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MAE WEST and the Italian accordionist Guido Deiro made beautiful music together for several years in variety. 
Her marriage to the Mediterranean keyboard king was one of the few secrets Mae kept from her mother Matilda.
• • Vibrant, jealous, well-built, ambitious, financially successful, talented, and sexy, Deiro even threatened to kill the next man who tried to take Mae away from him. John "Battling Jack" West, alarmed for his daughter's safety, cautioned Guido: "None of those Italian knife tricks now, please!"
• • About his brother Guido and his sultry spouse, Pietro Deiro recalled: "We played together and we both shared great successes, Guido becoming rapidly very popular — — especially among restaurant waiters for his large and ostentatious tips. A few years later in New York, Mae West, Guido, and I went for supper to the old Gillette's restaurant. The meal finished, my brother left a two-dollar tip on the table. As he rose to leave, I picked up one of the dollars and later went fifty-fifty with Mae West. This got to be a habit with us. ... "
• • Pietro Deiro misremembered the name of the eatery, a special place Mae and Deiro returned to often when they were in New York City. It was located back then on West 49th Street. [This year's Mae West walking tour will swing by there and attendees will be shown vintage pictures of the building's exterior and the beautiful interior dining rooms where the lovebirds often enjoyed themselves.]• • When Mae and Guido went their separate ways in vaudeville, the Brooklyn bombshell wound up on a much lower tier of bookings.
• • July 14th • • • • On the 14th of July 1920, Mae West 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 courthouse in Jamaica, Queens.
• • When their divorce became final in November 1920, Guido quickly wed his third wife.
• • Mae West was so daunted by this marriage (and the way Guido affected her equilibrium), that she does not even mention his name in her autobiography, coyly referring to him only as "Mr. D."• • The 14th of July 1999 is a date Mae West [1893 — 1980] did not live to see. On that day, Mae's longtime lover Paul Novak passed away in California.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1914 • •
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Mae West.
Another person who worked with MAE WEST was a colorful attorney who was born and died during the month of July.
• • Born in Sonora, California, Melvin Belli [29 July 1907 — 9 July 1996] represented Mae before the bench along with clients such as Jack Ruby, mobster Mickey Cohen, Errol Flynn, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Muhammad Ali, and a long list of the notable, the naughty, the nefarious, and the notorious.
• • Dramatically attired in scarlet-lined Saville Row suits and $750 cowboy boots, Mel the Bellicose whizzed around the hilly Bay Area in his customized marigold-yellow Rolls-Royce.
• • If the screen queen came up to see him in person, then she would have put in an appearance at Frisco's historic structures situated at 722 and 728 Montgomery Street. Known as the Belli buildings, these charming earthquake survivors had been the San Francisco offices of the renowned lawyer who had been known as "The King of Torts." Constructed in 1851 and 1853, these had originally housed the Langerman's tobacco warehouse and the original meeting house of the Masonic Lodge
• • The much-married expert on personal-injury law was in the news today because his former estate in San Francisco has gone on the market for $39.5 million. That’s about six times its sale price in 1992.
• • Melvin Belli's courtroom successes afforded him an opulent lifestyle. From 1978 — 1992, he resided in a 1922 brick Tudor Revival of about 11,000 square feet with six bedrooms, five baths, and two powder rooms. Set on an unusually wide 80-foot lot in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, the four-story home includes a heated outdoor pool, spa and four-car garage and bay views, on 0.3 acres.
• • Not shy with a comeback, Belli once told a reporter: There is never a deed so foul that something couldn't be said for the guy; that's why there are lawyers.
• • In 1996, fourteen weeks after his sixth wedding, Belli died at age 88.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
It was seventy-five years ago and a humid summer in Tinseltown was heating up even more for MAE WEST, who was dealing with a serious attack of Hays fever. 
• • A newspaper article published on Wednesday 11 July 1934 in the Midwest indicated that worrisome tom-toms from the West Coast chiefs were getting louder.
• • According to the national news desk in 1934: A selection of title for Mae West’s latest film has assumed headache proportions. The film first was called “It Ain’t No Sin” — — but the studio dropped it at the suggestion of the New York censors.
• • In other words, Hollywood's Hitler, Will Hays (a former Postmaster General) was harnessing up a less elastic film code more constricting than Diamond Lil's corset.
• • Will Hays to Mae West: "Honey, the plot sickens . . . • • • • New York City based Time Magazine [issue dated 1 July 1934] ran a feature called "Movies' Moral Crackdown" by Richard Corliss — — alongside a splashy photo of a costumed Mae West.
• • Richard Corliss summed it up like this: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!" a hatcheck girl says to Mae West, who purrs, "Goodness had nothin' to do with it, dearie." That line, from West's 1932 "Night After Night," embodied the saucy spirit of early talkies. Now that Hollywood could speak, it did so in the tart cadences of fast-talking men and faster women. This freedom created fresh stars (James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow) and a sexual impudence that riled the burghers of propriety.
• • In 1934 the potent Roman Catholic lobby formed the Legion of Decency to rate films. Soon after, Will Hays, the industry's political and moral arbiter, called on Joseph Breen, a prominent Catholic, to enforce a rigorous production code. Studios rushed to sanitize some projects (West got married at the end of Belle of the Nineties) and dump others (MGM had to wait 12 years to film The Postman Always Rings Twice). Moviegoers that summer Sunday may have been shocked by the sudden absence of shocking dialogue and situations.
