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Avid theatre-goer MAE WEST could spot charisma in a performer. As a 10-year-old child she fell under the spell of Bert Williams, mesmerized by his musical "In Dahomey" at the New York Theatre in 1903. The production of "In Dahomey" also included a talented actress-dancer, a black performer Mae would cast in her Harlem comedy "The Constant Sinner."
• • Performed on Broadway during the autumn of 1931 [from September 14th until November], this controversial bi-racial show was on stage 78 years ago at the Royale Theatre, 242 West 45th Street, with Mae West starring as Babe Gordon and Ollie Burgoyne featured in the role of Clara.
• • By mistake, the Internet Broadway Database lists Ollie Burgoyne as a MALE performer who was cast in SIX shows — — always in a female role. Time to meet the real Miss Burgoyne, who played in ten shows on The Great White Way and in other countries.
• • Olga "Ollie" Burgoyne • •
• • Ever notice how some theatrical reputations mimic a red poppy — — a vehement presence, brief, glorious, and dismembered in seconds?
• • Almost unknown today, versatile, graceful, ambitious, supremely talented Olga "Ollie" Burgoyne was part Russian and part Creole. Born on 13 June 1878 in Illinois, she had been an entertainer in Russia before joining the British-based cast of "In Dahomey," an operetta written by Bert Williams and George Walker. An outstanding success in the West End, "In Dahomey" came to London from New York City in 1903 and played at the Shaftesbury Theatre for nearly a year. When the acclaimed U.K. production finished, many of the performers created individual acts or assembled their own teams and toured. Heading one of these twosomes was the 27-year-old firecracker Olga Burgoyne who, with her partner, Usher Watts, formed the Duo Eclatant, according to Afro-American theater researcher Helen A Johnson. "Burgoyne was not only an entertainer in Russia, but a business woman as well," notes Johnson. "She was the owner of the Maison Creole, an elegant shop for women in St. Petersburg. She operated it until the war began — — while she was taking the baths in Austria."
• • Pursuing the course of an entrepreneur and entertainer could not have been easy for a Caucasian vaudevillian much less a dark-skinned female. Neverthless, Ollie Burgoyne earned respect for her work and was lauded as one of the eight major African American dancers/ choreographers of the Harlem Renaissance; she ranked in an elite group that comprised Helmsley Winfield, Edna Guy, Randolph Sawyer, Asadata Dafora, Katherine Dunham, Charles Williams, and Pearl Primus.
• • In March 1931, Ollie was performing in Yonkers, NY with a dance company called the Bronze Ballet Plastique. Since their performances went unnoticed, the group reinvented themselves as the New Negro Art Theater Dance Group. Billed as "The First Negro Dance Recital in America," Hemsley Winfield and Edna Guy, along with Ollie Burgoyne and 17 other dancers, opened at Chanin's Theater in the Clouds [NYC].
• • Ollie's dramatic training and the pleasing curves of her hipbones' kettle raised the heat at auditions. Appearing in ten Broadway productions from 1926—1937, her credits included: "Lulu Belle" [1926]; "Tired Business Man" [1929]; "Make Me Know It" [1929]; "The Constant Sinner" [1931]; "Blessed Event" [1932]; "Run, Little Chillun" [1933]; etc.
• • In the sophisticated romantic screen comedy "Laughter" [1930], starring Fredric March, Nancy Carroll, and Frank Morgan, Ollie had a bit part as a maid named Pearl.
• • Age did not slow her down. In April 1936, when she was 58, she was featured in "Mississippi Rainbow" [a show also known as "Brain Sweat"], which was seen at the John C. Brownell Lafayette Theatre, Harlem Unit, NYC.
• • As a sought-after choreographer and an instructor, Ollie Burgoyne worked behind the scenes in the motion picture industry as well, teaching Russian dances to American dancers.
• • In 1973, the vibrant 95-year-old died in the United States.• • 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.
Gregory Ratoff and MAE WEST did not always see eye to eye.
• • Ratoff was related to Mae thanks to his shifty cousin Vladimir Baikoff, who was the actress's brother-in-law and Beverly's second Russian husband.
• • Born in Samara, Russia in April — — on 20 April 1897 — — the 25-year-old actor first sailed to the USA in 1922. A year later Gregory Ratoff wed actress Eugenie Leontovich. He returned to New York in July 1925 on the SS Mauretania with his Russian-Jewish mother, deciding to settle in.
