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 36 Collections and/or Records:
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 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".
May Mann general correspondence, 1980-1982
Contains correspondence by Mann, dating from between 1980 and 1982.
May Mann history, 1910-1981
Contains statements, family reunion report, autobiography, interview transcripts, and other material. The taped interviews consist of six one-hour cassette transcripts covering Mann's childhood, first marriage, early career, her present life, and more. In answer to questions by D'Arc arising from the collection itself, Mann set the background and rationale for areas of her personal life documented and not documented in the collection.
May Mann legal documents, 1946-1979
Contains a photocopy of a trademark, marriage certificates and divorce decrees, insurance policies, wills, contracts, legal correspondence, promissory notes, reports on a traffic accident, and other material.
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- Photographs 11
- Letters 8
- Articles 4
- 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
- Interviews 1
- Memorandums 1
- Radio plays, American 1
- Reports 1
- Television plays, American 1
- Transcripts 1
- Typescripts 1
- Videocassettes 1 + ∧ less