Mae West: Dandy Andy

Two gentlemen, linked to MAE WEST and motion pictures, share a date in the month of October — — namely the 7th of October.
• • Born in Flagstaff, Arizona, Andy Devine [7 October 1905 — 18 February 1977] had a long career on the silver screen and on TV as a character actor and comic cowboy sidekick, always known for his distinctive raspy voice. Andy Devine was cast as Coyote Bill in "Myra Breckinridge" [1970] when he was in his mid-60s.
• • Born in Toronto, Canada on 7 October 1929, Graeme Ferguson became a director, producer, cinematographer during his student days.
• • Graeme Ferguson, co-founder of IMAX Corporation and its president from 1970 — 1990, found his calling via a summer job at the National Film Board in 1950 while studying political science and economics at the University of Toronto.
• • Ferguson was the co-writer (and co-producer with Saul J. Turell) of "The Love Goddesses" [1965], which featured Mae West. Two years earlier, he was the screenwriter, director, and producer of "The Legend of Rudolph Valentino" [1963], an actor Mae especially admired.
• • Graeme Ferguson is 81 years old today and we wish him well.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: No Stamp, No Statue, No Fan Club

After meeting at Tommy Guinan's speakeasy party in the summer of 1926, MAE WEST was fascinated by Rudolph Valentino [1895 — 1926] — — and her first seance with Texas Guinan was led by an Italian medium who attempted to communicate with the Hollywood heart-throb to find out if he had been poisoned by a jealous rival in August of 1926.
• • Since Valentino gave Mae advice on this occasion, she adopted him as a spiritual guide.
• • Increased Height in the After-Life • •
• • Interestingly, when a statue of "the Sheik" was commissioned in Apulia, the Puglese sculptor generously increased the height of the beloved silent screen star.
• • Apparently, the same thing happened for Mae who, in reality, was barely five feet tall. "A wax image of her was once on display at The Hollywood Wax Museum but that 5 ft. 5 in. tall figure, designed by Leah DeLio, and revamped by Hollywood Wax Museum curator Ken Horn, was auctioned off in 2009," writes Laura Deni, who displays a photo of the larger-than-lifesize figure in the current issue of her excellent online magazine Broadway to Vegas. The Nevada-based scribe adds the auctioneer's description of this statue: "Mae West looks sultry wearing a black floor length gown, black heels, and black feather boa as if she's about to say "Come up sometime and see me." This figure, designed by Leah DeLio, is one of the original figures of the Museum and revamped by Hollywood Wax Museum curator Ken Horn. The wax head was sculpted and portrait painted in oil and the figure stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall. ..."
• • In commemoration of the movie queen's birthday as well as her legendary floor shows in Las Vegas, Laura Deni has written a provocative and informative feature article. Broadway to Vegas has been published since April 1998. Read "Mae West Birthday Celebrated" at the link below.
• • Despite all of her contributions, only the Congo has seen fit to honor Mae West with a stamp.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "MAE WEST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED — — NO STAMP, NO STATUE, NO FAN CLUB
• • By Laura Deni, Editor and Publisher
• • Published in: Broadway to Vegas — —
http://www.broadwaytovegas.com/August8,2010.html
• • Published on: Saturday, 8 August 2010
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • During this week, the MAE WEST BLOG will savor some more revealing commemorations of the screen queen by her long-time fans and collectors of Westiana.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: A Scot's Remembrance

