Mae West

Drunk Davis said she tried to be a lesbian but couldn't.

There has been some talk of remaking Myra Breckinridge. Of course, Raquel would be cast in the Mae West part, so it would be funny if she didn't get along with her younger co-star cast in the lead role.

Raquel trashes Mae West in this video and even says she thought she might be a man.

I loved Mae West, but she didn't know when to quit. It was sad the way she wound up.

Now look at Sophie Tucker, the last of the Red Hot Mamas.

She used to sing a song called, "You gotta see your mamma every night, Or you won't see your mamma at all"

When she was younger you know what the innuendo meant. As she got older, she still sang the song but did it with a pistol by her side.

It sent home an entirely different message, but the song was still great. Sophie knew how to age with grace, humility and style.

LOVE Mae West!

[quote] Raquel Welch has said she was a nightmare to work with,

Oh my God. That's certainly the pot calling the kettle black.

If they ever decide to make a film about Mae West, Natasha Lyonne would be the perfect actress to play her.

Raquel may have had trouble with the too-old and too-weird West, but Mae West will be remembered for her brilliant take on sex, her humor, her great writing, and her image. No one now cares she single-handedly saved Paramount. She'll be remembered for being herself, not for what Raquel Welch has to shriek about.

Mae West even in her pathetic dotage would have sized up Raquel's overreaching, phony, anything-but-real limitations and settled her hash. I like Welch, but it's almost always been for not being quite as bad I expected, or being mildly funny, or looking good in that 60s-70s way. Saying she's gorgeous at her age is a compliment to her cosmetic surgeons, not to her.

Welch made about six good films and four cult classics. West made seven classic comedies that rank among the best of their time - and three among the best of all times - after a great stage career, not making her first movie until she was about 40. No contest.

Mary? Sure. But living long enough to shit on West while being an old woman herself just reminds us of all those other stories about Ms. Welch's "issues."

I met her about the time of Sextette. Basically, a horrible person. Not fun, witty, or bitchy; just a horrible old woman. She was not a witty woman. She always had gay men around her who would feed her dialogue. That is actually how I met her. There was a hideous old troll who was her "writer". Oddly, 20 years later or so, I met a nearly identical hideous troll who was a "writer" for Joan Rivers.

Nobody mentions her rather nasty homophobia. She had no problem being around gay men, but her views were decidedly of a certain time, shall we say, and they never evolved.

R10, I obviously don't know what she was like in the 1930s, but a large part of her homophobia in the 1970s was due to Gay Liberation. During her heyday, gay men simply could not get on stage and say the things they could say after Stonewall. She had a monopoly on that kind of banter. She hated gay men because they were "stealing her act," when, in fact, she had been stealing theirs for decades. I think she actually sued Danny LaRue claiming that his camp and double entendre was stolen from her. She was very litigious and would sue at the drop of a hat. She claimed to get a cut of Hello Dolly! because the red dress was based on her look. I don't believe it for a minute. Given a fight between Mae West and David Merrick, my money would be on David Merrick.

Basically, she was fine with gay men until we started getting “uppity.” Karina Longworth said something to the effect of her wringing 50 years of celebrity out of what amounted to one joke.

Merrick actually approached West about playing Dolly on Broadway as one of Channing's several replacements. West said she consider it if she could rewrite the script, or at least her own lines. (She always wrote her own material, or had it ghostwritten for her.) Merrick said absolutely not, neither would budge, and negotiations ended.

Are any of her films posted on YouTube or Dailymotion? How about torrents? I own Sextette as part of a campy film box set I bought.

She liked her men BIG.

Love how they're looking at her like she's some sort of bizarre circus freak.

Her old movies are a riot. She wrote her own screenplay. Many of her lines are classic. "Peel me a grape Bulah" etc. She was an original and huge star in the early days of Hollywood.

For those interested here's a recent podcast that covers West's career, from it's beginnings to the end. It really worth a listen: "You Must Remeber This"

[quote] Are any of her films posted on YouTube or Dailymotion? How about torrents? I own Sextette as part of a campy film box set I bought.

I own this. It has all her films except for Sextette and Myra Breckinridge,

Did her pussy stink?

R1 Apparently from what I've read in the past, Mae West was creeped out by Bette Davis talking about lesbianism because she thought Davis was coming on to her.

