Mae West

At 87 years old, Mae West has this physical status:

Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades.

She was known for her lighthearted, bawdy double entendres, and brisk sexual liberation.

She appeared on radio and television before moving to Hollywood to become a comedian, actress, and writer in the motion picture industry, as well as being on television and television.

The American Film Institute named her 15th among the top female stars of classic American cinema. West often sang of a husky contralto voice and was one of her day's most controversial film stars; she ran into several difficulties, chiefly censorship.

"I believe in censorship," she once boasted.

"I made a fortune out of it." She bucked the system, making comedy out of place, and the Depression-era audience adored her for it.

She wrote books and played and continued to perform in Las Vegas and the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and on television and television, and she performed rock and roll songs as her cinematic career ended.

Personal life

Frank Szatkus (1892–1966), a Milwaukee, Wisconsin girl who was born in 1909, was married to West on April 11, 1911, whose stage name was Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian who appeared in 1909. She was 17 years old at the time. She kept the affair private, but a filing clerk discovered the marriage certificate in 1935 and alerted the public. During the Sex trial in 1927, the clerk discovered an affidavit in which she had confessed herself married. West denied ever marrying Wallace at first, but she finally admitted it in July 1937 in response to a legal investigation. The couple never married as husband and wife. She insisted that they had separate bedrooms, and she took him away in a show of his own to get rid of him. Wallace got a divorce in 1942, during which Wallace withdrew his demand for separate care, and West testified that Wallace and she had only been together for "several weeks." On May 7, 1943, the final divorce decree was released.

Guido Deiro (1886–1950), an Italian-born vaudeville headliner and piano accordion actress, met with her in August 1913. According to Deiro's son Guido Roberto Deiro's book Mae West and The Count, her affair, as well as a potential 1914 marriage to him, went "very deep." According to the American Masters documentary Mae West, Dirty Blonde, West aborted Deiro's child on her mother's advice, the operation nearly killed her and left her infertile. When he learned of the abortion and ended the relationship, the younger Deiro said that his father was devastated. "Marriage is a noble institution," West said later. I'm not ready for an institution."

West had a feud with James Timony (1884–1954), an attorney nine years her senior, in 1916, when she was a vainville actress. Timony was also her boss. They were no longer a couple by the time she became a well-known actress in the mid-1930s. West and Timony stayed close, living in the same building, teaming together and assisting each other after Timony's death in 1954.

West had a friendship with the Cotton Club's Owney Madden, who did not "date" the chorus girls.

Throughout her life, West stayed close to her family and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930. She went to Hollywood and into the penthouse of The Ravenswood apartment building, where she lived until her death in 1980. Her sister, brother, and father followed her to Hollywood, where she provided them with nearby homes, jobs, and occasionally financial assistance. William Jones, the boxing champion (1906–1982), was one of her many admirals. The owner of her Ravenswood apartment block refused to enter the premises; West solved the issue by purchasing the building and lifting the ban.

She became intimately involved with Chester Rybinski (1923-1999), one of the muscle men on her Las Vegas stage show — a wrestler, former Mr. California, and former merchant sailor — at age 61. He was 30 years younger than her sister and later changed his name to Paul Novak. He came with her and they grew in love until she died in 1980 at the age of 87. "I believe I was sent on this Earth to take care of Mae West," Novak once said. West was a Presbyterian.

As the entertainment character she had created, West would occasionally mention "Mae West" as the entertainment character she had created.

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

On November 25, 1980, a private service was held at the church in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Andre Penachio, a friend, officiated at the entombment in the family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn, which was purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother were also entombed there before her, as well as her younger sister Beverly, was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months after West's death.

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Early life and career

Mary Jane West was born in Brooklyn on August 17, 1893 (either Greenpoint or Bushwick) before New York City was consolidated in 1898. A midwife who was a student at the University of Portsmouth gave her a babysitter at home. She was the eldest living child of John Patrick West and Mathilde "Tillie" Delker (later Matilda) Delker (originally Doelger; later Americanized to "Delker" or "Dilker"). Tillie and her five siblings immigrated with their parents, Jakob and Christiana (née Brüning) Doelger from Bavaria in 1886. West's parents married in Brooklyn on January 18, 1889, to the delight of the groom's parents and the bride's displeasure, and they raised their children as Protestants.

"Battlin' Jack West" was a prizefighter who later served as a "unique policeman" and later had his own private investigation company, according to West's father. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model. Mary Jane (née Copley), her paternal grandmother and West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin West, was a descendant of Ireland descent and rigger of a ship.

