Mae West: Charles K. Freeman

MAE WEST worked with many British theatre people in The Big Apple.
• • Born in England in the month of July — — on 11 July 1905 — — Charles K. Freeman began his Broadway career with a show that opened in May 1939. It was Mr. Freeman who directed and staged the successful "Diamond Lil" revivals on The Great White Way, starting with its booking in February 1949 at the Coronet Theatre [230 West 49th], an auditorium renamed for the New York dramatist Eugene O'Neill in 1959.
• • Additionally, Charles K. Freeman was hired to steer the Bowery melodrama during its lavish New York City showings from September 1949 — January 1950, and its return engagement from September 1951 — November 1951. Clearly, he had Mae's respect and he didn't fail her.
• • Also a playwright, Charles K. Freeman collaborated with Gerald Savory in 1944 to bring the latter's novel "Hughie Roddis" to NYC's Playhouse under the new title "Hand in Glove," where it was produced by Arthur Edison and seen for 40 performances. Reviews by Franklin P. Adams and other critics must have been good because Freeman resold "Hand in Glove" to Hollywood under the title "Urge to Kill" [1960]. He also wrote for the TV series "Armchair Theatre" in 1959 and scripted the full-length TV movie "Pistolen-Jenny" [1969].
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this line for her character Diamond Lil: "Diamonds is my career."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • In 1996 in Oberlin, Ohio there had been concerns about artistic freedom and censorship on campus and Mae West's name was used during a protest rally.
• • Laren Rusin wrote: Students organized this demonstration after concerns the Tribe 8 concert raised concerning censorship and freedom of expression. Most protesters wore cloth strips as a blindfold or a gag. Many wore signs with names including the Marquis de Sade, Galileo, Verdi, Eugene O'Neill, Madonna, Kwame Ture, Vittorio De Sica, Mae West and Salman Rushdie. ...
• • Source: Article: "Student protest a synthesis of student ideas" written by Laren Rusin and Mark Graham for The Oberlin Review; printed in November 1996
• • 17 July 2004 — 17 July 2011 • •
• • In mid-July the Mae West Blog will celebrate its seventh anniversary. Thank you to all those Mae-mavens who come up and see Mae every day.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1988th 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 • • as Diamond Lil, 1948 • •
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Mae West: Larry in January

A short story "Single Night" by Louis Bromfield became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932] — — which was a triumphant screen debut for MAE WEST. Here she is, as Maudie Triplett, poised in the doorway of Joe Anton's speakeasy on West 56th Street, about to tell the doorman it's "the fairy princess, ya mug!"
• • January 1st • •
• • Two months after the film was distributed to movie houses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside 33 West 56th Street on 1 January 1933.
• • Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, looks both ways. And the house on West 56th Street certainly looked different from the perspective of George Raft, Mae West, Louis Bromfield, and Larry Fay.
• • January 2nd • •
• • A more pleasant January memory for Mae West took place a year later. On 2 January 1934, when her sister Beverly applied for a marriage license in Chicago, it was hoped that her second Russian husband would be a better companion than her ex-husband Sergei Treshatny. The groom Vladimir Baikoff made Beverly's acquaintance when both were booked on a radio program. Beverly was doing her famous Mae West impersonation for a broadcast — — and Vlad was eager to conjugate some sultry Slavic verbs with her in private, after the show.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
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Mae West: Gay Blades

MAE WEST's gay play "Pleasure Man" had a $200,000 box office advance when it premiered at the Biltmore [West 47th Street] on 1 October 1928. The police raided the show, however, and padlocked the production the same night. Gay plays were an easy target — — since homosexuals were considered degenerates during the Roaring 20s and degeneracy was prohibited on the legitimate stage, according to the New York State Penal Code.
• • It was eighty-one years ago — — on 2 October 1928 — — when Mae West appeared in court to answer charges that she had written and produced an "immoral" play. Wire services sent out her photograph, explaining that the entire cast had been arrested after one opening performance. The players were later released on bail. Mae, of course, was becoming a familiar face at Jefferson Market Court [then located on Sixth Avenue and West Ninth Street in Greenwich Village]. This was the same judicial complex in which she had been tried for her play "Sex" — — and had been found guilty.
• • The infamous raid at the Biltmore is dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West." In "Courting Mae West," Texas Guinan visits Mae West backstage at the Royale Theatre to warn her about the raid.
• • Opened in 1925, the Biltmore also launched a number of successes, most notably "Brother Rat" (with Jose Ferrer); "See My Lawyer" (with Milton Berle); and the long-running tribal rock musical of the 1960s "Hair."
• • After years of neglect, the Biltmore was magnificently renovated and became the Tony Award-winning Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway headquarters. It was decided that the playhouse will be renamed the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in recognition of the pioneering Broadway publicist.
• • Friedman represented Mae West along with a long roster of notable names. An impressive bronze plaque, currently affixed to the front wall, bears a flattering likeness of the man along with a short bio.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • October 1928 • •
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Mae West: Harry Warren

