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There was a great deal of mayhem in the life of MAE WEST when her kiss-proof marriage to Frank Wallace was first exposed — — and divorce proceedings began.
• • As all Mae-Mavens know, on the morning of 11 April 1911, a teenager wed her 21-year-old co-star Frank Wallace [birthname: Frank Szatkus] in Milwaukee. He and Mae West had been performing at the Big Gaiety Theatre there, part of the Columbia Amusement Company, an Eastern burlesque wheel run by Henry Jacobs and John Jermon.
• • PHOTO: Yes, that's Mae, next to her bridegroom, showing off her new wedding ring in 1911.
• • Mae, who was still 17 when they eloped, had met the entertainer the previous year. Matchmaker Matilda West had gone backstage to tell this soft-shoe artist that she had a youngster who was a “comer” — — a good partner to pair up with.
• • A dark-haired, wiry acrobatic dancer, Frank Wallace was determined not to follow the example of his sedentary father, a Lithuanian tailor from Queens, New York. Threading his way through the vaudeville and burlesque circuit, he shared the bill with Mae West and Willie Hogan at Canarsie’s Waldo Casino in Brooklyn. In those days, they often rehearsed in the basement of the house that belonged to Mae’s parents. Following rehearsals, Matilda would serve a Bavarian supper of pig’s knuckles and sauerkraut.
• • When singing ragtime favorites — — like “Ragtime Rosie Ragged the Rosary” and “Everybody’s Doin’ It” — — West and Wallace consciously imitated black performers, sliding, shuffling, and stepping in a sultry, passionate, smooth style that brought them bookings in Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
• • According to Frank Wallace's account, after a few weeks of rehearsal, “we went on the Fox circuit. Later we signed with Jacobs and Jermon, the burlesque producers.”
• • Mae claimed she only wanted to get physical with Frank, not tie the knot. However, Etta Woods, an older singer on the bill with them, persuaded Mae that it was better to be married in case she got pregnant accidentally. After they said their vows, Mae insisted that the marriage be kept a secret from her family and their booking agents.
• • The length of their tour in “A Florida Enchantment” lasted a few months, after which Mae returned to her parents in Brooklyn and encouraged Wallace to join a different road company, which he did.
• • During the regional tour of "Diamond Lil" [1928 — 1929], Frank Wallace played a bartender. Here they are onstage, side by side, in the Midwest. 
• • West and Wallace never lived together as man and wife. Their secret elopement only came to light when Mae became a Hollywood headliner in the 1930s and Frank, run down at the heels and looking for a meal ticket, decided to sue his successful wife. In July 1937, in response to a legal interrogatory, Mae finally was obliged to admit she had been married to her skinny dance partner, although she maintained she had been a "kiss-less bride."
• • In 1942, as they went to court, Frank Wallace was holding out for a costly $1,000 per month maintenance, charging that he had "subordinated" his career to his wife's after they wed. As a result, argued Wallace, she earned "fabulous sums" while his career languished.
• • Fortunately, Mae discovered that he had married Rae Blakesley in 1916 in NYC without seeking a divorce first, or even notifying her about this act of bigamy.
• • It was in the month of July — — on 19 July 1942 — — that Wallace agreed to drop his fight for alimony.
• • The final divorce decree was granted in 1943.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Reflecting upon her divorce from Frank Wallace, Mae West noted this about hastily tying the knot in 1911: "It was later proved to be some knot. The judge must have learned it from a sailor."
• • "He'll always remain in the wastebasket of my memories," West quipped on learning of the death of her former bridegroom Frank Wallace.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • "For over 30 years I have held this secret in my heart," said Frank Wallace. "I have complied with everything that Miss West wanted. She wanted a career but now I want a chance to tell my story ...."
• • Source: Article: "Mae West's Husband Drops Suit, Agrees to a Divorce" written by The United Press; published by The Pittsburgh Press on 19 July 1942
• • 17 July 2004 — 17 July 2011 • •
• • In mid-July the Mae West Blog celebrates its seventh anniversary. Thank you to all those Mae-mavens who come up and see Mae every day.
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1996th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1911 and 1929 • •
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MAE WEST appears in With a Hays Nonny Nonny, a sly poke at the Hays Code in Hollywood, illustrated by the multi-talented Luis Quintanilla, who was born in Santander, Spain in the month of June — — on 12 June 1893 — — to a conservative family, with aristocratic ties. 
