Known 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 comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. One of the more controversial movie 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.
West was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, daughter of John Patrick West and Matilda "Tillie" Doelger (also spelled Delker).
Her father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and then as a private investigator who ran his own agency. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model. The family was Protestant, by some accounts West's mother was reported as Jewishimmigrant from Bavaria. Her Irish Catholic paternal grandmother, as well as other relatives who were Roman Catholic, disapproved of her career and her choices, as did the aunt who helped deliver her. West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin, may have been an African American who passed for white.
Her siblings were Mildred Katherine West (December 8, 1898 – March 12, 1982), known as Beverly, and John Edwin West (February 11, 1900 – October 12, 1964). During her childhood, West's family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, Queens, as well as Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn. She may have attended Erasmus Hall High School.
At five years old, West first entertained a crowd, at a church social, and she started appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She often won prizes at local talent contests. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907 at the age of fourteen. West first performed under the stage name Baby Mae,and tried various personas including a male impersonator, Sis Hopkins, and a blackface coon shouter. Her trademark walk was said[by whom?] to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were famous during the Pansy Craze. Her first appearance in a legitimate Broadway show was in a 1911 revue A La Broadway put on by her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn. The show folded after just eight performances. She then appeared in a show called "Vera Violetta," whose cast featured another newcomer, Al Jolson. In 1912 she also appeared in the opening performance of "A Winsome Widow" as a 'baby vamp' named La Petite Daffy.
"Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" sheet music cover with portrait, 1918
In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn. Her character Mayme danced the shimmy. 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 did not 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 ten days for "corrupting the morals of youth." While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife and told reporters that she wore her silk underpants while serving time. She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention about the case enhanced her career. 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 due to the Society for the Prevention of Vice vows to ban it if West attempted to stage it. West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, but stated she was not a feminist. She was also a supporter of gay rights.
West continued to write plays, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions were plagued by controversy and other problems, although the controversy ensured that West stayed in the news and most of the time this 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
"Diamond Lil" returning to New York from Hollywood, 1933
She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film is also notable as one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead.The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film most likely saved Paramount from bankruptcy.
Cary Grant and Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933)
West's next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). Originally titled It Ain't No Sin, the title was changed due to the censors' objections. Her next film, Goin' to Town (1935), received mixed reviews.
Her next film, Klondike Annie (1936), was concerned with religion and hypocrisy and was very controversial.[49] Many critics have called this film her screen masterpiece. That same year, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man. In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay. Directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, Young Man is considered one of West's weaker films of the era. After this film, West starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end.
In 1939, Universal Pictures approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields. The studio was eager to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart with a vehicle starring West and Fields. Having left Paramount eighteen months earlier and looking for a comeback film, West accepted the role of Flower Belle Lee in the film My Little Chickadee (1940).Despite mutual dislike between West and Fields (at least in part because West was a teetotaler who disapproved of Fields' heavy drinking) and fights over the screenplay, My Little Chickadee was a box office success, outgrossing Fields' previous films You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) and The Bank Dick (1940).
West's next film was The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia Pictures. She initially didn't want to do the film but after producer and director Gregory Ratoff pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she didn't, West relented. The film opened to bad reviews and failed at the box office. West would not return to films until 1970.
Radio
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 that his kisses gave her splinters.Even more outrageous was a sketch 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 doin' a big apple!" Days after the broadcast, NBC received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene". Women's clubs and Catholic groups admonished the show's sponsor, Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company, for "prostituting" their services for allowing "impurity [to] invade the air". The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 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". NBC personally blamed West for the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations. West would not perform in radio for another twelve years until January 1950, in an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club hosted by Perry Como.
Middle years
Mae West in 1953
When casting the role of Norma Desmond for the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder offered West, then nearing 60, the role. West turned down the part. Wilder later said, "The idea of [casting] Mae West was idiotic because we only had to talk to her to find out that she thought she was as great, as desirable, as sexy as she had ever been." Gloria Swanson was eventually cast in the role.
In 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson. In 1959, she released her autobiography entitled Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, which went on to become a best seller.
Later career and final years
West made some rare appearances on television, including The Red Skelton Show in 1960. In 1964, she guest starred on the sitcom Mister Ed. 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. She also recorded a number of parody songs including "Santa, Come Up to See Me" on the album Wild Christmas.After a 26-year absence from motion pictures, West appeared 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. The movie was a deliberately campy sex change comedy that was both a box office and critical failure. Vidal later called the film "an awful joke". Despite Myra Breckinridge's mainstream failure, it did find an audience on the cult film circuit where West's films were regularly screened and West herself was dubbed "the queen of camp".
West recorded another album in the 1970s on MGM Records titled Great Balls of Fire, which covered songs by The Doors among others. Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished.
