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West, Mae

 
Who2 Biography: Mae West, Actor / Writer
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Mae West
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  • Born: 17 August 1893
  • Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
  • Died: 22 November 1980
  • Best Known As: Early Hollywood sex symbol

Before Marilyn and before Madonna, there was Mae West, Hollywood's first superstar sex symbol and the original blonde bombshell. A performer since childhood, she wrote her own comedic material and built up an act made up of open sexuality and clever double entendres. Her 1926 Broadway play Sex led to her arrest on obscenity charges (and plenty of free publicity); her play Diamond Lil (1928) made her a star and put the finishing touches on a character she was to play her entire life. In the 1930s she took Hollywood by storm, stealing the show in Night After Night (1932) and then starring in classic comedies such as She Done Him Wrong (1933, with Cary Grant) and I'm No Angel (1933). In 1935 she was proclaimed the highest paid woman in the United States, a movie star famous for her ability to poke fun at her own public image. Her films in the 1940s were less successful and West returned to the stage, performing in plays and, later, a nightclub act. In 1970 she returned to the screen in the film version of Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge, and in 1978 she appeared in her last movie, Sextette, still playing a sexy dame in spite of her advanced years.

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American Theater Guide: Mae West
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West, Mae [Mary Jane] (1892–1980), actress and playwright. The blonde, busty, Brooklyn‐born performer who came to epitomize a bawdy, if somewhat tongue‐in‐cheek, sexuality, began acting in stock at the age of five. From 1911 to 1921 she appeared in a number of Broadway musicals even as she headlined in vaudeville. West specialized in leeringly risqué songs, although when one of E. F. Albee's agents or the police were known to be in the theatre, she is said to have offered the lyrics with a childish innocence, which suggested she did not know the meaning of what she said. West caused a furor and ultimately was jailed for her performance as Margie LaMont, the prostitute, in her own play Sex (1926). Her next play, The Drag (1927), was considered so off‐color that it was banned in New York. West scored a major success as a barroom hostess, the title role of her play Diamond Lil (1928), which was revived in 1949. Several other plays failed, but she enjoyed one final hit, apart from the 1949 revival, when she portrayed the famed Russian empress in her play Catherine Was Great (1944). West's curtain speech during its run was “Catherine had 300 lovers. I did the best I could in a couple of hours.” Her highly popular films during the 1930s helped lead to a tightening of Hollywood's moral codes. Autobiography: Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, 1959. Biography: Mae West: An Icon in Black and White, Jill Watts, 2001.

US Military Dictionary: Mae West
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Informal, dated an inflatable life jacket, originally as issued to pilots during World War II.

Etymology: 1940s: from the name of the U.S. movie actress Mae West, noted for her large bust.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: Mae West
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Mae West (1893-1980) played the sultry, provocative woman in numerous popular films and plays. Her sexuality and off-color comments made her films and plays the frequent target of censors. West also wrote and produced several plays and recorded albums.

Mae West was born Mary Jane West on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, John, held various jobs as a livery stableman, a detective, a salesman, and a prizefighter. Her mother, Matilda, was a model and dressmaker. By the age of seven, West was singing and dancing in amateur performances and winning local talent shows. She soon left behind formal education and joined a professional stock company headed by Hal Clarendon, where she played the character of "Little Nell" in a long-running melodrama.

In her early teens, West joined a vaudeville company, where she met Frank Wallace, who soon became her song-and-dance partner. Unknown to the public for more than 30 years, she and Wallace married in 1911 when West was only 16. Both the relationship and the stage partnership soon ended, but West and Wallace did not divorce until 1942.

Became Vaudeville and Stage Star

While still a teen-ager, West became a star on the vaudeville stage. Her first Broadway appearances were in 1911, in the revues A la Broadway and Hello Paris. The following year she appeared in A Winsome Widow, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. In 1918, West took a role in the musical comedy Sometime, in which she introduced a dance known as the "Shining Shawabble." She soon became a hit on the New York vaudeville stage, becoming known for her flashy and tight-fitting clothing as well as her provocative comments, delivered in dialects or a throaty voice. Her costumes would typically include an assortment of rhinestones, leopard skins, and huge plumed hats, all worn on her five-foot-tall body. West was unique in being one of the few women who performed solo in vaudeville, and even at her young age, she commanded a salary of several hundred dollars per week.

