Mae West: Harry Tickled the Keys

"MAE WEST, author, loses her pianist," noted Variety on 8 September 1922.
• • Born like Mae during the month of August — — on 10 August 1895 — — Harry Richman was an unknown talent in 1922 when Mae West gave him a break and hired the tall piano man with a pronounced lisp. Featured together on the big-time B.F. Keith vaudeville circuit, they were a good team. Wherever their act was booked, the pair got excellent reviews.
• • 1568 Broadway at West 47th: Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square Hotel, built in 1991 as the Embassy Suites to a Fox & Fowle design, envelopes the old Palace Theater, built in 1913 by Kirchoff & Rose. During its heyday it was every vaudevillian's dream to play The Palace. Among those who made it were Sophie Tucker, W.C. Fields, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers — — and Mae West (accompanied by pianist Harry Richman), who starred here in 1922.
• • Ungrateful for the mega media exposure Mae had afforded him, Harry split with her and joined Texas Guinan's friend, singer Nora Bayes, in her act. However, Mae and Harry did manage to reunite (briefly) when they appeared together in April 1923 at the Colonial Theatre [Broadway and West 62nd Street].
• • Entertainer Harry Richman [10 August 1895 — — 3 November 1972] was an actor, a singer, dancer, comedian, pianist, songwriter, bandleader, and cabaret performer. He was born Harold Reichman in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• • A flamboyant personality, Richman joined the George White's Scandals in the 1920s and appeared in the 1931 Ziegfeld Follies. In 1930, he made a splash in Hollywood with this crowd-pleaser: Puttin' on the Ritz. This film featured the Irving Berlin song of the same title, which gave Richman a phonograph record hit that year. His film career was hampered by his limited acting skills. [Writing about Puttin' on the Ritz, Leonard Maltin remarked: "A songwriter drinks and goes blind — — after seeing this you'll want to do the same".]
• • Okay. Maybe the silver screen was not his best medium. Nevertheless, Harry Richman remained a popular nightclub host and stage performer.
• • In 1966, his autobiography A Hell of a Life was published. In it he recounts his private and public relationship with Mae West.
• • Harry Richman married three times. All three marriages ended in divorce. He lived it up until age 77 and died in Hollywood, California in 1972.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's accompanist • • Harry Richman • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: 23 June 1922

Variety often scolded MAE WEST or found a witty way to sling unkind or unpleasant pronouncements in her direction.
• • During the month of June — — on 23 June 1922 — — Variety's critics briefly changed their tone, moving from glacial malice to a reverential nod.
• • That summer, New York's air was jagged with mosquitoes as shadows stretched across vaudeville, slowly going under, a bare bright emptiness in its future.
• • Shoring up her options, Mae had written "The Ruby Ring" [1921] and "The Hussy" [1922] and she also was preparing to appear in "The Ginger Box Revue," scheduled to open in August 1922 in Greenwich Village.
• • Simultaneously, Mae was writing a new stage act for herself and an accompanist, featuring fast-paced skits and songs. Faced with choosing a pianist, Mae had auditioned two unknowns, Brooklynite Jimmy Durante [10 February 1893 — 29 January 1980] and Harry Richman [10 August 1895 — 3 November 1972], and selected the taller, more dapper fellow. Stagebills soon offered her new show: "Bits of Musical Comedy — — Mae West assisted by Harry Richman."
• • After some good notices, Mae snagged a booking at the Palace.
• • She had structured her turns to include a short version of "The Ruby Ring," a bit in which she was costumed as a Roman empress/ temptress in need of a new gladiator, and a blues segment in which she delivered a gutsy "Frankie and Johnny."
• • Reviewers sat up straight for this one. "She rises to heights undreamed of for her and reveals unexpected depths as a delineator of character songs, a dramatic reader of ability, and a girl with a flair for farce that will some day land her on the legitimate Olympus" [Variety, 23 June 1922].
• • 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: Vaude

Fifty-five years ago, a book was published that discussed many aspects of MAE WEST's career in variety. Here is a tiny selection from a fascinating book written from a first-person perspective by Joe Laurie, Jr., who had worked with Mae and composer-pianist Raymond Walker [born 1883]..
• • Joe Laurie, Jr. writes: When vaude fell apart, many of the piano players did very well writing hit songs, and others spread around cafes and night clubs.
• • Many, too many, have changed their piano for a harp!
• • Of all the old-time vaude accompanists, there are still two who are working at their trade and doing great. Raymond Walker (writer of "Good Night, Nurse" in 1912 and other songs), who played for Sophie Tucker, Mae West, and Marie Fenton when they first started, and who has played everything from the Chatham Club in New York's Chinatown to vaude and then to night clubs, now at the age of seventy is still accompanying the future greats in the plush cafes of Florida. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Vaudeville: From the Honky-tonks to the Palace
• • Chapter: ACCOMPANIED BY . . .
• • Author: Joe Laurie, Jr.
• • [NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1953]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1912 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Marion, Ohio