• • But filmmakers evolved a new "code," one that traded starkness for subtlety, noted Time Magazine. Audiences quickly learned this covert language in which a woman's knowing smile was its own double entendre, and a kiss was never just a kiss. ...
• • "Goodness had nothing to do with it!" was a well-worn comeback Texas Guinan often used in her speakeasy when teasing her high-rollers, whom she always called "Suckers!" Her friend Mae West, who often visited Texas's midtown nightspots, borrowed the quip for the 1932 hatcheck scene which took place in a speak.
• • Here's another example of Mae tossing off a famous Texas Guinan echo: In the 1933 motion picture "I'm No Angel," Tira [Mae West] does her hootchy-cootchy act, and two ruffians exclaim, "ELEGANT! Now that's elegant!" Tira teases her hungry-eyed on-lookers: "Am I making myself clear, boys?" But as she exits, Tira mutters: "Suckers!"
• • • • Mae West and Texas Guinan Tour in mid-August • • • •
• • 2009 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 16 August 2009, the Annual Mae West Walk reunites the two film icons and Broadway roust-abouts. This August the entertaining, informative birthday celebration of the actress-writer, which will begin at Shubert Alley and proceed uptown to Mae's WESTside apartment, is called "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West and Texas Guinan in the Theatre District." These tours are always accompanied by vintage illustrations, memorabilia, and rare photos that show how the buildings, vaudeville houses, billboards, Playbills, and blockfronts looked when Mae West was there. Surprises are in store.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • •
• • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West.
Days ago, French fashion flaunter Jean Paul Gaultier presented a runway look inspired by MAE WEST.
• • Describing the Oscar-worthy Gaultier creations for readers of The New York Times, columnist Cathy Horyn wrote: "As the models came out in wafting mousseline gowns and velvet columns, headshots of screen legends — — Mae West, Louise Brooks, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth — — swam across the celestial blue backdrop."
• • Covering the show in Paris, front row couture-critic Godfrey Deeny also seemed to be enjoying the melodramatic, improbable spectacle.
• • Godfrey Deeny writes: Lights, camera, Gaultier! French fashion's enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier found it, at the movies with a fall 2009 haute couture collection on Wednesday, July 8, inspired throughout by cinema.
• • Gaultier telegraphed his punch to guests as soon as they walked in the door of his Paris headquarters by naming each area of the show space after a major studio.
• • Each look was named after a famous movie, opening with curvaceous Dutch model Lara Stone as Le Mepris of "Contempt," Jean Luc Godard's classic starring Jack Palance and Brigitte Bardot about the cynicism of film making. Lara Stone strutted out in leather trench-coat and seamed tights, her blonde hair piled up in a beehive just like Bardot in the movie. . . .
• • At times, the more outlandish looks seemed almost like living organisms, such as the crocodile scale ensemble that represented "Night of the Iguana." And few couturiers can draw out such fine craftsmanship from their ateliers as Gaultier — — whose satin Mae West look seemed made out of Wurlitzer organ pipes.
• • Gaultier took his concept even further with several outfits literally made of film strips, including one called "Rushes." The whole thing garnered great applause from an audience that included Kylie Minogue and Mickey Rourke.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: Jean Paul Gaultier's Celluloid Couture
• • Published in: Fashion Wire Daily
• • Byline: Godfrey Deeny | reporting from Paris
• • Published on: Thursday, 9 July 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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On 10 July 1927, The New York Times announced that MAE WEST had written a new play, "The Wicked Age."
• • During her imprisonment in the Women's Workhouse, Mae had claimed she was thinking about corruption — — and how a system of institutionalized corruption affected women. She felt she could set forth her ideas effectively in a play about the dirty politics of beauty pageants.
• • During the entire summer of 1927, Mae was revising and reworking the manuscript, which was set in Bridgetown [Cumberland County], New Jersey. 
• • Mae's character was the beautiful and willful Evelyn "Babe" Carson. To keep the production on a tight budget, Mae hired a lot of no-name talent, former vaudevillians looking for work, and her aging mentor Hal Clarendon to play her uncle/ guardian Robert Carson.
• • During the 1920s, a common real estate ploy to increase land values and publicize the area was the community sponsored beauty contest. In "The Wicked Age," the shady, money-grubbing politicians who run Bridgetown decide to stage a leg show despite negative public opinion about such an enterprise. One landowner insists: "The basis of any industry . . . for success today is based on the exploitation of the female form." The influential rascal Alec Ferguson shouts down objections: "Which plays get over and make money for their producers? Those that try to uplift the public and teach it better ways of living — — don't make me laugh — — those plays go over that exhibit the women's body in some way or another."
• • Robert Carson is one of many who will protest that the competition to be the first "Miss Bridgetown" will degrade females, since it forces half-undressed young ladies to be paraded "on exhibition like prize cattle."
• • The usual suspects financed Mae's play — — Jim Timony, Owney Madden, et al. For over two months, Mae burned up the investors' funding with on-going revisions and frantically long rehearsing.
