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MAE WEST took her role as Empress Catherine II [1729 — 1796] very seriously. "Catherine," the Broadway star reminded her audience in a first-night curtain speech, "had 300 lovers. I did the best I could in two hours." 
• • One of the Russian ruler's heart-throbs was Grigory Potemkin [1739 — 1791], who had first won Catherine's favor for assisting in her 1762 coup, and then distinguishing himself as a military commander in the Russo-Turkish War [1768 — 1774]. Ten years her junior and in possession of the finer traits that Grigory Orloff lacked, Grigory Potemkin soon became Catherine's lover, a favorite, and possibly her consort. After their first-run passion cooled a bit, he remained her lifelong friend and trusted statesman. Catherine gave him the title Prince of the Holy Roman Empire among many others. Within two years after their intimate partnership had taken root, she had given him nine million rubles. Afterwards he accepted almost limitless estates in Poland and in every province of Greater Russia. The mansion he built in St. Petersburg, known as the Taurian Palace, was the site of the most unrestrained entertaining.
• • Remembering Joel Ashley on April 7th • •
• • Actor Joel Ashley must have caught Mae's eye during auditions because the 25-year-old was cast for two roles in "Catherine Was Great" — — Corporal Joe and Prince Potemkin. 
• • Born in Atlanta, Georgia in the month of April — — on 7 April 1919 — — Joel Ashley married an actress in June 1942. His bride Margalo Francis Wilson had followed in her father's footsteps; Francis Wilson was the founding president of Actor’s Equity. His family recalled that he was known to quote Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. On Broadway, he starred as Abe Lincoln in both "Prologue to Glory" and "War President," a dead-end flop that closed after one single performance [April 24 —25, 1944]. Recovering nicely from that loser, he soon started rehearsals for "Catherine Was Great," which opened on The Great White Way at the Shubert Theatre on 2 August 1944 and did excellent box office until the final performances in January 1945.
• • Joel Ashley enjoyed a long versatile career onstage, onscreen, on radio, and on TV. On television, he appeared live on Hallmark, Studio One, and other productions. Radio listeners heard him as the announcer for Lucky Strike and he was a leading character in The Shadow, Capt. Video, and many New York soap operas of the 1940s and 1950s.
• • In 1954, he was cast in "Ten Commandments" and moved to Hollywood. In Los Angeles, he had a lengthy tenure as Chair of the Theatre Committee at the Masquer’s Club.
• • Joel Ashley died in Los Angeles in the month of April — — on 7 April 2000.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Rocker Alice Cooper was in the cast of "Sextette" starring Mae West. Kevin Blair notes this comment by Cooper: While Lady Gaga is a huge fan of Alice Cooper, the macabre rocker also finds himself a fan of hers. Cooper said, "She's a cross between Madonna, Mae West and Liberace... She's a spectacle." ...
• • Source: Article: "Lady Gaga Meets Her Idol Alice Cooper" written by Kevin Blair for StarPulse.com; posted on 29 March 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1892nd 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 • • as the Empress of Russia, 1944 • •
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Mae West.
We bid a fond adieu to a comedian who worked with MAE WEST.
• • Brooklyn native Dominick "Dom" DeLuise was born on 1 August 1933 to Italian American parents Vicenza and John DeLuise.
• • Like Mae, Dom DeLuise hailed from Brooklyn, New York. During the 1960s, the moon-faced entertainer was often seen on TV variety shows and also boosted the comic quotient in motion pictures featuring Mel Brooks and Burt Reynolds.
• • The 75-year-old funnyman passed away on Monday evening — — 4 May 2009 — — at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, according to his agent Robert Malcolm. DeLuise's wife Carol and three sons were at his bedside when he took his final breaths.
• • "Dom DeLuise was a naturally funny man," averred film critic Leonard Maltin. "He didn't need a script to be funny, but smart people like Mel Brooks knew how to give him just the right setting and showcase."
• • Dom DeLuise, who has many movie credits to his name, was also seen in Sextette [1978]. Released by Crown International, this musical comedy starred Mae West. Others in the cast included Timothy Dalton, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, and Walter Pidgeon.
