skip to main |
skip to sidebar
MAE WEST and Fiorello LaGuardia have a curious connection.
• • In his column "A New Yorker at Large," Mark Barron shared insights about the Brooklyn bombshell and the ambitious politician Fiorello LaGuardia [11 December 1882 — 20 September 1947]. This installment of Barron's column was published on 28 January 1934.
• • Mark Barron wrote: New York — Mayor LaGuardia turned on the producers of risque shows, charging them with deliberately inviting police interference for the publicity it would bring.
• • Mark Barron noted: What is interesting in an ironic sort of way is the fact that it was an off-color show which led to the movement that — — by increase and addition — — eventually elected LaGuardia to his office. And, for that, some might say he owes thanks to Mae West.
• • Back in 1927, Miss West produced a play that brought a squadron of police censors tumbling about her with the turmoil of a Union Square red riot. As a result, Miss West was invited to spend a short vacation in the Welfare Island calaboose.
• • Despite the avalanche of publicity, Mae was shocked, thinking that her attorney — — a Tammany district leader — — would be able to keep her this side of the steel bars.
• • A girl reporter was sent to interview Mae. In jail, the reporter had a conversation with a girl prisoner who charged she'd been "framed" because she would not pay a bribe to a detective on the vice squad.
• • The resultant story started the inquiry into the women's courts, and it was this inquiry that brought Judge Samuel Seabury into such high esteem in the public mind. And it was Seabury whose master minding helped put LaGuardia in the mayor's office. • • On Sunday 17 August 2008, during the "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" walking tour, the group will visit the little flower and a number from "Fiorello!" will be sung live by a vivacious actress, a native New Yorker who has performed in many musicals.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
Born like MAE WEST in Brooklyn, New York, Sylvia Syms [2 December 2, 1917 — 10 May 1992] was a jazz singer whose birthname was Sylvia Blagman. 
• • When she was a child, Sylvia contracted polio — — a disease that also afflicted Mae's sister Beverly and causes some sufferers to put on weight.
• • As a curious 15-year-old, Sylvia found her way to jazz joints on New York's "Prohibition Row" [West 52nd Street]. In 1941, the 24-year-old debuted at a club called Billy's Stable.
• • During 1948, Mae West went to performances at the Cinderella Club in Greenwich Village to see Rae Bourbon and listen to keyboard king Willie "The Lion" Smith. Fortunately for Sylvia Sims, Mae caught her act onstage there, too. Mae West gave her the part of Flo the Shoplifter in a Broadway revival of Diamond Lil.
• • Thanks to this big break and the exposure Mae West afforded her, Sylvia Syms appeared on the stage as Bloody Mary in South Pacific and as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! — — and also acted in straight roles.
• • Among others who observed her in night spots was Frank Sinatra who considered her the "world's greatest saloon singer." Sinatra conducted her album "Syms by Sinatra" [1982].
• • Signed to Decca Records, she had a million-selling record in 1956 with an up-tempo version of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from the soundtrack of My Fair Lady. It was her one mega hit.
• • In a nightclub career that spanned 51 years, the New York rooms in which she performed included Bon Soir [on West 8th Street], Ruban Bleu, The Living Room, Village Vanguard [on Seventh Avenue], Cafe Carlyle, Freddy's, Michael's Pub, The Cookery [on East 8th Street], Marty's, and Eighty-Eight's [on West 10th Street].• • She died on stage at age 74 in New York City from a heart attack.
• • Her New York Times obituary said: "With her deep, grainy contralto, I've-been-through-it-all air of sophistication, and sinuous phrasing that echoed her idol, Billie Holiday, Miss Syms was a quintessential saloon singer, a term she said she preferred to cabaret singer. In the saloon tradition of Mr. Sinatra, she treated everything she sang as an intimate personal communication."
• • Times staffer Stephen Holden wrote: "When you perform it's a one-to-one love affair with the people out there," she once said. "That's how it has to be."• • On Sunday 17 August 2008, during the "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" walking tour, the group will visit the Cinderella Club and "I Could Have Danced All Night" will be sung live by a vivacious actress, a native New Yorker who has performed in many musicals.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's protege • • Sylvia Syms • •
NYC
Mae West.
