Mae West Totally Explained

Everything about Mae West totally explained

Mae West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol.
   Famous for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedian, actress and writer in the motion picture industry.
   One of the most controversial stars of her day, West encountered many problems including censorship.
   When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded Rock and Roll albums.

Biography

Early life

She was born Mary Jane West in Woodhaven, a middle class section of Queens, New York City. In her childhood, West moved to various parts of Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, where she attended Erasmus Hall High School. She was the daughter of John Patrick West (Nov 1865–1935) and Matilda "Tillie" Delker-Doelger (Dec 1870–10 Oct 1944). Her sister and brother were Mildred Katherine "Beverly" West (Dec 1898–1982) and John Edwin West (Feb 1900–1964).
Her father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a police officer and then as a detective who ran his own agency. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model.
The family was Protestant, despite her Jewish mother, who was a Bavarian German immigrant. Her Roman Catholic paternal grandmother, who was Irish, as well as other relations who were Roman Catholic, and the woman who helped deliver her, disapprobated her career and its choices.

Career

Mae West was only 5 years old when she started appearing in amateur shows and many times she won prizes for her performances. West began performing professionally in vaudeville in 1905 at the age of twelve. She performed at that time under the name The Baby Vamp, after trying out various personas as a male impersonator and blackface coon shouter unsuccessfully. In 1913, the slinky, dark-haired Mae was performing a lascivious "shimmy" dance and was photographed for a song-sheet for the song "Everybody Shimmies Now" She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that whatever her daughter did was fantastic.
   Her famous walk was said to have originated in her early years as a stage actress after she saw female impersonator Bert Savoy perform. West had special eight-inch platforms attached to her shoes to increase her height and enhance her stage presence.
   Mae's first appearance in a legitimate Broadway show (after toiling with Ned Wayburn's "beef trust chorus") was in the 1911 revue A La Broadway. Appearing with West in the cast was another newcomer: Al Jolson. After a week's worth of performances, Mae left the cast. In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime opposite Ed Wynn. As La Petite Daffy, she appeared in a 'shimmy' skit.
   Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name "Jane Mast." Her first starring role on Broadway was in a play she titled Sex, which she also wrote, produced and directed. Though critics hated the show, ticket sales were good. The notorious production didn't go over well with city officials and the theater was raided with West arrested along with the cast.
   She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19 1927, was sentenced to 10 days in jail for public obscenity. While incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, she was allowed to wear her silk underpants instead of the scratchy prison issue and the warden reportedly took her to dinner every night. She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention to the case enhanced her career.
   Her next play, The Drag, was about homosexuality and alluded to the work of Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs. It was a box office success but it played in New Jersey because it was banned from Broadway. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue and was also an early advocate of gay and trans gender rights. West's theatrical treatments of gender and gender performativity were advanced, considering the times, and she deftly poked fun at society's strictures. But while gays and lesbians began a decades-long embrace of West, or at least West's public persona, the love affair wasn't exactly mutual. Every reputable biography of West has her believing that a gay man was actually a female soul housed in a male body, equating transvestism with homosexuality, and referring to gays and lesbians in the long-defunct pathological term "inverts." (West once admonished policemen who raided a gay bar and beat up its male patrons, "Remember, you're hittin' a woman.") Although during her entire lifetime, she surrounded herself with gay men and was appreciative that they comprised her hardcore fan base, Mae's concept of homosexuality as illness was in keeping with the popular notions of the early twentieth century. A feminist long before the term was coined, Mae took marching orders from no one, in her career or in her personal life.
   She continued to write plays including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions were plagued by controversy and other problems. The controversy ensured that Mae stayed in the news and most of the time resulted in packed performances. Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit. This show enjoyed an enduring popularity and West would successfully revive it many times throughout the course of her career.

