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Hedda Hopper asked MAE WEST how she came to know so much about men. "Baby," Mae West replied, "I went to night school!"
• • Hedda Hopper once said: "At one time I thought he wanted to be an actor. He had certain qualifications — — including no money and a total lack of responsibility." Presumably, she was not referring to her Broadway star husband nor to her son Billy, who played a judge in "Myra Breckinridge," which starred Mae West.
• • Born in New York City, William DeWolf Hopper, Jr. [26 January 1915 — 6 March 1970] became an actor. William was the only child of singer and stage actor DeWolf Hopper [1858 — 1935] and actress turned gossip columnist Hedda Hopper [1885 — 1966). In 1924, his 39-year-old mother divorced his 66-year-old father; eventually, she and Billy moved to Hollywood. Hopper appeared in numerous films, mostly uncredited or under the name DeWolf Hopper. The handsome performer is best-remembered, however, for playing Paul Drake on television's "Perry Mason" [1957 — 1966], and then he briefly retired after the series was canceled in 1966. In his final movie appearance he was cast as a judge, Frederic D. Cannon, in Gore Vidal's "Myra Breckinridge" [1970] starring Mae West, Raquel Welch, John Huston, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, and others.
• • Hopper was hospitalized on 14 February 1970, after a stroke at his home in Yucca Valley, and was transferred to a hospital in Palm Springs when pneumonia developed. The pneumonia proved fatal. Hopper was fifty-five at the time of his death in the month of March — — on 6 March 1970. "Myra Breckinridge" was released on 24 June 1970.
• • Come up sometime . . . • • 
• • Australian artist Marie Jonsson-Harrison explains: My painting “Come up and see me sometime” was inspired by one of Mae West's sayings (which I heard growing up). This artwork can also be found on the E-card page of my website (free of course), so why don’t you send it to someone you fancy! Visit Mae and Marie here: www.mariejonssonharrison.com.au/
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • by artist Marie Jonsson-Harrison • •
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Mae West.
In the 1935 MAE WEST comedy "Goin' to Town," there are several favorites on the soundtrack.
• • "Love Is Love" — Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Irving Kahal; Sung by Mae West
• • "He's a Bad Man" — Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Irving Kahal; Sung by Mae West
• • "Now I'm a Lady" — Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Irving Kahal and Sam Coslow; Sung by Mae West
• • Past columns have focused on both Sammy Fain and Sam Coslow so let's get better acquainted with Mr. Kahal.
• • Born in Houtzdale, Pennsylvania in the month of March — — on 5 March 1903 — — Irving Kahal was initiated into variety and, eventually, performed with a troupe led by Gus Edwards [1879 — 1945]. During this time Kahal met vaudevillian songwriter Sammy Fain in New York City. That meeting began one of the most prolific collaborations from Tin Pan Alley and lasted until Kahal's death in 1942. In 1927 they produced their first song, "Let a Smile be Your Umbrella," a chart-topper covered by many vocalists.
• • In 1930, Paramount Pictures signed Kahal and Fain to write a song for the Maurice Chevalier movie The Big Pond. They traveled to Los Angeles, composed "You Brought a New Kind of Love To Me" (written with Pierre Norman), and adopted that California city as their new base of operations.
• • For the remainder of their partnership, Kahal and Fain worked for several movie studios, mainly focused on providing one or two numbers to be included in a variety of films. They continued to create instant classics and they also wrote for Broadway musicals.
• • Unfortunately, 38-year-old Irving Kahal died at the height of his success on 7 February 1942 in New York, New York. Kahal was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1935 • •
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Mae West.
In the 1978 MAE WEST motion picture "Sextette," Timothy Dalton [born 21 March 1946] covers the tune "Love Will Keep Us Together" in a jaunty disco style with his curvaceous leading lady, Marlo Manners.