• • As an accent piece, he was harmless. Gregory Ratoff played Tira's New York City lawyer Benny Pinkowitz in "I'm No Angel" [1933]. And many fans remember the amusing scene in which Mae West and Ratoff are discussing the breach-of-promise suit.
• • In early 1943, when "Catherine Was Great" was being hammered out, Mae got a visit from Ratoff. He wanted her to star in a new film for Columbia Pictures to be called "The Heat's On," which he would direct. To arouse Mae's interest further, he hinted that he might also produce her newest extravaganza rushing to Broadway.
• • After many delays and disruptions, "The Heat's On" was released 9 February 1944 to jeers, sneers, and razzberries.
• • For the record, "Catherine Was Great" had its live mainstage premiere on 2 August 1944. The show closed on the Gay White Way on 13 January 1945.
• • Gregory Ratoff's most famous screen role was his portrayal of the producer Max Fabian who feuds with star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) in "All About Eve" [1950].
• • Director, actor, and producer Gregory Ratoff contracted leukemia and died on 14 December 1960 in Switzerland.• • 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.
Octogenarian Tony Curtis has the fondest memories of his many legendary co-stars including his favorite fellow New Yorker MAE WEST.
• • According to the Bay Area Reporter, the aged matinee idol shared an amusing memory of the iconic Mae West, with whom he worked in the notorious Sextette (1978). The sex goddess was then 87 years old, and still strutting her stuff!
• • "I played a Russian ambassador," he recalled. "We shot in her very opulent 'boudoir,' but she made her environment work. My call was for 8 a.m. Miss West came in, looked at her clothes, had breakfast, and was dressed by 11 a.m. But before she could shoot, she had to have her enema! I lived 20 minutes from the studio, and would have them call me when the enema was beginning, so I wouldn't have to sit around all morning!"
• • When Tony Curtis [born as Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, New York on 3 June 1925] takes to the stage of the Castro Theatre on 18 November 2008, he will share these memories and many others.
• • "A Tribute to Tony Curtis" — — live on stage, plus film screening & book signing: Tuesday, 18 November 2008 at 7 p.m., Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114.
• • Tickets will be available at A Different Light Books (489 Castro Street), San Francisco.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Byline: David Alex Nahmod
• • Published in: Bay Area Reporter [Issue: Vol. 38 / No. 46 / 13 November 2008]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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NYC
Mae West.
Taking advantage of the legal woes of his sister-in-law MAE WEST, Beverly's husband Sergei Treshatny went to court to obtain a divorce on 15 April 1927 after a decade of marriage. Their divorce became final on 30 September 1927. 
• • On 29 January 1917 Beverly West [1898 —1982] wed her first Russian husband Sergei Treshatny. An inventor, Treshatny had arrived in the United States in 1916. Vaudevillians Beverly and Mae West were both busy working in Paterson, New Jersey during January 1917 when Beverly took some time off to become a "missus" at Brooklyn City Hall on Joralemon Street. It had been a brief courtship. On 8 December 1916, the bride-to-be had celebrated her 18th birthday. • • A decade later, when Mae and Beverly were arrested in Bridgeport, Connecticut on 2 February 1927, Sergei took advantage of the scandal, using the trial testimony as his grounds for divorce.
• • The union between the unhappy couple was dissolved by Supreme Court Justice George H. Taylor, Jr. in Newburgh, New York. The divorce action was based on a police raid on a room in the Arcade Hotel (Bridgeport) at 5:00 AM when Beverly West and Edward Elsner were charged with a "breach of the peace" [i.e., being drunk].
• • The arrest at the Arcade Hotel — — 1001 Main St, Bridgeport, CT 06604 — — is dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West." This scene can be viewed on YouTube.com.• • Though the case against Edward Elsner and Beverly West was dropped the next day in the Bridgeport City Court, a stenographer took a transcript of the testimony for Mr. Treshatny — — the policeman who made the February 2nd arrests testified before Judge Taylor.
• • Sergei Treshatny, who was living in Stamford in 1927, had invented an air-cooled motor.
• • Beverly had tried to divorce him in Brooklyn in 1924 — — but dropped it after her plea for alimony and counsel fees pending a trial had been denied.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with family in 1934 • • NYC
Mae West.
Avid theatre-goer MAE WEST could spot charisma in a performer. As a 10-year-old child she fell under the spell of Bert Williams, mesmerized by his musical "In Dahomey" at the New York Theatre in 1903. The production of "In Dahomey" also included a talented actress-dancer, a black performer Mae would cast in her Harlem comedy "The Constant Sinner."
