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It was Wednesday in Australia — — on 1 January 1941 — — and folks down under were reading about MAE WEST. Her latest motion picture comedy had been released in the USA on 15 March 1940. Now it was being distributed around the globe. 
• • From Queensland, the Morning Bulletin's movie critic wrote: What could be funnier than W. C. Fields as a patent medicine vendor turned masked bandit (sic), and Mae West, late of the honky tonks, as a little desert flower blooming brighter every hour? A riotous "team" they make, this one-glance gal and two-shot son-of-a-gun. Their adventures among the citizenry of Greasewood City, one of the wilder outposts of the West, are something in the nature of a parody and burlesque on the familiar fixtures of Western pictures. Nothing has been spared in the hulabaloo of ridicule, and the disorderly progress of Fields through the badlands. lt is a flt subject for the short, barking laugh (it goes "Hah," and is bitten off on that syllable) or the comfortable internal chuckle.
• • The Queensland movie critic conveyed admiration by noting this: W.C. Fields is assisted in his hilarious duties by Mae West, who retains her old slinky ways, frank humour, free Invitations, wisecracks, and peculiar style that attracted the public in her first picture. She is Flower Belle Lee, idol of the "boys," and the sight of the comedian battling to save himself from the alluring dangers of the beautiful West is the kind of screen material that will throw any audience into a panic.
• • The critic concluded: It will be screened at the Wintergarden this afternoon [Wednesday, 1 January 1941] and tonight, also tomorrow and Friday.
• • Source: Entertainment Feature: "Wintergarden Theatre "My Little Chickadee" written for the Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld); published on Wednesday, 1 January 1941, page 8
• • Susannah McCorkle [1946 — 2001] • •
• • Shortly before committing suicide, Susannah McCorkle [1 January 1946 — 19 May 2001] had been writing a lengthy profile of Mae West.
• • A supremely talented jazz singer, Miss McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California in the month of January — — on 1 January 1946. Her fascinating article about Mae West can be found online.
• • On Sunday, 1 January 1933 • •
• • Bootlegger and speakeasy owner Larry Fay met his death inside the Napoleon Club, 33 West 56th Street, New York, NY on Sunday, 1 January 1933. Mae West and George Raft both knew Larry Fay, who was the business partner of the night club czarina Texas Guinan.
• • Filmed in Hollywood, the reformed gangster rom-com "Night after Night" was set in the once grand townhouse that Larry Fay turned into a deluxe speakeasy.
• • On Sunday, 1 January 1967 in The Washington Post • •
• • Newspaper readers in D.C. got a brief respite from hearing about the antics of President Lyndon B. Johnson on Sunday morning, 1 January 1967 when the Washington Post printed an article by Kevin Thomas: "Mae West, Like Rock 'n' Roll Music, Is Still Deeply Rooted in Ragtime."
• • On Sunday, 1 January 1978 • •
• • A review of the motion picture "Sextette," starring Mae West, was printed in Variety, the issue dated for Sunday, 1 January 1978.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Good women are no fun. The only good woman I can recall in history is Betsy Ross. And all she ever made was a flag."
• • Born on January 1st, Philadelphia native Betsy Ross [1 January 1752 — 30 January 1836] was a woman who was given credit for sewing the first American flag; her design incorporated stars representing the first 13 colonies. Heavens to Betsy!
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about "My Little Chickadee" discussed Mae West.
• • Roger Hurlburt writes: Ah, yes, My Little Chickadee, take a gander at the 1940 western spoof with W.C. Fields and Mae West (midnight, WFLX — Ch. 29). The duo also wrote the screenplay, though one feels the film could have been even funnier. Saloon scenes are the best; so are the performances of hatchet-faced Margaret Hamilton and milquetoast emeritus Donald Meek as a corrupt "preacher."
