Mae West: Mexican Boy

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 29 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: “This Mexican boy...” • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Mae came back with a small box in her hand.  

• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: “This Mexican boy,” she said, “he’s nineteen and he’s been my fan for three years and finally he came up here on my birthday. He was in town, you know, so he wanted to meet me. He brought me a box with a beautiful white orchid in it, so I took the orchid out and I see another box in there so I take the box out and open it and here is this diamond here. . . .”  
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She held up a small diamond on a fine chain.  
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: “The chain is platinum. See, it’s a pure, starlike stone, you know what I mean? He said to me, ‘My mother helped me select it.’ How do you like that?” Mae West asked me.  
• • Mae West: Took up rock-and-roll • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Tuesday, 19 November 1996 • •
• • A CD by Mae West "I'm No Angel" was released on the British label Jasmine on Tuesday, 19 November 1996.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The DVD reissue of "The Ox-Bow Incident'' [1943] features William Wellman Jr., son of the director, with some interesting particulars: The first owner of the screen rights for the acclaimed 1940 novel planned to make a big Technicolor extravaganza that would include Mae West as owner of the bar where the story begins.  
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “My play 'The Drag' was perhaps a little premature.  It dealt with a vital problem, the homosexual. It is my belief that if this phenomenon is a disease, then it is up to psychologists and doctors to find out what it is and cure it. It is a good rule to face problems, not to avoid them.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Chicago Tribune wrote about Mae West.
• • Glen Elsasser wrote:  "I think Mae West appeals to feminists, although I don't think she was a feminist by any standard and didn't like other women," she added. "She's so powerful on the screen, always the focal point and always bigger than anyone else." ...
• • Source: "Mae West's Powerful Image Lives On" by Glen Elsasser for Chicago Tribune; published on Saturday, 21 November 1997
• • 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 4,607th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • singing with Rock Hudson in 1957 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest