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On 15 May 2010, at the Cascades Casino Summit Theatre, MAE WEST, Cher, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, and eight other famous females will share the stage — — and the voice and body of the British Columbia based entertainer Bonnie Kilroe.
• • Bonnie's revue "Vegas Meets Vaudeville" has, she said, "the glam and glitz of Vegas and the slapstick comedy/ audience participation of old school vaudeville."
• • The Canadian actress went through a similar situation as Mae West once did: tired of waiting to be cast in someone else's show, she developed her own. Though she began with impressions of the late Patsy Cline, she felt portraying only one individual was too limiting and boring. Increasing her number of characters also forced her to upgrade her wardrobe and wigs. Bookings at local saloons, war veterans gatherings, and social clubs led to fancier engagements at golf resorts, at corporate celebrations, and on cruises.
• • Bonnie, now a polished quick-change artist and seasoned impressionist, has expanded her act. "I do characters that cover every age group... Mae West and Carmen Miranda for the older generations and Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga for the youth," she explained. "And then there are characters for everyone — — Cher, Marilyn Monroe, and Tina Turner."
• • WHERE to see Bonnie Kilroe's "Vegas Meets Vaudeville" — — Cascades Casino Summit Theatre: 20393 Fraser Hwy, Langley, BC Canada V3A 7N2; T. 604-530-2211.
• • Tell them you heard about it on the MAE WEST BLOG.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST adored ragtime. She once told an interviewer about grooving very early to "the black man's sound." Whether she was imitating the sultry Shimmy she watched in a Chicago club or swinging to the latest jam she heard in Harlem, Mae's musical taste was in formation: "we copied it because it was the greatest. [Black people] had been developing it for years."
• • In 1928, she performed a rag that she especially loved onstage in "Diamond Lil" and its Hollywood counterpart "She Done Him Wrong" [1933]. The lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — was Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it around 1913. He was good friends with Mae's maid Bea Jackson; his nickname for her was "Hot Story Telling."
• • Born in Amesburg, Ontario, Canada, Shelton Brooks moved to Detroit in 1901 with his family; his parents were Native American and Black. His father was a preacher and Shelton and his brother would play the organ during services.
• • Surrounded by music, Shelton wrote his first big hit in 1910 — — "Some of These Days" — — using his own lyrics. He had already introduced the song in his own vaudeville act when Sophie Tucker's maid introduced both him and the tune to Sophie. The vaudevillian, who would eventually style herself as "the Last of the Red Hot Mamas," made this number her very own theme song.
• • "Walkin' the Dog" • •
• • His 1916 instrumental tune "Walkin' the Dog" inspired a dance that first swept dancehall-crazed New York City, and then the rest of the country. That year, the variety act "Mae West and Sister" performed "Walkin' the Dog" as their grand finale.
• • A lifelong lover of black culture, Mae's ears were drawn to the relaxed, finger-snappy Shelton Brooks sound.
• • "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — Shelton Brooks's playful song, which Mae performed in 1933 in her first blockbuster hit film, was also been recorded by a diverse group of song stylists such as Tampa Red & His Hokum Jug Band, Sophie Tucker, Liza Minnelli, Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, Peter Bocage, Kid Thomas Valentine, Le Petit Jazzband de Mr. Morel, and others.
• • On September 6th, Shelton Brooks died in Los Angeles in 1975 when he was 89 years old. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park.• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" [lyrics] • •
• • • • Miss Susie Johnson is a crazy as can be
• • • • About that easy riding kid they call Jockey Lee
• • • • Now, don't you think it's funny, only bets her money
• • • • In the race friend Jockey's goin' to be
• • • • There was a race down at the track the other day
• • • • And Susie got an inside tip right away
• • • • She bet a hundred to one that her little Hon
• • • • Would bring home all the mon
• • • • When she found out Jockey was not there
• • • • Miss Susie cried out in despair....
