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 30 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Took up rock-and-roll • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: Mae West continued. “I told him, ‘I’ll have to meet your ma.’ You know, that kid paid $35 for a picture of me in a record shop. They had it there to advertise the albums, you know, and he saw it and asked if he could buy it.”
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: She gave me one of her albums, “Way Out West,” with a cover photograph showing her in a skintight, slithery, silvery long gown, trailing yards of white fur on the floor.
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: When I got back to New York, I played the album and it’s not bad.
• • Mae West: She's the mistress of the glottal purr • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Thursday, 20 November 2014 • •
• • On Thursday, 20 November 2014, Out in New Jersey interviewed Bette Midler on her chance to portray Mae West.
• • Bette Midler explained: I'm really looking forward to the script. I've been reading and doing my due diligence. She's such a fabulous — — she's so fucking nuts! I mean, she was so insane. And you know, when I started my career all those many moons ago, I used to do an impersonation of Mae West, and I did it on "The Johnny Carson Show" — — my very first time with Johnny Carson — — and she sent me a letter telling me to cease and desist, which I swear to god I still have."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • And even Mae West, who had helped to establish his reputation as a virile leading man, reportedly said in private: "Cary Grant never came up to see me."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I have given six life-stories but I can always give another."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article published in November 1954 interviewed Mae West.
• • The NY correspondent wrote: Mae gets away with it in the most extraordinary manner. At an age when most women are knitting socks for grandchildren, she is still capering about, parodying sex, making deliberate fun of it in a vulgar, "kidding" way that still brings in the men to make up the substantial other part of her audience. And it is more than thirty years since she started getting away with it on the national stage. ...
• • Source: Article: "At 62, Mae West Now Brings Women Flocking to Learn from the Girl With IT" for The Sun-Herald (Sydney, NSW); published on Sunday, 7 November 1954
• • 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 4,608th 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 1963 • •
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Having read many accounts of Mae West's life put together with input from the great lady herself, and noted variations as she has rearranged some facts to suit her narrative, I wholeheartedly agree with Mae's comment, "I have given six life-stories but I can always give another."
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