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By enjoying herself until age 87, Mae West [17 August 1893 – 22 November 1980] outlived many of her contemporaries, for example, writer Dorothy Parker [ 22 August 1893 – 7 June 1967]. 
• • It's extraordinary to learn that a Japanese woman Yone Minagawa, who was born on 4 January 1893 — — seven months before Mae West — — has just died at age 114. Briefly considered to be the world's oldest person, Yone Minagawa was as alert and lively as ever until the moment she got into bed for her eternal rest, according to her caretaker. Mrs. Minagawa, who enjoyed good food and a bit of alcohol, died Monday [13 August 2007] at a nursing home in Japan's southwestern Fukuoka prefecture. "She was sprightly until a day before," the caretaker told AFP. "When I found her, she looked as if she was sleeping peacefully."
• • Though she achieved a fleeting bit of fame by living so long, this Japanese "celebrity" did not enjoy a lot of pampering. Minagawa was widowed at an early age. She raised her five children by selling flowers and vegetables in a coal mining town.
• • Minagawa — — born the same year as Mao Zedong and Mae West — — counted her healthy appetite and getting a good night's sleep as the key to her longevity. . . .
• • Next in line for the title of "the world's oldest person" is an American woman, according to the International Committee on Supercentenarians, a US-based group which documents longevity records.
• • Edna Parker, who lives in the midwestern state of Indiana, is also 114, having been born on 20 April 1893 — — which was four months before Mae West's August 17th birthdate. ...
• • Supposedly, Japanese women are the world's oldest humans, with a life expectancy of 85.81 years; experts attribute this to a healthy diet and a high standard of medical care. More than 28,000 Japanese are 100 years or older, up from a mere 1,000 at the start of the 1980s.
• • Following Minagawa, the oldest person in Japan is Shitsu Nakano, 113, who also lives in a nursing home in Fukuoka prefecture. Now Mrs. Nakano ranks fourth among the world's supercentenarians. Southern Japan, with its more balmy climate, is particularly renowned for longevity. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Source: AFP
• • Byline: Harumi Ozawa
• • Published on: 14 August 2007• • Sashay to the "wild WEST" for a lively time with Mae West on Friday evening 17 August 2007, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's MAE 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.
• • On August 17th the tour begins on Broadway and West 50th Street [NE corner] at 7:00 PM. As participants visit over a dozen WESTside locations significant to Mae West, they will enjoy rare antique photographs that show how the building looked when the actress rehearsed, performed, socialized, or got into mischief there. These startling vintage views also show how Mae looked when she was inside.
• • [See the Annual Mae West Gala posting below for the tour price and details.]• • Only 2 more days until Mae's birthday on August 17th!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West.
In 1955, sleazy Confidential Magazine tried to blackmail MAE WEST over her romance with a BLACK MALE: prizefighter Chalky Wright.
• • On 12 August 1957, just before he was to testify in this lawsuit about extortion, Albert "Chalky" Wright [age 45] died suddenly in Los Angeles in the bathtub of his mother's house. Mae West insisted that her dear friend had been murdered.
• • On the fiftieth anniversary of his untimely death [murder?] in August 1957, we are remembering a dark-skinned prizefighter Mae West was more than fond of.
• • Swing by for some prized time with Mae West 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 3 more days until Mae's birthday on August 17th!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's lover Chalky Wright • • in 1941 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Hot: August in New York City — — especially over on the westside when MAE WEST was starring in "Sex" as the unapologetic prostitute Margy LaMont. By the summer of 1926, the show had been booked in Daly's West 63rd Street Theatre for a couple of months but the boxoffice was still sizzling. Onstage Mae was shimmying. All this in the days before air-conditioning, too. 
• • As with most writers or actors, Mae West did not want to be ignored.
• • Even before "Sex" officially opened in Manhattan during April 1926, it attracted strong reactions. Mostly, it received a black eye in print.
• • It was "feeble and disjointed," The New York Times critic said.
• • It was a "disgrace," The New Yorker announced.
• • Walter Winchell called it "a vulgar affair ... amateurish in script and cast."