During the revival of "Diamond Lil," featured with MAE WEST, was Harry Warren.
• • Born (like Mae) during 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, Harry Warren [1893 — 1981] performed in the Naughty 90s comedy-melodrama in the role of Jerry.
• • Harry Warren — — who died on 22 September 1981 — — was featured in three different productions of Mae's Broadway blockbuster: 14 September 1951 — 10 November 1951 at the Broadway Theatre; 7 September 1949 — 21 January 1950 at the Plymouth Theatre; 5 February 1949 — 26 February 1949 at the Coronet Theatre.
• • Built in 1924, the Broadway Theatre [1681 Broadway at West 53rd Street] was constructed as a 1761-seat house; "Shrek, the Musical" is playing there now.
• • Built in 1917, the Plymouth Theatre [236 West 45th Street], which seats 1093, was renamed the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in 2005.
• • Built in 1925, the Coronet Theatre [230 West 49th Street], which seats 1108, was renamed the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in 1959.
• • Mae West broke her ankle on 26 February 1949, causing the performances to halt and putting Harry Warren back on the unemployed list, temporarily. However, he was rehired for the September 1949 run and rejoined the crew in Gus Jordan's Bowery Saloon — — sixty years ago this month.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1949 at the Coronet • •
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Mae West: Wicked in 1927

On 10 July 1927, The New York Times announced that MAE WEST had written a new play, "The Wicked Age."
• • During her imprisonment in the Women's Workhouse, Mae had claimed she was thinking about corruption — — and how a system of institutionalized corruption affected women. She felt she could set forth her ideas effectively in a play about the dirty politics of beauty pageants.
• • During the entire summer of 1927, Mae was revising and reworking the manuscript, which was set in Bridgetown [Cumberland County], New Jersey.
• • Mae's character was the beautiful and willful Evelyn "Babe" Carson. To keep the production on a tight budget, Mae hired a lot of no-name talent, former vaudevillians looking for work, and her aging mentor Hal Clarendon to play her uncle/ guardian Robert Carson.
• • During the 1920s, a common real estate ploy to increase land values and publicize the area was the community sponsored beauty contest. In "The Wicked Age," the shady, money-grubbing politicians who run Bridgetown decide to stage a leg show despite negative public opinion about such an enterprise. One landowner insists: "The basis of any industry . . . for success today is based on the exploitation of the female form." The influential rascal Alec Ferguson shouts down objections: "Which plays get over and make money for their producers? Those that try to uplift the public and teach it better ways of living — — don't make me laugh — — those plays go over that exhibit the women's body in some way or another."
• • Robert Carson is one of many who will protest that the competition to be the first "Miss Bridgetown" will degrade females, since it forces half-undressed young ladies to be paraded "on exhibition like prize cattle."
• • The usual suspects financed Mae's play — — Jim Timony, Owney Madden, et al. For over two months, Mae burned up the investors' funding with on-going revisions and frantically long rehearsing.
• • The incomplete and somewhat inaccurate Internet Broadway Database [IBD] notes that the Carson clan was played by these actors:
• • Mae West — — Evelyn "Babe" Carson
• • Hal Clarendon — — Robert Carson
• • Augusta Perry — — Mrs. Martha Carson
• • Doris Haslett — — Ruth Carson
• • Ruth Hunter — — Gloria Carson
• • However, in the play, Gloria is neither a Carson nor a relative; she is actually Babe's best friend who is murdered.
• • Yet other sources indicate that vaudevillian Marjorie Main, born on 24 February 1890 in Indiana, was really the actress who played the role of Martha Carson, Mae's mother — — despite Marjorie's being only three years older. Perhaps silent film actress Augusta Perry had taken the Martha Carson role on opening night or she was credited for a performance from which the IDB records were compiled. Marjorie Main's name could have been mentioned in the publicity leading up to the premiere; maybe she was rehearsing until her ungovernable fear of germs got the better of her.
• • In the autumn, "The Wicked Age" opened at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre [debut: 4 November 1927]. Critics sneezed at the enterprise.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Augusta Perry played Babe Carson's mother in 1927 • •
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Mae West: Steve Cochran

