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Handsome men in Minnesota are still calling your name, MAE WEST.
• • Veteran lit-critic Dave Wood is feeling a might cranky, though. And he hasn't even noticed the totally hideous Photo-shopped book jacket with the goony mackerel lips. [Or has he?]
• • Dave Wood writes: Do we really need another biography of Mae West? Apparently Simon and Schuster thought so, because they’re just out with “She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography” by Charlotte Chandler [March 2009].
• • I’d call it “A Personal Hagiography” because Chandler finds Mae West to be absolutely flawless, loyal, loving, generous to a fault. Even more irritating, Chandler is one of those biographers with a memory that’s flawless.
• • She quotes the actress endlessly, long, long quotes that are perfectly constructed and obviously never came out of Chandler’s tape recorder.
• • Can’t these pop biographers figure out some other way to enliven their dull subjects in some way other than highlighting interviews with quotations that probably weren’t ever uttered?
• • I’ve ranted long enough. But if you want to know more of what I think about biographies of long dead film stars, come up and see me some time.
• • Dave Wood is a past vice president of the National Book Critics Circle and former book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Phone him at (715) 426-9554.
— — Source: — —
• • Column: "Dave Wood's Book Report, June 10, 2009"
• • Byline: Dave Wood | Critic
• • Published in: The Red Wing Republican Eagle [in Red Wing, Minnesota 55066] — — www.republican-eagle.com
• • Published on: 10 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
An old vaudevillian who worked for years with MAE WEST has escaped attention. Until now. 
• • Written by and starring Mae in the title role, "Diamond Lil" enjoyed its first successful Broadway run from 9 April 1928 — September 1928 at the Royale Theatre.
• • Jack Howard has the distinction of being the only original cast member from the 1928 production who also appeared in each and every Broadway revival of this show.
• • In "Diamond Lil," a Bowery-situated melodrama, the roly-poly singer played the role of Bill.
• • Born as John E. Jenkins, the performer had adopted the stage name of Jack Howard by the time he made his debut on The Gay White Way during the springtime of 1913 in "The Geisha," a musical comedy. Often cast as an authority figure, Howard was seen in "Little Ol' Boy" [1933] in the role of a Penitentiary Guard; in "Hold Your Horses" [1933] as Diamond Jim Brady; during the 1939 World's Fair as P.T. Barnum in "American Jubilee"; in "High Kickers" [1941—42] as a Police Chief.
• • From 1942—45 he gave up acting to become Chief Engineer on a Liberty ship before heading back to Times Square, where he was seen in the short-lived flop "A Place of Our Own" [1945] and Mike Todd's "Up in Central Park" [1947].
• • Burlesque and the Bowery • • • • Before his featured roles in the legit, Jack Howard was a vaudeville and burlesque headliner from 1905. In 1920, he copyrighted his comedy sketch "On the Bowery." [Perhaps Mae West went to see this since she was fascinated by the old glory days of the Bowery.] In April 1931, Howard wrote "Lonesome Life," a song he performed as well as licensed.
• • Mae West was loyal to the variety artist veterans who came up the ranks in show business with her — — and this long-standing hire, who reclaimed his role in the 1949, 1950, and 1951 mainstage productions of "Diamond Lil," is but one example.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1928 • •
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Mae West.
During the Prohibition Era, this personable actress worked with MAE WEST and garned high praise from many film critics — — and yet she was often not credited in the cast. Since this talented thespian was born during the month of June, she's on our mind today. 
• • After years as a radio and vaudeville performer, Kansas native Hattie McDaniel [10 June 1895 — 26 October 1952] began her film career in the early 1930s playing bit parts such as Marlene Dietrich's servant in "Blonde Venus" [1932] and one of Mae West's jovial maids.
• • Hattie McDaniel, who starred in dozens of films and appeared briefly (often uncredited) in hundreds, was also the first black woman to sing on the radio.
• • On 29 February 1940 Hattie McDaniel — — who played Tira's maid and manicurist (uncredited) in "I'm No Angel" [1933] — — became the first black actor to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind" [1939].• • Hattie McDaniel, who has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was also a professional singer-songwriter, comedienne, stage actress, radio performer, and TV star.
• • For her contributions to radio, her star is located at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard; commemorating her achievements in motion pictures is another star at 1719 Vine Street.
• • She had just gotten signed to a TV sit-com "Beulah" when she discovered she had breast cancer. Hattie McDaniel died at age 57 in a California hospital. • • In 1975 she was posthumously inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
• • In 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner recognized with a US postage stamp — — a permanent postal honor Mae West has yet to receive, unfortunately, in this country.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
William Landon Jones enjoyed a close friendship with MAE WEST for 50 years.
• • Born in Memphis, Tennessee on 12 May 1906, he was known in boxing by the moniker "Gorilla" Jones. This weekend, the five-foot-nine fighter will be inducted posthumously into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y. He died at age 75 on 4 January 1982. After Mae's death, it's said he lost the will to live.
• • The 22-year-old Jones met Mae West in a New York night club during 1928. He had enjoyed a long career in the ring and was about to come into the big time in 1929, when he would earn a $100,000 purse — — about $1.2 million in today's money — — for winning a bout in Madison Square Garden.