• • The incomplete and somewhat inaccurate Internet Broadway Database [IBD] notes that the Carson clan was played by these actors:
• • Mae West — — Evelyn "Babe" Carson
• • Hal Clarendon — — Robert Carson
• • Augusta Perry — — Mrs. Martha Carson
• • Doris Haslett — — Ruth Carson
• • Ruth Hunter — — Gloria Carson
• • However, in the play, Gloria is neither a Carson nor a relative; she is actually Babe's best friend who is murdered.
• • Yet other sources indicate that vaudevillian Marjorie Main, born on 24 February 1890 in Indiana, was really the actress who played the role of Martha Carson, Mae's mother — — despite Marjorie's being only three years older. Perhaps silent film actress Augusta Perry had taken the Martha Carson role on opening night or she was credited for a performance from which the IDB records were compiled. Marjorie Main's name could have been mentioned in the publicity leading up to the premiere; maybe she was rehearsing until her ungovernable fear of germs got the better of her.
• • In the autumn, "The Wicked Age" opened at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre [debut: 4 November 1927]. Critics sneezed at the enterprise.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Augusta Perry played Babe Carson's mother in 1927 • •
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Mae West.
Pomona, California does not have a moviehouse but that does not stop the metro area from saluting MAE WEST and W.C. Fields, who will be getting freshly aired on July 17th. 
• • Annually, the stars come out in Pomona — — as part of their wonderful Fresh Air Flick Summer Schedule.
• • Each Friday evening, fondly regarded motion pictures are screened for free al fresco style.
• • Movie-lovers will enjoy "My Little Chickadee" next Friday evening on a funky inflatable outdoor screen set up downtown at Thomas Street Plaza.
• • Bring a chair, pack some popcorn, and head over to Thomas Plaza in downtown Pomona at the junction of West 2nd Street and Thomas Street. After you enjoy this 1940 cinema classic, pick up a schedule to see what else will be screened through July and August. The final flicker will be "Cool Hand Luke" on 4 September 2009.
• • The genesis of "My Little Chickadee" was jump-started at the end of May 1939. Mae West had returned to Hollywood after touring with her play about Catherine the Great and began negotiating with Universal Studios to co-star with another comedian. Aware of the former vaudevillian's reputation for drinking, Mae hesitated. Universal upped the game by offering her $300,000 for the film, the script, and a promise that anytime Fields was intoxicated, he would be banned from the set. The first time Fields drunkenly stumbled into the studio, Mae shouted, "Pour him out of here!" Very quickly, everybody knew she meant business.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Many actresses have fattened their resume and fibbed about appearing with MAE WEST. Though it's lamentable to speak ill of the dead, let's keep the record honest.
• • Flashing back to an older post about the late actor Jeff Morrow, here's this nugget: With a birthname of "Irving" and a pronounced forehead, the native New Yorker who became actor Jeff Morrow [13 January 1907 — 26 December 1993] was bound to play the heavy. Mae West cast him as the convict Chick Clark when she revived "Diamond Lil" on Broadway. When the show opened on 5 February 1949, Jeff Morrow made his theatrical debut.
• • However, Jeff Morrow was seen on The Gay White Way during the autumn of 1946 — — all too briefly. He played "A Stranger" in a forgettable flop called "Mr. Peebles and Mr. Hooker," a comedy that lasted for only four performances from October 10th — 12, 1946 at the Music Box Theatre.
• • Jeff Morrow apparently had a nice-looking wife Anna Karen who was born in New Jersey on 20 September 1914, and who passed away on 1 July 2009 at age 94. The former model's obituary notes that "In 1946 she met the actor Jeff Morrow, a successful Broadway star" [sic]. How many agree that this would be quite an overstatement (and four nights on Broadway probably does not pay the rent)?
• • It gets worse: Anna Karen Morrow's "female co-stars read like a Who's Who of the theatre: Katharine Cornell, Katharine Hepburn, Luise Rainer, and Mae West," according to some fanciful rumor the aging thespian may have hinted at.
• • If there is a scrap of proof that Mrs. Morrow "co-starred" (or was cast) in any Mae West production whatsoever, we have been unable to unearth this testament. If you have evidence about this long forgotten [ahem!] "co-star" of Mae West's, then please post it here.
• • Married to Jeff Morrow for 46 years, Anna K. Morrow is survived by their daughter, Lissa Morrow Christian, of New York.
• • Making up stories, stretching the truth. Some individuals are humbled perhaps by their prosaic origins in the scruffy settlement of nobodyhood and long for those searchlights shining on the marquee. If your career didn't measure up, should you fib — — must you lie about details people can check, or risk seeming pathetic? Thoughts to ponder.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Many individuals have commented on the motion pictures of MAE WEST. But often, in a movie theatrre, key elements are pushed into darkness.
• • What do we know about living during the parched, policed Prohibition Era, for instance, except as an oncoming narrative headlighted on the big screen?
• • Mae West, who experienced the lawless decade first-hand and disapproved of these legal restrictions, found it more desirable to turn back the clock to the livelier liberal years of corner saloons, "bottoms up," and nickel beer when she conceived "Diamond Lil" in 1928. A few years later, Paramount Pictures would turn Mae's Broadway blockbuster into a successful screen classic.
