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MAE WEST paid dearly for her concealment of a brief secret marriage to Frank Wallace, who resurfaced during the Depression. The former vaudeville song and dance man turned out to be not love-struck but rather a down-and-outer looking for a quick payday.
• • "This Gentleman May Be Known As Mr. West" • •
• • New York, Feb. 27 [AP] — — Asserting that right is might, Frank Wallace today renewed his efforts to obtain a court order declaring him to be the husband of Mae West, motion picture star.
• • From Supreme Court Justice John E. McGoehan he obtained permission to serve Miss West through the sheriff of Los Angeles county, California, with papers in his suit for a declaratory judgment.
• • "She has money and power," he said, "but justice is on my side. That makes it even."
• • Wallace, denying it was a publicity stunt as charged by Miss West, said his reputation had been damaged by her statement that she never had heard of him. He made it plain through Samuel J. Siegel, his new lawyer, however, that he wished to avoid any unpleasantness or embarrassment because he said he still had the warmest esteem and admiration for the alleged Mrs. Wallace.
• • Siegel produced a photostatic copy of a marriage license indicating that Wallace, a song and dance man currently at liberty, had married Mae West in Milwaukee 25 years ago.
• • They separated in 1916, Siegel said, when a booking agent convinced them that Mrs. Wallace had a future in the movies if she could appear as an unmarried woman. Wallace signed a pact agreeing to keep the marriage secret, the attorney went on, and would have remained silent if Miss West had not said she never heard of the guy when the marriage license came to light last year.
• • Siegel said he understood Wallace had been married again and divorced since 1916, but insisted that had nothing to do with his alleged status as Miss West's husband.
• • News by Associated Press rpt in Daily Illini; published on Friday, 28 February 1936.
• • On Saturday, 27 February 1932 • •
• • The headline on Saturday, 27 February 1932: "Puppets to Act in Shows Today."
• • The Cornell Daily Sun announced the Mae West marionette show on the front page: Tatterman Marionettes will present plays in Willard Straight Theater. "Stringing Broadway" is adult entertainment. The puppets . . . poke good-humored fun at the contemporary world of politics, the theatre, and letters. A burlesque grand opera . . . A.A. Milne, Mae West, and Eugene O'Neill are on the program. . . .
• • "Stringing Broadway," with its chorus of "Glorified Girls," takes the professional revue for a ride, noted the Cornell Daily Sun.
• • Source: Cornell Daily Sun, page 1 story, Volume 52, Issue 106, published on Saturday, 27 February 1932.
• • On Thursday, 27 February 1936 • •
• • Joseph Breen wrote to Will Hays about Mae West and "KIondike Annie." His letter is dated for Thursday, 27 February 1936.
• • Newspapers were aware of the bickering and the chaos. The Los Angeles Herald printed a news story on page 4 about the censorship issues on Thursday, 27 February 1936. It was never easy being Mae West.
• • On Sunday, 27 February 1938 • •
• • From Perth Australia, the newspapers echoed the after-shocks of "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" in December 1937: Mae West's un-Scriptural portrayal of Eve in a national broadcast has aroused the wrath of hundreds of American women and infuriated the clergy. They are shocked because, instead of the serpent tempting Eve, as the Book of Genesis records, Mae West tempted the serpent. The company that broadcast Mae as Eve has been besieged by angry resolutions from women's clubs. . . .
• • America's big Catholic League of Decency is also planning to reprimand her. . . .
• • Source: From Our Own Correspondent by Air in New York, Sunday Times (Perth, Australia) published on Sunday, 27 February 1938.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Mae West's song numbers for "Myra Breckinridge" were shot on 19 March 1970.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Frank Wallace? Never heard of him!"
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Raquel Welch discussed the red carpet chaos during the VIP premiere of "Myra" and Mae West.
• • Raquel Welch said: They didn’t screen it for me, and I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to see it before I had to. They asked me to come to New York for the opening, and I did that. I pulled up in a car in front of the theater, and there was a big red carpet there and a lot of press and a lot of fans, and I walked a couple of paces — and a bunch of bodyguards came and lifted me underneath both arms and pushed me inside. And I said, “What the heck is going on? I haven’t been manhandled like this ever!”
• • They said, “Well, Mae West’s car is right behind yours, and she did not want you to be on the red carpet at the same time she was.” Bobby Fryer was so absolutely terrified of Mae, and Mae was so terrified of this movie and her whole image that it all sort of went neurotic. I was just along for the ride. I realized, It’s going to be a disappointment. I just hope it’s not as bad as I think. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I knew it wasn’t good when we were making it. . . .