• • Often photographed in a ringsize seat, the daughter of "Battling Jack" also befriended other black pugilists such as Chalky Wright and Joe Louis.
• • In a colorful feature for the Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, reporter Mark J. Price covers the career of Gorilla Jones as well as his private life with Mae West. Many pleasures await you.
• • Mark J. Price writes: Outside the boxing ring, Gorilla Jones was an unforgettable personality. He wore impeccable suits, flashed diamond rings, drove a Lincoln coupe, consorted with a Hollywood vixen — — Mae West — — and walked a lion cub on a leash.
• • Inside the ring, stripped of all excess, he was equally memorable — — except perhaps to the dozens of fighters he knocked out. They were excused for not recalling a thing after Jones' right glove cratered their faces.
• • One of the greatest boxers in Akron's history, Jones won the world middleweight title twice in the 1930s. He will be inducted posthumously this weekend into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.
• • Jones fought in 138 professional bouts, winning 101, losing 24 and drawing 13. He KO'd 52 opponents, but never suffered a knockout or serious injury.
• • ''I have been blessed with a mind that works rapidly in the ring and hands that work as rapidly as my mind tells them,'' Jones told the Beacon Journal early in his career. ''I think I can figure fight moves a bit faster than can the fellows I am fighting, and once figured out, my hands move as they should to carry me to victory.''
• • Why did they call him "Gorilla"? • •
• • The nickname ''Gorilla,'' politically incorrect in today's world, was attributed to Jones' long reach — 75 inches — in the ring. In 1932, Beacon Journal sports scribe Jim Schlemmer said the Gorilla moniker didn't fit ''in looks or actions,'' and called Jones ''as classy a piece of fighting machinery as the game has known.''
• • ''He is an unusual type of fighter,'' Schlemmer wrote. ''He doesn't like to hurt anybody. He wishes every fellow he fights could be as good or nearly as good as himself.''
• • William Landon Jones was born in 1906 in Memphis, Tenn. He confessed to doing a lot of things wrong in his youth, such as giving up on education after grammar school. He worked for a bootlegger, ran with a tough crowd and learned to fight.
• • The ring was his way out. At age 18, Jones started boxing for $7.50 a bout. He stood 5 feet 9 inches and tipped the scales at 145 pounds.
• • Jones' first fight outside Memphis was at the Akron Armory in 1927. He beat welterweight K.O. Kelly and won $100. Unfortunately, Jones tried to add to his earnings in a late-night dice game and lost everything.
• • He begged Akron boxing promoter Suey Welch for another fight so he could buy a train ticket to Memphis.
• • Jones won the rematch, but stayed in Akron after the promoter offered to be his manager and train him at the Welch Athletic Club at 219 S. Main St.
• • Welch called Jones ''the greatest fighter in the world, pound for pound.'' The two made a fortune together.
• • Jones pummeled his way through a long line of foes: Sailor Maxwell, Mickey Fedor, Tommy Freeman, Bucky Lawless, Al Mello, Izzy Grove, Jackie Horner, Nick Testo, Meyer Grace, Jock Malone. The purses grew larger, and soon he was fighting as a middleweight at Madison Square Garden in New York.
• • In 1929, Jones earned $100,000 — about $1.2 million in today's money — and went on a spending spree. He bought his parents a Ford sedan and $10,000 home in Memphis, then rewarded himself with a $5,400 Lincoln. He bought three suits after each bout, giving away older outfits to pals. He added a diamond-collared lion to his act, walking the cub on a leash to matches and personal appearances.
• • ''In 1929 when I was in the so-called 'big' money, I spent too much,'' he later recalled. ''I liked fast horses, fast autos, fast airplanes. I had too many friends who helped me spend.''
• • Jones hit the big time in January 1932 with a sixth-round knockout of Italian boxer Oddone Piazza in Milwaukee for the National Boxing Association middleweight crown. A cheering crowd greeted him at Union Depot as he returned to Akron.
• • Five months later, he lost the title to Marcel Thil before 70,000 spectators in Paris, but regained it in 1933 by knocking out Sammy Slaughter at Cleveland Public Hall. He declined to defend the title after that.
• • Jones boxed for seven more years, but his right punch lost its sting. His final fight at the Akron Armory was a 1938 loss to Babe Risko. Jones retired in 1940 after losing a bout in Idaho. ''Gorilla Jones will never stay in the fight game until he's ready to cut paper dolls,'' Jones vowed.
• • Mae West met Gorilla Jones in a nightspot in 1928 • •
• • In many respects, the next chapter of his life was flashier than boxing. He went to work as Hollywood legend Mae West's chauffeur and bodyguard.
• • He first met the wise-cracking actress at a New York nightclub in 1928. Mae West's father had been a prizefighter, and she enjoyed bankrolling boxers.
• • ''The boxers had a hard time, even some of them who were pretty good,'' West told biographer Charlotte Chandler in 1979. ''There was one I backed named Gorilla Jones. I don't know why he was called 'Gorilla.' He wasn't that kind of fighter. I saw he was getting pounded too much, and he really didn't like fighting anymore, but he didn't know what else to do.''
