Mae West: Ramrod Straight

“I first went to interview MAE WEST after the collapse of ‘Myra Breckinridge’ [1970]. Like almost everyone else, I was in awe of the woman,” wrote Jacoba Atlas. Let’s read her fascinating first-hand account from 1974. This is Part 12 of 19 segments.
• • Image from a Cracked Mirror • •
• • Mae West sat ramrod straight • •
• • Jacoba Atlas wrote: Mae West will tell you this: “I wash my face with bottled water and good Castile soap. I apply a little lanolin oil, cocoa butter and rosewater on my face in the morning and at night and leave it on for one hour. I clean my face with vegetable oils — a little coconut oil. I steam my face, too.” Georgette Klinger couldn’t offer better advice.

• • Jacoba Atlas wrote: She sat ramrod straight during the interview, her blond hair never moving, her long white gay nineties-type dress without a wrinkle. She was Mae West as if Mae West had been embalmed too many years ago.
• • Jacoba Atlas wrote: Images of imitators kept flying through the air — Edie Adams, Debbie Reynolds, Barbara Streisand in Hello Dolly — where was the woman to whom they gave the sincerest form of flattery?
• • Mae West never grew “comfortably old” • • …
• • This long profile by Jacoba Atlas will be continued on the next post.  
• • Source: Los Angeles Free Press, Volume 11, issue 517; published on Friday, 14 June 1974.
• • On Friday, 7 May 1943 • •
• • Matrimony and mayhaps!  Mae West moved on from her marital missteps with vaudevillian Frank Wallace in 1911.  However, the final divorce decree took much longer. The marriage was legally dissolved on Friday, 7 May 1943.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • In conjunction with the news that "Sextette" starring Mae West was going into production, a light went on in City Hall.  Tom Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles, announced that he was creating a special Mae Day and issuing a proclamation in the movie queen's honor.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "People with careers are too busy to spend enough time on their marriage. I have seen several marriages which should have been happy fail — chiefly because of that lack of time."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on a British painter mentioned Mae West.
• • I seem to remember a vintage Mae West movie in which the redoubtable old send-up sways up a staircase, in her usual dignified and derisive manner, behind a genuinely stately butler.
• • 'What are these?' she mutters, rolling those cunning eyes at a series of dark oil paintings.
• • 'These, madam, are the old masters,' says the butler.
• • 'They look like a bunch of old mistresses to me,' says Mae West, her facial muscles scarcely moving.   . . .
• • Source: The London Spectator; published on Thursday, 5 May 1966
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 15th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past fifteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,400 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,469th 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 • • with Dick Cavett in 1976 • •
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