• • Source: Entertainment Feature: "Come Up and See This Film" written by Roger Hurlburt, Staff Writer, for the Sun Sentinel; published in Florida on 1 January 1987
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2163rd 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 • • 1940 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
Oscar Levant's scatological comments and controversial wisecracks about MAE WEST's sex life got his talk show cancelled for good in 1960. Unrestrained witticisms had gotten him in trouble before on the air, therefore, the network decided to add a safety net by taping the syndicated "Oscar Levant Show," to enable the engineers to weed out the outrageous. Probably aware that his shocking off-the-cuff opinions were the very reason viewers tuned in from 1958 — 1960 to his 10 PM program, Oscar continued to riff on Mae's enema habits or speculate on her lovers and her bi-racial open-door policy.
• • One individual claimed to recall a few of Oscar's offensive one-liners: "Now that Marilyn Monroe has converted to Judaism, Arthur Miller can eat her!"; "Zsa Zsa Gabor is busy again, doing social work among the rich!"; and "Mae West, of course, is a pro's pro. Mae would never give it away!" — — and one final crack about Mae's bed partners got the TV executives to pull the plug.
• • Born into a musical and Orthodox Jewish Russian family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the month of December — — on 27 December 1906 — — Oscar Levant moved to New York with his mother, Annie, in 1922 after the death of his father, Max. Oscar Levant gained fame as an American pianist, composer, author, humorist, and actor. He was equally known for his mordant character, off-color observations, and unpredictable digs on the air as for his music. Frequently institutionalized by his wife June, Levant had the knack of making an audience laugh and feel very uncomfortable at the same time.
• • A fatal heart attack stilled the voice of Oscar Levant. He died in Beverly Hills, California on 14 August 1972, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. He was 65.
• • In December, Let's Remember Louis Bromfield [1896 — 1956] • • 
• • Born Lewis Brumfield in Ohio in the month of December — — on 27 December 1896 — — the 6' 2" inch journalist won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Early Autumn [1926], and then turned to writing fulltime. His short story "Single Night" (set in Larry Fay's Napoleon Club) became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932]. Two months after the film was distributed to moviehouses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside the Napoleon Club, 33 West 56th Street, on 1 January 1933.
• • Author and farmer Louis Bromfield had a more serene death, at age 60, on 18 March 1956.• • In December, Let's Remember Sam Coslow [1902 — 1982] • •
• • Born in Mae's hometown, New York City, Sam Coslow was born in December — — on 27 December 1902. He attended Erasmus Hall High School and he was still in his teens when he began writing songs. For instance, "My Old Flame" was written in 1934, with Arthur Johnston, for the Mae West film "Belle of the Nineties." His music made it into many Hollywood movies.
• • The composer died in New York, NY on 2 April 1982.
• • In December, Let's Remember Marlene Dietrich [1901 — 1992] • •
• • When Mae West was starring in "My Little Chickadee," a comedy set in the old West, Universal Pictures was also producing a Western-themed musical comedy "Destry Rides Again" [which debuted in New York on 30 November 1939]. Though the title would seem to be weighted in the direction of two actors — — James Stewart in the title role as Tom Destry, Jr. and Charles Winninger as his deputy Washington Dimsdale — — Dietrich owns the movie. This vehicle became a career reviving performance for the fishnet stockinged bar singer Frenchie, sexy and memorable despite wearing a truly hideous wig.
• • Born in Germany in the month of December — — on 27 December 1901 — — Marlene Dietrich was an actress and a singer who knew Mae West when they were both stars at Paramount Pictures.
• • The screen queens were photographed on the set of "My Little Chickadee" in 1939. Dietrich was posing in her Frenchie costume and Mae was made up as Flower Belle Lee.
• • Marlene Dietrich died in Paris of natural causes on 6 May 1992.
• • On 27 December 2002 in Chicago Tribune • •
• • Chicago Tribune readers spotted "The Party Continues" written by Nancy Maes as they ploughed through the newspaper on 27 December 2002.
