Mae West: Joseff, Judy, Mae

MAE WEST wore it first.
• • For her 1943 musical comedy, “The Heat's On” [Columbia, 1943), Mae West had a onscreen finale that showed her adorned with a boatload of jewelry including a simulated diamond crossover necklace suspending large Art Deco style dress clip brooches.

• • The pendants were originally mounted by Joseff to a shorter chain for Mae’s costume.
• • Three years later, Joseff retooled this piece. The pendants were re-mounted to a much longer crossover chain and worn by Judy Garland in “Ziegfeld Follies” [MGM, 1946].
• • In November 2017, the necklace was sold in an auction called “Joseff of Hollywood: Treasures from the Vault” and a lucky buyer paid $18,750.

• • Curiously, despite significant alterations, this jewelry was billed “Judy Garland and Mae West Worn Necklace.”
• • On Saturday, 12 August 1944 • •
• • According to an article in Billboard Magazine [The Billboard, Saturday, 12 August 1944], Mike Todd and Mae West shared the financial burden of mounting this costume drama — — $150,000, not an inconsiderable sum during the World War II era. And though she often hired inexperienced actors and actresses for the minor roles, Mae West sought out the best costume people and best set designers.
• • Despite the savage reviews that would greet the star's own efforts, the critics heaped praise on the production itself, calling the scenery "as beautiful as Howard Bay's best" and rhapsodizing over lavish details such as the fireplace set in Count Mirovich's apartment and the decor of the ghoulish "secret room" of Ivan VI where a murder occurs.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Hush-Hush Magazine (Vol. 2, No. 8, August 1956 issue) contained the article "Show Biz Buzzer: Mae West versus Marilyn Monroe."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "My advice for Marilyn Monroe was:  Forget about the men; win over the ladies. The men won't forget you, anyway — — not the way you walk."  
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A memoir mentioned Mae West.
• • Scott Thorson wrote: He [Liberace] had no trouble getting all the dates he wanted and he gloried in escorting well-known entertainers to parties, getting his picture taken with Susan Hayward, Gale Storm, Rosemary Clooney, Mae West, and Judy Garland. Mae was the only one of his so-called lady friends I actually met.
• • Scott Thorson wrote: As they say in Texas, Mae was a hoot! She and Lee were an unpredictable twosome who enjoyed trying to outdo each other’s outrageousness.” …
• • Source: “Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace” by Scott Thorson [USA: Tantor Media, Incorporated; 1st edition; 10 May 2013]
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,000 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,058th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Countess

It is always nice to notice new television personalities who credit MAE WEST with being an inspiration.
• • The Brooklyn bombshell did not do too much work on the small screen — — which was still a new and untried medium to the vaudeville veterans born during the 1890s.
• • To Mae West's way of thinking, TV appearances were merely an episode and not the mainstay of her career.
• • Similarly, to the reality fixtures of the Bravo series "The Real Housewives of New York City," it seems matrimony has been a saucy episode but not the whole enchilada.
• • Naturally, nouns like "housewife," "motherhood," and "matrimony" do not figure in her life. However, Mae did work for a few years in burlesque, a form of live entertainment that is making a comeback in her hometown.
• • The New York Observer dispatched a scribe for The Daily Transom to West 45th's colorful Night Hotel and here's the headline Chris Shott accorded the interview with Luann, a former waitress and fulltime diamond polisher: "Countess Luann de Lesseps Conjures Lascivious Mae West at the Night Hotel."
• • Let's enjoy an excerpt together, shall we?
• • Chris Shott writes: The classy Countess Luann de Lesseps [born on 17 May 1965] is a big fan of the old bump and grind.
• • "I love burlesque!" Ms. de Lesseps confessed to the Daily Transom on Wednesday night, May 27, during intermission at former Roxy and Palladium promoter Lee Chappell's risque weekly Foreign Affairs show in the dimly lit lounge at Vikram Chatwal's Night Hotel on West 45th Street.
• • Sporting a slinky black Michael Kors dress, the 43-year-old co-star of the popular Bravo series "The Real Housewives of New York City" sat legs crossed, slowly sipping a glass of red wine, while onstage the contortionist and onetime Cirque du Soleil aerialist Ekaterina Sknarina performed a steamy striptease and bawdy hostess Lady Rizo belted out an appropriately schizophrenic cover of the 2006 Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy." . . .
• • Vowing to be true to the jewelry box . . . • •
• • In fact, her marriage to the Count Alexandre de Lesseps has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks, with her rep ultimately confirming rumors of a split.
• • She vowed to cling to her noble title, nevertheless, she told the Daily Transom. "And the jewelry!" she added, laughing.
• • "But I love cabaret and I love this kind of music," Ms. de Lesseps said. "I'm a big fan of Mae West. So this takes me back. I actually just wrote a book called Class with the Countess. And I write about Mae West and I write about how I think that she was such a great woman because she knew how to be a woman. You know, how to flirt. I talk about the art of seduction in my book and I talk about Mae West and I pull out a lot of her quotes, which I love. You know, 'It's better to be looked over than overlooked.' I think it's a lost art. I really do." . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Countess Luann de Lesseps Conjures Lascivious Mae West at the Night Hotel"
• • Byline: By Chris Shott | The Daily Transom
• • Published in: The New York Observer — — www.observer.com
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Edward Friedman