• • Freelance cinema follower Bob Aldrich captured the essentials in his bright, tight review. Critics would do well to see how Mr. Aldrich wastes no words and gets it right. [Happily, he also introduces American readers to the adjective "shonky" — — British/ Australian slang for something that is shoddy.]
• • For whatever it's worth, Aldrich rated "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] three and a half stars. His comments are below.
• • Bob Aldrich writes: Tales of the Gay 90s were a genre in themselves (far more so than the 1900s). Mae West made a point of it — — presumably the period setting allowed her to be a bit more daring. The opulence and raffishness must have looked particularly appealing during the Depression. This is the film that made her a movie star — — when people talk about Mae West they’re talking about this and Diamond Lil.
• • It’s an adaptation of a play and it feels like it — — most of the action takes place in a saloon, there are entrances and exits. Mae herself is very theatrical, full figured, and constantly cracking wise. Her character remains fascinating — — she holds her own with men, she’s nice to a girl who gets herself in a mess and is comfortable with shonky people. She makes eyes at the younger Cary Grant and Gilbert Roland (she invites Roland up to see her sometime as well) and older guys pant all over her — — indeed, they are driven to theft and murder.
• • It’s especially fun to see Mae flirt with Cary Grant in his salvation Army outfit — — less so when he’s revealed to be a cop but they had to do it. Cary’s a bit young for her and you don’t believe it’s love, but who cares. The lines are terrific, e.g., “it takes two to get one in trouble”; “hello dark warm and handsome”; “when woman go wrong men go right after them”; “you can be had!” It’s also very adult — — West is clearly a mistress to gangsters, a girl tries to kill herself after a relationship with a married man; Mae sings a song about an “Easy Rider." The running time is barely over an hour — — and that includes a couple of songs.
— — Source: — —
• • Column: "Classic films in focus: She Done Him Wrong (1933)"
• • Byline: Bob Aldrich | blogger who posts his "various rantings on movies . . ." and topics tied to cinema
• • Published in: The Great Unmade Robert Aldrich Romantic Comedy — — http://thegreatunmaderobertaldrichromcom.blogspot.com/
• • Published on: Sunday, 5 July 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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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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One nickname for MAE WEST was the "blonde bombshell," a title linked to an evolving archetype in both literature and motion pictures.
• • For an intriguing "long drink" on this, refresh your mind with "I'm No Angel: The Blonde in Fiction and Film" by Ellen Tremper [University of Virginia Press; illustrated edition; 288 pages; hardcover book published on 30 March 2006].
• • Here's what Publishers Weekly thought of it: Ellen Tremper's authoritative treatise on the role of the blonde in modern fiction and early film is as fascinating as it is dense. The author of the Virginia Woolf biography "Who Lived at Alfoxton?" shows how the blonde evolved radically over two centuries. In fairy tale lore, she was the angelic and passive Rapunzel, who could be saved from imprisonment only by an all-powerful prince. But by the mid-1800s, romance got ahold of her — Thackeray's Becky Sharp is an example — and the blonde became a bombshell in the truest sense: a pre-Raphaelite siren rocketing through the patriarchy. When the blondes of the silver screen — Harlow, Dietrich, Monroe — hit big, the blonde had become iconic and transgressive: she was a catalyst of sexual and social disorder, particularly when she left comedy and went to film noir. As her hair — dyed an impossible shade — lit up screens and pages, the blonde ignited social mores with her brassy independence. Tremper's thesis wanders in places, as she equates the blonde with other transgressive characters (people of color, Jews), and at times the sheer volume of her scholarship overwhelms. Nevertheless, the work explores a complex character with thoroughness and verve. — — PW• • British entertainer Denise Van Outen, who may not be to the honey-haired manner born, nevertheless will pour out her blonde ambition next month at the Fringe in Scotland. Actress Jackie Clune wrote the show "Blondes," and Denise has been busy stoking the fires for it.
• • In Scotlland, reporter Jackie McGlone did a goodnatured flack piece for The Scotsman freckled with a few cliches: "Interview: Denise Van Outen — — actress and presenter." Going straight to the root of it, Jackie McGlone writes: DENISE VAN OUTEN examines a lock of her ash-blonde hair and announces that at last she's the blonde she has always wanted to be. "This is my happiest blonde colour," says the newlywed, with a smile. If happiness were a colour, then it would be golden, just like the 35-year-old Essex girl, actress, and TV and radio presenter. And it's not just her highlights that are looking good.
• • For Denise Van Outen, who has starred on Broadway and in the West End, played a nurse in ITV1 drama Where the Heart Is, and who is bringing a new, one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe called Blondes, is clearly on cloud nine. ...
• • At 12, Van Outen was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Cosette in Les Miserables in the West End. By the time she was 18 she was the nation's favourite Essex girl, sharing a sofa and saucy banter with Johnny Vaughan.
• • Dare her to do something and she'd do it back then. "My gay friends were always egging me on," she grins. She flashed her bra at Prince Charles at a Royal Variety Show, she dyed her hair pink, and she dressed like a Barbie doll. She even nicked an ashtray from Buckingham Palace. ...
• • Soon she was, in the words of one newspaper columnist, "the nation's top telly vulgarian" . . . .
• • Yakking about the "Blonde Thing" • •
• • WE TALK about the "blonde thing" and Blondes, which has been written for her by her friend – "another Essex bird" — — the actress and writer Jackie Clune, who has been the toast of many a Fringe herself. It's a celebration of what it means to be blonde, so she'll tell a few stories about her own life, but she'll also reveal why gentlemen prefer blondes and address the vexed question of whether blondes have more fun ("Yes!" she exclaims emphatically. "All the blondes I know have had a really good time"). Oh, and she'll be singing, too.
• • "I love blondes who sing: Blondie of course! Bonnie Tyler, Kylie, Britney, who I'm completely fascinated by, having lived in LA for a couple of years when I presented the TV talent show, Grease: You're The One That I Want. I used to see Britney out all the time. So I've some stories to tell about her. I really want to ask why so many blondes like her have meltdowns and why so many iconic blondes' lives ended tragically.
• • Blondes as Victims • •
• • "Why do blondes in the public eye have to be victims? I'm sure Kylie still gets all that 'poor Kylie' stuff for having had breast cancer. People have certainly wanted me to be the victim over the years, mainly because I've made no secret of the fact that I've been unhappy in my love life.
• • "There's a lot of pressure on you, being a blonde. You're expected to be the fun-girl, the good-time girl, the life and soul of the party. Those are always the days when I'm having a brunette moment — — I can be a moody cow."
• • From Mae West onwards • • • • She pauses to drink a glass of water and exclaims: "But just look at all the fabulous blondes in history! They're the women who have shaped me, the women who've influenced me, made me who and what I am now. So we'll range from Mae West to Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. From Dusty Springfield to Olivia Newton-John and Dolly Parton . . ." Which brings us to the notion of the dumb blonde. "Yeah," sighs Van Outen. "All those tired old cliches about blonde moments and the fact that I'm always described as 'laugh-a-minute, bubbly blonde Denise'."
• • Yet Van Outen, who is clearly a smart cookie, echoes the divine Dolly: "Just because I'm blonde don't think I'm dumb, 'cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool." Unlike Dolly, who pronounced herself never offended by dumb blonde jokes, because "I know I'm not dumb; I'm also not blonde," and the marvelous Mae West, Van Outen did not make herself platinum. Her hair was so fair as a child it was almost white.
• • Since she's become something of a gay icon, despite the years as a lads mag lovely, Van Outen reckons the gays and the girls will love Blondes, which she and Clune hope will transfer to the West End post-Edinburgh. ...
• • Denise Van Outen will appear during August 2009 in The Fringe [www.edfringe.com * Edinburgh, Scotland] in "Blondes" — — Previews: August 6-7; then August 8-31, 2009.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Interview: Denise Van Outen, actress and presenter
• • Byline: By Jackie McGlone | Special to The Scotsman newspaper
• • Published in: The Scotsman — — thescotsman.scotsman.com/
• • Published on: 4 July 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
A collection of classic MAE WEST motion pictures received high marks from an enthusiastic critic in Bangor, Maine.
• • Reviewer Christopher Smith writes: “The Glamour Collections”: From Universal, three women, three collections, 15 movies — ”The Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection,” “The Mae West Glamour Collection,” “The Carole Lombard Glamour Collection.” So, yes, that should be enough glamour for anyone — and each is a must.
• • In “Dietrich,” fine films are assembled, including “Morocco,” “Blonde Venus,” “The Devil is a Woman,” “Flame of New Orleans” and “Golden Earrings.”
• • For Mae West, look for “Go West Young Man,” “Goin’ to Town,” "I’m No Angel,” “My Little Chickadee,” and “Night After Night.”
• • Slapstick rules in the Lombard movies . . . .
• • All three of these women were dancing — — sometimes literally, often metaphorically — — and some scenes in these collections are more than memorable — they’re iconic. In “Morocco,” for example, Dietrich dons a tux with tails and bends to kiss a woman, which caused a sensation . . . .
• • For Mae West, all she has to do is put a hand on her hip, flash her eyes and screw up her face, and she gets a laugh. It’s the surprise that comes out of her mouth, however, that sends you over the edge. Grade: A
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Column: DVD Corner: “The Glamour Collections”
• • Byline: Christopher Smith | Special to the NEWS
• • Published in: The Bangor Daily News — — www.bangordailynews.com/
• • Published on: 4 July 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1936 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST was accompanied in 1930 by Rudy Vallée, whose birthday and death date fall during the month of July.
• • Born in Island Pond, Vermont, Rudy Vallée [28 July 1901 — 3 July 1986] was an actor as well as a singer, bandleader, and popular entertainer. His parents had ancestors who were of French Canadian origin and some who had emigrated from Ireland. [Similarly, Mae West's father's side was from Ireland and Canada and her maternal grandmother was French.]
• • Rudy Vallée grew up in Westbrook, Maine. In high school, he took up the saxophone. Supposedly, he acquired the nickname "Rudy" after a then famous saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft. 
