Mae West: RIP Reg Lewis

In 1954, Reg Lewis, an 18-year-old muscleman, joined The MAE WEST Revue, the youngest in her cast. Sadly, he died last month. Let's  learn more about his close relationship with Mae and his career.
• • Reg Lewis, Actor and Mae West Muscleman, Dies at 85 • •
• • California native Reg Lewis  [23 January 1936 – 11 February 2021] worked alongside the legendary actress in a Las Vegas and touring revue as well as in her 1977 film, 'Sextette.' • •
• • Mike Barnes wrote: Reg Lewis, the champion bodybuilder and actor who was a member of Mae West's beefcake stage act that played in Las Vegas, Hollywood and around the country, has died. He was 85.

• • Mike Barnes wrote: Lewis died Feb. 11 in Los Angeles, his sister Jeannine Abbott told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was immediately available.
• • Mike Barnes wrote: Reg entered his first bodybuilding contest, a Teenage Mr. Oakland event, and won, then prevailed in a Junior Mr. Olympics event in 1953 and was crowned Mr. Pacific Coast in 1956.
"Competition had always been my goal," he said.  ...
• • Mae West and Reg Lewis in 1958 • •
• • Mike Barnes wrote: Reg Lewis said he got $250 a week to work for Mae West at the Sahara hotel in Las Vegas, and their revue would play at Ciro's in Hollywood and in cities from Miami to San Francisco over the next year or so (during the mid-1950s).
• • Mike Barnes wrote: In 1960, Reg Lewis joined  Mae West (and Don Knotts, the physical opposite of Lewis) for an episode of CBS' The Red Skelton Hour to promote Mae's memoir.
• • Mike Barnes wrote: Also he was one of the swimsuit-clad musclemen surrounding her in her notorious final film, Sextette (1978). His measurements included a 50-inch chest and 30-inch waist.
• • Mike Barnes wrote: Off-screen, he would accompany Mae West to events such as film premieres and nightclub openings.
• • Mike Barnes wrote: "Mae was my lifetime friend, a beautiful lady and top-notch performer. She was all about glamour and glitz," he said in a 2002 interview with Iron Man magazine. "I appreciated and enjoyed Mae's love of life. When she passed [in 1980], we lost someone very, very important to the world of entertainment."
• • Mike Barnes wrote: Reg Lewis said that in 1978 he appeared in another Las Vegas act, this one fronted by Debbie Reynolds. She "would imitate Mae West and pull me onstage via a chain, which I'd then proceed to break," he recalled. "'Mmm,' she'd say, 'Let's see what other talents you have.' She threw a lot of Mae West lines at me, and it was fun."
• • Source: The Hollywood Reporter; published on Monday, 1 March 2021.
• • On Sunday, 16 March 1930 • •
• • Multiple outlets reported that Mae West's "Pleasure Man" trial began on 16 March 1930. But since March 16th was actually a Sunday, that date is imprecise. Postponed from its scheduled start on 4 February 1930, the battling finally did get under way on Monday, 17 March in New York, NY.
• • The courtroom proceedings had a certain entertainment value.
• • Though somber, bereaved, and wearing mourning for her late mother, Mae West had to stuff a black handkerchief in her mouth to keep from laughing at the antics of her actors.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West told reporters this about her wriggling on stage: "It was nothing more than an exercise involving control of my abdominal muscles, which I learned from my father when I was a child.” [No, Mae did not take the stand during her trial in 1927.]
• • These trials are dramatized in the stage play "Courting Mae West."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Here are the things I never can resist:  tall, dark handsome men, diamonds, writing stories in bed, reading, calling policemen by their christian names, and food, more food!"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The Los Angeles Examiner mentioned Mae West.
• • The Los Angeles Examiner did not go crazy for "My Little Chickadee." Their man on the aisle wrote that "'some moments are funny but others are embarrassing."   . . '
• • Source: review in The Los Angeles Examiner;  published on Saturday, 9 March 1940
• • 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 4,688th 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 • • with Reg Lewis in 1958 • •
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