Raquel was interviewed while promoting 100 RIFLES with Jim Brown. She had gotten some backlash because of her then-considered-steamy love scenes with the scrumptious black actor, but the way she talked about it was like she was making some noble sacrifice, you know, like Rosa Parks or something. All this breast-beating like she was some sort of civil rights martyr. Girl please.

Mae released a rock album in the 60s and this was my favorite track from it. Toward the end of the song it sounds like she's practically having an orgasm.

Can you imagine Elvis Presley and Mae West making a movie together? It almost happened. Elvis was making a new movie called Roustabout and they wanted Mae for the female lead. She said yes - but only if she could have top billing over Elvis. They said no - and the role went to Barbara Stanwyck.

For some fun crossover weirdness, here's Mae, along with Timothy Dalton, singing the Captain & Tennille hit (although written by Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield).

So bizarre!

Love Mae, but always was distracted by her dentures (they WERE dentures, right?) and how her mouth moved around them, like she was trying to keep them in her mouth. Doris Roberts (hated her!) had a similar denture-y sound/look. So does Missy Elliott, who I also love, and her teeth are real, so perhaps Mae's were, as well.

[quote] If they ever decide to make a film about Mae West...

Excuse me!

Was Timothy Dalton gay?

She was a short, fat & ugly little troll. HOW was this woman considered a sex symbol??

Young Mae was no beauty.

R29 It was all in her image, funny sex lines, and presence. She KNEW how to present herself to the public.

Whatever happened....oh for chrissakes, WHET Claudia Shearer. I thought Dirty Blonde was pretty great.

One of the Greats.....

This is the very famous painting done in 1934-1935 by Salvador Dali, which is entitled, "The Face of Mae West Which May Be Used As An Apartment."

[quote]Whatever happened....oh for chrissakes, WHET Claudia Shearer. I thought Dirty Blonde was pretty great.

I recall reading that Claudia Shear was a huge bitch and pain in the ass, and that she basically knee-capped her own career. Anybody else hear this?

I have worked with Claudia Shear and can absolutely attest to her being a huge bitch and pain in the ass. And a decidely limted talent.

May stole her act from Bert Savoy, the hoydenish, red-headed drag performer of the teens and twenties. Excellent bio from 1982 is Mae West by George Eells. He relates how her play scripts at the first day of rehearsals were bits of paper with "biz" written on them. A complete fraud. And, you can hear her on youtube being interviewed at UCLA in 1971; only audio and no video. (How could that happen at a communications school?) She's doing a raunchy take on nursery rhymes and utters this gem: "Rub a, dub, ,dub, 3 fags in a tub." Friend jokingly said that she probably held a witty old queen prisoner in a closet and he wrote all her lines.

[quote]Friend jokingly said that she probably held a witty old queen prisoner in a closet and he wrote all her lines.

That is what I wrote up thread and it is true.

Fortunately, her plays were published in book form a while ago because The Library of Congress did a purge and the originals of her play scripts were thrown out. Apparently, nobody cross referenced "Jane Mast" with Mae West.

......

There was a Canadian drag queen Craig Russell, who did Mae better than Mae and who starred in a movie "Outrageous" and "Outrageous 2" He had been a fan and was president of her fan club and worked for her for a while, there was a docu about him (he's since died of AIDS) and he tells the story of being at her apartment and how the chauffer or butler, I don't remember which raped him, and he found out later that there was a 2 way mirror in the room and Mae watched the whole thing.

Wow what a bizarre (and horrifying, if true) story, R40

She didn't have feminine features. She looked more like Milton Berle in drag.

Silent movie actresses often looked like men in drag (Theda Bara, Asta Nielsen...) but were still hailed as sex symbols. Mae West was one of the last butch sex symbols before the beauty ideals for women shifted to more feminine, skinny features. She was lucky that she started her movie career between the arrival of sound movies and the introduction of Hays code, because a couple of years later she'd never get away with those dirty jokes and she'd never become a movie star with a face like hers.

r17 name me some good ones / pre code

The Hays code is what finished off her film career.

Mae West played a very important role in the battle to help the public to get over its fear of sex. As usual, DL has a hard time putting these things into historical perspective. Mae West made sex and seduction funny.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

“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.”

“Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.”

