Blogger and Boro President Bring Mae West Back to The Big Apple

The Biography Channel Immortalizes the Blonde Bombshell as a New Yorker on January 31st

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 28, 2006 -- The West Coast is left far behind on January 31st when The Biography Channel broadcasts an hour-long episode featuring native New Yorker MAE WEST [1893-1980] on the series "DEAD FAMOUS: GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS" shown on A&E. Now in its third season, and aired on national network television throughout the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, "DEAD FAMOUS" is put together by British TV producers who have curiously favored California and Nevada locations in the past - - even for East Coast notables.

Heave-ho to Hoboken: New Jersey was wanked from their FRANK SINATRA segment [taped in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe instead]. And both Brooklyn and Chicago were rubbed out of their AL CAPONE hour [shot mainly at Alcatraz].

Born in Brooklyn, MAE WEST launched her career in vaudeville at age 6 and began touring in her teens. Success on Broadway enabled the well-quipped comedienne to buy a home for her parents in Woodhaven, Queens as well as the West End Avenue townhouse that she shared with her divorced sister Beverly until Hollywood beckoned in 1932.

When the 40-year-old actress took up residence at The Ravenswood [on North Rossmore Avenue in Los Angeles], she was Tinseltown's highest earner. Despite her riches, Mae maintained a pennywise lifestyle; she bought the apartment building and kept the same address for 47 years until her death [1933-1980]. Since MAE-fans are most familiar with her censorship-challenging films, and since she spent 47 of her 87 years as a Californian, it seems logical to profile the entertainer in her old Hollywood haunts or near her beach retreat in Malibu.

Lo and behold a Blog: The Internet has done for death what Dorian Gray did for portraits: redefined decomposition. Take seventeen-years-dead comedienne Lucille Ball [1911-1989]. Lucy gathered a fresh following among TV-timers who still enjoy the well-preserved redhead in syndicated sit-coms, which keep refueling online fan sites. In contrast, twenty-five-years-dead MAE WEST - - despite being resurrected by biographies including a new bio released in Britain - - lacks the TV serial filler power that combats invisibility. Consequently, MAE WEST fan clubs have vanished and only a few fan sites remain online, terminally outdated.

Blog as bloodbank: But blogs have given a booster shot to MAE’s fame. For example, when the TwoFour TV crew discovered MaeWest.blogspot.com, filled with original content and a New York City address book charting MAE's career, they realized that a blogger - - NYC dramatist LindaAnn Loschiavo - - had already done research for them, according to Jon McKnight. An episode was born.

Loschiavo is an unlikely spokesperson for MAE WEST as movie queen. Her play "Courting Mae West" is based on true events that happened during the 1920s when the performer (then in her thirties) was arrested and jailed in New York. In other words, this play recreates the onstage Mae, a slim brunette failure moving towards her blonde ambition - - a human being, not an icon. Relying on the playwright's research meant that the TV crew followed the same East Coast footsteps, filming former courtrooms, hotels, Broadway theatres, and Brooklyn apartments.

Occasionally, the TV crew's permits were denied. That's when Brooklyn's Borough President wielded his scepter. Marty Markowitz secured permission to shoot at rarely seen locations, a real coup for the filmmakers. Markowitz is also proud to have MAE WEST reunited with New York City. "Her moxie, chutzpah, and razor-sharp wit personified the Brooklyn attitude to generations of Americans," said Markowitz. "No one made Brooklynese more famous than MAE."

On Tuesday January 31, 2006, The Biography Channel will air "DEAD FAMOUS" with an hour-long episode that brings MAE's Manhattan and Brooklyn into focus. Bye-bye, Paramount.
For broadcast times, check local listings.

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