Mae West: Amelia Bingham

MAE WEST had purchased a swan bed for her 1928 stage melodrama of the Bowery. Let us learn more the fascinating female who was its original owner.
• • The Museum of the City of New York owned a photograph of Amelia Bingham kneeling beside her swan bed — — which Mae West purchased and used in "Diamond Lil."
• • One of the things that pleased Mae West the most about "Diamond Lil" was that, on the stage, she was able to use the extraordinary bed beside which Amelia Bingham, a famous dramatic star of yesteryear, used to pray.
• • The Swan Bed Onscreen • •

• • This massive bed, designed to represent the hollowed back of a giant swan with the sleeper resting in the hollow and the foot tapering into the outstretched breast and neck of the bird passed from Miss Bingham to Diamond Jim Brady.
• • Miss West obtained it from the Jim Brady estate, and it still reposes in her Kew Gardens, L. I., home a rival for her favorite bed in her Manhattan apartment boudoir on West Avenue Avenue, . . . .
• • Amelia Swilley Bingham [20 March 1869  – 1 September 1927] was an American actress born in Hicksville, Ohio. Her Broadway career extended from 1896 until 1926.  Amelia Bingham died in 1927 following an eight month battle with heart disease complicated by pneumonia. She was 58 years old.
• • Amelia died at her home at 103 Riverside Drive, Manhattan, New York City, a house formerly owned by the actor Joseph Jefferson.
• • Note: French actress-dancer Gaby Deslys also commissioned a large bed in the form of a swan, as well as a bed  with a Cupid on the prow fashioned in the shape of a boat, which was used in several Hollywood films.
• • On Wednesday, 10 March 1926 in Variety • •
• • A news item noted that a new play by "Jane Mast" (Mae West) called "Sex" was coming to Broadway. This announcement ran in Variety's issue dated for Wednesday, 10 March 1926.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • In all her films, Mae West is an unabashed sex symbol. She continues to play the siren in "Sextette" — — a lady who goes through six husbands.
• • On stage and off, Mae plays the part to the hilt. In her trailer dressing room at Paramount Studios, Mae lounged on a couch. She wore a white, satin-like dressing gown with white fur-like material at the collar and cuffs.  
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: “I do all my writing in bed; everybody knows I do my best work there.”
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • South China Morning Post mentioned Mae West.
• • Own Mae West's Swan Bed • •
• • A collection of dresses, negligees, bankbooks and furniture demonstrating the overblown taste of the irrepressibly vulgar 1930s siren Mae West are to be auctioned in New York on Tuesday.
• • The blonde American entertainer died in 1980 having taken Hollywood by storm. She was the author of the line: 'It's not the men in my life that counts; it's the life in my men.'
• • Undoubtedly the most extraordinary lot in the auction is her 'swan bed' in which the actress reclined to give interviews.
• • Like her other possessions, it is sensual and overstated, in the Louis XV style with a carved canopy decorated with a gilt 'W'. ...
• • Source: South China Morning Post; published on Sunday, 4 December 1994
• • 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 4,687th 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 • • the swan bed onscreen in 1933 • •
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