Motion pictures

In 1932, West was offered a motion picture contract by Paramount Pictures. She was 38, unusually advanced for a first movie, especially for a sex symbol (though she kept her age ambiguous for several more years); her much younger appearance would be a notable feature for the rest of her life. She signed and went to Hollywood to appear in Night After Night starring George Raft. Upon her arrival, she moved into an apartment in the Ravenswood at 570 North Rossmore Avenue, not far from the studio on Melrose. She maintained a residence at the Ravenswood, her preferred abode, for the rest of her life, although she also owned a beach house and a ranch in the San Fernando Valley.
   At first, she didn't like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes. In West's first scene, a hat check girl exclaimed, "Goodness, what lovely diamonds." West crisply replied, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras."
   She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film is also notable for one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West had spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. The movie was a huge financial success, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
   Her next release I'm No Angel (1933) paired her with Grant again. I'm No Angel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was a tremendous financial blockbuster and, along with She Done Him Wrong, saved Paramount from bankruptcy. West was the largest box office draw in the United States at the time, and the second highest paid person in the US (after William Randolph Hearst). However, the frank sexuality and steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath of moralists. On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced, and her screenplays were heavily edited. Her tactical response was to increase the number of double entendres in her films, expecting the censors to delete the obvious lines and overlook the subtle ones.
   West's next movie was Belle of the Nineties (1934). It was originally titled It Ain't No Sin but the title was changed due to the censor's objection. Other tentative working titles were That St. Louis Woman, Belle of St. Louis, and Belle of New Orleans. Her next film, Goin' To Town (1935) delighted her fans and this film remains a favorite for many. The film revealed the hypocrisy of the privileged rich class and Mae's fans were delighted with the finished product. It was another big financial hit for West.
   Mae's next film was Klondike Annie (1936) which was very controversial. Many critics have called this film her screen masterpiece. It concerned religion and hypocrisy and created a storm of controversy.
   West's next film was Go West, Young Man (1936), playing opposite Randolph Scott. In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay. The film, directed by Henry Hathaway, was one of the rare times when West starred in a role not originally conceived for her. This was another financial success for West. After this film, West starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end.
   Two years later, she starred opposite W. C. Fields in My Little Chickadee (1940) for Universal Studios. West and Fields, who were both accustomed to working with supporting players and not as co-stars, didn't get along and she wouldn't tolerate his drinking. Both have extended scenes that showcase their trademarked personae without the other, and without reference to the plot. According to legend, the only way Fields and West could be in the same scene was to film them separately and then splice the film together. My Little Chickadee was a huge box office success and outgrossed all other W.C. Fields movies. Universal was delighted with its success and offered West two more movies to star with Fields, but she refused, citing the difficulty of working with Fields.
   Mae's next film was The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia Pictures. Mae hated the film but she did it anyway to keep the producer from bankruptcy. The film initially didn't work so well, but it has also became a cult favorite. Mae's performance in it did attract some good reviews one of which said she was still "the freshest thing on the screen". In this film, Mae appeared at her thinnest. She looked astonishingly youthful and the film has become a late night favorite. The Disney Channel even had a special concerning Mae West on their channel and showed many scenes from this film. This film was a forerunner of what would happen in her movies from the 1970s (Myra Breckinridge and Sextette) in which West would emerge as an actress who triumphed with personality over art.

Quips

Mae West remains notable for a large number of quips, some firmly tied to herself and her characters, and others widely borrowed for very different settings. A famous Mae West quip, “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”, is often varied to “Is that a banana in your pocket…” She made this remark in February 1936, at the train station in Los Angeles upon her return from Chicago, when a Los Angeles police officer was assigned to escort her home. She first delivered the line on film in She Done Him Wrong, and again to George Hamilton in her last movie, Sextette. It is one of the most quoted lines in movie history.
Likewise, “When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better”, from I'm No Angel, is generally quoted with its original, faintly disreputable meaning. Conversely, however, some quips have been widely adapted to very different settings and meanings. For example, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful" has been applied to many settings, including Warren Buffett (as a sound principle of informed financial investing).

Radio

On December 12 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show that surprised both the listening audience and NBC executives. She appeared as herself, flirting excitedly with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, utilizing her usual brand of sexy wit and risqué sexual references. Lines such as "Charles, I remember our date and have the splinters to prove it" and "Hello, long, dark, and slinky" drove the NBC censors and the FCC into panic.
Even more outrageous was a sketch earlier in the show, written by Arch Oboler, that starred West and Don Ameche as Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden. She told Ameche in the show to "get me a big one...I feel like doing a big apple!" The conversation between the two was considered so risqué, bordering on blasphemous, she was banned from being featured, or even mentioned, on the NBC network. She didn't perform again on radio until 1949 on The Perry Como Show.