Steve Cochran appeared on Broadway with MAE WEST.
• • Born in Eureka, California in the month of May — — on 25 May 1917 — — he moved during the 1920s to Laramie, Wyoming thanks to his lumberjack father. Perhaps used to a lonely landscape where he often saw things tumbling down and falling, his spirit may have yearned to be hemmed in by a fixed construction such as an auditorium. In any case, upon his 1939 commencement from the University of Wyoming, Cochran began working in regional theatre and summer stock. After honing his craft at the Barter Theatre and the Carmel (California) Shakespeare Festival, he worked at Detroit's Federal Theatre, and was co-starred in the touring companies of "Without Love" and "My Sister Eileen" before his Broadway debut in the eight-performance flop "Hickory Stick."
• • During the war, Cochran [physically unfit for combat] directed Army camp shows.
• • In 1945, the Samuel Goldwyn Company had Cochran under contract. His film debut was the Danny Kaye vehicle "Wonder Man" [1945], produced by Goldwyn and released by RKO. For Goldwyn's projects, the handsome six-footer was cast in supporting roles — — often portraying a boxer or a gangster.
• • Steve Cochran said: "The big secret in playing a criminal in movies is to really believe that the character you are playing is doing no wrong."
• • Upon being released from his contract with Goldwyn in 1948, Cochran went back to The Gay White Way. Mae West cast him in the shady, hot-blooded role of Juarez in her "Diamond Lil" revival from February 5—26, 1949 at the Coronet Theatre on West 49th Street.
• • Then 36, the thrice married lady-killer is reputed to have had a heavy breathing "after-hours" relationship with his 50-something diamond-draped leading lady. [Leading ladies Cochran led to bed included Jayne Mansfield and Merle Oberon.]
• • After performing with Mae West, Cochran signed with Warner Bros. in 1949 and returned to Hollywood.
• • In 1965 Steve Cochran sailed off to Guatemala on his yacht to look for exotic filming locations. The 48-year-old perished onboard of a lung infection during the month of June.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • co-star Steve Cochran • •
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Mae West: Woodhaven

Each time there is a MAE WEST walking tour in The Big Apple, astonished callers (who phone to RSVP) tell the tour organizer(s): "I didn't know Mae West lived in New York!" This summer an upcoming tour in Manhattan mid-August will wind down Chez Mae on the WESTside (and surely you knew this was coming).
• • An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is where baby Mae was born in August 1893. She also hung her hat in Manhattan as well as in an area now called Queens — — but then known as Long Island.
• • Woodhaven, Queens, NY • •
• • The West family moved around a lot. For a few years, they called Woodhaven home; during this period Mae began writing plays and registering her copyright with the Library of Congress from her mother and father's Boyd Avenue address.
• • Leonora Lavan knows all there is to know about Woodhaven, where she was born and bred. She is the president of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society [WCHS], which meets regularly, plans events, hires speakers, reprints important historical research and monographs, maintains an archive, and does its share for civic pride.
• • To learn more about the group, and discover the history of one of Mae West's old stomping grounds, read this article: "Marking History A Site At A Time — — Woodhaven Society Continues To Celebrate Area's Past" by Bill Mitchell.
• • Published by The Times News Weekly — — www.timesnewsweekly.com — — Mr. Mitchell's article was a feature story earlier in May 2009.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West: Mink-Gloved

