skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It" was MAE WEST's letter to the world. Released in hardcover fifty years ago by the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey imprint Prentice Hall, this meaty memoir has also been done as a paperback by Avon Books [December 1959] and in more recent reissues. If you own a first edition, then your copy has a pale-lavender cloth with white lettering on the spine and a startling image of the star posing in her boudoir on the dust jacket, which promises some thrills and "Gives you the behind-the-headlines details of a glamorous star's spectacular life and career."
• • Hollywood publicist Frank Liberman helped promote the bio half-a-century ago. Word comes that Liberman, who had Parkinson's disease, died of pneumonia at age 92 on Sunday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center.
• • A native New Yorker like Mae, he was born in The Big Apple on 29 May 1917 and was raised in White Plains.
• • After college, he learned about writing copy while employed by the New York Daily News. He soon joined Warner Brothers and worked his way up. After serving as an Army public relations officer [1941 — 1946], Liberman rejoined Warner Brothers, where he was engaged as a unit publicist before establishing his own firm, Frank Liberman and Associates, in 1947.
• • As a publicist, Liberman represented movies and stars; for 41 years he was Bob Hope's flack and Phyllis Diller's for 33. Other celebrity clients included Robert Goulet, Henry Fonda, Nat "King" Cole, Tony Bennett, Charles Bronson, Joan Blondell, Jack Paar, Harry Belafonte, Steve Allen, David Janssen, Dorothy Lamour, Joey Bishop, William Shatner, Mike Nichols, and the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.
• • Hired to beat the drums for Mae West's 271-page memoir, he also pushed the biographies of Ethel Merman and Gig Young — — as well as four of George Burns' books, four of Diller's and five of Hope's — — during his five decades in the business.
• • Maybe goodness had nothing to do with it but Frank Liberman was known for his tact, charm, goodwill, and a reputation for decency. This gentleman will be missed.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was in Telluride for a special ski area dedication gala that took place from December 7 — 10, 1973.
• • This is how the Telluride Times announced the star-studded weekend exactly thirty five years ago:
• • The grand opening and official dedication of the Telluride Ski Area will be held Dec. 7 — 10, 1973 with big names and important people — — but the whole thing will be tied into a benefit for emotionally disturbed children in the Los Angeles area.
• • Joseph T. Zoline, ski area developer, announced that the usual fun and frolic of a ski area dedication will be tempered with the serious business of raising funds for Reiss Davis Institute, a home for emotionally disturbed children in Los Angeles. It is one of five such facilities of its type in the United States and the only one west of the Mississippi. Children at the institute are given free medial and psychiatric treatment.
• • Zoline said that is has been confirmed that television personality Art Linkletter will be here to act as master of ceremonies. A long list of other celebrities have been invited. In addition, Gov. John Vanderhoff, former Gov. John Love, senators, congressmen, and all local officials will be invited to take part, Zoline said.
• • It was reported to the Chamber of Commerce meeting that Mae West, who does not need any further identification, had agreed to be honorary chairman of the Reiss Davis Institute Day at Telluride. Naturally, the theme for the day will be “Why Don’t You Come Up and Ski Me Some Time?” It was also reported that Henry Fonda has agreed to come to town that weekend.
• • An invitation to the four-day bash came from Reiss Davis to 125 people to come to Telluride and take part in the grand opening and pay the institute $300 for the privilege. Participants will pay their own fare to Grand Junction, but from there on Telluride area business people will provide as much food and lodging as possible.
• • The Telluride Lodge would house some of the guest and Bucky Schuler has offered the facilities of Tomboy Inn.
— — Source: — —
• • The Telluride Times — — 1973• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
The charm of yesterday, the convenience of tomorrow is the slogan for the El Rancho where MAE WEST bedded down with the sandman.
• • Columnist Amy Graff writes: Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn stayed here during production of The Sea of Grass; Burt Lancaster and Lee Remick were guests when they made The Hallelujah Trail. The list of Hollywood stars who bedded down at the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, N.M., goes on and on: MAE WEST, Gene Autry, Jack Benny, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, James Stewart, John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, and many others.
• • Columnist Amy Graff writes: Built in 1937 by R. E. "Griff" Griffith, brother of movie mogul D. W. Griffith, the El Rancho's rustic charm was attractive to the movie makers and stars filming in the surrounding red rock canyons. Their autographed photos line the walls of the spectacular two-story lobby with dark wood beams, Navajo rugs, mounted trophy heads, a circular staircase, and an enormous stone fireplace.
• • Today the El Rancho is on the National Register of Historic Places and a popular attraction along Route 66. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • The Mommy Files: Route 66: El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, N.M.
• • Byline: Amy Graff
• • Published in: SFGate.com — — www.sfgate.com
• • Published on: 10 July 2008
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
Charlotte Chandler: Tinsel Town's other blonde
• • The Californian-born author of several bestsellers about Hollywood, Charlotte Chandler won the show business scoop of last century when she interviewed Mae West before the iconic movie star died. "I never see women interviewers," West snarled. Nevertheless, the blonde bombshell spent six hours primping and preening for their first meeting. Charlotte Chandler was invited to stroke West’s porcelain complexion. "I did so very nervously," she recalls.
• • Mae West’s beauty tip? "Warm baby oil - - applied daily by a man."
• • Mae West told her the secret of perfect skin. Federico Fellini cooked pots of pasta for her and Tony Curtis revealed all about his affair with Marilyn Monroe. Name any Hollywood star and the likelihood is that Charlotte Chandler will have interviewed them - - from the siren of the silent screen, Gloria Swanson, to Pierce Brosnan.
• • Mae West stared in disbelief at the unmarried Chandler’s ringless fingers. "You have no diamonds!" she exclaimed. "You must find a man to buy you some." But later she confided to Chandler that she had bought her own king’s ransom of jewels herself.
• • As the New York-based author listened to the tape - - the interview was chosen for the Penguin anthology of Great Interviews of the Twentieth Century - - she was puzzled by a soft susurration in the background. "It was as if a butterfly was beating its wings, then I realised that it was the sound of Mae’s false eyelashes flapping," says Chandler, whose latest book, Nobody’s Perfect, is a personal biography of the great director Billy Wilder.
• • Chandler is adept at getting big-name interviews, although in the case of Mae West blonde undoubtedly responded unto blonde. For Chandler also has a luxuriant mane of pale golden hair, untouched by peroxide. Photographs of her - - whether she is lunching with Fellini, about whom she wrote an international bestseller, or sharing a joke with Wilder - - always feature her smiling glamorously beneath her crowning glory. Indeed, Groucho Marx used to say of her fabulous follicles: "You’ve got your own beret."
• • She jests that her fine head of hair helped her to persuade stars such as Gloria Swanson, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, Kirk Douglas, James Stewart, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (who admitted that he had slept with Marilyn Monroe before she was famous) to be interviewed for the Wilder book. ("Superb name-dropping!" exclaims Chandler.) I suspect it has much more to do with her undoubted skills as an interviewer and writer.
• • Mae West, Henry Fonda, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, and Tennessee Williams stalked freely to her for her second book, The Ultimate Seduction, about people who are seduced by their creative work.
• • Dressed in a smart navy-blue trouser suit, Chandler is a well-preserved woman of uncertain age - - she politely refuses to tell how old she is. She has a gracious manner and wears her famous hair piled on top of her head. . . .• • Come up and see Mae online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