• • Nancy Maes wrote: The theme of the next round classic Hollywood films in the Lunchtime Matinee series is "The Party Continues." It includes "Top Hat," (1935) starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (Monday); "Holiday" (1938) with Katharine Hepburn (the name as published has been corrected in this text), Thursday; and "My Little Chickadee," (1940) featuring Mae West and W.C. Fields. The series complements the "Matinee Idols and Movie Queens," exhibition at the Chicago Tourism Center. Lunchtime Matinee, all films at noon, Chicago Tourism Center, 72 E. Randolph St., free.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "You're never too old to become younger."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on John Kobal and "Made in Hollywood" mentioned Mae West.
• • Philippa Hawker wrote: While John Kobal was an avid collector, he was scrupulous about standards: he had a critical eye, Crocker says, and the images he amassed were of the best quality. The collection soon became an important resource and archive for historians, scholars and filmmakers. Andy Warhol — — always an ardent admirer of the old Hollywood — — was among those who drew on Kobal's images.
• • Philippa Hawker continued: John Kobal's interest was first in the photographs, then in the photographers themselves. He was on the set of "Myra Breckenridge," the notorious 1970 vehicle for an older Mae West. A photographer named George Hurrell, who first worked for MGM in 1930, was on set to take pictures of Mae West. Kobal was amazed to discover that the man whose images he admired was there, in front of him, still at work. ...
• • "Made in Hollywood" is at the Bendigo Art Gallery (Australia) from 3 December 2011 to 12 February 2012 . . .
• • Source: Article: "Made in Hollywood" written by Philippa Hawker for the Sydney Morning Herald; posted on 19 November 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2158th 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 • • in 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
MAE WEST co-starred in the 1932 "speakeasy" film "Night After Night" with several interesting actresses.
• • Constance Cummings, who was 22 when she played the socialite Jerry Healy in the motion picture, was born in Seattle, Washington on 15 May 1910. 
• • Constance's blueblood persona was based on the heiress Barbara Hutton (who inherited the Woolworth fortune), who had once lived in a rowhouse on West 56th Street – – before it was turned into a ginmill operated by gangster Larry Fay.
• • Inspired by her mother, a concert soprano, in 1926 Constance Cummings made her show business debut in regional stock theater. By 1928, when she was on Broadway, she was attracting the attention of powerful people such as movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, who lured her to Hollywood. In 1931 she appeared in her first screen role. By 1932 she was cast as a Park Avenue princess and George Raft's dominant love interest.
• • Although she played in 34 films, and then much later on she was seen in TV movies about a dozen times, the five-foot-four beauty was never thrilled about the parts she was getting. In 1934, she left for England. Though she won a Tony [in 1979] and other awards for her roles onstage, her fame in Britain did not polish her reputation stateside. All the same, she was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1974 Queen's Honours List for her services to drama.
• • At age 95, the actress died in Oxfordshire, England in November — — on 23 November 2005.
• • In November, Remember Barry Benton Bonds [1925 — 2007] • •
• • According to his family members, Barry Benton Bonds was born on 25 October 1925. He had a long and happy marriage and fathered two children: Alexis Greer and Gregor. His grandchildren described him as a proud WWII veteran, an avid sailor, and a skillful fisherman. Mr. Bonds performed in original national tours of ''On Your Toes'' and ''High Button Shoes'' — — and toured with Mae West. Theatre was in his blood and, after his performing days were over, he worked on Broadway in the box office for over 50 years. He died in the month of November — — on 23 November 2007.
• • On 23 November 1980 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • An excerpt from The N.Y. Times 31 years ago today: Mae West and diamonds were almost synonymous even before the creation of her most memorable character: Diamond Lil. ''I hadn't started out to collect diamonds, '' she said, ''but somehow they piled up on me.'' The onstage Diamond Lil was a singer in a Bowery saloon of the 1890's — — a bad girl with a good heart, who murdered her girlfriend, wrecked a Salvation Army hall, and sang ''Frankie and Johnny,'' wrote The New York Times [on 23 November 1980].