• • "Love Will Keep Us Together" is a pop song written by Neil Sedaka [born 13 March 1939] and Howard Greenfield in the early months of 1973. Sedaka recorded it in England during spring 1973 for his UK LP "The Tra-La Days Are Over." This was recorded later on in the USA and won a Grammy in 1975.
• • Born in Brooklyn, New York, Howard Greenfield [15 March 1936 — 4 March 1986] was an American lyricist and songwriter, who worked out of the famous Brill Building on Broadway for several years in the 1960s. He is best known for his series of successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s until 1973, and a near-simultaneous (and equally successful) songwriting partnership with Jack Keller throughout most of the 1960s.
• • Openly gay, Howard Greenfield lived with his male lover, cabaret singer Tory Damon in an apartment on East 63rd Street in Manhattan before moving to California in 1966.
• • Stricken with AIDS, Howard Greenfield died, aged 49, in Los Angeles, California in the month of March — — on 4 March 1986. In 1991, Howard Greenfield was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • "Love Will Keep Us Together" in 1978 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST may have preferred to forget the shadows that fell across her silver screen beams in "Sextette," her last motion picture. It was released in the month of March — — on 3 March 1978. However, one of her handsome co-stars still has fond memories of being in "Myra Breckinridge" with her and also relishing her singular star turn on Oscar night.
• • Rex Reed Misses Mae West • • 
• • N.Y. Observer columnist Rex Reed writes: I can't chastise the absence of charisma and talent in today's bland, unfocused workforce. It's not their fault they aren't Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, and Bette Davis. I remember Doris Day paired with Clark Gable and Mae West crooning to Rock Hudson. Now we get Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. Next year, we'll probably get Justin Bieber. What we need more than anything else is some genuine humor. . . [Source: Column: "What the Hell Happened to the Oscars?" written by Rex Reed for The New York Observer on 1 March 2011].
• • "Love Goddesses" Released on March 3rd • •
• • Mae West film footage is used in the documentary "Love Goddesses," originally released in the month of March — — on 3 March 1965.
• • Alyce Ardell Died on March 3rd • •
• • When she worked with Mae West in "Go West, Young Man" [1936], Alyce Ardell portrayed Jeanette, a French maid. She retired early from the cinema — — perhaps out of boredom or frustration.
• • Born as Marie Alice Pradel in Paris on 14 November 1902, the French voice actress Alyce Ardell lent her sexy accents to several intriguing cartoons as well as shorts and many motion pictures in which she was often cast, mais oui, as a French maid from 1925 — 1939.
• • Alyce Ardell died at age 95 in Laguna Hills, California in March — — on 3 March 1996.
• • Mae West Memento Lost in New Jersey • •
• • ABC reporter Nina Pineda writes: The contents we could see was a trove of jewelry, pearls, pocket watches, antique clocks, coins, a vintage dollar from the roaring 20's, a collectible program signed by screen siren Mae West, even a century-old Derringer pistol. . . [Source: Article: "Find your unclaimed property!" written by Nina Pineda for WABC in Trenton, NJ on 1 March 2011].
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Contemplating the cinema releases of 1933, movie maven Eric D. Snider writes: The list of 1933's most popular movies lends credence to the theory that audiences weren't in the mood for such jarring, chaotic satire. Instead they favored light musicals (State Fair, 42nd Street, escapist fantasy (King Kong), saucy Mae West comedies (I'm No Angel and She Done Him Wrong), historical dramas (Queen Christina) and serene literary adaptations (Little Women). . . [Source: Article "What's the Big Deal?: Duck Soup (1933)" written by Eric D. Snider for FILM.COM].
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Rock Hudson at the Oscars • •
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Mae West.
Two actors who were cast-mates with MAE WEST in "Go West Young Man" [1936] share the second day in March.
• • Born in Virginia, Randolph Scott [23 January 1898 — 2 March 1987] was a motion picture actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. He played the part of meek and mild Bud Norton in this Paramount Pictures release — — based on a hit Broadway comedy — — when he was 38 years old.
