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MAE WEST loved music but her choices had little to do with with Mozart, Grieg, Chopin, or salon society. The blues compositions that got Mae moving had more in common with the wooden tables of smoky saloons. Many music-makers have grooved to the Empress of Sex. Hollywood resident Ramfis Diaz — — a handsome 47-year-old musician possessed of charm and deftly adorned by a-Mae-zing tattoos inspired by the Brooklyn bombshell — — is in that group. 
• • Having read an article about the screen queen's long-standing relationship with the professional fighter William "Gorilla" Jones, Ramfis Diaz decided to give the journalist a ring — — and here is the aftermath.
• • Mark J. Price, Beacon Journal staff writer, did a follow-up feature, titled "Gorilla Jones story a virtual knockout: Mae West fan pleased to learn about Akron boxer's role in life of actress."
• • Mark J. Price writes: Hollywood musician Ram Diaz, 47, called to say he loved our story about Akron boxer William ''Gorilla'' Jones (1906 — 1982), a former middleweight champion who was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this month.
• • Ramfis Diaz is a big fan of screen legend Mae West (1893 — 1980), who employed Jones as a bodyguard and chauffeur after he retired from the ring. Jones and West were close companions for 40 years and might have been romantically involved.
• • ''I didn't know much about Gorilla Jones because she was so secretive about her men,'' Diaz said. ''Mae West didn't kiss and tell. She might have given you a clue here and there.''
• • He believes such a clue can be found in West's 1932 movie "Night After Night," in which George Raft plays an ex-boxer. It was the same year that Jones won the middleweight title.
• • In one scene, Mae West remarks: ''Hey, Gorilla. Come here.''
• • ''She was given full right to rewrite her scenes in that movie,'' he said. ''So I know for a fact that she put that name in there.''
• • A lifelong collector of memorabilia, Diaz has been enamored with West since he saw My Little Chickadee on TV as a boy in the 1960s. He lives in a building near the late star's Ravenswood apartment complex.
• • ''I can actually see her bedroom window from my bedroom window,'' he said.
• • Since 1988 [when he was 26 years old], Ramfis Diaz has thrown a Hollywood birthday party in Mae West's honor every August 17 on the roof of Gramercy Tower in Hancock Park and in his top-floor apartment. The potluck dinner, which is open to the public, includes some of West's inner circle of friends, including Kevin Thomas, Tim Malachosky, and Chris Basinger.
• • Not all guests are acquainted with Mae West's work, though.
• • ''There's a lot of people that really don't know much about her, but they get educated when they arrive,'' Diaz said.
• • He praised the Beacon Journal article for teaching him something new.
• • ''That's the fascinating thing with Miss West,'' he said. ''There's always something new.''
• • Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
— — Source: — —
• • Column: "This Place, This Time: Going West"
• • Gorilla Jones story a virtual knockout: Mae West fan pleased to learn about Akron boxer's role in life of actress
• • Byline: Mark J. Price | Beacon Journal copy editor
• • Published in: The Akron Beacon Journal — — http://ohio.com
• • Published on: Monday, 29 June 2009
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• • In her hometown, New Yorkers also celebrate Mae West's birthday. One event open to the public is the Annual Mae West Walking Tour, which will be held on Sunday 16 August 2009. This year the walking tour begins at Shubert Alley and proceeds uptown to Mae's WESTside apartment. To get more details, read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]• • The tour takes a path up and down blocks associated with Mae West's career. For instance, the speak run by the George Raft character in "Night After Night" [1932] was based on Club Napoleon, a speakeasy on the grand scale, once located at 33 West 56th Street on a fancy block of Beaux Arts mansions. Years before it became an illegal ginmill, 33 West 56th had been the childhood home of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
In her hometown of New York City, MAE WEST certainly got around. And she knew the score. 
• • Consider Club Napoleon: 33 West 56th Street. Even before she read the script, Mae West was familiar with these premises on West 56th Street. No less familiar with Club Napoleon was George Raft, who had tangoed in speakeasies run by Texas Guinan and her brother, nightspots patronized by nighthawk Dorothy Parker along with literary "round table" types as well as trouble-makers, who had a gun in their pocket in case they weren't glad to see you.
