Mae West: Hats Away!

MAE WEST and millinery: what a delightful pairing.
• • In her memoir, "Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It," Mae West revealed that custom millinery had always been her passion and her only real extravagance (aside from diamonds and furs). “I sometimes take my hats out of the closet and amuse myself for an hour or so before a mirror.”  
• • Mae added, “Then I put them away again. It may have some psychological meaning. I have never bothered to analyze it. Why try a head-shrinking technique on anything so delightful?”

• • Jon Tuska wrote: "Hats were one of Mae West's obsessions, greater even than her penchant for monkeys as pets."
• • Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, an Olympian when it came to hat collecting, mentioned Mae's fancy headgear.
• • "Mae West — — there'll be plumes!" • •
• • Syndicated columnist Hedda Hopper wrote: For a beauty who has almost made a career of incredible lids, there is Carmen Miranda and her Inverted fruit basket. Ditto for Mae West's Diamond Lil chapeaux, large and lavish. Although Mae goes tropical in "Tropicana," you can bet your ol' gray bonnet ostrich feathers will be sticking out of every crevice.
• • Source: "Looking at Hollywood" by Hedda Hopper rpt in Chicago Tribune; published in 1943.
• • On Monday, 5 April 1954 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • A devout Roman Catholic, Jim Timony carried rosary beads and began each morning by going to Mass. Mae accompanied him during this daily ritual. For decades they went everywhere together — — on cross-country trains, on the Queen Mary, in Mae's "house car," and in limousines.
• • The New York Times obituary, alas, reported his age incorrectly when they announced his death on Monday, 5 April 1954 from a heart attack at his Hollywood home. According to his obit, Timony had been in retirement for five years due to poor health.
• • Calling James A. Timony the manager of Mae West for 25 years, and the person who "guided her to success," The Times also noted that he "received major credit for her development from a relatively obscure singer and dancer into an internationally known prototype of the American siren."
• • The Mae West Blog is saluting James A. Timony — — celebrating his life and successful partnership with the Empress of Sex.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West in “She Done Him Wrong” created a furore in Paris, convincing the French that the hefty bosom, the opulent hip, and the glittering façade were the natural attributes of women and due for a comeback.
• • Thanks to Mae West, a tidal wave of correspondingly big gestures rolled in: enormous bags, huge blobby crystal bracelets and rings, mammoth hats, and cigarette cases bigger than the Lucky box for 50. In other words — and in a coconut-shell — inflation.
• • In Her Own Words • •

• • Mae West said: "Other people collect paintings to hang on their walls... for me, hats are works of art."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Fan magazine writers often mentioned Mae West and her millinery.
• • No, mystery has replaced pep as the chief feminine allure. The new models simply ooze it.
• • Even Mae West goes mysterious in her "dining out" costume.
• • That's mostly because of that hat. It's huge. It is the largest black hat you ever saw and it has the flattest of crowns.
• • Mae’s black gown is of tulle and gently falls to the floor in a demurely wicked line. …
• • Source: Modern Screen; published in the issue dated for September 1933
• • 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 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,965th 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 1936; Gunter Hotel in 1939 • •
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