• • Source: Article: "Raquel Welch vs. Mae West" from Out Magazine; published on Monday, 16 February 2015
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 10th anniversary • •
• • Thank
you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during this
past decade. The other day we entertained 1,430 visitors. We reached a milestone this week: 3,100 posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started ten years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3124th 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 • • in 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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The December 1937 radio broadcast on "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" and the lackluster response to "Every Day's a Holiday" [1938] helped to sever the professional relationship between MAE WEST and Paramount Pictures. But Metro-Goldwyn Mayer had their starry eyes on her. 
• • A 1938 headline in The Sydney Morning Herald tooted: "Mae West and Clark Gable." The screen queen was in her mid-40s and the leading man was 37 years old
• • "Film News of the Week" announced: It seems impossible to avoid the topic of the new star teams. The latest to be announced is the partnership of Mae West and Clark Gable, who are proposed for the latest roles in "New Orleans," an original story by the man who wrote "San Francisco."
• • "Film News of the Week" explained: These two champions of the rough-and-ready school should make a perfect screen match. The story, however, demands renunciation in the last reel. Mae West, as a torch-singing New Orleans belle, sacrifices love and leaves the hero to the youthful ingenue.
• • "Film News of the Week" continued: Mae West's popularity has been declining rapidly. One group of American exhibitors even went so far as to announce that her name was "poison at the box office." The fact that in the past she has always insisted on writing, casting, and to some extent producing her own films may have something to do with it. M.G.M. have wisely inserted a clause in her contract which confines her activities to acting alone.
• • Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, "Film News of the Week" on page 28, Thursday, 7 July 1938.
• • A year before that, in April 1937, Mae's name was starting to appear in the papers linked to a Clark Gable paternity suit in a very peculiar way. For instance, "It was also alleged that Mae West, the film actress, received letters asking her to intercede with Clark Gable to persuade him to pay Mrs. Violet Norton, 47, a Canadian. ... Mrs. Norton is accused of trying to extort money from Clark Gable, the film actor, by asserting that he is the father of her 13-year-old daughter." Let's move forward to 1939 in Hollywood.
• • On Sunday, 20 February 1939 • •
• • According to Hecht biographer, William MacAdams, “At dawn on Sunday, 20 February 1939, David Selznick … and director Victor Fleming shook Ben Hecht awake to inform him he was on loan from MGM and must come with them immediately and go to work on Gone with the Wind, which Selznick had begun shooting five weeks before. It was costing Selznick $50,000 each day the film was on hold waiting for a final screenplay rewrite and time was of the essence.
• • Clark Gable [1 February 1901 — 16 November 1960] • •
• • Born in Cadiz, Ohio, Clark Gable [1 February 1901 — 16 November 1960] was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the Civil War epic film "Gone with the Wind" [1939], in which he starred with Vivien Leigh. His performance earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
• • Clark Gable's marriage to his third wife, actress Carole Lombard [1908 — 1942], was the happiest period of his personal life. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard had eloped on 29 March 1939 when Gable had two days off from filming "Gone with the Wind" for MGM.
• • Gable died in Los Angeles on 16 November 1960, aged 59, from a coronary thrombosis ten days after suffering a severe heart attack.
• • George Givot [18 February 1903 — 7 June 1984] • •
• • Born in Omaha, Nebraska on 18 February 1903, George Givot gained fame in vaudeville as a dialect comedian. Often appearing onstage as an English-language-mangling Greek immigrant, Givot's familiar tag was this: "How'd ya like that?" He sailed onto The Great White Way in "Earl Carroll's Sketch Book," a musical revue that debuted on 1 July 1929 and lasted for a year until it closed on 7 June 1930.
• • George Givot co-starred opposite Mae West in the Broadway production of "The Constant Sinner" in 1931. Though he continued to work on Broadway until 1962, he was almost always cast in dialect roles as a Latino or a Greek.
• • George Givot died in Palm Springs, California on 7 June 1984. He was 81 years old.
• • On Saturday, 18 February 1933 in The New Yorker • •
• • An article about Mae West and her new film "She Done Him Wrong" was printed in The New Yorker in their issue dated for Saturday, 18 February 1933.
• • On Thursday, 18 February 1999 in Australia • •
• • "She's No Angel: A Mae West Vaudeville" was written by Barry Lowe. This musical featured "witty songs by Sean Peter, and director Jack Webster gives it a larger-than-life verve that threatens to spill out into Queen Street. The vaudeville is tailored to the talents of [George] Hoad ... He makes Mae West a commanding, no-nonsense figure, whose life and career are played out in the manner of a tawdry circus ...," wrote Bryce Hallett.
• • Source: Theatre Review by Bryce Hallett in The Sydney Morning Herald on page 11, on Thursday, 18 February 1999.
• • On Tuesday, 18 February 2003 • •
• • The biography written by Jill Watts "Mae West: An Icon in Black and White" was published on 18 February 2003 by Oxford University Press [USA]. If you love Mae West, then you must own this bio.
