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She's 77, still unsinkable, and she's doing an imitation of MAE WEST in a cabaret show in Manhattan not far from where the Empress of Sex once lived with sister Beverly.
• • Born in El Paso, Texas on 1 April 1932, Debbie Reynolds is an actress — — and currently describing herself as a vaudevillian.
• • Included in her little bit of this, little bit of that act are celebrity impersonations of Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Zsa Zsa Gabor (advising Paris Hilton), Barbra Streisand, and others she knew.
• • Before launching into a Judy Garland [10 June 1922 — 22 June 1969] medley, Debbie confided that she and the troubled vocalist were neighbors who used to bend an elbow together. It's left unsaid which woman could outperform the other at the bar but — — at a microphone — — let's just say that Garland's reputation is still safe.
• • Debbie Reynolds will entertain her fans through 27 June 2009 at Café Carlyle [Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, New York, NY; (212) 744-1600]. If you go, tell us what you think of her impersonations.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Mae West.
MAE WEST met many characters — — and more than a few were men of the cloth.
• • According to old newsprint, Leroy Jenkins, who had charmed his way into Mae West's circle, was a man of convictions. Some of those oddball beliefs got him sentenced to a 12-year prison term in 1979. That probably crimped his style a bit. Imagine how it must feel to be an Elmer Gantry type of revivalist, setting up a tent and taking up collections from those who feel they are listening to a prophet. All that undeclared income can buy a lot of flashy outfits and sequined capes befitting Moses. Then one day the law burst in onto the scene like an overzealous stage manager, unexpectedly bringing the curtain down. Show's over.
• • Born in 1937, Jenkins, a self-promoting salesman and faith-healer, has been accused by some individuals of being a heel and a swindler. But the spiel goes on. And on.
• • Out of the blue, Canadian columnist Dave Goulet started writing about this shady slicker and roping in Mae West (ouch!). Goulet exclaims: Just when I thought I’d seen every crazed TV preacher on the market, I ran across Reverend Leroy Jenkins this past week. . . .
• • Dave Goulet continues: But what really caught my eye was the physical appearance of the preacher. Between the coiffed hair and obvious facelift, he looked like a cross between Elvis and Joan Rivers. His eyebrows, more appropriate for a supermodel, were stuck in a perpetual slant, which gave him a fierce frown.
• • I was so curious to know more about Rev. Leroy Jenkins that I looked him up on the Internet. According to his website, he’s been a faith healer since he himself was healed by a preacher as a young man. He started his own church and one day God told him to drill a well outside the building. This well gave forth miracle water. Armed with this healing H20, Leroy became quite famous in the Bible Belt as a faith healer.
• • Profound • •
• • Dave Goulet adds: Screen siren Mae West, in her later years, was a close friend of Rev. Jenkins. In the early 1990s [sic], a movie was made about Jenkins (produced by Leroy Jenkins), titled "The Calling" [released in December 2002]. Actress Faye Dunaway [born in Florida on 14 January 1941] played Mae West. For some reason, the good reverend feels this adds stature to his ministry, because we all know what a profound theologian Mae West was. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Essay: "Drawing from Reverend Leroy's well"
• • Byline: By Dave Goulet | "Two Cents" columnist
• • Published in: Barry's Bay This Week [Ontario, Canada] — — www.barrysbaythisweek.com
• • Published on: 2 June 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
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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Mae West
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Mae West.
Ninety years ago, in June 1919, MAE WEST was onstage in a tuneful Broadway hit doing an odd thing — — playing a manhunter who can't land a boyfriend.
• • It was on Saturday 4 October 1918 that "Sometime," the "musical comedy of commerce" designed to showcase the talents of laughmeister Ed Wynn, had opened at the Shubert Theatre (establishing a nice healthy wartime run that continued for eight months at the Shubert brothers' flagship: 225 West 44th Street).
• • At 25 years old, Mae West was still much more accustomed to appearing in vaudeville than in the legit. In "Sometime," it was Mae's character Mayme Dean who appeared onstage first. At that point in her career, Mae had often been cast as an Irish maid — — although Mayme Dean is a frisky flapper who cannot land a man.
• • This musical closed in June 1919, after running for 283 performances.