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I got my own individual style. You know you can always tell Eugene O'Neill — — and you can always tell Mae West."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An excerpt from "Celebrity, Inc: How Famous People Make Money" by Jo Piazza mentioned Mae West as the first celebrity who influenced the fragrance industry.
• • Jo Piazza writes: Celebrity fragrances can be an ATM for famous people — — paying high dividends for very little investment of time or money. ... The marriage between fame and fragrance also goes back decades, to the 1930s, when the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli designed a curvy perfume bottle modeled after the actress Mae West’s figure.
• • Jo Piazza continues: In the 1950s, Givenchy created a scent for film star Audrey Hepburn that was musky and powdery, and in the early 1980s, Dynasty stars Joan Collins and Linda Evans promoted fragrances linked to their primetime soap opera. Elizabeth Taylor’s scent, White Diamonds, has been an Elizabeth Arden top seller since it launched in 1991, grossing more than $1 billion in sales and providing a nice revenue stream for an actress who was no longer spending much time in front of the cameras. ...
• • Source: reposted by Rack.com on Monday, 21 November 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2124th 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/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
A short story "Single Night" by Louis Bromfield became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932] — — which was a triumphant screen debut for MAE WEST. Here she is, as Maudie Triplett, poised in the doorway of Joe Anton's speakeasy on West 56th Street, about to tell the doorman it's "the fairy princess, ya mug!"
• • January 1st • •• • Two months after the film was distributed to movie houses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside 33 West 56th Street on 1 January 1933.
• • Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, looks both ways. And the house on West 56th Street certainly looked different from the perspective of George Raft, Mae West, Louis Bromfield, and Larry Fay.
• • George Kesslere, who photographed Mae in his Manhattan studio many times, died on 1 January 1979.
• • Actress Libby Taylor, who worked with Mae (in the role of a maid) on "I'm No Angel" as well as "Go West, Young Man," died on 1 January 1990.• • Musician and band leader Xavier Cugat, who worked with Mae on two motion pictures, was born on New Year's Day in 1900.• • January 2nd • •• • A more pleasant January memory for Mae West took place a year later. On 2 January 1934, when her sister Beverly applied for a marriage license in Chicago, it was hoped that her second Russian husband would be a better companion than her ex-husband Sergei Treshatny. The groom Vladimir Baikoff made Beverly's acquaintance when both were booked on a radio program. Beverly was doing her famous Mae West impersonation for a broadcast — — and Vlad was eager to conjugate some sultry Slavic verbs with her in private, after the show.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
NYC
Mae West.
A short story "Single Night" by Louis Bromfield became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932] — — which was a triumphant screen debut for MAE WEST. Here she is, as Maudie Triplett, poised in the doorway of Joe Anton's speakeasy on West 56th Street, about to tell the doorman it's "the fairy princess, ya mug!"
• • January 1st • •• • Two months after the film was distributed to movie houses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside 33 West 56th Street on 1 January 1933.
• • Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, looks both ways. And the house on West 56th Street certainly looked different from the perspective of George Raft, Mae West, Louis Bromfield, and Larry Fay.
• • January 2nd • •• • A more pleasant January memory for Mae West took place a year later. On 2 January 1934, when her sister Beverly applied for a marriage license in Chicago, it was hoped that her second Russian husband would be a better companion than her ex-husband Sergei Treshatny. The groom Vladimir Baikoff made Beverly's acquaintance when both were booked on a radio program. Beverly was doing her famous Mae West impersonation for a broadcast — — and Vlad was eager to conjugate some sultry Slavic verbs with her in private, after the show.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
Newsman Stanley Walker came up to see MAE WEST on many occasions. He saw her productions onstage, and he sat at her elbow several times backstage and at the night spots she frequented.