• • A handsome leading man in comedies, dramas, and an occasional adventure role, Scott finally did "Go WEST" and became a screen cowboy. And when he began focusing on westerns in the late 1940s, Randolph Scott reached his greatest stardom. His screen persona altered into that of a stoic, craggy, and uncompromising figure — — a tough, hard-bitten man seemingly unconnected to the light comedy romantic lead he had been during the 1930s.
• • Randolph Scott died in Beverly Hills at age 89 in the month of March — — on March 2nd in 1987.
• • Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Nebraska, Lyle Talbot [8 February 1902 — 2 March 1996] was an actor best known for playing Joe Randolph on TV's harmless time-waster "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" as well as his lengthy film career. Lyle Talbot began his movie career under contract to Warner Brothers in the early days of "the talkies" and went on to appear in more than 150 films, first as a young matinée idol and later as a character actor and star of assorted B movies. He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and later served on the board.
• • Talbot portrayed the amusing Irish Catholic politician Francis X. Harrigan who pursues blonde vixen Mavis Arden in "Go West Young Man" when he was 34 years old.
• • Lyle Talbot died in San Francisco, California at age 94 in the month of March — — on March 2nd in 1996.
• • In "Go West Young Man" — — released on 18 November 1936 — — Mae West stepped into a role created as a Broadway comedy that poked fun at "Hollywood dementia" and featured Gladys George [1900 — 1954] in the role of a sultry jezebel. The long-running stage hit told the story of a movie star and diva, Carole Arden, who is on a tour giving personal appearances to promote her latest film, "Drifting Lady." Her car breaks down, which leads to her amorous encounter with a young, handsome gas station attendant, Chester "Bud" Norton.
• • This Mae West vehicle made the East Coast playwright Lawrence Riley [1896 — 1974] an accidental screenwriter when he revised his Broadway play for Paramount Pictures. And at last he got his chance to experience "Hollywood dementia" first-hand.
• • The cast of "Go West Young Man" included:
• • Mae West — — Mavis Arden
• • Warren William — — Morgan
• • Randolph Scott — — Bud Norton
• • Alice Brady — — Mrs. Struthers
• • Elizabeth Patterson — — Aunt Kate Barnaby
• • Lyle Talbot — — Francis X. Harrigan
• • Charles Irwin — — Master of Ceremonies
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1936 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST used to joke, "I've been on more laps than a napkin." Visitors to a new exhibition of colorful quilts will see the movie queen on a coverlet — — but no one is permitted to touch this nor drape it across a lap.
• • Commemorating the county's 150-plus years of history by displaying several dozen superb hand-sewn vintage quilts will certainly attract attention and attendance. The exhibit began on Tuesday, 1 March 2011 at the Anoka County Historical Society, said Vickie Wendel, the society's program manager. Though most of these quilts were assembled decades ago, Ms. Wendel described one of the two modern quilts in this array as a Women's History project created by the students from Anoka High School. Each square was designed to celebrate a different inspirational woman: Mae West, artist Georgia O'Keeffe, broadcaster Barbara Walters, singer Diana Ross, and the Statue of Liberty, among other notable female icons.
• • WHERE: Anoka County Historical Society: 2135 Third Avenue, Anoka, MN 55303; T. 763-421-0600.
• • Mae West on 2 March 1913 • •
• • It was on 2 March 1913 that Mae West began a one week booking at Hammerstein's Victoria in the theatre district on West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
It was 1 March 1960 and MAE WEST was a special guest on "The Red Skelton Show" on TV.
• • "The Red Skelton Show" was an American variety show that was a television staple for almost two decades — — from the early 1950s through the early 1970s.
• • You can listen to this on "Mae West — On the Air," a CD that features several of Mae's rare recordings from 1934 — 1960 such as "The Red Skelton Show" — CBS-TV — 1 March 1960.
