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MAE WEST worked with an international cast in "Sextette." And her screen character Marlo Manners winds up in a honeymoon suite at a fancy hotel where there is an international conference in progress, led by the avuncular American diplomat Chambers — — Walter Pidgeon, in his last performance. 
• • Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in the month of September — — on 23 September 1897 — — Walter Pidgeon played Mr. Chambers, the chairman in "Sextette" [1978].
• • Dapper and tall [6' 2 1/2"], Walter Pidgeon in his youth had planned to follow his brothers into a military career, but was invalided out of the service after a training accident. Subsequently, Pigeon began his career as a voice student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, which helped him land several roles in Broadway musicals. When his footsteps led to a silver screen career, he began in silents and transitioned to talkies. Despite his good looks, he was seldom seen as a leading man, though he had a long career in supporting roles. He was considered to be MGM's resident "perfect gentleman," though rebels and rogues were always more in vogue and often snagged top billing.
• • Walter Pidgeon died of a stroke in Santa Monica, California in the month of September — — on 25 September 1984. He was 87 years old.
• • Mae West Making News on 25 September • •
• • This headline appeared in many places on 25 September 2000, thanks to UPI and AP: "Mae West memorabilia, jewelry, goes on the block." The sale would be held at Butterfields Auction House in Los Angeles. The memorabilia portion of Mae's belongings went before bidders on 24 October 2000.
• • In Variety on 25 September 1934 • •
• • This is a brief excerpt from the lengthy review that appeared in Variety on this date.
• • Abel wrote: "Belle of the Nineties" is a little of everything. Even "St. Louis Blues" and "Memphis Blues" are in it — — she did "Frankie and Johnny" in "Diamond Lil."
• • The original songs by Coslow and Johnston are "My Old Flame," "American Beauty," and "Troubled Waters." Duke Ellington's nifty jazzique is a natural for the Westian song delivery. "Waters" introduces a little of the Elder Michaux revival meeting. That's in the offing, but within seeming earshot, and thus she does a semi-spiritual against the heated colored revival meeting background which productionally is rather well worked in.
• • Just like she makes stooges of almost anybody assigned to bandy talk with her, Miss West dittoes with her principal support, including Roger Pryor, the fave vis-a-vis, John Mack Brown as the good time Charlie, and John Miljan, a villain of darkest mien. Katherine DeMille as the spurned gambler's sweetheart looks better and suggests better opportunities than the prima facie script accords her. The publicity, the glamor, and the star appeal — — in these factors alone "Belle of the Nineties" underwrites itself. — — Abel.
• • Source: Variety Magazine [originally published 25 September 1934]
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West wrote this line for Margy Lamont, her character in the play "Sex": "All right, rat, I'll give you the chance," Margy is telling her pimp. "Why, if I didn't have a certain amount of refinement, I'd kick your teeth all over this floor. Now blow, bum, blow."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • It seems that a Mae West quote wriggled its way into an article.
• • From Down Under, crime author and TV host Tara Moss writes: As historian and curator Nerida Campbell writes in her book Femme Fatale: The Female Criminal: ''Pulp fiction artists created a picture of incredible glamour, beauty and wickedness. The women were frequently depicted carrying out their nefarious activities, often with a smoking gun in hand.'' A weapon in the hands of a striking woman is a powerful and sexually charged image — — the blade or the pistol as phallic symbol, the shooting bullet as metaphor for the obvious.
• • Tara Moss continues: Mae West quipped, ''Is that a gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me?'' The fact is, we are happy to see the femme fatale. Men are drawn to her because she is not only beautiful but also sexually voracious and available. The heartache afterwards is an afterthought. ...
• • Source: Article: "Beauty obscures the beast" written by Tara Moss for the Brisbane Times; posted on 25 September 2011
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2064th 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 • • 1978 • •
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MAE WEST worked with two actors born on the same date — — and relaxed after a long day on the set with a bowl of Barney's chili. Clearly, she knew her beans.
• • Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania in the month of September — — on 23 September 1876 — — Si Jenks played a Country Bumpkin in "Go West Young Man" [1936].
