Mae West

Career

Beginning of stage career

West was five when she first entertained a crowd at a church social, and she began appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She frequently won prizes at local talent contests. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907, at the age of 14. As a child performer, West used the stage name "Baby Mae" (the baby may behave like this), and later tried various personas, including a male impersonator.

Early in her career, she sometimes used the alias "Jane Mast". Her distinctive walk was said to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were prominent during the Pansy Craze.

West made her first appearance in a Broadway show in 1911, at age 18, in a revue titled A La Broadway staged by her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn. The show closed after only eight performances, but West was praised in a New York Times review, which noted that "a girl named Mae West, hitherto unknown, pleased by her grotesquerie and snappy way of singing and dancing". She next appeared in Vera Violetta, which also featured Al Jolson, and in 1912, she played La Petite Daffy, a "baby vamp", in A Winsome Widow.

West continued to build her career in vaudeville, appearing in circuits such as that run by Gus Sun of Ohio. She credited her mother as a constant supporter who believed everything Mae did was "fantastic", though other family members—including an aunt and her paternal grandmother—disapproved of her performing career. In 1918, West gained significant attention in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, starring opposite Ed Wynn. Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, and her photograph was featured on the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now".

Broadway stardom and jail

Eventually, West began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in the 1926 play Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Although conservative critics panned the show, ticket sales were strong. The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from religious groups, and the theater was raided and West arrested along with the cast. She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House, where she was prosecuted on morals charges, and on April 19, 1927, she was sentenced to 10 days for "corrupting the morals of youth". Though West could have paid a fine and been released, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner. While incarcerated on Welfare Island, she dined with the warden and his wife and told reporters she had worn her silk panties while serving time, instead of the "burlap" issued to other inmates. She served eight days, with two days off for good behavior, and afterward told reporters that her play was "a work of art". Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, with reporters dubbing her a "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong".

Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality and was what West called one of her "comedy-dramas of life". After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York. However, The Drag never opened on Broadway, owing to efforts by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to ban any attempt by West to stage it. West explained, "The city fathers begged me not to bring the show to New York because they were not equipped to handle the commotion it would cause." West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, though she said she was not a "burn your bra" type of feminist. Since the 1920s, she also supported gay rights and spoke publicly against police brutality toward gay men. She expressed the then-modern belief that gay men were women's souls in men's bodies, and said that hitting a gay man was akin to hitting a woman.

In her 1959 autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, ghostwritten by Stephen Longstreet, West condemned hypocrisy while also voicing concerns about homosexuality:

I have always hated the two-faced, the smoother-over folk — the people who preach loudly one way of life, and then do something in private that they're against in public. In many ways homosexuality is a danger to the entire social system of western civilization...

This perspective seems at odds with her later statements, such as in her 1975 book Mae West: Sex, Health, and ESP, in which she wrote:

I believe that the world owes male and female homosexuals more understanding than we've given them. Live and let live is my philosophy on the subject, and I believe everybody has the right to do his or her own thing or somebody else's — as long as they do it all in private!

Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, West continued to write plays, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man, and The Constant Sinner. These productions stirred controversy, which helped keep West in the headlines and filled seats at performances. Her 1928 play Diamond Lil, a story about a racy but clever lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit. West revived it many times throughout her career.

Three years later, she played Babe Gordon in The Constant Sinner, which opened at the Royale Theatre on September 14, 1931. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson gave the show a scathing review:

...The Constant Sinner commits one of the major sins in the theatre; it is dull... "The Constant Sinner" is also, as might be expected, vile as to speech... Her peculiar slouching about the stage... her vocal stunts, her exploitation of blond buxomness—all these grow pretty tiresome through repetition.

Other critics similarly dismissed the play as "clumsy", "deliberately outlandish", and referred to West as an "atrocious playwright". The play closed after 64 performances. Compared to Diamond Lil, which ran for 323 performances, The Constant Sinner was a disappointment. Still, its notoriety enhanced West's public image as a daring and provocative performer. Soon afterward, she accepted a contract from Paramount Pictures to begin her Hollywood film career.

Motion pictures and censorship

In June 1932, after signing a two-month contract with Paramount that provided her a weekly salary of $5,000 ($110,000 in 2023), West left New York by train for California. The veteran stage performer was by then nearly 40 years old, yet managed to keep her age ambiguous for some time. She made her film debut in the role of Maudie Triplett in Night After Night (1932) starring George Raft, who had suggested West for the part. She did not like her small supporting role in the drama at first, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite portions of her character's dialogue. One of several revisions she made is in her first scene in Night After Night, when a hat-check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds", and West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is reported to have said, "She stole everything but the cameras."

