Entertainment Lawyer-Old Hollywood Blind Item

**penname** · October 9th, 2008, 08:39 AM

I'd love this to be Joan Crawford - but the blind says this person didn't win an Academy Award, and Crawford did. So did Ginger Rogers. And Mary Pickford. Lillian Gish didn't win one for a performance, but she received a kind of Lifetime Achievement one - and she never got married - so she doesn't fit either. I'm still favouring Mae West who won other awards, but no oscars.

**Belt Up** · October 9th, 2008, 09:45 AM

Bette Davis?

**Sasha** · October 9th, 2008, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Belt Up

Bette Davis?

Bette was also an Oscar winner. I went on a quest to find out about Norma Shearer, but had forgotten her Oscar for The Divorcee. I thought it might be her because of her pre Code reputation for portraying single women who were not virgins.

This is my favorite kind of blind and I won't rest until I figure it out.

So we have to figure it out with these clues:

A lister who never won an Oscar
Had the baby before "there was a Hollywood"
Famous for acting but was "probably" better at other things
Had not planned on going to Hollywood, but made it big once she got there.
Married at least twice
Always surrounded by men
Lived to an old age

Mae West is sounding good, off to google.

**heathersharon** · October 9th, 2008, 10:32 AM

I'm going with Mae. She was famous for acting, but she was a better writer. She was old enough to be pre-Hollywood and died old. No Oscars. She's the one.

**Fly_On_TheWall** · October 9th, 2008, 10:58 AM

Lana Turner?

**Sasha** · October 9th, 2008, 11:20 AM

Yep, it's Mae West.

Academy Award winner? Nope. She was in a nominated film or two though.

She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film is also notable for one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West had spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. The movie was a huge financial success, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
Her next release I'm No Angel (1933) paired her with Grant again. I'm No Angel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture

At the time he showed up, she was in between marriages. Kind of.

West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she first met in 1909.

West at first denied ever marrying Wallace. She finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they had been married. Even though the marriage was a reality, she never lived with Wallace as man and wife. She obtained a legal divorce on July 21, 1942,

West also had another secret marriage. In August 1913, she met a Vaudeville headliner who captured her heart, the Italian-born star of the piano-accordion: Guido Deiro. They became engaged in early 1914 and were married probably later that year after his divorce from his first wife...West never mentioned that she had been married to Deiro, [11] undoubtedly because she was still legally married to Frank Wallace. After the couple split up, West filed for divorce from Guido Deiro on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920.

************************

So Mae divorced her second husband first, lol, in 1920. She divorced her first huband in 1942. So sometime in that 22 year period the son showed up on her doorstep.

Mae was an utterly fascinating woman, btw. Aside from writing, directing, and acting in her own Broadway plays, she adapted many of them for the screen. When she was prosecuted on morals charges stemming from her play Sex in 1927 it only enhanced her career. She was an early advocate for gay and transgendered rights.

**Sialia** · October 9th, 2008, 11:33 AM

^^^Wow, after reading her Wikipedia page and re-reading the blind, it really does sound like this is Mae West.

I agree with you, Sasha, that she was an incredibly fascinating woman, way ahead of her time. I've always liked her.

**Valley Doll** · October 9th, 2008, 11:51 AM

At this point, Mae West would be better known for her colorful quotes than her acting. And she became a camp culture icon during the 1970s.

As far as surrounding herself with younger men, according to her Wiki page:

Near the end of her life, she was known for maintaining a surprisingly youthful appearance. She stated in her autobiography that she spent two hours every day massaging cold cream into her breasts to keep them youthful. West continued to surround herself with virile men for the rest of her life, employing companions, bodyguards, and chauffeurs.

Yep, I think we've figured out this one!