Katie, her older sister, died in infancy. Mildred Katherine West, later known as Beverly, and John Edwin West II were among her siblings (sometimes incorrectly referred to as "John Edwin West, Jr." West's family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, as well as the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn during her childhood. West first appeared professionally in Woodhaven, at Neir's Social Hall (which opened in 1829 and is now extant).

West, who was five years old at a church fete, showed her first at a concert, and at the age of seven, she began participating in amateur shows. She has won awards at local talent contests. She began performing in vain in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907, aged 14 years old. West first performed under the stage name "Baby Mae" and conducted various roles, including a male impersonator.

Early in her career, she used the alias "Jane Mast." Her trademark walked was said to have been inspired or inspired by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were popular during the Pansy Craze. Ned Wayburn, her first appearance in a Broadway show at age 18, was in a 1911 revue A La Broadway, which was performed by her former dancing instructor. After eight performances, West was discovered and singled out for praise by a New York Times reviewer who wrote that a "girl named Mae West, striker unknown, delighted by her grotesquerie and snappy way of singing and dancing" was praised. West next appeared in a film called Vera Violetta, whose cast included Al Jolson. In 1912, she appeared in A Winsome Widow's opening performance as a "baby vamp" named La Petite Daffy.

Her mother, who, according to West, was always believed that everything Mae did was amazing. An aunt and her paternal grandmother were among those family members who were less able, including an aunt and her paternal grandmother. They have all been accused of disapproving her work and their choices. West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime in 1918, opposite Ed Wynn, after leaving several high-profile revues. Mayme's character performed the shimmy and her portrait appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now."

West began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. She appeared in Sex, her first Broadway appearance, and directed in 1926. Despite conservative analysts' condemnation of the performance, ticket sales were good. The performance did not go over well with city officials who had received complaints from some faith organizations, and the theater was searched, with West and the cast being arrested along. She was arrested to Jefferson Market Court House (now Jefferson Market Library), where she was convicted of "corrupting the morals of youth" on April 19, 1927. Though West may have spent a fine and was let off, she chose the prison term for the exposure it would bring. While detained on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife; she told reporters that she wore her silk panties while serving time in place of the "burlap" the other girls had to wear. This prison term gave West a lot of mileage. "Good conduct" was a part of her eight days off. The incident raised her career by naming her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong."

The Drag, her next play, was about homosexuality, and it was described by West as one of her "comedy-dramas of life." West announced that she would open the game in New York after a string of failed attempts in Connecticut and New Jersey. However, the Drag never opened on Broadway due to the New York Society's efforts to prohibit any attempt by West to stage it. "The city fathers begged me not to bring the show to New York because they were not able to withstand the commotion that it would cause," West said. West was a pioneer of the women's liberation movement, but she said she wasn't one of those who prefer a "burn your bra" feminist. She was also a early supporter of gay rights in the 1920s and adamantly opposed police brutality faced by gay men. Gay men were women's souls in men's bodies, according to their then "modern" psychological explanation, and hitting a gay man was akin to hitting a woman. Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, a memoir written by ghostwriter Stephen Longstreet, West strongly condemns hypocrisy while also disparaging homosexuality.

"I believe the world owes male and female homosexuals more knowledge than we've given them," she writes in her 1975 book Mae West: Sex, Health, and ESP. My personal life and let live are my thoughts, and I think everyone has the right to do either his or her own thing or someone else's, as long as they do it all in private."

West continued to write plays during the late 1920s and 1930s, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man, and The Constant Sinner. Her performances were predictably debating controversy, which ensured that she remained in the news and often resulted in packed houses at her shows. Diamond Lil, a 1928 play about a young, easygoing, and ultimately very intelligent lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway sensation and firmly established West's image in the public's eye. This program had a long tradition, and West successfully revived it several times during her career.

In The Constant Sinner, which opened on Broadway on September 14, 1931, three years after Diamond Lil's initial success, West portrayed Babe Gordon, another sexually charged character. J. Brooks Atkinson, the leading drama critic for The New York Times, was one of many commentators at the time who slammed the play's plotline as well as West's performance. The mother of Atkinson's "scathing" review of her three-act production appeared in The Times the day after the dramedy's premiere:

Other prominent reviewers in 1931, including Atkinson, roundly slammed the stage performance, calling it a "'clumsy drama""," "deliberately outlandish," and referring to West as a "atrocious playwright." The intricate play came to an end on Broadway after just eight weeks and 64 performances. The Constant Sinner was both a financial loss and a personal disappointment for West as compared to Diamond Lil, which had been on display for nine months with 323 performances. However, her notoriety and even its poor reviews boosted her public image as a regal, sensational performer, which attracted more widespread media attention. West decided to put her stage career on hold and accept a short-term but lucrative job from Paramount Pictures to appear in a Hollywood feature film.