• • Picture Mae West sometime in 1918/9, an energetic brunette sizzling onstage. A reviewer who covered her performance — — and her sultry shimmy — — at the Shubert Theatre described Mae West as a "tasty tornado."
• • A few years after this show, Mae started writing her own material — — however, she never again portrayed a chambermaid nor a lovelorn lady.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
It is always nice to notice new television personalities who credit MAE WEST with being an inspiration.
• • The Brooklyn bombshell did not do too much work on the small screen — — which was still a new and untried medium to the vaudeville veterans born during the 1890s.
• • To Mae West's way of thinking, TV appearances were merely an episode and not the mainstay of her career.
• • Similarly, to the reality fixtures of the Bravo series "The Real Housewives of New York City," it seems matrimony has been a saucy episode but not the whole enchilada.
• • Naturally, nouns like "housewife," "motherhood," and "matrimony" do not figure in her life. However, Mae did work for a few years in burlesque, a form of live entertainment that is making a comeback in her hometown.
• • The New York Observer dispatched a scribe for The Daily Transom to West 45th's colorful Night Hotel and here's the headline Chris Shott accorded the interview with Luann, a former waitress and fulltime diamond polisher: "Countess Luann de Lesseps Conjures Lascivious Mae West at the Night Hotel."
• • Let's enjoy an excerpt together, shall we?
• • Chris Shott writes: The classy Countess Luann de Lesseps [born on 17 May 1965] is a big fan of the old bump and grind.
• • "I love burlesque!" Ms. de Lesseps confessed to the Daily Transom on Wednesday night, May 27, during intermission at former Roxy and Palladium promoter Lee Chappell's risque weekly Foreign Affairs show in the dimly lit lounge at Vikram Chatwal's Night Hotel on West 45th Street.
• • Sporting a slinky black Michael Kors dress, the 43-year-old co-star of the popular Bravo series "The Real Housewives of New York City" sat legs crossed, slowly sipping a glass of red wine, while onstage the contortionist and onetime Cirque du Soleil aerialist Ekaterina Sknarina performed a steamy striptease and bawdy hostess Lady Rizo belted out an appropriately schizophrenic cover of the 2006 Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy." . . .
• • Vowing to be true to the jewelry box . . . • •
• • In fact, her marriage to the Count Alexandre de Lesseps has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks, with her rep ultimately confirming rumors of a split.
• • She vowed to cling to her noble title, nevertheless, she told the Daily Transom. "And the jewelry!" she added, laughing.
• • "But I love cabaret and I love this kind of music," Ms. de Lesseps said. "I'm a big fan of Mae West. So this takes me back. I actually just wrote a book called Class with the Countess. And I write about Mae West and I write about how I think that she was such a great woman because she knew how to be a woman. You know, how to flirt. I talk about the art of seduction in my book and I talk about Mae West and I pull out a lot of her quotes, which I love. You know, 'It's better to be looked over than overlooked.' I think it's a lost art. I really do." . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Countess Luann de Lesseps Conjures Lascivious Mae West at the Night Hotel"
• • Byline: By Chris Shott | The Daily Transom
• • Published in: The New York Observer — — www.observer.com
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
It's quite tempting to memorialize one or two of the famous palookas whose good looks and midnight maneuvers (temporarily) knocked out MAE WEST.
• • There are enough boxing bio-pics onscreen during the flag-draped weekend of May 30th — 31st that, inevitably, thoughts turn to the handsome (former) heavyweight champion of the world Jack "Manassa Mauler" Dempsey [24 June 1895 — 31 May 1983], who died at the end of May and wooed the actress during 1921 when she was performing in "The Mimic World of 1921."
• • However, the blog is in arrears when it comes to posting reviews on books written about Mae West. And so we make way for these jottings from the British critic Phil Bloomfield.
• • Phil Bloomfield writes: Mae West famously invited people to “come up and see me some time.” Well, the author [Charlotte Chandler] of this book did just that — — and took with her a tape recorder to capture the reminiscences of Mae West shortly before her death.
• • This, then, is a collection of those recordings, arranged chronologically and interspersed with brief, non-critical linking passages and summaries of some of her more successful plays and films.
• • Little in the way of thoughtful analysis . . . • •
• • It offers little in the way of thoughtful analysis of Mae West’s contribution, reading more like a ghosted celebrity autobiography than a serious addition to the film studies canon.
• • However, having said that, it does offer insights into the character and history of one of the more colorful characters to emerge from vaudeville into the Hollywood spotlights.
• • The Mae West character was an invention of May West, a spirited daughter of a Brooklyn immigrant family, who changed her name a little and then developed and honed herself on the variety stage, in a similar fashion to the pre-movies Marx Brothers.
• • Mae West’s character creation was a sexy brassy blonde, wisecracking with double entendres, and with a serious love of diamonds. She was the author of many plays featuring this character; some were very successfully produced on Broadway. One of them, Diamond Lil, had a sell-out run in London. Her first play, Sex, was judged to be an immoral theatrical performance, so West was sentenced to either a $500 fine or ten days in prison [sic].
• • She chose the latter, thinking it might provide material for a future play. It did give her huge publicity, which she built on in moving to Hollywood in the 1930s. There she made a dozen movies, of variable quality and success, including My Little Chickadee with W C Fields. She refused to allow anyone else to write her lines in these movies, thus maintaining the illusion of her character. The book gives few clues to Mae West’s real love life behind her blousy creation: she was married once early on, but unlike Monroe did not give it a second try [sic]; she did have two long-time devoted men friends who lived with her, although with separate beds, and who appear to have been gofers and fixers, or possibly bodyguards. And what about her famous collection of diamonds, given as gifts? The book ends with a sad little anecdote suggesting that she didn’t receive them all from admirers, but bought many of them herself.
— — Source: — —
• • Book Review: “She Always Knew How" by Charlotte Chandler (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
• • Byline: Phil Bloomfield, Oxford Times Book Critic
• • Published in: The Oxford Times — — www.oxfordtimes.co.uk
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
In many ways, John Kobal's Hollywood career caught fire thanks to MAE WEST.
• • Years ago, one interviewer whipped up this creamy prologue: "Like so many stories about John Kobal, the one about his notable role as a connoisseur, collector, and chronicler of Hollywood photography begins with a movie star. Working as a journalist in 1969, Kobal visited the set of Myra Breckinridge with the goal of interviewing screen legend Mae West. His reporter's credentials granted him access to the set and while awaiting summons from Miss West, Kobal had the opportunity to meet members of the film's crew. ..."
• • In his book "People Will Talk," he offered chatty testimonials from 43 notable Hollywood veterans. This is a snippet: Mae West's refusal to marry is symptomatic of narcissism, then and now: "Every time I look at myself, I become absorbed in myself, and I didn't want to get involved with another person like that. ..."
• • John Kobal [birthname: Ivan Kobaly] was born in Linz, Austria during the month of May — — on 30 May 1940. Clearly, he decided he'd never become the outsider at his own party. The author of over 30 books on film and film photography, he was known for his creative and exuberant personality, as well as his voracious knowledge of the minutiae of film and photography lore. He is credited with essentially 'rediscovering' the great Hollywood Studio photographers — — George Hurrell, Laszlo Willinger, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Ted Allan, et al — — who were employed by the motion picture studios to create the glamorous, iconic portraits of the most famous and intriguing stars of the day that came to spit-shine the Tinseltown myth.
• • "Made In Hollywood" • • • • The prints in the Kobal Collection, which include many images of Mae West, form the backbone of the "Made In Hollywood" exhibition, which finished its run in Santa Barbara, California [July 12th – October 12th, 2008], and which is now on view at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, USA [May 7th – October 27th, 2009].
• • John Kobal, prolific and hard-working, died of AIDS when he was 51 on 28 October 1991 in London, England.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West.
Some exceedingly peculiar artists were fascinated by MAE WEST — — including Ray Johnson.
• • During the 1950s, Ray Johnson began using images of Mae in his artwork in a way that anticipated the 1960s works of Pop artists (such as Warhol).
• • Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ray Edward Johnson (1927 — 1995) was a seminal figure of the Pop Art movement. Primarily a collagist, Johnson was also an early performance and conceptual artist. Once called “New York’s most famous unknown artist," he is considered the “Founding Father of Mail Art" and pioneered the incorporation and use of language in the visual arts.
• • Until his death in 1995, Johnson continued his work in collage, sent out volumes of mail art, and staged numerous performances. He became increasingly reclusive, however. As his contemporaries became famous, Johnson cultivated his role as an outsider, parodying celebrity through performances, fake openings, and photocopy-machine art. From 1982 on, he repeatedly refused offers from numerous galleries to exhibit his art, and for the last five years of his life, he refused all public exhibitions of his works. On 13 January 1995, Ray Johnson’s body was found floating in a small cove in Sag Harbor, NY. He was 67 years old.
• • An ambitious posthumous show at the Richard L. Feigen Gallery — — which opened on 29 April 2009 (and which runs through the end of July 2009) — — illustrates the shared interests and iconography of Ray Johnson, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. This exhibition displays an exciting selection of previously unexhibited collages by Ray Johnson that showcase his distinct and incessant layering of re-appropriated imagery from Surrealism, high culture, and Pop Art. The three artists all exploited celebrity — — both their own and others’ — — and constructed powerful personae that were an integral part of their work. While Dali and Warhol sought the limelight in order to promote their art, Johnson was more interested in dodging in and out of it and became famous for being ‘unknown.’
• • Recently, Karen Rosenberg, Art Critic for The New York Times, visited the exhibition, which was organized by an independent curator, Frédérique Joseph-Lowery. She had many things to say about Ray's muses such as Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, the Mona Lisa, and Jackie Kennedy.
• • Karen Rosenberg writes: It’s a scholarly undertaking with a mischievous edge, replete with dissertation-worthy dissections of Johnson’s wordplay and iconography but able to wink at his subversions of gender and other nods to gay subculture. There’s also a frisson of glamour. Songs by the Velvet Underground, Debbie Harry and other Factory scenesters play in the gallery, along with audio excerpts from movies starring Mae West and Marilyn Monroe.
• • Karen Rosenberg observes: Mae West’s famous line becomes “Come Op and See Me Sometime,” a reference to Op Art. Likewise, Meret Oppenheim’s surname is rewritten as “Openheim” and her most famous work — — the fur-lined teacup — — conjured with a patch of plush leopard-print fabric. . . . .
• • If you happen to be in Manhattan (or en route to The Big Apple), the playful, mischievous, and provocative exhibit “Ray Johnson ... Dalí/ Warhol/ and Others” continues through 31 July 2009 at Richard L. Feigen & Company, 34 East 69th Street, New York, NY 10021; T. (212) 628-0700.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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A Canadian columnist mentioned MAE WEST — — along with a haunting, daunting detail: it will be the 100th anniversary soon of the Roaring Twenties. Skidoo!
• • William Bothwell writes: We are heading toward the centenary of the Roaring Twenties, the decade after the 1914—1918 war that was the Jazz Age, the heyday of 'flappers,' of Thoroughly Modern Millie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and "Life is a cabaret, old chum!" Some called them the years of the Lost Generation.
• • The Typical 20th Century Woman • • • • Agatha Miller Christie Mallowan [1890—1976], creator of Poirot and Miss Marple, was, in a way, the typical 20th Century woman. There were also, of course, Emily Pankhurst who championed women's right to vote, Mae West who sultrily asked every man she met, "Why don'tya come up and see me sometime," the very capable Agnes Macphail and Cairine Wilson who were, respectively, the first women to sit in the Commons and in the Senate.
• • For over half a century the Queen of Crime pounded out novels to get us through the long evenings when nobody came up to see us and those 3 to 4 a.m. hours when only the persistent optimism of Monsieur Hércule could help us make it through the night.
• • Mrs Christie would be 119 years old come 15 September. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Who's afraid of Agatha Christie?"
• • Byline: By William Bothwell, columnist
• • Published in: The Orangeville Citizen [Orangeville, Ontario, Canada] — — www.citizen.on.ca
• • Published on: 28 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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It was in May 1927 that MAE WEST returned to the Women's Workhouse on Welfare [currently renamed Roosevelt] Island. 
• • This time, however, she was the invited guest of a group of society women who were bent on social reform, and who wanted to inspect the prison and inmates for themselves. The actress gaily led the tour, trailing a string of newsmen and photographers.
• • Mae was even delighted to show these Park Avenue females the paddy wagon that she had ridden in after her arrest on 9 February 1927. In the photos, the women are all smiling – – but what must they have been thinking?
