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 21 of 46 parts.
• • "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I Doin’?" • •
• • Not bad, Mae, for a woman of seventy-three • •
• • Mae West: Why not? • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: “I looked at my muscleman. ‘Why not? I can use you in my act.’”
• • Mae West, decked out in all her foofaraw • •
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: So she took him, along with nine other musclemen she rounded up, to Las Vegas, where they appeared at The Sahara, the boys in tiger-skin G-strings [sic], surrounding Mae, decked out in all her foofaraw, while she sang “I Want to Do All Day What I Do All Night.”
• • Helen Lawrenson wrote: The act made a two-year nightclub circuit tour and wound up with a fight between two of Mae’s favorites in her Washington dressing room, from which one of the musclemen exited via stretcher and ambulance.
• • Mae West: Admirers had fought over her • • . . .
• • Helen Lawrenson's interview will be continued on the next post.
• • Source: Esquire; published on Saturday, 1 July 1967.
• • On Tuesday, 9 November 1920 • •
• • Mae filed for divorce from Guido Deiro on the grounds of adultery on 14 July 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on Tuesday, 9 November 1920. Guido almost immediately re-married for the third time. Mae later said, "Marriage is a great institution. But I'm not ready for an institution."
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • As Lyle Talbot recalled many years later about “Miss West”: “She’d say, in that voice, ‘Where are you gonna have lunch? I think I’ll have a hamburger,’ and she’d sound, you know, like Mae West.”
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "The reason I don't read fiction is because I can do my own dreaming. I want to know things that are real."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on Frank Wallace's claims mentioned Mae West.
• • Mae West’s Marriage Worries Broadway • •
• • United Press wrote: New York, April 22.— Whether Mae West is married to Frank Wallace, or “never heard of the guy,” puzzled Broadway today.
• • United Press wrote: A former press agent who prefers to keep his identity concealed, snorted: “Mae’s been married, and everybody knows it.”
• • United Press wrote: Jack Linder, who staged “Diamond Lil” for Mae West in 1928, said that Frank Wallace died about two years ago after a serious operation. ...
• • Source: United Press; published on Monday, 22 April 1935
• • 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 4,599th 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 • • onstage with Steve Rossi in 1954 • •
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