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Compleat Witches in History; Mae West
Mae West was born on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn, New York. She was a promising
child star in Vaudeville, gaining an incredible knowledge of comedic techniques.
As she grew older, she began writing plays of her own, one of which is notable
for the scandal surrounding it (she was arrested) as well as for the time in
which it was made. (After all, how often do you hear of a play called "SEX"
running in 1926!) But this was typical audacity for Mae West. She was always ahead of her time, constantly pushing the envelope of what was considered "acceptable" --especially for women.
Her film career began in 1932 when she played what was considered a bit part in
"Night After Night". Unhappy with the role, she was given the
power to rewrite all of her dialogue. As a result, Miss West stole the show in
every scene she was in (even though the film was originally made as a vehicle for
George Raft).
Being knee deep in the Depression, American filmgoers found in Mae West a
risque, independent women, draped in jewels and enjoying life. The political and
religious climate of the times, however, saw her open sexuality as pornographic
and tried at every turn to censor her subsequent films. Will Hays, who had begun
to enforce the Production Code, which was abandoned decades later in favor of
the MPAA Ratings System, saw her as a major threat to the morality of the
nation.
Her first starring role was in "She Done Him Wrong", based on her highly successful
play" Diamond Lil". It is generally
considered one of her best. However, each of her fillms thereafter were attacked virulently by the Hays Office. As a result, her racy style of comedy became increasingly diluted and
eventually, Miss West decided to abandon the cinema as a creative outlet.
By the time she retreated from the silver screen, she had made nine movies. Of
those, she had writers credit for five of them. Her popularity had also raised
enough capital to bring the near bankrupt studio, Paramount, into the black.
She continued to be productive for most of her life, producing, writing, and
starring in assorted plays and musical revues. She was offered the part of Norma
Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard" by Billy Wilder personally, but turned it down for
creative reasons.
She returned to film briefly to play Leticia in "Myra Breckinridge", a
gender-bender based on the book by Gore Vidal. Typically, she agreed to do the
film on the condition that she had creative control over her part, which
included rewriting all of her dialogue. Her last film,
"Sextette", was released in 1978 when she was 85 years old and suffering from
assorted maladies which were worked around as much as possible during shooting.
One of the worst problems was memory loss which made all of her dialogue seem
stilted. The sad thing is that her delivery had always been the most compelling
and hilarious facet of her film persona.
She died on November 22, 1980, of natural causes.
To learn more about Miss West's life, I recommend "Becoming Mae West", a wonderul biography by Emily Wortis Leider.
FILMOGRAPHY
NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (1932)
Paramount
Director: Archie Mayo
Screenplay: Vincent Lawrence and Kathryn Scola
Cast: George Raft, Constance Cummings, Wynne Gibson, Alison Skipworth, Mae
West, Roscoe Karns, Louis Calhern
SHE DONE HIM WRONG (1933)
Paramount
Director: Lowell Sherman
Screenplay: Harvey Thew and John Bright, based on play by Mae West
Cast: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Sr.,
Rafaela Ottiano, Rochelle Hudson, David Landau
I'M NO ANGEL (1933)
Paramount
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Screenplay: Mae West, based on her story.
Cast: Mae West, Cary Grant, Gregory Ratoff, Edward Arnold, Kent Taylor,
Gertrude Michael, William B. Davidson, Libby Taylor, Dorothy Peterson
BELLE OF THE NINETIES (1934)
Paramount
Director: Leo McCarey
Screenplay: Mae West, based on her story
Cast: Mae West, Roger Pryor, John Mack Brown, John Miljan, Katherine DeMille,
James Donlan, Libby Taylor, Gene Austin, Duke Ellington and his orchestra
GOIN' TO TOWN (1935)
Paramount
Director: Alexander Hall
Screenplay: Mae West, based on story by Marion Morgan and George B. Dowell
Cast: Mae West, Paul Cavanaugh, Gilbert Emery, Marjorie Gateson, Tito Coral,
Ivan Lebedeff, Fred Kohler, Sr., Monroe Owsley, Luis Alberni
KLONDIKE ANNIE (1936)
Paramount
Director: Raoul Walsh
Screenplay: Mae West, based on play by Mae West and story by Marion Morgan and
George B. Dowell
Cast: Mae West, Victor McLaglen, Phillip Reed, Helen Jerome Eddy, Harold Huber,
Soo Yong, Lucille Webster Gleason
GO WEST, YOUNG MAN (1936)
Paramount
Director: Henry Hathaway
Screenplay: Mae West, based on play by Lawrence Riley
Cast: Mae West, Warren William, Randolph Scott, Alice Brady, Elizabeth
Patterson, Lyle Talbot, Isabel Jewell, Margaret Perry, Etienne Girardot, Xavier
Cugat and his orchestra
EVERY DAY'S A HOLIDAY (1938)
Paramount
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Screenplay: Mae West
Cast: Mae West, Edmund Lowe, Charles Butterworth, Charles Winninger, Lloyd
Nolan, Walter Catlett, Chester Conklin, Louis Armstrong
MY LITTLE CHICKADEE (1940)
Universal
Director: Edward Cline
Screenplay: Mae West and W.C. Fields
Cast: Mae West, W.C. Fields, Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran, Margaret Hamilton,
Donald Meek, Anne Nagel, Ruth Donnelly.