• • On 18 February 2004 in The Villager • •
• • "Mae's return court date" was the title in The Villager, a weekly newspaper in Greenwich Village. The cast and the author of “Courting Mae West” celebrated after a staged reading before a full house at Jefferson Market Library.
• • Source: The Villager, Volume 73, Number 42 | February 18 — 24, 2004
• • Link: thevillager.com/villager_42/maereturncourtdate.html
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said upon arriving in Los Angeles: "So this is the place where a leaf falls up in some canyon and they tell you it's winter."
• • Mae West said: "As a rule I have most actors around me work faster than I do; they keep the pace while I take my liberties in my timing."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article on "Myra Breckinridge" mentioned Mae West. Raquel Welch, who appears seldom on the screen and who has been unpopular in Hollywood for decades (despite all her plastic surgery), had nothing good to say about her co-stars from more than 40 years ago. Evidence of the brunette wig-hawker's spiteful personality appears below.
• • Contactmusic wrote: Movie beauty Raquel Welch still has her suspicions that Mae West was a male drag queen after getting up close and personal to the silver screen icon during one of her final films, "Myra Breckinridge" [1970].
• • Contactmusic wrote: The two goddesses spent a lot of time in each other's company on the set of the 1970 film — — and Welch admits she started to think there was something more than a little odd about her co-star.
• • Contactmusic wrote: During a Raquel Welch film retrospective in New York at the weekend (February 11 — 12), the still-stunning actress explained, "She never worked before 5pm and... she also never moved by herself, so the limo that took her to the studio, to her dressing room, also brought her onto the set. So they had to open the huge door where they load in scenery. She was kind of like a piece of scenery!"
• • Contactmusic wrote: "When I went over to say hello to her (one day) I said, 'Hi, it's Raquel, remember?' She sort of extended her hand to me and I went to kiss the ring and one false fingernail painted silver fell to the floor. I looked at the hand and I thought, 'Oh, I'm getting a vibe.' I really think she's a man!"
• • Contactmusic wrote: "At this point in her life all bets are off and you're not going to be able to doll it (appearance) up that much. I would say it's pretty accurate that she resembled a dock worker in drag." 
• • Contactmusic wrote: Welch admitted it was a thrill to work with West — — but she took away a very bad memory from their time together: "I had this beautiful dress and it was black with a big white ruffle around the neck and a black velvet hat, based on a costume that was worn by Greta Garbo. It was very chic and I couldn't wait to wear it. (Costume designer) Theodora Van Runkle designed it for the scene with Mae West because she was wearing all white with black trim, so this would be perfect."
• • PHOTO: Theodora Van Runkle designed this costume for Raquel Welch, with the white ruffle around the neck, that Mae objected to. • • Contactmusic wrote: "Apparently Mae got wind of the fact that I was wearing this exquisite dress and I went to the studio that day for our scene together. I got coiffed, got my hair done and went to the closet to get the dress and it wasn't there. I asked my dresser what happened to the dress and she said, 'It's been confiscated. Mae does not want you to wear that dress. You can wear the red dress that you wore in the last scene!'"
• • Contactmusic wrote: "Mae had approval over everything that was worn on the set... The producer said, 'It's (dress) a non-colour and nobody gets to wear non-colours in the movie but Mae.'"
• • Contactmusic wrote: Welch was so outraged, she stormed off the set and refused to return until the dress was back in her closet. She recalled, "For the scene, we never appeared in a two-shot together. Mae left after she did her lines and I had someone off-camera reading her lines and I had to pretend she was there." ...
• • Source: Interview: "Raquel Welch: 'I Think Mae West Was A Man" written by Contactmusic; posted on: 17 February 2012
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2213th 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 • • Modern Screen in 1933 • •
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MAE WEST worked with Raquel Welch in the oddball motion picture "Myra Breckinridge" [released in the USA on 24 June 1970].
• • 71 Birthday Candles Lit for Raquel Welch • •
• • Happy Birthday to Raquel Welch, whose silver screen aspirations were not furthered by "Myra Breckinridge" [1970]. Born on 5 September 1940, the former model is 71 years old today. When they co-starred together, Mae West was 77 years old. 
Yes, Raquel, give your long-fading Hollywood karma some thought, honey. Welch's fans may have been hoping that the pathetic TV series "Welcome to the Captain" would revive her lackluster career — — but this sit-com was canceled after merely five episodes in 2008. Raquel Welch was seen very briefly in "Legally Blonde" [2001]. Did anyone even notice?