• • One of Mae's duties in the workhouse was to clean the jail's library. It struck her that there were so few books to read here. When a magazine offered Mae $1,000 to write an article about her experiences as an inmate, the Broadway star donated her check to the women's workhouse to fund the "Mae West Memorial Library."
• • Newsmen chided Warden Harry O. Schleth for granting Mae some privileges and pandering to a celebrity by taking her for evening drives, letting her dine with him in his private quarters, and so on. But how many of those journalists remembered back to October 1913? That was the night when Warden Schleth's 34-year-old wife shot their 4-year-old son and then committed suicide because she could not bear to live inside a bleak New York City prison any longer. Very likely Mae West lifted the warden's spirits more than he cheered her up.• • Note: The yellowed page you are looking at was part of an article Mae wrote, published in 1927.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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The British actor MAE WEST put on the map in her motion picture classic "She Done Him Wrong" [1933] was encountered at a football match in his hometown 50 years ago. 
• • Born in Bristol, England, Archibald Alec Leach [18 January 1904 — 29 November 1986] was better known by his stage name Cary Grant.
• • David Foot described his encounter with the Hollywood leading man at a stadium called Ashton Gate.
• • Sharing his "brush with fame" with readers of the UK newspaper The London Guardian, Foot reminisced at length.
• • David Foot writes: Meeting the Hollywood star at Bristol City was an overwhelming experience. It has always seemed to me that one appealing reason for going to a football match, apart from dutifully watching the play, is that we never quite know who we are going to meet. Half a century ago, yes really that long, I had a fleeting unscheduled half-time encounter at Ashton Gate, home of Bristol City, with Cary Grant. He'd been invited by the club's then chairman Harry Dolman, who had an opportunistic and civilized habit of asking celebrities — — proper ones in those days — — along on a spare Saturday afternoon to view his warriors.
• • Youthful Indiscretions and a Mentally Ill Mum • •
• • Archie Leach's allegiance to Bristol was unquestioned. He had been born in the city, had gone to a local grammar school, from where he had been expelled for a minor and hushed-up felony committed near the girls' toilets, and now continued to return to the West Country from the world of glamorous celluloid to visit his mother, Elsie, who had a history of mental illness.
• • But, in truth, he had no more than a passing schoolboy's cigarette-card regard for football and it could be argued that his home had been nearer to the Rovers ground than City's. When he left school he was more seduced by the backstage smells and bustle at the Hippodrome and Empire, where he joined an acting troupe and did a stint as call-boy, than wanting to kick a ball with his chums on Horfield Common.
• • Here he was now, however, passing me on the cold, uncarpeted steps leading up to the boardroom. His appearance was impossibly elegant. He should have had Grace Kelly on his arm. I felt I should say something at this seminal moment. Cary Grant had always been a distant hero of mine. My old sports editor and mentor on my evening paper in Bristol had once been the lift boy and he was used to taking the famous film star up to the editorial floor for an interview or new picture from the roof of the Northcliffe building. And he would be asked by his handsome charge how City and Rovers were doing, even if no more than a duty-bound inquiry.
• • Now passing him on the steps at Ashton Gate, I noticed how well proportioned he was. City's physio, if only they had one with that title in those days, wouldn't have had to work too strenuously on central defender Grant. In my fledgling days on a paper, which I found bubbling with youthful zest despite declining circulation, we were encouraged to save our employer's money by being versatile.
• • What DO you say to Cary Grant? • •
• • Apart from recording Big John Atyeo's mountainous goal tally, we were asked to be always on the look‑out for contributions to the gossip column. Here, in my consternation as I confronted an idol, was surely the chance to take Bristol City's too often rather dowdy deeds on to another human plain. A snatched supposedly esoteric word from me maybe about Mae West, Mary Pickford, or Jean Harlow? Hints of Dyan Cannon as a future wife No4? Even a mischievous throwaway about Cary's shared company with Randolph Scott?
• • But all I mumbled self-consciously was: "Not a bad game so far, is it?" Hardly a conversational pearl. I've no idea how he responded to such banality. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "How Cary Grant Made Me Fluff My Lines at Ashton Gate"
• • Byline: By David Foot
• • Published in: Guardian News & Media 2008 — — in the UK
• • Published on: 25 May 2009
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1932 • •
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Mae West.
