Mae West: Vanished Art Form

MAE WEST inspired and influenced numerous people. Listen to Tangarra. This is Part 2 of two parts.
• • “Tangarra, Recognized as Buffalo’s First Female Impersonator, Looks Back at a Past That No Longer Exists” • •
• • Written by Mary Kunz Goldman, Elizabeth Barr, and News Staff Reporters
• • John E. Minzer [22 October 1912 – 17 April 2004] — a.k.a. “Tangarra” • •
• • Tangarra met Mae West in 1939 • •

• • Buffalo News wrote: Eighty-eight years old (in 2001), Tangarra can claim to be Buffalo's first female impersonator, with a strange and glittering career that took him across the country. He can recall not only Mae West but also other stars like Tallulah Bankhead ("She put my hair up and I looked ridiculous," he jeers) and Ann Miller. ("She looks like a Japanese sunset!" he laughs, pointing at an old snapshot.)
• • Buffalo News wrote: When he looks back, he sees a world that doesn't exist anymore.
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra feels sad that the mix of burlesque and vaudeville that had been his specialty is a vanished art. …
• • Note: John E. Minzer, AKA Tangara, Buffalo's legendary female impersonator, age 95, who was known to generations of Western New York audiences as Tangarra, died on Tuesday, 17 April 2007.
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra was the last and possibly one of the best vestiges of the time when drag performers were a beloved part of any vaudeville or night club experience.
• • Buffalo News wrote: In a 1998 Outcome interview, Tangarra described a very first public performance in 1928 at the Erie County Fair as "Little Egypt."
• • Buffalo News wrote: A booking agent arranged for a (then) sixteen-year-old John Minzer to perform on the Ismailia Shrine Temple stage as "Little Egypt."
• • Buffalo News wrote: "They made me up and then they put me in a black wig! I've never had black hair in my life! They gave me a veil that went from here to here. (Tangarra indicated that it covered the face from just below the eyes to below the chin line.) I wore a heavy gold belt around my waist with long flowing fabric hanging off of the belt."
• • Buffalo News wrote: "I was pretty popular," Tangarra told Outcome Magazine, adding that she was driven around the fairgrounds while in costume, greeting and meeting fairgoers and received many presents and applause.
• • Buffalo News wrote: Tangarra retired from performing in 1974 but did perform at the 1998 grand opening of what was then known as Secrets on Allen Street.
• • Note: John a.k.a. Tangarra had lived in Buffalo, New York 14221.
• • Source: The Buffalo News; published on Sunday, 11 March 2001.
• • John Patrick West [March 1866 —  5 January 1935] • •

• • Despite having an ambivalent relationship with her father, Mae West took after him and also worked for him when he peddled fruit in Brooklyn and when he helmed a "detective agency" in New Jersey and New York City. Before opening his own operation, John West had walked the beat in Coney Island and elsewhere in Brooklyn.
• • Born on Manhattan's Lower East Side in March 1866, John Patrick West [called "Jack"] grew up feisty, impatient, and strong. As a child he boasted that he'd rather fight than eat. He got his Irish up rather quickly, remembered Mae. He was easily angered and "always ready to do physical violence when the urge was on him." In 1969, Mae revealed in an interview that she thought her father was cruel — — but realized "all his fighting was done doing other people's fighting for them."
• • Jack West was 7 years old in 1873 when his family moved from Avenue C (near the docks) in Manhattan to the borough of Brooklyn, settling first in Red Hook, and then in Greenpoint.
• • On 19 January 1889, in Greenpoint, Battling Jack West and Tillie Delker took their wedding vows before a local minister with Jack's sister Julia West acting as maid of honor.
• • On Saturday, 5 January 1935, "Battling Jack" heard the final countdown; he passed away in Oakland, California of a stroke.
• • On this date we remember John Patrick West with love and respect.
• • On Wednesday, 5 January 1938 • •
• • "Paramount: Mae West Most Likely All Washed Up" was the downbeat headline in Variety Magazine on Wednesday, 5 January 1938. After the NBC broadcast brouhaha, Paramount began monitoring audience feedback to the coming attractions that were onscreen at the New York City Paramount Theatre.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • The recent dispute between Mae West, Raoul Walsh (director), and Paramount executives over the quality of the photography of her new picture, "Klondike Annie," which caused a four-day production halt while a new cameraman was found has been given much prominence in America and inspired 'Variety'' to a consideration of stars and their favorite cameraman.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Call me anything, but call me often."
• • Mae West said: "I'm going to change my tempo and work very, very fast. This picture needs a big lift to pick up the speed to wake an audience up."
• • Mae West said: "Half the people in the world impersonate me. Men, women, and even children. They put their hands on their hips or something."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on women in the theatre mentioned Mae West.
• • "Mae West: An Uncommon Woman" • •
• • Anthony Chase wrote: Another American woman playwright who enjoyed the distinction of racking up the highest advance box office sales in the history of Broadway, Mae West, scored a huge hit with her 1926 play, Sex, but saw her 1928 play, Pleasure Man, closed down by the police after its second performance.
• • Anthony Chase wrote: Despite the fact that she duplicated this success in Hollywood, West’s work is not included in anthologies, she is never mentioned in theater textbooks, and her work is out of print.
• • Anthony Chase wrote: In fact, the only American woman whose plays are consistently included in the American repertoire is Lillian Hellman, and even she had to go on a deliberate publicity campaign in the 1970s when she saw a list of the nation’s 10 greatest living playwrights and found that her name was missing. ...
• • Source: Art Voice (Buffalo, NY); posted on Wednesday, 5 January 2011
• • 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 18th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past eighteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 5,150 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started eighteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 5,150th 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/
________
Source: https://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml  
• • Be sure to bookmark or follow The Mae West Blog
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with her loved ones in 1934 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest