When Helen Lawrenson came up to see MAE WEST, Esquire's first female journalist was closing in on her sixtieth birthday and the Brooklyn bombshell was 73. A color photo by Diane Arbus flashed across the double-page-spread, hunched under half the title as if warding off a punch in the nose.
• • Enjoy her seldom seen interview. This is Part 19 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Never heard of the guy! • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: “I never heard of the guy,” Mae replied to all queries. In 1942 he sued her for $1,000-a-month maintenance and half her property, but Mae sued right back and emerged with an interlocutory decree.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Most people had thought all along that she was secretly married to Jim Timony, her manager and more or less constant companion, who was always in the background throughout the long procession of other suitors — producers, managers, actors, agents, an opera singer, prizefighters, wrestlers and weight lifters.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She had a weakness for musclemen and still does.
• • Mae West: When she was 61 years old • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • Texas Guinan [12 January 1884 — 5 November 1933] • •
• • Born in Waco, Texas on 12 January 1884, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan played a gun-slinger and rode bareback in silent films, took New York by storm in 1906, and earned a salary of $700,000 as a speakeasy hostess.
• • A good friend to Mae West who invested in her Broadway shows, Texas also held seances with her.
• • Texas Guinan is one of several strong roles for actresses in the play "Courting Mae West" based on true events during the Prohibition Era. Producers and aspiring stars, take note.
• • On Wednesday, 5 November 1930 • •
• • The novel "Babe Gordon" by Mae West was published in New York City by The Macaulay Company on Wednesday, 5 November 1930.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Dismissed on a technicality in New York Supreme Court was the suit of actor Frank Wallace to be declared the husband of Hollywood cinema-actress Mae West.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I won't drink Los Angeles water — — it's terrible. I only drink bottled water."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • A New Jersey paper discussed the extortion plot involving Mae West.
• • Suspect George Janios Taken as He Takes Mae West's Money from the Fronds of a Palm Tree • •
• • Sophisticated Blond Actress Admits She Was Scared bv the Plotter’s Note • •
• • Tom Cavett, district attorney's investigator who collared the swarthy busboy in a dark side street, said George Janios reached in among. the fronds of a palm tree, took a package, containing money, left by Miss Mae West's chauffeur.
• • Tom Cavett said Miss West had received five threatening notes in all in connection with the extortion, four naming different places for paying the money, the fifth demanding she list her telephone number in a want ad.
• • Each time Cavett placed armed officers about the spot, and a package containing the money was deposited. But after each attempt, the next note asserted directions had not been followed correctly.
• • Janios, Cavett said, walked a block past the palm tree last night, retraced his steps and then reached for the monev. The hidden officers surrounded him. He made no effort to escape or resist, Cavett said.
• • "I don't know a thing about all this," Janios protested. "I saw the car stop as I came up the street, and the chauffeur put something in the tree. I was curious."
• • Miss Mae West said she did not take the first note seriously, but turned succeeding ones over to the County authorities. "Scared? I'll say I was," she replied to a question. "I guess the note that ordered me to put my telephone number in the paper scared me most. Why, I'd have had a lot of strange people calling me." ...
• • Source: The Bergen Evening Record; published on Tuesday, 8 October 1935
• • 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 16th 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 4,500 blog posts.
Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,597th 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 Texas Guinan in court, 1930 • •
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