Marriage and divorce

West was married on April 11 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she first met in 1909. She was 17, he was 21. In 1935, Wallace showed up in Hollywood with a marriage certificate seeking a share of "their" community property. An affidavit was also uncovered that West gave in 1927, during the Sex trial, in which she'd declared herself married.
West at first denied ever marrying Wallace. She finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they'd been married. Even though the marriage was a reality, she never lived with Wallace as man and wife. She insisted they've separate bedrooms and she soon sent him away in a show of his own in order to get rid of him. She obtained a legal divorce on July 21, 1942, during which Wallace withdrew his request for separate maintenance, and West testified that she and Wallace had lived together for only "several weeks." The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943.

Middle years

West appeared in her last movie during the studio age with The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia. She remained active during the ensuing years. Among her stage performances was the title role in Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she spoofed the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an "imperial guard" of muscular young actors, all over six feet tall. The play was produced by Mike Todd and went on a long national tour in 1945.
   She also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders. Jayne Mansfield met, and later married, one of West's muscle men, Mickey Hargitay, after which he was fired by West.
   When Billy Wilder offered West the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, she refused and pronounced herself offended at being asked to play a "has-been," similar to the responses he received from Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and Pola Negri. Ultimately the more amenable Gloria Swanson was cast in the role.
   In 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson.
   Her autobiography, titled Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, was published by Prentice-Hall in 1959, and was published again in an updated version in the 1970s. It was again a financial success.

Later career

West also made some rare appearances on television, including The Red Skelton Show in 1960. She did a comedy sketch with Skelton regarding her recently published autobiography. Viewers reported astonishment at her youthful appearance and energy. In 1964, she guest starred as herself on the popular sitcom Mister Ed. The episode's ratings were well above usual for the series.
   In order to keep her appeal fresh with younger generations, she recorded two Rock and Roll albums, Way Out West and Wild Christmas in the late 1960s. The single "Treat Him Right," from Way Out West, made the album a financial success. She also recorded a number of parody songs including "Santa, Come Up and See Me Sometime," on the album Wild Christmas. After a 26-year absence from motion pictures, she appeared in the role as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small part. This movie failed at the box office, despite the popularity of both Vidal's original satirical novel and the presence of Raquel Welch in the title role. Vidal and co-star Rex Reed publicly disavowed the film and the director, Michael Sarne. The devastating critical responses damaged Sarne's then-hot career. Some regard the film as a camp classic, however, due to its sex change theme. It has had multiple releases on DVD and VHS. The film has also been released several times to theatres and has found a cult following. The DVD release features an alternate ending filmed, but not used, that explains Myra's sex change.
   This film generated a storm of publicity for West and she became a camp icon of the 70's. Her astonishing performance was documented in many fan magazines of the 1970s and boosted West's career considerably. Magazines of the 70's are full of praise for her performance in the film and West gained many new young fans because of this. It was suddenly the "in thing" to invite Mae West to a party and again, as in the past, her fans cheered her on.
   To promote the film, West made many personal appearances to enthusiastic audiences. In New York, fans were held back by a large number of policemen, including those on horseback, who were there to control the crowd. College students held up signs saying "Mae West Fan Club." Raquel Welch, then one of the most popular stars in Hollywood, was hardly noticed in the frenzy over Mae at the premiere.
   West recorded another album in the 1970s on MGM Records titled Great Balls of Fire, which covered songs by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, among others, and her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, was updated in a new version and republished.
   In 1976, she appeared on the The Dick Cavett Show and gave an exclusive interview about her life and career along with insights into her proclivity toward bawdy humor and her battle with censorship. Her appearance on the Dick Cavett special generated great excitement and led to her next movie Sextette. Dick Cavett said Mae was so fantastic that she only had to extend her hand, "to give you a jolt that could be felt in the floorboards. She is the eighth wonder of the world!" This was a statement that Rona Barrett also attributed to Miss West in her widely popular magazines in the 1970s. Other magazines of the 70's followed suit and West found herself wildly popular, especially with the younger generation.
   At age 85, she returned to the screen for a final time as Marlo Manners in Sextette (1978) with an all-star cast including a cameo by George Raft which provided a touching tribute to both their long careers. Doctors for the insurance company that insured the film, reported that Mae West had "the health and the body of a 35 year old." Many magazines reported this appraisal and it also was noted in one of the many biographies written about West in recent years. Sextette premiered in Los Angeles and San Franciso (Mae attended both to packed houses) and the film did quite well initially in its limited engagement. Reviews were mixed and some were excoriating. Attendance fell off considerably. Some latter day critics have still remained brutal, but many have called for a re-evaluation of the film citing "unfairness" in the reviews.
   Warner Brothers considered releasing the film but finally declined and then Crown International, a small, but ambitious company finally picked it up for general release in the US, but it attracted few paying viewers. New World Pictures released the film internationally, and the film did fairly well on the international market. In publicity releases, co-star Ringo Starr said that "Mae is so fan-bloody-tastic that she just wipes us out," referring to the rest of the actors in the movie. TV Guide magazine quoted Tony Curtis as saying that "Mae never missed a beat."
   Although the movie was blistered by some critics and avoided by the public, After Dark magazine awarded West the "Star of the World" award for her performance in what became her final screen appearance. Sextette has become a cult classic and has done well on cable movie channels as well as VHS and DVD releases. In fact, Time proclaimed Sextette an "instant classic, sure to be loved by her many fans."
   Allegedly, fans crawled up telephone poles in order to get a better view of the star at the premiere. Many drag queens also came to the premiere dressed as Mae West. West even had to be escorted out of the theatre at the premiere because of the pandemonium of the fans.

