Mae West: Versailles Suite

MAE WEST did a very long interview with celebrity reporter Mike Connolly, a columnist for the Palm Springs chronicle Desert Sun.  Mae must have found Mike handsome. They had great rapport despite the fact that she had just filed a "cease-and-desist" against him.
• • This is Part 1 of 3 excerpts. Stay tuned because this material is simply fascinatin'.
• • "An Interview with Mae" — — written by Mike Connolly • •
• • Hollywood — — I arrived too late at Prentice-Hall's literary tea in the Beverly Hilton Hotel's Versailles Suite honoring the publishing house's distinguished new lady author Mae West and her book, "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It."
• • Now it was 8:05 p.m. and the press party had been from 5-to-8. I was told that the guest-of-honor had departed. Knowing of Mae's predilection for always looking her best and figuring she must have reserved rooms at Mr. Hilton's inn to prepare for her press-conference-plus-cocktails-cotillion, I picked up the house phone and asked for her.
• • "C'mon up," she said.  Honest.
• • Mae was bodyguarded by Chuck Novak and Thad Prescott • •
• • Mae welcomed me to her suite like Helen of Troy admitting Paris to her boudoir. Except that Mae was bodyguarded in HER boudoir by Chuck Novak, one of the musclemen from her nightclub act, and Thad Prescott, her hair stylist. 
• • Note: In 1961, during the National Tour engagement of the stage comedy "Sextet" starring Mae West, the cast included Paul Novak and Thad Prescott.
• • "I always have somebody with me during interviews," Mae explained, "ever since that Mickey Hargitay mess. He and that Jayne Mansfield were getting all the good publicity.  I was getting roughed up. No more of that for Mae West."
• • She was tired but exhilarated, too. Most actresses are after a good performance. She started remembering all the things she had wanted to say at the press confab but couldn't because too many reporters kept asking her questions about things she didn't want to talk about.
• • Playing Tuesday Weld's mother • •
• • I confessed my guilt when she asked, “Are you the columnist who printed that story about Herman Hover writing a screenplay for me in which I would play Tuesday Weld's mother? Well. I just had my lawyer serve a cease-and-desist notice on him and I sent you a copy too. I'm not about to play anybody's mother.”
• • What Mae would prefer playing is herself in the movie version of her new autobiography. . . .
• • This concludes Part 1. Look for Part 2 on Monday, 12 October 2015.
• • Note: Actress Tuesday Weld was born 27 August 1943. In 1959, Miss Weld turned Sweet 16 and Miss West was 66.  It's a peculiar casting choice, at any rate.
• • Note: Herman Hover [1905 — 1996] took over the management of the nightspot Ciro's in 1942.  The club closed in 1957.  Clearly, this screenplay idea was meant to be a joke.
• •  Source:  "An Interview with Mae" written by Mike Connolly for Desert Sun; published on  Friday, 9 October 1959.
• • On Friday, 9 October 1931 • •
• • It was Friday, 9 October 1931 when an intriguing item appeared in The Evening Herald. Hollywood news man W.E. Oliver had written: Mae West is writing another play for herself. She plans it for next season, but reveals nothing concerning its title or theme other than: It is a historical romance of the sixteenth century and these few hints have emerged.
• • “The Greeks knew their stuff.... Aristotle you know, laid down the dictum that plays should be written about kings and queens," said Mae West. "I go Aristotle one better and insist that she be a bad queen.... When I’m seen in New York in a new role, I will be seen wearing ermine.”
• • On Sunday, 9 October 1932 • •
• • Harry Warner of Warner Bros. heard industry gossip that made him cable Will Hays on Sunday, 9 October 1932.  Harry Warner wrote:  Please wire immediately whether I can believe my ears that Paramount has arranged to make "Diamond Lil" with Mae West. Recollect it was absolutely definite that "Diamond Lil" was not to be produced. ...
• • On Saturday, 9 October 1948 • •
• • If you were reading The Los Angeles Times on Saturday, 9 October 1948, then you would have seen this headline: "Writers Ask Retrial in $100,000 Suit Against Mae West." 
• • As Mae would have said of these two scribblers who challenged her in court, "The nerve of a brass monkey."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West has a section in the book "Great Lives" written by Karen Farrington, just published by BBC Books.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  “I’ve been things and seen places.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • A newspaper in Ithaca, New York mentioned Mae West.
• • Mae West, Broadway star and playwright, is under indictment as author of indecent theatrical performance following closing of her latest play, "Pleasure Man," and arrest of members of the cast.
• • Source: Item in The Cornell Daily Sun;  published on Tuesday, 9 October 1928
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3285th 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 • • in court, 1928 • •
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Mae West: Pain of Jayne

