When you hear the name Mae West, many will automatically visualize a very voluptuous, platinum blonde, sassy, hip swaying, fast-talking dame!  It was a character she would play in many of her movie roles; however, Mae West was so much more than what you saw on screen! She was not only an icon, she was someone that many women and men looked up to. If you want to learn more about this fascinating and sometimes controversial woman, watch this video.

As I mentioned in my opening, Mae West was visualized in a very specific way by both those who worked within the golden walls of Hollywood and the audience who absolutely loved seeing her presence on screen. However, Mae West was so much more than those tight-fitting, sparkly dresses, the platinum blonde hair, and that incredibly smart talking cadence she used. In today’s video, we’re going to talk about who Mae West was, some of her history, and I’m going to, of course, as I will always do, talk about her movies and show some of her sexy and inspiring style, because if you knew anything about Mae West, you knew that her curves just never stopped.

A little bit about Mae West’s beginnings. She was born Mary Jane West on August 17th, 1893, in Brooklyn, New York, and would eventually become known as a very popular actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright. Her career was very long, though not always prosperous or easy. Of her 87 years on the planet, she worked about 70 of them.

 When she started her career, she began breaking barriers almost immediately. She was an incredibly smart businesswoman, as well as very open sexually in both her life and her style. She was not going to hide who she was.  Also, right from the beginning, she would become very well known for her very clever use of the double entendre. It sounded both poetic and musical. As with many performers starting at the time, she started out in Vaudeville and on New York City stages.  I often dream about building a time machine and going back to the time of Vaudeville, and she is definitely on top of my list a performers I would have loved to have seen live. Also, I would have just loved to have met her in person. She’s always been an inspiration to me.

Something else that she started putting a fire under, very early in her career, is many controversies. I’m going to talk a little bit about those in a while. Along with Cary Grant, Mae West would also be one of the most misquoted actors of her time.

Also, as I mentioned above, she was not just a screen and a stage star; throughout her career, she was a singer, writer, playwright, and also appeared on radio and television. She was doing radio and television during a time when many film actors refused to do it. They felt like it was a step down in their careers; however, being a clever businesswoman, she wanted to make sure that her voice was everywhere.

Mae came from performance honestly.  Her own parents were both in the entertainment industry. Her mother Mathilda, was a corset and fashion model, and her father, John Patrick, also known as Battling Jack West was a former prize fighter who later became a special policeman and founded a private investigation agency., The controversies started even before Mae was born.

Her mother, Mathilda or Matilda, was a German immigrant from Bavaria, and she arrived in the United States in 1886 with her family and Mae’s father’s family was of English and Scottish descent. Her parents got married in Brooklyn on January 18th, 1889, and apparently her father’s family had no problem with this union; however, her mother’s family was very strongly opposed to her marrying not only a fighter, but there were opposing religious views. However, that did not stop him from getting married, and thankfully, they did because we would not have had Mae West otherwise. 

As I mentioned, performing was definitely in her blood, and even as a five or six-year-old old she was already performing for audiences. Now, at this point, not professionally, however, it was showing her parents that their daughter should be on stage. Then, at the age of seven, she had her first amateur performances, and she would very often win prizes at local talent contests. It wasn’t until 1907 that she finally started performing professionally. She was only 14 at that point, a true child performer. However, saying that, in Vaudeville, most of the acts or troupes had many family members within the troupe. Whether or not they were on stage or backstage, this included children.

One of her very first stage names was Baby Mae. After many years of amateur performances, she finally made her professional debut on Broadway in 1911. She was now at the ripe old age of 18. Her first performance was in a review called La Broadway, and though that was a very short run for a Broadway show, Mae herself got rave reviews from the New York Times. She then went on to perform in Vera Violetta with Al Jolson in 1912, and then she was in another play in 1912, called A Winsome Widow.

Mae’s Vaudeville and then eventual stage career were going quite well at this point; however, it was not enough. She also wanted to write for performances. However, what she wanted to write was considered very risque for the time. That, of course, was not going to stop Mae West.  At this time, she was using a pen name, Jane Mast, and the first play that she wrote as well as starred in, in 1926, was a play called Sex. She not only wrote it, but she also produced and directed this play. Though it was very controversial and at that time, theater goers were pretty conservative, the box office was booming for this play. Then, city officials and police caught wind of the play, partly through word of mouth from some very upset religious groups. During that time, there was quite a bit of corruption within the city and the police forces, and normally, they would have been happy to have been paid off to look the other way; however, these religious groups were relentless and made it impossible for the police to just look the other way. So, they had to do something about it, and on April 19th, 1927, they raided the playhouse, and Mae was sentenced to 10 days in jail or she had the option to pay a fine, and Mae, being Mae, chose jail time. The reason it is suggested, or rumored, that she chose the jail time was because she knew it was going to be great publicity for her, and she was correct. When she was released from jail, the media was right there to talk to her about the entire incident. Not only did this media attention help her career, but it also got her the famous label that she would carry through most of her career, which is the bad girl.