• • As a writer for the old New York Herald Tribune in the 1920s and 1930s, Stanley Walker chronicled the city in words the way Weegee did with a Graflex.
• • Published in November 1935 to great acclaim, The Night Club Era is Walker's portrait of the wicked city during Prohibition — — and how the banning of liquor gave rise to a new social setting in which, legal or not, booze flowed uninhibited and gangsters rubbed shoulders with socialites and legitimate businessmen, all unified with the single intent of having a high time with a highball.
• • Written in the aftermath of Prohibition, Stanley Walker's bestseller The Night Club Era is a lively and idiosyncratic account of the people and places that defined New York's night life during the era of "the great American madness."
• • Walker includes coverage of the leading headline-makers and shakers such as the darling of Broadway Mae West, queen of bubbly Texas Guinan, along with the most infamous murderers and millionaires, gangsters, bartenders, celebrities of the stage, screen, and society, and a host of other colorful characters who populated the city's diverse night clubs, from El Fey to the Cotton Club.
• • Mae West was a repeater attender at the Cotton Club (a Harlem hotspot owned by her lover Owney Madden) and at the El Fey, the temporary headquarters of her frequently padlocked pal, the hostess Texas Guinan (a business partner of Larry Fay).
• • Stanley Walker was born in Texas on 21 October 1898.
• • After learning that he had a fatal illness, Stanley Walker met with a few of his old friends at the Driskill Hotel in Austin and told them he was dying. The 64-year-old writer committed suicide at his Lampasas, Texas ranch on 25 November 1962.
• • 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.
"You only live once," MAE WEST used to say, "but if you do it right, once is enough." And at least once every year on August 17th, certain MAE-mavens come together in her honor. 
• • There they are — — heavy with giftbags and light of heart — — standing in the lobby of Mae West's former residence on West 57th Street [New York, NY 10019].
• • This year's walking tour — — labelled the "Mae West Side Story" — — explored the actress's wild WESTside. Intrepid explorers set out with NYC historian LindaAnn Loschiavo, and visited three of Mae West's exotic former homes; a speakeasy where the actress socialized with bluebloods and red-blooded gun-toting gangsters such as Legs Diamond, Larry Fay, Owney Madden, "Feets" Edson, Texas and Tommy Guinan; ancient vaudeville theatres; venerable Broadway houses; and more.
• • Participants, who came from as far away as Great Britain and California, enjoyed the experience of being chez Mae where, after the final stop, the group returned to raise a flute of bubbly in her honor — — under her own roof. It was a special thrill for all, and a perfect finale to Mae's day.
• • Mae West always said, "I was born on a cool night on a hot month so I knew I could expect surprises." As the walking tour paused for a drawing of raffle prizes around the fountains at Columbus Circle, a sign flashed the New York City temperature: 62 degrees F — — on Friday 17 August 2007. Mae was in the air.
• • Photo courtesy of Mae-maven Conrad Bradford [not shown in the picture].• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West Gala fans • • 2007 • •
NYC
Mae West.
In her hometown of New York City, MAE WEST certainly got around. And she knew the score. 
• • Consider Club Napoleon: 33 West 56th Street. Even before she read the script, Mae West was familiar with these premises on West 56th Street. No less familiar with Club Napoleon was George Raft, who had tangoed in speakeasies run by Texas Guinan and her brother, nightspots patronized by nighthawk Dorothy Parker along with literary "round table" types as well as trouble-makers, who had a gun in their pocket in case they weren't glad to see you.
• • It was Tommy Guinan and Sherman Billingsley who were the Pied Pipers of Club Napoleon, mixmasters who made the right ingredients pour in: bluebloods, showgirls, prizefighters, poobahs, punks, princesses, and pinky-ring types. 
• • Club Napoleon’s escapades inspired a sly short story — — "Single Night" by Louis Bromfield — — which Mae West, Kathryn Scola, and Vincent Lawrence would fine-tune and finesse into a screenplay about a speak with the working title of Number 55.