Dolly Dempsey began the first MAE WEST Fan Club during the 1930s. Dolly Dempsey was one of the few women Mae West admitted into her inner circle — — a woman for whom she had genuine affection. Kevin Thomas said Dolly was holding Mae's hand when she passed away on 22 November 1980. For many years Mae's fan club continued under the able stewardship of Craig Russell and Paul Novak (both deceased).
• • Who rates a fan club and who does not? In addition to the numerous societies organized by Marilyn Monroe admirers, here is a short sampling of the active groups that have banded together to show their appreciation of the actors and actresses who were Mae's peers.
• • Cary Grant's Fan Club:
• • The Email Warbrides is an email fan club for Cary Grant fans. It started off in July 1996 as a manual mailing list called CGML, because Zoë (mailing list owner) was sure that she was NOT the only Cary Grant fan in cyberspace. And they finally got an autolist at the end of October 1997 — — this list was called the Email Warbrides. The mailing list has continued serving a growing membership. To join: send email to warbrides-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
• • The Official W.C. Fields Fan Club:
• • Ted Wioncek is the president. To join: http://www.webtrec.com/wcfields/fanclubnews.html
• • The Rudolph Valentino Society and Fan Club:
• • Becoming a Proud Sahara Knight includes many benefits. To join: http://rudolphvalentino.org/join.html [an efficient and attractive web site].
• • The Official Marlene Dietrich Website & Fan Club:
• • Marlene Dietrich's Fan Club has been established with the cooperation of her heirs and estate. To join: http://www.marlene.com/index.html [an elegant web site].
• • A corporate site run by the paid employees of Corbis claims to have an "official" fan club for Mae West, however, no such information appears on any page. Therefore, it is not necessary to list the URL.
• • Proust said that truth is only a point of view about things. Ian, an avid collector of Westiana and one of the founders of the handsome "Mae West Color Site," cherishes the Brooklyn bombshell and presents these thoughts to our readers.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • In commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of Mae's burial, Scottish admirer Ian Macnicol examines some of the inciting incidents that sparked a life-long love of Miss Mae West.
• • • • PART 2 • • • •
• • Continuing from yesterday, Ian offers these thoughts.
• • • Ian writes: I have long tried to analyze why Mae holds such a fascination for me. As a child, on the surface, I guess it was simply her keen and suggestive wit, her unique style of delivery, and her amazing looks that attracted me to her and, of course, the fact that she brought my Dad and I closer together. One happy outcome was that my father funded the purchase of her records and we listened to them constantly.
• • • But I suspect other aspects of her persona also entered my consciousness, perhaps subliminally, i.e., the fact that she was always the architect of her own destiny, she was nobody’s fool, and she always knew and got what she wanted. As an adult, it is now clear to me that she was a woman succeeding in a man’s world, and a hostile world at that. By analogy, I think that helped me as a gay man trying to succeed in a straight and sometimes hostile world. The key to all success is self-belief — — and self-belief is something Mae had in spades. So, to that extent, she has been a role model for me and she has helped me through many difficult times. Just thinking about her cheers me up and it always has.
• • • Mae was a ground-breaker, always ahead of her time; no subject was taboo to her. One aspect of her life that is rarely viewed in the positive was her determination not to let her age determine how she wanted to present herself, how she acted or what roles she chose to play. At the time, some commentators suggested that she set herself up for ridicule but viewed today, i.e., thirty years after her death, her approach very much goes with the grain. It is ironic that Raquel Welch [birthdate: 5 September 1940], who said so many disparaging things about the aging Mae during their time together on “Myra Breckenridge,” is now 69-going-on-70 and nearly the same age as Mae was then, and yet she is applauded by one and all for her age-defying appearance and the fact that she has yet to play a granny!
• • • A Fellowship Instead of a Mae West Fan Club • • •
• • • Mae West may not have the following today that the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean have, but her fans are, nevertheless, fiercely loyal and devoted to her memory. When Martin Kappinga and I were creating our tribute website — — www.maewest.nl — — we were overwhelmed by the kindness of fellow fans who contributed resources for use on the site.
• • • I have so enjoyed meeting fellow fans both in person and online, both in the UK and the US. Through my interest in Mae West, I have made a number of firm and much-valued friends. I hope for a time when Mae will be rediscovered by the younger generations because I genuinely believe that her appeal is timeless and that her work holds up well despite the long passage of time since it was made.
Written by: Ian Macnicol, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Where No One Dies & Queens Lies