• • Born in Indiana, Red Skelton [1913 — 1997] was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and TV star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and he went on to appearances that spanned from vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs, and casinos. During his career as a performer, he also pursued his interests as a serious fine arts painter.
• • Mae West biographer has a new title • •
• • Emily Wortis Leider, who did such a fine job with "Becoming Mae West," has a new actress biography in the pipeline. "Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood" will be published in September 2011 by the University of California Press [384 pp] this September. We wish Emily Wortis Leider well with her new release.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1 March 1960 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST commemorates the passing of another great Hollywood sex symbol today.
• • Jane Russell 1921 — 2011 • •
• • Howard Hughes liked her measurements: 38-25-36. None of these curves came from silicone. Carrie Rickey writes: Like Mae West, Jane Russell had a way of making sex seem like healthy fun. "I like a man who can run faster than I can," she says in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." [Source: Carrie Rickey is the film critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer; her column on Jane appeared on 28 February 2011.]
• • Another Mae Westian moment that comes to mind is Jane's quirky scene with the male Olympics gymnastic team, who dedicate themselves to exercising and posing as her character Dorothy Shaw sings "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?" Whenever bodybuilders appeared onscreen with Mae, however, the fellows snapped to attention.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
One of MAE WEST's least favorite motion pictures was "The Heat's On" [1943]. 
• • It was Fitzroy Davis who got screenwriting credit for this mish-mash, a film so disjointed and disappointing that The New York Times review led off with this sally: "The heat is definitely off!"
• • Fitzroy Davis, an odd hyphenation of actor-singer-novelist, was born in Evanston, Illinois in the month of February — — on 27 February 1912. He made his stage debut in November 1935 in Chicago. A minor walk-on role was available for a "Romeo and Juliet" production starring Katharine Cornell as young Juliet. By 1942 his first novel Quicksilver had appeared in print. This roman a clef deals with a road company touring the USA in "Romeo and Juliet." There are four gay characters in the story including the lead actress. Hmmm. During the 1960s, Fitzroy Davis penned articles for gay publications in Switzerland using the pen name Hadrian.
• • Fitzroy Davis died in Putnam, Connecticut on 30 September 1980 at the age of 68.
• • Remembering Lee Kohlmar [1873 — 1946] • •
• • Lee Kohlmar was cast in the role of Jacobson in "She Done Him Wrong" [1932].
• • Born in Nuremberg, Germany in the month of February — — on 27 February 1873 — — he entered the young film industry in 1916, directing nine short silent movies between 1916 — 1921. Deciding he also wanted to act, he got himself involved in more than 50 cinema titles between 1916 and 1941, often cast in minor roles.
• • Lee Kohlmar died at age 73 in Hollywood from a heart attack on 14 May 1946.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1943 • •
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Mae West.
Original music was written specially for "I'm No Angel" [1933], "Belle of the Nineties" [1934], "Goin' to Town" [1935], "Klondike Annie" [1936], and "The Heat's On" [1943] starring MAE WEST.
• • One of several uncredited collaborators for all of these motion pictures starring Mae was John Leipold, who worked on more than 250 projects in Hollywood from 1929 — 1953 for Paramount Pictures and other movie studio companies.
• • Born in Ulster County, New York during the month of February — — on 26 February 1888 — — John Max Leipold composed stock music as well as the score for many cinema stand-outs. His work amplified big screen documentaries, family entertainment, dramas, comedies, Westerns, mysteries, patriotic military-themed pictures, the "Blondie" series, and more. He also created atmospheric music for "Go West, Young Lady" [1941] released by Columbia Pictures — — a title that sounds suspiciously familiar. Leopold did not work on "Go West, Young Man," however.
• • John Leipold died at age 82 in Dallas, Texas on 8 March 1970.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
If you are spending this weekend in Sarasota, then come up and see MAE WEST in a gaudy, bawdy show featuring the striptease and the best of burlesque.