Final years

Near the end of her life, she was known for maintaining a surprisingly youthful appearance. She stated in her autobiography that she spent two hours every day massaging cold cream into her breasts to keep them youthful. West continued to surround herself with virile men for the rest of her life, employing companions, bodyguards and chauffeurs.
   In the 1970s she was the only star in Hollywood who would allow reporters to search through her hair for signs of cosmetic surgery. They found no signs of this and this forever put to rest rumors of wigs and plastic surgery. May Mann, a popular author and magazine writer at the time, published stories telling of how she checked Mae's hair and teeth and had to admit that they were real. James Bacon, the writer and author, reported how surprised he was at her incredible skin and stamina. These were only two reporters of very many of the time that reported their astonishment at her preservation. Even a writer from the notorious magazines Whisper and Confidential reported astonishment on meeting Mae West at a Hollywood event, and printed in the magazines, "I had to fight my way to her because of people swarming around her like bees. I couldn't believe how young she looked". This was a theme that was repeated time and time again in fan magazines from the 1970s.
   After making Sextette, West did some radio commercials for Poland Springs Drinking Water saying she'd been drinking Poland Springs water for 20 years, "...ever since I was six!"
   Miss West continued seeing personally to her fan mail and actually corresponded with many of her fans. She listed her phone number in the Los Angeles directory and "Rona Barrett's Hollywood" magazine published her number so her fans could "call her up and see her sometime!"
   In the late summer of 1980, she tripped on a rug after getting out of bed, falling and hitting her head. She had a concussion and stroke. Doctors were evenly divided on whether the concussion caused the stroke or she'd a stroke which caused her to suffer the fall and concussion. She was rushed to the hospital and rallied. Later Mae would claim she "fell out of bed dreaming about Burt Reynolds." In November, she suffered yet another stroke. The prognosis wasn't good and she was sent home. She died at her apartment on North Rossmore Avenue in Hollywood at age 87. Many fans cried openly over her death and it was reported hourly on national television.
   Mae West is entombed with her family in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.

Popular culture references

During World War II, Allied soldiers called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae Wests" partly from Cockney rhyming slang for "life vest" and partly because of the resemblance to her curvaceous torso. A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction which contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of an extraordinarily large brassiere, presumably one suitable for a woman of Mae West's generous (though in truth not extraordinary) proportions.

West is referenced in the title song of Cole Porter's Broadway musical Anything Goes. � If old hymns you like,

If bare limbs you like, � If Mae West you like

Or me undressed you like, � Why, nobody will oppose!

West is also referenced in JG Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition a chapter dedicated to her called "The Mae West Mammoplasty."

West is also referenced in You're The Top, also of Anything Goes � You're a boon,

You're the dam at Boulder, � You're the moon,

Over Mae West's shoulder

In the PC game, in which the protagonist searches for an ancient sarcophagus which frequently switches hands, one character, a Nosferatu who was a movie star in life, remarks that the sarcophagus "gets around more than Mae West".

A Mae West slot canyon is one that's too narrow at the bottom to traverse on foot. Instead, one uses chimneying techniques to negotiate above the floor.

"Not feeling the Mae West" is Cockney rhyming slang for "not feeling the best".

In nuclear physics, the graph of nuclear fission nuclide production versus atomic weight is called a Mae West diagram. The graph has two peaks, one near atomic weight 90 and the other near atomic weight 130, with a valley in between.

In Canada, a May West (by Vachon) is a popular round dessert cake with cream filling and a thin shell of dark chocolate.