• • She asked him if he could drive a car. Sure, he could. Even with a lion cub in the back seat.
• • ''So I hired him as my chauffeur,'' West said. ''He turned out to be a very good driver — — and he was also protection.''
• • Mae West also employed Jones' mother, Daisy, as a wardrobe assistant when the actress traveled. She bought homes for the boxer and his mother in Los Angeles, and served as Jones' financial manager and personal manager.
• • Biographers agree that the relationship wasn't all business. West and Jones remained close companions for 40 years. In public, he referred to her as ''The Lady,'' never by her name.
• • One time, a heckler made a bawdy remark to the actress, and the boxer threatened to rearrange the man's face.
• • ''Let 'em talk,'' Mae West told him. ''It's good for business.''
• • According to Hollywood lore, West got aggravated when house managers tried to block Jones from visiting her sixth-floor suite in the Ravenswood apartment complex. She bought the building and hired new staff.
• • ''A motion picture company offered me a quarter-million to film my story, but they wanted to make me say I was her lover,'' Jones told Jet magazine in 1974. ''That would be a lie because she was my manager and my friend. All the money in the world would be no good without a friend who has done everything to keep me on top and let me live the life I wanted to live.''
• • When Jones began to suffer from diabetes and lose his eyesight, West kept him on the payroll and handled his bills.
• • Jones was devastated in 1980 when West died in Ravenswood at age 87. She left him two apartment buildings and three houses.
• • Acquaintances said Jones gave up the will to live after ''The Lady'' passed away.
• • As his health deteriorated, his weight plunged to 102 pounds. In 1982, William ''Gorilla'' Jones died of arteriosclerosis at age 75.
• • The final bell sounded for an Akron boxing legend.
• • 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: — —
• • Article: Akron's king of rings: Boxer Gorilla Jones conquers the world and lives the high life
• • Byline: Mark J. Price | Beacon Journal staff writer
• • Published in: Ohio.com
• • Published on: 8 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
Woody Eney appeared in a TV bio-pic about MAE WEST.
• • Born in Canberra, Australia during the month of June — — on 8 June 1937 — — Woody Eney was cast in the role of Warden Schleth in the small screen biography "Mae West" [1982] when he was 45 years old. In that docu-drama, Ann Jillian portrayed Mae West, who had died two years before the script was written.
• • Who was Warden Harry O. Schleth? • • • • During April 1927, Mae West was confined to the Women's Workhouse on Welfare [currently renamed Roosevelt] Island. Reporters scolded Prison Warden Harry O. Schleth for granting the Broadway star some privileges and pandering to a celebrity by taking her for evening drives, letting her dine with him in his private quarters, and so on. In real life, Harry Schleth — — who called Mae "a fine woman" during her exit interview from the jailhouse — — was not from down under, so it's curious that Mr. Eney was chosen for this role and not an American.
• • Though Woody Eney has lent his voice to animated films, his resume more often notes his versatility as a character actor.
• • Between 1976 and 1993, he has appeared in several dozen productions including onstage in an Obie Award winning drama, numerous TV projects, and some small-screen biographies about controversial women. Woody Eney is best known for his participation on TV shows such as "Rags to Riches" and "Friendly Fire" and family fare including Disney's "Homeward Bound: the Incredible Journey" [1993].
• • The Mae West Blog wishes Woody Eney a very happy 72nd birthday today!• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
James Donlan appeared in one cinema classic with MAE WEST. 
• • Born in San Francisco on 23 July 1888, James Donlan dove into the motion picture whirl during 1929 when he was 41 years old.
• • Though he sang in two motion pictures, his forte was his versatility as a character actor.
• • Between 1929 and 1938, he appeared in over 100 movies including "Belle of the Nineties" [1934], portraying Kirby, the manager of boxer Tiger Kid. He also was cast in a few comedies with the Three Stooges.
• • He is the father of actress Yolande Donlan, who was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on 2 June 1920. Her mother (and Donlan's wife) Therese was a singer. In 1976 Yolande published her autobiography, "Shake the Stars Down," which explores her childhood, her father's hectic schedule doing bit parts in a dozen pictures a year, and growing up in Tinseltown during the 1930s.
• • James Donlan died in Hollywood of a heart attack during the month of June — — on 7 June 1938 — — a month shy of his 50th birthday.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
Books about MAE WEST, revivals of her plays, reverberations of her witticisms, impersonations — — the public dialogue about the Brooklyn bombshell still wends its way through the traffic of noisy reviews, bell-ringing blogs, clamorous articles, toots and tweets. Though other twinkles have gone out, her light shines on.
• • Within the vague infinitude that is the West Coast, many admirers are still buttoned to Mae's glory days. And some Californians will boldly let you know they have read the books, seen the movies, cherished the souvenirs, kept one votive candle lit.
• • In the Castro, they are a bit more careful with their cadences — — weighing the texts, deciding which are too reverent, or too lax, or merely too content to wrap the comedienne in a mythic haze.
• • The Bay Area Reporter's critic Robert Julian has much to say, and now it's his voice you will hear.
