Al is on vacation. This column originally appeared in May 2012.
Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Pam Anderson, Madonna; Blondes. In my opinion, they all owe a debt of gratitude to Hollywood’s original blonde bombshell, Mae West. Come this Halloween, it will be eighty years since Ms. West burst onto the scene, changing the silver screen, and American pop culture, forever. I, like many Baby Boomers old enough to remember her, have always had a little crush on Mae West. Granted, I was born thirty years after she made her screen debut, but I vividly remember her as the epitome of sexy when I was a kid.
Mae West’s life off screen is just as flashy and full of intrigue as her life was on screen. If you don’t know who she is, Google her and you will be amazed. She was an American comedienne, actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose career spanned seven decades. The American Film Institute named West 15th among the 50 greatest female stars of all time. One of the more controversial movie stars of her day, West encountered many problems — including censorship.
West was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York on August 17, 1893. She was the eldest of three children of John Patrick West, a livery-stable owner and former prizefighter known as “Battlin’ Jack West” and Matilda “Tillie” Doelger, a Bavarian immigrant and one-time corset and fashion model. Her parents converted to Protestantism, although her mother was, by heritage, a Jewish Bavarian-German and her father was born Irish-Catholic.
West first stepped on stage at a church social at the age of five and started appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She began performing professionally as “Baby Mae” in vaudeville in 1907 at the age of 14. At age 18, West was “discovered” by a New York Times critic who singled her out from some long forgotten Broadway show. By 1912 she was appearing onstage opposite Al Jolson as a ‘baby vamp’ named La Petite Daffy. Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in a play she titled Sex, which she also wrote, produced, and directed. Critics hated the show but ticket sales were through the roof. The theater was raided, the show was closed and West was arrested along with the cast. She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to ten days for “corrupting the morals of youth.” While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife and told reporters that she wore her silk underpants while serving time.
Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality and was what West called one of her “comedy-dramas of life.” The play never opened on Broadway due to the city’s vows to ban it if West attempted to stage it. West was an early supporter of the women’s liberation movement, but stated she was not a feminist. She was also a supporter of gay rights, but was herself a confirmed heterosexual. West continued to write controversial plays which, while not successful critically, ensured that West stayed in the headlines and played to packed houses.
In 1932, at age 38, West was offered a motion picture contract by Paramount Pictures. Her film debut in Night After Night paired her with George Raft, appearing in his first major starring role. Mae insisted on rewriting her lines and the impromptu dialog in her first scene would set the tone for the rest of West’s career. In the scene, Mae wiggles up to the coat check closet and a hat check girl exclaims, “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!” to which West replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.” Co-star Raft is said to have remarked afterwards, “She stole everything but the cameras.”
Mae West was off and running and her next film, She Done Him Wrong (1933), which is credited for launching the career of Cary Grant. Hollywood lore persists that West insisted Grant be cast as the male lead after spotting him walking past her on the studio back lot. The film was a box office smash, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and most likely saving Paramount pictures from bankruptcy.
Her next release, I’m No Angel (1933), paired her with Grant again. The film would prove to be the most successful of her entire movie career, making Mae the eighth largest U.S. box office draw in the United States and, by 1935, the second-highest paid person in the United States behind only William Randolph Hearst (the model for Citizen Kane).
Then came a steady stream of successful Mae West films for Paramount; Belle of the Nineties (1934), Goin’ to Town (1935), Klondike Annie (1936) Go West, Young Man (1936), and finally Every Day’s a Holiday (1937), her last film for the studio. After leaving Paramount, Mae West was put on a list of actors named “Box Office Poison” by the Independent Theatre Owners Association of America. The argument was that these stars’ high salaries and extreme public popularity didn’t affect their ticket sales and thus hurt the exhibitors. The list appeared as a paid advertisement in the Hollywood Reporter and was taken seriously by studio executives. Others on the list were Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río, Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, and James Cagney. Mae, one of Hollywood’s most popular stars and wealthiest women, would not appear onscreen for the next year and a half.
Then, in 1939, Universal Pictures approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields in the film My Little Chickadee (1940), a role that many critics believe defined her career. Despite their apparent on screen chemistry, West and Fields had an intense mutual dislike punctuated by fights over the screenplay and dialog changes. Mae had the last laugh though as the film proved to be a box office smash, out-grossing Fields’ previous film, You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), and later The Bank Dick (1940).
West’s next film was The Heat’s On (1943) for Columbia Pictures, which opened to bad reviews and failed at the box office. For the classic film Sunset Boulevard (1950), Billy Wilder offered West, then nearing 60, the role of Norma Desmond. West turned down the part. Gloria Swanson was eventually cast for the part in what critics have called the greatest film about Hollywood ever produced. Swanson received her third Best Actress Oscar nomination. West did not return to films until 1970.
Mae remained active during the ensuing years, returning to the Broadway stage in the lead role of Catherine was Great (1944), in which she spoofed the story of the Russian heroine. True to form, in this role, Mae surrounded herself with an “imperial guard” of tall, muscular young actors. The play enjoyed a long run of 191 performances. In the 1950s, she also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show, singing popular tunes surrounded by bodybuilders.
Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West’s muscle men, a former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay. Mickey, a former Mr. Indianapolis, was famous locally for walking into an Indianapolis gym in 1947 (never having lifted weights before) and astounding the owner by lifting 215 pounds over his 180 pound frame. While Mickey was posing in Mae West’s popular revue in New York’s Latin Quarter, Jayne Mansfield happened to catch the show. When asked what she wanted that evening, she quipped, “I’ll have a steak and the man on the left.”
After a 26 year absence from motion pictures, West appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck (in a small part). The movie was a deliberately campy sex change comedy that was a total box office flop. So bad was the film, that even Vidal called the film “an awful joke.” Ironically, the film became a smash hit on the cult film circuit of small art house theatres and was a regular feature at the Playboy Mansion. Soon Mae West was dubbed “the queen of camp”.
In 1976, Mae began work on her final film, Sextette (1978) featuring a script written by Ms. West herself. The film also featured Mae’s friend and old flame George Raft in his last movie performance. Legend persists that the dialog was changed so much during filming that West agreed to have her lines fed to her through a speaker concealed in her wig. The years were catching up to Mae and it began to show during filming. Director Ken Hughes noted that West sometimes appeared disoriented and forgetful and found it difficult to follow his directions. Her eyesight was failing which made navigating the set and hitting her marks very difficult for the proud fading sex symbol. Hughes eventually began shooting her from the waist up to hide the out-of-frame production assistant crawling on the floor, guiding Mae around the set. Perhaps unsurprisingly, upon its release Sextette was a critical and commercial failure.
Mae suffered quietly from diabetes for the last 15 years of her life. In August 1980, West stumbled while getting out of bed. After the fall, she was unable to speak and was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where it was discovered that she had suffered a stroke. On September 18, she suffered a second stroke which left her right side paralyzed. In October, she developed pneumonia and by November her condition, although improved, was not good and she was sent home to die. On November 22, 1980, at age 87, Mae West died peacefully while seated in an armchair in the bedroom of her Hollywood apartment.
A private service was held in the Old North Church replica in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980. Mae was then entombed in her family grave at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn. For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.
Next week: “George Raft and Mae West.”
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
