This column first appeared in June 2012. Al is on vacation.
Hopefully, by now, you’ve learned everything you ever wanted to know about Mae West. My own personal interest in Ms. West began about fifteen years ago at, of all places, the Louisville flea market. As you may have gathered from past columns, I like antiques and collectibles. As a collector, over the years you meet “pickers” and develop relationships with folks whose sole interest in the hobby is finding an item, and then selling that item. One of my old contacts was a Hollywood trash picker.
This man was a school teacher who spent his summer vacations quite literally roaming the back streets and alleys of Tinsel Town poking through the trash cans and dumpsters of celebrities.
When I ran into him, he was carrying around a large wood and metal presentation plaque secreted within a grocery bag. He walked up to me and asked, “Hey Al, wanna see something cool?” Well, of course I did! He proceeded to pull out the plaque that I had seen peeking out of the brown paper bag and, much to my amazement, there was Mae West! The plaque pictures the original blonde bombshell at top and reads: “Miss Mae West-International Celebrity, you have been selected the First Lady of the New-Clear Society by unanimous vote, for your outstanding contribution to the World using Psychic Energies as a way of Life, keeping your clear mind constantly creative, your beautiful body ageless and your Soul attuned to the Divinity within! You are the Authentic Symbol of a New-Clear Individual! May all the Divine Blessing with absolute Enlightenment crown you daily and forever, Dearest Miss Mae West! With personal gratitude and great joy this Honor is dedicated to You! (Signed) Ralph Campo President-Founder The New-Clear Foundation 6716 Drexel Avenue Hollywood, California 90048 United States of America.”
I was immediately infatuated with the relic. My dumpster diving friend told me how he had found it, along with several other items (none of them as spectacular to me as this plaque) behind Mae’s Ravenswood apartment building after she died in 1980. I kept my poker face in check until I heard the price, then nearly sprained my elbow trying to pull out the cash. (It was priced less than a good dinner might cost nowadays.)
The plaque fits all of the criteria for the things that I fall in love with; Hollywood, History, Relics and Ghosts! Yes, ghosts. Mae West’s old Ravenswood apartment is a famous old Hollywood haunt. Besides Mae West, Ava Gardner and Clark Gable lived at the Ravenswood, located at 570 North Rossmore Avenue in Hollywood. The building was designed by architect Max Maltzman and built by Paramount Pictures in 1930. It has been declared a Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 768) by the City of Los Angeles.
Mae West moved into Apartment number 611, a two bedroom, two bath apartment, shortly after her arrival in Hollywood in 1932. The apartment had been reserved for her by Paramount and she liked it so much she never left. As Mae’s fame grew, she was offered a lifetime lease by the studio. Mae’s penthouse was decorated in white and gold but it’s most famous feature was the mirror she kept above her bed. When a visiting reporter asked why there was a mirror up there, she replied, “I like to see how I’m doin.”
In my mind, Mae West was everything old Hollywood represented. She was smart, funny, good looking, sexy and she was, without question, a star.
Many know of Mae’s ghost, but most are unaware of her reputation in the psychic community. Mae was one of the first women to consistently write the movies she starred in, and according to Hollywood’s most outrageous, self-proclaimed psychic Kenny Kingston, she wrote all her plays while in a trance. Kingston is sometimes referred to as the “psychic to the stars,” due to his extensive experience with celebrities, including John Wayne, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Rex Harrison, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Whoopi Goldberg, Greta Garbo, and Marlene Dietrich. Before you go believing Kingston’s alleged pedigree completely, keep in mind that in 1955 he predicted that Mae West would win the 1960 Presidential election and then fly to the moon in 1965 with him and friend Liberace!
Mae claimed that her storylines and script ideas came to her as she lay possessed by the spirits. Kingston recalled: “she would walk about her room saying, ‘Forces, Forces, come to me and help me write a script.’ She would begin to hear voices and images, as the plot was revealed to her. Mae would summon stenographers to work with her around the clock, as she would lie in bed in a trance-like state, dictating as the spirits entered.” Movies were simply mapped out to her to present to the public and her fans ate them up. West recalled one such psychic incident with a visiting musician: “As he started to play I just mentally blanked out. I sat there listenin’ but I really didn’t hear his music at all. In the fifty four seconds that it took the musician to play his song, I had received the entire script in my mind. It had come in neatly and completely with a beginning, a middle and an end. The film was a great hit, my fans loved it.”
My treasured plaque (pictured here for the first time ever) is proof positive that Mae West remained a trend-setter until her final days. Mae led many private séances whose participants, subjects and results will never be divulged, but the ones we do know of include repeated attempts to contact Rudolph Valentino at spots Rudy frequented in life and at least one séance to contact actress Sharon Tate at the house where she died at the hands of the Manson family. Mae called her sessions “interdenominational communication.” No doubt, were she alive and kicking today, she’d have had many television shows and cable TV specials of her own in our current ghost TV crazy culture.
What I loved most about Mae West was her accessibility. In the 1960-70s, before the sickening specter of stalker-ism entered our lives, you could still actually walk into the Ravenswood, go up to her sixth floor apartment, knock on the door and meet Mae West. Over the years, I’ve talked to several people who did just that. The door would be answered by one of Mae’s ever-present beefcake body builder personal assistants who would usher them into the front room of the apartment, replete with a huge polar bear rug as the central adornment, to where Mae was seated upon a white and gold loveseat. The lucky visitor could then spend a few treasured moments with Ms. West and, if so inclined, would leave with at least two signed photos of Mae West. Can you imagine that? Those days are gone forever. For the record, so are the days of Hollywood dumpster diving. Thanks to TMZ and the paparazzi, my Hollywood trash pickin’ friend reports that the stars now keep their trash under lock and key.
Mae West passed away peacefully while seated in her favorite armchair inside her Ravenswood apartment in 1980. Of course, the apartment has reputedly been haunted by Miss West ever since. Occupants of the space have witnessed white lights outside the window of Ms. West’s former bedroom as well as the spirit of Mae West herself, dressed entirely in white (her signature color). Now THAT is one ghost I’d LOVE to see. Author and former Los Angeles cop Joseph Wambaugh, called Rossmore Avenue his favorite L.A. street. “It’s retro and romantic for anyone with powerful remembrances of things past,” Wambaugh says. “One sees ghosts on Rossmore, Mae West for one, sashaying out of the Ravenswood to a waiting limo with two hunky escorts for a night at the Cocoanut Grove.”
Today, Mae’s risqué humor seems more old-fashioned than trend-setting, her style, her exotic look and her inimitable delivery of a delicious double-entendre have remained instantly identifiable. There will certainly never be another Mae West, she truly was bigger than life.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