Steve Cochran appeared on Broadway with MAE WEST. 
• • Born in Eureka, California in the month of May — — on 25 May 1917 — — he moved during the 1920s to Laramie, Wyoming thanks to his lumberjack father. Perhaps used to a lonely landscape where he often saw things tumbling down and falling, his spirit may have yearned to be hemmed in by a fixed construction such as an auditorium. In any case, upon his 1939 commencement from the University of Wyoming, Cochran began working in regional theatre and summer stock. After honing his craft at the Barter Theatre and the Carmel (California) Shakespeare Festival, he worked at Detroit's Federal Theatre, and was co-starred in the touring companies of "Without Love" and "My Sister Eileen" before his Broadway debut in the eight-performance flop "Hickory Stick."
• • During the war, Cochran [physically unfit for combat] directed Army camp shows.
• • In 1945, the Samuel Goldwyn Company had Cochran under contract. His film debut was the Danny Kaye vehicle "Wonder Man" [1945], produced by Goldwyn and released by RKO. For Goldwyn's projects, the handsome six-footer was cast in supporting roles — — often portraying a boxer or a gangster.
• • Steve Cochran said: "The big secret in playing a criminal in movies is to really believe that the character you are playing is doing no wrong."
• • Upon being released from his contract with Goldwyn in 1948, Cochran went back to The Gay White Way. Mae West cast him in the shady, hot-blooded role of Juarez in her "Diamond Lil" revival from February 5—26, 1949 at the Coronet Theatre on West 49th Street.
• • Then 36, the thrice married lady-killer is reputed to have had a heavy breathing "after-hours" relationship with his 50-something diamond-draped leading lady. [Leading ladies Cochran led to bed included Jayne Mansfield and Merle Oberon.]
• • After performing with Mae West, Cochran signed with Warner Bros. in 1949 and returned to Hollywood.
• • In 1965 Steve Cochran sailed off to Guatemala on his yacht to look for exotic filming locations. The 48-year-old perished onboard of a lung infection during the month of June.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • co-star Steve Cochran • •
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The Drag — — a play written in 1926 by MAE WEST — — is in rehearsal.
• • Though the roles originally scripted for drag queens (Clem, The Duchess, Winnie, etc.) were meant to be played by real transvestites, Dreamwell Theatre has opened up the casting to females for their June 2009 production.
• • Dreamwell's web site noted: In The Drag, which opened to an “avalanche of condemnation,” as one biographer put it, Mae West argued that homosexuality had no class identification. In The Drag, West drew on the exuberance of the drag queens who had become her friends and “sisters” to challenge society’s strictures on the subject of homosexuality. Chuck Dufano will direct. The production promises to be challenging and rewarding as the entertainment at the drag ball is unscripted. Chuck Dufano, the director, plans to incorporate dance, music and songs of the time as well as any other vaudevillian type of talent that presents itself at auditions.
• • A read-through took place earlier this month and full-on rehearsal is in progress in preparation for a June 19th opening night with a cast of over a dozen actors.
• • The Drag is the story of Rolly Kingsbury’s failing marriage to Clair, his past secret affair with David Caldwall, his growing lust for Allen Grayson, and his affiliation with the very "out" drag community. By giving gay characters a voice, Mae West argued that homosexuality had no class identification and challenged social mores on the subject.
• • Performances will be offered next month on these dates: June 19, 20, 26, 27 at the Unitarian Universalist Society.
• • The Drag can be seen at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 10 S. Gilbert, Iowa City, Iowa 52240.
• • For more details, you can phone: (319) 337-3443 or (319) 541-0140.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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Edward F. Cline directed a motion picture starring MAE WEST — — but he didn't describe it like that. Instead (referring to the turmoil between the bombshell and her booze-loving co-star) he said: "I wasn't directing, I was referee-ing."
• • Born on 4 November 1891 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Edward F. Cline entered the world of cinema as an actor with Keystone in 1913, where he encountered a rotund juggler from Pennsylvania, William Claude Dukenfield.
• • Working on "My Little Chickadee" [1940] for Universal Pictures must have been memorable. That year he also directed the comedy "The Bank Dick" starring W.C. Fields.