• • • • I wonder where my easy rider's gone today
• • • • He never told me he was goin' away
• • • • If he was here he'd win the race
• • • • If not first, he'd get a place
• • • • I never saw that Jockey trailing anyone before
• • • • I'm losing my money, that's why I am blue
• • • • To win a race, Lee knows just what to do
• • • • I'd put all my junk in pawn
• • • • To bet on any horse that Jockey's on
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • He went to put my brand new watch in pawn
• • • • I see him comin' round that turn
• • • • What a trail that man can burn
• • • • He's gonna win because my dough is on the nose
• • • • Just watch my Jockey's easy rider stance
• • • • He'll hit that home stretch, win it by a mile
• • • • I want him to win this spree
• • • • And keep a-goin' till he comes to me
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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, Kylie Minogue, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, and Barbra Streisand may be adored by gays around the globe — — but they will not be part of a major summer exhibition announced by London's National Portrait Gallery titled "Gay Icons." Instead, a 10-strong panel [comprised of Elton John, Jackie Kay, Ian McKellen, Billie Jean King, etc.] has cast its net beyond the bygones and has gone in search of other names. 
• • Intentionally, we have dropped the "sir" honorific from those blimps who would deny the Empress of Sex a place on the wall of fame.
• • And with all due respect to Judy Garland and La Streisand, it is not in the history books that those beloved songbirds went to prison fighting for gay rights as Mae did during the Prohibition Era. There is a great deal more that the Brooklyn bombshell did to advance the agenda for homosexuals, female impersonators, and drag queens. And many people have not forgotten that.
• • And though the British gallery bigwigs are being coy about which faces made it into the final round of five dozen, these individuals have been picked: painters Francis Bacon and David Hockney; civil rights martyr Harvey Milk; writers Quentin Crisp, Joe Orton, Dame Daphne Du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, and Walt Whitman; music makers Tchaikovsky, k.d. lang, Rostropovich, Will Young, and the Village People; entertainers Ellen DeGeneres, Kenneth Williams, and Lily Savage; also Nelson Mandela and Diana, Princess of Wales. Their stories will be illustrated by 60 photographic portraits including works by Andy Warhol, Linda McCartney, Lord Snowdon, Polly Borland, Fergus Greer, Terry O'Neill, and Cecil Beaton.
• • The National Portrait Gallery revealed several other "expected names" that will not be on display in London. Noticeably absent from this collection are: Mae West, Joan Crawford, Kylie Minogue, Dame Shirley Bassey, Oscar Wilde, Bette Midler, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Collins, Bette Davis, and Barbra Streisand. And no Liberace nor David Beckham neither.
• • The exhibition "Gay Icons" is set to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City.
• • Opened to the public in 1856, the National Portrait Gallery is situated in St Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE, London, England.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • by Larry Salk • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
Remember MAE WEST's rendition of "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone"?
• • On 21 August 1971, 25-year-old actress-singer Liza Minnelli performed the playful Shelton Brooks number on television's "Anthony Newley Show."
• • How many think that David Gest may have been the latest easy rider in Liza's life?
• • Judy Garland's daughter came into this world on 12 March 1946.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST adored ragtime. 
She performed a rag that she especially loved onstage in "Diamond Lil" and its Hollywood counterpart "She Done Him Wrong." The lyricist and composer of this song — — "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" — — was Shelton Brooks [4 May 1886 — 6 September 1975], who published it about 1913.
• • Born in Canada, Shelton Brooks moved to Detroit in 1901 with his family; his parents were Native American and Black. His father was a preacher and Shelton and his brother would play the organ during services.
• • Surrounded by music, Shelton wrote his first big hit in 1910 — — "Some of These Days" — — using his own lyrics. He had already introduced the song in his own vaudeville act when Sophie Tucker's maid introduced both him and the tune to Sophie. The vaudevillian, who would eventually style herself as "the Last of the Red Hot Mamas," made this number her very own theme song.
• • His 1916 instrumental tune "Walkin' The Dog" inspired a dance that first swept dancehall-crazed New York City, and then the rest of the country. In 1917, Brooks had another hit with "The Darktown Strutter's Ball," for which he wrote both the words and music.
• • It was in August [on 21 August 1971] — — on a TV program called "The Anthony Newley Show" — — that "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" was performed by Liza Minnelli. Was Mae West watching Liza on television that evening?
• • Four years later, Shelton Brooks died in Los Angeles in 1975 when he was 89 years old. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's songwriter • • Shelton Brooks • •
NYC
Mae West.
