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MAE WEST worked twice with Eddie Borden, who was seen in "I'm No Angel" [1933] as an amusing carnival sideshow spectator who ogles "Tira the Incomparable" in her provocative costume — — and was cast the following year as a comedian in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934].
• • Born in Deer Lodge, Tennessee on the first day in May — — on 1 May 1888 — — the funnyman launched his career as a variety artist, then gave up vaudeville for the screen trade. The five-foot-nine actor had a number of feature roles when he first landed in Tinseltown but gradually became a bit parts player. After his start in Hollywood in 1922, Eddie Borden appeared in 142 motion pictures, the last one being "Holiday for Sinners" [1952], a title that sounds tailor-made for Mae West. Eddie Borden died at age 67 on the first day of July (on 1 July 1955) in Hollywood, California.
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The play's the thing. Until Hollywood gets hold of it. Movie reviewer Digby Ricci has written an insightful column on how Tinseltown's directors have marred scenes in classic stage plays — — and here is one of his examples.
• • South African columnist Digby Ricci writes: Often, when watching film-versions of well-known plays, one wishes to yell, like an irate parent, “Stay indoors!” for the “opening out” of a play seldom fails to damage it. Even Elia Kazan’s great film-version of “Streetcar” — — I celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in a recent column — — makes one silly slip, when Kazan allows us to accompany Blanche and Mitch on their date. Nothing , of course, could spoil Vivien Leigh’s delivery of the great guilt-stricken monologue about the suicide of Blanche’s youthful husband (“He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl”), but what a pity it is that the scene does not begin, as it does in Williams’s play, with Blanche and Mitch returning, exhausted and depressed, to the Kowalskis’ apartment, with Mitch bearing — — a wonderful visual irony — — “a plaster statuette of Mae West, the sort of prize won at shooting-galleries and carnival games of chance”. ...
• • Source: Movie Monocle: The Pitfalls of ‘OPENING OUT’ by Digby Ricci for NewsTime; posted on 29 April 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 1917th 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 worked with one actor who was nicknamed "the butt of the century" by the legendary Los Angeles Times Hollywood columnist Joyce Haber.
• • Born in Baxter, Tennesse in the month of September — — on 27 September 1945 — — Roger Herren was a handsome young hopeful of brief acclaim during the late 1960s. Gifted with southern charm, a muscular physique, and a handsome face, Herren appeared to be poised for stardom, however, he is known to have had only one credited film role and one credited stage role.
• • What curse befell the six-foot, 185-pound 25-year-old in 1970? Herren saw his career peak and fizzle with his co-starring performance as Rusty Godowsky in the 1970 cinema version of Gore Vidal's 1968 bestseller "Myra Breckinridge" (1970). The controversial film featured the newcomers Farrah Fawcett, who played Herren's girlfriend, and Tom Selleck, in a small but unforgettable role opposite the inimitable Mae West. Tom Selleck actually lost the larger role to Roger Herren.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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An article in The Tennessean mentioned MAE WEST's long ago sojourn in The Volunteer State.
• • It was a booking in the venerable Ryman Auditorium that brought the Brooklyn blonde to the southeastern part of the country.
• • Established in 1892 as a church, Ryman Auditorium [refurbished and still standing at 116 Fifth Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37219] is a National Historic Landmark that is continuing its more than 100-year music tradition by offering the best in entertainment. Incidentally, if you are ever in the area, Ryman does offer tours that showcase the legendary performers who have aroused enough applause to make paint flake from its walls — — such as Mae West, Rudolph Valentino, and W.C. Fields, along with country's most notable names.
• • In a recent article by Claudia Pinto — — "Nashville luxury suites lure celebs: Lavish rooms and VIP treatment keep stars coming back to Music City's hotels" [The Tennessean on 1 September 2009] — — it was noted that Union Station Hotel's 900-square-foot Presidential Suite (cost: $300 to $500 a night) has been the room of choice for high-level guests such as Mae West, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Jimmy Carter, Mike Huckabee, Garth Brooks, Al Capone, Delbert McClinton, Steve Gill, among others.