• • Robert Julian writes: It remains to be seen if the world will seek out yet another Mae West biography, especially after Emily Wortis Leider's definitive Becoming Mae West [NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997 hardcover; Da Capo Press, 2000 paperback]. Emily Leider's work favored social anthropology and intellectual analysis over anecdotal recollection. But author Charlotte Chandler's She Always Knew How relies almost exclusively on anecdotes, supplemented by material from an interview Chandler had with West in 1980.
• • The blessing of Chandler's work is the opportunity to hear the gospel according to Mae, exactly as it was articulated by the star shortly before her death at the age of 87. Some of the Westian gems include statements like, "In my whole life, I've never envied anyone. I was too busy thinking about myself." When confronted with the fact that she was not a good student, West acknowledges, "I'm not very grammatical, because I'm only a third-grade graduate. And I didn't exactly graduate. I sort of retired from it."
• • Mae West opted for a childhood spent on vaudeville stages. After puberty forced a hiatus, West crafted her bawdy adult stage persona and forged a career in the theater via self-penned theatricals that placed her at the center of various sexual shenanigans. Success in Hollywood films began in 1932, when West was almost 40. And there is no disagreement on one point: West's films single-handedly saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy.
• • Chandler's book contains nothing critical about Mae West. But Leider's biography surfaced the "ungrammatical" star's practice of appropriating words written by others and working them into her plays and screenplays without credit. Chandler gets high marks for readability, propelled by West's own Brooklynese delivery. The most interesting parts of Chandler's biography may be the last decade of West's life, when she returned to the screen in the films Myra Breckinridge (1970) and Sextette (1978).
• • The material relating to West's final foray into motion-picture history benefits greatly by quotations from those who participated in the films or witnessed their creation. At the age of 85, West cast herself in Sextette opposite leading man Timothy Dalton, who was 34 at the time. West believed that at 85, she looked just as she looked at 35, and therefore she was — — at least in her eyes — — the perfect object of desire for any man in his 30s.
• • Obsessed with physical perfection, West's last great love was bodybuilder/ chauffeur/ lover/ companion Paul Novak, who spent the last 25 years of the star's life living in her Hollywood apartment. It was originally a lust match — — one that eventually became a quiet love story. Chandler treats her subject with respect, and offers a believable presentation of a movie star whose carefully crafted image made her a proponent for female sexual liberation. The only question that remains unanswered is why Chandler waited almost 30 years from the time of her interview with West to turn the material into a biography. It may be a moot point, but this reviewer would love to know the answer.
— — Source: — —
• • Book Review: "Way of the West"
• • Title: She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler; NY: Simon and Schuster, 2009
• • Byline: Robert Julian | Critic
• • Published in: The Bay Area Reporter Bay [395 Ninth Street, San Francisco CA 94103] — — www.ebar.com
• • Published in: Issue: Vol. 39 / No. 23 / 4 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
She's 77, still unsinkable, and she's doing an imitation of MAE WEST in a cabaret show in Manhattan not far from where the Empress of Sex once lived with sister Beverly.
• • Born in El Paso, Texas on 1 April 1932, Debbie Reynolds is an actress — — and currently describing herself as a vaudevillian.
• • Included in her little bit of this, little bit of that act are celebrity impersonations of Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Zsa Zsa Gabor (advising Paris Hilton), Barbra Streisand, and others she knew.
• • Before launching into a Judy Garland [10 June 1922 — 22 June 1969] medley, Debbie confided that she and the troubled vocalist were neighbors who used to bend an elbow together. It's left unsaid which woman could outperform the other at the bar but — — at a microphone — — let's just say that Garland's reputation is still safe.
• • Debbie Reynolds will entertain her fans through 27 June 2009 at Café Carlyle [Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, New York, NY; (212) 744-1600]. If you go, tell us what you think of her impersonations.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
MAE WEST met many characters — — and more than a few were men of the cloth.
• • According to old newsprint, Leroy Jenkins, who had charmed his way into Mae West's circle, was a man of convictions. Some of those oddball beliefs got him sentenced to a 12-year prison term in 1979. That probably crimped his style a bit. Imagine how it must feel to be an Elmer Gantry type of revivalist, setting up a tent and taking up collections from those who feel they are listening to a prophet. All that undeclared income can buy a lot of flashy outfits and sequined capes befitting Moses. Then one day the law burst in onto the scene like an overzealous stage manager, unexpectedly bringing the curtain down. Show's over.
• • Born in 1937, Jenkins, a self-promoting salesman and faith-healer, has been accused by some individuals of being a heel and a swindler. But the spiel goes on. And on.
• • Out of the blue, Canadian columnist Dave Goulet started writing about this shady slicker and roping in Mae West (ouch!). Goulet exclaims: Just when I thought I’d seen every crazed TV preacher on the market, I ran across Reverend Leroy Jenkins this past week. . . .
• • Dave Goulet continues: But what really caught my eye was the physical appearance of the preacher. Between the coiffed hair and obvious facelift, he looked like a cross between Elvis and Joan Rivers. His eyebrows, more appropriate for a supermodel, were stuck in a perpetual slant, which gave him a fierce frown.
• • I was so curious to know more about Rev. Leroy Jenkins that I looked him up on the Internet. According to his website, he’s been a faith healer since he himself was healed by a preacher as a young man. He started his own church and one day God told him to drill a well outside the building. This well gave forth miracle water. Armed with this healing H20, Leroy became quite famous in the Bible Belt as a faith healer.
• • Profound • •
• • Dave Goulet adds: Screen siren Mae West, in her later years, was a close friend of Rev. Jenkins. In the early 1990s [sic], a movie was made about Jenkins (produced by Leroy Jenkins), titled "The Calling" [released in December 2002]. Actress Faye Dunaway [born in Florida on 14 January 1941] played Mae West. For some reason, the good reverend feels this adds stature to his ministry, because we all know what a profound theologian Mae West was. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Essay: "Drawing from Reverend Leroy's well"
• • Byline: By Dave Goulet | "Two Cents" columnist
• • Published in: Barry's Bay This Week [Ontario, Canada] — — www.barrysbaythisweek.com
• • Published on: 2 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
Handsome Tony Curtis was in one motion picture with MAE WEST.
• • If you saw "Sextette," perhaps you remember the scene when newly wed Marlo Manners (now Lady Barrington) and her groom Sir Michael Barrington finally are snug inside their hotel suite. However, the lovebirds are unable to go beddy-bye and celebrate their marital bliss because of noisome botherations. Coitus interruptus (sort of)! These cinematic intrusions are provoked by the demands of milady's career (such as interviews, dress fittings, and photo sessions). Additionally, there are entreaties and knock-knocks from men, including some ex-husbands. Apparently, the vast enrollment of membership in the Marlo Manners Fan Club includes: diplomat Alexei Andreyev Karansky (Tony Curtis), director Laslo Karolny (Ringo Starr), gangster Vance Norton (George Hamilton), and an entire athletic team from the USA, all of whom desire to have sex with Marlo. And, after all, Mae West once did tell an interviewer she had a special interest in foreign affairs.
• • Born during the month of June — — on 3 June 1925 — — the Bronx native started out in life with the ho-hum name of Bernard Schwartz. The five-foot-nine leading man enjoyed spreading urban legends about his role as Alexei Andreyev Karansky and Mae's difficulties on the set.
• • Perhaps Tony Curtis was feeling a bit spiteful after reading Vincent Canby's review, printed on 8 June 1979, five days after the actor celebrated his 54th birthday.
• • Here's a jetstream's worth of hissing from The New York Times film critic:
• • Movie Review — — Sextette (1978) • •
• • "SEXTETTE" is a disorienting freak show in which Mae West, now 87 years old, does a frail imitation of the personality that wasn't all that interesting 45 years ago. The movie, which opens today at the Victoria and other theaters, is a poetic, terrifying reminder of how a virtually disembodied ego can survive total physical decay and loss of common sense.
• • The character we see in this peculiar film looks less like the Mae West one remembers from even "Myra Breckinridge" than like a plump sheep that's been stood on its hind legs, dressed in a drag-queen's idea of chic, bewigged, and then smeared with pink plaster. The creature inside this getup seems game but arthritic and perplexed. She walks with apparent difficulty. One eye sometimes sags and the voice, despite Hollywood's electronic skills, cracks like the voice of the old lady she really is. Under these circumstances, the sexual innuendos are embarrassing. Granny should have her mouth washed out with soap, along with her teeth.
• • The story, based on a play written some years ago by Miss West, is about a world-famous movie star and her attempts to consummate her sixth marriage to Sir Michael Barrington (Timothy Dalton) despite repeated interruptions by former husbands, lovers, dress designers, secret agents, publicity people and delegates attending an international peace conference just upstairs. It's a plot that Miss West has often favored, and it freely reprises a lot of lines from earlier pictures.
• • The movie was directed by Ken Hughes ("The Small World of Sammy Lee," "Cromwell" and so on), a fellow you might think had better things to do than to prop up the Tower of Pisa. In addition to Mr. Dalton, "Sextette" features a number of other people who, in happier circumstances, are decent actors. These include Tony Curtis, George Hamilton, Ringo Starr, and the incomparable Dom DeLuise. There are some original songs and some old ones, a couple of which sound as if they'd been lip-synched by Miss West to old recordings.
• • The real problem with "Sextette" is . . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Movie Review: "Sextette" (1978)
• • Screen: "Mae West, 87, Does an Encore:Trying for 6th Marriage"
• • Byline: By Vincent Canby | Film Critic
• • Published in: The New York Times — — www.nytimes.com
• • Published on: 8 June 1979
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Mae-maven Mark Desjardins weighs in on Canby's commentary with a tertium quid.• • According to Mark Desjardins: Vincent Canby certainly was savage in his verbal attacks on Myra Breckinridge and Sextette in general — — and Mae West in particular. However, to his credit he did made somewhat of a deathbed apology for his bile filled comments.
• • When Canby reviewed the play Dirty Blonde and an off Broadway revival of Sex in the NYT in February, 2000, he mellowed sufficiently to admit that the plays kept alive he legacy of a vivid performer who appeal was really based on good humor and common sense.
