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For a few years, MAE WEST lived in Woodhaven with her parents and siblings when she had already begun to write plays with her collaborator Adeline. Despite touring in vaudeville for years and being cast in Broadway productions, the Brooklyn bombshell was finding her stage career slowing down as she approached her thirtieth birthday. Her mother advised her to put a script on paper, material tailored to her own unique talents — — instead of waiting to audition for the right production. Mae took Matilda's advice and began working on "The Ruby Ring."
• • Apparently, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Lisa L. Colangelo is too busy or disinclined to take the time to be accurate about the people she writes about. Figuring that Mae West and Martin Scorsese are two names good enough to glam up her article on a local Woodhaven watering hole, she writes: "Neir's Tavern is where patrons of the Union Course racetrack stopped by for a drink, Mae West honed her famous act, and director Martin Scorsese shot a scene for one of his most successful films."
• • What "famous act" was that, pray tell? Fact is, though one of the former owners of Neir's had hung up a Mae West poster on a door a long time, it is doubtful that Mae ever set foot in such a blue collar saloon. And was the tin-ceilinged corner bar serving alcohol at all during the 1920s, in defiance of Prohibition, when she was in the neighborhood? If beer was quietly on tap during the padlock era at the junction of 78th Street and 88th Avenue, it would perhaps have attracted scruffy male patrons such as John West, Mae's father, and his brawling gym buddies or seedy racetrack pals.
• • If you don't mind inaccuracies — — or if you are seeking beer on tap, whose mechanism runs on an old-fashioned ice-coil system — — by all means check out her piece: "Woodhaven bar Neir's Tavern gets a time-machine fix up" [The New York Daily News, Wednesday, 23 June 2010].• • 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.
To those who share a MAE WEST mindset, memories tied to the sixth of July will be overshadowed by the passing of two men she admired, gifted black musicians who died of heart attacks on that day.
• • Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Louis Armstrong [4 August 1901 — 6 July 1971] was a versatile and innovative singer and jazz trumpeter nicknamed Satchmo. At the age of 69, Louis Armstrong died shortly after a heart attack in New York City.
• • It was during the Prohibition Era, at Owney Madden's Cotton Club in Harlem that Mae West first encountered this talented musician, then in his twenties.
• • Since the New Orleans native impressed Mae, she asked him to participate in "Every Day's a Holiday" [1937].
• • The movie's musical numbers include "Jubilee" (written by Stanley Adams and Hoagy Carmichael and sung by Louis Armstrong). Seen very briefly as a street cleaner, Louis Armstrong introduces the song "Jubilee" while parading down the street along with other street sweepers during an election rally.
• • Currently, the house where Louis Armstrong lived for close to 28 years (declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977) is a museum. The Louis Armstrong House Museum — — at 34-56 107th Street (between 34th and 37th Avenues) in Corona, Queens, New York — — presents concerts and educational programs, operates as a historic house museum, and makes its archival materials and memorabilia available to the public for research. The museum is operated by the City University of New York's Queens College, following the dictates of Lucille Armstrong's will.
• • Born in Washington, DC, Van McCoy [6 January 1940 — 6 July 1979] was an accomplished musician, music producer as well as an arranger, orchestra conductor, and lyricist. He is best known for his massive 1975 international hit "The Hustle" — — a tune still played on dance floors and radio today nearly 30 years after his death. He has around 700 song copyrights to his credit. At the age of 39, Van McCoy was in Englewood, New Jersey when he was forever silenced by a fatal heart attack.
• • Better known for doing The Shimmy than hustling on the dance floor, Mae West, who starred and wrote the screenplay for "Sextette," had asked Van McCoy to write the theme song, and to make a cameo appearance in her motion picture.
• • "Sextette" was released on 3 March 1978.
• • Two mournful coincidences, two broken hearts on July 6th.• • 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.
Each time there is a MAE WEST walking tour in The Big Apple, astonished callers (who phone to RSVP) tell the tour organizer(s): "I didn't know Mae West lived in New York!" This summer an upcoming tour in Manhattan mid-August will wind down Chez Mae on the WESTside (and surely you knew this was coming). 
• • An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is where baby Mae was born in August 1893. She also hung her hat in Manhattan as well as in an area now called Queens — — but then known as Long Island.
• • Woodhaven, Queens, NY • •
• • The West family moved around a lot. For a few years, they called Woodhaven home; during this period Mae began writing plays and registering her copyright with the Library of Congress from her mother and father's Boyd Avenue address.
• • Leonora Lavan knows all there is to know about Woodhaven, where she was born and bred. She is the president of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society [WCHS], which meets regularly, plans events, hires speakers, reprints important historical research and monographs, maintains an archive, and does its share for civic pride.
• • To learn more about the group, and discover the history of one of Mae West's old stomping grounds, read this article: "Marking History A Site At A Time — — Woodhaven Society Continues To Celebrate Area's Past" by Bill Mitchell.
• • Published by The Times News Weekly — — www.timesnewsweekly.com — — Mr. Mitchell's article was a feature story earlier in May 2009.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West.