• • In the spring of 1930, Texas Guinan, who was covering "The Pleasure Man" trial for a newspaper, invited Mae to perform at a fundraiser she was co-hosting at the Imperial Theatre [249 West 45th Street]. This playhouse had 1443 seats. Texas Guinan had tapped entertainers such as Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting, Charles Butterworth, Lily Damita, De Wolf Hopper, Paul Ash, and Harry Richman.
• • Jobless herself, Mae agreed to sing a few numbers to raise money at the "Give a Job Benefit" taking place on 12 April 1930.
• • Rudy Vallée and his orchestra backed Mae as she sang "Frankie and Johnny" and a few other favorites on the wide proscenium stage of the Imperial. For awhile, Vallée's trademark was a raccoon coat and megaphone. Other co-hosts helping this worthy cause were Walter Winchell, Mark Hellinger, Jack Donahue, and the event's organizer Heywood Broun.
• • Rudy Vallée died on 3 July 1986 at the age of 84 in Hollywood.
• • Harmony and stage stars still find their way to the Imperial. If you have seen the current crowd-pleasing musical at this West 45th venue, then you know this playhouse looks rather different now.
• • 2009 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 16 August 2009, the Annual Mae West Walk, will briefly visit West 45th. This August the entertaining, informative birthday celebration of the actress-writer, which will begin at Shubert Alley and proceed uptown to Mae's WESTside apartment, is called "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West and Texas Guinan in the Theatre District." These tours are always accompanied by vintage illustrations, memorabilia, and rare photos that show how the buildings, vaudeville houses, billboards, Playbills, and blockfronts looked when Mae West was there. Surprises are in store.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • • • • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Imperial Theatre during the 1920s• •
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Central Florida welcomes MAE WEST this month for one entire laugh-loaded weekend. 
• • Gently priced tickets will be sold at the Polk box office for fans of "My Little Chickadee," starring Mae West and W.C. Fields.
• • This screen comedy was first released in the USA on 15 March 1940.
• • What the heck is a little chickadee anyway? The Black-capped Chickadee is a small, common songbird — — a passerine bird in the tit family. ["Tit" family, eh? Sounds like a big family.]
• • The Polk Theatre was built in 1928, one year before the great Wall Street fizzle. A temporary construction sizzler in central Florida had ended, however, the local businessmen forged ahead in great faith when they built a showy vaudeville — movie palace in Lakeland, which opened during December 1928. That year, the population hovered at merely 15,000 individuals and it was still very much a rural community dotted with citrus groves and farmhouses.
• • An Italian immigrant was hired to be the architect. Not unnaturally, J.E. Casale recreated a Mediterranean village in the heart of an orange growers Eden. Flanked by Italianate walls glorified with cunning niches and expensive sconces along with fake windows and balconies, it was a wondrous interior. Ticket-holders could behold a grand mezzanine lobby featuring cunningly twisted columns, fastidious moldings, delicate cornices, and brass banded terrazzo flooring as they ascended ornately tiled staircases.
• • The theatre's web site boasts: "The two most impressive technological features of the Polk were the theatre’s 100 ton air wash system to chill the air, and its Vitaphone sound on reel film system. The air conditioning system was such a drain on the city’s power supply that during its early years of operation it caused lights to dim all across town when turned on. ..."
• • Surrounded by this Jazz Era atmosphere, you will enjoy this rollicking motion picture classic as it was meant to be seen.
• • WHEN: on July 24th — 25th at 7:30 p.m.; on July 26th at 2 p.m.
• • WHERE: Polk Theatre: 139 South Florida Avenue, Lakeland, Florida 33801 — — T. 863-682-7553.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1940 with actress Anne Nagel • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST was very proud of her wildly popular motion picture "She Done Him Wrong" [filmed in 1932 and released in the USA on 9 February 1933].
• • Word comes that Canadian cinema historian Reg Hartt will be screening Mae West's first starring film "She Done Him Wrong" (based on her stage play "Diamond Lil" with its Bowery setting) until July 2nd. Reg Hartt will be introducing the film.
• • Born in New Brunswick, Canada on 12 June 1946, Reg Hartt is a film archivist and collector in Toronto, Canada, who is passionate about old, important movies. In an interview, he once told a reporter about a bus trip he took to Los Angeles in the early 1970s along with a strange fellow he met at the end of it, a Charles Manson type. The oddball slipped him a elephant tranquilizer and predicted that Reg would be dead by morning. Whereupon Reg meditated — — and decided to write a letter to Mae West to pass the time.
• • The Cineforum is the unique movie emporium that Mr. Hartt operates out of his Bathurst Street living room in Canada.
• • Though the Cineforum has existed for the past four decades, it was not until 1992 that it was moved to his parlor. British painter Peter Moore described the intimate, old-fashioned Cineforum as “the most perfect place in the world to watch a motion picture.”
• • WHERE: Cineforum — — 463 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario.
• • WHEN: Since Saturday, 27 June 2009 and until Thursday, 2 July 2009 at 7 PM.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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MAE WEST loved music but her choices had little to do with with Mozart, Grieg, Chopin, or salon society. The blues compositions that got Mae moving had more in common with the wooden tables of smoky saloons. Many music-makers have grooved to the Empress of Sex. Hollywood resident Ramfis Diaz — — a handsome 47-year-old musician possessed of charm and deftly adorned by a-Mae-zing tattoos inspired by the Brooklyn bombshell — — is in that group. 