• • Prior to his death, Canby reassessed is earlier view of Sextette that is was an affront to both man and beast and wrote that the film was Mae West's equivalent to the biblical epic about Salome in which Norma Desmond intended to make her return to the screen in Sunset Boulevard. He admitted to being embarrassed about the puritanical view he held of the film and West, and expressed his admiration for her tenacity in completing the film.
• • Mae's spirit must have been beaming that day! • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Ninety years ago, in June 1919, MAE WEST was onstage in a tuneful Broadway hit doing an odd thing — — playing a manhunter who can't land a boyfriend.
• • It was on Saturday 4 October 1918 that "Sometime," the "musical comedy of commerce" designed to showcase the talents of laughmeister Ed Wynn, had opened at the Shubert Theatre (establishing a nice healthy wartime run that continued for eight months at the Shubert brothers' flagship: 225 West 44th Street).
• • At 25 years old, Mae West was still much more accustomed to appearing in vaudeville than in the legit. In "Sometime," it was Mae's character Mayme Dean who appeared onstage first. At that point in her career, Mae had often been cast as an Irish maid — — although Mayme Dean is a frisky flapper who cannot land a man.
• • This musical closed in June 1919, after running for 283 performances.
• • Picture Mae West sometime in 1918/9, an energetic brunette sizzling onstage. A reviewer who covered her performance — — and her sultry shimmy — — at the Shubert Theatre described Mae West as a "tasty tornado."
• • A few years after this show, Mae started writing her own material — — however, she never again portrayed a chambermaid nor a lovelorn lady.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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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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It's quite tempting to memorialize one or two of the famous palookas whose good looks and midnight maneuvers (temporarily) knocked out MAE WEST.
• • There are enough boxing bio-pics onscreen during the flag-draped weekend of May 30th — 31st that, inevitably, thoughts turn to the handsome (former) heavyweight champion of the world Jack "Manassa Mauler" Dempsey [24 June 1895 — 31 May 1983], who died at the end of May and wooed the actress during 1921 when she was performing in "The Mimic World of 1921."
• • However, the blog is in arrears when it comes to posting reviews on books written about Mae West. And so we make way for these jottings from the British critic Phil Bloomfield.
• • Phil Bloomfield writes: Mae West famously invited people to “come up and see me some time.” Well, the author [Charlotte Chandler] of this book did just that — — and took with her a tape recorder to capture the reminiscences of Mae West shortly before her death.
• • This, then, is a collection of those recordings, arranged chronologically and interspersed with brief, non-critical linking passages and summaries of some of her more successful plays and films.
• • Little in the way of thoughtful analysis . . . • •
• • It offers little in the way of thoughtful analysis of Mae West’s contribution, reading more like a ghosted celebrity autobiography than a serious addition to the film studies canon.
• • However, having said that, it does offer insights into the character and history of one of the more colorful characters to emerge from vaudeville into the Hollywood spotlights.
• • The Mae West character was an invention of May West, a spirited daughter of a Brooklyn immigrant family, who changed her name a little and then developed and honed herself on the variety stage, in a similar fashion to the pre-movies Marx Brothers.
• • Mae West’s character creation was a sexy brassy blonde, wisecracking with double entendres, and with a serious love of diamonds. She was the author of many plays featuring this character; some were very successfully produced on Broadway. One of them, Diamond Lil, had a sell-out run in London. Her first play, Sex, was judged to be an immoral theatrical performance, so West was sentenced to either a $500 fine or ten days in prison [sic].
• • She chose the latter, thinking it might provide material for a future play. It did give her huge publicity, which she built on in moving to Hollywood in the 1930s. There she made a dozen movies, of variable quality and success, including My Little Chickadee with W C Fields. She refused to allow anyone else to write her lines in these movies, thus maintaining the illusion of her character. The book gives few clues to Mae West’s real love life behind her blousy creation: she was married once early on, but unlike Monroe did not give it a second try [sic]; she did have two long-time devoted men friends who lived with her, although with separate beds, and who appear to have been gofers and fixers, or possibly bodyguards. And what about her famous collection of diamonds, given as gifts? The book ends with a sad little anecdote suggesting that she didn’t receive them all from admirers, but bought many of them herself.
— — Source: — —
• • Book Review: “She Always Knew How" by Charlotte Chandler (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
• • Byline: Phil Bloomfield, Oxford Times Book Critic
• • Published in: The Oxford Times — — www.oxfordtimes.co.uk
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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In many ways, John Kobal's Hollywood career caught fire thanks to MAE WEST.
• • Years ago, one interviewer whipped up this creamy prologue: "Like so many stories about John Kobal, the one about his notable role as a connoisseur, collector, and chronicler of Hollywood photography begins with a movie star. Working as a journalist in 1969, Kobal visited the set of Myra Breckinridge with the goal of interviewing screen legend Mae West. His reporter's credentials granted him access to the set and while awaiting summons from Miss West, Kobal had the opportunity to meet members of the film's crew. ..."
