This is part of a new series of posts on SCVTalk -courtesy of SCV Blogger Townbeet- called Main St. Stars that explores and spotlights the lives, times and achievements of the people behind the stars on the Walk of the Western Stars in Newhall. According to the SCV historical society The Walk of Western Stars serves “as a means of honoring Western film, stage, television and radio personalities who performed in the Santa Clarita Valley.” An interactive map of the stars may be found at the SCVHistorical Society’s site here.
Virginia Mayo was an American actress who hailed from St. Louis, Missouri. She was born Virginia Clara Jones on November 30th 1920. Mayo was her stage name.
According to the online Biography Resource Center and the Scribner encyclopedia of American Lives she was ”once called “tangible proof of the existence of God” by the Sultan of Morocco”. Eat your heart out Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City II.
Mayo’s acting was critically acclaimed and she was quite versatile, appearing in Brodway shows, musical theatre, A-list director movies, B-list director movies, Westerns, TV series, Foreign movies (Italian mostly) etc. She was leading lady on Paul Newman’s first big screen film “The Silver Chalice”. She acted along side many distinguished actors and actresses. One may find the listing at www.imdb.com. According to Scribner’s Encyclopedia of American Lives her favorite genre was musical theatre, however she did appear in quite a few western especially in the 50’s.
When she passed away in January 17th 2005 she was survived by her daughter and I’d like to think she was aware of her western star on what is now Main Street Newhall. Virginia Mayo’s star is marked number 1 on the Walk of Western Stars.
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