• • Claudia Pinto added that the amenities offered are: In-room dining, marble bathrooms with steeping tubs or separate walk-in showers, plush bathrobes, Gilchrist & Soames skin care, and bath products.
• • The well-preserved 125-room Union Station Hotel is centrally located: 1001 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203. • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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William Landon Jones enjoyed a close friendship with MAE WEST for 50 years.
• • Born in Memphis, Tennessee on 12 May 1906, he was known in boxing by the moniker "Gorilla" Jones. This weekend, the five-foot-nine fighter will be inducted posthumously into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y. He died at age 75 on 4 January 1982. After Mae's death, it's said he lost the will to live.
• • The 22-year-old Jones met Mae West in a New York night club during 1928. He had enjoyed a long career in the ring and was about to come into the big time in 1929, when he would earn a $100,000 purse — — about $1.2 million in today's money — — for winning a bout in Madison Square Garden.
• • Often photographed in a ringsize seat, the daughter of "Battling Jack" also befriended other black pugilists such as Chalky Wright and Joe Louis.
• • In a colorful feature for the Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, reporter Mark J. Price covers the career of Gorilla Jones as well as his private life with Mae West. Many pleasures await you.
• • Mark J. Price writes: Outside the boxing ring, Gorilla Jones was an unforgettable personality. He wore impeccable suits, flashed diamond rings, drove a Lincoln coupe, consorted with a Hollywood vixen — — Mae West — — and walked a lion cub on a leash.
• • Inside the ring, stripped of all excess, he was equally memorable — — except perhaps to the dozens of fighters he knocked out. They were excused for not recalling a thing after Jones' right glove cratered their faces.
• • One of the greatest boxers in Akron's history, Jones won the world middleweight title twice in the 1930s. He will be inducted posthumously this weekend into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.
• • Jones fought in 138 professional bouts, winning 101, losing 24 and drawing 13. He KO'd 52 opponents, but never suffered a knockout or serious injury.
• • ''I have been blessed with a mind that works rapidly in the ring and hands that work as rapidly as my mind tells them,'' Jones told the Beacon Journal early in his career. ''I think I can figure fight moves a bit faster than can the fellows I am fighting, and once figured out, my hands move as they should to carry me to victory.''
• • Why did they call him "Gorilla"? • •
• • The nickname ''Gorilla,'' politically incorrect in today's world, was attributed to Jones' long reach — 75 inches — in the ring. In 1932, Beacon Journal sports scribe Jim Schlemmer said the Gorilla moniker didn't fit ''in looks or actions,'' and called Jones ''as classy a piece of fighting machinery as the game has known.''
• • ''He is an unusual type of fighter,'' Schlemmer wrote. ''He doesn't like to hurt anybody. He wishes every fellow he fights could be as good or nearly as good as himself.''
• • William Landon Jones was born in 1906 in Memphis, Tenn. He confessed to doing a lot of things wrong in his youth, such as giving up on education after grammar school. He worked for a bootlegger, ran with a tough crowd and learned to fight.
• • The ring was his way out. At age 18, Jones started boxing for $7.50 a bout. He stood 5 feet 9 inches and tipped the scales at 145 pounds.
• • Jones' first fight outside Memphis was at the Akron Armory in 1927. He beat welterweight K.O. Kelly and won $100. Unfortunately, Jones tried to add to his earnings in a late-night dice game and lost everything.
• • He begged Akron boxing promoter Suey Welch for another fight so he could buy a train ticket to Memphis.
• • Jones won the rematch, but stayed in Akron after the promoter offered to be his manager and train him at the Welch Athletic Club at 219 S. Main St.
• • Welch called Jones ''the greatest fighter in the world, pound for pound.'' The two made a fortune together.
• • Jones pummeled his way through a long line of foes: Sailor Maxwell, Mickey Fedor, Tommy Freeman, Bucky Lawless, Al Mello, Izzy Grove, Jackie Horner, Nick Testo, Meyer Grace, Jock Malone. The purses grew larger, and soon he was fighting as a middleweight at Madison Square Garden in New York.