Plays Caught Censors' Attention

In 1926, West wrote a play that was co-produced on Broadway by Jim Timony, a lawyer who was reportedly also her lover. The aptly named Sex became both a popular success and the target of censorship groups such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice. As described in Becoming Mae West, the play included "prostitutes caught in arousing embraces, guns, knockout drinks, a jewelry heist, cops, an offstage suicide, bribery, and the threat of a shootout." In the 41st week of its run, police arrested the cast and West was found guilty of corrupting the morals of youth. She was sentenced to ten days in a New York City prison but was released two days early for good behavior.

West's second play, The Drag in 1926, sympathetically tackled a subject that was not discussed on stage at the time--homosexuality. After a two-week run in New Jersey, West was persuaded not to bring it to Broadway. Her third play, Adamant Lil in 1928, was a great success. West played the title role of an 1890s saloon singer with underworld connections. In this play, she uttered her famous line to a Salvation Army captain: "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Two other plays, Pleasure Man in 1928 and The Constant Sinner in 1931, were also targeted by the censors; Pleasure Man was closed by the police after its first performance and never reopened; The Constant Sinner closed after two performances when the district attorney threatened to bring charges.

Launched Hollywood Film Career

In the early 1930s, after the constant struggles with censorship of her plays, West decided to move to Hollywood and embark on a film career, hoping that she would enjoy more freedom there. Her popularity with the public was already so great that even though the Great Depression had begun, she won a $5,000-per-week contract with Paramount Pictures. In her first film, Night After Night in 1932, West portrayed the girlfriend of a gangster played by George Raft. When a woman comments, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds," West gives her famous response: "Goodness had nothing to do with it."

West's next film, She Done Him Wrong in 1933, was a film adaptation of her play, Adamant Lil. It was a huge public success, and was also noteworthy for introducing a young actor, Cary Grant, who was found by West and chosen for the male lead. Later that year, Grant also co-starred with West in I'm No Angel, an even bigger box office smash. In this film, West (playing a circus performer) got to act out a lifelong fantasy of being a lion tamer. Refusing a double, she went into the cage herself carrying a whip.

During the mid-1930s West became one of the most popular and highly paid actors in Hollywood. She also became a shrewd real estate investor, once making a profit of almost $5 million on a $16,000 investment. Her film career reached its peak, with two more successes in Go West, Young Man in 1936 and Every Day's a Holiday in 1938, in which she played a character named Peaches O'Day who used her wiles to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive man.

Then came one of her best-known films, My Little Chickadee in 1940, in which West and her co-star, W.C. Fields, gave one of the all-time great film comedy performances; she also wrote the screenplay. West's character, Flower Belle Lee, was a woman of dubious reputation who decided to enter into a sham marriage to become respectable. As her husband, she chose the con man and card shark Cuthbert J. Twillie, played by Fields. Perhaps as a joke on the censors, on their "wedding" night, Fields discovered that West has vanished, and in her place in their bed is a tied-up goat. They agree to go their separate ways, and his parting line to her is, "Come up and see me sometime."

Career Declined in the 1940s

In the 1940s, West's popularity declined. She also finally acknowledged the marriage she had walked away from while a teen-ager. In the mid-1930s, her husband Frank Wallace had begun to tour the country with a nightclub act in which he called himself "Mae West's husband." Then, in 1942, Wallace filed for divorce and sought alimony from West. She eventually settled the case with an undisclosed private financial agreement.

West starred in the 1943 film musical The Heat's On, but reviews were not particularly favorable. She decided to return to the stage where her career had begun, and wrote and starred in Catherine Was Great, a risque play about the Russian empress that played on Broadway in 1944, and then went on a national tour. In 1948, West starred in Ring Twice Tonight (later retitled Come On Up), in which she played the unlikely role of an FBI agent masquerading as a nightclub singer. The play never reached Broadway after initial performances in Los Angeles. This project was followed by a stage revival of Adamant Lil, in which West travelled between New York and London from 1948 to 1951.