In 1976, she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and that same year began work on her final film, Sextette (1978). Adapted from a script written by West, daily revisions and disagreements hampered production from the beginning. Due to the numerous changes, West agreed to have her lines fed to her through a speaker concealed in her wig. Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through. In spite of her determination, Hughes noted that West sometimes appeared disoriented and forgetful and found it difficult to follow his directions. Her now failing eyesight also made navigating around the set difficult. Hughes eventually began shooting her from the waist up to hide the out-of-shot production assistant crawling on the floor, guiding her around the set. Upon its release, Sextette was a critical and commercial failure.
In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, West was unable to speak and was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She remained in the hospital where, seven days later, she had a diabetic reaction to the formula in her feeding tube. On September 18, she suffered a second stroke which left her right side paralyzed and developed pneumonia. By November, West's condition had improved, but the prognosis was not good and she was sent home.
She died there on November 22, 1980, at age 87.
A private service was held in the Old North Church replica, in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980. Bishop Andre Penachio, who was also a friend, officiated at the entombment in the family room at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn, purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother were also entombed there before her, and her younger sister was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts within 18 months after West's death.
For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.
Personal life
West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Szatkus, stage name Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she first met in 1909. She was 17, he was 21. West kept the marriage a secret. But in 1935, after West had made several hit movies, a filing clerk discovered West's marriage certificate and alerted the press. An affidavit in which she had declared herself married, which she made during the Sex trial in 1927, was also uncovered. At first, West denied ever marrying Wallace but finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they had been married. Even though the marriage was a reality, she never lived with Wallace as husband and wife. She insisted they have 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.West may also have had another secret marriage. In August 1913, she met an Italian-born Vaudeville headliner and star of the piano-accordion, Guido Deiro. Her affair went "[v]ery deep, hittin' on all the emotions. You can't get too hot over anybody unless there's somethin' that goes along with the sex act, can you?" Deiro fell in love with West and arranged his bookings so that the two traveled together. They became engaged late in 1913 or perhaps early in 1914. Some sources reported the pair were married. During a 1935 radio broadcast Walter Winchell incorrectly reported that Mae West had been married to Guido's brother, Pietro. Walter Wincher, a writer for Accordion News magazine, corrected the error: "In a recent radio broadcast, Walter Winchell conveyed the information that Pietro Deiro had been married to Mae West for four years. As one Walter to another, I must set him right. Pietro was never married to the 'come up and see me sometime' girl. Guido Deiro, his brother, was supposed to be the fortunate accordionist."
West made no public statements indicating that she had been married to Deiro. She referred to him simply as "D" in her autobiography. West's biographers state that the two never married. If they were married, this would have constituted bigamy as West was legally married to Frank Wallace at the time. West and Deiro split in 1916.
Deiro's son claimed that years later Mae West privately revealed to him that she had become pregnant by Guido, had an abortion without his knowledge resulting in complications which left her sick for nearly a year and ultimately unable to bear children.
According to Deiro's biographer, West filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9 of that year.West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I’m not ready for an institution yet."
Mae West remained close to her family throughout her life and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930. In that year, she moved to Hollywood and into the penthouse at the historic Ravenswood apartment building (where she would live until her death in 1980). After she began her movie career, her sister, brother and father followed her there. West provided them with nearby homes and also jobs and sometimes financial support. Another person whom West spent her life with was lawyer James Timony. She met Timony, who was fifteen years her senior, in 1916 when she was a vaudeville actress. They became romantically involved and he also began to act as her manager. By the mid-Thirties when West was an established movie actress, they were no longer a couple. However, they remained extremely close, living in the same building, working together, and providing support for each other, until Timony's death in 1954. A year later, when she was 61, Mae West became romantically involved with one of the musclemen in her Las Vegas stage show: wrestler, former Mr. California and former merchant marine Chester Rybonski (1923–1999). He was thirty years younger than West, and later changed his name to Paul Novak. He soon moved in with her and their romance continued until West died at the age of 87. Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West." West also had many other boyfriends throughout her life. One was boxing champion William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones. When the management at her apartment building discriminated against the African-American boxer and barred his entry, West solved the problem by buying the building.
In popular culture
During World War II, Allied aircrew called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae Wests" partly from rhyming slang for "breasts" and "life vest" and partly because of the resemblance to her curvaceous torso.A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction (partial inversion) which contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of an extraordinarily large brassiere, presumably one suitable for a woman of West's generous proportions.
West has been the subject of songs, such as in the title song of Cole Porter's Broadway musical Anything Goes and in "You're the Top", from the same show.
MAE-West was also the name of the Metropolitan Area Exchange West, located in San Jose and Los Angeles, one of the first Internet tier-one hubs to connect all the major TCP/IP networks that made up the Internet in 1992. It is not documented whether the founders of MAE-West named this early Internet Exchange after the actress.
One of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement was the Mae West Lips Sofa, which was completed by artist Salvador Dalí in 1938 for Edward James
A May West (originally spelled Mae West) is a Twinkie-like cake popular in the province of Quebec, Canada
Quotes
In her later years, she famously described the gangster Owney Madden, a former boyfriend who helped bankroll her Hollywood career, as "Sweet, but oh so vicious."