• • In 1929, Jones earned $100,000 — about $1.2 million in today's money — and went on a spending spree. He bought his parents a Ford sedan and $10,000 home in Memphis, then rewarded himself with a $5,400 Lincoln. He bought three suits after each bout, giving away older outfits to pals. He added a diamond-collared lion to his act, walking the cub on a leash to matches and personal appearances.
• • ''In 1929 when I was in the so-called 'big' money, I spent too much,'' he later recalled. ''I liked fast horses, fast autos, fast airplanes. I had too many friends who helped me spend.''
• • Jones hit the big time in January 1932 with a sixth-round knockout of Italian boxer Oddone Piazza in Milwaukee for the National Boxing Association middleweight crown. A cheering crowd greeted him at Union Depot as he returned to Akron.
• • Five months later, he lost the title to Marcel Thil before 70,000 spectators in Paris, but regained it in 1933 by knocking out Sammy Slaughter at Cleveland Public Hall. He declined to defend the title after that.
• • Jones boxed for seven more years, but his right punch lost its sting. His final fight at the Akron Armory was a 1938 loss to Babe Risko. Jones retired in 1940 after losing a bout in Idaho. ''Gorilla Jones will never stay in the fight game until he's ready to cut paper dolls,'' Jones vowed.
• • Mae West met Gorilla Jones in a nightspot in 1928 • •
• • In many respects, the next chapter of his life was flashier than boxing. He went to work as Hollywood legend Mae West's chauffeur and bodyguard.
• • He first met the wise-cracking actress at a New York nightclub in 1928. Mae West's father had been a prizefighter, and she enjoyed bankrolling boxers.
• • ''The boxers had a hard time, even some of them who were pretty good,'' West told biographer Charlotte Chandler in 1979. ''There was one I backed named Gorilla Jones. I don't know why he was called 'Gorilla.' He wasn't that kind of fighter. I saw he was getting pounded too much, and he really didn't like fighting anymore, but he didn't know what else to do.''
• • She asked him if he could drive a car. Sure, he could. Even with a lion cub in the back seat.
• • ''So I hired him as my chauffeur,'' West said. ''He turned out to be a very good driver — — and he was also protection.''
• • Mae West also employed Jones' mother, Daisy, as a wardrobe assistant when the actress traveled. She bought homes for the boxer and his mother in Los Angeles, and served as Jones' financial manager and personal manager.
• • Biographers agree that the relationship wasn't all business. West and Jones remained close companions for 40 years. In public, he referred to her as ''The Lady,'' never by her name.
• • One time, a heckler made a bawdy remark to the actress, and the boxer threatened to rearrange the man's face.
• • ''Let 'em talk,'' Mae West told him. ''It's good for business.''
• • According to Hollywood lore, West got aggravated when house managers tried to block Jones from visiting her sixth-floor suite in the Ravenswood apartment complex. She bought the building and hired new staff.
• • ''A motion picture company offered me a quarter-million to film my story, but they wanted to make me say I was her lover,'' Jones told Jet magazine in 1974. ''That would be a lie because she was my manager and my friend. All the money in the world would be no good without a friend who has done everything to keep me on top and let me live the life I wanted to live.''
• • When Jones began to suffer from diabetes and lose his eyesight, West kept him on the payroll and handled his bills.
• • Jones was devastated in 1980 when West died in Ravenswood at age 87. She left him two apartment buildings and three houses.
• • Acquaintances said Jones gave up the will to live after ''The Lady'' passed away.
• • As his health deteriorated, his weight plunged to 102 pounds. In 1982, William ''Gorilla'' Jones died of arteriosclerosis at age 75.
• • The final bell sounded for an Akron boxing legend.
• • 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: — —
• • Article: Akron's king of rings: Boxer Gorilla Jones conquers the world and lives the high life
• • Byline: Mark J. Price | Beacon Journal staff writer
• • Published in: Ohio.com
• • Published on: 8 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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In many ways, John Kobal's Hollywood career caught fire thanks to MAE WEST.
