Mae West: Mink Lashes

In 1974, MAE WEST gave a long interview to Anjelica Huston and Peter Lester. This is Part 2. 
• • Mae West: the Queen at Home in Hollywood • •
• • Written by Anjelica Huston and Peter Lester  (Interview Magazine) • •
• • Etiquette established, visitors' book signed, credentials given, her personal assistant Larry Grayson exits stage left. 
• • Drawn to us as if by a magnetic force concealed beneath the floor, Mae West enters, gliding almost mechanically to her chair. We are close enough to touch her without getting up. Silence as she allows herself to be scrutinized — — freshly painted, hair waving softly champagne to her shoulders, shoulders draped in lace. Her eyelids droop shyly as she lifts her gaze, deeply shaded by mink lashes. The pupil of one eye overflowing in its iris; she smiles behind a coral cupid's bow as she adjusts a lurex cushion to the small of her back; tidies the folds of the shocking pink negligee about her bosom and crosses her legs.
• • Her hands, beautifully manicured and pearly tipped, lie in her lap, she rubs them together a little nervously at first, suspicious of us until she realizes that we are fans completely stunned by the legend. She relaxes and gives us everything.
• • ANJELICA HUSTON AND PETER LESTER: To what do you attribute your looks?
• • MAE WEST: (Tapping her teeth) See — they're mine... I have no face lifts ...it's all mine? There's no change in me. I wrote this book about it. It's called Sex, Health and ESP, you know. I eat the right foods, exercise, take care of myself.
• • HUSTON AND LESTER: ESP?
• • WEST: Yeah, I've been havin' these psychic experiences since 1941, I knew this man, the Reverend Jack Kelly... a great man who died in 1965. I was sitting just where I am, sittin' watchin' TV here when I heard this voice, whispering, kind of, I felt this presence beside me. Like it was a man in the room.  looked down and saw a pair of men's feet, looked a little higher and saw his legs. It was Jack Kelly all right. He walked here behind me, over to where you're sitting and then he just dissolved away. Into the sofa.  . . .

"Sextette" premiere, 1978

• • This has been Part 2 of the interview written by Anjelica Huston and Peter Lester. Part 3 will continue tomorrow.
• • On Sunday, 30 August 1931 • •
• • When Mae West brought her play "The Constant Sinner" to Atlantic City for a try-out in August 1931, the crowds lined up for tickets.
 • • Noted The New York Times: "With two rows of standees and chairs in the aisles for extra celebrants, last Monday night saw Mae West run through her latest daisy chain, 'The Constant Sinner,' at the Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City. . ."  Their man on the aisle described this play as "underworld material," leading us to assume this sheltered individual rarely ventured above the wilds of West 96th Street.
• • Source: The N.Y. Times on Sunday, 30 August 1931.
• • On Sunday, 30 August 1970 in The L.A. Times • •
• • Joyce Haber referred to Mae West as "the Last of the Living Legends" in The Los Angeles Times Calendar on Sunday, 30 August 1970.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The way that stars from other studios dodged the premiere of Mae West's "I'm No Angel." Hollywood never proved itself so much a small town, with all a small town's petty jealousies, as it did that night. 
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  "Sex is like a small business. You gotta watch over it."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Mike Connolly mentioned Mae West.
• • Mike Connolly wrote:  Odd angle on Mae West's new advice-to-the-lovelorn series, "Mae West Advises," on local station KCOP — — her paychecks are signed by Bing Crosby, who owns the station .
• • Source: Item in Mike Connolly's Hollywood column in Desert Sun; published on Saturday, 30 August 1958
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 12th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past twelve years. The other day we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,500 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • • 
• • The Mae West Blog was started twelve years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3519th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1978 • •
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