Mae West: Friend to the End

The friendship between MAE WEST and Dolly Dempsey (who died on Thursday, 2 November 2006) is well-known. Learn more about this life-long friend today.  This is Part 2 of two parts.
• • Dolly Dempsey [24 November 1917 — 2 November 2006] • •
• • Loving friendship with Mae West • •
• • Her loving friendship with Mae West began when Dolly was in high school at Our Lady of Peace Academy. This friendship continued throughout her adult years.
• • Dolly was always thankful that she could be with Mae West at her bedside when her friend died.
• • At the age of 51, Dolly graduated from San Diego State University.
• • One of the greatest gifts she left her brothers and sisters were the volumes of family history she wrote and traced back to the early 1800s. Dolly and her husband, Don, traveled extensively; the happiest trips were to Hawaii to visit our Hawaiian Clan, family of our deceased brother James and his wife Alena. Dolly is survived by her husband, Donald, brothers Hugh Lyons and (wife Gerry) and Charles Lyons (wife Bernice), two sisters Evelyn Williams (husband Sam) and Joan Busalacchi (husband Cosimo), along with many loving nieces and nephews. Dolly was the glue that held our family together.
We love you and will miss you forever.
• • Services for Dolly Dempsey were held on Wednesday, 8 November 2006 at Blessed Sacrament Church. Burial was at Holy Cross Cemetery.  
• • Source: The San Diego Union Tribune; published on Tuesday, 7 November 2006.
• • Texas Guinan [12 January 1884 — 5 November 1933] • •

• • Born in Waco, Texas on 12 January 1884, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan played a gun-slinger and rode bareback in silent films, took New York by storm in 1906, and earned a salary of $700,000 as a speakeasy hostess. The versatile stage star led a noisy and joyful life at full speed until Sunday, 5 November 1933. One month later, Prohibition was repealed.
• • A good friend to Mae West who invested in her Broadway shows, Texas also held seances with her.
• • Texas Guinan is one of several strong roles for actresses in the play "Courting Mae West" based on true events during the Prohibition Era.  Producers and aspiring stars, take note.
• • On Wednesday, 5 November 1930 • •
• • "A prizefighter's tart" who enjoys black men as well as Caucasians, Babe Gordon, the frisky blonde teenage protagonist, was Mae's idea of an uptown temptress, footloose, fearless, and unfettered in Harlem.
• • The novel "Babe Gordon" by Mae West was published in New York City by The Macaulay Company on Wednesday, 5 November 1930.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West's chauffeur, Albert "Chalky" Wright, was a former boxer who in 2003 was placed on The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "First impressions are what count. It's like when you arrive at a party. That's when people take a real look at you, and if they're impressed, that's how they think of you. If your makeup fades and you get creases in your dress later, that isn't what they remember."
• • Quote, Unquote • •

• • An Arizona site mentioned Mae West's visit to a downtown movie house.
• • Historic photos of downtown Phoenix, Arizona • •
• • Photo: Referred to by the Phoenix newspaper reporters as "that startling woman," movie star Mae West appears in a convertible right in front of the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix to promote her latest motion picture, "I'm No Angel,"  in 1933.
• • Source: rpt in AZCentral.com; published on Wednesday, 6 August 2014
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • • 
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — — 
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/

• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 14th anniversary • •  

• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fourteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,000 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4077th 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 • • with Texas Guinan (in court) in 1930 • •
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Mae West: Arizona's Ashurst

Wearing a darling hat, MAE WEST posed with Senator Henry Ashurst. They probably met when the movie queen was in Phoenix promoting her hit "I'm No Angel" in 1933 or 1934. Since the campaign for The White House is in its final weeks, let's look at a theatrical elected official who was born during September.
• • Henry Fountain Ashurst [13 September 1874 — 31 May 1962] • •
• • Henry F. Ashurst was born on Sunday, 13 September 1874 in a covered wagon near Winnemucca, Humboldt County, Nevada.  In 1876, his father, a rancher, moved his wife and ten children to Arizona, where the family settled.
• • Able-bodied and mostly self-educated, Ashurst served as a district attorney and member of the Arizona Territorial legislature before fulfilling his childhood ambition of joining the U. S. Senate.  When Arizona achieved statehood in 1912, the Democratic politician was elected by the Arizona legislature as one of the state's two senators, taking office on 27 March 1912 alongside Marcus A. Smith. He was  re-elected in 1916 (by popular vote), and again in 1922, 1928, and 1934, serving for almost 29 years until 1940.   During his time in the Senate, Ashurst was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Judiciary Committee.
• • Time Magazine poked fun at Ashurst's political career, calling it "the longest U.S. theatrical engagement on record."  Certain inclinations and habits combined to make him easy to mock such as his self-contradictory voting record, the use of a sesquipedalian vocabulary, and his unending affection for public speaking, which occasionally defeated his purpose but which also earned him a reputation as one of the Senate's greatest orators.
• • Ashurst married once; his wife pre-deceased him.  He suffered a stroke and died two weeks after in Washington, D.C. on 31 May 1962.  He was 87.
• • Eddy Grove [30 July 1917 — 28 September 1995] • •
• • Born in Queens, NY on 30 July 1917, Eddy Grove was 27 years old when he appeared as a soldier in Mae West's Broadway extravaganza "Catherine Was Great."  He had previously appeared in summer stock.
• • From 1951 — 1958, Eddy Grove appeared in about a dozen network TV shows such as "Playhouse 90" and "Dragnet." Afterwards, he devoted himself to teaching the dramatic arts at Julliard, the Yale Drama School, and elsewhere. After he retired, he wrote and starred in a solo show "Yiddish Tales."
• • Eddy Grove died of cancer in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, 28 September 1995.  He was 78.
• • On Sunday, 28 September 1930 • •
• • Mae West decided to take her play "Sex" on the road during August 1930.  The N.Y. Times reported that "Sex" was booked in the Midwest.  The engagement at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago began on Sunday, 28 September 1930.
• • On Wednesday, 28 September 1932 • •
• • This statement was taken from the court case of People v. Voiler: The first indictment charged appellant and two co-defendants, Harry Voiler (a.k.a. Edward Friedman) and Cohen, with robbing one Mae West on Wednesday, September 28, 1932, taking from her money and jewelry [2 Cal. App. 2d 727] valued at $15,400. 
• • The case went to trial and Mae West testified.
• • On Saturday, 28 September 1974 • •
• • The colorful Mae West room in Dalí Theatre and Museum opened on Saturday, 28 September 1974.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I was more concerned when he (Edward Friedman) threatened he'd break my nose — — and maybe I might lose my screen contract, too — — than with the $3,400 in cash and the $12,000 in jewelry he took when that crook held me up (on Wednesday, 28 September 1932)."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A reviewer in Time covered a play by Mae West.
• • "The Constant Sinner" • •
• • Time's critic wrote:  Three seasons ago Mae West's lusty singing of "Frankie and Johnnie" and the nostalgic flavor of bar and brothel scenes made "Diamond Lil" a Broadway hit.  In "The Constant Sinner," which Mae West wrote from her own novel, the bars and brothels are Harlem, 1931, and Mae West does not sing. But "The Constant Sinner" is no tame play, nor is it a dull play.  ...
• • Source: Review: "The Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan" for Time Magazine; published on Monday, 28 September 1931 

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eight years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2441st 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 • • 1933 or 1934 • •
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