• • Dom DeLuise also played host in the documentary film "Mae West . . . and the Men Who Knew Her."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Dom DeLuise in 1978 • •
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Mae West.
Sextette is a 1978 Crown International motion picture starring MAE WEST. The cast includes Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, and Walter Pidgeon.
• • The role of Vance Norton fell to George Hamilton [born in Memphis on 12 August 1939] — — who was 39 years old at the time. Known chiefly for being well-tanned and as impeccably groomed as a circus poodle, the actor has turned his Hollywood compost heap into an autobiography he is hoping will prove to be a page turner.
• • "Don't Mind if I Do" is his 305-page memoir (published by Touchstone) that trades on tidbits from motion pictures he was cast in, the women he dated (including Elizabeth Taylor, in the mid-1980s) along with the other Hollywood legends he knew (such as Mae West, Cary Grant, and Judy Garland).
• • I take issue with that sneaky word KNEW. How well does an actor "know" Mae West because the man had one scene with her, eh?
• • But if you are broken up because Hugh Hefner is no longer "dating" Holly Madison, then you may wish to console yourself with a box of truffles and the sugar-coated flaky leavings from Hamilton's Hollywood exhaust valve.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST was a good sport but how would she handle this comment?
• • Getting more mean-spirited as he ages is a trash-from-the-past singer — — ex-shock-rocker ALICE COOPER [who was born Vincent Damon Furnier on 4 February 1948]. To flog his memoir about getting thrills from golf, the 60-year-old ex-alcoholic is exhaling each and every anecdote about any famous person he encountered into any old microphone or ear.
• • Getting some mileage out of MAE WEST, for instance, Cooper revealed that he turned down the opportunity to bed the late great screen star — — why — — because he wasn't sure if the former sex symbol was truly a female.
• • Suspicions have arisen that Cooper was too boozed up to get it up in the 1970s. Laying the rumors to rest, Alice Cooper — — who had a tiny featured (blink and you'll miss it) role alongside the veteran actress in the movie "Sextette" in 1978 — — reveals West was keen to romance the then 30-year-old singer and even invited him back to her trailer — — an offer the skeletal musician refused.
• • Ungallantly he says, "Did she come on to me? You bet she did. We ended one of our scenes and Mae whispered to me, 'Why don't you come on back to my trailer?' I said, 'Because you're 86-years-old and I'm not sure if you're a woman or not!'"
• • What a gentleman, eh? In his black fright wig and crudely applied eye make-up, Cooper has been mugging for the camera often this year. However, no former groupies are coming out of the woodwork to praise his (ahem) performance.
• • Contrast Cooper's harsh remembrance of his brief experience in Mae's company with Sextette co-star Timothy Dalton's recollections of the 85-year-old actress playfully flirting with him on the set. Vive le difference. Timothy Dalton is still a dreamboat, too.• • Since Mae West died in November 1980 at age 87, Cooper did not get a chance to insult her in person a second time.
• • Source for this information: http://www.contactmusic.com/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
Various publications have jumped on the memoir of a former co-star of MAE WEST, namely Alice Cooper [born Vince Furnier nearly 60 years ago]. The title is Alice Cooper, Golf Monster; the byline reads 'by Alice Cooper with Keith and Kent Zimmerman" [Crown Publishers].
• • The rock musician's addictive nature, fortunately, did not get him hooked on drugs. He became an alcoholic instead. Battling the booze, despite stints in rehab, led him to a discovery: substitute a harmful habit with a harmless hobby: golf. The book details his mania with the links.
• • To stave off boredom in the reader, however, the usual bold-faced names buzz around the text not unlike mosquitoes on an 18-hole green. Before he embraced a healthier lifestyle, the rocker used to hang out with John Lennon and Harry Nilsson, drinking himself under the freeway and waking up in the morning vomiting blood. Because of golf, he now rubs elbows with presidents, Hollywood icons, and John Daly.
• • The show-off side of the 146-lb Cooper spews out the names of his eclectic group of celebrity chums. He has socialized with the likes of Groucho Marx, Salvador Dali, and Fred Astaire, supposedly. He claims he was great buddies with late British comic actor Peter Sellers. And he spurned the amorous advances of a fresh Raquel Welch and a well-seasoned Mae West.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
