It again had a social point of view about homosexuality and tolerance, but it climaxed in a drag ball, which apparently went on for 20 minutes. Chauncey: She actually went into a bunch of Greenwich Village speakeasies where the queer set hung out and recruited 40 or 50 queens to come be a part of her show. There's a great line in 'The Drag' where a queen talks about walking up 10th Avenue and all the meat that's sizzling.
Chauncey: I can't think of any other straight woman who was writing a gay play in this period. I don't think that she was a sweet social reformer trying to improve the position of gay people in producing these plays.
But in the course of doing that, she gave a lot of gay people and a lot of drag queens, genderqueers, a chance to express themselves. They began to agitate for Mae West to be arrested for the play 'Sex' before 'The Drag' could make it onto the Broadway stage. Hamilton: February 9, , Mae West went backstage and found herself surrounded by officers from municipal vice squad who rounded up the cast, put them in Black Mariahs and careened through Times Square.
Watts: When they take her to night court, the judge asks her, 'Are you Mae West? Hamilton: She's convicted of obscenity and of behavior designed to corrupt the morals of youth, and she's sent to the workhouse. She said later that the onlything that bothered her about it was that she had to wear cotton underwear. She was treated really well, and I think that also gave her time to plot and plan what she was going to do next.
In those eight days she used that publicity to get the show running again and sell more tickets. Najimy: It was great publicity and it also was a great statement about what she thought her rights should be as a performer, as an artist. She was a very, very canny reader of her audiences and a very canny reader of her own publicity. And then I start paying attention, and I look out and see and I said, 'Gee, what is it? What am I doing or what am I not doing, that I'm not getting enough women in my audience?
May have been this belly dance I did in that first show, that kept the women out, see? All of a sudden they're not talking about her in terms of sleaze, they're talking about her in terms of glamour.
West: 'Diamond Lil' was the one that really took the world, you know what I mean, see? When I had the hats and gowns and the corsets, then I had -- oh, God, I had women, and, oh, the way they turned them away. Hamilton: People who would never have gone to her play 'Sex,' respectable people, they'll go to this play because it makes them feel sophisticated without making them uneasy.
And the 'A-ha' moment of when she realized, 'I can make it funny,' I think it's one of the great lightning strikes in our entertainment history. She goes from basically being sent to jail for what she wants to say in to being the toast of Broadway in , to being the highest paid actress in America by the mid-'30s because she learned to make people laugh. They had to play that role publicly so much that they started playing it privately. In , when West was coming up on 18 years old, she was touring in a small time vaudeville troupe.
It was the one time in West's career where that kind of advice seems to have stuck with her. There were even reports of her locking him in their hotel room while she went off at night and gallivanted with other members of the cast. Malachosky: After a week or so, he started talking about settling down, having a house, having her as the housewife.
It's a sense of having betrayed herself, I think, that seems to come across to me in this. One would take her off the stage, one would take her attentions away from her profession. Von Teese: She always acted like she had lots of men around but I think that privately, I think there were certain men that really got her.
As she's described in her autobiography, sex with this man was something that she wanted to do morning, noon and night,and that's all she wanted to do. She wired her mother, ''Lady's Journal' hasn't come for the last two months, what should I do? I won't allow my emotions to develop in that vein, you know, sorrow or anything negative or depressing.
He was a bare-knuckle prize fighter in the era when it was the most violent of sports. Pierpont: she said he had an explosive temper and that she didn't want him to touch her. But she goes out of her way to say that he wasn't abusive, she just didn't like him. That was the worst tragedy in my life, I don't ever expect anything to equal that. The film generates so much box office that by June, according to Paramount it was able to climb out of bankruptcy.
Announcer: And now, folks, we are entering the gates that so many try to crash and so few pass. Within these portals you may see such famous stars as the Marx Brothers, Mae West, Cary Grant, and many of your other favorites.