During the early 1930s, MAE WEST visited Lily Dale and formed a strong bond with the flamboyant medium Jack Kelly. During the 1920s, Mae and Texas Guinan held several seances in Manhattan hoping to speak to the recently departed actor Rudolph Valentino. A few years later, Jack Kelly inspired Mae, grieving deeply after her mother's death, to explore her own extra-sensory perceptions in order to communicate with her loved ones.
• • In 2005, there were several seances held in Manhattan to summon the spirit of Mae West. One seance took place on 17 August 2005 in a haunted speakeasy. People who had known the actress were present, hoping to make a connection. Later seances were taped for television.
• • Religion reporter Christine Wicker published her own story on Lily Dale, the world's largest spiritualist community. The small upstate New York town is now the subject of an HBO documentary, "No One Dies In Lily Dale," which will debut on the small screen during the month of July — — on Monday 5 July 2010.
• • According to Christine Wicker, each year, twenty thousand visitors will travel to Lily Dale, the oldest and largest community of Spiritualists in the world. In the past, famous guests included Mae West, Susan B. Anthony, and Harry Houdini. The main attraction of this New York State Victorian village is to consult one of the town’s 450 mediums.
• • In her book "Lily Dale: The Town that Talks to the Dead," Christine Wicker explored the life and spirit of the 122-year old city populated solely by people who believe the dead are still living among them. If you watch on July 5th, let us know what you thought of the TV program.
• • Woodhaven, Queens Tries to Take Credit for Launching Mae's Career • •
• • Most Mae-Mavens know that Mae West was born on 17 August 1893 in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York. She spent her childhood in this borough, where her parents helped launch her vaudeville career by entering the act "Baby May, Song and Dance" into many amateur competitions in Bushwick, Brownsville, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint.
• • By the time the John West family moved to the sleepy, rural section of Queens known as Woodhaven, Mae was within kissing distance of her thirtieth birthday.
• • And by the time Mae West was registering the copyright on her manuscripts with the Library of Congress from the family's Woodhaven address, the seasoned entertainer had already been booked for eleven week-long engagements at Hammerstein's Victoria [1912 — 1913]; she had already starred at The Palace [1922] on The Gay White Way; she had already been cast in several Broadway musicals and revues; she had already toured in variety from coast to coast; and she had already married two husbands, Frank Wallace [1911] and Guido Diero [1914]. She had also been a witness at her younger sister's wedding, which took place on 29 January 1917 in Brooklyn City Hall, not far from the West family's Brooklyn residence.
• • A proud Brooklynite, Mae West did not move to suburban Queens until 20 years after her career was well in progress.
• • Furthermore, Mae West never never ever set foot in Neir’s Tavern [87-48 78th Street, Woodhaven, NY] — — though she often dined at The Triangle Hofbrau Inn, where traditional German dishes were served, and other neighborhood restaurants.
• • You can learn a great deal about her life by doing your own primary research or by spending time with excellent Mae West biographies written by Jill Watts [Mae West: An Icon in Black and White] and Emily Wortis Leider [Becoming Mae West].
• • No one who writes for a Queens-based newspaper has read those books, obviously, nor do these humble local news sheets employ a fact-checker. Nor do the Queens papers print letters from readers, messages that offer to CORRECT errors. Tsk! That's too bad — — but why don't journalists double-check details before they run with an odd press release, a self-promoting item that could care less about misinformation as long as it succeeds in luring a few hapless bar-flies?
• • Woodhaven did not launch anyone's vaudeville career. Sorry to have to break it to you, chums.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: The Star Museum