After this whole incident and jail time, was she going to stop? Absolutely not. The next play that she wrote would be just as controversial. Her next play was called The Drag, and it dealt with homosexuality. Mae made every effort to get this play on Broadway; however, it seemed that many of the theaters had banned her from doing these types of performances again. Many blame the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice as the reason for her ban. I also just want to note here that Mae was a very active supporter of gay rights and often spoke publicly about gay men being beaten up or wrongly arrested by the police. She was very outspoken about it and would often do everything she could in her power to help these men out. 

Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Mae West would continue to work on Broadway; every opportunity she could get, she would add spiciness to the plays she was in, and her public persona definitely would help with their box offices.

One of Mae’s most famous characters, while on Broadway, was a character named Diamond Lil. This would be one of the roles that she was most known and remembered for, and she would go on to reprise this role or a variation of the character in many of her movies.

Eventually, Broadway would no longer be enough for her, and she wanted to move on to motion pictures. Mae West was ready for Hollywood, but was Hollywood ready for her?

In 1932, she would make her way to Hollywood after signing a contract with Paramount Studios. Like many New York actors at the time, the studios were signing them without actually having specific roles or movies in mind. Also, by this point, she was much older than a lot of the actresses they would have been signing. In 1932, she would have already been on the cusp of turning 40.  At that time, Hollywood would be casting anyone that age in mother roles, and that was something that Mae West was never going to do. She would fight tooth and nail to make sure that her on-screen characters were always very sexy, front and center.

In 1932, she would make her screen debut in a movie called Night After Night, and it starred the very wonderful George Raft. There are rumors that he told the studio that he wanted her in his movie. Mae did not want to have a minor role in anything, and I’m sure after much discussion and persuasion, she was able to beef up that role, including rewriting some of her dialogue to be more Mae West.

Next up for Mae was a movie called She Done Him Wrong, and that was in 1933. In this movie, Mae West brought her Diamond Lil character back to life, though she was called Lady Lou. Also, Cary Grant was in this movie. Rumor has it (I have heard that this has been exaggerated, and sometimes I hear this is completely true) that Mae West insisted Cary Grant be in this movie, and because of this and her supporting him, it boosted his career. The story is that Mae insisted that she spotted him somewhere in the studio and really loved how beautiful he was, and was very firm that he be the male lead in this movie. The director apparently agreed with her and was happy to cast him.

She Done Him Wrong was a huge box office success and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Apparently, this movie also saved Paramount from bankruptcy. 

This also wouldn’t be the only movie that Mae would star in with Cary Grant; they would go on to make a few more after this. The next one would be I’m No Angel, also in 1933. This was also a huge box office hit and was another major boost for Cary Grant.

By the end of 1933, Mae West was one of Hollywood’s biggest box office draws. Everyone wanted to see her! By 1935, she was one of the highest-paid female actors at that time. She was definitely a pre-code delight! Then, as we all know, on July 1st, 1934, the Hays Code came into effect. If you know anything about the Hays Code, it was a production code that heavily censored language, sexuality, and violence in movies. Up until this point, movies were getting away with quite a lot.  They had tried in previous years to enforce this code and didn’t have much luck; however, by July 1st, they were able to fully enforce it. Because of this, a lot of directors, writers, producers, and actors who became very famous for their pre-code antics off and on screen would have this affect their careers. Mae West was definitely one of those actors. Many of the scripts written after the code came into effect would have much of the personality that Mae West would be known for removed. Due to this, a lot of the movies she made after the code did not do well. Eventually, she would be included in the notorious box office poison list that many well-known actors and actresses were put on. It ruined many of their careers. Some other actors who were in that list were Edward Arnold, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Katharine Hepburn, just to name a few. Actresses like Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn were able to bounce back.

There was a little bit of box office hope in 1939 for Mae West when Universal Studios approached her to star in the W.C. Fields movie My Little Chickadee. Though it was a box office success, it didn’t do much to help revive Mae’s career to the heights it had been in the early 1930s. 

Realizing that she would continue to struggle in the film industry, Mae then attempted television and radio. Right off the bat, many of the shows she guested on were sprinkled with her very saucy double entendres, causing controversy. With conservative and religious groups once again complaining about her, she eventually got banned by NBC. Of course, none of her male co-stars’ careers suffered from the controversy. That would only end her radio career for a while; she did return to radio again in 1950. 

In the 1940s, Mae would work in a few more movies; then she would return to her stage career, as well as nightclub acts. 

Some additional Mae West Trivia:

Her distinctive walk was said to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge.

David O. Selznick offered her the role of Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind, but West declined, saying it was too small and would need rewriting.

During the casting of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, West was offered the role of Norma Desmond. She turned it down.

Among her achievements, in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her 15th among the greatest female screen legends of classic American cinema.

That was just a highlight of Mae West’s career. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get through everything in 20 to 30 minutes; however, I strongly recommend that you watch her movies and read some of the wonderful biographies about her. I’m going to list some of her movies, as well as some great biographies about her.

Movies:

Night After Night (1932)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

I’m No Angel (1933)

Belle Of The Nineties (1934)

My Little Chickadee (1940)

The Heats On (1943)

Biographies:

Goodness had nothing to do with it: The Autobiography of Mae West by Mae West

She Always Knew How: Mae West: A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Becoming Mae West by Emily W. Leider

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