When MAE WEST heard the news about a new inflatable, was she deflated? Let's hear more.
• • "Mae West to Be Replaced by Jayne Mansfield" • •

• • Hollywood [U.P.I.] — — Mae West had an Icy “no comment” today to reports that the Mae West life jacket Is being replaced by a new streamlined model, the Jayne Mansfield.
• • Officers at Shaw AFB. S. C., reported Friday that experts have been tinkering with the new vest to replace the Mae West of World War II fame which has saved the lives of pilots down at sea.
• • Pilots immediately dubbed the new life vest, the Jayne Mansfield, "a pretty good replacement for Mae and up-to-date.”
• • The new jacket has the advantage of being inflated prior to wriggling out of the parachute harness. In contrast, the old style "Mae West" made it necessary for a pilot down at sea to shed his parachute before inflating the jacket.
• • Jayne Mansfield and the muscleman Mickey Hargitay are married.  Mickey once was one of Mae's nightclub entertainers.
• • Source: Syndicated article rpt in The Desert Sun; published on Monday, 5 October 1959.
• • On Saturday, 5 October 1918 • •
• • Mae West received top billing in the review of "Sometime" by The New York Times, which was first published on Saturday, 5 October 1918.
• • On Friday, 5 October 1928 in Cornell Daily Sun • •
• • "Mae West Show Closed by Police; 57 Indicted" • •
• • New York, October 4 — The 56 members of the cast of "Pleasure Man" and Mae West its author, were indicted today by the Grand Jury ... under the penal code relating to indecent theatrical productions and will be arraigned in general sessions tomorrow.
• • The accused were taken to the West Side court after the indictments had been handed down but the hearing was adjourned at the request of District Attorney Joab Banton.
• • Source: Article in Cornell Daily Sun; published on Friday, 5 October 1928.
• • On Friday, 5 October 1934 in Catskill Mountain News • •
• • On Friday, 5 October 1934 "Belle of the Nineties" starring Mae West" was onscreen (on that date only) in the Galli-Curci Theatre, named for the great Italian opera soprano.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • A couple of months ago, Mae West sauntered into Arthur Knight's film class at USC, put her hand on her hip, took her time looking around the room, and finally said: "Hello, boys." 
• • It was a co-ed class.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Of course, I had to have experiences to understand life.  I had to know all about life to give people what they wanted on the stage."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A newspaper in Ithaca, NY mentioned Mae West.
• • "Police Stop Matinee of Mae West's New Play" • •
• • New York, NY — AP — A matinee performance of Mae West's play "Pleasure Man" was halted during the first scene of the third act this afternoon by Police Lieutenant James Coy who walked on the stage and told the audience that he was placing the cast under arrest. Miss West and her actors had also been arrested after Monday night's opening of the play, charged with staging an indecent performance.  ...
• • Source: The Cornell Daily Sun; published on Thursday, 4 October 1928
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 11th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eleven years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,200 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3281st 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 • • news in 1959 • •
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Mae West: Palm Springs VIPS

Celebrities were flocking to Palm Springs to see MAE WEST in her new act in March 1959. Composer Jimmy McHugh was there. In 1935, he and lyricist Dorothy Fields had collaborated on "I’m in the Mood for Love" and Mae West recorded their hit in 1944, with an orchestra directed by Sy Oliver. 
• • Mae West and The Chi Chi Starlite • •