• • The Daily Mirror, a William Randolph Hearst paper, was less mellow. This was, it said, "a monstrosity plucked from the garbage can, destined for the sewer."
• • Theatre critics had a different perspective on scarlet women back in '26.
• • Mae West's play looked at the social mores of the time, she claimed, but John Q. Public was not so sure. The first attempt to close "Sex" failed; the police department convened a play jury but the officials barely missed getting the required three-fourths vote of a citizens' panel.
• • Moreover, celebrities and certain authors [for example, Robert Benchley and Zora Neale Hurston] had favorable things to say about "Sex." Some newspapers carried second reviews, reversing their first opinion.
• • After making a profit on the show, West was fined $500 and sentenced to 10 days in jail. "This will be the making of me," she predicted.
• • That prediction, however, would take a while. Five years later, and nearing her 40th birthday, Mae West finally made her presence felt in the motion picture world. She often wrote her own lines, oozing sexual references. She died in 1980 at 87, having outlived the era she mocked.
• • David Thompson wrote of Mae West: "The real conclusion of her work is that sex is an idea, an obsession for the human being, and one of the most reliable distractions from the equally potent idea that life is tragic."
• • Stage-manage your weekend and make some time for Mae West 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 4 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Daly's Theatre (briefly renamed Coburn) in 1928 • •
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Mae West.
L.A. Times reporter Steve Harvey, who pens the amusing "Only in L.A." column, was dipping into newspaper archives, recalling MAE WEST, and contemplating jail-wear. 
• • Steve Harvey writes: I couldn't help but think of Paris Hilton's recent stay in the pokey when I read in a collection of articles from the old New York World newspaper about the similar experience of actress Mae West. West, sentenced to 10 days in custody [at the Women's Workhouse] in April 1927 for an allegedly obscene stage production, was shocked by the clothing she was issued.
• • "Warden, I can't wear this cotton underwear," Mae West protested. "I never wore anything like it in my life. It scratches. Just feel it."
• • "Wait a minute," responded the warden. "I'll take a chance on almost anything — — but I'll not feel your underwear."
• • Source: L.A. Times — — (800) LATIMES
• • Byline: Steve Harvey
• • Published: 12 August 2007
• • Book some time with Mae West 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 5 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1927 visit, leading socialites around the Women's Workhouse • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST is laced into the bodice of this book artfully constructed by a Ph.D.-packing Southern Belle named Betsy Prioleau: SEDUCTRESS: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love [NY: Penguin, 2004]. 
• • New York City-based BookReporter.com weighed in on the merits. According to BookReporter, in SEDUCTRESS author Betsy Prioleau attempts to restore feminine sexual power to modern women. She examines the wiles of historical seductresses in a meticulous treatment of their histories. Intense research is a hallmark of her authoritative guide to sexual sovereignty.
• • Early in the book she puts down myths about the sexuality of the historical seductress with voluminous facts that substantiate her theories.
• • She categorizes the seductresses into six prototypes. The first insidious falsehood is that seductresses must be young and beautiful, but she dispels the myth with stories of very ugly enchantresses of the past. Age is a second misnomer, with celebrated allure of "old dames." The third myth centers on the intellectuality of a real seductress, with intelligence winning out over stupidity. Inspiration and artistic endeavor allowed women to build careers, tearing away the vapid housewife myth. Real seductresses were "movers and shakers," playing heavy parts in the world of government. Lastly, she explores the seductress as wildly adventurous and rakishly professional. ...
• • The author writes in the meat of SEDUCTRESS with passion about Belles Laides, her so-called homely sirens. Isabella Stewart Gardiner, known as Belle, stated, "Never ever behave with pride, self-confidence, and self-conceit." Wallis Simpson, the divorced siren who caused David Windsor to abdicate the British throne, is another less than beautiful personality described.
• • A chapter titled "Silver Foxes" is a word picture of the elder seductress such as Diane de Poiters, George Sand of the nineteenth century, and Colette, the modern aging siren. Mae West takes a big bite of this chapter, adding the categories of money and status to adulation reserved for sexual prowess.
• • Siren-scholars, artists, political divas and adventurers unfold in the bulk of the book. Their lives are a checklist for the women of today, to develop a new seductress prototype in the fast-paced twenty-first century world that paints sex as an act rather than an art. Prioleau suggests that women can become happier, sexier and more vital. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Book Review: "Educational entertainment in the realm of female entitlement"
Published: 7 December 2004
Source: BookReporter.com (New York, New York)
_______________________________________
• • Book Review from The Washington Post's Book World/ washingtonpost.com
"The seductress is one of the most potent female personas in existence," writes Betsy Prioleau in the preface to this book. Ms. Betsy seems just the woman for the job of lauding the seductress. Armed with a PhD from Duke and a Southern-belle mother (she was "Miss Valentine of Richmond, Virginia," daughter notes proudly), she's got the brains and the roots to tackle the siren's enormous historical import. ...
_______________________________________
• • SEDUCTRESS: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love
• • BY: Betsy Prioleau
• • [NY: Penguin Books, 2004] — — ISBN: 0143034227
• • Book some time with Mae West 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 6 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Artwork: • • Mae West • • by Larry Salk • •
NYC
Mae West.
In August 1993, to celebrate the centennial of Mae West's birth, critic Molly Haskell wrote an article for The New York Times: "Mae West's Bawdy Spirit Spans the Gay 90's." To toast the screen siren — — who would have been 114 years old this month — — here is an excerpt from Molly Haskell's intriguing essay. 
• • Mae West, the blond, diamond-studded, wisecracking, sashaying vamp from Brooklyn who lit up the stage in the 1920's and the screen in the 30's with a special brand of gender-bending sexuality, still defies categories and refuses to be conscripted into any one ideological army. The salty double-entendres, delivered with the drawling voice and rolling hips, have been recycled by a thousand female impersonators, but she was already there. As early as 1934 she was being called (by a writer in Vanity Fair) "the greatest female impersonator of all time."
• • Her heart, soul, figure and wardrobe belong to the Gay (18)90's, the decade in which she was born and which serves as the backdrop for many of her films; but in her roving eye and assertive sexuality she looks forward to the androgynous role-playing of a later era.
• • Born 100 years ago this week, on August 17, 1893, she might be said to span two decades and two Zeitgeists a century apart: the Gay 90's (hers) and the gay 90's (ours). In honor of the centennial of her birth (she died in 1980), MCA/ Universal is releasing nine of her best-known films on cassette, seven for the first time.
• • The late Parker Tyler, that pioneering and peerlessly witty chronicler of cinema's sexual — — and homosexual — — subtexts, claimed her as the Mother Superior of Drag Queens. Yet there is something straight, sweet and womanly — — even innocent — — about West that escapes camp. Feminists have found her both liberating and awkward: Her frank obsession with men as both lust objects and figures of identification have made her dubious as a "sister," but she's talking only to us when she says life is a man's game and "I just happen to be smart enough to play it their way."
• • Moreover, as the writer and producer of her Broadway shows, and the screenwriter of her films, she was a powerhouse who in 1934 knocked off the highest salary of any Hollywood star. And in blurring the lines between the biological and the culturally constructed woman, she stretches the ways in which we think about and define femininity and what it means to be a woman. As a self-parodying sex symbol, she's not a real siren, a turn-on, but she can brag about liking sex in a way that a more conventionally desirable woman couldn't. As such, she offers a fantasy, an imaginative projection of what a more sexually active and less romantically enslaved woman might be.
• • A transgressive, protean figure who both exposes and resolves the power struggle between male and female, she became a flashpoint for the moralists and guardians of public decency and is most famous now for having provoked the outrage that led to the enforcement of the Production Code, the censorship rules that governed Hollywood movie making until the 1960's. Was it the words in her 1933 films "She Done Him Wrong" and "I'm No Angel," or was it the fact that a woman was saying them, a woman who made bad seem good and refused to honor the dichotomy between virgin and whore. ...
— — — — excerpt — — — —
• • Author: Molly Haskell is the author of "From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies."
• • Source: The New York Times
• • Published: 15 August 1993
• • Byline: Molly Haskell
• • Refresh 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 7 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West and co-star Cary Grant • • 1933 • •
NYC
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 as a moral menace — — it seems absurb doesn't it? 
• • Nevertheless, during the 1930s, influential citizens such as the powerful muck-raking tabloid publisher William Randolph Hearst called on Congress to do something about the Mae West menace. Hypocritical Hearst comes to mind during August — why? — because he died on 14 August 1951.• • Religious leaders, too, condemned Mae West as a negative role model, and forced the Hollywood studios to curtail or sanitize her films. Catholic church spokespeople complained about ambiguous lines such as: "Between two evils, I always pick the one I haven't tried before"; "Why don't you come up and see me sometime"; and "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"
• • After decades of battling over a moral minefield such as Mae West, however, some priests seemed to have turned to other matters involving bad behavior quite unrelated to Tinseltown.
• • Share 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 9 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Sketch: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Learn to draw MAE WEST. 
• • On Saturday, 11 August 2007 the Brownsville Historical Association is hosting a workshop that will teach you to draw a caricature of Mae West [or other celebrities] as part of the festivities surrounding the “Miguel Covarrubias: Caricuturista” exhibition.
• • Born in Mexico, Miguel Covarrubias was a popular artist in the early 20th century. He drew the era's most notable figures like MAE WEST — — whom he sketched for The New Yorker — — along with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Josef Stalin, Charlie Chaplin, and other VIPs all hilariously re-imagined via his exaggerated sketches.
• • This exhibit will be on display until 29 September 2007.• • In Texas, the Brownsville Heritage Complex is located at 1325 E. Washington Street.
• • For information, contact: 956-541-5560.
• • Create even more 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 10 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Sketch: • • Mae West by Miguel Covarrubias • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Wouldn't you love to own a lavender feathered headdress that once adorned the head of Mae West? Robert Weisfeld yearned to — — and did.
• • A movie-maven since he was in elementary school, Robert Weisfeld always dreamed about collecting things that were once used, worn, or signed by the famous. Among his first teenage purchases was a hand-tinted poster of 1920s siren Jean Harlow. A black bonnet worn by Lillian Gish in the 1915 silent film “Birth of a Nation” is the oldest item in his possession.
• • The 53-year-old native of Abingdon, Virginia estimated that he has now amassed well over 500 bits of glitterati including Mae West's ornamental plumage, a “Kelly’s Heroes” military helmet autographed by Clint Eastwood, and a top hat of Fred Astaire’s. Footwear attracted his eye, too. He owns Betty Grable’s silver heels, three pairs of Jean Harlow’s size-3 shoes, and Bette Davis’ baby shoes.
• • For years, these keepsakes were in storage until his 80-year-old mother Martha had a brainstorm: put them on display.
• • Opened on 26 July 2007, Star Museum covers the 20-by-88-foot first floor of an 1865 building in downtown Abingdon, Virginia. Robert Weisfeld is planning for a seasonal rotation of his memorabilia, elements built around his appreciation of pop culture, Hollywood, and music.
• • Robert Weisfeld developed his collection as an adult living in Manhattan for almost 17 years. He scoured second-hand emporiums, thrift shops, antique stores, flea markets, and he attended the estate auctions of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Rock Hudson. Eleven years ago, he returned to his Southern roots when he came home to be editor of the Virginian.
• • His collection has been insured for about $160,000. Not counting boxes of letters, newspapers, copies of Life Magazine, and photos, Weisfeld estimates he owns close to 1,000 unique bits that were once in the hands of a notable individual, for instance, actress Rosalind Russell’s $10.64 check for a 1947 electric bill and Richard Burton’s Roman shield from “Cleopatra.”
• • One showcase is arranged as if Marilyn Monroe had dropped her faux-leopard purse. Her wallet, sunglasses and paste chandelier earrings have slipped out, as well as a Las Vegas hotel swizzle stick, a pair of Frank Sinatra’s cuff links, and John F. Kennedy's White House matchbook.