As the long-term film critic of The Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas had ample opportunities to chat with MAE WEST and come up and see her. Only Kevin knows how much the screen legend revealed about her parents' carefully cultivated underworld connections.
• • Both Matilda and Jack West had on-gong dealings with gangsters, fixers, con men, murderers, bootleggers, thugs, and ward heelers — — shady associates who could also be helpful in furthering "Baby Mae's" vaudeville career. In 1907, when Hal Clarendon accepted Mae into his Brooklyn stock company [incorporated by 15 April 1907 when Mae was 13 years old], it was because he "respected Mae's connections" to a handsome mobster who was gunned down by a crime boss five years later.
• • Did Mae West's recollections roam over the names of racketeers and other rough spots when she and Kevin Thomas were taking tea on North Rossmore? Did the actress reveal how much of her Bowery drama "Diamond Lil" [filmed as "She Done Him Wrong"] was inspired by the jailbirds and career criminals her Dad clubbed around with? The blue-eyed writer-actress was already comfortable with convicts when she moved into shoot-out central, the mob-controlled hotel on West 54th Street where she wrote the play in 1927. But let's move on.
• • On Monday evening, 23 February 2009, both Kevin Thomas and Charlotte Chandler were panelists at UCLA, and now his mink-gloved summation of her biography has been printed. His gentle-handed and sufficiently tactful assessment appears below.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Kevin Thomas writes: Charlotte Chandler's gift at getting legendary show business figures to open up about themselves is unique. For "She Always Knew How," Chandler not only got the last major interview with Mae West — — not long before her death in 1980 at 87 — — but also what is almost certainly the most extensive interview West ever gave.
• • It's not that "She Always Knew How" is full of surprises, but that its depth and breadth brings West to life as thoughtful, caring, and reflective, a woman of resilient character, self-knowledge and shrewdness in regard to human nature and in sustaining a career over eight decades.
• • As is well known, West had an extraordinarily close and loving relationship with her Bavarian-born mother Matilda, whose parents forbade her to go on the stage. As a result, she encouraged her daughter. Here, West talks at length about her mother's unstinting confidence in her; Matilda saw her daughter triumph on Broadway with the iconic "Diamond Lil" in 1928, but she died [in January 1930] before West went on to conquer Hollywood.
• • West is candid about how her mother's focus on her exacted a price on both her younger sister, Beverly, who also had theatrical dreams, and, to a lesser extent, on her younger brother, John. Born in 1893, West began performing in lodge halls in her native Brooklyn at the age of 5 and in time became the key support for her entire family, which she remained for the rest of her life.
• • She made no bones about being less close to her father John West, who acquired some renown as the prizefighter Battlin' Jack. Yet in talking to Chandler, West discovers that she had more feelings for him than she realized, crediting him for being a loving and attentive father. Surely, it's significant that West was always attracted to rugged men like her father — — especially boxers and wrestlers. She emphasizes the comfort in which she and her siblings were raised; apparently, Matilda got some financial assistance from relatives because John West was no great shakes as a breadwinner.
• • • • Underworld Contacts • • • •
• • Chandler leaves it to other biographers to reveal that Matilda ultimately ran a roadhouse; she's more interested in West's sense of self. But there's no question that the underworld contacts Matilda developed would prove crucial to her daughter's success.
• • To friends, West could be very open about her relationship with the notorious gangster Owney Madden, a key backer in her original "Diamond Lil" production. Through him, she came to know George Raft — — then one of Madden's drivers — — and Raft was instrumental in getting Paramount to bring her to Hollywood to appear in his picture "Night After Night" (1932).
• • West has often been credited with saving Paramount in the depths of the Depression with her pre-Production Code classics "She Done Him Wrong" and "I'm No Angel," which, in turn, made Cary Grant, her leading man in both films, a major star. By 1935, she had become the highest-salaried woman in the nation.
• • The enforcement of the code in 1934 gradually undermined her screen career, but West soldiered on, returning to Broadway in 1944 with the play "Catherine Was Great." [She also revived "Diamond Lil" on Broadway in 1949.] In the 1950s, she conquered the nightclub circuit performing with a chorus line of bodybuilders, wrote her memoirs and never really retired.
• • West often spoke positively about Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley but never in such detail as she does to Chandler. These remarks are among the most poignant in the book. She recognized that both Monroe and Presley were sex personalities — — she adroitly called herself "a sex personality" rather than a sex symbol — — and she lamented that they allowed others to have power over their lives and careers. Early on, she sought Presley out to give him encouragement, but came to believe that he was too insecure to enjoy his success. She could have costarred with him in the circus picture "Roustabout" but was amazed and disappointed that he didn't have the power to guarantee that she could write her part for herself.
• • West was always her own creation, writing or adapting all her own material. "From the time I was a little girl I loved every minute of the success," she says here, "and it felt more wonderful than I could have imagined."
• • Kevin Thomas reviews movies for The L.A. Times.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
— — Source: — —
• • Book Review: 'She Always Knew How' by Charlotte Chandler
A thoughtful biography of Mae West that benefits from a detailed interview the author had with West not long before she died.
• • Byline: By Kevin Thomas [longtime film critic for The Times]
• • Published in: The Los Angeles Times — — www.latimes.com
• • Published on: 16 April 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Mae-mavens will recall what happened on 18 April 1969 — — Mae and one of her black monkeys appeared on the cover of Life Magazine, an arresting bedroom image for sure.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Feverish in February