• • Irwin Schuman first opened The Chi Chi Starlite in 1941 as a fancy Polynesian-style restaurant and bar.  The interior design incorporated a stylized recreation of palm-thatched roofs, tapa cloth, and velvet backdrops.  Popular with movie stars and wealthy couples, the supper club kept expanding.  A motorized velvet curtain was customized for their circular stage in the main arena, The Blue Room.  In the Starlite Room itself, completed in 1950, Bill Alexander's band accompanied decades of headliners. A crowd of 800 could be accommodated.
• • According to Palm Springs Life: The entertainment certainly didn’t come cheap. Milton Berle was paid $40,000 for a one-week engagement. Ray Bolger earned $20,000. Danny Thomas was offered $15,000, but turned it down.  Liberace, who was only starting out, collected $1,500 a week playing Chopin in the club’s Persian Room.
• • Palm Springs Life continued:   The Chi Chi took some big risks. Mae West’s campy nightclub act consisted of six bulging musclemen parading around the spot-lit stage in leopard-skin loincloths, while black comedienne Louise Beavers, dressed in a maid’s uniform, served tea to West, who reclined enticingly on a chaise lounge covered in eiderdown. Cary Grant raved about the show for weeks. Ann Sheridan also was a big fan.
• • On Wednesday, 18 March 1959, The Desert Sun wrote: Circus Time at The Chi Chi was Sunday night when almost everybody in show business dropped in at the club's Starlite Room to watch Mae West go into her new act.  From left. Jimmy McHugh, Louella Parsons, Miss West, and Merwyn Leroy.  Mae's chorus line — — composed of musclemen — — drew lots of comments from boys and girls in the audience.
• • Source: Desert Sun caption;  published on Wednesday, 18 March 1959.
• • On Wednesday, 18 March 1936 • •
• • Variety reviewed "Klondike Annie," calling the motion picture "chic" and starting the critique on the front page.  But the stern-faced man-on-the-aisle objected to several elements therein. "Miss West is handicapped by having to wear rather dowdy dresses in about half the footage. In other portions she struts fine feathers and wears a set of furs that will make the women gasp," he commented on page 17. Variety Magazine's issue was dated for Wednesday, 18 March 1936.
• • On Saturday, 18 March 1939 in Brooklyn • •
• • "Mae West Heads New Show at Fox Stage, Screen" • •
• • Herbert Corn wrote: Last night  was the original, the vivacious, glamorous and curvaceous Mae West, whose hip-swinging drew a standing line to the Fox Brooklyn Theatre at 9 A.M. yesterday to wait an hour and a half for the doors to open. It was the Mae West of "come up see me sometime" days that they came here to applaud. It was the legendary Mae West, who cautions you gals that "it ain't the men in your life that count — — it's the life in your men." Catherine the Great was nowhere in sight. She wasn't even mentioned.  No one even thought of her.
• • Herbert Corn continued:  The original Mae West, with six chorus boys as her foils and Milton Watson to assist her In a romantic skit, clicked at the Fox. What she does is even older. But Flatbush Avenue, both downtown and uptown, were there to greet her. The crowds at the Brooklyn Fox reflected not only their fascination with La West but also how she says it and the way she does it, ...
• • Source: Article in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle; published on Saturday, 18 March 1939.
• • In the March 2000 issue of The New Criterion • •
• • The New Criterion published the article "Mae Days" by Mark Steyn (Vol. 18, March 2000). Mark Steyn wrote: "But quite a lot of Mae West is going quite a long way on the New York stage these days. It’s been twenty years since her death, almost seventy since her career peaked, and, on a random sample, I find most people today have no very clear idea who she was. Yet she’s out there . . . ."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Here are two stars we would like to see teamed up — — Mae West and James Cagney. There's dynamite in that idea!
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  ''A man in the house is worth two in the street.''
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A Singapore newspaper reprinted a long article about Mae West and her father.
• • Mae West, in the great tradition of the business that has been her life, recently paid highest tribute to the memory of her father.
• • "Fighting Jack" West died. His heart stopped while he slept.  . . .
• • Source: Article (P. 4): "In the Mae West Tradition" rpt in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser; published on Monday, 18 March 1935
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •    
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this past decade. The other day we entertained 1,430 visitors. We reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,100 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3137th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Chi Chi in 1959 • •
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