Mann, May
Biography
May Mann (1908-was a Hollywood columnist and feature writer.
May Mann was born September 1, 1908, in Ogden, Utah. She worked as a society columnist for her hometown newspaper, The Ogden Standard-Examiner. She began branching out into writing about Hollywood stars, making contacts as they passed through Ogden’s Union Station. In 1936, May named her daily column "Going Hollywood," which was soon syndicated to many newspapers in the Intermountain West and later across the nation through the General Features Syndicate.
May used the title "Going Hollywood" throughout her life. Between 1936 and 1981 she wrote "Going Hollywood" columns for fourteen different magazines and newspapers. In 1946, a few years after she stopped writing for her hometown paper, she registered the title as her trademark. In 1982, May was still submitting "Going Hollywood" columns to at least two publications.
May became one of the five women to have a personal interview with Mae West and the only woman, at that time, to interview her in her famed apartment atop the Beverly Hills Hotel. She also wrote about Clark Gable throughout his life. During World War II, she occasionally wrote morale-boosting articles about stars entertaining enlisted men, war heroes, or love problems that came with the war. May interviewed and wrote about Elvis Presley often during his career and developed a close friendship with him, publishing a biography on him in 1975.
May married Al Leon, a former concert singer from San Francisco, in 1945. They divorced early in 1948. Nearly a year after she divorced Leon, May married ex-boxer Buddy Baer in 1949. After five years, May filed for divorce.
May Mann died April 15, 1995, in Los Angeles, California.
Citation:
Harold B. Lee Library. Div. of Archives and Manuscripts. Register of the May Mann collection, 1982:p. 1 (May Vasta Randall, later known as May Mann) p. 64 (b. 1908)LC in RLIN, 4/18/86(hdg.: Mann, May)
Found in 56 Collections and/or Records:
May Mann collection of photographs
Collection includes photographs, slides, and negatives of May Mann's family and life. Many photographs include motion picture actors and actresses associated with Mann.
May Mann papers
Correspondence, newspaper-column and magazine-article tearsheets and typescripts; book drafts; and other materials relating to her journalism career.
May Mann advertising files, 1939-1975
Contains business and promotional Christmas cards, movie stargraphs, fliers and broadsides, newsletters, advertising memos, press passes, catalogs, and commercials.
May Mann business correspondence, 1930-1982
May Mann business papers, 1930-1982
Contains correspondence, advertising, and financial records dealing strictly with the promotion and selling of Mann's writing.
May Mann calendars, 1974-1981
Contains Mann's personal calendars, which include her annotations on events and activities.
May Mann columns, 1936-1981
May Mann correspondence, 1941-1982
Contains general correspondence, as well as those between Mann and Al Leon, Buddy Baer, Donald Maloof, George Dareos, Benito Prezia, and Sheery Spilkoman's grandchildren.
May Mann feature articles, 1936-1979
Typescripts and photocopies of Mann's pieces on actors, actresses, films, and events.
May Mann fiction, undated
Contains typescripts of early material (subjects or titles unspecified), and drafts of an article "I Was a Discarded Wife".
Additional filters:
- Type
- Archival Object 54
- Collection 2
- Subject
- Actors -- Biography 52
- Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) 52
- Motion picture actors and actresses -- Biography 52
- Material Types 38
- American literature -- Latter Day Saint authors 37
- Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences 37
- Journalists 37
- Literature -- Latter Day Saint authors 37
- Performing Arts 37
- Publications 37
- Photographs 28
- Letters 8
- Articles 4
- Interviews 4
- Transcripts 4
- Audiocassettes 3
- Manuscripts for publication 3
- Legal instruments 2
- Promotional materials 2
- Video tapes 2
- American drama 1
- Autobiographies 1
- Broadsides 1
- Business cards 1
- Calendars 1
- Catalogs 1
- Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.) 1
- Drafts (Documents) 1
- Fliers (Ephemera) 1
- Images 1
- Memorandums 1
- Motion picture actors and actresses -- Photographs 1
- Negatives 1
- Radio plays, American 1
- Reporters and reporting -- California -- Photographs 1
- Reports 1
- Slides (Photography) 1
- Television plays, American 1
- Typescripts 1
- Videocassettes 1 + ∧ less