Were you sitting at the feet of MAE WEST and admiring the sparking dialogue and gown glitter on display in one of her most successful motion pictures for Paramount last night?
• • Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks jazzed us up before the show with lively music. And the Film Forum's ushers passed out slices of crunchy French bread as nimble ticket-holders waited on line in 31 degree weather in lower Manhattan. CBS-TV was panning the crowd.
• • On Friday February 6th, a sparkling new print of "I'm No Angel" opened the 1930s series "Breadlines and Champagne," which will run from Friday February 6th through March 5, 2009 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info and screentimes are available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.
• • Noticing the topmost credit line — — noting that "I'm No Angel's" story, screenplay, and all dialogue were written by Mae West — — calls to mind another February moment.
• • On 6 February 1928, when Mae was living at the Harding Hotel, she registered her script for "Diamond Lil" with the Library of Congress.
• • And on 7 February 1933, Mae recorded "A Guy What Takes His Time" (one of her saucy hits from "She Done Him Wrong") for Brunswick Records.
• • The second month of the year was always busy for Mae. Stay tuned as we count it down.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West: Ill as Lil in 1949

Sixty years ago, MAE WEST — — always feisty, lively, and hard-working — — was suffering with various health problems during January 1949. Portraying the insouciant Diamond Lil was even more difficult while ailing and touring, even for this indefatigable trouper.
• • No doubt these headlines in The New York Times added more stress to both the star and her producers when reporter Sam Zolotow's article was printed in Monday's newspaper on 17 January 1949: MAE WEST REVIVAL DROPS TORONTO RUN; Star's Illness in Baltimore to Halt Buffalo, Syracuse Visits — — Play Due Here February 3rd
• • Sam Zolotow wrote: A gallant attempt by Mae West to minimize her illness hasn't been successful. The star of "Diamond Lil," scheduled to arrive February 3 at the Coronet in the revival of her play, had appeared in Baltimore last week through Friday night [14 January 1949 ], when she was taken ill. . . .
• • Ironically, this distressing announcement appeared in the paper on page 15 in their section called "Amusements" [N.Y. Times, 17 Jan 1949]. We know who was not amused!
• • Perhaps the difficulty of continuing to perform in a three-hour-long stage play even when unwell — — in order not to disappoint ticket-holders and her fans — — contributed to Mae's accident in February 1949, when she fell and broke her ankle.
• • The 1949 Broadway revival at the Coronet Theatre on West 49th was a run Mae West would not forget.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Janus

A short story "Single Night" by Louis Bromfield became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932] — — which was a triumphant screen debut for MAE WEST.
• • January 1st • •
• • Two months after the film was distributed to movie houses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside 33 West 56th Street on 1 January 1933.
• • Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, looks both ways. And the house on West 56th Street certainly looked different from the perspective of George Raft, Mae West, Louis Bromfield, and Larry Fay.
• • January 2nd • •
• • A more pleasant January memory for Mae West took place a year later. On 2 January 1934, when her sister Beverly applied for a marriage license in Chicago, it was hoped that her second Russian husband would be a better companion than her ex-husband Sergei Treshatny. The groom Vladimir Baikoff made Beverly's acquaintance when both were booked on a radio program. Beverly was doing her famous Mae West impersonation for a broadcast — — and Vlad was eager to conjugate some sultry Slavic verbs with her in private, after the show.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Wicked