Likewise, "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better," from I'm No Angel, is generally quoted in its original context. 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 by others, including Warren Buffett (as a sound principle of informed financial investing).
- "It's not the men in your life that count, it's the life in your men."
- "Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution."
- "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."
- "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"
Broadway stage
Date | Production | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 22, 1911 – September 30, 1911 | A La Broadway | Maggie O'Hara | |
| November 20, 1911 – February 24, 1912 | Vera Violetta | West left show during previews | |
| April 11, 1912 – September 7, 1912 | A Winsome Widow | Le Petite Daffy | West left show after opening night |
| October 4, 1918 – June 1919 | Sometime | ||
| August 17, 1921 – September 10, 1921 | The Mimic World of 1921 | ||
| April 26, 1926 – March 1927 | Sex | Margie LaMont | Written by Jane Mast (West) |
| January 1927 | The Drag | closed during out-of-town tryouts (Bridgeport, Connecticut) credited only as writer | |
| November 1927 | The Wicked Age | Evelyn ("Babe") Carson | |
| April 9, 1928 – September 1928 | Diamond Lil | Diamond Lil | |
| October 1, 1928 –October 2, 1928 | The Pleasure Man | credited only as writer | |
| September 14, 1931 – November 1931 | The Constant Sinner | Babe Gordon | |
| August 2, 1944 – January 13, 1945 | Catherine Was Great | Catherine II | |
| 1945–1946 | Come On Up | Tour | |
| September 1947 – May 1948 | Diamond Lil | Diamond Lil | (Revival) United Kingdom and Scotland |
| February 5, 1949 – February 26, 1949 | Diamond Lil | Diamond Lil | (2nd Revival) until West broke her ankle on the latter date. The play resumed as a "return engagement" |
| September 7, 1949 – January 21, 1950 | Diamond Lil | Diamond Lil | (2nd Revival) as "return engagement" |
| September 14, 1951 – November 10, 1951 | Diamond Lil | Diamond Lil | (3rd Revival) |
| July 7, 1961 – closing date unknown | Sextette | Edgewater Beach Playhouse |
- Other plays as writer
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1921 | The Ruby Ring | Vaudeville playlet |
| 1922 | The Hussy | Unproduced |
| 1930 | Frisco Kate | Unproduced |
| 1933 | Loose Women | Performed in 1935 under title Ladies By Request |
| 1936 | Clean Beds | Sold treatment to George S. George, who produced an unsuccessful Broadway play of West's treatment |
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Night After Night | Maudie Triplett | Paramount Pictures |
| 1933 | She Done Him Wrong | Lady Lou | |
| I'm No Angel | Tira | ||
| 1934 | Belle of the Nineties | Ruby Carter | |
| 1935 | Goin' to Town | Cleo Borden | |
| 1936 | Klondike Annie | The Frisco Doll/Rose Carlton/Sister Annie Alden | |
| Go West, Young Man | Mavis Arden | ||
| 1938 | Every Day's a Holiday | Peaches O'Day | |
| 1940 | My Little Chickadee | Flower Belle Lee | Universal Pictures |
| 1943 | The Heat's On | Fay Lawrence | Columbia Pictures |
| 1970 | Myra Breckinridge | Leticia Van Allen | 20th Century Fox |
| 1978 | Sextette | Marlo Manners/Lady Barrington | Crown International Pictures |
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1933 | Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 | herself |
| Hollywood on Parade No. B-5 | ||
| 1935 | The Fashion Side of Hollywood |
Discography
Albums:- 1956: The Fabulous Mae West; Decca D/DL-79016 (several reissues up to 2006)
- 1960: W.C. Fields His Only Recording Plus 8 Songs by Mae West; Proscenium PR 22
- 1966: Way Out West; Tower T/ST-5028
- 1966: Wild Christmas; Dragonet LPDG-48
- 1970: The Original Voice Tracks from Her Greatest Movies; Decca D/DL-791/76
- 1970: Mae West & W.C. Fields Side by Side; Harmony HS 11374/HS 11405
- 1972: Great Balls of Fire; MGM SE 4869
- 1974: Original Radio Broadcasts; Mark 56 Records 643
- 1987/1995: Sixteen Sultry Songs Sung by Mae West Queen of Sex; Rosetta RR 1315
- 1996: I'm No Angel; Jasmine CD 04980 102
- 2006: The Fabulous: Rev-Ola CR Rev 181
Bibliography
- West, Mae (1930). Babe Gordon. The Macaulay Company. (the novel on which The Constant Sinner was based)
- West, Mae (1932). Diamond Lil. Caxton House. (novelization of play)
- West, Mae (1959, revised 1970). Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It. Prentice-Hall.
- West, Mae (1975). Mae West On Sex, Health and ESP. W. H. Allen.
- West, Mae (1975). Pleasure Man. Dell Pub. Co.
- West, Mae; Joseph Weintraub (1967). The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West. G. P. Putnam.
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