Mae West: Delta Kappa Alpha

The headline from Los Angeles was "MAE WEST Still Knows How to Steal the Show."
• • Delta Kappa Alpha hosted this unique affair on campus in the Town and Gown building. About 88 attendees made it inside including George Cukor, Mervyn Le Roy, Jimmy Stewart, and Robert Wise. Take my hand and let's enter the time machine.
• • "Mae West Still Knows How to Steal the Show" • •
• • Wednesday, Hollywood, Los Angeles — — According to reporter Bob Thomas, this memorable evening was scheduled as a tribute to James Stewart, Mervyn Leroy, and Mae West. Predictably, Miss West stole the show. It was one of those annual banquets of the honorary cinema fraternity at the University of Southern California, and the gathering was a curious mixture of the academic and entertainment worlds. Nostalgia was the keynote, and the diners viewed photographs from various films of the three honored guests as these were flashed on the wall of the campus dining room.  . . .
• • Bob Thomas explained: Next came Miss West. She agreed to accept an honorary membership in Delta Kappa Alpha — — if she could do it her way. That's the only way she operates.
• • Bob Thomas observed: After the brief scenes from "Klondike Annie" and "Every Day's a Holiday," the lights came up. The platform had been converted into a boudoir with a white fur rug, white chaise lounge, full-length mirror, candelabra, etc. Miss West, who likes to surround herself with musclemen, had three U.S.C. football players — — Adrian Young, Tim Bossavich and O.J. Simpson — — huddled around her. The three athletes, unborn when Miss West quit making movies, made their retreat, revealing her to the audience.
• • Bob Thomas added: All the trappings were there: The three golf-ball size diamond rings; the spray of diamonds above the pneumatic chest; the cascade of milk-white hair (a wig); the undulating figure, more than ample (despite tight corseting) in a jeweled white gown. Despite abundant makeup, the face showed its 71 years.
• • Bob Thomas noted: But the eyes beneath the upswept lashes were clear, and the voice still had the quality of a small girl playing the vamp. "I have been honored many times (laughter) for many things (laughter) " Her insinuating manner can still draw amusement from straight lines. The proceedings took a more historical turn as George Cukor and Robert Wise literally sat at her feet and questioned her about the Mae West career. She related her beginnings as a dancer at 8, her authorship of the play, "Sex," and her film ad-; ventures in a rambling manner that required much prompting by the two directors. Miss West picked up the pace by delivering a 1910 song, "The Grizzly Bear," to show ragtime's relationship to rock. Then she did a recitation from her "Diamond Lil" followed by a rendition of "Frankie and Johnny."
• • Bob Thomas stated: Although some of the younger members of the audience seemed baffled by the performance, the applause grew by degrees to a standing ovation. "I want to thank you for your generous applause — — and your very heavy breathing," said Miss West, remaining in character.
• • Source: Syndicated column written by Bob Thomas rpt in The Express (Lock Haven, PA) on page 12; published on Wednesday, 14 February 1968.
• • On Tuesday, 14 February 1933 • •
• • Variety's reporter "Bige" wrote an article on "She Done Him Wrong." The magazine ran it on pages 12 and 21 in their issue dated 14 February 1933.
• • Dated for the week of 14 February 1949 • •
• • Spotted for sale: Mae West on the cover of a "Diamond Lil" Playbill from the Coronet Theatre. It was dated for the week of 14 February 1949. What a Valentine!
• • On Friday, 14 February 1986 • •
• • The news sheet Winslow Mail announced on 14 February 1986 (on the front page) "Doll Show Begins Monday." The vast collection included character figures. Visitors would see Mae West and W.C. Fields in authentic clothes from their movie "My Little Chickadee," for instance.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West has as many taboos as she has curves. She doesn't like black cats, the numbers thirteen or twenty-three, and wouldn't walk under a ladder on a bet. But her greatest fear was unconsciously revealed one day by her when she told a mutual friend, "The thing that worries me most, young fella, is the reformers likin' me. When they do I'll know I'm slippin'!"
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Women with pasts interest men. They hope history will repeat itself." 
• • Mae West said: "I never play over twenty-eight."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Salina Journal mentioned Mae West.
• • She said that she.was under contract to a producer, the late Jerry Wald, vhose most lasting contribution to her career was to change her real name — Tharon Crigler.
• • "Jerry thought Jennifer Jones and Mae West were two of the biggest stars," she says, "so he made me Jennifer West."  Recalling those earlier years, she said, "I think maybe I had a latent desire to act, but I thought I was too ugly."  ....
• • Source: The Salina Journal; published on Friday, 12 February 1965 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2854th 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: Forthcoming