• • In his book "People Will Talk," he offered chatty testimonials from 43 notable Hollywood veterans. This is a snippet: Mae West's refusal to marry is symptomatic of narcissism, then and now: "Every time I look at myself, I become absorbed in myself, and I didn't want to get involved with another person like that. ..."
• • John Kobal [birthname: Ivan Kobaly] was born in Linz, Austria during the month of May — — on 30 May 1940. Clearly, he decided he'd never become the outsider at his own party. The author of over 30 books on film and film photography, he was known for his creative and exuberant personality, as well as his voracious knowledge of the minutiae of film and photography lore. He is credited with essentially 'rediscovering' the great Hollywood Studio photographers — — George Hurrell, Laszlo Willinger, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Ted Allan, et al — — who were employed by the motion picture studios to create the glamorous, iconic portraits of the most famous and intriguing stars of the day that came to spit-shine the Tinseltown myth.
• • "Made In Hollywood" • • • • The prints in the Kobal Collection, which include many images of Mae West, form the backbone of the "Made In Hollywood" exhibition, which finished its run in Santa Barbara, California [July 12th – October 12th, 2008], and which is now on view at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, USA [May 7th – October 27th, 2009].
• • John Kobal, prolific and hard-working, died of AIDS when he was 51 on 28 October 1991 in London, England.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Some exceedingly peculiar artists were fascinated by MAE WEST — — including Ray Johnson.
• • During the 1950s, Ray Johnson began using images of Mae in his artwork in a way that anticipated the 1960s works of Pop artists (such as Warhol).
• • Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ray Edward Johnson (1927 — 1995) was a seminal figure of the Pop Art movement. Primarily a collagist, Johnson was also an early performance and conceptual artist. Once called “New York’s most famous unknown artist," he is considered the “Founding Father of Mail Art" and pioneered the incorporation and use of language in the visual arts.
• • Until his death in 1995, Johnson continued his work in collage, sent out volumes of mail art, and staged numerous performances. He became increasingly reclusive, however. As his contemporaries became famous, Johnson cultivated his role as an outsider, parodying celebrity through performances, fake openings, and photocopy-machine art. From 1982 on, he repeatedly refused offers from numerous galleries to exhibit his art, and for the last five years of his life, he refused all public exhibitions of his works. On 13 January 1995, Ray Johnson’s body was found floating in a small cove in Sag Harbor, NY. He was 67 years old.
• • An ambitious posthumous show at the Richard L. Feigen Gallery — — which opened on 29 April 2009 (and which runs through the end of July 2009) — — illustrates the shared interests and iconography of Ray Johnson, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. This exhibition displays an exciting selection of previously unexhibited collages by Ray Johnson that showcase his distinct and incessant layering of re-appropriated imagery from Surrealism, high culture, and Pop Art. The three artists all exploited celebrity — — both their own and others’ — — and constructed powerful personae that were an integral part of their work. While Dali and Warhol sought the limelight in order to promote their art, Johnson was more interested in dodging in and out of it and became famous for being ‘unknown.’
• • Recently, Karen Rosenberg, Art Critic for The New York Times, visited the exhibition, which was organized by an independent curator, Frédérique Joseph-Lowery. She had many things to say about Ray's muses such as Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, the Mona Lisa, and Jackie Kennedy.
• • Karen Rosenberg writes: It’s a scholarly undertaking with a mischievous edge, replete with dissertation-worthy dissections of Johnson’s wordplay and iconography but able to wink at his subversions of gender and other nods to gay subculture. There’s also a frisson of glamour. Songs by the Velvet Underground, Debbie Harry and other Factory scenesters play in the gallery, along with audio excerpts from movies starring Mae West and Marilyn Monroe.
• • Karen Rosenberg observes: Mae West’s famous line becomes “Come Op and See Me Sometime,” a reference to Op Art. Likewise, Meret Oppenheim’s surname is rewritten as “Openheim” and her most famous work — — the fur-lined teacup — — conjured with a patch of plush leopard-print fabric. . . . .
• • If you happen to be in Manhattan (or en route to The Big Apple), the playful, mischievous, and provocative exhibit “Ray Johnson ... DalÃ/ Warhol/ and Others” continues through 31 July 2009 at Richard L. Feigen & Company, 34 East 69th Street, New York, NY 10021; T. (212) 628-0700.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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A Canadian columnist mentioned MAE WEST — — along with a haunting, daunting detail: it will be the 100th anniversary soon of the Roaring Twenties. Skidoo!
• • William Bothwell writes: We are heading toward the centenary of the Roaring Twenties, the decade after the 1914—1918 war that was the Jazz Age, the heyday of 'flappers,' of Thoroughly Modern Millie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and "Life is a cabaret, old chum!" Some called them the years of the Lost Generation.
• • The Typical 20th Century Woman • • • • Agatha Miller Christie Mallowan [1890—1976], creator of Poirot and Miss Marple, was, in a way, the typical 20th Century woman. There were also, of course, Emily Pankhurst who championed women's right to vote, Mae West who sultrily asked every man she met, "Why don'tya come up and see me sometime," the very capable Agnes Macphail and Cairine Wilson who were, respectively, the first women to sit in the Commons and in the Senate.