• • Having read an article about the screen queen's long-standing relationship with the professional fighter William "Gorilla" Jones, Ramfis Diaz decided to give the journalist a ring — — and here is the aftermath.
• • Mark J. Price, Beacon Journal staff writer, did a follow-up feature, titled "Gorilla Jones story a virtual knockout: Mae West fan pleased to learn about Akron boxer's role in life of actress."
• • Mark J. Price writes: Hollywood musician Ram Diaz, 47, called to say he loved our story about Akron boxer William ''Gorilla'' Jones (1906 — 1982), a former middleweight champion who was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this month.
• • Ramfis Diaz is a big fan of screen legend Mae West (1893 — 1980), who employed Jones as a bodyguard and chauffeur after he retired from the ring. Jones and West were close companions for 40 years and might have been romantically involved.
• • ''I didn't know much about Gorilla Jones because she was so secretive about her men,'' Diaz said. ''Mae West didn't kiss and tell. She might have given you a clue here and there.''
• • He believes such a clue can be found in West's 1932 movie "Night After Night," in which George Raft plays an ex-boxer. It was the same year that Jones won the middleweight title.
• • In one scene, Mae West remarks: ''Hey, Gorilla. Come here.''
• • ''She was given full right to rewrite her scenes in that movie,'' he said. ''So I know for a fact that she put that name in there.''
• • A lifelong collector of memorabilia, Diaz has been enamored with West since he saw My Little Chickadee on TV as a boy in the 1960s. He lives in a building near the late star's Ravenswood apartment complex.
• • ''I can actually see her bedroom window from my bedroom window,'' he said.
• • Since 1988 [when he was 26 years old], Ramfis Diaz has thrown a Hollywood birthday party in Mae West's honor every August 17 on the roof of Gramercy Tower in Hancock Park and in his top-floor apartment. The potluck dinner, which is open to the public, includes some of West's inner circle of friends, including Kevin Thomas, Tim Malachosky, and Chris Basinger.
• • Not all guests are acquainted with Mae West's work, though.
• • ''There's a lot of people that really don't know much about her, but they get educated when they arrive,'' Diaz said.
• • He praised the Beacon Journal article for teaching him something new.
• • ''That's the fascinating thing with Miss West,'' he said. ''There's always something new.''
• • Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
— — Source: — —
• • Column: "This Place, This Time: Going West"
• • Gorilla Jones story a virtual knockout: Mae West fan pleased to learn about Akron boxer's role in life of actress
• • Byline: Mark J. Price | Beacon Journal copy editor
• • Published in: The Akron Beacon Journal — — http://ohio.com
• • Published on: Monday, 29 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • In her hometown, New Yorkers also celebrate Mae West's birthday. One event open to the public is the Annual Mae West Walking Tour, which will be held on Sunday 16 August 2009. This year the walking tour begins at Shubert Alley and proceeds uptown to Mae's WESTside apartment. To get more details, read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]• • The tour takes a path up and down blocks associated with Mae West's career. For instance, the speak run by the George Raft character in "Night After Night" [1932] was based on Club Napoleon, a speakeasy on the grand scale, once located at 33 West 56th Street on a fancy block of Beaux Arts mansions. Years before it became an illegal ginmill, 33 West 56th had been the childhood home of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST worked hard at being quotable and memorable. Occasionally, however, an individual might attribute a sentence to Mae that seems baffling or is untraceable.
• • For instance, recently Prof. Gina Barreca began an essay like this: When Mae West said “What a tragedy for a man, what an opportunity for a woman,” she summed up one of the ways in which women’s comedy differs from men’s — — in some cases, women can see possibilities for comedy and humor where men can only see failure. . . .
• • Hmmm. No source was given to clarify when Mae West may have said (or written) this statement. We cannot place the quote — — but if you can, come up and tell us.
• • Gina Barreca is a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. She's published several books including "They Used to Call Me Snow White, But I Drifted" and "Babes in Boyland."
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Column: "Questions Concerning Women and Comedy"
• • Byline: Gina Barreca | A "Brainstorm" blogger
• • Published in: The Chronicle of Higher Education — — http://chronicle.com
• • Published on: 28 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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The MAE WEST Revue would have turned 55 on 27 June 2009. 
• • In April 1954, Jim Timony had suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving Mae without a steadfast, faithful manager by her side for the first time since 1917. Despite being hospitalized in 1950 for heart failure, and physically declining during the early 1950s, Timony had been laying the groundwork for a new Las Vegas hotel — casino called "Mae West's Diamond Lil Casino." His death put an end to this desert tribute but the idea of appearing in Nevada's most glamourous venues ignited Mae's daydreams.
• • By the early 1950s, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Danny Thomas, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and other big names had all played Vegas. So why not Diamond Lil? Soon Mae was sashaying through the fanciest casinos. Eventually she signed with the Sahara, who agreed to give her $25,000 a week — — a whopper of a payday. There was only one teeny obstacle: the 60-year-old Brooklyn bombshell had to come up with a concept.