Announcer: And now the huge crowd is awed as the star of stars makes her appearance. And Mae West created an image of this beautiful woman walking around in these extraordinary clothes. West: I'm up here atMr. Graumann's beautiful theater to see the grand opening premiere of my new picture, 'I'm No Angel. Malachosky: Paramount came and said, 'Well, we need another film for you, so what would you like to do? So she's thinking of ways to show herself as a woman of power, an original woman.
Doherty: All the guys are like cheering her and she's on stage, and she does her act. Hamilton: When West came to the screen I think the assumption was that she would be a draw for men. But 'I'm No Angel' drew so many women that a theater owner in Omaha, Nebraska, had women-only screenings.
The jewels, the clothes, Cary Grant falling at your feet, all the men in the world falling at your feet. There's a skunk for the skunk and there's a lamb and there's a little chipmunk and a squirrel. It's an amazing tactic to say, look, these are the kind of men I've had, and I've had them and I remember them in this way.
Woman: I can't see why everybody's so absolutely gaga about She's obviously a person of the commonest sort. Haskell: She couldn't have been this swaggering woman of appetites if she were upper class. She made no attempt to change, to get perfect diction, she just talked like who she was.
Pierpont: I think she was very proud of where she came from and the fact that she made it up. Of course they were maids, but they were not just handing her a cup of tea or coffee.
I've never seen such presents as this here Talley: And they're not just subservient. Watkins: Her relationship toher maids reflects her own sense of being really of the common class. Watkins: She treats her maids in a more familiar manner than she does most other people. In another film, that would be very, very offensive, but when you hear her say, 'Beulah, peel me a grape,' it's like, 'Sister, get me a vodka. Watkins: But still there's the overriding fact that they were maids, she was in charge, and that these people in these films were portrayed as maids and that's the only way you really saw them.
Jefferson: Those voices that are, you know, Hollywood's version of black vernacular, which is not really a vernacular, it's a created, constructed dialect. Watkins: Nothing that I've read leads me to believe that she was a real advocate of civil rights for African Americans. But my own sense of her relationship to the African American community was that she looked at it with interest.
In her third movie, 'Belle of the Nineties,' she has enough clout to finally get the studio to hire Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. So, they said, 'Oh, they don'tknow how to play the instruments and so it won't come over right.
I said, 'Well, that sounds awful funny to me,' I said, 'They make records,' I says, 'There's something else there,' I says, 'Otherwise, they wouldn't be putting up a barrier not to let them in. No director seemed to ever want to work with her more than once because she directed the director to a degree.
Lyonne: She waltzed in and said, 'I wrote it, and we're going to shoot it like this, kid. If you look at old movie magazines of the days, they're all out at parties together. When you think of that iconic blonde sex symbol, can't really think of anybody before her.
West: Let me see Pierpont: There were paper dolls and people were saying the Coke bottle looked like Mae West. You know, in , the Royal Air Force names a lifejacket after her because it's got a bulbous shape.
Hamilton: But there was lots of discussion about her appeal to young girls. Hamilton: One of West's critics said that, at a school in his neighborhood, when the children dressed as their favorite movie character, seven girls came dressed as imitation Mae Wests. Watts: You read about women in the fan magazines, they write in and say, 'Well, I tried Mae West's moves.
Hamilton: People concerned with the morals of Hollywood had gotten fed up with Mae West. Watkins: It became something that the moralists in the country decided had to be stamped out in some way, or at least contained. There is no room on the screen at any time for pictures which offend against common decency. Doherty: In July the Production Code Administration is created to regulate motion picture content. Hallett: The enforcer of the code, Joseph Breen, who is a very devout Catholic, is also very anti-Semitic -- he sees himself as a Christian moral police that will force Jewish producers to stop making these kinds of morally degenerate films.
But outside the theater is his parish priest, who of course knows my father on sight. Now if you multiply that by ten million, you can sort of see the influence that Roman Catholics have over the motion picture box office. And one of the things censorship under the production code is going to do is control the unbridled sexuality of women.
Doherty: You had seen sexually charged women, but you hadn't seen a woman wisecrack sexually, from the title credits to the end credits. People are very worried about family stability and about men's authority within families. Legislation passed restricting women's access to jobs and trying to shore up men's position.
Pierpont: People were soconcerned about what women were, whether they were sexual or should they be sexual and what were they allowed to be? Hamilton: So after you have much more intensified scrutiny of all films, but West's in particular.
West: The sex personality was the thing that made me and the thing they wanted, it was the thing the censors were after, you know. Breen: We must be on the lookoutfor themes or action or dialogue which are likely to give offense.
Joe Breen marks it up, he sends it back to the studio, you change some stuff, you send it back. And if you see Mae West givea line that might be licentious, you can cross it out or suggest a change. Malachosky: She said, I would even have to put things in the scripts that would embarrass me, just to get them to approve what I really wanted.
Man: I got a model in the workshop, one I've been working on, if you'd like to see that. They bring West back into the studio to film a new ending where she and her partner are given a hasty wedding. Judge: By virtue of the solemn promise you have here made one to another, I hereby pronounce you man and wife. Hamilton: A questionable woman sees the error of her ways and is safely married off at the end of the film.
Doherty: And in fact the reviews actually say, 'This is here to placate the censors. Watts: But then it became public that Mae West had been married at the age of 17, and that she'd failed to get a divorce. West: Well, what are you gonna do about it? Hamilton: 'Klondike Annie' was going to be the film that would allow West to be entirely inoffensive. Hamilton: She was going to be playing a woman who had seen the errors of her ways who stepped into this role as a missionary. Watts: All along the road,she's pushing, pushing, pushing, and I think to some degree she likes the battle.
Announcer: We're all very happy to have as our guest one of the greatest personalities on the screen today, Miss Mae West. From this, West seemed to have a change of heart and on April 11, , she and Frank Wallace were married by a justice of the peace in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Only 17, she lied about her age on her marriage certificate 18 was the legal age for marriage in Wisconsin at the time and both newlyweds promised to keep the marriage secret from the public and her parents.
The union remained a secret until , when West was well into her movie career and a publicity staff person found the marriage certificate in some old papers. For many years, she claimed she and Wallace had never lived as husband and wife.
She broke up the act soon after they arrived back in New York in the summer of Later that year, West auditioned for, and got a part, in her first Broadway show, A La Broadway , a comedy review. The show folded after only eight performances, but West was a hit. In the audience on opening night were two successful Broadway impresarios, Lee and J. Shubert, and they cast her in the production of Vera Violetta, also featuring Al Jolson.
She was with the show only a short time due to conflicts with the show's female star, Gaby Deslys, but the experience paid off. She continued to perform in Vaudeville and off-Broadway in New York. It was during this time that she met Guido Deiro, another Vaudeville headliner. A passionate relationship resulted, and the two tried to be together as much as possible, often arranging for joint bookings.
They both expressed their love, lust, and jealously openly, and were known for their outward display of emotion, as well as raging arguments. For a short time, the couple contemplated marriage, and Deiro even asked West's parents for her hand in marriage they still didn't know about her earlier marriage to Frank Wallace, of which she finally obtained a divorce in Tillie strongly refused, reminding her daughter of the pitfalls of married couples in show business.
West complied with her mother's wishes, but continued to see Deiro. Her mother continued to undermine their relationship. Finally, Tillie directly expressed disapproval in Deiro, telling West that he wasn't good enough for her. Reluctantly, she complied, and over a brief period of time ended the relationship with Deiro.
Her character, Mayme, danced the shimmy, a brazen dance move that involved shaking the shoulders back and forth and pushing the chest out.
As more parts came her way, West began to shape her characters, often rewriting dialogue or character descriptions to better suit her persona. She eventually began writing her own plays, initially using the pen name Jane Mast.
In , West got her first starring role in a Broadway play entitled Sex , which she wrote, produced, and directed. Though the play was a hit at the box office, the "more respectable" Broadway critics panned it for its explicit sexual content. The production also did not go over well with city officials, who raided the show and arrested West along with much of the cast. She was prosecuted on morals charges and on April 19, , sentenced to 10 days in jail on Welfare Island now known as Roosevelt Island in New York.
