A Great Institution

This weekend the indomitable, Mae West, would have celebrated her 120th birthday!

She was born on August 17, 1893  in Brooklyn, New York and started performing at the age of five.

Mae West went on to a brilliant career on stage, in film, and as a director and writer.

Paramount Pictures film director, George Raft, reflecting on West's brilliant approach to her scenes, remarked

"She stole everything but the cameras."

Mae Wests's approach to love and marriage was as unconventional and brazen as her approach to life. During a brief marriage to fellow Vaudevillion Frank Wallace, she took the upper hand in the relationship, although she was only 17. Insisting on separate quarters during their short time together, West soon grew weary of Wallace and sent him off on a show of his own simply to rid herself of him.


Two years later she was in a stormy and passionate relationship with another Vaudeville headliner, Italian born Guido Diero. The two became engaged.Biographers of both still argue over whether the engagement resulted in marriage, but Mae made her own vies quite clear by stating;

"Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready fo an institution yet."

West also had a romance with boxing champion, William Jones. When the management of her apartment building prohibited the African-American boxer from visiting, Mae solved the problem by buying the building and lifting the ban.

At the age of 61 Ms. west became romantically involved with former Mr. California, Paul Novak. He moved in  and was with her up until her death at the age of 87. Novak once commented that he
"was put on this Earth to care for Mae West."
Not a bad gig:)

So....here's to one 'kick-ass babe'...Mae West, who reminds us to breathe and not take life too seriosuly. After all....

"It's better to be looked over than overlooked."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West#Personal_life

Charles and Anne Lindbergh

Early in the morning of May 20^th 1920, Charles A. Lindbergh took off in The Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field in New York City to make the first successful solo flight across the Atlantic.

Americans sat glued to their radios waiting for word of Lindbergh’s success. The world cheered as his plane was spotted over the coast of Ireland and 100,000 jubilant spectators overwhelmed the shy, adventurous pilot as he landed at LeBourget Field in Paris after less than 34 hours of flight time.

Anne Morrow was a young woman of 21, finishing up at Smith College, when she fell in love with Charles Lindbergh. Her father, Dwight Morrow, as U.S Ambassador to Mexico, invited Lindbergh to Mexico to conduct a good will tour. The new American hero received a roaring welcome from his southern neighbors, and a feeling of awakening from his future bride.

That night Anne writes in her diary of their first meeting: "It was breath-taking. I could not speak. What kind of boy is this?" Then, after Lindbergh takes her up for her first flight, she pens: "I will not be happy until it happens again." Later, after he flies on to other Central American countries, she writes: "The idea of this dear, direct, straight boy how it has swept out of sight all the other men I have known. All my life, in fact my world, my little embroidery beribboned world is smashed. I must have been walking with my head down looking at puddles for twenty years!"

Two years later Anne and Charles were married and shared the heavens and the earth, celebrations and tragedies, and love and understanding for 47 years.

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/anne/index3.asp