Mae West: Missed & Mourned

 At age 87, MAE WEST suffered a series of strokes which finally resulted in her death on Saturday, 22 November 1980 in Hollywood, California.

• • The actress took her final breaths quietly in her white and gold Hollywood apartment (The Ravenswood). Private services [conducted by Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie and attended by about 100 close friends and family] were held in the Old North Church at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, California.
• • Her eulogy, written by Kevin Thomas and delivered by producer Ross Hunter, concluded: “Mae West always said that no one was ever to feel sorry for her, and she would not want anyone to start now. Mae West figured that in one way or another she would live forever. And she probably will.”
• • Entombment was in the West family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Abbey in Brooklyn, New York.
• • Cause of death: Complications from stroke
• • Burial: Cypress Hills Cemetery
• • Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, USA
• • Image: Nerman, 1930s
• • On Friday, 22 November 2013 • •
• • Mae West's most successful play "Diamond Lil" was performed in Jefferson Market Library, NYC on Friday evening, 22 November 2013, in her honor.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West wore the famous West diamonds, and made a late entrance very impressively.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "This is the greatest age for women. They no longer have to sit primly on a straight-backed chair with hands folded, waiting for some guy to come and make a pass at them."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Barron’s mentioned Mae West yesterday on Tuesday, 21 November 2023.
• • Historic Typewriters Used by Literary Giants and Celebrities Up for Auction • •
• • Eric Grossman wrote: This “type” of sale doesn’t come along very often. A bevy of historically significant typewriters from the collection of Los Angeles-based businessman Steve Soboroff, age 75, used by literary greats and celebrities—is going up for auction next month.

• • Eric Grossman wrote: Buyers will bid on vintage vessels used by some of America’s most famous writers and celebrities at a Heritage Auctions’ sale, at the auctioneer’s Dallas headquarters on 15 December 2023.
• • Image: Olympia SF typewriter owned by Mae West
• • Eric Grossman wrote: Steve Soboroff—who retired as president of the LAPD Board of Commissioners in August after a decade on the job—began his collection on a whim at an auction in 2005, when he outbid the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1940 Remington Model J used by Pulitzer-winning Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray.
• • Eric Grossman wrote: That typewriter was followed by others used by literary titans Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Philip Roth, and actors Mae West, Greta Garbo, Shirley Temple, Julie Andrews, and Tom Hanks. Musicians also feature, including Bing Crosby and Andrea Bocelli, as do notables such as Samuel T. Cohen (inventor of the neutron bomb) and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. …
• • Source: Written by Eric Grossman for Barron’s; published on 21 November 2023
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,153nd 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • sketched in 1932-33 by Nerman
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest   

Mae West: 130th Birthday With Love

Happy Birthday to MAE WEST, Brooklyn Bombshell, Screen Siren, Empress of Sex, Queen of Comedy, a notable and quotable comedienne who maintained a long career on stage, on screen, on the guest star circuit, and who also sizzled on the nightclub circuit.
• • Delivered by a local mid-wife, this feisty newborn drew her first lusty breaths in Bushwick on Thursday, 17 August 1893 (under the proud leonine sign of Leo) in her parents' bedroom. Little Mary Jane West always said: "I was born on a cool night in a hot month so I knew I could expect anything."

• • She trumped the income of every film actress of her generation because Mae was paid as a screenwriter as well as a box office draw.
• • Each day at least one publication in the world mentions her name. [We can verify our claim, too, because we have tracked this a-Mae-zing trend daily for the past 18 years now!]
• • No other movie queen coined so many witticisms — durable and dateless because Mae West relied on wordplay and rhetorical devices such as chiasmus.
• • Often imitated but never duplicated, the one and only Mae West endures in our hearts and memories.
• • Darling Mae, to your loyal followers, you don't look a day over twenty-sex!
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Even at the fourscore mark, she remains a remarkable figure of a woman. The well-padded frame, which inspired the Mae West life jacket in World War II, seems little changed.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West  had been 40 when she made the first of 12 films and was an important influence on the early career of Cary Grant, teaching him much about the craft of comedy in the course of appearing with him in “She Done Him Wrong” and “I'm No Angel.”
• • The death of this sex goddess from Hollywood's Golden Age was front-page news in November 1980 when she was 87.

• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Come up sometime and see me. I'm home every evening."
• • Mae West said: "I give 'em what they want to see."
• • Mae West said: “The curve is mightier than the sword.”
• • Mae West said: "You have to outfight everyone else to succeed."
• • Mae West said: "I'll never believe the worst about anyone without complete proof."
• • Mae West said: "Woman is capable of more trickery than man ever dreamed of. I am not defending the tricky woman, but if she is forced to battle for the place due to her, she cannot be condemned for using any ruse she can."   
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "Mae West Turns Sixty" • •
• • The Horsham Times wrote: Mae West turned 60 recently. To reporters who went along to wish her many happy returns, Miss West made it plain that birthdays are one thing a lady just doesn't discuss.
• • Fluttering her inch-long eyelashes demurely, Mae West said: "You can see for yourself, a girl's just as old as she feels."
• • Source: The Horsham Times;  published on Friday, 12 September 1952
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,152nd 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • sketched in 1932 and 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest   

Mae West: Why a Hiatus?

The MAE WEST Blog, started in July 2004 when there was very little content online about the Brooklyn bombshell (except for vintage film reviews and her best known witticisms), has been an abiding presence for eighteen and a half years on Blogger, now owned by Google.
• • Censorship by Google • •

• • You might think that a long-standing Mae West Blog that attracts over 100 international visitors a day would get some respect from Big Tech. Sorry but you’d be wrong.
• • As two examples of disrespect from Google, our ads have been deactivated and “sensitive content” warnings have been slapped on some posts.
• • Why, Google? Why? • •
• • There is no “objectionable” content here, in my opinion.
• • If Mae West were here, she’d probably say, “Censors again!”
• • Mae West Blog Goes on Hiatus • •
• • Therefore, the blog will go on hiatus and the focus will shift to allowing more time to complete a fascinating, heavily illustrated book: “Mae West’s New York, 1895-1970.”
• • Pictorial Biography in Progress • •
• • Filled with rare pictures of a lost New York, the fascinating city Mae West grew up in, the sights that inspired her writing, the vaudeville houses and theatres that welcomed her performances, this will be the first bio-pictorial written by a native New Yorker. 

• • Most Westian biographers have (curiously) hailed from England or from California. Unfortunately, books written by out-of-towners have had noticeable gaps in Mae’s life story — — and have lacked the perspective of a native New Yorker, someone intimately acquainted with Big Apple history and the socio-political forces unique to Mae’s birthplace.
• • A new domain? • •
• • Due to Google’s censorship, the blog may also be moved to its own domain.
• • If you wish to know more about “Mae West’s New York, 1895-1970,” feel free to leave a comment with your contact info. Personal comments will not be published; only I will see them.
• • Thank you for visiting today.
• • Please follow this blog to keep up with announcements.
• • Occasional updates on the forthcoming Mae West book will be posted — — so come up and see us sometime.
• • On Wednesday, 9 January 1889 in Brooklyn, NY • •
• • On this date, John West took his best girlfriend Tillie Decker to Brooklyn's Borough Hall to apply for a marriage license. Mae's mother's name appears as "Tillie Decker" on the form, not as "Matilda."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •

• • Q. Did Mae West really make all those wisecracks, spontaneously, over the telephone to the thirteen editors in the nation-wide interview, or did she have rehearsals?
• • A. She did not have rehearsals. Mae's wit, both off the screen and on, is, apparently, as endless and as spectacular as her wardrobe.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "That's why I want you to see her story — — because her-story is the real lowdown."
• • Mae West said: "Sure, they are completely right when they say I make a parody of sex. That's my stock in trade. Any gal can get really sexy but it takes a smart dame to make guys and women both laugh at it."
• • Mae West said: "Every script presented to me, no matter how imaginative a story, was built around a man and a woman. Mae West pictures, as written by me, were built around a woman and men — — and the more the merrier."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Australian newspapers mentioned the high salary of Mae West.
• • "Big Incomes in the USA" • •
• • Among motion picture people, Mae West led the list with 339,000 dollars (£67,800).
• • Others were: Marlene Dietrich, 145,000 dollars (£29,000); W. C. Fields, 155,000 dollars (£31,000); Miriam Hopkins, 71,000 dollars (£14,200); Gary Cooper, 139,000 dollars (£27,000); Charles Chaplin, 143,000 dollars (£28,600); Claudette Colbert, 85,000 dollars (£17,000).  . . .
• • Source: The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.); published on Thursday, 9 January 1936
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,150 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,151st 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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• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • colorized in 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Vanished Art Form

