Mae West: 50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago, The MAE WEST Revue closed at the Sahara Hotel in 1957.
• • In 1954, at the age of 61, the former vaudevillian launched an extravaganza onstage surrounded by beefcake. Instead of the typical leggy showgirls, West selected a bevy of muscle-bound beauts to add eye candy when she performed 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.
• • Chuck Krauser changed his name to Paul Novak and became Mae's live-in lover for the next 24 years.
• • The Mae West Revue opened at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas in 1954. Mae West's audience played America's top venues, drawing celebrities — — including the handsome Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy — — and breaking attendance records at New York City's legendary Latin Quarter.
• • In Las Vegas the successful show gave its last performance back at the Sahara in 1957.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Mickey Hargitay & Charles Krauser • • 1955 • •
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Mae West: July 1920

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, 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!"
• • When Mae and Guido went their separate ways in vaudeville, the Brooklyn bombshell wound up on a much lower tier of bookings.
• • On 14 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."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1914 • •
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Mae West: Nun in California

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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Mae West: Coverage

Then as now, magazines use celebrities to sell copies, for example, Motion Picture [July 1933 issue] ran with this cover story about MAE WEST by Jay Brian Chapman: "Is Mae West Garbo's Greatest Rival?" (pages 28-29).
• • Did anybody believe that Mae West and Garbo, two very different types of actresses, were rivals? In 1933, Motion Picture did have an excuse for such silliness, though. During the Depression, publications had to try harder to get Americans to spend their nickels.
• • This drivel comes to mind today due to the "Internet sensation" caused by the TV footage of a female reporter setting fire to her producer's "news" story. Reason: because she refused to start the program with a "Paris Hilton leaves jail" tale. Yes! Drivel in, drivel out.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Louis Armstrong

At Owney Madden's Cotton Club, MAE WEST met a talented musician: Louis Armstrong.
• • Armstrong comes to mind in the month of July because that's when he suffered a fatal heart attack in New York, NY and died, nearly 70 years old, on 6 July 1971.
• • The New Orleans native impressed Mae and she asked him to participate in "Every Day's a Holiday."
• • 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.
• • Even Mae West weighs in during this catchy tune by playing the drums, a talent taught to her by her Brooklyn boyfriend Joe Schenck.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Harvey F. Thew

Let's not forget Harvey Francis Thew who was born in the month of July — — and worked on a famous screenplay with MAE WEST.
• • Born in Missouri on 4 July 1883, writer Harvey F. Thew collaborated with Mae West, and screenwriter John Bright, and Lowell Sherman in 1932 on the film version of the bombshell's best-known stage play "Diamond Lil." For Paramount Pictures, Mae turned it into a script with the aid of Harvey Thew.
• • The studio released "She Done Him Wrong" on 9 February 1933. What a Valentine!
• • A screenwriter since 1916, Harvey Thew actually spent most of his movie career at Warner Brothers Pictures. One of his in-laws was John Barrymore (which did not hurt his career at all).
• • At the age of 63, Harvey F. Thew died in Los Angeles on 6 November 1946.
• • 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: Viva Vegas!

The Las Vegas Sun has announced that MAE WEST will return to their torrid city this week when a local library's summer film fest focuses on Pre-Code classics. Admission is FREE.
• • On Tuesday 10 July 2007 movie-lovers can return to the Bowery during the Gay Nineties as Mae West steps into her famous corset for "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] which co-stars Cary Grant.
• • Other titles that will be screened include "Ann Vickers" with Irene Dunn; "Queen Christina" starring Greta Garbo; "Baby Face" with Barbara Stanwyck [who got her start prancing in Texas Guinan's speakeasy revues]; "Tarzan and His Mate" featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan; etc.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Series: "Tuesday Afternoon at the Bijou"
• • Where: Clark County Library Theater, 1401 E. Flamingo Road
• • When: 1 o'clock on Tuesdays • • Tel: 507-3450
• • 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: Laslo Karolny