• • The artist's son Paul Quintanilla explains that his father had accompanied eight prominent American artists to Hollywood to paint the portraits of the cast in John Ford's "The Long Voyage Home" [May — August 1940], and while in California he met a lot of movie folk. According to Paul Quintanilla: "Then in 1942 a spoof on Hollywood's Hays Code came out. It was published by Random House and had sixty five drawings. It was entitled With a Hays Nonny Nonny and what the book did was present several stories from the Bible as they would have to be reworked to become acceptable to the censors in the Hays Office, which at that time was the ultimate arbiter of good taste and moral standards in Hollywood. In the book's preface, Elliot Paul states that if God Himself had written the Bible, or at least dictated it to one of His servants, 'it becomes evident that The Author did not share the ideas of censorship now prevalent throughout the world and virulent in Hollywood' ...".
• • Illustration of Mae West as Helen of Troy drawn by Luis Quintanilla for With a Hays Nonny Nonny [NY: Random House, 1942].
• • Eddie Fetherston • •
• • Mae West starred in "Go West, Young Man" along with many East Coast natives who, like Mae, had traveled westward, for instance, Brooklynite Eddie Fetherston.
• • In "Go West, Young Man," Eddie Fetherston played a reporter. Curiously, he must have had the manner or the ink-stained fingers of a local news re-write man. Tinseltown casting agents frequently hired him to portray either a wise-cracking journalist, a photographer, or a newspaper staffer in dozens of motion pictures.
• • Born in Brooklyn, NY on 9 September 1896, Eddie Fetherston had launched his career as a vaudeville comedian. The character actor appeared (albeit briefly) in numerous shorts and movies directed by Frank Capra, La Cava, McLeod, John Ford, etc.
• • On 12 June 1965, Eddie Fetherston had a fatal heart attack at his home in Yucca Valley, California.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Movie maven Christopher Campbell writes: I have scheduled this post to go live just as my own wedding begins. As you’re reading this (likely sometime after it’s gone live), imagine I’m currently walking down the aisle to Carl Orff’s “Gassenhauer nach Hans Neusiedler (1536),” which you may know as ‘the “Badlands” theme.’ . . . Each of the tables (at Christopher and Jennifer's wedding) is actually identified and represented by a classic Hollywood couple. Other groupings include William Powell and Myrna Loy, James Stewart and Jean Arthur, W.C. Fields and Mae West, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. That and the popcorn machine were originally the gist of my movie geek influence. ...
• • Source: Article: "How Many Movies Can You Fit Into a Wedding?" written by Christopher Campbell for Spout; posted on 11 June 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1959th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1942 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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Mae West.
In 1933, Ralph Rainger wrote the cheeky “A Guy What Takes His Time” — — a song for Lady Lou, portrayed by MAE WEST. 
• • Like Mae, Ralph Rainger [7 October 1901 — 23 October 1942] was a native New Yorker. A composer of popular music principally for films, he started out in life with the name Ralph Reichenthal when he was pursuing a legal career before deciding he'd rather be on Broadway (where he became Clifton Webb's accompanist).
• • His first hit — — "Moanin' Low," with lyrics by Howard Dietz — — was written for Webb's co-star Libby Holman in the 1929 revue The Little Show.
• • Moving to Hollywood, Rainger teamed up with lyricist Leo Robin to produce a string of successful film songs including one number that became Bob Hope's theme song.
• • In 1942, Ralph Rainger's rising star sputtered due to a fatal plane crash near Palm Springs, California. He was a passenger aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner that was involved in a midair collision with a U.S. Army Air Corps bomber. He was only 41 years old when he died in the month of October.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Mae West.
When MAE WEST watched Rafaela Ottiano portray the sinister Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd" during its 1924 Broadway run at the Frazee Theatre, she knew where to find an actress who could ably play a villainess.
• • Born in Venice on 4 March 1888 of Italian parents, Rafaela Ottiano distinguished herself in Europe before relocating to New York City in 1910 when she was 22 years old. By 1912 she was winning critical praise for her performances onstage in Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre [31 West 28th Street].
• • By 1920, she was living in a boarding house in the theatre district - - 49 West 37th Street - - where many actresses and artists were in residence. In between bookings, the five-foot-five brunette worked as a sales lady in a department store.
• • For the acclaimed Broadway production of "Diamond Lil" [1928-29] Ottiano created the role of Spanish Rita. She was the only member of the Royale Theatre's cast who was retained for the filmed version, where she reprised her role, renamed Russian Rita by cautious executives at Paramount Pictures who feared that they might alienate Hispanic ticket-buyers.
• • Never married, and guiding her career herself, plucky Ottiano managed to stay employed in Hollywood from 1924-1942 in between theatre work.
• • She died at age 54 of intestinal cancer in mid-August 1942 at the East Boston home of her late parents.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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• • Photo: • • Mae West's co-stars • • "She Done Him Wrong" • • 1933NYC
Mae West.
There was a great deal of mayhem in the life of MAE WEST when her kiss-proof marriage to Frank Wallace was first exposed — — and divorce proceedings began.
