy with my own affairs to be envious of anyone.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An academic paper mentioned Mae West.
• • Jenna Simpson wrote: For one thing, there is considerable evidence that "immoral" pictures were quite popular across the country. Mae West, for instance, was very successful in her transition from stage to screen in the early 1930s. Her 1928 play "Diamond Lil" was so inflammatory that the Hays Office [the film censorship office run by Will Hays and supported by the movie studios] demanded that the studio should change the title and the plot  before the movie could be released. …
• • Source: “Reforming the Stage and Screen: How Expectations, Audiences, and Economics Shaped the Film and Theatre Censorship Movements in Early-1930s New York” by Jenna Simpson; posted in 2005
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 15th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,495th 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 • • with Steve Rossi [this image is protected by ©; be nice and do not grab it without permission] • •
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