Did the Brooklyn bombshell sigh each year on November 9th? MAE WEST and Italian-born accordionist Guido Deiro made beautiful music together for some years in variety. 
Her marriage to the Mediterranean keyboard king was one of the few secrets Mae kept from her mother Matilda. And even though her mom had died in 1930, when Mae West penned her autobiography in 1959, she covertly referred to her [deceased] former husband as "Mr. D."
• • When Mae and Guido went their separate ways in vaudeville, the Brooklyn bombshell wound up on a much lower tier of bookings.
• • On 14 July 1920, Mae West quietly filed for a divorce from Guido Deiro — — charging him with abandonment. Having moved back to her parents' house in Queens County, Mae filed her petition at the stately courthouse in Jamaica, Queens.
• • When their divorce became final on 9 November 1920, Guido quickly wed his third wife.
• • Mae West was so daunted by this marriage (and the way sexy, emotionally-charged Guido affected her equilibrium), that she did not walk down the aisle again.
• • Deiro came up to see Mae in Hollywood — — when he was down on his luck and she was a millionaire. He had a bulge in his pocket: a manuscript about their intimate life together. To quiet the storm, Mae exchanged a big check for this packet of pages, and no one saw this memoir again. • • On 26 July 1950 Guido Deiro, age 63, died after a long illness.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1914 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST once lived in the area of Queens (then Long Island) known as Richmond Hill. The actress was an enthusiastic smoker in those days. Once she was banned from The Triangle Hoifbrau because she almost burnt down one section of the aged dining room.
• • The Queens Courier featured a gazetteer on this neighborhood. Here's what they wrote.
• • Richmond Hill — — Where
• • Richmond Hill is a neighborhood in central-southern Queens, New York City, USA. It is bordered by Kew Gardens to the north, Woodhaven and Ozone Park to the west, South Ozone Park to the South, and South Jamaica to the east. The neighborhood is split between Queens Community Board 9 and 10.
• • History
• • The hill referred to as Richmond Hill is a moraine created by debris and rocks collected while glaciers advanced down North America.
• • Richmond Hill is rich in history. The Battle of Long Island, one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, was fought in 1776 along the ridge now in Forest Park, near what is now the golf course clubhouse. Protected by its thickly wooded area, American riflemen used guerrilla warfare tactics to attack and defeat the Hessians.
• • Richmond Hill's name was inspired either by a suburban town near London, England, or because of Edward Richmond, a landscape architect in the mid-1800s who designed much of the neighborhood. In 1868, a successful banker named Albon P. Man bought the Lefferts and Welling farms, and hired Richmond to lay out the community. Over the next decade streets, schools, a church, and a railroad were built, thus making the area one of the earliest residential communities on Long Island. The area is well known for its large-frame single family houses, many of which have been preserved since the turn of the twentieth century. Many of the Queen Anne Victorian homes of old Richmond Hill still stand in the area today. The area first became developed in 1918, when the BMT Jamaica Avenue elevated train line (today the J/Z lines of the New York City Subway) was extended in the neighborhood.
• • Landmarks
• • The Triangle Hofbrau was a restaurant which was frequented by such stars as Mae West in the 1920s and 1930's. It sat on the triangular piece of land bordered by Hillside Avenue, Jamaica Avenue, and Myrtle Avenue.
• • Near the northwest corner of Hillside Avenue and Myrtle Avenue sat an old time ice cream parlor, Jahn's. It closed in late 2007. Not far away is Lefferts Boulevard which, with Liberty Avenue, define the central core of Richmond Hill.
• • Diversity
• • Originally, many German, Italian and Irish families had lived in Richmond Hill. Now Richmond Hill has many Punjabis, Trinidadians, Surinamese, Hispanics, Guyanese, other West Indians, South Asians, Indian and some Europeans living in the community. Today a minor Jewish population live along a larger group of Sikhs, Christians, Hindus, Muslims. Richmond Hill has many Guyanese people and is often thought of as "Little Guyana."
• • Historical Places of Interest in Richmond Hill
• • 1864 The Triangle Hofbrau — — This restaurant was at one time the oldest running restaurant in Queens (1893-1999). The building originally housed the Post Office and was also a hotel named Doyle's Hotel.
• • The first eatery opened its doors in 1893 under the name Wheelman's Restaurant. It was later named The Triangle Hofbrau and was said to have been the favorite eating spot of such celebrities as Mae West, Babe Ruth, Lefty Gomez, Robert Wagner Sr., Earl Sande, and Ernest Ball. Recently the Hofbrau had changed owners and was called Little Europe Restaurant, reflecting the change to a recent Russian immigration influx to Richmond Hill. Unfortunately, the restaurant falling under hard times sold the property to a medical facility which promises not to alter the building structure.
• • 1867 The Steel House — — This mansion once owned by Daniel Eldridge of the notorious Tweed Ring, is still located at 87-61 111th St. ...
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Richmond Hill"
• • Written by: The Queens Courier staff
• • Published in: The Queens Courier — — www.queenscourier.com
• • Published on: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1923 • •
NYC
Mae West.