It was exactly 75 years ago — — on 16 January 1934 — — that MAE WEST gave testimony in the trial of Edward Friedman, who had robbed her.
• • This coverage appeared in the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express:
• • OFFICERS GUARD MOVIE QUEEN AT TRIAL AFTER THREATS BY GANGSTERS • •
• • Amid a chorus of masculine and feminine "oh's" and "ah's," alluring Mae West herself, a riot of color and beauty, swept thorough the courtroom of Judge Harry Sewell this morning in a grand entrance before her audience, took the witness stand and told her story of how she was robbed of $12,000 worth of diamonds and $3,400 in cash.
• • Her appearance was that of the complaining star witness at the trial of Edward Friedman, charged with being one of the robber gang, and it created as much of a sensation in the crowded courtroom as at any Mae West premiere.
• • "The man with the gun said to me, ‘Give me the poke,'" Miss West testified.
• • "My purse was on the seat beside me and the bandit reached over for it. I figured he wanted it, so I picked it up and gave it to him."
• • LAVISH GESTURES • •
• • Here the lovely Mae illustrated with lavish gestures and with the aid of a brocade purse how she generously handed over her purse to a man with the gun.
• • But if she had figured that was to save her sparklers, it was a wrong move, she admitted ruefully.
• • "Then he said, ‘Give me that ring,'" she continued. "So I did. It was a diamond ring."
• • ACTRESS GUARDED • •
• • At this moment a court recess was called. Mae's screen of protective detectives and investigators closed in around her. They were there, to see that no gangster took a shot at her because of telephone threats made against her, but they acted as gallant lackeys as well.
• • "Wouldn't you like a drink of water" asked the first lucky man to reach the side of the attractive screen siren.
• • "Here's a seat for you, Miss West," interrupted another.
• • "I'm all right, boys — there's nothing wrong with me," purred the golden-haired Mae. "I'm feeling fine."
• • A Diamond Pendant Shaped Like a Champagne Bottle • •
• • The missing jewels, she already has complained, included a diamond pendant shaped like a champagne bottle, with the "laughing water" fizzing from its mouth; a diamond bracelet two inches wide and a diamond ring. The cash represented a week's pay for working in the movies.
• • Today she said she didn't want her "rocks" back, but only to find out who really took them.
Her bodyguard, Detective Lieutenants Joe Filkas and Frank "Lefty" James, were fulfilling their pleasurable task as a result of couple of anonymous telephone calls received by the blonde heroine of She Done Him Wrong and other screen hits, demanding that she stay away from Friedman's trial — — "or else."
• • However, those calls didn't bother the nonchalant Mae.
• • "I asked the guy who called me ‘So what?' and hung up on him," she drawled. "Say, phony calls and letters and stuff like that are all a part of a day's mail. I should get hot and bothered ...'
• • She said the man who called her had a 'heavy' voice.
• • "But that don't make him unusual, like a circus exhibit, exactly. Lotsa guys have deep voices, seems like I've observed," she added.
• • Friedman is said to have admitted the robbery, but later repudiated the confession, claiming it was given during a 'third degree' by police.
• • The other men also were indicted with him — Morris Cohen, alleged Detroit gangster, and Harry Voiler, who was with Miss West as a friend at the time the holdup was perpetrated. It was Voiler, according to Friedman's admission, who hired him to hold up Miss West. He is now in Chicago fighting extradition. Cohen never has been found.
— — Source: 1/16/1934 Evening Herald and Express — —
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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