An Elderly Siren

In the early 1950s, when West was over 60, she tried to revive her career by creating a nightclub act, "Mae West and Her Adonises," that still portrayed her as a sultry siren. A group of young, handsome bodybuilders dressed in loincloths assisted her in the act. Paul Novak, one of the bodybuilders, became her companion for the last 26 years of her life.

West's autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, was published in 1959, and contains humorous stories about her career and her love life. In the 1960s, she recorded an album of Bob Dylan and Beatles songs, Way Out West, plus a holiday album, Wild Christmas. West's film career was briefly reborn when she appeared in two films that have been ranked among the worst ever made. Myra Breckinridge (1970), based on the Gore Vidal novel, was notable chiefly for being the film in which future stars Farrah Fawcett and Tom Selleck were introduced to the public. In Sextette (1977), made when West was 84, her husband was played by the young Timothy Dalton.

Despite her "loose" professional image, West did not drink or smoke, and made her home in the same modest Los Angeles apartment for half a century. West began to decline in her later years, and was rumored to have slept in makeup in case she had to leave her home in an emergency. She became increasingly interested in paranormal events, and insisted she was in contact with a pet monkey who had died. It has also been reported that West feared being reincarnated. After suffering a stroke, she died on November 22, 1980 in Los Angeles. As she said in her autobiography, West had no regrets about her life: "I freely chose the kind of life I led because I was convinced that a woman has as much right as a man to live the way she does if she does no actual harm to society."

Further Reading

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, HarperCollins, 1991.

Dictionary of American Biography, Scribner's, 1995.

Leider, Emily Wortis, Becoming Mae West, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1997.

West, Mae, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, Prentice-Hall, 1959.

Interview, May 1997.

"Mae West," Biography Life File,http://mmnewsstand.com/static/products/4002/west.html (February 10, 1999).

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Mae West
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(born Aug. 17, 1893, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S. — died Nov. 22, 1980, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. film actress. She performed with a Brooklyn stock company c. 1901, and by 1907 she had become a performer on the national vaudeville circuit. She made her Broadway debut as a singer and dancer in 1911. In 1926 she began to write, produce, and star in her own Broadway plays, including the sensation-creating Sex (1926), Diamond Lil (1928), and The Constant Sinner (1931), productions that mired her in legal battles. Her frank sensuality, regal postures, and suggestive wisecracks became her trademarks in popular movies such as I'm No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), Belle of the Nineties (1934), and My Little Chickadee (1940). In World War II, Allied soldiers called their inflatable life jackets "Mae Wests" in honour of her hourglass figure. Her films were revived in the 1960s, and she appeared in Myra Breckinridge (1970) and Sextette (1979).

For more information on Mae West, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Mae West
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West, Mae, 1893-1980, American stage and movie comedienne, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Mary Jane West. The unparalleled mistress of double entendre, West began in burlesque and continued in vaudeville, stage, and films, making a career of self-admiration and treating sex with broad humor. As a result, she was constantly battling against the Production Code (see motion pictures). Many of her one-liners, such as "Come up and see me sometime," have become classics. Her plays include Sex (1926) and Diamond Lil (1928). Among her films are She Done Him Wrong (1933) and My Little Chickadee (1940).

Bibliography

See her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, (1959) and The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West (1967); biographies by E. W. Leider (1997) and S. Louvish (2006).

Works: Works by Mae West
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(1892-1980)

1926Sex. The actress writes, stars in, and is jailed for her earthy portrayal of a prostitute. Her next play, The Drag (1927), is the first American drama to depict a homosexual party and would be banned in New York. Her final play of the decade, Diamond Lil (1928), is set in a Bowery saloon that also operates a white slave ring and features West's most famous line: "Come up and see me sometime."

Fine Arts Dictionary: West, Mae
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A twentieth-century American actress. Mae West was a blonde, busty sex symbol, whose seductiveness was usually very funny because she overstated it so greatly. The popular version of her most celebrated line is, “Why don'cha come up and see me sometime?” She appeared memorably opposite W. C. Fields in My Little Chickadee.

Quotes By: Mae West
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Quotes:

"You can say what you like about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins."

"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before."

"When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before."

"When it comes to finances, remember that there are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin."