THE HEAT'S ON (1943)
Columbia
Director: Gregory Ratoff
Screenplay: Fitzroy Davis, George S. George and Fred Schiller
Cast: Mae West, Victor Moore, William Gaxton, Hazel Scott, Lester Allen, Mary
Roche, Almira Sessions, Xavier Cugat and his orchestra
MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (1970)
Twentieth Century-Fox
Director: Michael Sarne
Screenplay: Michael Sarne and David Giles, based on the novel by Gore Vidal
Cast: Mae West, John Huston, Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, Farrah
Fawcett, Calvin Lockhart, Andy Devine, John Carradine, George Furth
SEXTETTE (1978)
Briggs and Sullivan production; released by Crown International Pictures
(domestic) and New World (foreign)
Director: Ken Hughes
Screenplay: Herbert Baker; based on Mae West's play and dialogue
Cast: Mae West, Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis, George Hamilton,
Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Rona Barrett, George Raft, Regis Philbin
Mae West Quotes
Virtue has its own reward, but has no sale at the box office.
Goodness, what lovely diamonds.
Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.
No gold-digging for me... I take diamonds! We may be off the gold standard someday.
It takes two to get one in trouble.
I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.
A man in the house is worth two in the street.
It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about you lately.
You must be awful tired.
I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.
Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
I can always tell a lady when I see one.
Yeah? What do you tell 'em?
Give a man a free hand and he'll try to put it all over you.
Too many girls follow the line of least resistance--but a good line is hard to resist.
Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!
It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.
I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.
I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going before you've still got them.
Any time you got nothing to do--and lots of time to do it--come on up.
Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different.
All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.
The score never interested me, only the game.
Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up.
It's not the men in my life that counts-- it's the life in my men.
Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?
I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
Women with "pasts" interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself.
Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.
There are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.
The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.
Let men see what's coming to them, and women will get what's coming to them.
The curve is more powerful than the sword.
I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.
When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.
I like a man who's good, but not too good--for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
Some women pick men to marry--and others pick them to pieces.
When a girl goes bad--men go right after her.
Good women are no fun... The only good woman I can recall in history was Betsy Ross. And all she ever made was a flag.
A woman in love can't be reasonable--or she probably wouldn't be in love.
You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest.
Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art.
Love is the only industry which can't operate on a five-day week.
Women want certain things in marriage--the right to a title and a front seat in the lap of luxury.
Men are easy to get but hard to keep.
It's easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.
Kiss and make up--but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.
A girl in the convertible is worth five in the phone book.
Life's just a merry-go-round. Come on up. You might get a brass ring.
You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles.
I take it out in the open and laugh at it.
The best way to hold a man is in your arms.
Brains are an asset to the woman in love who's smart enough to hide 'em.
Look your best--who said love is blind?
An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
Girls, give all your gentlemen friends an even break, even if you have to break them in the attempt.
Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.
Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.
If you put your foot in it, be sure it's your best foot.
It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.
The best way to behave is to misbehave.
He who hesitates is last.
I'm single because I was born that way.
A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.
Marriage is a great institution. No family should be without it.
A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty--he has suffered longer.
Don't come crawlin' to a man for love--he likes to get a run for his money.
Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile.
Don't marry a man to reform him--that's what reform schools are for.
Don't keep a man guessing too long--he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.
Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays.
How do you do, Miss West?
How do you do what?
I'd give half my life for just one kiss.
Then kiss me twice.
Oh, Miss West, I've heard so much about you.
Yeah, honey, but you can't prove a thing.
Do you like the new styles or the old?
You can say what you like about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.
Never ask a man where's he's been. If he's out on legitimate business, he doesn't need an alibi. And, girls, if he has been out on illegitimate business, it's your own fault.
What kind of man is most satisfactory?
Personally, I like two types of men--domestic and foreign.
Save a boyfriend for a rainy day--and another, in case it doesn't.
It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.
Come up and see me sometime.