• • Heavy-set comedienne Kathleen Freeman portrayed Bobby Dean Loner in the screen version of Gore Vidal's bestseller. Kathleen Freeman often chuckled about working with every "tough bitch" in the film industry. After this motion picture had been released in 1970, she often recalled the clash between the film's two leading ladies: "Mae West was not an actress; she was not a star; she was the most incredible phenomenon I ever encountered. Place that against the starlet Raquel Welch, who had an enormous ego, and boom — — there were fireworks. And I made darn sure that I wasn't caught up in the cross-fire."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this for Leticia Van Allen: "Don't forget to remind me about the policeman's balls — — I mean police show!"
• • Quote, Unquote • • 
• • Looking after Mae's interests, veteran wardrobe director Edith Head (who had dressed Mae before at Paramount Pictures) cleverly suggested that her longtime friend should add a significant costume clause to her contract.
• • In The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years written by David Shipman (1970), the author writes of the far-flung feud between Mae West and Raquel Welch which started on the set of "Myra Breckenridge": Raquel Welch had the title role, but Mae West had top billing. Apparently Miss Welch was no more pleased about this than about the clause in Miss West’s contract which gave her the exclusive right to wear black or white. Indeed there seems to have been dissension on all sides. ...
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • In an interview with actress-director Vera Farmiga, Mae West's name was mentioned.
• • Beantown film columnist Wesley Morris writes: When the subject turns to masculinity in the American movies and how there’s a lot less of it now than there used to be, Farmiga cites the 1930s as a good time for the males of the species. “Those were men, not boys. Men. They had gravitas,’’ curling each syllable of that last word with Mae West-caliber lasciviousness. ...
• • Source: Article: "Vera Farmiga reaches for ‘Higher Ground’ in directing debut" written by Wesley Morris, Boston Globe Staff; posted on 4 September 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2044th 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 • • 1970 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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The MAE WEST BLOG is celebrating a special anniversary this week — — in honor of blog post # 1893. To mark this occasion, a number of Mae-mavens offered their Westian wisdom inspired by the Brooklyn bombshell who was born in the year 1893.
• • • What is Mae West's legacy, in your opinion, and is she still relevant?
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Quinn O'Hara, actress, Los Angeles, California [born in Scotland] 
• • Regarding her LEGACY and her relevance — — She was the first real feminist movie star. She was never a clinging vine type who would say, "Oh honey, I need you so much." She was open about her feelings. If she liked you, you knew it. And she made stars of some our great actors, i.e., Cary Grant. She knew how to pick her men and what to do with them after she had them. She made money investing in real estate and had her own fortune that SHE earned, with hard work and using her talents to get what she needed and got done what was essential. There was nothing weak-kneed about her. She was feminine and used it in her wonderfully humorous way. It is often said that Mae West could read the phone book and make it sound intriguing and naughty.
• • She was one of a kind. And so very witty and sharp. She didn't miss a beat. There is so much to say, but it still comes out to she was the one and only Mae West, sharp, business savvy, and sexy with a terrific sense of timing.
• • Mae West was such a treat to meet in 1977, recalls the effervescent redhead Quinn O'Hara, who had starred in a motion picture "A Swinging Summer" [1965] with a newcomer to the cinema — — Raquel Welch. Quinn recalls: The announcements read ". . . and introducing Raquel Welch, the Hollywood Palace billboard girl!" With many frames jammed with bikini-clad fillies, this movie got attention for director Robert Sparr and is now a collector's item selling for $195 (if you can find it).
• • Quinn O'Hara clearly remembers the warm humid day when she met Mae West at a Hollywood hoe-down given by the director of "One Day at a Time" — — Herbert Kenwith. "I had just done one of the episodes and Herb Kenwith was such a lovely person, too," she explained. Listen to the eternally beautiful Quinn O'Hara recount this special evening event exclusively for the MAE WEST BLOG.
• • When I met Mae, she was very nice to me. My hair is simply frightful in humid weather, so I had to do "the Mae West thing" of patting my hair, to keep it in place.
• • Since I had been following her around like a puppy, I wanted to apologize to Mae and explain that I wasn't trying to imitate her.
• • Mae West looked at me and smiled — — and said, as only she could — — "My dear, you have beautiful hair!"
• • Several guests nearly fainted. I discovered that she rarely ever complimented a woman. Then I took a chance and asked if I might have my picture taken with her, and voila! Here is the photo I treasure. There will always be no one like Mae West!!
• • The photograph is the personal property of Quinn O'Hara. Please do not "steal" it for your blog or web site. Thank you for the courtesy.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • More guest commentators to follow tomorrow!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • British movie maven Stephen Cole began a review with this first sentence: “To clear my head, I went to a nude beach,” announces Smith, teen hero of Gregg Araki’s aptly titled Kaboom, a film with enough sexy one-liners to tempt Mae West from the grave. ...
• • Source: Movie review "Kaboom: Dating, ritual murder and magic cookies" written by Stephen Cole for The Globe and Mail, UK; posted on 8 April 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1894th 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 • • a keeper of the eternal flame • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest
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