Mae West: Physical Fling

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 18 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Was not in love with Frank Wallace • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: When she was seventeen, apparently on the spur of the moment, she married Frank Wallace, a twenty-one-year-old vaudeville song-and-dance man. She made him promise never to reveal the marriage to anyone. “I wasn’t in love with him,” she says. “I told him, ‘It’s just this physical thing. You don’t appeal to my finer instincts.’”  

• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: A few months later she started going with a Broadway theatre manager, and one man led to another.  
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Although she remained married for more than thirty years, she never admitted it. Wallace disappeared from the scene until 1936, when he suddenly surfaced with his own act, billing himself as Mae West’s Husband.
• • Mae West: Never heard of the guy! • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Wednesday, 4 November 1931 • •
• • After enormous effort, on Wednesday, 4 November 1931 the final curtain came down at the Royale Theatre on "The Constant Sinner" starring and written by Mae West.
• • Set in Harlem, the play opened on 14 September 1931 and ran for 64 performances on Broadway.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Hollywood in the 1930s was not an easy place for a British actor to get work, unless he happened to meet Mae West.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "There is nothing better in life than diamonds except maybe health."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on Fellini  mentioned Mae West.
• • "Federico Fellini originally wanted to cast the Beatles, Mae West, Groucho Marx and Danny Kaye in ‘Satyricon’ in 1968" • •
• • Undeterred, Federico Fellini told the press he would cast Mae West, Groucho Marx, Jimmy Durante, Van Heflin, Boris Karloff, and Michael J. Pollard. No one was going to stop the great Fellini from making his movie.
• • But Groucho Marx said “No.” Jimmy Durante said “What?”
• • Mae West turned down the offer of playing a sex mad high priestess and mother figure since she disliked the idea of being a “mother figure.”
• • Boris Karloff was interested but too busy, perhaps a day or two in May? Michael Pollard said “Yes,” but nothing came of it.  ...
• • Note: Federico Fellini died on Sunday, 31 October 1993.
• • Source: Dangerous Minds; published on Wednesday, 4 December 2019
• • 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 4,596th 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 • • on the Columbia Burlesque Wheel • •
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