• • Mae West featured in "The Blue Review" • •
• • Graceful moves of the tap-dancing World War II veteran will make you look closer at 90-year-old show-stopper Cliff Bermann. The genial charmer has been cast in "The Blue Revue," where he will (among his other roles) impersonate W.C. Fields opposite 81-year-old Selene Hawkins' as Mae West. Doing a vaudeville style skit, they will banter with each other, saying things like:
• • Him: "Goodness! What beautiful diamonds!"
• • Her: "Goodness had nothing to do with it."
• • These agile and personable golden agers, members of a vivacious troupe called The Sarasota Senior Theatre, will entertain all weekend long in Florida in a pelvis-grinding variety extravaganza that features stripteasers, Sally Rand fan dance numbers, and lots of high kicking fun — — organized and produced by Bill Bordy.
• • What: The Sarasota Senior Theatre performs "The Blue Revue"
• • Where: Booker High School Theater, 3201 Orange Avenue, Sarasota, FL
• • When: February 25th — 27th, 2011 [Friday Feb. 25th and Saturday Feb. 26th at 8:00PM, Sunday Feb. 27th at 2:00PM]
• • Details: T. 941-755-6864
• • Tell them you heard about it on the Mae West Blog.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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When he was hired in to help MAE WEST get her memoir together, ghostwriter Stephen Longstreet may have discussed autobiography's conventions — — the expected triumphs won after disappointments, the lessons learned from hard knocks, and the struggles along the way. Their collaboration during 1957 — 1958 produced a manuscript published in hardcover by Prentice-Hall on 14 January 1959. Using a well-worn line borrowed from Texas Guinan, Mae titled her life story "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It." 
• • Before the versatile New Yorker began writing about jazz and musicians, and before changing his name to Stephen Longstreet, he had worked as an illustrator using the byline Henri Weiner. Here is his cartoon version of Mae as Diamond Lil, which appeared in 1934. An upcoming column will offer a bit more on the engaging Stephen Longstreet who died in Beverly Hills, California in the month of February — — on 22 February 2002.
• • Cartoon: • • Mae West by Henri Weiner • • 1934 • •• • According to the book reviewer from Time Magazine (who wrote this in 1959): With the "editorial assistance" of prolific Stephen (High Button Shoes) Longstreet, Mae makes a determined effort at total autobiography. The list of her male conquests seems to stretch to infinity: lawyers, politicians, theatrical agents, Wall Street brokers, film magnates, judges, operatic tenors, Mexican wrestlers, French importers, chorus boys, casual diners in a restaurant. Readers may get the impression that lovers lurk under every bed, in every closet, behind every curtain. Some of them showered Mae with diamonds, emeralds, and furs. Others gave more of themselves . . . [Source: Time Magazine 28 Sept 1959].
• • Mae-mavens who have read "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It" followed the cosy diamond life version not the discordance and strife, nor the weighted failure of words to change an outcome. Mae West always triumphs is the underlying thesis, the projection of the perfect self, polished and presented without its human hesitations. It is the ultimate piece of theatre — — with anything unsightly left unlit and safely stuffed backstage, far from the footlights.
• • "An Evening with Mae West" has a different goal, however. Written as a one-woman bio piece for the stage by Ayshe Raif, and performed by Pene Herman-Smith, the whirlwind rites of Mae's days in April 1954 (when she was 60 years old) are shaded with sorrows, shudders, and secret sadness as well as the solutions the veteran performer would move towards. Handsome theatre-buff Ian Macnicol attended a performance this week in Glasgow. Here is a candid assessment from this seductive Scotsman and longtime connoisseur of rare Westiana, a critique written exclusively for the Mae West Blog.
• • • MAE WEST UNPLUGGED — A Review by Ian Macnicol • • • 
• • Mae West — — a play by Ayshe Raif; Oran Mor Theatre, Glasgow; playing 22 and 23 February 2011
• • This is a play Mae West would not have wanted to be staged. But it is the one play I have seen which manages to get under the sparkle of Mae's highly polished star persona and gives us a glimpses of the woman who worked so hard to create and then sustain her legend for almost 60 years.
• • The play is set in 1954 at the time of and immediately after, the death of JIm Timony, her former lover, and her manager and stalwart friend since her early success in the 1920s. Mae has just turned 60, her career is in the doldrums and she is still reeling from the perceived insult of having been offered the part of Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's “Sunset Boulevard.”
• • The action takes place in Mae’s Ravenswood apartment in Hollywood over the course of several days during which time Mae feels confined lest the outside world should think she is not grieving sufficiently for Timony.
• • Perhaps for the first time in her life Mae is plagued by self-doubt. Pinning her hopes on a part in the film of Pal Joey, these hopes are dashed when she is passed over in favour of Rita Hayworth. Rudderless without Jim, she doesn't know what to do career-wise and suffers guilt pangs over her feelings of personal release that he is no longer around to stifle her highly active love life.
• • She turns to "spirit," in fact the spirits of Jim and her dead mother, for direction. Mama tells her to "keep moving" and Jim encourages her to get her act together and follow through on his plans to take her to Vegas. The show ends with Mae reinvigorated and ready to begin again. As history shows, Mae’s Vegas act was a sensation and she toured it for several years to high acclaim, breaking box-office records wherever she went.
• • Pene Herman-Smith does a solid job of portraying Mae as a flesh and blood woman, and creates some moments of real pathos and high drama, well able to switch between the many facets of West's public and private personae. She manages to sustain a good American accent throughout but just misses in capturing West’s signature Brooklynese drawl.
• • The production benefits from the use of multi media which allows those unfamiliar — — and indeed those who are familiar — — with her work, to see the real Mae in action on screen. The costumes by Suzanne Field are good and highly evocative of those worn by Mae at the time.
• • Mae might not have approved of a play that focuses on her struggle to retain her star status but after the fact, this amazing achievement of hers is something that continues to fascinate, and this worthy play sheds a little light into some of the dark corners of her life.
• • The play was well attended and very well received by a highly enthusiastic audience.
• • • • Byline: IAN MACNICOL (writing from Scotland)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 2011 • •
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Come up and see MAE WEST on Thursday, 24 February 2011 and release your inner chickadee.
• • In British Columbia a 10-foot screen awaits you at the Kitimat Public Library. Starting at 7:15 this evening, "My Little Chickadee" will be shown for free. This Mae West classic comedy from 1940 co-stars W.C. Fields. No pre-registration required, it seems. What a euphonious appellation — — Kitimat hosts Chickadee.• • WHERE: Kitimat Public Library: 940 Wakashan Avenue, Kitimat, BC V8C 2G3, Canada; T (250) 632-8985.
• • Tell them you heard about it on the Mae West Blog.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Despite on-going pressures from the censors, here are a few lines that made it into the final version, a screenplay that was a collaboration between Mae West and W.C. Fields:
• • Cuthbert J. Twillie: May I present my card?
• • Flower Belle Lee: 'Novelties and Notions.' What kind of notions you got?
• • Cuthbert J. Twillie: You'd be surprised. Some are old, some are new. Whom have I the honor of addressing?
• • Flower Belle Lee: Mmm, call me Flower Belle.
• • Cuthbert J. Twillie: Flower Belle, what a euphonious appellation. Easy on the ears and a banquet for the eyes.
• • Flower Belle Lee: You're kinda cute yourself.
• • Cuthbert J. Twillie: Thank you. I never argue with a lady.
• • Flower Belle Lee: Smart boy.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1940 • •
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Babe “would not have known what a moral was if it could be made to dance naked in front of her,” wrote MAE WEST of her 18-year-old heroine in her novel Babe Gordon. As a publicity stunt, the publisher ran a contest asking readers to give this controversial bestseller a fresh title. Effie Mattison of New York won and the book was renamed with her suggestion: The Constant Sinner. Set in Harlem and first published on 5 November 1930, this work of fiction was reprinted as a paperback by Virago Press in 1995 [212 pages].