"It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean."

"It ain't sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any."

See more famous quotes by Mae West

Actor: Mae West
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  • Born: Aug 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
  • Died: Nov 22, 1980 in Beverly Hills, California
  • Occupation: Actor, Writer
  • Active: '30s-'40s, '70s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Romance
  • Career Highlights: I'm No Angel, She Done Him Wrong, My Little Chickadee
  • First Major Screen Credit: Night After Night (1932)

Biography

A seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, buxom, sometimes vulgar blonde actress and sex symbol with drooping eyelids, Mae West featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. She began working as an entertainer at age five. After a few years in stock she moved into burlesque, where she was billed as "The Baby Vamp." She began working in vaudeville and Broadway revues at age 14; she was the first to do the "shimmy" on stage, and she also appeared as a male impersonator. Between 1907-18 West often re-wrote her material and began thinking of herself as a playwright. In 1926 her first play, Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway, caused a scandal and led to her imprisonment on Welfare Island for over a week on obscenity charges. She wrote and directed her second play, Drag, in 1927; about homosexuality, the play was a smash hit in Paterson, New Jersey, but she was warned not to bring it to Broadway. Finally, she had a legitimate success on Broadway with Diamond Lil in 1928, and, after two more successful stage productions, she was invited to Hollywood. With a reputation as a provocative sexual figure, she was watched carefully by the censors and often clashed with them; still, she managed to inject much sexuality into her films through innuendo and double entendre. For most of her films she wrote her own lines and collaborated on the scripts; her witticisms and catch-phrases soon entered the speech of mainstream America. Having debuted onscreen in 1932 in Night After Night, by 1935 she was the highest-paid woman in the United States. Throughout the '30s her films were anticipated as major events, but by the end of the decade she seemed to have reached her limit and her popularity waned; puritanism was on the rise and censorship was severely limiting her career. After making The Heat's On (1943), she planned to retire from the screen, and went back to Broadway and on a tour of English theaters. In 1954, when she was 62, she began a nightclub act in which she was surrounded by musclemen; it ran for three years and was a great success. By now a legend and cult figure, she went into retirement. She appeared in two more films in the '70s. She is the author of an autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It (1959). ~ All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Mae West
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This article is about the actress. For other uses, see Mae West (disambiguation).
Mae West

Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933)
Born Mary Jane West
August 17, 1893(1893-08-17)
Bushwick, New York, U.S.
Died November 22, 1980 (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Actress, screenwriter
Years active 1907–1978
Spouse(s) Frank Szatkus, stage name Frank Wallace
(1911–1942)
Guido Deiro
(1914–1920)
Domestic partner(s) Paul Novak (1954–1980)
Official website

Mae West (August 17, 1893[1][2] – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol.

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 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.

Contents

Early life

Born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City,[3][4][5] she was the daughter of John Patrick West and Matilda "Tillie" Doelger (also spelled Delker).[6]

Her father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and then as a detective who ran his own agency.[7] Her mother was a former corset and fashion model.[8] The family was Protestant, although West's mother has been reported as being a Jewish[9][10] German immigrant 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.[11] By some accounts, West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin, may have been an African American who passed for white.[12]

Her sister and brother were Mildred Katherine "Beverly" West (December 8, 1898 – March 12, 1982) and John Edwin West (February 11, 1900 – October 12, 1964).[13] During her childhood, West's family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, Queens, as well as Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn. It is possible that she attended Erasmus Hall High School.[14]

Early career

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.[15] She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907 at the age of fourteen.[16] West first performed under the stage name Baby Mae,[17] and tried various personas including a male impersonator,[18] Sis Hopkins, and a blackface coon shouter.[19] Her trademark walk was said to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were famous during the Pansy Craze.[20] 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.[21] She then appeared in a show called "Vera Violetta," whose cast featured another newcomer, Al Jolson.[22] In 1912 she also appeared in the opening performance of "A Winsome Widow" as a 'baby vamp' named La Petite Daffy.[23]

"Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" sheet music cover with portrait, 1918

Her photograph appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" in 1918. She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that whatever her daughter did was fantastic.[24]

In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn.[25] Her character Mayme danced the shimmy.[26] Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast.[27] 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.[28]

