Mae West: Out of Stir

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 36 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Once out of stir and still full of beans • •

• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Despite this inspiring plea, Mae, the manager and the producer were fined $500 and Mae was sentenced to ten days in jail on Welfare Island.  
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Mae West drove to the pokey in her $20,000 Isotta-Fraschini [sic] and served eight days of the sentence, getting two days knocked off for good behavior. 
• • [Editor: In reality, Mae West was driven to the workhouse in a police van along with other inmates.]
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Once out of stir and still full of beans, she proceeded to write a play about homosexuals, The Drag, which had a party scene with forty men singing and dancing in drag (thereby predating by almost fifty years a similar scene in John Osborne’s A Patriot for Me).  
• • [Editor: the chronology and the details about “The Drag” are not accurate.]
• • Mae West: Decided against tempting fate • • . . .  
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • Tuesday, 30 November 1948 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • Mae West revived "Diamond Lil" for a Montclair, New Jersey audience. Brooks Atkinson responded to her performance in The New York Times on Tuesday, 30 November 1948: "A fine, full-bosomed woman with lots of glitter and gaudiness, Mae is an original unclassified phenomenon . . . ."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Psychic Richard Ireland was a frequent guest at the beach house of Mae West. Once in awhile, he brought his two teenagers with him, Mark and Robin.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "How would you describe me, boys? I've been in Who's Who and I know what's what, but it'll be the first time I ever made the dictionary."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article was dedicated to Mae West.
• • “Mae West, Hollywood's Sex Symbol, Dies” • •
• • Miss West, apparently, was not the domestic type, a conclusion supported by her typically suggestive reply to an interviewer who asked if she could cook.
• • "Nobody ever asked me to," said Miss West. ...
• • 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 4,615th 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 Jefferson Market Police Court in 1927 • •
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