The incarceration was cordial, as West reportedly dined with the warden and his wife on a few occasions. She served eight days, with two off for good behavior. The media attention of the entire affair did nothing but enhance her career. Undaunted by any impression of impropriety, West wrote and directed her next play, Drag , which dealt with homosexuality. The play did well in Connecticut and was a smash hit in Paterson, New Jersey.
But when West announced the play would open on Broadway, the Society for the Prevention of Vice intervened and vowed ban it. The Society was a state-chartered organization, originally started by supporters of the YMCA in The group was dedicated to supervising the morality of the public, and monitoring compliance with state laws. West decided not to tempt fate again, and kept the play out of New York. The plays dealt with what today would be called "adult subject matter" with tryst plots and sexual innuendos.
Her productions were not easy ones to bring to the stage for a myriad of reasons, primarily the constant changes needed to bring the dialogue and plot lines more in line with the moral codes of the day. On several occasions the actors learned two scripts, one for the general audience and a "more refined" version for the times when they were tipped off that vice agents might be in the audience.
Of course, all this only brought more publicity to her productions, and resulted in packed performances. By , Hollywood began to take notice of West's performances and talent. That year, she was offered a motion picture contract by Paramount Pictures. At 38 years old, she might have been considered in her "advanced years" for playing sexy harlots, but her persona and physical beauty seemed to overcome any doubt. The first film she appeared in was Night after Night , starring George Raft.
At first, she balked at her small role, but was appeased when allowed to rewrite her scenes in order to conform more to her performance style. In the film She Done Him Wrong , West was able to bring her "Diamond Lil" character to the silver screen in her first starring film role. The "Lil" character was renamed "Lady Lou," and contained the famous West line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?
The film did tremendously well at the box office, and is attributed to saving Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. In her next movie, I'm No Angel , she was again paired with Grant. This film, too, was a financial blockbuster giving West the honor of being the eighth-largest box office draw in the United States. However, the blunt sexuality and steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath and moral indignation of several groups.
The organization had the power to pre-approve films' productions and change scripts. On July 1, , the organization began to seriously and meticulously enforce the code on West's screenplays, and heavily edited them.
West responded in her typical fashion by increasing the number of innuendos and double entendres, fully expecting to confuse the censors, which she did for the most part. In , West starred in the film Klondike Annie , which concerned itself with religion and hypocrisy. Hearst disagreed so vehemently with the film's context, and West's portrayal of a Salvation Army worker, that he personally forbade any stories or advertisements of the film to be published in any of his publications.
However, the film did well at the box office and is considered the high-point of West's film career. As the decade wound down, West's film career seemed to wane somewhat. The few other films she did for Paramount — Go West, Young Man and Everyday's a Holiday — did not do well at the box office, and she found censorship was severely limiting her creativity.
On December 12, , she appeared as herself on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour in two comedy sketches. But days after the broadcast, NBC received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene. Even the FCC weighed in, calling the broadcast "vulgar and indecent" and far below the minimum standard for broadcast programs.
NBC personally blamed West for the debacle, and banned her from appearing on any of their other broadcasts. In , Universal Pictures approached West to star in a film opposite comedian W. The studio wanted to duplicate the success they had with another film, Destry Rides Again , a Western morality tale starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. West, looking for a vehicle to make a comeback in films, accepted the part, demanding creative control over the film.
Despite tension on the set between West and Fields she was a teetotaler and he drank , the film was a box-office success, out-grossing Fields' previous two films. By , West was 50 years old and considering retiring from films to concentrate on her Broadway stage career. Columbia Pictures' director Gregory Ratoff, a friend of hers, needed to have a successful film to avoid bankruptcy, and pleaded with West to help him avoid financial ruin.
She agreed. But the film lacked her double-entendre lines and sly delivery, not to mention its weak plot and lack of a top-rated romantic lead for West to play off.
The film opened to bad reviews and suffered at the box office. West would not return to films until In , West formed a nightclub act which revived some of her earlier stage work, featuring her in song-and-dance numbers and surrounded by musclemen fawning over her for attention.
0コメント