In Marion, Ohio, they fondly remember MAE WEST.
• • On August 30th and 31st, 2008, Ohio theater-goers will get a chance to party like it's 1928 at the kick-off event to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Palace Theatre — — and reminisce about the Brooklyn bombshell, too.
• • Elaine Merchant, executive director of the Palace, said she and other staff have done considerable research to re-enact the opening night in 1928, as closely as possible. Merchant calls this weekend's event a rewind to the entertainment the first Palace Theatre patrons would have seen in back then.
• • Performances will include some local folks who will bring a nostalgic flavor through tumbling, comedy, and vaudeville acts suggestive of such acts at Mae West, W.C. Fields, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Walters, Groucho Marx, Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foys, and more.
• • The anniversary event will open with the silent film "Sherlock Jr." starring Buster Keaton, accompanied by music on the Palace's Mighty Wurlitzer organ played by Dennis James.
• • The Palace Theatre [276 W. Center Street, Marion, Ohio 43302] can be phoned at (740) 383-2101 and they will tell you more about their 80th Jubilee.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 • •
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Mae West.

Mae West: Curtains in Cleveland

MAE WEST, who avoided discussing death or illness, might have been horrified to learn that a death cab was shuttling her back and forth to a Cleveland theatre. In 1941, however, when Mae was booked for a week at the Palace Theatre, her chauffeur was the local funeral home director.
• • Born in 1914, Howard W. Edwards had proudly displayed in his home a photo of himself with Mae West. He often retold the tale of driving the brassy blonde from the Statler Hotel to Mass every morning — — and on to the Palace during her weeklong engagement. Edwards was hired to drive the limousine that was leased from Cleveland Memorial Temple Funeral Home, where he worked, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer [3 October 2007].
• • Plain Dealer Reporter Maggi Martin wrote: "At 14, Edwards decided on a funeral career when he worked as a professional pallbearer in New York City [in 1928] as an apprentice at Walter B. Cook Inc., the busiest funeral parlor in the city. He earned 50 cents for carrying the casket out of the home and another 50 cents for carrying it into church."
• • A native Clevelander, Howard W. Edwards became a licensed Ohio funeral director in 1936. He owned Edwards Funeral Home in East Cleveland for nearly 40 years.
• • After he died on 28 September 2007 at age 93, his friends told the media that none of his passengers had left the lasting impression that Mae West did.
• • Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
• • Byline: Maggi Martin wrote the obituary that this info was extracted from.
• • 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: near Pittsburgh

MAE WEST has been enlisted to help raise funds in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening 17 February 2007.
• • For one night only, Greensburg's Palace Theatre will return to the colorful days of the flappers, the Charleston, MAE WEST, and silent film notables like Rudolph Valentino and Greta Garbo. "Hollywood Party at the Palace," a fundraiser for the Westmoreland Cultural Trust this Saturday, toasts the 80th anniversary of the Palace Theatre [near Pittsburgh] and pays tribute to the "Roaring '20s."
• • Opened in 1926, as the Manos Theatre, the Palace was built in a Neo-Renaissance style, complete with marble imported from Greece for the lobby walls, murals in the main auditorium, decorative plasterwork, and elegant crystal chandeliers. Mae West movies were a great favorite here during the Depression.
• • After a long life as a movie house, the Manos was reopened in 1991 as the Palace Theatre Center for the Performing Arts and has been in the midst of a three phase restoration project which will bring the theater back to its original beauty.
• • The Palace is noteworthy for its gorgeous lightbulb-lit marquee with a sunrise motif, and the theater's name in blazing neon underneath.
• • Margaret Colosimo, co-chairwoman of the event taking place at the Palace with Pamela DeMezza, says the party is "a takeoff on Oscars night, with all the ballyhoo, lights, photographers, and the red carpet. When guests enter, they are the stars."This is the second year for the Hollywood party fundraiser. Last year's event raised more than $30,000 for the Trust, according to Colosimo.
• • Tony Marino, artistic director, and Christine Rizk, executive director and producer of Stage Right professional theater company in Greensburg, have coordinated the local talent to fill the roles of MAE WEST, W.C.Fields, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, and other performers who were seen onscreen in early films shown at the Manos Theatre, the movie house that opened in September 1926 at the site of the current Palace Theatre.
• • Continuous entertainment will take place in various areas of the theater, starting with the grand stairway. "The whole evening is a great chance to get dressed up and have a good time," Marino says. Guests are encouraged to interact with the Hollywood characters and, if they choose, to come dressed in period-style clothing. The event is "black-tie optional," he says. Colosimo says last year's Hollywood party attracted 220 guests; the committee predicts that as many as 300 will attend on Saturday.
• • The Palace Theatre, 21 W. Otterman St., Greensburg - - event info: 724-836-1123
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • to come • •
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Mae West.