For her next role for Paramount, West brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed "Lady Lou", to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film was one of Cary Grant's early major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. She claimed to have told a Paramount director, "If he can talk, I'll take him!" The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film saved Paramount from bankruptcy, grossing over $2 million, the equivalent of $46 million in 2023. Paramount recognizes that debt of gratitude today, with a building on the lot named after West.

Her next release, I'm No Angel (1933), teamed her again with Grant. The film was also a box-office hit and was the most successful of her entire screen career. In the months after its release, references to West could be found almost everywhere, from the song lyrics of Cole Porter, to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural of San Francisco's newly built Coit Tower, to She Done Him Right, a Pooch the Pup cartoon, to My Dress Hangs There, a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, paid his own tribute: "West is the most wonderful machine for living I have ever known—unfortunately on the screen only." To F. Scott Fitzgerald, West was especially unique: "The only Hollywood actress with both an ironic edge and a comic spark." As Variety put it, "Mae West's films have made her the biggest conversation-provoker, free-space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler."

By 1933, West was one of the largest box-office draws in the United States and, by 1935, she was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). Hearst invited West to Hearst Castle, his massive estate in San Simeon, California, where Hollywood celebrities and prominent political and business figures frequently gathered to socialize. "I could'a married him", West later commented, "but I got no time for parties. I don't like those big crowds." On July 1, 1934, the censorship guidelines of the film industry's Production Code began to be meticulously enforced. As a result, West's scripts were subjected to more editing. She, in turn, would often intentionally place extremely risqué lines in her scripts, knowing they would be cut by the censors. She hoped they would then not object as much to her other less suggestive lines. Her next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). The original title, It Ain't No Sin, was changed because of censors' objections. Despite Paramount's early objections regarding costs, West insisted the studio hire Duke Ellington and his orchestra to accompany her in the film's musical numbers. Their collaboration was a success; the classic "My Old Flame" was introduced in this film. Her next film, Goin' to Town (1935), received mixed reviews, as censorship continued to take its toll by preventing West from including her best lines.

Her following effort, Klondike Annie (1936), dealt, as best it could given the heavy censorship, with religion and hypocrisy. Some critics called the film her magnum opus, but not everyone agreed. Press baron William Randolph Hearst, offended by a remark West made about his mistress Marion Davies, sent a private memo to his editors stating: "That Mae West picture Klondike Annie is a filthy picture... DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE." Paramount executives felt they had to tone down West's characterization. "I was the first liberated woman, you know. No guy was going to get the best of me. That's what I wrote all my scripts about."

Around the same time, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man (1936), adapting Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance. Directed by Henry Hathaway, it is considered one of West's weaker films of the era due to censor cuts.

West next starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association ended. Censorship had increasingly made West's sexually suggestive humor difficult to sustain on screen. She was included in the "Box Office Poison" list published by the Independent Theatre Owners Association. This did not stop producer David O. Selznick from offering her the role of Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind, but West declined, saying it was too small and would need rewriting.

In 1939, Universal Studios approached West to star opposite W. C. Fields in My Little Chickadee (1940). Although West and Fields had a combative relationship, the film was a box office success. Religious leaders condemned West's on-screen persona, taking offense at lines such as: "When I'm caught between two evils, I generally like to take the one I never tried."

West's final film of the period was The Heat's On (1943), produced by Columbia Pictures. She only agreed to star as a personal favor to director Gregory Ratoff. It was the only film where she was not allowed to write her own dialogue. The result was poorly received, and West later cited her frustration with censorship as a key reason for her departure from filmmaking. Instead, she found continued success in nightclubs, stage shows, and Broadway revivals where she retained creative control over her performances.

Radio and censorship

On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Appearing as herself, West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, using her usual brand of wit and risqué sexual references. West referred to Charlie as "all wood and a yard long" and commented, "Charles, I remember our last date, and have the splinters to prove it!" West was on the verge of being banned from radio.

Another controversial sketch aired the same night on NBC, written by Arch Oboler, and featured Don Ameche and West as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. She tells Ameche to "get me a big one... I feel like doin' a big apple!" This ostensible reference to the then-current dance craze was one of the many double entendres in the dialogue. Days after the broadcast, the studio received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene". Several conservative women's clubs and religious groups admonished the show's sponsor, Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company, for "prostituting" their services for allowing "impurity [to] invade the air".

Under pressure, the Federal Communications Commission later deemed the broadcast "vulgar and indecent" and "far below even the minimum standard which should control in the selection and production of broadcast programs". Some debate existed regarding the reaction to the skit. Conservative religious groups took umbrage far more swiftly than the mainstream. These groups found it easy to make West their target. They took exception to her outspoken use of sexuality and sexual imagery, which she had employed in her career since at least the pre-Code films of the early 1930s and for decades before on Broadway, but which was now being broadcast into American living rooms on a popular family-friendly radio program. The groups reportedly warned the sponsor of the program they would protest her appearance.