• • "A prizefighter's tart" who enjoys black men as well as Caucasians, Babe, the luscious blonde teenage protagonist, would now be 81 years old. The digits for 18 have been reversed.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • From Babe Gordon by Mae West [NY: The Macaulay Company, 5 November 1930] • •
• • • • "Well, it was a woman. A beautiful woman. She was seated at a table in a corner of the room with a big negro — — actually enjoying him, fascinated by him."
• • • • "Do you mean that stunning blonde woman in an ermine wrap?" asked Jack Rathburne. "I did notice her, but I didn't see the negro."
• • • • "Well, he came in later," explained Wayne Baldwin. "Come to think of it, you were at the opposite side of the table. Your back was to them. How in the name of all that's decent, Jack, could a woman like that, obviously a person of refinement, allow a black to make love to her?"
• • • • Jack crushed out his cigarette in a green-glass tray.
• • • • "A matter of taste, Wayne. In this case, a very depraved taste."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Mae West on the Menu • •
• • Order the Mae West at Sticky Lips barbecue place and you will be served a tender 6-ounce chicken breast and your choice of pulled pork or beef brisket. This selection is $11.95 currently.
• • WHERE: Sticky Lips Pit BBQ: 625 Culver Road, Rochester, NY.
• • Tell them you heard about their menu on the Mae West Blog.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1930 • •
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In reality, there really was a daring, dangerous jewel heist and MAE WEST was the victim. Months later on 16 January 1934 in Los Angeles, the movie queen gave testimony in the trial of Edward Friedman, who had robbed her. Mae said she knew Friedman as Harry Voiler (an alias he used). However, these crooks were actually two people. In February 1934, when Friedman was in jail, he refused to testify against Harry O. Voiler, therefore, Voiler was released from police custody.• • Thinking about trading on Mae's popularity and celebrity, a broadcast pioneer decided this would make a great episode. And in the month of February — — on 21 February 1934 — — the radio program "Calling All Cars" aired "The Mae West Jewel Robbery," a production put together entirely without Mae's participation. 
• • According to J. David Goldin, "Calling All Cars" — — Program #13 — — was aired on CBS Pacific net (also known as the Don Lee network at this time). "The Mae West Jewel Robbery" was sponsored by the Rio Grande Oil Company. Goldin notes: "The story of the real robbery of Miss West's jewels and $3000 in cash is dramatized. Well done! Martha Wentworth impersonates Mae West. The program was broadcast on the day one of the robbers was caught. The script was used on "Calling All Cars" again on 19 March 1935." The run time is 28 minutes, 30 seconds.
• • Martha Wentworth as Mae West • •
• • Born on 2 June 1889 in New York City, voice actress Martha Wentworth certainly had the right regional accent and attitude for her Brooklyn bombshell impressions — — and she was also the voice of Jenny Wren (based on Mae) for that Silly Symphony cartoon "Who Killed Cock Robin?" [1935] as well as the "Calling All Cars" episode. After a long, busy career as "the actress of 100 voices," Martha Wentworth died at age 84 on 8 March 1974 in Sherman Oaks, California.
• • Availability of "The Mae West Jewel Robbery" • •
• • Currently, you can purchase this on Amazon.com for under $1. The segment featuring Mae West is on the album series "Calling All Cars, Vol. 6."
• • Thanks to the web site Radio Lovers [www.radiolovers.com], several of the "Calling All Cars" episodes have been archived. Go to their site and listen to Martha Wentworth cast as Mae West in this drama based on true events. It is free to listen.
• • You can also download an mp3 file of "The Mae West Jewel Robbery" [30 minutes long] from 1934 at this Old Time Radio site: www.freeotrshows.com
• • 21 February 1936 • •
• • On this date the motion picture "Klondike Annie" was released starring Mae West.