An intriguing museum not far from The White House and the Lincoln Memorial — — housing autographs and other curiosities linked to MAE WEST — — offers an exhibition this month with a vaguely Hallowe'enish theme: “Hell’s Belles!”
• • Owned and operated by Robert Weisfeld, The Star Museum features a galaxy of memorabilia tied to Tinseltown and the nascent film industry, especially silent screen luminaries.
• • Rarities preserved and displayed by Robert Weisfeld include unusual apparel and accessories such as Clara Bow's hat, Joan Crawford's elaborate black opera coat, Valentino's blue monogrammed handkerchief, and the bonnet Lillian Gish wore in D.W. Griffith’s "Birth of a Nation."
• • The current exhibit “Hell’s Belles,” which opened on 9 October 2009, runs until 30 October 2009. If you pass their picture windows this month, you will notice items related to New England's infamous axe assassin Lizzie Borden and murdered actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant when Manson family lunatic Susan Atkins killed her.
• • If you especially dote on silent screen stars, there is an eyeful here.
• • Where: The Star Museum [170 E. Main Street, Abingdon, Virginia] presenting “Hell’s Belles!” through October 30th; info: (276) 608-7452.
• • Featured: Mae West, Lizzie Borden, Jayne Mansfield, Sharon Tate, Janis Joplin, Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Leigh, etc.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: A Zippy Trip

Many publications saluted the August 17th birthday of MAE WEST.
• • Playbill, marking "this date in theatre history," has managed to get her birth year wrong and also tripped up on the stage plays in which she appeared. No, Mr. Playbill, Mae West wrote The Drag but did not star in this 1927 production since she was still appearing in her play Sex at the time.
• • Other news outlets recognized the writer and comedienne as "an actress from the 1930s," erasing her long career in vaudeville and on Broadway, which preceded her 1932 Paramount debut when Mae was an "overnight sensation" at 39 years old.
• • A more faithful close-up was offered on Sunday in the Brooklyn blonde's hometown when a group of Mae-mavens gathered along Shubert Alley to learn how she forged her dreams of deliverance in Times Square along with her diamond-draped colleague Texas Guinan.
• • Attendees posed for pictures in the same spot where the graceful, well-groomed Bucephala, Texas Guinan's horse, was mounted 82 years ago — — that magnificent creature who carried the queen of the night scene up the center aisle of the Shubert Theatre and deposited her onstage as the red velvet curtain was raised for Padlocks of 1927.
• • Ah, Longacre Square, the legitimate theatres, those expensive playhouses built to look like a palazzo, a Tuscan hillside hideaway, a marble mansion, a Venetian villa, a Georgian fantasy — — where little Mae held her mother's hand as they waited for an usher to seat them, lavishly spending each moment of a matinee, drinking in the illusion of the drama in which the mountain of self might have no top, and each encounter might be a reckoning with fleet-footed fate.
• • On Sunday August 16th, the patient assemblage viewed vintage news clippings that decorated the disappointments of another century — — front page humiliations, the raids, the padlocks, the prison sentences, and the losses of a $200,000 advance for Pleasure Man after the purity police shuttered the show on 1 October 1928. They genuflected and strolled down the aisle of St. Malachy's, the church where Texas Guinan and Mae West examined the coffin of Rudolph Valentino [6 May 1895 — 23 August 1926] in August 1926 and mutually agreed the hardy 31-year-old must have been poisoned.
• • On West 54th Street, thanks to a gracious doorman, the tour takers paused in the same vestibule where Mae West entered and exited in 1927 as she was writing Diamond Lil and getting better acquainted with Owney Madden and others who bulleted the headlines.
• • Perhaps West 54th recalls the roll calls of absent names, first kisses, the confetti victory parades in an era when Mae West's latest show was billed as "hotter than the Armistice."
• • • • Prizes • • • •
• • And the group has something else to remember as well — — a handful of raffle prizes. A number of individuals each won a colorful Mae West magnet, a few screened with film posters, stage plays, or her one-liners. Two lovely ladies — — Denise from Manhattan and Karen from Pittsburgh — — each won a "Gaudy Girls" CD, courtesy of Maggie Worsdale and Anne Marie Finnie, who perform live as Sophie Tucker and Mae West. Everyone received a "Gaudy Girls" flyer announcing their next racy performance at Monticello Raceway and Casino on 21 October 2009. And two lucky lasses won a treasured set of Texas Guinan's silent films — — fashion model Gwen Bucci from Manhattan and art curator Frédérique Joseph-Lowery from Fairlawn, New Jersey — — courtesy of an avid Texas Guinan archivist.
• • Exciting news is on the horizon. More anon.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: 25 July 1926