MAE WEST inspired and influenced numerous people. Listen to Tangarra. This is Part 2 of two parts.
• • “Tangarra, Recognized as Buffalo’s First Female Impersonator, Looks Back at a Past That No Longer Exists” • •
• • Written by Mary Kunz Goldman, Elizabeth Barr, and News Staff Reporters
• • John E. Minzer [22 October 1912 – 17 April 2004] — a.k.a. “Tangarra” • •
• • Tangarra met Mae West in 1939 • •

• • Buffalo News wrote: Eighty-eight years old (in 2001), Tangarra can claim to be Buffalo's first female impersonator, with a strange and glittering career that took him across the country. He can recall not only Mae West but also other stars like Tallulah Bankhead ("She put my hair up and I looked ridiculous," he jeers) and Ann Miller. ("She looks like a Japanese sunset!" he laughs, pointing at an old snapshot.)
• • Buffalo News wrote: When he looks back, he sees a world that doesn't exist anymore.
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra feels sad that the mix of burlesque and vaudeville that had been his specialty is a vanished art. …
• • Note: John E. Minzer, AKA Tangara, Buffalo's legendary female impersonator, age 95, who was known to generations of Western New York audiences as Tangarra, died on Tuesday, 17 April 2007.
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra was the last and possibly one of the best vestiges of the time when drag performers were a beloved part of any vaudeville or night club experience.
• • Buffalo News wrote: In a 1998 Outcome interview, Tangarra described a very first public performance in 1928 at the Erie County Fair as "Little Egypt."
• • Buffalo News wrote: A booking agent arranged for a (then) sixteen-year-old John Minzer to perform on the Ismailia Shrine Temple stage as "Little Egypt."
• • Buffalo News wrote: "They made me up and then they put me in a black wig! I've never had black hair in my life! They gave me a veil that went from here to here. (Tangarra indicated that it covered the face from just below the eyes to below the chin line.) I wore a heavy gold belt around my waist with long flowing fabric hanging off of the belt."
• • Buffalo News wrote: "I was pretty popular," Tangarra told Outcome Magazine, adding that she was driven around the fairgrounds while in costume, greeting and meeting fairgoers and received many presents and applause.
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra retired from performing in 1974 but did perform at the 1998 grand opening of what was then known as Secrets on Allen Street.
• • Note: John a.k.a. Tangarra had lived in Buffalo, New York 14221.
• • Source: The Buffalo News; published on Sunday, 11 March 2001.
• • John Patrick West [March 1866 —  5 January 1935] • •

• • Despite having an ambivalent relationship with her father, Mae West took after him and also worked for him when he peddled fruit in Brooklyn and when he helmed a "detective agency" in New Jersey and New York City. Before opening his own operation, John West had walked the beat in Coney Island and elsewhere in Brooklyn.
• • Born on Manhattan's Lower East Side in March 1866, John Patrick West [called "Jack"] grew up feisty, impatient, and strong. As a child he boasted that he'd rather fight than eat. He got his Irish up rather quickly, remembered Mae. He was easily angered and "always ready to do physical violence when the urge was on him." In 1969, Mae revealed in an interview that she thought her father was cruel — — but realized "all his fighting was done doing other people's fighting for them."
• • Jack West was 7 years old in 1873 when his family moved from Avenue C (near the docks) in Manhattan to the borough of Brooklyn, settling first in Red Hook, and then in Greenpoint.
• • On 19 January 1889, in Greenpoint, Battling Jack West and Tillie Delker took their wedding vows before a local minister with Jack's sister Julia West acting as maid of honor.
• • On Saturday, 5 January 1935, "Battling Jack" heard the final countdown; he passed away in Oakland, California of a stroke.
• • On this date we remember John Patrick West with love and respect.
• • On Wednesday, 5 January 1938 • •
• • "Paramount: Mae West Most Likely All Washed Up" was the downbeat headline in Variety Magazine on Wednesday, 5 January 1938. After the NBC broadcast brouhaha, Paramount began monitoring audience feedback to the coming attractions that were onscreen at the New York City Paramount Theatre.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The recent dispute between Mae West, Raoul Walsh (director), and Paramount executives over the quality of the photography of her new picture, "Klondike Annie," which caused a four-day production halt while a new cameraman was found has been given much prominence in America and inspired 'Variety'' to a consideration of stars and their favorite cameraman.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Call me anything, but call me often."
• • Mae West said: "I'm going to change my tempo and work very, very fast. This picture needs a big lift to pick up the speed to wake an audience up."
• • Mae West said: "Half the people in the world impersonate me. Men, women, and even children. They put their hands on their hips or something."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on women in the theatre mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae West: An Uncommon Woman" • •
• • Anthony Chase wrote: Another American woman playwright who enjoyed the distinction of racking up the highest advance box office sales in the history of Broadway, Mae West, scored a huge hit with her 1926 play, Sex, but saw her 1928 play, Pleasure Man, closed down by the police after its second performance.
• • Anthony Chase wrote: Despite the fact that she duplicated this success in Hollywood, West’s work is not included in anthologies, she is never mentioned in theater textbooks, and her work is out of print.
• • Anthony Chase wrote: In fact, the only American woman whose plays are consistently included in the American repertoire is Lillian Hellman, and even she had to go on a deliberate publicity campaign in the 1970s when she saw a list of the nation’s 10 greatest living playwrights and found that her name was missing. ...
• • Source: Art Voice (Buffalo, NY); posted on Wednesday, 5 January 2011
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,150 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,150th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with her loved ones in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest

Mae West: Tangarra Credits Mae

MAE WEST inspired and influenced numerous people. Listen to Tangarra. This is Part 1 of two parts.
• • “Tangarra, Recognized as Buffalo’s First Female Impersonator, Looks Back at a Past That No Longer Exists” • •
• • Written by Mary Kunz Goldman, Elizabeth Barr, and News Staff Reporters
• • John E. Minzer [22 October 1912 – 17 April 2004] — a.k.a. “Tangarra” • •
• • Tangarra met Mae West in 1939 • •

• • Buffalo News wrote: Late on a cold Buffalo, NY afternoon,  the man who calls himself Tangarra sashays through his apartment, walking the walk that Mae West taught him.
• • Buffalo News wrote: "It's step, bounce, step, bounce," he giggles, blue eyes shining beneath his silvery toupee. His voice is a high treble.
• • Buffalo News wrote: "Mae West told me how to walk. She said, "Don't put your hands on your hips, put them down here.' " He caresses the sides of his thighs. "Massage it, like," he imitates Mae West instructing him. "And then she'd strut, bounce, strut, bounce."
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra struts and bounces in his tan trousers past his Grecian fountain and into the hall, trilling his bird-like laugh.
• • Buffalo News wrote: According to Tangarra, he met Mae West in 1939, when both were working in New York clubs. Mae gave him a big, feathered hat so he could copy the millinery pattern. And she signed his playbook, which showed her decked out in Chinese attire for a number called "An Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for Love."
• • Buffalo News wrote: "That's probably worth a lot of money," Tangarra reflects, gazing lovingly at the photo.
• • Buffalo News wrote: But John's memories of a career as Tangarra, though, are worth far more than that. …
• • Tangarra’s fascinating story will be concluded tomorrow with Part 2. Don’t miss it.
• • Source: The Buffalo News; published on Sunday, 11 March 2001.
• • On Tuesday, 4 January 1938 in Los Angeles • •
• • ... the only proper protection ... • •
• • The Los Angeles Herald Examiner used to run a "Views and Reviews" column.

• • It was on Tuesday, 4 January 1938 that readers noticed a short item deriding Mae West: "The name of Mae West — — much more of a miss than a hit — — has been banned from use on its radio programs by the National Broadcasting Company.
• • Such action is the only proper protection for the homes of decent American citizens. ..."
• • Quite startling and horrifying, yes?
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • It used to be rare that actresses used their real names, thinking that for one reason or another they would not sell tickets. But here are eight women who did:
• • 1. Mae West; 2. Elizabeth Taylor; 3. Ingrid Bergman; 4. Olivia de Havilland; 5. Glenda Jackson; 6. Sally Field; 7. Jane Fonda; 8. Gina Lollobrigida
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “When you got the personality, you don’t need the nudity.”
• • Mae West said: "A girl in the convertible is worth five in the phonebook.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Hollywood Reporter mentioned Mae West.
• • Mae West in Paramount's "She Done Him Wrong" — Now Shooting. …
• • Source: The Hollywood Reporter, "Today's Film News"; published on Tuesday, 3 January 1933
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,100 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,149th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1937 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest