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Key elements of MAE WEST's persona were rooted in black traditions.
• • Mae West herself said that her earliest influence was the black entertainer Bert Williams. She popularized the sexually charged black dance the shimmy. Some believed she had invented it but she didn't; she learned it in a Chicago nightspot.
• • Mae West tinted photographs to make herself look like her black maid. And chronicler Zora Neale Hurston in a 1934 essay, ''Characteristics of Negro Expression,'' said that Mae West ''had much more flavor of the turpentine quarters than she did of the white bawd.''
• • Speaking of Zora Neale Hurston's 1934 essay "Characteristics of Negro Expression" — this was perhaps the first attempt to define the jook joint. Of course, Mae West set "Diamond Lil" in a Bowery saloon that was not too far distant from a jook — — i.e., the "turpentine quarters."
• • In January it's an ideal time to look back at the sharp-eyed writer Zora Neale Hurston.• • Born in Alabama, Zora Neale Hurston [7 January 1891 — 28 January 1960] was a folklorist and an author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance; her best known work was the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God [1937]. In 2002, scholars listed Zora Neale Hurston among the 100 Greatest African-Americans.
• • Huston's essay appeared in a volume that was privately printed in Great Britain at the expense of Nancy Cunard, its editor. Negro: An Anthology was rejected by American publishers during the Prohibition Era. Wishart, a London imprint, released only 1,000 copies in 1934. This formidable door-stop of an anthology brought together 250 contributions by 150 black scribes and ran to 855 pages. Heiress Nancy Cunard [1896 — 1965] was a visionary and, fortunately, her small press run was eventually reprinted in the USA in wider release. If you have the book, read Zora Neale Huston's entries on behalf of her birthday: January 7th.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST had a talent for hooking up with top gangsters, mad, bad, and indispensable to know. 
• • "So sweet and so vicious," was Mae's character rating for Owney "The Killer" Madden, whose birthday is today.
• • Mae West acknowledged meeting Madden when she moved into the Harding Hotel at 205 West 54th Street. Owney Madden provided the financing for several of Texas Guinan's speakeasies — — and Guinan's Club Abbey operated from the basement of the Harding Hotel during Mae's residency. Texas Guinan employed a tap dancer, George Ranft [stage name George Raft], who was also Madden's bagman.
• • When Owney Madden financed Mae West's Broadway show "Sex," George made nightly visits to pick up the gangster's share of the box-office profits. Soon George and Mae became lovers, a mutually beneficial relationship.
• • Owen "Owney" Madden [born 18 December 1891 in England] grew up in midtown Manhattan's gang-ridden westside. In the early 1900s, his family moved to 352 Tenth Avenue, off the corner of West 30th Street. Mary Madden and her three youngsters had moved in with her sister-in-law Elizabeth O'Neil; both widows were raising children while trying to support a husband-less household. Young Owney soon joined the Gopher Gang and became a one person crime wave.
• • During the Prohibition Era, Madden owned the popular Cotton Club in Harlem. When Francis Ford Coppola made "The Cotton Club," he chose Bob Hoskins to portray Madden.
• • On 24 April 1965, Owney Madden, 75, died in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Harding Hotel • •
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Mae West.
Before MAE WEST there was Katie West.• • 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.
• • Their first child Katie came along during August of 1891; unfortunately, the infant died. Perhaps because of this, Mr. and Mrs. West became even more attached to their second child — — Mary Jane. Named for her Irish grandmother, their second daughter was born in Brooklyn on 17 August 1893.
• • Katie West's brief life came to an end on 30 October 1891. She is in our thoughts.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was not unfamiliar with menace. One of her former lovers, a money machine who could afford to finance all of her extravagant Broadway productions, was Owen Vincent Madden. On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a walking tour "Mae West Side Story" will take participants to several locations where the gangster rendezvoused with the Broadway actress — — including the place where Mae said they met. 
• • British news man Graham Nown wrote a book about Owney, The English Godfather [London: Ward Lock Ltd., 1987] exactly twenty years ago. The dustjacket pictures a youthful-looking mobster and the marquee of the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem.
• • "Have you ever heard of this top Yankee gangster who was raised in Wigan?" asks Geoffrey Shryhane of his UK readers in the publication Wigan Today. Explaining further, Shryhane says, "Owney (The Killer) Madden was born in Leeds in 1891 and became America's most dangerous public enemy, an influential godfather of organized crime.
• • Enormously proud of himself for reading a book printed two decades ago, Geoffrey Shryhane goes on . . . and on. According to Shryhane:
. . . I've just read a fascinating account of Owney (real name Owen) Madden's life by the late local journalist Graham Nown. I can recommend it. Seems that the Madden family came to live in Wigan when he was a lad. Thick yellow smoke enveloped the town and clogs clattered on the cobblestones at dawn.
. . . Owney, who listed Mae West among his friends, remembered the Wigan schoolmaster's polished cane ready to swoop as pupils chanted edifying maxims such as "Discipline is the backbone of the British Empire."
. . . After school he tended his dad's pigeons ... and throughout his life as gangster, he retained a love of his feathered-friends.
. . . Later, the family moved to New York — — a Hell's Kitchen where the young Owney was drawn into a life of petty crime and gang violence.
. . . The English Godfather rose to criminal fame during the dry years of prohibition, when he ran chains of speakeasies, selling bootleg beer, and smuggling alcohol. ...
• • If you have not gotten around to The English Godfather yet, consult this UK-based site.
• • Source: Wigan Today — — http://www.wigantoday.net/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's former lover on a bookjacket • • 1930s • •
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Mae West.
The role of Captain Cummings — — in Mae West's play "Diamond Lil" — — required a handsome, charismatic man with stage training. For the Broadway role, Mae chose Curtis Cooksey, who was born 9 December 1891 in Indiana. 
• • "Diamond Lil" debuted at the Royale Theatre [242 West 45th Street, NYC] on 9 April 1928. It was a box office success as well as a favorite with drama critics.• • Since 1916, the 25-year-old actor began winning leading roles on The Great White Way. Curtis Cooksey had starred in over a dozen productions before stepping into his Salvation Army uniform to make an impact on a beautiful saloon singer, a vivacious blonde bombshell who told him, "Diamonds is my career."• • Since 1911, Curtis Cooksey had also been cast in silent films [debut: "Taming a Tyrant"] and he made a smooth transition into talkies.
• • In the film version of Mae's play, Cary Grant played Captain Cummings [a.k.a. "The Hawk"].• • After a long career in Tinseltown, Cooksey contracted cancer. He committed suicide in Hollywood on 19 April 1962.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's co-star Curtis Cooksey • • circa 1950s • •NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST had a talent for hooking up with the right gangsters.
• • "So sweet and so vicious," was Mae's character rating for Owney "The Killer" Madden, who died during the month of April.
• • Mae West acknowledged meeting Madden when she moved into the Harding Hotel at 205 West 54th Street. Owney Madden provided the financing for several of Texas Guinan's speakeasies - - and Guinan's Club Abbey operated from the basement of the Harding Hotel during Mae's residency. Texas Guinan employed a tap dancer, George Ranft [stage name George Raft], who was also Madden's bagman.
• • When Owney Madden financed Mae West's Broadway show "Sex," George made nightly visits to pick up the gangster's share of the box-office profits. Soon George and Mae became lovers, a mutually beneficial relationship.
• • Owen "Owney" Madden [born 18 December 1891 in England] grew up in midtown Manhattan's gang-ridden westside. In the early 1900s, his family moved to 352 Tenth Avenue, off the corner of West 30th Street. Mary Madden and her three youngsters had moved in with her sister-in-law Elizabeth O'Neil; both widows were raising children while trying to support a husband-less household. Young Owney soon joined the Gopher Gang and became a one person crime wave.
• • During the Prohibition Era, Madden owned the popular Cotton Club in Harlem. When Francis Ford Coppola made "The Cotton Club," he chose Bob Hoskins to portray Madden.
• • On 24 April 1965, Owney Madden, 75, died in Hot Springs, Arkansas.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • West 54th, where Mae met Madden • • 2005
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Mae West.