MAE WEST, who has not appeared in movies for a quarter of a century, will return to the screen early next year in a film version of her play — — "Sextet" — — in which she starred in Florida in 1961.
• • This is how A.H. Weiler began his article about Mae West, whose producer was going to be Warner Brothers Seven Arts when Abe's article was published in The New York Times forty years ago on 17 October 1968. The actress was 75 years of age when she was interviewed.
• • "Sextet" — — explained Miss West — — is a comedy about a movie star who has six husbands. I appeared in it only in Florida [sic] because I didn't want to spend the time and the energy needed to bring it to Broadway.
• • I am also happy to say that I'm not doing this for the money, added Mae West. I'm fortunate in having a lot of young fans, who, I suppose, have been watching my old films on TV and listening to my rock 'n' roll records such as "Way Out West" and "Wild Christmas," who have been pleading with me to do a picture. I guess you could call "Sextet" a return by popular demand. Anyway, it's very flattering. I think "Sextet" is very funny and I hope they'll think it is, too. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Mae West Plans to Make a Movie"
• • Byline: A.H. Weiler, motion picture editor
• • Published in: The New York Times
• • Published on: 17 October 1968
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Harvey Brooks

MAE WEST 's composer Harvey Brooks died in June, so let's take a moment to meditate on his angel music.
• • Born in 1899 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harvey Brooks wrote all the numbers that Mae fans associate with her successful film "I'm No Angel."
• • His song compositions included "I'm No Angel," "They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk," "That Dallas Man," and "I Found a New Way to Go to Town."
• • The songwriter — a member of ASCAP — died in Los Angeles at age 69 on 17 June 1968.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: New Orleans

When a St. Louis woman comes down to New Orleans, it doesn't matter if Mardi Gras has passed because a new party is in town: Ruby Carter - - played by MAE WEST.
• • Originally, the male lead for "It Ain't No Sin" [re-titled "Belle of the Nineties" and released in September 1934] was to be George Raft. However, 33-year-old Roger Pryor [1901-1974] - - dubbed "the poor man's Clark Gable" - - got the role of the boxer called the Tiger Kid.
• • Though Karl Struss was the cinematographer who worked on "Belle of the Nineties," this photograph of Mae West at ringside was taken by a master portraitist who shot many Hollywood stars and other celebrities: George Hoyningen-Huené.
• • Baron George Hoyningen-Huené, who segued into the darkroom when he met his lover Horst, was born on 4 September 1900 in Russia to a nobleman.
• • Hoyningen-Huené, behind a camera before anything resembling contemporary flash photography was known, achieved wonderful effects in black and white.
• • George Hoyningen-Huené died, age 68, in Los Angeles on 12 September 1968.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West: Tallulah-ed

MAE WEST posed with actress Tallulah Bankhead at an event during the 1950s.

• • Tallulah Bankhead [31 January 1902 – 12 December 1968] was an American actress, talk-show host and bonne vivante.
• • At 15, Bankhead won a movie-magazine beauty contest and moved to New York. She quickly won bit parts. During these early New York years, she became a peripheral member of the Algonquin Round Table, and was reputed to be a hard-partying girl-about-town.
• • In 1931 her name was tossed out as Paramount Pictures' "next Marlene Dietrich", but Hollywood success eluded her in her first four films of the 30s. Critics agreed that her acting was flat, that she was unable to dominate the camera, and that she was generally outclassed by Dietrich, Carole Lombard, and others.
• • In Hollywood, Tallulah rented a home [1712 Stanley Street], and began hosting frisky parties. On 9 September 1932, she was on the cover of Film Weekly.
• • She was outspoken and uninhibited.
• • In 1932 she briefly expressed interest in spirituality and met with an Indian mystic.
• • In 1933 Tallulah Bankhead nearly died following a 5-hour emergency hysterectomy for an advanced case of gonorrhea, contracted – – she said – – from either actor George Raft or Gary Cooper. Only 70 pounds when she was able to leave the hospital, she stoically said to her doctor, "Don't think this has taught me a lesson!"
• • In 1963 she gave her last theatrical performances in a Tennessee Williams play, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More.
• • Tallulah Bankhead died in New York City in December of double pneumonia arising from influenza, complicated by emphysema, at the age of 66 [12 December 1968] and is buried in Saint Paul's Churchyard, Maryland.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: Mae West • • Tallulah Bankhead • •
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