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Memories of MAE WEST aroused fresh delight among her fans in Glasgow, Scotland — — where a 1927 hotel she stayed in has been lovingly restored.
• • Marianne Halavage writes: Mae West, Gene Kelly, and Cary Grant were among the stars who checked in to Glasgow's Central Hotel — — now it has been reborn. . . . Fast-forward to 2010, and Jack Dyce, 91, and Netta, 89, are sitting in their living room in Giffnock, outside Glasgow, reminiscing about how integral the Central has been to their lives. ...
• • According to Marianne Halavage: In its post-war heyday, the Central drew more than just the elite of Glasgow. Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill, Laurel and Hardy, the Queen, John F Kennedy, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Cary Grant and the Beach Boys, to name just a few, stayed or dined there. Netta remembers being on the desk in the 1940s when Edward G Robinson, the American actor who played gangsters in films such as Little Caesar and Key Largo, was in town. He brought her chocolate. “I was astonished to find that he had a beautiful voice and he loved paintings and was very cultured,” Netta says. “He was the opposite of the Robinson in his films.”
• • Halavage, who interviewed Netta Dyce, adds: She met other Hollywood stars as well, including Vivien Leigh (“very friendly, very nice”), Danny Kaye (“a hoot”), and Mae West. “Mae West really did walk with her hands on her hips, like in her films. I’ve a nice signed photograph from her.” Netta puts her hands on her hips and imitates West’s drawl. “She used to come by and say, ‘Hullow Nedda, howya doin'?’” . . .
• • To continue reading about the stage and screen stars who briefly stayed in Scotland, see the link below.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Ghosts, glamour, and Hollywood greats at Glasgow’s Central Hotel"
• • By: Marianne Halavage
• • Published in: The Herald Scotland — — www.heraldscotland.com/
• • Published on: 20 September 2010
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
Once there was a Titania who put the tinsel in Tinseltown, creating the sparkly screen gems worn by MAE WEST in her most memorable motion pictures.
• • According to The Los Angeles Times, Joan Castle Joseff headed Joseff Precision Metal Products, a maker of aircraft and missile parts — — and Joseff-Hollywood, a producer of costume jewelry worn on and off the screen by some of the most notable movie stars.
• • Staffer Dennis McLellan writes: As president of Joseff-Hollywood — — it makes and rents dazzling costume jewelry that has been worn on and off the screen by Hollywood's most illustrious stars — — Joan Castle Joseff was hailed in a 1990 People Magazine story as "the High Priestess of Paste."
• • Mrs. Joseff, who took over running both Burbank, California based businesses after husband Eugene's death in 1948, died on 24 March 2010 of congestive heart failure at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, said her daughter-in-law, Tina Joseff. She was 97. . . .
• • Staffer Dennis McLellan adds: The company's jewelry has appeared — — and reappeared — — in thousands of films and TV shows over the decades. Those items include an amethyst necklace, bracelet and earring set that Vivien Leigh wore in "Gone With the Wind" and pearl pendant earrings worn by Grace Kelly in "High Society."
• • Mae West, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Myrna Loy, Marilyn Monroe, and Elizabeth Taylor are among the many other stars who wore Joseff's jewelry in films. Many of them also rented pieces to wear at the Oscar ceremonies.
• • "The heyday of our business was in the 1930s and 1940s, when people really dressed up and wore jewelry," Joan Castle Joseff told People Magazine in 1990. "Those days are gone."
• • A fascinating and informative obituary appeared on 4 April 2010 in The Los Angeles Times, from which these brief details have been extracted.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Actor Roger Moore has written his memoir — — which contains anecdotes about working with MAE WEST.
• • The debonair Englishman, now 81 years old, will be remembered not just for portraying Agent 007 — — but also for his ample charm in long-gone TV series such as "The Saint" and "The Persuaders" (the latter with Tony Curtis).
• • Interviewed by Reuters, Roger Moore said: "I would love to be remembered as one of the greatest Lears or Hamlets. But as that's not going to happen, I'm quite happy I did Bond."
• • According to Reuters, "His memoir is full of anecdotes about Hollywood and the stars he worked with such as Mae West, Vivien Leigh, Lana Turner, and Grace Jones."
• • His memoir is called "My Word Is My Bond."• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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According to movie buffs Ben Davey and Joanna Cohen, there are five outstanding "lady is a tramp" motion pictures — — and "the fabulously carnal" MAE WEST stars in one. 
• • Each week, Australian film geeks Ben Davey and Joanna Cohen claim that they "mask their lack of creative ability by writing a column about clever things that others have made." Here are their amusing pronouncements about the scarlet sisterhood of the cinema.