A "Mae West Hold" is a term used to describe a United States Senate procedure that in effect stops a bill dead in its tracks, usually in secret. The Mae West version of the Senate hold occurs when the senator behind the objection is open to negotiation, inviting the author to “come up and see me sometime.”

On the Dubuque District of the Iowa Division of the Illinois Central Railroad, freight train number 78 was known as the Mae West from the late 1930s until the train number was abolished. Number 78 was a hot meat train out of Waterloo, Iowa, and since Mae West was very hot at this time the train was named after her. In later years the meat train ran as number 76 but the name stuck with number 78. The crew was always referred to as the Mae West crew even coming west out of Freeport, Illinois, on the westbound counterpart of number 78--number 77. Number 78 usually moved between Waterloo and Freeport on the 3rd trick, that is, between 1201 AM and 801 AM.

MAE-West was also the name of the Metropolitan Area Exchange West, one of the first Internet tier-one hubs to connect all the major TCP/IP networks that made up the Internet back in 1992. It isn't documented whether the founders of MAE-West named this early Internet Exchange after the actress.

Mae West is one of the people to appear on the famous cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When permission to use her likeness was requested, she refused. "No, I won't be on it. What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" In response, the Beatles personally wrote a letter asking her to reconsider. She changed her mind.

One of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement was the Mae West Lips Sofa, which was completed by artist Salvador Dalí in 1937 for Edward James.

In an episode of Seinfeld, Jerry likens Elaine to Mae West because she asked the dentist Tim Watley if he wanted to go upstairs, without offering an explanation as to why they should go upstairs.

In the 1999 film The Green Mile a kooky janitor, played by Harry Dean Stanton, who is staging an execution states, as his 'final words', "I want the fried chicken with gravy on the tators and have Mae West sit on my face 'cos I'm one horny motherfucker".

In the original stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Mitch has a Mae West doll in his hands at the beginning of Scene Six.

Filmography

Features:

Night After Night (1932)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

I'm No Angel (1933)

Belle of the Nineties (1934)

Goin' To Town (1935)

Klondike Annie (1936)

Go West Young Man (1936)

Every Day's a Holiday (1937)

My Little Chickadee (1940)

The Heat's On (1943)

Myra Breckinridge (1970)

Sextette (1978) Short Subjects:

Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933)

The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935)

Stage Work

A La Broadway (September 22 - September 30, 1911) (Broadway)

Vera Violetta (November 20, 1911 - February 24, 1912) (Mae left show during previews) (Broadway)

A Wisome Widow (April 11 - September 7, 1912) (Mae left show after opening night) (Broadway)

Sometime (October 4, 1918 - June 1919) (Broadway)

The Mimic World of 1921 (August 17 - September 10, 1921) (Broadway)

Sex (April 26, 1926 - March 1927) (Broadway)

The Drag (January 1927) (closed during out-of-town tryouts) (Bridgeport, Connecticut) (credited only as writer)

The Wicked Age (November 1927) (Broadway)

Diamond Lil (April 9 - September 1928) (Broadway)

The Pleasure Man (October 1 - October 2, 1928) (Broadway) (credited only as writer)

The Constant Sinner (September 14 - November 1931) (Broadway)

Catherine Was Great (August 2, 1944 - January 13, 1945) (Broadway)

Come On Up (1945 - 1946) (Tour)

Diamond Lil (Revival) (September 1947 - May 1948) (United Kingdom and Scotland)

Diamond Lil (2nd Revival) (February 5 - February 26, 1949, until Mae broke her ankle on the latter date. The play resumed as a "return engagement" from September 7, 1949 - January 21, 1950) (Broadway)

Diamond Lil (3rd Revival) (September 14 - November 10, 1951) (Broadway)

Sextette (July 7, 1961 - closing date unknown) (Edgewater Beach Playhouse) Other Plays As Writer:

The Ruby Ring (1921) (Vaudeville playlet)

The Hussy (1922) (Unproduced)

Frisco Kate (1930) (Unproduced)

Loose Women (1933) (Performed in 1935 under title Ladies By Request)

Clean Beds (1936) (Sold treatment to George S. George, who produced an unsuccessful Broadway play of West's treatment)

Books by West

Babe Gordon (1930) (novelization of The Constant Sinner)

Diamond Lil (1932) (novelization of play)

Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It (1959, revised 1970)

Mae West On Sex, Health and ESP (1975)

Pleasure Man (1975)Further Information

Get more info on 'Mae West'.

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