Mae West: Flint Séance

It was Sunday, 25 January 1948 when MAE WEST opened the United Kingdom tour of "Diamond Lil" at the Prince of Wales Theatre on London’s West End. She’d heard of the British medium Leslie Flint [1911 – 16 April 1994] and took this opportunity to meet him. This is Part 1.
• • The Flint Séance • •

• • From “The Spirit Book” comes this: In 1948, Mae West was appearing in Diamond Lil at the Prince of Wales Theater in London. She sent a note to the British voice medium Leslie Flint asking for a sitting with him. The séance was to take place at her suite in the Savoy Hotel, after her evening performance.
• • From “The Spirit Book” comes this: Mae West’s business manager, Mr. Timony, escorted Flint to the suite. As Leslie Flint described it, “[Mae West] came over to sit beside me and we talked about her films, all of which I had seen and enjoyed. Shortly, Mr. Timony shepherded the anonymous show business gentlemen out of the apartment and I was alone with her. 
• • Soon we were discussing psychic matters • •  . . .
• • To be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Flint, Leslie: Voices in the Dark [NY: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971] quoted in “The Spirit Book.”
• • On Sunday, 14 March 1937 • •
• • It was Sunday, 14 March 1937 when Mae West signed a check (number 581) from her account at California Bank to Mr. William Mutara for his salary for the week of March 14th, 1937; the amount was $24.75.
• • This check was sold to a collector for $96.00.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • An article about "Klondike Annie" (and the censorship battles over the film) was featured in Motion Picture Herald.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I'm a liberated woman, I did everything I wanted. And I never wanted children.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A NYC daily mentioned Mae West.
• • The N.Y. Times wrote: “Vienna Bans Mae West.”  And why?
• • The N.Y. Times wrote: 'She Done Him Wrong' Barred After a Newspaper Attack . . .
• • Source: N.Y. Times (page 21); published on Monday, 12 March 1934

• • 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 4,100 blog posts. Wow!  

• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fourteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4169th 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 • • British stagebill in 1948 • •
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Mae West: Christian Vienna Curb

MAE WEST was censored in foreign countries as well as in the USA. Here's a sad news item from March 13th datelined Vienna.  
• • To think that a European country who had embraced Hitler would frown on Mae West for her "baser instincts." Unreal. 
• • "Mae West Role Is Banished in Vienna" • •

• • VIENNA, March 12 — — Associated Press — — Mae West's blonde portrayal of "Lady Lou" in the film "She Done Him Wrong" has been banished from the screen in "Christian Vienna."
• • The ban followed upon newspaper attacks on what was called "nothing but uncouth and clumsy eroticism, appealing to the basest instincts." 
• • One Austrian newspaper editorial boasted this: in that connection the city might now call itself Christian with the crushing of the socialists.  . . .
• • Source: The San Bernardino Sun on page 10; published on Tuesday, 13 March 1934.
• • R.I.P. Beloved Sister • •
• • Mildred Katherine West [8 December 1898 — 12 March 1982] • •
• • In the month of March, we honor Mae's younger sister Beverly.
• • In March 1924, Variety noted a new act listed on Manhattan's stagebill: "Beverly West and Co., Piano and Singing." While not mentioning that she was Mae West's sister, Variety's reviewer admitted that "she puts over her numbers acceptably." Proctor's East 58th Street location had engaged Beverly and her musicians in 1924. Back in 1895, F.F. Proctor had built his playhouse, Proctor's Pleasure Palace Palm Gardens, on 154 East 58th Street, New York, NY in midtown on the eastside [now zipcode 10022]. During the same interval (mid-March in 1924), Mae West was trouping in vaudeville in Texas.
• • Born in Brooklyn on 8 December 1898, Beverly changed her stage name a few times. She was Beverly Osborne, then it was Beverly Arden. Afflicted with polio and a limp, Beverly favored long dresses that covered her imperfect legs. Beverly died two years after her older sister on Friday, 12 March 1982. She was 83.
• • On Thursday, 12 March 1936 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • The reviewer for The N.Y. Times Frank S. Nugent was aware of the uproar from the Hays Office that delayed Mae's latest motion picture. Nugent wrote: Mae West's "Klondike Annie" really does not merit the agitation it has caused. His comments appeared in The N.Y. Times on Thursday, 12 March 1936. 
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Herb Howe wrote: No nutty nationalist, I find no fault with the nominations except they did not include that sturdiest, acting-est American, Mae West, who, incidentally, seems to be the choice of foreigners in the land of Bernhardt, the land of Duse, and even in the land of West, if box-office votes are any criteria.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Nearly all my work is based on true facts."
• • Mae West said: “Love thy neighbor. And if he happens to be tall, debonair, and good looking, it will be that much easier.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The San Bernardino Daily Sun mentioned Mae West and this quite charming anecdote.
• • New York, March 10th — — Jacob I. Lieberman, who at the age of 89 regained his sight after 22 years of blindness, is recuperating from his first visit to the movies. Lieberman, an inmate of the Jewish blind home at Yonkers, was taken to see a Greta Garbo picture on Broadway.
• • "Lemme see this Mae West first. Then I tell you!" • •
• • Lieberman sat down in the theater, took one look at the huge figures on the screen, fumbled for his hat and cane and exclaimed: "I'm going out! People are climbing on the walls." Asked for his opinion of Greta Garbo, he said: "I want to see this Mae West first. Then I tell you." ...
• • Source:  The San Bernardino Daily Sun; published on Sunday, 11 March 1934
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started nine years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2868th 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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