• • The museum also genuflects to several musical and pop-culture personalities. Visitors will see clothing worn by Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn's concert gown, and a 1949 Life Magazine cover signed by slugger Joe DiMaggio. But the museum’s focus — — from the photos on its walls to the evening gloves on view — — is the Hollywood studio heyday of the 1920s to the 1950s.
• • Come up and see Mae West in Abingdon, Virginia — — along with Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Janis Joplin, Loretta Lynn, and Elvis.
• • Collect even more 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 11 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST inspired a dessert — — and last week the inventor of the May West snack cake died.
• • Montreal Gazette staffwriter Alan Hustak just reported that Rene Brousseau, the Quebec City baker who claimed to have invented the May West, one of the province's most popular snack foods, died in Quebec City on July 23 at age 89.
• • Brousseau was born in Quebec City in 1918. During the Depression, he dropped out of school when he was 15 years old to work as an apprentice baker.
• • Brousseau was working as a pastry chef at the Vaillancourt Bakery in Quebec City during the Second World War when he came up with the idea for the chocolate-coated, cream-filled vanilla cake. It is generally assumed the cake was named for the bawdy U.S. actress Mae West, the star of a popular wartime movie, My Little Chickadee.
• • But Brousseau's son, Jacques, said the dessert got its name because the cake was so puffy, it resembled a life preserver that was also nicknamed Mae West.
• • The spelling of the brand name was changed to May after the actress died in 1980, to avoid a lawsuit from West's estate.
• • Brousseau never profited from his recipe, but according to his son was given a $50 bonus when May Wests started selling like hotcakes.
• • Nothing legally exists to prove Brousseau was the inventor of the May West, but no one ever contested his claim.
• • In 1972 the trademark was bought by Vachon Inc., now a division of SaputoInc. The treat is still manufactured and remains one of Quebec's most popular snack foods. ...
— — excerpt — —
• • Source: The Montreal Gazette — — www.canada.com/
• • Byline: Alan Hustak
• • Published on: 4 August 2007
• • Nourish 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 12 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST posed twice as the Statue of Liberty. 
• • In the month of August — — on 2 August 1834 — — Frederic Bartholdi was born. He didn't know Mae West personally but he certainly inspired her costume designers, eh?
• • In 1934, critic George Jean Nathan called Mae the "Statue of Libido."• • Liberate and light up 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 13 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Artwork: • • Mae West by Tom Tierney • • 1970 • •
NYC
Mae West.
"MAE WEST, author, loses her pianist," noted Variety [8 September 1922]. 
• • In 1922, Harry Richman — — born in August 1895 — — was an unknown when Mae West gave him a big break. According to one biographer, Richman was an obscure piano man when Jim Timony approached the bachelor about auditioning as Mae's accompanist — — and to fill in entertaining the crowd while she changed her costume. Examining the 27-year-old beanpole with apprehension, Mae asked, "Are you versatile?" She hired the tall, debonair pianist with a pronounced lisp and they were soon performing together on the ritzy B.F. Keith vaudeville circuit. Despite his speech impediment, Mae urged Richman to sing and speak during their routine. "That lisp is distinctive," she said. "It could be the makin' of ya." And, sure enough, wherever their act was booked, the pair got excellent reviews. 
• • Ungrateful for the mega media exposure Mae had afforded him, Harry split with her and joined Texas Guinan's friend, singer Nora Bayes, in her act. However, as this clipping shows, Mae and Harry reunited and appeared together in April 1923 at the Colonial Theatre [1887 Broadway at West 62nd Street, not far from the stretch that is now known as Central Park West].
• • Entertainer Harry Richman [10 August 1895 – 3 November 1972] was an actor, a singer, dancer, comedian, pianist, songwriter, bandleader, and cabaret performer. He was born Harold Reichman in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• • In 1966, his autobiography A Hell of a Life was published. In it he recounts his private and public relationship with Mae West.
• • Enrich your Harry Richman and 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 14 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's venue, Colonial Theatre • • c. 1905 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was wild about Harry — — jeweler Harry Winston, that is. 