West left New York in June 1932 after signing a two-month deal with (Now $99,300). By then almost 40 years old, an oddly late age to start a film career, particularly for women, although Paramount had no intention of portraying her as an ingénue. She managed to hold her age for a long time. She made her film debut in the role of Maudie Triplett (1932) starring George Raft, who had intended West for the role. She didn't like her small supporting role in the first, but was pleased when she was allowed to rewrite portions of her character's dialogue. In her first scene in Night After Night, a hat-check girl declares, "Goodness, how stunning diamonds," and West responds, "Goodness has nothing to do with it, dearie." Raft was reported to have "borrowed everything but the cameras" while focusing on the overall effect of her rewritten scenes.

West played Diamond Lil in She Don't Worry (1933), and later renamed "Lady Lou" in Paraphrasedoutput. It was one of Cary Grant's early major roles, which earned him a following. West spotted Grant at the studio and demanded that he be cast as the male lead. "If he can talk, I'll take him," she said of a Paramount director. The film was a hit in the box office and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The film's success saved The success saved The film saved The success saved The success kept The film's are the company's are now's are in terms of $140 million are in today's are in the film's. With a building on the lot named after West, Paragus acknowledges the debt of gratitude today.

I'm No Angel (1933), Grant's next project, teamed her up with her. The film was also a box-office hit, and it was the most lucrative of her entire screen career. References to West have been found in the months since its inception, from Cole Porter's song lyrics to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural in San Francisco's newly constructed Coit Tower to "My Dress Hangs There," a Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's "My Dress Hangs There" a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, to "My Dress Hangs There." "West is the most beautiful machine for living I've ever seen," Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, said on his own: "Unfortunately on the screen only." "The only Hollywood actress with both an ironic edge and a spark," F. Scott Fitzgerald said. "Mae West's films have made her the country's biggest conversation-provoker, free-space graber, and all-around box office bet," Variety said. She's as popular as Hitler.

West was one of the country's biggest box-office draws by 1933, and by 1935, she was both the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid individual in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). Hearst invited West to Hearst Castle, his magnificent estate in San Simeon, California, where Hollywood celebrities and influential business personalities often gathered to socialize. "I should've married him," West later stated, "but I have no time for parties." I don't like those big crowds." The Film Industry's Production Code's censorship policies were tightened on July 1, 1934. As a result, West's scripts were more edited. She would often intentionally place incredibly risqué lines in her scripts, afraid that the censors would have shaved them down. She hoped that they would not object as much as she did to her other less nitty lines. Belle of the Nineties (1934) was her next film. The original name, It Ain't No Sin, was changed due to censorship's concerns. Despite Despite Paraphrasedoutput's early reservations about costs, West insisted that the studio recruit Duke Ellington and his orchestra to accompany her in the film's musical numbers. Their collaboration was a hit; in this film, Duke Ellington's classic "My Old Flame" was introduced; the classic "My Old Flame" was recoded; Goin' to Town (1935), her next film, received mixed reviews, ascensorship carried its toll by excluding West from mentioning her best lines.

Klondike Annie (1936) was the best it could have given the strong censorship, as well as religious and hypocrisy. Some commentators referred to the film as the "godzilla opus," but not everyone agreed. "That Mae West picture Klondike Annie is a filthy picture," press baron and film mogul William Randolph Hearst, who was ostensibly offended by an offhanded remark West made about his mistress Marion Davies, sent a private note to all his editors, adding, "We should have editorials roasting the image, Mae West, and "We should not accept any ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE "Isn't it time Congress did something about the Mae West threat?" Hearst yelled aloud at one point. Paraphrased "I was the first feminist woman, you know." No one was going to get the best of me. I wrote all my scripts about this.

In Go West, Young Man (1936), West appeared alongside Randolph Scott at the same time. She converted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay in this film. Young Man, directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, is one of the West's worst films of the era due to the censor's cuts.

Before their time in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paraguay, the West next performed in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paraphrasedoutput. The film met its target but not in the way it should have been. The studios were unable to sell West's sexually suggestive brand of humor due to Censorship. West and other outstanding actors were put on a list of actors named "Box Office Poison" by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners Association. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Ro, Katharine Hepburn, and Kay Francis were among those on the list. In The Hollywood Reporter, the assault was branded as a paid advertisement, and the terrified studio executives were concerned. According to the group, these celebrities' high salaries and widespread public recognition did not have an effect on ticket sales, which ultimately hurt the exhibitors. After Tallulah Bankhead turned down the role, producer David O. Selznick, who went to West, was the only woman to fully comprehend Rhett Butler. West also turned down the role, saying it was too small for a well-known actress and that she would have to rewrite her lines to fit her own persona. Ona Munson took over the role.