These lines were not just good harmless fun; in the context of the puritanical moral codes of the day, they were big fat stinkbombs hurled into society's living rooms - or parlors. She brought sex out of the shame closet almost single-handedly.

“JUDGE: Are you trying to show contempt for this court?

MAE WEST: I was doin' my best to hide it.”

I used to be Snow White......but I drifted.

[quote]She was very litigious and would sue at the drop of a hat. She claimed to get a cut of Hello Dolly! because the red dress was based on her look.

Mae sued (or talked to the press about it) when the Hello Dolly movie came out. She claimed that Streisand was imitating her.

She was right. But it didn't seem actionable.

Mae was very funny and unique.

It is amazing that she made a name as a sex symbol, being so dumpy, old and plain.

And who the fuck ever told her she could sing?

She told Barbra to her face to stop imitating her.

Barbra used to tell a story about West being the only star she was truly in awe of. She found her dressing room at some point - it's been a long time - but hung out and stared, being too shy to approach her. She said she couldn't come up with a reason to invade her privacy.

Speaking of, R51, here's Mae West with the Duke Ellington orchestra. Even though this has been sung by Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee, two of my favorites, West recorded it first and it's one of her few serious songs. She acquits herself quite squarely and shows a rare vulnerability. And there's certainly no mistaking her for any other singer.

Mae West was decades ahead of her time.

I thought Frances had a similar vocal delivery, r54.

Fucking hypocrite Christians and their Hayes Code ruined her career.

I loved Mae doing Troubled Waters in Belle of the 90's, though it is very non-pc in the film, that's also with Duke Ellington, R54. I couldn't find a clip of it anywhere.

Here, R58.

Boom.....

Mae was offered the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, but turned it down.

I liked reading recently that Mae was a Donna Summer fan and attended one of her concerts. Donna could do a good Mae imitation and would tell ribald jokes with it in concert.

When I lived in Hollywood I almost rented an apartment in the Ravenswood where she resided for 48 years. It was located close to Paramount studio. I remember hearing that she bought the building and her penthouse apartment was decorated in Louis XIV and Mae. Supposedly there were portraits of Mae, statues of Mae, photographs of Mae, and probably a recording of Mae singing as you walked in. I remember there being a huge chadelier in the lobby.

I always thought it bizarre that she was considered a sex symbol. She wasn't beautiful, or even pretty, and she was very short with a thick, although tightly corseted, figure. That voice of hers was supposed to be sexy, but I always found it very annoying. Supposedly one of the things she did to stay young was to take a "high colonic (a more involved kind of enema)" daily. she was supposed to have been some kind of sex fiend, engaging in sex marathons with one or more musclebound men for days. I tend to doubt that. She tried to keep up her sex symbol image until the end of her days. The movie "Sextette", which was her last film, continued to portray her as a sex goddess that men got hardons for even though she was in her mid-eighties, hard of hearing, and seemingly somewhat senile. Critics said she looked "embalmed" and that a movie about an eighty-something sex bomb was "cruel and unnecessary" and "embarrassing." West making her trademark sexual innuendos at such an age prompted this comment: "Granny should have her mouth washed out with soap, along with her teeth." Was it movie star ego or senility that caused her to put herself on display like that at her advanced age? Probably a combination of both.

Bette Midler is playing Mae in a movie for HBO

Oh NO! R65 Is that true?

How dreadful.

Its been in development since 2013....they announced last year the production would start shortly after Hello Dolly wrapped....Midler is one of the producers.

Bettes borrowed heavily from West her entire career.....its a good fit if they can reign Midler in.

r67 where is that from?

Mae West wasnt ahead of her times, she was actually behind them. She needed prudery or the expectation of prudery to play off of, so that her politely-phrased double entendres had shock value as well as humor. She'd have been nothing in an age when frank humor was acceptable, for her jokes to work she needed easily shocked characters around to be shocked by them.

That's why so many if her films were set in the late 19th century. Well, that and she liked corsets, chubby thing that she was.

Upon seeing Mae's dress form, Schiaparelli exclaimed "Shocking!". Then she came out with the perfume.

They called these flotation vests, "Mae Wests".

Mae West and Marlene Dietrich had adjoining dressing rooms at Paramount in the 30s. Mae was quoted as saying: "One day Marlene told me she wanted to wash my hair. I don't think she meant the hair on my head."