NBC Radio banned West (and the mention of her name) from their stations following the backlash. She did not return to radio until January 1950, when she appeared on an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club, hosted by Perry Como. Ameche's career did not suffer any serious repercussions, however, as he was playing the "straight" character. West subsequently continued to perform in venues such as Lou Walters's The Latin Quarter, Broadway, and London.

Middle years

After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West returned to the stage and nightclubs. She played the title role in Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway, a play she wrote as a satirical take on the life of Catherine the Great. In the production, she surrounded herself with a group of tall, muscular actors described as an "imperial guard". Produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd, the play ran for 191 performances before going on tour.

West revived her 1928 play Diamond Lil in 1949, returning it to Broadway. A reviewer for The New York Times referred to her as an "American institution—as beloved and indestructible as Donald Duck. Like Chinatown, and Grant's Tomb, Mae West should be seen at least once." In the 1950s, she performed in her own Las Vegas stage show at the newly opened Sahara Hotel, where she sang while flanked by bodybuilders. The show proved popular with both male and female audiences, with West commenting, "Men come to see me, but I also give the women something to see: wall to wall men."

During the casting of Billy Wilder's 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, West was offered the role of Norma Desmond. Still frustrated by the censorship imposed on The Heat's On, she turned down the role, saying its pathos did not fit her desire to uplift audiences. The role went to Gloria Swanson, after Mary Pickford also declined.

West turned down other film roles: Vera Simpson opposite Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey (1957), played instead by Rita Hayworth; a part alongside Elvis Presley in Roustabout (1964), taken by Barbara Stanwyck; and offers from Federico Fellini for both Juliet of the Spirits and Satyricon.

Television, and the next generations

On March 26, 1958, West appeared at the live televised Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson, which received a standing ovation. In 1959, she released an autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, which became a best-seller. West made several television appearances to promote the book, including on The Dean Martin Variety Show in 1959 and The Red Skelton Show in 1960. She also recorded a lengthy interview for Person to Person with Charles Collingwood in 1959, which was ultimately not broadcast; CBS executives reportedly felt viewers were not prepared to see a nude marble statue of West that appeared in the segment. In 1964, she guest-starred on the sitcom Mister Ed. In 1976, she appeared on a CBS special, Back Lot U.S.A., hosted by Dick Cavett, where she was interviewed and performed two songs.

Recording career

West's recording career began in the early 1930s with releases of songs from her films on 78 rpm records. These were issued alongside sheet music for home use. In 1955, she recorded her first LP album, The Fabulous Mae West. In 1965, she recorded two songs, "Am I Too Young" and "He's Good for Me", for a 45 rpm single released by Plaza Records. She also recorded novelty songs such as "Santa, Come Up to See Me", featured on the album Wild Christmas, which was later reissued in 1980 as Mae in December. In 1966, she released the rock-and-roll album Way Out West, followed in 1972 by Great Balls of Fire, which included covers of songs by The Doors and tracks written by English songwriter-producer Ian Whitcomb.

Later years

West's likeness was used on the front cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When approached for permission, West initially declined, reportedly asking, "What would I be doing in a Lonely Hearts Club?" She changed her mind after receiving a letter from the band expressing admiration for her work.

After a 27-year absence from motion pictures, West returned to the screen as Leticia Van Allen in Myra Breckinridge (1970), based on the novel by Gore Vidal. The film starred Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck, but was hampered by production difficulties and poor critical reception. Though West received top billing, her role was reduced during editing. In 1971, she was voted "Woman of the Century" by students at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for her outspokenness on sexuality and censorship.

In 1975, West released the books Sex, Health, and ESP and Pleasure Man, the latter based on her 1928 stage play. Her 1959 autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, was also updated and reissued during this period. She managed her own stage acts and invested in real estate, including property in Van Nuys, Los Angeles.

That year, she began production on her final film, Sextette (1978), based on a script she had written in 1959. Because her eyesight was failing and the script was frequently revised, her lines were fed to her through a speaker concealed in her wig. Director Ken Hughes later said she was determined to finish the film. Sextette was not a commercial success. Its cast included George Raft, Tony Curtis, Timothy Dalton, Walter Pidgeon, Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper, Dom DeLuise, and Rona Barrett, along with several of West's former Las Vegas performers, such as Reg Lewis. The film reunited her with costume designer Edith Head, who had worked on She Done Him Wrong in 1933.

West was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street for her work in film and was later inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame for her contributions to stage performance.

Public image

Mae West was known for her distinctive appearance, often characterized by figure-hugging, floor-length gowns with low necklines. Her style typically featured details such as fishtail trains and feather trim, which became associated with her on-screen persona.