MAE WEST could not have been thrilled during November 1927. The New York Times planted a bitter raspberry with their review of her latest play (published on Saturday the 5th of November 1927). Written by Mae West, age 34, and her long-time collaborator, the production opened on Friday evening 4 November 1927 — — and lasted for merely nineteen performances. Mae West appeared in a bathing suit, a sight which brought out the spite and malice in her longtime detractors. In other words, this project was a turkey that never made it as far as Thanksgiving.
• • "THE WICKED AGE" TAME — —
• • Mae West Wins a Bathing Beauty Contest in Her New Play.
• • Although it is milder than "Sex" and will probably not cause Mr. Banton and the gendarmes to come on the run, Mae West's newest contribution to dramatic art, staged last night at Daly's Sixty-third Street Theatre, will doubtless stand as the low point of the theatrical season of 1927-28.
• • "The Wicked Age" is the name Miss West has given it, and according to its own admission it is a satirical comedy, in which case "Bringing Up Father" is simply mordant and biting irony. [Ouch!]
• • Dragging through the evening until nearly midnight, "The Wicked Age" seemed at its first New York performance incredible cheap and vulgar trash, with only such minor amusement as was to be derived from watching the exhibitionistic antics of Miss West as a faintly redeeming feature.
• • The bathing beauty contest as practiced along the Jersey Coast was the pressing sociological matter upon which the author-actress had her say.
• • This permitted her to introduce a contest scene in the second act in which, a blithe spirit of the younger generation, she captured first honors. The third act, up to 11:35, was devoted to . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Drama Review: "The Wicked Age" Tame
• • Published in: The New York Times
• • Published on: 5 November 1927 — — Saturday
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 • •
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Mae West: Patricia Farley

Among several intriguing studies on the American actress MAE WEST there is one written by Marybeth Hamilton, who holds a doctorate in history from Princeton University and teaches American History at Birkbeck College, University of London.
• • In When I'm Bad, I'm Better, Marybeth Hamilton discusses how Mae West's former lover George Raft, who was becoming a matinee idol in Hollywood during 1932, was instrumental in getting Mae a cameo role as Maudie Triplett, his blowsy ex-girlfriend in "Night After Night." Hamilton also explains how Mae was aghast at being cast in such a colorless bit part — — and then went on to revise her dialogue and win all the applause. "If nothing else," writes Hamilton, "[Mae West] showed Paramount that they were dealing with an expert scene stealer."
• • It is not surprising that Marybeth Hamilton mentions the hatcheck girl's line: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!" and Maudie Triplett's famous comeback: "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie!" [Mae borrowed the routine from her diamond-draped pal Texas Guinan.]
• • What was left unsaid in this study (and other Mae West books) about that film scene?
• • Curiously, no writer ever mentions that Paramount made the 21-year-old actress Patricia Farley [born 22 August 1911] play the role of the hatcheck girl in blackface.
• • Take a peek. Do you remember the sepia-skinned beauty in the scene — — or not? How come no one ever mentions the deliberately darkened skin? Why not?
• • Here's another question: which house in the West 50s inspired the plot of "Night After Night" [originally titled "Number 55"]? Which heiress was raised in that stately residence? Which Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote the short story that Hollywood adapted for the screenplay? Which gangster met his death on the marble staircase?
• • Since Mae West was known to champion dark-skinned actors in her Broadway projects, it was probably assumed that the hatcheck girl in this scene was one more sepia beauty out of Harlem.
• • Production on "Night After Night" began in August 1932.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Patricia Farley • • circa 1932 • •
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Mae West: Skip to July 25

MAE WEST clashed on the set of "Night After Night" [1932] while she was in a couple of scenes with veteran actress Alison Skipworth.
• • The portly British-trained thespian, suspecting that the younger woman would steal the scene by injecting it with jolt of energy, told the director that Mae West's timing was off.
• • "You forget," she declared, turning to West, "I've been an actress for forty years."
• • "Don't worry, dear," West tartly replied. "I'll keep your secret."
• • Alison Skipworth was born in July in London, England on 25 July 1863.
• • Skipworth also died in the month of July — — on 5 July 1952 — — in New York City.
• • In August 1932, Paramount Pictures began production on "Night After Night"; the Prohibition-themed story, conceived as a vehicle for George Raft, was released in theatres on 30 October 1932. George Raft plays Joe Anton, a former speakeasy owner and gangster who longs to be a gentleman and is being tutored by Mrs. Jellyman [Alison Skipworth].
• • Mae West did her best to dress up a bland bit part with her witty lines, industrial strength charisma, and rapid-fire energy. Paramount Pictures realized that it was "love at first sight" between the studio and this box-office baby. Here's a humorous exchange:
• • Mrs. Jellyman: Do you believe in love at first sight?
• • Maudie Triplett: I dunno, but it saves an awful lot of time.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Yvonne Sayers

When director Louis Lopardi was casting for the role of MAE WEST in "Courting Mae West," he was seeking a powerhouse of an actress with sex appeal and industrial strength charisma. He discovered his leading lady portraying Mae West in Sam Shepard's play "Mad Dog Blues."
• • Born on September 25th, actress Yvonne Sayers was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• • Surrounded by a family of fun-lovers who enjoyed entertaining, her passion for performing flowered at a young age.
• • During high school, Yvonne enrolled in a local acting school while immersing herself in ballroom dancing and modeling — — which led to several local gigs, one of which was working on the set of the movie “The Firm” filmed locally in Memphis, TN.
• • It was there that she approached Sydney Pollack for his advice as to whether she should move to New York or LA to be an actress, to which he replied, “If you really want to be an actress, you should move to New York.” Kismet! The decision was made.
• • After graduation, she headed to The Big Apple and enrolled in T. Schreiber Studio and studied under the acclaimed Mary Boyer, who later opened her own studio, MTB Studio, where Yvonne continued her studies under Mary.
• • Still pursuing an acting career, she also directed some off-off Broadway plays.
• • Her passion for cinema and acting in film, as well as the art of filmmaking, led her to film school where she wrote, directed, and produced several films and graduated with special recognition for her work as a Cinematographer. She then began working behind the scenes professionally as a Cinematographer as well as in Production on several independent films and TV serials such as “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Ed.” While working on the set of “Law & Order: CI” she was advised by producer John L. Roman to focus solely on her acting career. He said, “While this is all great experience, you have to stop doing this kind of work and just start performing and acting as much as possible.” And that’s exactly what she did.
• • Currently, the five-foot-five stunner is exclusively focused on an acting career and to being the best actress she can.
• • Yvonne has appeared on TV in: “Chappelle’s Show,” CourtTV’s “Till Death Do Us Part,” “The Maury Show,” and has performed live all over New York at the American Globe Theatre, in the Samuel French Festival, the PIT, Village Playwrights, the Wings Theatre, and in several productions at the 45th Street Theatre as a proud member of the Michael Chekhov Theatre Co.
• • Rehearsals for "Courting Mae West" will begin on June 7th in Manhattan in midtown under the watchful eye of Mr. Lopardi, his stage manager, and the playwright.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" opens at 6 o'clock on Saturday night July 19, 2008 at the Algonquin Theatre [East 24th Street and Park Avenue South].
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" — — showtimes
• • July 19th, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 20th, 2008 — — 2:00 PM matinee
• • July 21st, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 22nd, 2008 — — 9:00 PM
• • Tickets to "COURTING MAE WEST" are $18 per adult.
• • Theatermania.com sells the tickets — — http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/144297
• • Questions? Phone 212-779-3051.
• • The play is 95 minutes.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West, Texas Guinan, and the gang onstage in mid-July 2008.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West actress • • Yvonne Sayers • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: 30 April 1956

It was on 30 April 1956 that Robert W. Dana's felicitous coverage of "The MAE WEST Review" appeared.
• • Dana's popular daily dish "Tips on Tables" was printed in the now defunct New York World-Telegram & Sun.
• • His column "Mae West's Show Grows" [dated April 30th] indicated Dana had seen the routine previously.
• • Robert W. Dana wrote: The old belief that everything should be bigger and better — — a thought most forcefully pronounced by Hollywood trailers — — can be applied with forthright honesty to Mae West, who has returned to the Latin Quarter [in New York City on West 48th Street], where she scored heavily in the fall [sic] of 1954. . . .
• • A native New Yorker, Robert Dana was born in 1907. His lengthy writing career began on the Drama Desk of the New York Herald Tribune. Years later, after penning a column on restaurants and night spots for this daily paper, Dana gathered those reviews into a book published in 1948. So well-known was he among New York's nightlife czars, that he did a stint for awhile as a night club and restaurant press agent. Subsequently, Robert Dana commandeered a regular byline at the New York World-Telegram column. This energetic reporter also hosted a radio show and short-lived TV program offering his opinions on the stars and entertainers during the 1940s—1950s.
• • Staying active and alert to the end, Robert W. Dana lived to be 89 and died in 1996.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1955 • •
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Mae West.