Universal Studios invited West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields in 1939. With a comedic car starring West and Fields, the studio was keen to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West accepted Flower Belle Lee's role in the film My Little Chickadee (1940), despite leaving Paraphrasedoutput and looking for a new film 18 months earlier. Despite the actors' intense dislike, Fields' real drinking difficulties, and a contest over the script, My Little Chickadee was a box office smash, outstriping Fields' You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) and later The Bank Dick (1940). Despite this, religious leaders condemned West as a poor role model, with lines such as, "I'm trapped between two evils, I usually take the one I never tried."

The Heat's On (1943), West's next film was Columbia Pictures' The Heat's On (1943). She did not want to do the film initially, but after actress, director, and best friend Gregory Ratoff (All About Eve) said she would go bankrupt if she did not help, West relented as a personal favor. The sexual burlesque of the West characterization was cut short by censors. The studio was ordered to raise the neck lines and clear up the double entendres. This was the first film for which West was virtually uninhibited to write her own dialogue, and as a result, the film suffered.

Perhaps the most important, persistent issue facing West in her career was censorship of her speech. A decade ago, Broadway's risqué and ribald dialogue could no longer be allowed to pass by the mid-1930s. The Heat's On opened to scathing critiques and weak results at the box office. West was so distraught after her time with the tighter Hays Code censorship office that she had no plans to resume another film role for the next quarter century. Instead, West continued her unbeaten and record-breaking career in Las Vegas, Las Vegas, nationally, as well as Broadway, where she was welcomed, even encouraged, to be herself.

West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour on December 12, 1937. By the second half of the 1930s, West's fame had been severely restricted due to her dialog being so heavily censored. She appeared on the show eager to promote Every Day's Holiday. West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, on her own, with her trademark brand of wit and risqué sexual references. "All wood and a yard long," West said of Charlie, "I remember our last date and have the splinters to prove it." West was on the verge of being barred from radio.

I feel like doin' a big apple!"

The Federal Communications Commission later characterized the broadcast as "vulgar and indecent" and "far below even the minimum threshold that should guide the selection and production of broadcast programs under pressure." Any discussion regarding the reaction to the skit had existed. Conservative religious organisations responded much more quickly than the mainstream. These groups found it was simple to make West their target. They protested her outspoken use of sexuality and sexual images, which she had been employing in her career since at least the early 1930s and decades before on Broadway, but the program was now being broadcast to American living rooms on a well-known family-friendly radio station. According to reports, the organisations warned the program's sponsor that they would not attend her appearance.

NBC Radio scapegoated West for the incident and barred her (and the mention of her name) from their radio stations. It was not the skit, according to them, but West's tonal inflections gave it the tense context, appearing as though they had hired West knowing nothing of her previous work or having no idea how she would deliver the lines drawn for her by Oboler. In an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club, which was hosted by Perry Como, West would not appear in radio until January 1950. Ameche's career had no repercussions, but he was playing the "straight" guy. Nonetheless, Mae West continued to have a record-breaking success in Las Vegas, swank nightclubs like Lou Walters' The Latin Quarter, Broadway, and London.

West returned to a very active career on stage and in clubs after appearing in The Heat On in 1943. Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she wrote a parody of Catherine the Great of Russia, she wrapped herself with a "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors. Theater and film impresario Mike Todd (Around the World in 80 Days) directed the play, which later went on tour and opened for 191 performances.

The New York Times called Diamond Lil, Mae West's revival of 1928, bringing it back to Broadway in 1949, "an American Institution" — beloved and indestructible as Donald Duck. Mae West should be seen at least once "as Chinatown and Grant's Tomb." West appeared in her own Las Vegas stage show at the recently opened Sahara Hotel in the 1950s, performing amid bodybuilders. Las Vegas had a head start on the show. "Men comes to see me, but the women are also interested in seeing: wall to wall guys." West explains. Former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay married Jayne Mansfield, one of West's muscle guys, later.

Billy Wilder suggested West the role of Norma Desmond in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. She declined as a result of The Heat's On censorship debacle and the limitations placed on her appearance. The Wilder film's theme, she said, was pure pathos, though her brand of comedy was always "about uplifting the audience." In the same way Charlie Chaplin did, Mae West had a unique comedic character that was timeless. Gloria Swanson was cast after Mary Pickford had also dropped the role.

