Utah Beginnings
May Mann was born to a prominent family in Ogden, Utah. As a child, she loved watching films and reading movie magazines. Her first newspaper publication was in 1934 in The Ogden Standard-Examiner. There she wrote as a society columnist. She met with Hollywood celebrities in Union Station in Ogden. The articles she wrote from these meetings were successful, and movie studios paid for her transportation to and from Hollywood in order for her to continue the good publicity.
Going Hollywood
She started her column, “Going Hollywood,” in 1936.[3] She attended many parties in Hollywood and thought of herself as a celebrity. In 1938 she wrote an article about Clark Gable for Screenland and one about Wallace Beery in Movie Mirror. In 1939, she spent several months in New York City writing columns about Broadway during the World’s Fair. She spent her vacation time working as a reporter for a New York newspaper.[3][5] Her columns often featured photos of her with the celebrity she wrote about, which she started when a reader doubted that she had actually met with the celebrity.[5]
In 1956, she became one of Marilyn Monroe’s favorite reporters and confidantes. As such she received a telegram from Monroe setting up a call for a specific time to confide to Mann that she and Arthur Miller would be wed ‘at midsummer” but was told, ‘don’t print it yet.’
Mann later reported on Marilyn Monroe’s wedding to Arthur Miller (after it was announced) for the New York Tribune. Mann continued to write about Monroe up until Marilyn’s death in 1962.[6] Mann reported on what she considered to be an “inept probe” into her close friend, Marilyn Monroe’s untimely death. She received a call from chief Parker about the article. Mann relayed, “He said it would be bad for my health if I kept writing stories like that.”[7]
She was a regular contributor to Photoplay 1972–1977.[8] King Features, Faucett Publications and General Features syndicated her “Going Hollywood” column to 400 newspapers.[9] Mann wrote for movie magazines starting in 1937, and her work appears in Movie Mirror, Silver Screen, Movie Teen, and Screenland. Sometimes she used a pen name, Frances Lane, because she claimed that the Associated Press told her she could only write in one A.P. paper.[10] She described herself as liking everyone, even if they disliked her, and “never [said] an unkind word about anyone.”[5]
Mann interviewed Mae West,[3] Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable,[11][12] Joan Crawford,[13][14] Jayne Mansfield, and Mary Pickford.[15] Mann also wrote extensively about The Osmonds.[3]