• • An address change couldn’t fool New Yorkers. Those in the know realized this was about "that house on Fifty-Sixth Street," which had been owned by Charles Donahue, whose ambitious brother had wooed and wed heiress Jessie Woolworth, worth $70,000,000 thanks to her grandfather, founder of the five-and-dime chain.
• • When this elegant five-story nineteenth century limestone mansion became the lavishly appointed speakeasy Club Napoleon, a repeat attender was Pulitzer winner Louis Bromfield [1896-1956]. Whiling away an afternoon with a news man, Bromfield noticed a stranger who ordered a drink, then threw it on the floor. Headwaiter Albert Berryman protested, whereupon the gent raved about being born in this very house and resenting its downturn into an illegal gin mill. He left without revealing his name. Not long after, on April 24, 1931, the cousin and legal guardian of the 18-year-old heiress Barbara Hutton made a splash on the front page of The New York Times; deep in debt, millionaire broker James Paul Donahue, 44, had doffed a chemical cocktail and committed suicide.
• • Louis Bromfield stirred these bitters into a creamier concoction, which he resold to Hollywood. "Night After Night" was intended as a vehicle for George Raft, featuring Constance Cummings and Texas Guinan, whose baubles were so substantial that she could signal ships with her jewelry.
• • Though that part went to Mae West, the role of "Maudie Triplett" retained its Cartier cachet.
• • "Goodness!" cried the girl. "Are them diamonds real?"
• • "Yes, dearie," Mae West replied, "but goodness had nothing to do with it."
• • "Night After Night" began production on 22 August 1932.• • Another film with a similar slant was "The House on 56th Street," starring Kay Francis.
• • Like a genie released from a bottle, fanciful legends rapidly took shape on West 56th Street — especially after bootlegger Larry Fay renamed the club Casa Blanca, and met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death there on January 1, 1933.
• • Preserve your Mae West memories on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]• • Only 8 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Film poster: • • Mae West's co-star George Raft • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST co-starred in the 1932 "speakeasy" film "Night After Night" with two actresses who are linked to the month of May. 
• • Constance Cummings, who was 22 when she played a socialite Jerry Healy in the movie, was born in Seattle, Washington on 15 May 1910. At age 95, the actress died in Oxfordshire, England on 23 November 2005.
• • Constance's blueblood persona was based on the heiress Barbara Hutton (who inherited the Woolworth fortune), who had once lived in a rowhouse on West 56th Street – – before it was turned into a ginmill operated by gangster Larry Fay.• • Wynne Gibson, who played the "tough" cookie Iris Dawn [the dame George Raft's character Joe Anton is getting tired of], died on 15 May 1987 of cerebral thrombosis.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's co-star • • 1932 • •NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST and George Raft knew the address well - - well before Louis Bromfield was drinking there one afternoon with his newsman buddy Lucius Beebe, a Herald-Times columnist. Club Napoleon, a speakeasy on the grand scale, was located at 33 West 56th Street, a fancy block of Beaux Arts mansions. Years before it became an illegal ginmill, 33 West 56th had been the childhood home of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. The gracious townhouse next door was designed by Bruce Price for a prominent physician.
• • Though he made his name writing about rural life, Louis Bromfield was intrigued by the downward mobility of West 56th Street, once the preserve of bluebloods but now in the hands of gangsters who ran the speakeasy Mona Lisa [36 West 56th] or Larry Fay, who opened his parlor floors to drinkers.
• • Born Lewis Brumfield in Ohio on 27 December 1896, the 6' 2" inch journalist won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Early Autumn [1926], and then turned to writing fulltime. His short story "Single Night" became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932]. Two months after the film was distributed to moviehouses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside 33 West 56th Street on 1 January 1933.
• • Author and farmer Louis Bromfield had a more serene death, at age 60, on 18 March 1956.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • George Raft • • 1932
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Mae West.