When she was 42 years old, Texas Guinan met Rudolph Valentino [6 May 1895 — 23 August 1926] at her brother's nightspot — — and invited MAE WEST.
• • It was Sunday 25 July 1926 when Texas Guinan introduced Valentino to the guests at Tommy Guinan's speakeasy. Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was on West 52nd Street (east of Broadway). Its generous square footage made it ideal for events and James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, hosted a Reception in honor of Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" there. When Photoplay first began publication, Quirk's staff had included handsome Julian Johnson, Texas's lover.
• • Wearing their diamonds and glittering gowns, Mae West and Texas Guinan were there to greet the Apulian heartthrob. No doubt Texas fancied Jadaan, a superb Arabian stallion Valentino had ridden in this melodrama. An expert equestrienne herself, the following year Texas would ride an Arabian stallion into the Shubert Theatre at the start of "Padlocks of 1927."
• • Maybe Mae West was charmed more by the Italian stallion himself — — and piqued by the abrupt end to his life that occurred one month later when the actor was only 31. Something about Rudy impressed Mae, encouraging her to think that he could link her to the unquiet dead up and down Times Square.
• • According to Whitney Bolton, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a week after the Italian-born actor Rudolph Valentino died [1895 — 1926], Mae West and her friend Texas Guinan arranged for a séance in a Manhattan loft. Suspicious that the 31-year-old heartthrob was secretly poisoned by a rival, Mae summoned an Italian Medium to officiate. At the table sitting opposite Mae were Texas, her brother Tommy Guinan, and the gangster Owney Madden who owned The Cotton Club, a man noted more for violence than his spiritual side.
• • And the rendezvous with Rudolph in 1926 must have been memorable because two years later Mae was still holding séances in the smoking room of the Royale Theatre to communicate again with him. Visiting New York to see “Diamond Lil” on Broadway, the actor Jean Hersholt was invited backstage and yanked into a darkened room where a Medium was channeling Caruso and Valentino. Hersholt recalled that Rudy called upon Mae and said: “Mae, you have a lot of enemies and don’t trust any of them.”
• • During the 1920s, Texas Guinan continued to host séances in her nightspots — — especially in Club Abbey on West 54th Street. It was easy for Mae West to attend these sessions, too, since she lived right upstairs.
• • Walk in the footsteps of Mae West and Texas Guinan next month. See below.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Join us for a lively afternoon focused on Mae West & Texas Guinan!
• • On 16 August 2009, come up and enjoy an a-MAE-zing experience — — a walking tour of historical sights in the Times Square area. This year the Annual Mae West Birthday Tour also commemorates speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, the generous friend who backed all of Mae’s Broadway shows during the 1920s.
• • During April 1929, the Feds padlocked the CIub Intime at the Hotel Harding, where Texas Guinan was the principal attraction. On August 16th, attendees will visit this speakeasy, which is doing brisk business these days.
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Subway: N or R [BMT] train to West 42nd Street; 1 [IRT] train to Times Square
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: T. 212-614-9683 — — or post your RSVP or tour question here
• • Online: MaeWest.blogspot.com — — TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • Who: Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo makes the tour educational and entertaining.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's history play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July 2008 at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She is working on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her unusual theatre memorabilia and vintage photos during the tour and reveal secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. These rare pictures show the area as it looked during the 1920s when Mae West and Texas Guinan had their name on several marquees.
• • Surprises: Prizes and other nice things are part of the fun
• • Members of the press may attend on August 16th as our guest. RSVP required.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Boca Raton