• • The former vaudevillian was usually cast in motion pictures as a bewhiskered curmudeon type. Seen in hundreds of westerns, the bit part player usually added a few chuckles to the scene as a toothless old codger.
• • Si Jenks developed heart diseasse and died on 6 January 1970 in Woodland Hills, California.
• • Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in the month of September — — on 23 September 1897 — — Walter Pidgeon played Mr. Chambers, the chairman in "Sextette" [1978].
• • Dapper and tall [6' 2 1/2"], Pigeon began his career as a voice student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, which helped him land several roles in Broadway musicals. When his footsteps led to a silver screen career, he began in silents and transitioned to talkies. Despite his good looks, he was seldom seen as a leading man, though he had a long career in supporting roles.
• • Walter Pidgeon died of a stroke on 25 September 1984 in Santa Monica, California.
• • Mae West Was a Regular at Barney's Beanery • •
• • Barney's Beanery, the third oldest restaurant in Los Angeles and venerable roadhouse/ famed celebrity hangout, will kick off its 90th anniversary celebration with a "5 Alarm Chili Cook-off" on Saturday, 9 October 2010, at the venerable roadhouse's original location which opened in 1920. ... The roadhouse's history includes a continuous following of Hollywood celebrities, including Quentin Tarantino who wrote parts of Pulp Fiction tableside, Doors' Jim Morrison who spent many a raucous night there, Janis Joplin, who was served her last meal there, and over the years iconic regulars, including Mae West, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, W.C. Fields, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Demi Moore, Adam Sandler, and Drew Carey.
• • Lester Colodny Worked with Mae West • •
• • Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1925, Les Colody portrayed a card player in a revival of "Diamond Lil" — — starring Mae West — — when the popular crowd-pleaser was on Broadway during its 1951 production [from 14 September 1951 — 10 November 1951].
• • Fast forward 59 years. According to the Jewish Ledger: Lester Colodny of Westport, Connecticut spent decades in show business as a talent agent, ad man, writer, actor, director, and producer. His just-published memoir, "A Funny Thing Happened: Life Behind the Scenes — Hollywood Hilarity and Manhattan Mayhem" is an account of those years, when he worked with such luminaries as Mae West, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Frank Sinatra, and Dave Garroway, to name a few. As an agent, he discovered Woody Allen. ...
• • Lester Colodny is now 85 years old and we wish him well with this book.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Handsome Tony Curtis was in one motion picture with MAE WEST.
• • If you saw "Sextette," perhaps you remember the scene when newly wed Marlo Manners (now Lady Barrington) and her groom Sir Michael Barrington finally are snug inside their hotel suite. However, the lovebirds are unable to go beddy-bye and celebrate their marital bliss because of noisome botherations. Coitus interruptus (sort of)! These cinematic intrusions are provoked by the demands of milady's career (such as interviews, dress fittings, and photo sessions). Additionally, there are entreaties and knock-knocks from men, including some ex-husbands. Apparently, the vast enrollment of membership in the Marlo Manners Fan Club includes: diplomat Alexei Andreyev Karansky (Tony Curtis), director Laslo Karolny (Ringo Starr), gangster Vance Norton (George Hamilton), and an entire athletic team from the USA, all of whom desire to have sex with Marlo. And, after all, Mae West once did tell an interviewer she had a special interest in foreign affairs.
• • Born during the month of June — — on 3 June 1925 — — the Bronx native started out in life with the ho-hum name of Bernard Schwartz. The five-foot-nine leading man enjoyed spreading urban legends about his role as Alexei Andreyev Karansky and Mae's difficulties on the set.
• • Perhaps Tony Curtis was feeling a bit spiteful after reading Vincent Canby's review, printed on 8 June 1979, five days after the actor celebrated his 54th birthday.
• • Here's a jetstream's worth of hissing from The New York Times film critic:
• • Movie Review — — Sextette (1978) • •
• • "SEXTETTE" is a disorienting freak show in which Mae West, now 87 years old, does a frail imitation of the personality that wasn't all that interesting 45 years ago. The movie, which opens today at the Victoria and other theaters, is a poetic, terrifying reminder of how a virtually disembodied ego can survive total physical decay and loss of common sense.