• • It was Tommy Guinan and Sherman Billingsley who were the Pied Pipers of Club Napoleon, mixmasters who made the right ingredients pour in: bluebloods, showgirls, prizefighters, poobahs, punks, princesses, and pinky-ring types. 
• • Club Napoleon’s escapades inspired a sly short story — — "Single Night" by Louis Bromfield — — which Mae West, Kathryn Scola, and Vincent Lawrence would fine-tune and finesse into a screenplay about a speak with the working title of Number 55.
• • An address change couldn’t fool New Yorkers. Those in the know realized this was about "that house on Fifty-Sixth Street," which had been owned by Charles Donahue, whose ambitious brother had wooed and wed heiress Jessie Woolworth, worth $70,000,000 thanks to her grandfather, founder of the five-and-dime chain.
• • When this elegant five-story nineteenth century limestone mansion became the lavishly appointed speakeasy Club Napoleon, a repeat attender was Pulitzer winner Louis Bromfield [1896-1956]. Whiling away an afternoon with a news man, Bromfield noticed a stranger who ordered a drink, then threw it on the floor. Headwaiter Albert Berryman protested, whereupon the gent raved about being born in this very house and resenting its downturn into an illegal gin mill. He left without revealing his name. Not long after, on April 24, 1931, the cousin and legal guardian of the 18-year-old heiress Barbara Hutton made a splash on the front page of The New York Times; deep in debt, millionaire broker James Paul Donahue, 44, had doffed a chemical cocktail and committed suicide.
• • Louis Bromfield stirred these bitters into a creamier concoction, which he resold to Hollywood. "Night After Night" was intended as a vehicle for George Raft, featuring Constance Cummings and Texas Guinan, whose baubles were so substantial that she could signal ships with her jewelry.
• • Though that part went to Mae West, the role of "Maudie Triplett" retained its Cartier cachet.
• • "Goodness!" cried the girl. "Are them diamonds real?"
• • "Yes, dearie," Mae West replied, "but goodness had nothing to do with it."
• • "Night After Night" began production on 22 August 1932.• • Another film with a similar slant was "The House on 56th Street," starring Kay Francis.
• • Like a genie released from a bottle, fanciful legends rapidly took shape on West 56th Street — especially after bootlegger Larry Fay renamed the club Casa Blanca, and met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death there on January 1, 1933.
• • Preserve your Mae West memories on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Mae West Side Story" walking tour. The event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute Brooklyn's own sexpot on her birthdate. [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below.]• • Only 8 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Film poster: • • Mae West's co-star George Raft • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST and George Raft knew the address well - - well before Louis Bromfield was drinking there one afternoon with his newsman buddy Lucius Beebe, a Herald-Times columnist. Club Napoleon, a speakeasy on the grand scale, was located at 33 West 56th Street, a fancy block of Beaux Arts mansions. Years before it became an illegal ginmill, 33 West 56th had been the childhood home of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. The gracious townhouse next door was designed by Bruce Price for a prominent physician.
• • Though he made his name writing about rural life, Louis Bromfield was intrigued by the downward mobility of West 56th Street, once the preserve of bluebloods but now in the hands of gangsters who ran the speakeasy Mona Lisa [36 West 56th] or Larry Fay, who opened his parlor floors to drinkers.
• • Born Lewis Brumfield in Ohio on 27 December 1896, the 6' 2" inch journalist won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Early Autumn [1926], and then turned to writing fulltime. His short story "Single Night" became the backbone of the Paramount film "Night After Night" [released on 30 October 1932]. Two months after the film was distributed to moviehouses across the country, bootlegger Larry Fay met a spectacularly crimson-soaked death inside 33 West 56th Street on 1 January 1933.
• • Author and farmer Louis Bromfield had a more serene death, at age 60, on 18 March 1956.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • George Raft • • 1932
NYC
Mae West.