• • Edward Francis Cline died during the month of May — — on 22 May 1961 — — at age 69 in Hollywood, California. • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Each time there is a MAE WEST walking tour in The Big Apple, astonished callers (who phone to RSVP) tell the tour organizer(s): "I didn't know Mae West lived in New York!" This summer an upcoming tour in Manhattan mid-August will wind down Chez Mae on the WESTside (and surely you knew this was coming). 
• • An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is where baby Mae was born in August 1893. She also hung her hat in Manhattan as well as in an area now called Queens — — but then known as Long Island.
• • Woodhaven, Queens, NY • •
• • The West family moved around a lot. For a few years, they called Woodhaven home; during this period Mae began writing plays and registering her copyright with the Library of Congress from her mother and father's Boyd Avenue address.
• • Leonora Lavan knows all there is to know about Woodhaven, where she was born and bred. She is the president of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society [WCHS], which meets regularly, plans events, hires speakers, reprints important historical research and monographs, maintains an archive, and does its share for civic pride.
• • To learn more about the group, and discover the history of one of Mae West's old stomping grounds, read this article: "Marking History A Site At A Time — — Woodhaven Society Continues To Celebrate Area's Past" by Bill Mitchell.
• • Published by The Times News Weekly — — www.timesnewsweekly.com — — Mr. Mitchell's article was a feature story earlier in May 2009.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Edward Steichen's gelatin silver print of MAE WEST, taken in 1933, will be on display in an upcoming museum exhibition. 
• • “Unspoken Messages: The Art of the Necklace” is on view at the MIA from June 6 through September 13, 2009. Admission will be free.
• • Mae's portrait will be in good company. The prints featured in this show will also include a sixteenth-century engraving from the Netherlands of Elizabeth, Queen of England by Crispin de Passe the Elder; an oil from 15th-century Italy by Benedetto Ghirlandaio Portrait of a Lady; and many others.
• • Born in Luxembourg, Edward Steichen [27 March 1879 — 25 March 1973] was a photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. In 1881, his family moved to the United States and he became a naturalized citizen in 1900.
• • The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), home to one of the finest encyclopedic art collections in the country, houses more than 80,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history. MIA is located here: 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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Songs made famous by MAE WEST, who loved to shimmy and wiggle to the blues, will be featured in a live show.
• • "Low Down Dirty Blues" is a new musical featuring the blues songs by great artists such as Mae West, Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, Sophie Tucker, Howlina Wolf, Pearl Bailey, and many others.
• • For decades, Blues artists have captivated audiences with the "Dirty Blues" — — music packed with passion and soul — — along with innuendo, insinuation, and, above all, humor.
• • This rousing, knee-slapping, unrestrained show can be seen at Northlight Theatre [9501 Skokie Boulevard Skokie, IL 60077] starting on 27 May 2010.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Word comes that a publicist who worked with MAE WEST has gone to the everlasting "Spin City" in the beyond.
• • Born in Brooklyn like Mae, Lee Solters came into the world on 23 June 1919. A creative person who enjoyed writing, the native New Yorker studied journalism and advertising at New York University. He covered high school basketball for The New York Times before he was drafted. While in the military, he penned pieces for Stars & Stripes. After receiving discharge papers, Solters began his own public relations firm during 1948 with partner James J. O'Rourke: Solters O'Rourke.
• • During the 1940s and 1950s, columnists were regulars at the top nightspots. Solters dropped in at clubs like Toots Shor and learned how to plant items with gossip guru Walter Winchell and finesse favorable mentions with society snitch Hedda Hopper.
• • The New York Times (and others) have made mention of his shrewdness. For example, one trick was devised to aid producer David Merrick to salvage a foundering Broadway show: Lee Solters and Merrick concocted a newspaper advertisement with quotations from men they had found in the phone book with the same names as top theater critics.
• • It has been said that in the late 1970s, Mr. Solters moved to Hollywood, where he helped set the trend for hiring entertainers to sell products and images. Forty years before that, however, Mae West was hired to lend glamour and sex appeal to cigarette brands and even soap in the 1930s.• • Unlike many theatrical press agents of today — — who charge $7,500 + merely to send out a boring press release by fax — — it seems that Lee Solters had the imagination, personal touch, amicable deceitfulness, and discernment that creates buzz.