"Diamonds is my career," purred Mae in her role as "Diamond Lil." And Harry Winston took that line as the law — — not unlike Moses and the tablets.
• • It may be that one of the highlights of reviving her hit play on Broadway [which debuted on 5 February 1949] at the Coronet Theatre (230 West 49th Street, New York, NY 10036) was having a heart to heart with Harry in breathing distance of those storied gem vaults.
• • The "Diamond Lil" program credits jeweler Harry Winston for supplying an Ali Baba's cave worth of glitter for this show. How expensive was that eyeful of razzle-dazzle?• • Mae West's adornments in 1949 included: “Seven part waist decoration, $500,000; necklace, $100,000; three bracelets, $200,000; 46-carat emerald-cut diamond ring, $300,000; 30-carat oval-cut diamond ring, $75,000…”• • These industrial-strength carats were ferried by couriers each night to the vault — — and brought back to the Coronet Theatre, heavily guarded, in time for each performance. Splendor such as this was never seen on the Bowery during the 1890s.• • Harry Winston is at 718 Fifth Avenue between West 55th — West 56th Street [NYC 10019].
• • Polish 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 15 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West• • Illustration: • • Mae West • • 1949 • •NYCMae West.
Hollywood Icon Sneaks into the Spotlight
Come up and see Mae in her hometown.
In August, on the actress's birthday — — Friday evening on August 17, 2007 — — the Annual Mae West Gala will present a picture-perfect walking tour: "Mae West Side Story." At each location, Mae-mavens will be treated to rare vintage photographs that show the building as it looked decades ago when Mae West (1893 — 1980) was inside.
• • Leading this tour is New York City historian LindaAnn Loschiavo, who is organizing a colorful Mae West exhibition with The Museum of the City of New York, and whose latest play "Courting Mae West" is heading to an off-Broadway theatre shortly.
• • This year, the August 17th tour will focus on Manhattan's vibrant theatre district, where Mae's WEST side will be explored during visits to more than a dozen sites between West 50th Street and West 63rd Street. As a special treat, participants will stop at three addresses where the blonde bombshell hung her famous hats. Other locations include her dance school, the jewelers who created the expensive "Diamond Lil" dazzlers, legitimate theatres, and vaudeville houses, along with the speakeasies and night spots where she socialized and made whoopee with Rudolf Valentino, George Raft, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Texas Guinan, Barbara Stanwyck, and other celebrities.
• • Secretive and image-conscious, the Brooklyn bombshell carefully covered up her private life, which included frequent partying at gangster-owned clubs, a hushed-up marriage to an Italian accordionist, sances behind curtains, brief sub-lets in trophy apartment houses, and multi-racial love affairs.
• • In the past, guests of these yearly Mae West events have included playwright Sam Shepard, actress Jessica Lange, broadcaster Joe Franklin, ballplayers from the New York Yankees, well-known screenwriters, and a diverse group of Mae devotees who travel cross country to The Big Apple during the dog days of summertime.
— WHO — WHAT— WHEN — WHERE — COST — SUBWAY —
• • Festivities kick off on Mae West's birthday August 17, 2007. The public is invited.
• • TIME: "Mae West Side Story" tour begins at 7:00 PM -- ends 8:30 PM.
• • PLACE: Tour begins on Broadway at West 50th Street [NE corner].
• • SUBWAY: BMT to Broadway -- West 49th Street station
COST:
• • VIP tickets: $25 per person - including tour and reception and giftbag — and all VIP tickets must be pre-paid by August 15, 2007.
• • TOUR ONLY: $15 per person (cash only) — buy tickets on Friday evening August 17 for tour only — $15 tickets do NOT INCLUDE PARTY nor GIFTBAG.
• • Sorry, no exceptions and no refunds. Advance payment via PayPal.
• • EMAIL: Email payment to PayPal: comeupseeMAE (at) aol.com.
• • Updates and past party pictures are online.
• • URL: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • Sponsorship/ giftbag and MEDIA inquiries are welcome.
• • Source: PRWEB.com• • Only 16 more days until Mae's birthday!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Mae West.