• • After Mae was introduced to the newly crowned Mr. America of 1954 — — supremely gorgeous Richard DuBois — — her fantasies got fired up. Instead of the usual extravantly costumed showgirls, West selected a bevy of bodybuilders to accompany bawdy songs such as "I Want to Do All Day What I Do All Night." George Eiferman, Irvin "Zabo" Koszewski, Dick DuBois, Dominic Juliano, Joe Gold, Armand Tanny, Gordon Mitchell, Mickey Hargitay, and Charles Krauser were among the star bodybuilders in West's chorus for all (or part of) the show's three-year run. The act, which ran a little over half-an-hour, also featured a lusciously decked out Mae being attended by her onstage maid Louise Beavers, and being waltzed around by Steve Rossi.
• • As the young Apollos paraded onstage, Mae would announce: "I've got something for the girls — — boys, boys, boys!" Whereupon the females in the audience would rush up to crowd around the guys, recalled Steve Rossi. "It was sensational, almost a riot. It took 20 minutes for people in the audience to go back to their tables."
• • On 27 June 1954, the Mae West Revue would debut at the Sahara's Congo Room and remain there for almost three weeks.
• • In 1957, the long-running sold-out stage show would close in Las Vegas — — again at the Sahara.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1954 • •
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Mae West.
The first major motion picture starring (and written by) MAE WEST got a fresh look in a Buffalo, New York newspaper.
• • Before turning to that northern exposure, however, it's interesting to note that there are tyros at the typewriter who know little about some of Mae's one-liners. Example: Texas Guinan's snappy comeback "Goodness had nothing to do with it!" was borrowed by her friend Mae to end a scene in "Night After Night" [1932].
• • And when writing her play "The Drag" in 1926, Mae West gave the drag queen Winnie this line: "So glad to have you meet me. Come up sometime and I'll bake you a pan of biscuits." Naturally, that was Mae's intentional echo of the very well-known quip of the late great female impersonator Bert Savoy, who used to say, "Oh, Margie! You must come over!"
• • "The Drag" can be seen onstage this very weekend in Iowa City, Iowa, by the way.• • Jennifer Garlen — — who may discover more about the Brooklyn bombshell eventually — — inclined her pen WEST-ward in "Classic films in focus: She Done Him Wrong (1933)" and this is how she viewed it.
• • Jennifer Garlen writes: Everyone knows who Mae West is, but it's hard to imagine that very many of those people have actually seen a Mae West film. Her famous hourglass figure and loaded one liners made her a household name, and it's fascinating to watch the lady put those assets into action. She Done Him Wrong is a good Mae West film for an introduction because it shows off some of West's finest lines (both literally and figuratively), gives us a look at a very young Cary Grant, and even garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Picture back in 1934.
• • This is not to say that the film doesn't show its age. The plot is thin and confusing, largely because of the swarm of conspiring criminal admirers who crowd around music hall diva Lady Lou (Mae West). Lady Lou is technically employed as a singer in the music hall, but that's just a euphemistic cover for her real occupation, which is good because West isn't much of a singer. Her best musical performance in the film is "Frankie and Johnny," the old songbook standard whose lines inspired the title of this film. West can be forgiven for her indifferent singing, though, since it is almost a tradition for music hall vamps in the movies, if one thinks of Marlene Dietrich as Frenchie in Destry Rides Again (1939) or the parody of Dietrich offered by Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles (1974). The ending of the film is rather less forgivable; it comes out of the blue without any effort at logic or expectation. It would be a deus ex machina if engagement rings were gods, which, in Mae West's case at least, they probably are.
• • Despite the dated quality of the narrative structure, the film offers real entertainment in the person of West, who also wrote the play from which the picture was developed. She is not beautiful by modern standards, not even conventionally pretty, but she radiates sexuality like the Venus of Willendorf, and every man around her falls helpless at her feet. She has a delightful, wolfish way of looking the men over, rolling her eyes and pursing her lips as she delivers endless zingers and innuendos. You just know she might eat every one of them up, and they would enjoy the experience. She Done Him Wrong is the source [sic] of the famous West line, "Why don't you come up some time and see me?" The way that she emphasizes the word "see" suggests an awful lot about just how much of her might be on display. Best of all, the character to whom she delivers this quip is none other than Cary Grant.
• • I wouldn't call She Done Him Wrong a film that people absolutely must see, but it's a fun picture, and it offers a very good sense of why West was famous and what she brought to cinema. West constantly pushed the edge of what could be shown or said in Hollywood at that time; you can see why outraged prudes felt the need to form the National Legion of Decency in 1933, at least partly in reaction to West and this film. We can't thank goodness for Mae West; as she herself famously said, "Goodness had nothing to do with it," but we can be thankful that she was there to add a little spice back when Hollywood was young.
• • Note: Jennifer Garlen is an Examiner from Huntsville.
— — Source: — —
• • Column: "Classic films in focus: She Done Him Wrong (1933)"
• • Byline: Jennifer Garlen | Huntsville Classic Movies Examiner
• • Published in: The Examiner [Buffalo] — — www.examiner.com
• • Published on: 26 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • December 1932 • •
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Mae West.
Her marriage to the Mediterranean keyboard king was one of the few secrets Mae kept from her mother Matilda.