She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to ten days for "corrupting the morals of youth".[29] 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.[30] She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention about the case enhanced her career.[29] Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality and was what West called a "comedy-dramas of life".[31] After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34]

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.[35] Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit.[36] This show enjoyed an enduring popularity and West would successfully revive it many times throughout the course of her career.[37]

Motion pictures

"Diamond Lil" returning to New York from Hollywood, 1933

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). West made her film debut in Night After Night starring George Raft. At first, she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes.[38] In West's first scene, a hat check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what lovely diamonds." West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie."[39] Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras."[39]

She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933).[40] 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.[41] The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.[40][42] The success of the film most likely saved Paramount from bankruptcy.[43]

Cary Grant and Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933)

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.[44] By 1933, West was the eighth-largest U.S. box office draw in the United States[45] and, by 1935, the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst).[46] However, the frank sexuality and steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath of moralists.[citation needed] On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced, and her screenplays were heavily edited.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

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' objection.[47] Her next film, Goin' To Town (1935), received mixed reviews.[48]

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.[50] 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.[4][51] Directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, Young Man is considered one of West's weaker films of the era.[52] 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.[53] 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).[53][54] Despite on-set tension between West and Fields (West, who was a teetotaler, disapproved of Fields' drinking)[55] and fights over the screenplay,[53] 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).[56]

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.[57] The film opened to bad reviews and failed at the box office. West would not return to films until 1970.[58]

Radio

On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour.[59] 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.[60]

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!"[60] Days after the broadcast, NBC received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene".[61] 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".[59] The 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.[62] NBC personally blamed West for the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations.[63] 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.[64]

Quips

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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 was "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"[65] She made this remark in February 1936, at the railway station in Los Angeles upon her return from Chicago, when a Los Angeles police officer was assigned to escort her home.[66] She first delivered the line on film in She Done Him Wrong, and again to George Hamilton in her last movie, Sextette (1978).

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".[67]

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.[68] 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).[69]

Personal life

West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Szatkus,[70] stage name Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she first met in 1909. She was 17, he was 21.[71] West kept the marriage a secret.[72] But in 1935, after West had made several hit movies, a filing clerk discovered West's marriage certificate and alerted the press.[73] An affidavit was also uncovered that West made in 1927, during the Sex trial, in which she had declared herself married.[74] At first, West denied ever marrying Wallace but finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they had been married.[75] 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."[76] The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943.[77]

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 "very 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?"[78] 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.[79][80] Some sources reported the pair were married.[81][82][83] 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."[84]

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.[85][86][87][88][89][90] 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.[91][92][93]

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. [94]

According to Deiro's biographer, West filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920.[95] The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9 of that year.[96] West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I’m not ready for an institution yet."[97]

Mae West remained close to her family throughout her life and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930.[98] 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).[99] After beginning her movie career, her sister, brother and father followed her there. West provided them with nearby homes and also jobs and sometimes financial support.[100] 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.[101] A year later, when she was 67, 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 Rybinski.[102] 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.[103][104] Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this earth to take care of Mae West."[105] 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.[106]

Middle years

Mae West in 1953

After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West 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 tall, muscular young actors.[107] The play was produced by Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances.[108] In the 1950s, she also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders.[109] Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West's muscle men, a former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay.[110]

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."[111] Gloria Swanson was eventually cast in the role.[112]

In 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson.[113] In 1959, she released her autobiography entitled Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, which went on to become a best seller.[114]

Later career

West made some rare appearances on television, including The Red Skelton Show in 1960. In 1964, she guest starred on the sitcom Mister Ed.[115] 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.[116] She also recorded a number of parody songs including "Santa, Come Up and See Me Sometime," on the album Wild Christmas.[117]

West arriving to the 1978 opening of Sextette, her last film

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[118] sex change comedy that was both a box office and critical failure. Vidal later called the film "an awful joke".[119] 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".[120]

West recorded another album in the 1970s on MGM Records titled Great Balls of Fire, which covered songs by The Doors among others.[121] Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished.[122]

In 1976, she appeared on the The Dick Cavett Show[123] 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.[124] Due to the numerous changes, West agreed to have her lines fed to her through a speaker concealed in her wig.[125] Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through.[125] In spite of her determination, Hughes noted that West sometimes appeared disoriented and forgetful and found it difficult to follow his directions.[125] Her now failing eyesight also made navigating around the set difficult.[125] 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.[126] Upon its release, Sextette was a critical and commercial failure.[127]

Final years

West family crypt at Cypress Hills Cemetery, with Mae at top

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.[128] 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.[128]

She died there on November 22, 1980, at age 87.[129]

A private service was held in the Old North Church replica, in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980.[130][131] 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.[127][132][133]

For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.

In daily life

During World War II, Allied soldiers called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae Wests" partly from rhyming slang for "breasts"[134] and "life vest" and partly because of the resemblance to her curvaceous torso.[135]

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.[136]

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.[137]

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 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.[138]

Filmography

Year Film Role Other notes
1932 Night After Night Maudie Triplett
1933 She Done Him Wrong Lady Lou
I'm No Angel Tira
Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 Herself Short subject
Hollywood on Parade No. B-5 Herself Short subject
1934 Belle of the Nineties Ruby Carter
1935 Goin' To Town Cleo Borden
The Fashion Side of Hollywood Herself Short subject
1936 Klondike Annie The Frisco Doll/Rose Carlton/Sister Annie Alden
Go West, Young Man Mavis Arden
1937 Every Day's a Holiday Peaches O'Day
1940 My Little Chickadee Flower Belle Lee
1943 The Heat's On Fay Lawrence
1970 Myra Breckinridge Leticia Van Allen
1978 Sextette Marlo Manners/Lady Barrington

Broadway stage

Date Production Role Other notes
September 22-30, 1911 A La Broadway Maggie O'Hara
November 20, 1911-February 24, 1912 Vera Violetta West left show during previews
April 11-September 7, 1912 A Winsome Widow Le Petite Daffy West left show after opening night
October 4, 1918-June 1919 Sometime
August 17-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-September 1928 Diamond Lil Diamond Lil
October 1-2, 1928 The Pleasure Man credited only as writer
September 14 - 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 5-26, 1949
September 7, 1949-January 21, 1950		 Diamond Lil Diamond Lil (2nd Revival) until West broke her ankle on the latter date.
The play resumed as a "return engagement"
September 14 - November 10, 1951 Diamond Lil Diamond Lil (3rd Revival)
July 7, 1961 - closing date unknown Sextette Edgewater Beach Playhouse