• • The character we see in this peculiar film looks less like the Mae West one remembers from even "Myra Breckinridge" than like a plump sheep that's been stood on its hind legs, dressed in a drag-queen's idea of chic, bewigged, and then smeared with pink plaster. The creature inside this getup seems game but arthritic and perplexed. She walks with apparent difficulty. One eye sometimes sags and the voice, despite Hollywood's electronic skills, cracks like the voice of the old lady she really is. Under these circumstances, the sexual innuendos are embarrassing. Granny should have her mouth washed out with soap, along with her teeth.
• • The story, based on a play written some years ago by Miss West, is about a world-famous movie star and her attempts to consummate her sixth marriage to Sir Michael Barrington (Timothy Dalton) despite repeated interruptions by former husbands, lovers, dress designers, secret agents, publicity people and delegates attending an international peace conference just upstairs. It's a plot that Miss West has often favored, and it freely reprises a lot of lines from earlier pictures.
• • The movie was directed by Ken Hughes ("The Small World of Sammy Lee," "Cromwell" and so on), a fellow you might think had better things to do than to prop up the Tower of Pisa. In addition to Mr. Dalton, "Sextette" features a number of other people who, in happier circumstances, are decent actors. These include Tony Curtis, George Hamilton, Ringo Starr, and the incomparable Dom DeLuise. There are some original songs and some old ones, a couple of which sound as if they'd been lip-synched by Miss West to old recordings.
• • The real problem with "Sextette" is . . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Movie Review: "Sextette" (1978)
• • Screen: "Mae West, 87, Does an Encore:Trying for 6th Marriage"
• • Byline: By Vincent Canby | Film Critic
• • Published in: The New York Times — — www.nytimes.com
• • Published on: 8 June 1979
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Mae-maven Mark Desjardins weighs in on Canby's commentary with a tertium quid.• • According to Mark Desjardins: Vincent Canby certainly was savage in his verbal attacks on Myra Breckinridge and Sextette in general — — and Mae West in particular. However, to his credit he did made somewhat of a deathbed apology for his bile filled comments.
• • When Canby reviewed the play Dirty Blonde and an off Broadway revival of Sex in the NYT in February, 2000, he mellowed sufficiently to admit that the plays kept alive he legacy of a vivid performer who appeal was really based on good humor and common sense.
• • Prior to his death, Canby reassessed is earlier view of Sextette that is was an affront to both man and beast and wrote that the film was Mae West's equivalent to the biblical epic about Salome in which Norma Desmond intended to make her return to the screen in Sunset Boulevard. He admitted to being embarrassed about the puritanical view he held of the film and West, and expressed his admiration for her tenacity in completing the film.
• • Mae's spirit must have been beaming that day! • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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We bid a fond adieu to a comedian who worked with MAE WEST.
• • Brooklyn native Dominick "Dom" DeLuise was born on 1 August 1933 to Italian American parents Vicenza and John DeLuise.
• • Like Mae, Dom DeLuise hailed from Brooklyn, New York. During the 1960s, the moon-faced entertainer was often seen on TV variety shows and also boosted the comic quotient in motion pictures featuring Mel Brooks and Burt Reynolds.
• • The 75-year-old funnyman passed away on Monday evening — — 4 May 2009 — — at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, according to his agent Robert Malcolm. DeLuise's wife Carol and three sons were at his bedside when he took his final breaths.
• • "Dom DeLuise was a naturally funny man," averred film critic Leonard Maltin. "He didn't need a script to be funny, but smart people like Mel Brooks knew how to give him just the right setting and showcase."
• • Dom DeLuise, who has many movie credits to his name, was also seen in Sextette [1978]. Released by Crown International, this musical comedy starred Mae West. Others in the cast included Timothy Dalton, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, and Walter Pidgeon.
• • Dom DeLuise also played host in the documentary film "Mae West . . . and the Men Who Knew Her."