• • His client roster of entertainment stars included: Mae West, Benny Goodman, Cher, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, the Muppets, Cary Grant, Led Zeppelin, Dolly Parton, and others. He claimed he knew Dolly when she was still flat-chested.
• • He also worked with more than 300 Broadway productions, musicals, and dramas including "Guys and Dolls," "Funny Girl," "The King & I," "My Fair Lady," "Camelot." as well as works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Neil Simon. In Nevada, he repped Sinatra, Caesars Palace, and (eventually), the City of Las Vegas.
• • Solters' namesake public relations firm says the New York native died at age 89 at his West Hollywood, California home on Monday morning.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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In 1982, she portrayed MAE WEST as a bouncy child. 
• • Born in California on 11 July 1975, Bridgette Andersen embarked upon an acting career in her youth — — not unlike Mae.
• • By her 7th birthday, Bridgette was buzzing and busy. First she was cast in the TV movie "Washington Mistress" [1982]. Later that year, Bridgette Andersen appeared in her most memorable role as the title character in "Savannah Smiles," followed by roles in "Family Ties," "Remington Steele," and as a young Mae West in the TV bio-pic of the actress' life.
• • In 1983, she appeared in a horror flick and a few short-lived sit-coms and was nominated twice for a Young Artist Award.
• • Though she worked steadily throughout the mid-1980s in feature films and on the small screen, by 1987 the 12-year-old was much less in demand.
• • Unlike Mae West, Miss Andersen was not close to her family. As a teen, she became addicted to heroin and that put more distance between her career aspirations and contact with loved ones. Reportedly, she was trying to clean up and get back on track by 1997 when she was employed by Erewhon Health Food Store in Los Angeles, California.
• • In the month of May — — on 18 May 1997 — — her stardusted dreams ended with a fatal overdose of alcohol and drugs. Bridgette Andersen was 21 years old.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Bridgette Andersen played young Mae • •
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Raise your hand if you remember MAE WEST's Slick Wiley.
• • Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the month of May — — on 17 May 1899 — — Ralf H. Wigger wiggled his name to Ralf Harolde and headed for the Hollywood Hills. Often cast in bit parts, Ralf Harolde racked up nearly 100 motion picture credits between 1920 and 1963.
• • In "I'm No Angel," the slinky five-foot-eleven Easterner played Tira's jealous boyfriend, Slick, who tails her to the hotel where she is romancing a big spender from Dallas. When Slick knocks him unconscious and robs him, he puts Tira in a compromising position.
• • Hal Erickson describes the screen veteran briefly in his excellent All Movie Guide: The best way to physically describe actor Ralf Harolde is to note his striking resemblance to Zeppo Marx. However, Harolde projected a far more sinister image than Marx, beginning with his film debut as the "gentlemanly" villain in Bebe Daniels' "Dixiana" (1930). Often cast as a low-life crook, he played an escaped convict who hid behind his wife and children in "Picture Snatcher" (1933) and the erstwhile kidnapper of little Shirley Temple in "Baby Take a Bow" (1934). He also showed up in such minor roles as a Tribunal prosecutor in "Tale of Two Cities" (1935) and a tuxedoed society gangster in Laurel and Hardy's "Our Relations" (1936).
• • Hal Erickson adds: Ralf Harolde's film career came to a screeching halt when, in 1937, he was involved in a traffic accident that resulted in the death of fellow actor Monroe Owsley. When Ralf re-emerged on screen in 1941, it was clear that the tragedy had taken its toll: Harolde's facial features had taken on a gaunt, haunted look, and his hair had turned completely white. Remaining active until the mid-1950s, Ralf Harolde still had a few good screen characterizations left in him — — most notably the sleazy sanitarium doctor in "Murder My Sweet" (1944).
• • Born in 1901, Monroe Owsley was featured in the Mae West vehicle "Goin' to Town" [1935]; often cast as a debauched young playboy, he played Cleo Borden's "husband-by-convenience" Fletcher Colton. Monroe died on 7 June 1937 from a heart attack suffered during a car accident. He was 36 years old.
• • On 1 November 1974, Ralf Harolde died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California at age 75.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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