Mae West: Battling Jack

Despite having an ambivalent relationship with her father, MAE WEST took after him and also worked for him when he peddled fruit in Brooklyn and when he helmed a "detective agency" in New Jersey.
• • Born on Manhattan's Lower East Side in March 1866, John West [called "Jack"] grew up feisty, impatient, and strong. As a child he boasted that he'd rather fight than eat. He got his Irish up rather quickly, remembered Mae. He was easily angered and "always ready to do physical violence when the urge was on him." In 1969, Mae revealed in an interview that she thought her father was cruel — — but realized "all his fighting was done doing other people's fighting for them."
• • Jack West was 7 years old in 1873 when his family moved to Brooklyn, settling first in Red Hook, and then in Greenpoint.
• • Though he had no inclination to follow his father's vocation as a ship rigger, Jack knew his parents wanted him to learn a trade; they apprenticed him to a boilermaker in 1880 when he was 14.
• • But Jack West was contemplating starting a fire in the arena. At 11 years old, "Battling Jack" had fought in his first boxing match as a featherweight and yearned to become a bare-knuckles champion. These matches were often arranged by local racketeers. His favorite place to hang out was the gymnasium. His closest companions were weightlifters and boxers.
• • During the late 1880s, Jack was sidetracked from his vigorous athletic routine after meeting a buxom young lady named Matilda Delker [born in 1870 in Bavaria]. Youthful rebels, Jack and Tillie had much in common. Both defied their parents' expectations, Jack through boxing and Tillie through entertaining the idea of a theatrical career.
• • Initially, the couple forged a passionate bond. Mae explained, "My father had swept her off her feet." But Tillie's youthful transgressive ambitions met an end with Jack West.
• • On 19 January 1889, in Greenpoint, Battling Jack West and Tillie Delker took their wedding vows before a local minister with Jack's sister Julia West acting as maid of honor.
• • Their first child Katie came along soon after but, unfortunately, the infant died. The Wests became even more attached to their second child — — Mary Jane. Named for her Irish grandmother, their second daughter was born in Brooklyn on 17 August 1893.
• • 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.

Mae West: Bert Williams

MAE WEST adored the vaudevillian Bert Williams.
• • "Baby Mae" performed his famous song "Nobody" during her earliest amateur outings, impersonating her idol with accuracy.
• • Bert Williams [12 November 1874 – 4 March 1922], the pre-eminent Black entertainer of his era (birthname Egbert Austin Williams), was born on the island of Antigua [West Indies]. In 1888 his family moved to Los Angeles. He began his entertainment career in 1892 in San Francisco.
• • Bert Williams became one of vaudeville's top names, both as a solo performer and as part of the successful team "Williams & Walker" with partner George Walker. Together they popularized the Cakewalk. Light-skinned, the Caribbean native was also famous for performing in blackface.
• • After George Walker's death, Williams appeared with Eddie Cantor and in major shows such as the Ziegfeld Follies.
• • After collapsing onstage on 25 February 1922 while singing "Under The Bamboo Tree," Bert Williams died in a hospital on March 4th. He was 48 years old.
• • Last year two books about his outstanding career were published.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Artwork: • • Bert Williams • • 1919 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: March 1964

It was on 22 March 1964 when MAE WEST appeared on a TV series with the talking horse.
• • Episode Five: "Mae West Meets Mr. Ed" - - [synopsis] Wilbur is hired as an architect by a new client who turns out to be the famous movie star, Mae West. She wants a new stable built.
• • When she comes over to see Wilbur with her three male bodyguards - - the human equivalent of "stallions" - - everyone is smitten by her. She leaves Wilbur her calling card, the 'queen of hearts' from a deck of cards. When Mae West had called earlier and Mr. Ed had answered the phone, she was turned on by his voice and let him know he could come over anytime. Later, when Wilbur won't let Mr. Ed watch television, Mr. Ed decides to take Mae West up on her invite.
• • In reality, Mae was not much for outdoor sports, though she did learn to ride a horse, ride an elephant, and tame a lion for various movie roles. An animal lover, Mae West would visit the zoo in whatever town she happened to be appearing onstage. Mae bought her first monkey when she moved to California.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photograph: • • Mae West • • 1964 • •
NYC
Mae West.

Mae West: March 1940

Here's an excerpt from a movie review published by The New York Times in March 1940 discussing MAE WEST's latest screen effort which had opened in Manhattan at the Roxy on Seventh Avenue.
• • W. C. Fields and Mae West Are Seen in 'My Little Chickadee' at the Roxy . . .
• • Noel Coward once had a line about two empty paper bags belaboring each other, but we never thought we should one day be scoundrel enough to remember it in connection with a picture harboring W. C. Fields and Mae West.
• • "My Little Chickadee," at the Roxy, in which the two comic soloists are trying to sing a duet, is an effort greatly strained. With the best will in the world, it just isn't funny --not even when the great William Claude ogles Miss West and roguishly invites her to come up and see him some time; not even when La West, commenting on her escape from the "Masked Bandit," explains "It was a tight spot, but I managed to wiggle out of it."
• • And those are the film's high-water marks.
• • The low water mark is more clearly defined, for the film is at low tide most of the time in the quality of its humor, in the broad treatment its players and directors have given it, in the caliber of the audience it seems intended to please and in the generally bad odor it exudes.
• • Miss West's humor, like Miss West herself, appears to be growing broader with the years and begins to turn upon the lady: it's one thing to burlesque sex and quite another to be burlesqued by it.
• • Mr. Fields, largely the innocent victim of some one else's bad taste, inevitably is tempted to juggle a few mud pies himself. It puts a heavy strain on an old admiration to endure the old boy's keyhole-peeping and door-champing at Flower Belle's boudoir, to see him become just another member of the adulant entourage Miss West thoughtfully creates for all her pictures.
• • The story this time is of Flower Belle Lee (guess who) and of Cuthbert J. Twillie, who are united in the bonds of matrimony-in-name-only because Flower Belle needs a consort for legal reasons and because Cuthbert has. . . well, never mind what . . . .
• • excerpt from:
• • Film Review
• • Written By FRANK S. NUGENT
• • published: 16 March 1940 in The New York Times
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Illustration: • • Mae West • • 1940 • •
NYC
Mae West.