• • For over half a century the Queen of Crime pounded out novels to get us through the long evenings when nobody came up to see us and those 3 to 4 a.m. hours when only the persistent optimism of Monsieur Hércule could help us make it through the night.
• • Mrs Christie would be 119 years old come 15 September. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Who's afraid of Agatha Christie?"
• • Byline: By William Bothwell, columnist
• • Published in: The Orangeville Citizen [Orangeville, Ontario, Canada] — — www.citizen.on.ca
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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It was in May 1927 that MAE WEST returned to the Women's Workhouse on Welfare [currently renamed Roosevelt] Island. 
• • This time, however, she was the invited guest of a group of society women who were bent on social reform, and who wanted to inspect the prison and inmates for themselves. The actress gaily led the tour, trailing a string of newsmen and photographers.
• • Mae was even delighted to show these Park Avenue females the paddy wagon that she had ridden in after her arrest on 9 February 1927. In the photos, the women are all smiling – – but what must they have been thinking?
• • One of Mae's duties in the workhouse was to clean the jail's library. It struck her that there were so few books to read here. When a magazine offered Mae $1,000 to write an article about her experiences as an inmate, the Broadway star donated her check to the women's workhouse to fund the "Mae West Memorial Library."
• • Newsmen chided Warden Harry O. Schleth for granting Mae some privileges and pandering to a celebrity by taking her for evening drives, letting her dine with him in his private quarters, and so on. But how many of those journalists remembered back to October 1913? That was the night when Warden Schleth's 34-year-old wife shot their 4-year-old son and then committed suicide because she could not bear to live inside a bleak New York City prison any longer. Very likely Mae West lifted the warden's spirits more than he cheered her up.• • Note: The yellowed page you are looking at was part of an article Mae wrote, published in 1927.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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The British actor MAE WEST put on the map in her motion picture classic "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] was encountered at a football match in his hometown 50 years ago. 
• • Born in Bristol, England, Archibald Alec Leach [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986] was better known by his stage name Cary Grant.
• • David Foot described his encounter with the Hollywood leading man at a stadium called Ashton Gate.
• • Sharing his "brush with fame" with readers of the UK newspaper The London Guardian, Foot reminisced at length.
• • David Foot writes: Meeting the Hollywood star at Bristol City was an overwhelming experience. It has always seemed to me that one appealing reason for going to a football match, apart from dutifully watching the play, is that we never quite know who we are going to meet. Half a century ago, yes really that long, I had a fleeting unscheduled half-time encounter at Ashton Gate, home of Bristol City, with Cary Grant. He'd been invited by the club's then chairman Harry Dolman, who had an opportunistic and civilized habit of asking celebrities — — proper ones in those days — — along on a spare Saturday afternoon to view his warriors.
• • Youthful Indiscretions and a Mentally Ill Mum • •
• • Archie Leach's allegiance to Bristol was unquestioned. He had been born in the city, had gone to a local grammar school, from where he had been expelled for a minor and hushed-up felony committed near the girls' toilets, and now continued to return to the West Country from the world of glamorous celluloid to visit his mother, Elsie, who had a history of mental illness.
• • But, in truth, he had no more than a passing schoolboy's cigarette-card regard for football and it could be argued that his home had been nearer to the Rovers ground than City's. When he left school he was more seduced by the backstage smells and bustle at the Hippodrome and Empire, where he joined an acting troupe and did a stint as call-boy, than wanting to kick a ball with his chums on Horfield Common.
• • Here he was now, however, passing me on the cold, uncarpeted steps leading up to the boardroom. His appearance was impossibly elegant. He should have had Grace Kelly on his arm. I felt I should say something at this seminal moment. Cary Grant had always been a distant hero of mine. My old sports editor and mentor on my evening paper in Bristol had once been the lift boy and he was used to taking the famous film star up to the editorial floor for an interview or new picture from the roof of the Northcliffe building. And he would be asked by his handsome charge how City and Rovers were doing, even if no more than a duty-bound inquiry.
• • Now passing him on the steps at Ashton Gate, I noticed how well proportioned he was. City's physio, if only they had one with that title in those days, wouldn't have had to work too strenuously on central defender Grant. In my fledgling days on a paper, which I found bubbling with youthful zest despite declining circulation, we were encouraged to save our employer's money by being versatile.
• • What DO you say to Cary Grant? • •
• • Apart from recording Big John Atyeo's mountainous goal tally, we were asked to be always on the look‑out for contributions to the gossip column. Here, in my consternation as I confronted an idol, was surely the chance to take Bristol City's too often rather dowdy deeds on to another human plain. A snatched supposedly esoteric word from me maybe about Mae West, Mary Pickford, or Jean Harlow? Hints of Dyan Cannon as a future wife No4? Even a mischievous throwaway about Cary's shared company with Randolph Scott?
• • But all I mumbled self-consciously was: "Not a bad game so far, is it?" Hardly a conversational pearl. I've no idea how he responded to such banality. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "How Cary Grant Made Me Fluff My Lines at Ashton Gate"
• • Byline: By David Foot
• • Published in: Guardian News & Media 2008 — — in the UK
• • Published on: 25 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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