In subsequent years, West was given the role of Vera Simpson, the opposite Frank Sinatra in the 1957 film version of Pal Joey, which she turned down, with Rita Hayworth taking the lead. In 1964, West was given a leading role in Roustabout, starring Elvis Presley. Barbara Stanwyck was cast in her role and she turned down the role, and Barbara Stanwyck was brought to her role. West was also auditioned for roles in Frederico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits and Satyricon, but both were turned down.

West appeared at the live televised Academy Awards on March 26, 1958, and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson, which received a standing ovation. Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, a 1959 autobiography that became a best-seller and was reprinted in 1970 with a new chapter. West guest appeared on television, including The Dean Martin Variety Show in 1959 and the Red Skelton Show in 1960 to advertise her autobiography, and a long interview with Charles Collingwood that never aired. Members of the television audience were not keen to see a nude marble statue of West, which rested on her piano, according to CBS executives. She appeared on Mister Ed as a guest on the sitcom in 1964. Dick Cavett conducted her interview and performed two songs on CBS' "Back Lot U.S.A." special.

With the debut of her film tracks on shellac 78 rpm records in the early 1930s, West's recording career began in the early 1930s. The bulk of her film songs were released in the 1980s, as well as sheet music. The Fabulous Mae West was her first album on record in 1955. "Am I Too Young" and "He's Good For Me" were two of her first two songs for a 45 rpm record released by Plaza Records in 1965. "Santa, Come Up to See Me," was one of her collection of tongue-in-cheek songs that were released in 1966 and reissued as Mae in 1980. Demonstrating her inability to stay up to date with the latest trends, Way Out West was released in 1966, the first of her two rock-and-roll albums. The second volume, which was released on MGM Records and titled Great Balls of Fire in 1972, included songs by The Doors, among other things, and was directed by English songwriter-producer Ian Whitcomb for West.

West appeared in Gore Vidal's Myra Van Allen (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small role after a 27-year absence from motion pictures. The film was supposed to be a campy sex change comedy, but it suffered with serious production issues, resulting in a botched film that was both a box office and critical failure. Author Vidal was a long shot when it was announced later that "art film" creator Michael Sarne was "an awful joke." Despite that Mae West was given star billing to attract ticket buyers, her scenes were truncated by the inexperienced film editor, and her songs were shot as though they were merely side acts. The young and hip were included in Mae West's counterculture campaign, and by 1971, the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA)'s student body, recognizing her as a pioneer of sexual liberation and a zealous protester against censorship, was voted "Mee of the Century."

West published Sex, Health, and ESP in 1975 (William Allen & Sons, publisher) and Pleasure Man (Dell publishers), based on her 1928 play of the same name. In the 1970s, her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished.

Mae West, a savvy suburb of Los Angeles, produced her own stage performances and invested her money in huge tracts of property in Van Nuys, a burgeoning suburb of Los Angeles. She could do as she pleased with her fortune. She appeared on "Back Lot U.S.A." on CBS in 1976, where she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and performed "Frankie and Johnny" alongside "After You've Gone." She began working on her last film, Sextette (1978), that same year. The film's daily updates and production inconsistencies began in 1959, based on a West script. West decided to have her lines announced to her through a speaker hidden in her hair piece due to the near-endless last-minute script revisions and exhausting production schedule. Despite the daily challenges, West was determined to see the film through, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes. Her now-failing eyesight made finding the set daunting, but she made it through the filming, a nod to her self-confidence, remarkable endurance, and her el as a self-created celebrity, 67 years after her debut on Broadway in 1911 at the age of 18. "At 84, Mae West Is Still Mae West," Time magazine published an article about the indomitable star.

Sextette was not a critical or commercial success on its debut, but it had a diverse cast. The cast included some of West's first co-stars, including George Raft (1932), silver screen actress Walter Pidgeon and Alice Cooper, and more recent pop stars such as Dom DeLuise and gossip queen Rona Barrett. It also included cameos of some of the musclemen from her 1950s Las Vegas show, such as Reg Lewis, who is still remarkably fit. Edith Head, her costume designer from 1933, and Sextette also reunited Mae West with her costume designer from She Done Him Wrong.

Mae West, a film actress, appears on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood, where she was praised for her contributions to the film industry. She has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame for her work as a stage actress in the theater industry. West's was one of hundreds of artists whose works were ruined in the 2008 Universal Fire.

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