Mae West: Eclectic Casting

In 1967, 73-year-old MAE WEST told Helen Lawrenson (during an interview for Esquire) that “if you didn’t know how old I am, a person’d think I’m twenty-six.”  
• • Eleven years later, in 1978, Mae would play a coquettish bride in "Sextette." Was it a good film or a misfire? Journalist Steve Palace has his own perspective. This is Part 2 of 6 parts.
• • "Sextette" — Mae West’s Last Movie Saw Her Play the Vamp in Her 80s! • •
• • Mae West: Had an eclectic cast • •
• • Steve Palace wrote: As well as Dalton – whose character is revealed to be a British spy, long before he became 007 – and Curtis, the movie featured an eclectic cast. George Hamilton, Walter Pidgeon and George Raft rubbed shoulders with Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper and legendary hellraiser Keith Moon.

• • Other players included Dom DeLuise and Regis Philbin.
• • Steve Palace wrote: West started off on stage and continued writing and performing after her film career faded. "Sextette" was adapted by Herbert Baker from her 1961 play of the same name. When she trod the boards in that production it had been 18 years since her last picture, ‘The Heat’s On.’
• • Mae West: Was top-billed • • ...    
• • This feature will continue until the sixth segment.
• • Source: The Vintage News; published on Tuesday, 29 September 2020.
• • On Saturday, 12 January 1929 • •
• • "Diamond Lil" was staged at the Royale Theatre in New York City on 9 April 1928 and closed on Saturday night, 12 January 1929 after 323 performances.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • When Harry Zehner, confidential secretary to Carl Laemmle, Jr. suggested Mae West as a screen possibility to the powers at Universal, he was howled down.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said:  “When women go wrong, men go right after them.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on “Sextette” discussed Mae West.
• • "Go West, Old Mae" • •
• • Gilbert Adair wrote: In its negation—by conspiracy of silence, as it were—of the leading lady’s age, “Sextette” resembles Pierre Zucca’s brilliant and peculiar “Roberte,” about which I already wrote in my Paris Journal (July — August, 1978). Zucca could not but cast Denise Morin Sinclaire in the role of Roberte, since she had been Roberte (Klossowski’s Muse) all her married life, just as Mae West continues to play the self she once had been.
• • Gilbert Adair wrote: That neither lady is any longer in her prime was doubtless deemed less crucial a guarantee of authenticity. ...
• • Source: Film Comment; dated from the issue May — June 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 4,646th 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 her last film in 1978 • •
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