Personal life

West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Szatkus (1892–1966), whose stage name was Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she met in 1909. She was 17. She kept the marriage a secret, but a filing clerk discovered the certificate in 1935 and alerted the press. The clerk also uncovered an affidavit from her 1927 Sex trial, in which she had declared herself married. At first, West denied the marriage but admitted it in July 1937 in response to a legal interrogatory. The couple never lived together as husband and wife; she stated they had separate bedrooms and soon sent him away to headline his own show. She obtained a divorce on July 21, 1942, during which Wallace withdrew his request for separate maintenance, and West testified that they had lived together for only "several weeks". The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943.

In 1913, West met Guido Deiro (1886–1950), an Italian-born vaudeville star and accordionist. According to his son, Guido Roberto Deiro, West married Deiro in 1914, though this has not been conclusively proven. Their relationship reportedly ended after West had an abortion at her mother's urging, which left her infertile and nearly killed her. West later quipped, "Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution."

In 1916, West began a relationship with James Timony (1884–1954), an attorney and her manager. By the mid-1930s, they were no longer a couple but remained close until his death.

She was also romantically linked to Owney Madden, owner of the Cotton Club.

West remained close to her family throughout her life and was especially affected by her mother's death in 1930. She moved into apartment 611, one floor from the top, at The Ravenswood in Hollywood that year, remaining there until her death. She later brought her father, sister, and brother to Hollywood and supported them.

In her sixties, West became romantically involved with Chester Rybinski (1923–1999), a former Mr. California and member of her Las Vegas stage show. He later changed his name to Paul Novak. He was 30 years her junior and remained with her until her death. Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West."

West would sometimes refer to herself in the third person and speak of "Mae West" as the entertainment character she had created.

West was a Presbyterian.

Death

In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, she was unable to speak and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She died three months later on November 22 at the age of 87.

A private service was held three days later at the church in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Her friend, Bishop Andre Penachio, officiated at the entombment in the family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, which had been purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother had also been entombed there, and her younger sister Beverly was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months later.

In popular culture

• In the 1935 Laurel and Hardy film Bonnie Scotland, in response to the character Mrs. Burns saying to Mr. Miggs, "The next time you drop down to Glasgow, you must come up and see me some time", Stan comments, "It's Mae West."
• In the 1937 film Stand-In, the stage mother (Anne O'Neal) who has her young daughter (Marianne Edwards) auditioning for Dodd (Leslie Howard) tells her, "Now, do the Mae West number."
• During World War II, Allied aircrews called their yellow inflatable, vest-like personal flotation devices "Mae Wests", partly from rhyming slang for "breasts" and partly because of the resemblance to her torso. A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction that contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of a large brassiere.
• West is referenced in songs, including the title number of Cole Porter's Broadway musical Anything Goes and in "You're the Top".
• Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí created works inspired by West, including Face of Mae West Which May Be Used as an Apartment and the Mae West Lips Sofa, completed in 1938 for Edward James.
• Several of West's comedy lines are used in the parody musical Wild Side Story (1973–2004).
• In 1982, actress Ann Jillian portrayed West in the television biopic Mae West.
• In 2000, Dirty Blonde, a play about two Mae West fans, opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater.
• MAE-West ("Metropolitan Area Exchange, West") was a major Internet exchange point in the United States, with a corresponding MAE-East on the East Coast.
• In 2017, West was the subject of an episode of the TV series Over My Dead Body on Amazon Prime.
• West was the subject of the 2020 PBS documentary Mae West: Dirty Blonde, part of the American Masters series and produced by Bette Midler.
• The Canadian dessert cake May West (formerly spelled "Mae West") was named in her honor. It remains popular in Quebec and parts of Ontario.
• A 52-meter-high (171 ft) sculpture in Munich, completed in 2011, is titled Mae West.

Broadway stage

Written works

• West, Mae (1930). Babe Gordon. The Macaulay Company. (the novel on which The Constant Sinner was based)
• West, Mae (1932). Diamond Lil Man. Caxton House. (novelization of play)
• West, Mae; Weintraub, Joseph (1967). The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West. G.P. Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-50549-2.
• West, Mae (1970) [1959]. Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-1-86049-034-7.
• West, Mae (1975a). Mae West on Sex, Health and ESP. W.H. Allen. ISBN 978-0-491-01613-1.
• West, Mae (1975b). Pleasure Man. Dell Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-440-07074-0.
• West, Mae (1997). Schlissel, Lillian (ed.). Three Plays by Mae West: Sex, The Drag, Pleasure Man. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-90933-4.
• West, Mae (2023). Tutak, Romain (ed.). Mae West – The First Plays: Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860.