It's time to wish MAE WEST's co-star Ringo Starr a happy birthday.
• • Born in the month of July — on 7 July 1940 — in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, Ringo Starr played the role of Laslo Karolny, a European movie director and the fourth of Marlo Manners's former husbands, in Mae's final film "Sextette" [1978].
• • During a radio interview with WENN [World Entertainment News Network], Ringo Starr revisited the "raunchy shoot" with the 85-year-old West. The former Beatle claimed that he was the target of advances from the screen siren when they worked together.
• • The mop-topped drummer was amazed by the cheeky sex symbol's advances — — especially because she was in her 80s during the film shoot and he was 38 years old at the time.
• • "Mae was a terrible flirt. She tried it on me twice. I didn't mind really." He laughed. "She said she was 85, her maid said she was 87, and George Raft, who appeared with us in the film, said she was more likely to be 94."
• • Ringo told the interviewer: "I'd like to know what she was on because I tell you she looked bloody fantastic." [Born in 1893, actress Mae West was 85 when Ringo met her.]
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Afloat

His most famous invention was the MAE WEST vest.
• • Born in the month of July — on 24 July 1915 — in Visalia, California, Andrew J. Toti became a world-famous inventor who filed 500+ U.S. patents for his imaginative concepts and time-saving devices which included an automatic chicken plucker.
• • The best of the breast was his flotation device — nicknamed the "Mae West" — which he conceived when he was only 16 years old.
• • Andrew J. Toti died in Modesto, California on 20 March 2005.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Palmed Off

The Palm Theatre in San Mateo, California once boasted of coming attractions such as MAE WEST's film "My Little Chickadee" with W.C. Fields. InsideBayArea's reporter Aaron Kinney looks back on a playhouse that hit hard times.
• • • • From porno to condo: X-rated theater's legacy:
• • • • Once-typical movie house that became seedy cinema makes way for townhomes
• • SAN MATEO — Not much remains of the Palm Theatre. There's a dozen panes of etched glass, two framed prints — one depicting W.C. Fields and Mae West — and a couple of placards that read, in part: "Now showing X-rated film — If you are easily offended, please do not attend!"
• • These mementos document the Palm's transformation in the 1970s from a place for local residents to see Hollywood movies to a seedy venue for pornographic films.
• • In 2005, a second transformation took place, beginning with a wrecking ball. Two years later, construction crews are putting the finishing touches on 19 luxury townhomes. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Byline: Aaron Kinney, Staff Writer
• • Publication: InsideBayArea.com
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Liberty

MAE WEST, always fighting City Hall and the censors, posed as Lady Liberty on a few occasions.
• • In her 1934 film "Belle of the Nineties," Mae West was first outfitted as New York's Lady of the Harbor. This prompted critic George Jean Nathan to call Mae "The Statue of Libido." Maybe this is why no one has ever erected a statue to a CRITIC.
• • In the 1970 flop "Myra Breckinridge," costume designer Edith Head created a new Liberty look for Mae West.
• • The well-known American illustrator Tom Tierney was inspired by Edith Head's look for Mae when he created this paper doll for Dover Books.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Artist: • • Mae West • • by Tom Tierney • •
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Mae West: Dollface

Some adults love "living dolls" and others prefer the empty-eyed, stick-it-on-a-bookshelf kind.
• • Often MAE WEST's figure — — designed by Robert Tonner and dressed by Edith Head — — turns up in collections of people like Bettye Puckett.
• • This month in Kentucky, dolls representing famous persons from Mae West to Mary Todd Lincoln to fairytale figure Little Bo Peep and Disney's Tinkerbell will be on display at Wickland. Doll collector Bettye Puckett, a former history teacher, is pleased to have her treasures [over 3,000 items] on display.
• • A reception and tour are planned for 2:00 pm this Saturday at the historic home on Bloomfield Road in Bardstown, Kentucky.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Hammerstein's

In June 1914 Willie Hammerstein died — — and, oh, what an angel he had been to MAE WEST. In 1912 and 1913, Hammerstein booked the teenager for eleven week-long engagements at his vaudeville attraction situated in Longacre [later Times] Square. The location was popularly known by New Yorkers as "the corner."
• • In 1899, Oscar Hammerstein built his fifth showplace — the Victoria Theatre — at the corner of West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Stars like MAE WEST, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and Eva Tanguay were among the thousands of performers who made Hammerstein's Victoria the vaudeville "nut house" of Times Square.
• • Mainly, it was Oscar's son Willie Hammerstein who deserves credit for the playhouse's 17-year successful run. Willie had the knack for booking crowd-pleasing stagebills along with a peacock's genius for public relations.
• • In 1900, Oscar Hammerstein built his sixth theatre — the Republic Theatre — next door to his Victoria Theatre on West 42nd Street and leased it to the immensely successful producer, David Belasco. Retaining roof rights of both buildings, Oscar opened Hammerstein's Roof Garden above both theatres. Mae West often played at "the Roof" as well.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West venue • • Hammerstein's Victoria • •
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Mae West: Golden Days

