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 33 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Sang Ragtime and Dialect Songs • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She reminded me that she made her Broadway debut as a singer back in 1911, in a Ned Wayburn revue, in which she sang ragtime and what she calls “an Irish dialect song.”
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She also did acrobatic dancing, and Flo Ziegfeld, in the opening-night audience, threw her a rose.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She appeared in musicals with names like Vera Violetta (Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys were in that one) and A Winsome Widow, had her own vaudeville act before, and during, World War I, and after the war with Harry Richman as her pianist.
• • Mae West: Shimmy-shawobble • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Saturday, 25 November 1911 in Variety • •
• • The opening night cast of "Vera Violetta" at the Winter Garden did not include the misbehaving and Gaby-upstaging Mae West. Her antics during the out-of-town try-outs brought about her dismissal.
• • Variety printed a face-saving explanation in their issue dated for Saturday, 25 November 1911, indicating Mae had pneumonia. Hmmm, no doubt brought about by standing in an icy draft when Gaby Deslys opened her mouth wide and blasted her.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • A private service for Mae West was held in the Old North Church replica, in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on Tuesday, 25 November 1980.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “I ached for it, the spotlight. It was like the strongest man’s arms around me, like an ermine coat.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article was dedicated to Mae West.
• • “Mae West, Hollywood's Sex Symbol, Dies” • •
• • Mae West became a household word, the embodiment of naughtiness, the queen of barely disguised double-entendre, the woman after whom World War II servicemen happily named an inflatable life vest.
• • Perhaps above all, she was defined for the decades and the multitudes by the single huskily purred line, redolent of sexual pleasure and promise: "Come up and see me some time . . ."
• • Source: Washington Post; published on Sunday, 23 November 1980
• • 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 4,600 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started fifteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,612th 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 Turkish harem trousers • •
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