• • Years ago, one interviewer whipped up this creamy prologue: "Like so many stories about John Kobal, the one about his notable role as a connoisseur, collector, and chronicler of Hollywood photography begins with a movie star. Working as a journalist in 1969, Kobal visited the set of Myra Breckinridge with the goal of interviewing screen legend Mae West. His reporter's credentials granted him access to the set and while awaiting summons from Miss West, Kobal had the opportunity to meet members of the film's crew. ..."
• • In his book "People Will Talk," he offered chatty testimonials from 43 notable Hollywood veterans. This is a snippet: Mae West's refusal to marry is symptomatic of narcissism, then and now: "Every time I look at myself, I become absorbed in myself, and I didn't want to get involved with another person like that. ..."
• • John Kobal [birthname: Ivan Kobaly] was born in Linz, Austria during the month of May — — on 30 May 1940. Clearly, he decided he'd never become the outsider at his own party. The author of over 30 books on film and film photography, he was known for his creative and exuberant personality, as well as his voracious knowledge of the minutiae of film and photography lore. He is credited with essentially 'rediscovering' the great Hollywood Studio photographers — — George Hurrell, Laszlo Willinger, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Ted Allan, et al — — who were employed by the motion picture studios to create the glamorous, iconic portraits of the most famous and intriguing stars of the day that came to spit-shine the Tinseltown myth.
• • "Made In Hollywood" • • • • The prints in the Kobal Collection, which include many images of Mae West, form the backbone of the "Made In Hollywood" exhibition, which finished its run in Santa Barbara, California [July 12th – October 12th, 2008], and which is now on view at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, USA [May 7th – October 27th, 2009].
• • John Kobal, prolific and hard-working, died of AIDS when he was 51 on 28 October 1991 in London, England.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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MAE WEST was attracted not just to character actors but to genuine characters such as William "Gorilla" Jones [1906 — 1982]. News comes today that the former boxer will be honored next year.
• • According to Adelaide Now, three-time heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis headlines the 2009 induction class into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
• • Lennox Lewis enters as a modern era fighter, along with American bantamweight champion Orlando Canizales and South African junior lightweight champion Brian Mitchell.
• • Posthumous honorees are middleweight champion William "Gorilla" Jones, welterweight champion "Mysterious" Billy Smith, and middleweight champion Billy Soose.
• • Inductees were voted in by members of the Boxing Writers Association and a panel of international boxing historians. The induction ceremony is June 14, 2009 . . . .
• • The new nominees include William "Gorilla" Jones
• • WILLIAM "GORILLA" JONES • •
• • Born in Memphis, Tennessee, May 12, 1906. Turned pro in 1924. Jones stopped Oddone Piazza with a sixth-round TKO to win NBA middleweight title in 1931. After title loss to Marcel Thil, Jones regained the NBA crown in 1933 with a seventh-round KO of Sammy Slaughter. Retired in 1940 with a career mark of 101-24-13 and 52 KOs. In retirement, became chauffeur and bodyguard for Hollywood starlet Mae West. Died January 4, 1982. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Published in: Adelaide Now — — www.news.com.au
• • Published on: 10 December 2008• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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MAE WEST appears in a mixed media piece called "Tall, Dark and Handsome" by Jed Jackson. 
• • On Saturday 9 February 2008 there will be a silent auction at the 16th annual "Works of Heart" fundraiser, the proceeds going to the Memphis Child Advocacy Center.
• • The event will take place in Tennessee (from 7 — 10 pm) at Memphis College of Art.
• • Last year's auction raised more than $50,000 for the nonprofit organization that focuses on victims of childhood sexual abuse. • • More than 100 local and regional artists were given wooden hearts — — to inspire them to create a work for the pre-Valentine's Day charity auction.
• • Up for bidding is "Tall, Dark, and Handsome" by Jed Jackson, who is a professor of painting at the University of Memphis.
• • Reporter Frederic Koeppel described the piece: "In the center of his heart, in all her statuesque glory, is Mae West, the personification of the ironic approach to the Battle of the Sexes and a woman legendarily in control of her lovers. . . ."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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MAE WEST worked twice with Eddie Borden, who was seen in "I'm No Angel" [1933] as an amusing carnival sideshow spectator who ogles "Tira the Incomparable" in her provocative costume — — and was cast the following year as a comedian in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934].