Subscribers to a local New York City newspaper, The Canarsie Courier, have long enjoyed Brooklyn historian John Denton's columns — especially the one that focused on MAE WEST.
• • John Denton described that memorable day in 1911 when a young Mae West and dancer Frank Wallace were booked in Canarsie to entertain at the Husman Music Hall, just outside the gates of Golden City Park.
• • The New Yok Times recently celebrated the Canarsie columnist because the long gone amusement center known as Golden City Park was built 100 years ago in 1907.
• • If you have a vintage photo of the old Husman Music Hall [in Canarsie], please get in touch!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Sketchy

One of the many illustrators who drew MAE WEST was the New York Times contributor Al Hirschfeld, who was born in June [21 June 1903].
• • Look at any of his Mae sketches, however, and it's easy to see that the Saint Louis, Missourian did not like the assignments that featured her plays. Do we need to see an ugly Hirschfeld caricature of Mae West? No.
• • Right before a Broadway theatre was to be renamed in his honor on his 100th birthday, the artist died on 20 January 2003 at 99 years old.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Timothy Shay Arthur

MAE WEST was not even born yet when Timothy Shay Arthur died in 1885. But when she was a child, "Baby Mae" acted in a dramatized version of his novel for years.
• • T.S. Arthur was born in the month of June — on 6 June 1809 — and became a popular nineteenth-century author. He is most famous for writing his temperance work Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There [1854], which helped to demonize alcohol in the eyes of the American public.
• • Young Mae played the part of little Mary, who confronts her beer-guzzling father in the saloon and begs him to come home with her.
• • On 6 March 1885 Timothy Shay Arthur died.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Vox

Recently, NPR asked listeners to describe the voice of MAE WEST and other personalities.
• • One member of their audience likened the actress's voice to "overstuffed pillows covered in scratchy satin you can't wait to bury yourself in."
• • Another NPR fan characterizied the Brooklyn native's voice as sounding "like 6 gallons of boiled lavender water stirred with a feather."
• • Huh?
• • Well, in case you missed this segment on NPR, their site has archived all of these precious pearls of wisdom.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Muralist

The bedroom walls in Mae West's Los Angeles apartment were decorated by George Quaintance, a tall, handsome blond artist who often included his own image in his paintings.
• • Born in the month of June — 3 June 1902 — to a farming family in Virginia, by 18 years old he had enrolled at the Art Students' League in New York City.
• • Around 1947 gorgeous George had moved to Los Angeles and his flair for painting and photography began to attract attention among the Hollywoodites.
• • However, his career was short lived. At age 55, George Quaintance died of a heart attack on 8 November 1957.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Hazel Scott

Bouquets did not shower MAE WEST after her film "The Heat Is On" was released right before Christmas in December 1943. All the same, Mae enjoyed working with several talented cast mates. Among those was Hazel Scott, who played herself.
• • Born in Port au Spain, Trinidad in the month of June — on 11 June 1920 — this classical and jazz musician became one of America's premier pianists of her time.
• • A child prodigy, Hazel first faced the eighty-eights at age 3 under the tutelage of her mother. In 1924, the family relocated to the USA. By age 8, Hazel was performing in New York City and receiving scholarships to study classical music at the Juillard School of Music.
• • The glamourous vocalist was a night club headliner and radio star by the late 30s, performing with Count Basie and others.
• • Hazel Scott died of cancer in New York in 1981.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West: Gene Austin

MAE WEST utilized her friend Gene Austin's musical talents in her films "Belle of the Nineties" [1934]; "Klondike Annie" [1936]; and "My Little Chickadee" [1940].
• • In addition to writing the music and lyrics for "Klondike Annie," Gene Austin also appears as a vocalist and organ player during the church service. As the collection is in progress, Gene Austin and the parishioners sing "It's Better to Give Than to Receive."
• • Seven years younger than Mae, Gene Austin was born in the month of June in Texas on 24 June 1900.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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