Mae West had her lawyers send Bette Midler a cease and desist letter after seeing r67....for real.

I read Maria Riva's memoir about her mother, Marlene. In that book, she attributed the shampoo request to DL Icon, Joan Crawford, r72, who wanted to get close to Mae for some reason. Mae didn't trust Crawford and denied the request,

According to Marlene's daughter, the dressing rooms were indeed close as you mentioned. Mae became very fond of Rudy Sieber, Marlene's dashing German husband. According to Maria Riva, the three spent a lot of fun times together (inuendo), and Marlene was not the least bit jealous of Mae.

Chick with a dick.

"Marlene was not the least bit jealous of Mae."

Why would she be? Mae West was in no way good looking and Dietrich was considered stunningly gorgeous.

R1 There was an entire film made based on that conversation with actors lip-syncing the original audio.

One of her grandparents was allegedly mixed race.

R67 I can think of a number of better actresses who could play West, and Bette Midler is much too old to portray the early years. I still say Natasha Lyonne would be perfect as she looks and moves just like Mae in her younger days.

The Ravenswood apartments where Mae lived for 100 years is in kind of a shitty part of town.

R80 The Ravenswood (and most of Hollywood) started to go down the toilet after Mae died. Here is the front entrance where her chauffeur "Chalky" used to drop her off.

Wasn't there a neon sign on top of the Ravenswood and at some point in the 80s the "R" wasn't illuminated making it the "avenswood".

Tiny Mae wore stilt shoes to give her height, never mind the 4 feet let's talk about the 9.5 inches!

Mae's shoes! In the George Eels' book, Mae West, you can see a photo of Mae visiting Julie Andrews on the set of Star and Mae's wearing textured stockings and shoes that are mesmerizing Julie. Opposite page in the book, has a pic of Mae working out at the Ravenswood in her bedroom and her shoes look like they're made of airplane wing metal.

I remember reading somewhere that her secret to eternal youth was never smoking or drinking, massaging her breasts, and a daily enema.

My grandmothers never smoke or drank and they lived to be 96 and 100. I can't testify to the last two of Mae's secrets in regards to my grannies.

Can anyone recommend a good book about Mae West? I normally don't read celebrity bios but Mae West intrigues me.

What about the rumor that in the 60s , Mae died and a Drag Queen took her place.

My grandfather said he saw her in the early part of the 20th century. She was a featured act in a traveling show. Think he said it was a rodeo show. Sorry that is all I can remember. This would have been before she started making movies.

[QUOTE]I thought Frances had a similar vocal delivery, [R54].

Mae and Frances Faye were a type of singer known, unfortunately, as 'coon shouter' in the racist 20s and 30s, white women who belted out songs like black blues singers,. Sophie Tucker was called that as well early on, she even began her career performing in blackface. It is interesting how that style of full-throated singing is now the norm for pop singers. Back then it was considered rather declassé

This interview with Dick Cavett (when Mae was 83 years old!) was interesting. She still had great stories to tell. I think those fake teeth were bothering her, however - or perhaps she had a lozenge in her mouth.

"..if they can reign Midler in..."

She always was a big queen...

Bette Midler would make a terrible Mae West.

If ever there was a woman who could claim to be a "Gay man trapped in a woman's body" it was Mae!

And if she hadn't been openly homophobic, I would wonder about the "woman's body" thing.

In her 30s movies, Mae was in on the joke, with the audience. Later, she was the joke.

Does NOBODY remember?!

[87} As previously posted, the best book on Mae is George Eells' and Stanley Musgrove's--Mae West - 1982, William Morrow & Company.

Mae wasn't homophobic.

Frances AND Martha, r90!

Mae created a character she became atrophied within, but she must have been content to be so as she lasted so long with it, unlike other icons who seemed to collapse under the weight of their own legend, Marilyn, Judy , Elvis all imploded. Marlene is the only other I can think of who kept the image up til old age and even she had to withdraw from public view when it got too hard to maintain.

And Mae was always wealthy, so that must've helped enormously.

I’m pretty sure David E met her. david—tell ‘em!

Mae ruined whatever her legacy was with Sextette.

An old queen reminisces about meeting Mae West for tea at her apartment in the 70s...

Was she genuinely wealthy, R101, or did she just live within her means in a way that most old celebrities do not?