• • She Done Him Wrong (1933)
• • Synopsis: Captain Cummings: Haven't you ever had a man who made you happy? Lady Lou: Sure, lots of times. Mae West lewdly quips her way through her first starring role as Lady "Diamond" Lou in this adaptation of the 1928 Broadway stage play Diamond Lil. She is a dame with a lot of diamonds, a lot of "friends" — — and a smart mouth.
• • Joanna Cohen: You can't have a tramp compilation and not include the fabulously carnal Mae West. Her character, Lady Lou, proves her tramp stripes by being recognized by every inmate as she sashays down a cell block to visit her possessive and, unfortunately, violent and vicious criminal fella, Chick Clark (Owen Moore). It is often speculated that it was the films of Mae West that caused the crackdown and enforcement of the Hays Production Code in 1934. If that is the case, then I think it is safe to assume that this particular film may have contributed to the code supporters' anxiety. The innuendo that was so shocking in the 1930s is pretty tame today and the plot is ludicrous so, unless you are a Mae West fan, you may not get too much out of this flick. I, however, love a sassy bird and as far as I am concerned, West is the leader of the pack.
• • Ben Davey: There are few who could have pulled off some of the dialogue in this film. It works for Mae West and Cary Grant, partly because the ludicrous plot allows them to play up and partly because the audience thinks they are watching the actors themselves verbally jousting , not just the characters they play. When West says "Why don't you come up sometime and see me? I'm home every night" — — the delivery shapes our perceptions of the sassy bird we think she would be in real life. While such perceptions lent West a certain authenticity when playing feisty dames, it certainly contributed to her being typecast. But hey, when you get to play a quip-machine that rattles off such memorable innuendo so often, being typecast can also have its merits.
• • Top five 'the lady is a tramp' films • •
• • 1. Gilda (1946)
• • Synopsis: Johnny Farrell: "Pardon me, but your husband is showing." The most gorgeous tramp of all, Gilda (Rita Hayworth), plays wicked games with the two men in her life — — her husband, Ballin Mundson (George Macready), and her man from the past, Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) — — employing a handful of Argentinian playboys as her props. [Gilda is a woman to be simultaneously despised and desired.]
• • 2. The Last Seduction (1994)
• • Synopsis: Dodgy Bridget (Linda Fiorentino) double-crosses her doctor husband, Clay (Bill Pullman), stealing the money made from the sale of medicinal cocaine. Now on the lam, Bridget decides to lie low in a small town where she begins an affair with Mike (Peter Berg), who quickly becomes enamoured with the mysterious blow-in. Lots of back-stabbing and general naughtiness ensues. [Keen spotters may pick up the Double Indemnity reference with one of Bridget's aliases.]
• • 3. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Synopsis: An adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 Civil War epic, it follows the flirts and flounces of the South's first lady, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), as she overcomes the poverty, loss and chaos of wartime, defends her beloved plantation, Tara, and leaves broken hearts in her wake.
• • 4. She Done Him Wrong (1933) [see above]• • 5. Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS (1974)
• • Synopsis: Nazi commandante Ilsa (Dyanne Thorn), whose motivations revolve around torture and rompy-pompy, finally meets her match in the bump-ugly stakes when she encounters a prisoner with peculiar prowess. This discovery proves a distraction from Ilsa's efforts to prove, via nefarious experiments on war-camp prisoners, that women can withstand pain better than men.
— — Source: — —
• • Article: Top five 'the lady is a tramp' films
• • Written by: By Ben Davey and Joanna Cohen
• • Published in: The Sydney Morning Herald — — www.smh.com.au/
• • Published on: 3 November 2005
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Can you picture MAE WEST as a nun?
• • Writers Bruce W. Gilray and Richard T. Witter could. Borrowing liberally from Agatha Christie's murder mystery "Ten Little Indians," they devised a campy take-off for movie buffs: " … And Then There Was Nun."
• • Their sacrilegious sisterhood includes Sisters Mae (West), Hattie (McDaniel), Vivien (Leigh), Joan (Crawford), Bette (Davis), Tallulah (Bankhead), Gloria (Swanson), Katharine (Hepburn), Marilyn (Monroe), and Judy (Garland with Toto).
• • Cory Watkins portrays the raunchy Sister Mae.
• • Californians take note: "... And Then There Was Nun" is onstage now at the Huntington Beach Playhouse [Library Theater, 7111 Talbert Avenue, Huntington Beach, California].
• • Hmmm, how about a blue nun?
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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