Would MAE WEST have been able to teach Hugh Hefner about sex — — or vice versa?
• • On Friday April 24th, Hefner's new documentary will be screened — — "Why Be Good? Sexuality and Censorship in Early Cinema" — — in the rat's mouth of Florida.
• • Robert Sims of The Palm Beach Post aired his opinion of it. He writes: Produced by Hefner, written by The Palm Beach Post's Scott Eyman, and narrated in mischievous fashion by Diane Lane, this bubbly documentary confirms what we already knew: Sex sold in 1909 as just as it sells today. While the audiences then didn't expect to walk into a comedy and see male nudity — — thank you, Observe and Report — — they were still treated to some racy stuff. Mae West, Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow and other sexpots knew how to flaunt their built-for-sin bodies, while Errol Flynn and Rudolph Valentino had women swooning. Then came a smattering of high-profile sex scandals — — the most infamous involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle — — that left the public shocked.
• • "Why Be Good?" offers its most intriguing analysis when addressing the friction-filled relationship between Hollywood and a government unsure how to rein in an industry that refused to keep sex behind closed doors. The government's concern eventually resulted in the establishment of the Production Code, or the Hays Code after its chief enforcer Will H. Hays, which effectively clamped down on what Hollywood could show or depict. Given Hef's fingerprints are all over this documentary, Why Be Good? obviously cast a disapproving eye on government determining what was morally acceptable for audiences from 1930 to 1968. Why Be Good? doesn't go as far as declaring the sexual revolution of the 1960s would have happened decades earlier were it not for the Hays Code. But it makes a case that the government should let the public decide what to see, not some close-minded pencil pusher.
• • Why Be Good? screens at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, Florida; and also on 5 p.m. Monday at the Lake Worth Playhouse, 709 Lake Ave., Lake Worth in Las Vegas.
— — Source: — —
• • Film Reviews
• • By ROBERT SIMS, Palm Beach Daily News
• • Published in: The Palm Beach Post — — www.palmbeachpost.com
• • Published on: 22 April 2009
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Playground

MAE WEST met Rudolph Valentino in July – – on Sunday evening 25 July 1926 during a party at Tommy's Guinan's speakeasy. Co-hosting this affair was Tommy's sister Texas Guinan.
• • The Italian heartthrob got an outstanding reception from the overdressed swells and the underworld guys and molls mesmerized by the Guinan's nightlife know-how.
• • Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was located at 201 West 52nd Street at the corner of Seventh Avenue [a.k.a. 800 7th Avenue]. Its generous square footage made it ideal for events that would attract a crowd.
• • A pleasure palace stills exists in this midtown location, non-threatening and totally Disney-fied. On Friday August 17, 2007 a tour group will visit this club and other a-MAE-zing sites on the Mae West westside map.
• • James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, also co-hosted the Reception at this popular speakeasy in honor of Rudolph Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" – – a sequel. One month later, alas, the 31-year-old silent screen star would be dead.
• • When Photoplay first began publication, Quirk's staff had included handsome Julian Johnson, who was Texas Guinan's lover.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the Apulian heartthrob and his entourage. After his untimely demise, Mae organized seances to keep in touch with Valentino.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Chic to Sheik

MAE WEST met Rudolph Valentino on Sunday evening 25 July 1926 during a party at Tommy's Guinan's speakeasy. Co-hosting this affair was Tommy's sister Texas Guinan.
• • The Italian heartthrob was born in May: on 6 May 1895 in Apulia.
• • Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was located at 201 West 52nd Street at the corner of Seventh Avenue [a.k.a. 800 7th Avenue]. Its generous square footage made it ideal for events that would attract a crowd.
• • James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, also co-hosted the Reception at this popular speakeasy in honor of Rudolph Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" – – a sequel. When Photoplay first began publication, Quirk's staff had included handsome Julian Johnson, who was Texas Guinan's lover.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan enjoyed socializing with the charismatic actor and his entourage. One month later, alas, the 31-year-old silent screen star would be dead.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Soul Search

In April 1928, MAE WEST was busy - - and not just onstage.
• • Gangster Owney Madden, not especially famous for his spiritual side, often found his way to West 45th Street during 1928 to communicate with the unquiet dead. Before performances of "Diamond Lil" at the Royale Theatre [242 West 45th], the actress Mae West was fond of holding séances in their smoking room to channel Rudolph "The Sheik" Valentino and tenor Enrico Caruso.
• • Participants included speakeasy owners Texas and Tommy Guinan.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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