She lived in an apartment in a building she owned, and if I'm right about that and the building itself (is this it?), that alone would bring in enough income to pay for a limo service and some bodybuilders who needed to pay their gym fees.

r105 I believe she was wealthy by the standards of the time, not "wealthy" in today's sense which means millions and millions of dollars and five mansions. I believe that wealthy by the standards of that time would be moderately rich or even upper middle-class by today's standards. And you have to remember that LA was not nearly as expensive in those days either. Mae also had a house in Malibu, but Malibu was not the mega-expensive place back then that it was now. A person with an upper middle-class income could afford a place on or near the beach, as crazy as that sounds today.

Yeah, I did a ten second google search, and Mae owned the Ravenswood and a lot of other LA real estate. Which means she would have had a good income in rentals at the very least, and she didn't live extravagantly. She lived in the penthouse of a building she owned, and had her luxuries like facelifts and unfashionable clothes and young bodybuilders, she didn't throw her money away on cocaine and ex-husbands the way so many other actresses have done.

I wish I could live like that after I retire!

All the money in the world can't fix ugly.

Good point r107. Mae had a brief marriage when she was very young, like Katharine Hepburn, but neither one married again or had children. Greta Garbo never married or had children. All three of them were very financially comfortable for the rest of their lives as a result.

Bette Davis married four times and had a daughter who she supported lock, stock and barrel and always had money problems. Lot of other stars had the same situation.

Don't forget Bette's mother and sister that she also supported, r109.

Did Mae have oil wells in Bakersfield, pumping, pumping, pumping?

[quote] Mae ruined whatever her legacy was with Sextette.

Sextette is what introduced her to a whole new generation of fans. If it wasn't for that film Mae would never have the cult following she has today.

You should know, R108. You should know.

She could have, r111, but she and Billy Wilder didn't come to terms.

Mae had no cult, ither than aged queens.

r115....what are you, 12 ? Everyone knew who Mae West was....EVERYONE.

R61 I'd like to know more about turning down the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. I reckon it would be quite a different movie.

I'm no fan of either West or Swanson but fat, bossy Mae West would really have upset the dynamic.

Everyone over 70 knew who she was. Most are dead.

Mae didn't turn down Sunset Boulevard. Wilder had considered her early on and secured an invitation to see her. He and an assistant ended up spending an afternoon with her at her estate. He found her funny and fascinating but early on he came to the conclusion she wasn't right for the part so he never even brought the film up, much less offered it to her.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's, and a fair number of people would have recognized a lot of the old Hollywood icons, including Mae West. TV stations used to play old movies in the afternoon, on the weekends, and late night. You did not have as many choices, so some times you watched them because there was nothing else to watch.

I don't think the nostalgia for old movies is as broad now,in both the number of people interested and in the range of actors that are followed. I suspect there is a big drop of recognition for people even ten years younger than me.

R120, the Nostalgia craze was huge in the 1970s. Young people today do not realize that. There were Mae West lamps, posters, cookie jars, dolls, greeting cards, fabrics, etc. Anything that one could make in an image or put an image on, had an old movie star on it.

Sextette did not introduce a new generation to Mae West. It was made because a new generation was obsessed with Mae West. Now whether subsequent generations have been exposed to Mae West through Sextette, I really cannot say. I do find that young people are generally uninterested in old movies and that young gay people are particularly uninterested in gay culture before 1980.

"Young and beautiful, your looks will never be gone!"

[quote] What about the rumor that in the 60s , Mae died and a Drag Queen took her place.

Is that where Tom Tryon got inspiration for "Fedora"?

Mae was listed in the telephone directory and she was very accessible to fans. My uncle, not gay but a big cinephile, called Mae circa 1970 and she spoke with him for almost an hour. My grandmother hit the roof when she got the phone bill! I also know someone who had a four page letter Mae sent in response to his fan letter.

The references to Mae in “Anything Goes” got a lot of my theatre queens into her. When the Patti LuPone AG was running there was a Mae West double bill playing in some theatre in the village.

I was born in 69 and I grew up loving old movies and movie stars. As they were dying off in the 70s and 80s there was a lot of nostalgia for that time and the whole family would gather to watch an appearance by one of the greats on Carson or Cavett. Every drag queen did Mae too. Nowadays, gay men can be out on screen and Gen Z guys can watch gay Youtubers, they have no need to get their camp from female stars.