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Dom DeLuise in 1978 • •
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MAE WEST co-starred with some extraordinarily handsome leading men such as Timothy Dalton, who is celebrating his 64th birthday today. 
• • Timothy Dalton was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales on 21 March 1944. Though Welsh-born, he is of British, Italian, and Irish ancestry. His mother is from the New York City borough the Bronx. Timothy grew up in Manchester, England with a background in show-biz, since both of his grandfathers were vaudevillians. After leaving school, he joined the National Youth Theatre for 3 summers, and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for 2 years. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1966, where he played many leading roles.
• • When he was 33 years old, Timothy Dalton first flew to Hollywood in 1977, to become the leading man of the iconic screen queen Mae West [1893—1980] in her last film. In Sextette (1978), with a cast that included Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, Walter Pidgeon, and George Raft, Timothy even ended up marrying the cinema legend whose sexual suggestiveness was as amorously artful as it was essentially innocent. In an interview, Timothy Dalton said he would never ever forget the experience.
• • "I'll never forget meeting her for the first time. We went in to see Mae West in a room where everything was white with gold trim on it. It was quite small, I thought, for somebody as fabulously rich as she was. It was only later that I realized that she owned the entire apartment block — — though I doubt that she ever spent a penny on herself in her life; everybody was too busy buying her presents and asking her out.
• • "Then Mae West came in. She was wearing a white suit and a large bouffant hairstyle and these long nails ... there was a great lady. I was very curious, very fascinated by her. Not to put too fine a point on it, we were all wondering, knowing how old she was, if we were going to be able to work with her.
• • "As it happened, she was delightful. I think the most extraordinary thing about knowing Mae West was the realization that she was a brilliant lady. When somebody is that famous, you're never quite sure whether her fame stems largely from the publicity hokum, but she could always come up with a line that was funnier than anybody else's. . . ."
• • "Of course," adds Timothy with a smile that conceals more than reveals, "she was a bit of a flirt. But she tried it only once with me! She had a nice twinkle in her eye, a nice sparkle. Oh, it was definitely an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world."
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Timothy Dalton • • "Sextette" 1978 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST co-starred with some handsome leading men such as Timothy Dalton.
• • Timothy Dalton was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales on 21 March 1944. Though Welsh-born, he is of British, Italian, and Irish ancestry. His mother is from the Bronx (New York). He grew up in Manchester, England with a background in show-biz, since both of his grandfathers were vaudevillians. After leaving school, he joined the National Youth Theatre for 3 summers, and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for 2 years. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1966, where he played many leading roles.
• • Timothy Dalton first flew to Hollywood in 1977, to become the leading man of the aging movie queen Mae West [1893-1980] in her last film. In Sextette (1978), with a cast that included Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, Walter Pidgeon, and George Raft, Timothy even ended up marrying the cinema legend whose sexual suggestiveness was as amorously artful as it was essentially innocent. He will never ever forget the experience.
• • "I'll never forget meeting her for the first time. We went in to see Mae West in a room where everything was white with gold trim on it. It was quite small, I thought, for somebody as fabulously rich as she was. It was only later that I realized that she owned the entire apartment block, though I doubt that she ever spent a penny on herself in her life; everybody was too busy buying her presents and asking her out.
• • "Then Mae West came in. She was wearing a white suit and a large bouffant hairstyle and these long nails ... there was a great lady. I was very curious, very fascinated by her. Not to put too fine a point on it, we were all wondering, knowing how old she was, if we were going to be able to work with her.
• • "As it happened, she was delightful. I think the most extraordinary thing about knowing Mae West was the realization that she was a brilliant lady. When somebody is that famous, you're never quite sure whether her fame stems largely from the publicity hokum, but she could always come up with a line that was funnier than anybody else's. . . ."
• • "Of course," adds Timothy with a smile that conceals more than reveals, "she was a bit of a flirt. But she tried it only once with me! She had a nice twinkle in her eye, a nice sparkle. Oh, it was definitely an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world."
• • Come up and see Mae online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