Other plays As writer

Year Play Other 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

Footnotes

  1. ^ Yeatts, Tabatha (Lulu.com). The Legendary Mae West. 2000. pp. 5. ISBN 0-967-91581-3. 
  2. ^ Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007). Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. Routledge. pp. 1183. ISBN 0-415-93853-8. 
  3. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 20. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  4. ^ a b Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 10. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  5. ^ West, Mae (1959). Goodness Had Nothing to Do With it. Prentice-Hall. pp. 1. 
  6. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 23. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  7. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 12. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  8. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 21. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  9. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 23-24. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  10. ^ Gross, Max (2004-02-06). "Playwright Examines Mae West’s Legal Dramas". forward.com. http://www.forward.com/articles/6244/. Retrieved 2008-11-22. 
  11. ^ Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West. William Morrow & Co.. p. 20. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
  12. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 18. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  13. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 12, 289. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  14. ^ "The Rumble: An Off-the-Ball Look at Your Favorite Sports Celebrities". New York Post. 2006-12-31. http://www.nypost.com/seven/12312006/sports/the_rumble_sports_.htm?page=3. Retrieved 2007-12-13. 
  15. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 16, 18. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  16. ^ Louvish, Simon (2005). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. St. Martin's Press. pp. 9-10. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  17. ^ Eells, George; Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West: A Biography. Morrow. pp. 23, 170. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
  18. ^ Eells, George; Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West: A Biography. Morrow. pp. 38, 170. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
  19. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 23, 28, 194. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  20. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 122-3. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. ,Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 18. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  21. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 32-33. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  22. ^ "Mae West, Stage and Movie Star Who Burlesqued Sex, Dies at 87," New York Times Magazine, November 23, 1980
  23. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 50, 452. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  24. ^ Biery, Ruth, "The Private Life of Mae West: Part One," Movie Classic, January 1934, pages 106-108
  25. ^ Tuska, Jon (1992). The Complete Films of Mae West. Citadel Press. pp. 25-26. ISBN 0-806-51359-4. 
  26. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 78, 79, 452. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  27. ^ Yeatts, Tabatha (2000). The Legendary Mae West. Lulu.com. pp. 77. ISBN 0-967-91581-3. 
  28. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 88-89. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  29. ^ a b Bunyan, Patrick (1999). All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Fordham University Press. pp. 317. ISBN 0-823-21941-0. 
  30. ^ Schlissel, Lillian; West, Mae (1997). Three Plays by Mae West: Sex, The Drag and Pleasure Man. Routledge. pp. 16. ISBN 0-415-90933-3. 
  31. ^ Hamilton, Marybeth (1997). When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment. University of California Press. pp. 57, 67. ISBN 0-520-21094-8. 
  32. ^ Chauncey, George (1995). Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. Basic Books. pp. 312. ISBN 0-465-02621-4. 
  33. ^ Eells, George; Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West: A Biography. Morrow. pp. 66-68. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
  34. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 299. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  35. ^ Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007). Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. Routledge. pp. 1187. ISBN 0-415-93853-8. 
  36. ^ Eells, George; Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West: A Biography. Morrow. pp. 78, 79, 81. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
  37. ^ Eells, George; Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West: A Biography. Morrow. pp. 223, 228, 229. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
  38. ^ Eells, George; Musgrove, Stanley (1982). Mae West: A Biography. Morrow. pp. 105-106. ISBN 0-688-00816-X. 
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  43. ^ Starr, Kevin (2002). The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. Oxford University Press US. pp. 256. ISBN 0-195-15797-4. 
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  45. ^ Pendergast, Tom (2000). St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. St. James Press. pp. 116. ISBN 1-558-62405-8. 
  46. ^ West, Mae; Schlissel, Lillian (1997). Three Plays by Mae West: Sex, the Drag, the Pleasure Man. Routledge. pp. 24. ISBN 0-415-90933-3. 
  47. ^ Doherty, Thomas Patrick (1999). Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American cinema, 1930-1934. Columbia University Press. pp. 338. ISBN 0-231-11095-2. 
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  49. ^ Black, Gregory D. (1996). Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 228, 229. ISBN 0-521-56592-8. 
  50. ^ Bavar, Michael (1975). Mae West. Pyramid Communications. pp. 87. ISBN 0-515-03868-7. 