R124, I am going to make a correction that may be petty, but is important. Those weren't drag queens, those were female impersonators. There is a difference between Charles Pierce and Jim Bailey, and the guys at Finocchios. I don't know if true female impersonators still exist. I know that there are Tribute Shows in Las Vegas, but those are not the same thing as an individual who makes a career out of carefully crafted impersonations.

You’re right r125, correction appreciated. I think Charles Pierce called himself a “male actress”.

There was a time when female impersonation was considered legitimate vaudeville fare. I had a theater named for me for chrissakes!

R127, you did not have a theater named after you, you were so successful, you owned the fucking theater.

Her limo driver "Chalky" (along with Joe Louis) was said to perform sexual favors for her.

Same for all those young bodybuilders she had hanging around.

She really did life the life of an eldergay; a piss-elegant apartment, old movies, and young hustlers.

A gay YouTuber must never be compared to Mae West. For one thing, she was witty.

I'm curious as to where the rumors about her being a man started. I know she copied a lot from drag queens.

One other rumor I've heard is that she had her whole body nipped and tucked by a plastic surgeon.

Has anyone read her book “Sex and ESP”?

MAE WEST WAS A GODDESS !

I think it's only just now that I saw a connection between Sunset and Baby Jane-- Hollywood delusions in an old house, actual stars playing stars of another era, including the use of old film footage, descent into madness, murder. All that good stuff.

I still cant get over Faye Dunaway playing Mae West in Man of Faith...in reality, I think she did a good job based on what I knew about Mae West.

The big ass clunker shoes that gave her that distinctive sashay.

We know R137, see R83

I never realized she was so tiny....she was so larger than life.

Come up and see me sometime!

4'11"/5'

There is a section in Joan Collins 'Second Act' where she talks about going to visit Mae in the 70's, and she was admitted to a room of grubby white couches.  Mae was waiting, and she eventually extended a red tipped claw to her.  Mae didn't speak to her, but kept watching her with a side long fish eye stare. While Joan was there she noticed that Mae had a hump, which she covered with the elaborate blond wig, and she had a rubber band under her chin to give her a chin line. She also wore gooey kabuki makeup and tons of black mascara. Joan said it looked like two crows had crashed into a whitewashed wall.

Bette Davis and Mae West, 1970s. Bette looks a bit soused.

My mother’s whole generation/stars she admired are all gone. . Makes me sad looking at these old photos of great stars long gone

I was just discussing that with a friend r144....the stars of our generation...late 60s, 70s, 80s.....are starting to die off and its becoming more frequent.

R144 It makes me sad that they’re forgotten too. There was a time when stars managed to achieve immortality through their work or at least we thought they would. It’s depressing to think of the people who were once household names the world over but are now forgotten, remembered only by gay men and serious cinephiles.

r146.....Who would think that someone today would have no idea who someone like Marilyn Monroe is ? I have a friend who stopped over and Some Like it Hot was on the tv in the background. He watched a few minutes and says...."that blonde is pretty hot". I told him that was Marilyn Monroes and he said, "ive heard the name before, but I had no idea who she was". I just stared at him in disbelief. In my mind, there is no woman on the face of the earth who is more recognizable.

^^^^and shes been dead for close to 60 years.^^^

Jack Nicholson has dropped off the face of the earth. He was a huge star in the 70s

Jack Nicholson was a huge star for pretty much his entire career.

Now we're seeing the big stars from the 60s and 70s dying off.

Omigod I'm watching Sextette on youtube right now! It should have been titled Necrophette. Mae can barely walk but they try to disguise it by having a dozen gay chorus boys dressed as bellhops flailing all around her.

No matter what lame thing she says they all laugh hysterically: when asked if marrying Timothy Dalton will mean giving up her acting career Mae says 'Me give up Hollywood? Never!' and all the journalists screech with laughter like she just told the funniest joke. But she didn't. It wasn't even a joke. Mae looks embalmed, bless her.

Incredibly young and sexy Dalton can't wait to stick his cock into nearly 90 year old Mae - which is a paraphrase of Dalton telling gay agent Dom Deluise ' She won't be needing clothes for the next few days' eewww! Dom should have turned to the camera and said "That be like fucking a purse!"