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xmlMae West• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Original music was written specially for "I'm No Angel" [1933] starring MAE WEST.
• • One of several uncredited collaborators was Rudolph G. Kopp, who worked on more than five dozen projects in Hollywood from 1931 — 1955.
• • Born in Vienna on 22 March 1887, Rudolph G. Kopp composed the score for many cinema stand-outs. His work amplified big screen documentaries, family entertainment, dramas, comedies, mysteries, and more.
• • Rudolph G. Kopp died at age 84 in Woodland Hills, California during the month of February — — on 20 February 1972.
• • Walter Winchell died 20 February 1972 • •
• • Mae West received copious amounts of snarky press coverage for her 1926 show "Sex." For instance, Walter Winchell called it "a vulgar affair ... amateurish in script and cast."
• • Four years later, in 1930, when Texas Guinan was covering the "Pleasure Man" trial, she invited Mae to perform at a fundraiser she was co-hosting at the Imperial Theatre [249 West 45th Street], a spacious playhouse with 1443 seats. Jobless herself, Mae agreed to sing a few numbers to raise money at the "Give a Job Benefit" taking place on 12 April 1930.
• • Rudy Vallee and his orchestra backed Mae as she sang "Frankie and Johnny" and a few other favorites on the wide proscenium stage of the Imperial. Walter Winchell was one of several co-hosts in a group of luminaries such as Texas Guinan, Mark Hellinger, Jack Donahue, and the event's organizer Heywood Broun.
• • A native New Yorker, Walter Winchell [7 April 1897 — 20 February 1972] was a newspaper as well as a prominent radio commentator.
• • While Winchell was at The New York Evening Graphic (whose staff included reporter Ed Sullivan), he invented the gossip column.
• • While still in his teens, natural show-off Winchell was drawn to performing in vaudeville. His career as a journalist began with his fondness for posting gossipy notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards.
• • During the Prohibition Era, he became a journalist. Walter Winchell, who was a regular at Barney Gallant's Greenwich Village speakeasies and Texas Guinan's midtown clubs, credited his buddies with opening the insider Broadway scene and cafe society to him when he was starting out as a columnist. The gatekeeper of gossip, Texas Guinan claimed that scandals did not officially break unless they broke at her establishments.
• • By the 1930s, he was an intimate friend of ganster Owney Madden, owner of the Cotton Club and a backer of Texas Guinan's nightspots and Mae West's Broadway productions. backers.
• • Always ambitious, Winchell disregarded the media's taboo against exposing the private lives of public figures, permanently altering the shape of journalism and celebrity. He was a top gossip reporter, whose newspaper column and radio show could make or break a celebrity. He became influential for decades in shaping public opinion, notoriously aiding and ruining the careers of many entertainers.
• • In his heyday, Winchell's gossip column ran in more than 2,000 daily papers, written with the same frantic pace as his radio show. Fifty-five million radio listeners tuned in to hear his distinctive rapid-fire delivery of his column during the 1940s — 1950s.
• • In the 1950s, Winchell veered away from his leftist sympathies and supported the right-wing Senator Joseph McCarthy. As Joe McCarthy's Red Scare tactics became more extreme and unbelievable, Winchell lost credibility along with McCarthy. He had a weekly radio broadcast which was simulcast on ABC television until he left in a dispute with ABC executives in 1955. An attempt to revive his commentary program five years later proved to be a disaster and Winchell was canceled after half a dozen broadcasts.
• • He did, however, receive $25,000 an episode to narrate "The Untouchables" on the ABC-TV network for five seasons beginning in 1959.
• • His readership gradually dropped. When his home paper, the New York Daily Mirror, for which he worked for 34 years, closed in 1963, he faded from the public eye. He still holds a fascination and several actors have portrayed him on the big screen and on TV.
• • In 1972, Walter Winchell died of prostate cancer at the age of 74 in the month of February — — on 20 February 1972.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • as Tira in 1933 • •
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