  51. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 402. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  52. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 308. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  53. ^ a b c Louvish, Simon (1999). Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W. C. Fields. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 435. ISBN 0-393-31840-0. 
  54. ^ Deschner, Donald (1989). The Complete Films of W.C. Fields. Citadel Press. pp. 140. ISBN 0-806-51136-2. 
  55. ^ Curtis, James (2003). W.C. Fields: A Biography. A.A. Knopf. pp. 399. ISBN 0-375-40217-9. 
  56. ^ Gehring, Wes D. (1999). Parody as Film Genre: "Never Give a Saga an Even Break". Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 39. ISBN 0-313-26186-5. 
  57. ^ Tuska, Jon (1992). The Complete Films of Mae West. Citadel Press. pp. 153. ISBN 0-806-51359-4. 
  58. ^ Dick, Bernard F. (1993). The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 130. ISBN 0-813-11841-7. 
  59. ^ a b Hilmes, Michele; Loviglio, Jason (2002). Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio. Routledge. pp. 137. ISBN 0-415-92821-4. 
  60. ^ a b Pendergrast, Mark (2000). Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. Basic Books. pp. 200. ISBN 0-465-05467-6. 
  61. ^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-time Radio. Oxford University Press US. pp. 229. ISBN 0-195-07678-8. 
  62. ^ Ohmart, Ben (2007). Don Ameche: The Kenosha Comeback Kid. BearManor Media. pp. 50. ISBN 1-593-93045-3. 
  63. ^ Hilmes, Michele; Loviglio, Jason (2002). Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio. Routledge. pp. 138. ISBN 0-415-92821-4. 
  64. ^ Curry, Ramona (1996). Too Much of a Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 81. ISBN 0-816-62791-6. 
  65. ^ Shapiro, Fred R.; Epstein, Joseph (2006). The Yale Book of Quotations. Yale University Press. pp. 809. ISBN 0-300-10798-6. 
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  67. ^ Tomkievicz, Shirley (2008-04-14). "Owen Vincent Madden (1891–1965)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. New York City, New York. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1702. Retrieved 2009-10-11. 
  68. ^ Keyes, Ralph (2006). The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When. Macmillan. pp. 244. ISBN 0-312-34004-4. 
  69. ^ "Chairman's Letter - 1993." Berkshire Hathaway
  70. ^ Maurice Leonard in Mae West, Empress of Sex ISBN 0 00 637471 9, pp. 29-30
  71. ^ Hamilton, Marybeth (1997). When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment. University of California Press. pp. 15. ISBN 0-520-21094-8. 
  72. ^ Hamilton, Marybeth (1995). The Queen of Camp: Mae West, sex and popular culture. HarperCollins. pp. 13-14. 
  73. ^ Watts, Jill. Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press. pp. 201-2. 
  74. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 283. 
  75. ^ Watts, Jill. Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press. p. 224. 
  76. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 350-1. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  77. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 351. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  78. ^ West, Mae (1959). Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It. Prentice-Hall. 
  79. ^ . Columbus Ledger. 1914-03-19. 
  80. ^ . Columbus Journal. 1914-03-20. 
  81. ^ Granlund, Nils Thor; Sid Fedder and Ralph Hancock (1957). Blondes, Brunettes, and Bullets. David McKay Company, Inc.. pp. 43. "One of the first big acts Loew ever booked was a girl named Mae West. She had an act with an accordion player named Deiro. She later married him." 
  82. ^ Variety magazine printed a notice stating that "Mr. and Mrs. Deiro" were playing at Shea's in Toronto, Canada, for the week beginning November 29th, 1913.
  83. ^ Laurie, Joe Jr. (1953). Vaudeville: From the Honky-Tonks to the Palace. Henry Holt & Co.. p. 69. "Among the fine accordionists was... Deiro (Mae West's ex-hubby)." 
  84. ^ Winchell, Walter (February 1935). "Truly Yours". Accordion News. p. 13. 
  85. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 43-46. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  86. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 79-81. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  87. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 59-61. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  88. ^ Eels, Stanley (1982). Mae West. William Morrow & Co.. pp. 53 to 57. ISBN 0-688-00816-X.  Spelled Diero in this book.
  89. ^ Bergman, Carol (1988). Mae West. Chelsea House. ISBN 1-555546-681-8.  Deiro unmentioned.
  90. ^ Hamilton, Marybeth (1995). The Queen of Camp: Mae West, sex and popular culture. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-04-440960-5.  Deiro unmentioned.
  91. ^ Watts, Jill (2003). Mae West: An Icon in Black and White. Oxford University Press US. pp. 46-47. ISBN 0-195-16112-2. 
  92. ^ Wortis Leider, Emily (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press. pp. 81. ISBN 0-306-80951-6. 
  93. ^ Louvish, Simon (2006). Mae West: It Ain't No Sin. Macmillan. pp. 60-61. ISBN 0-312-34878-9. 
  94. ^ Count Guido Roberto Deiro, "Guido & Mae West: The Untold Story," Guido Deiro: Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (Archeophone 5014: 2009), p. 13.
  95. ^ ENVELOPE 7. Misc. Letters & Legal Documents, "The Guido Deiro Archive: Part II. Printed Items," Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments at the City University of New York Graduate Center [1]
  96. ^ The divorce certificate can be found in the Deiro Archive at the Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. See also Doktorski, The Brothers Deiro.
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  104. ^ Tom Vallance (20 July 1999). "Obituary: Paul Novak". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-paul-novak-1107530.html. 
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Bibliography

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mae West
  • 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. ISBN 0491016131. 
  • West, Mae (1975). Pleasure Man. Dell Pub. Co. 
  • West, Mae; Joseph Weintraub (1967). The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West. G. P. Putnam. 

External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mae West
Search Wikisource Wikisource has original works written by or about: Mae West

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