Can't wait for Alice Cooper and Ringo Starr to show up. No really. They both are in this puddle of LSD vomit.

With Rock Hudson at the Academy Awards....

R150, he's huger than ever these days.

Thanks so much for that clip, R153. There was a recent thread about Baby. Its Cold Outside and nobody could find it unless I unwatched it too soon.

R135 that resonates!

I just watched Mae's first film off the 9-film Mae West dvd set, Night After Night (1932). She doesn't have the biggest part, but, boy, she makes the whole movie. Right here you can see she was never meant to be your typical glamour queen. Her "fuck you" attitude resonates with me. She's very plump and her breasts are practically falling out of her dress. This film must be pre-code.

Oh, and George Raft has a nude scene.

He sure does! He was said to be enormously gifted. He also gave Bankhead a case of the clap that almost killed her.

Here's her first appearance on film in Night After Night

R161 Brillant. One of the best screen debuts ever. She’s magnetic.

"Goodness, what beautiful diamonds."

"Goodness had nothing to do with it dearie."

When he was first conceiving the (ultimately abandoned) movie version of Chicago in 1976-77, Bob Fosse wanted Mae for Mama Morton. He also wanted Liza for Velma, Goldie Hawn for Roxie and Frank Sinatra for Billy Flynn

Interesting what could have been...

Even into the 1980s people were assuming there would be a film of Chicago with Goldie and Liza, long after Fosse had departed the project. The financing never came together.

Rob Marshall did a flawless job.

R142 Joan's been in two crows crashed into a whitewashed wall territory herself now for quite a while. Meanwhile, lots of nerdy detail on Mae's demise at the link, including a photo of her in her coffin, for those of a sepulchral disposition.

She was so far ahead of her time.

Joan Rivers in “Still Talking”, says that she had Mae over for dinner a few time. Even Thanksgiving if I’m not mistaken, it’s been years since I read the book. Joan was a big fan and admired Mae’s talent and business savvy but thought it was sad that Mae outlived her popularity. Joan also was one of the few Hollywood people to go to Mae’s funeral.

I wish I had known she was listed in the phone book when she was still alive. I definitely would have called her.

If you follow Alison Martino on Instagram, she's friends with the couple that bought her place. There are some great pictures.

Thanks r171. I follow Alison but somehow missed those posts.

It seems all the greatest female sex symbols were NOT threatened by other females, even attractive ones. An also-ran might have cut down the coat check girl at R161, but almost all of West's relationships with other women, especially her maids, who were like sisters to her, were full of respect.

It was men who were to be defeated, not other women.

I don't understand the person above saying that Mae was behind the times. How could that be? Even today, her sex jokes come across as incredibly witty rather than just vulgar. It's true her career depended on censorship, but even she knew that. Regarding censorship, she said "I made a career out of it." Entertainers make due with the times they live in.

R174, Mae was on the cutting edge of passe. She was just very lucky that she got in films during that very narrow widow between talkies and the Hayes code. Silent film could never really represent what was happening on stage because it was silent.

You still don't make any sense, R175.

Mae's entrance in Night After Night really was one of the greatest debuts in film history. She lit up the screen.

R176, OK let me spell it out for you. On stage, Mae West's act was beginning to be passe. That is one of the reasons for her pushing-the-envelope plays was that her usual act was already stale. Shock value was basically all she had to offer. Her plays, by the way, are not nearly as witty as her film lines.

She was lucky to get into film during the narrow window between sound and the Hayes Code. Obviously, her verbally based routine would not work in silent film. Her risque dialogue was not permitted after the Hayes Code. She had a very short window (2 years) to make her mark.

What she did on screen seemed fresh because it could not have been done on film pre-takies, in spite of the fact that her kind of act was 20 years old on stage and pretty old-fashioned by 1930.

"Old-fashioned" by 1930. So why did she become a huge sensation and is still regarded as one of the greatest movie stars of all time?

Same reason that Tyler Perry's Madea and Mrs. Brown's Boys are popular. They are both pretty much tired old shit, but their is an audience for it.

Mae West was not tired in the 30s. She was innovative and a real pioneer. Nobody was doing what she was doing.

Her final film in its entirety.

R147 nevertheless, Marilyn remains iconic and recognizable to this day. Not everyone is going to know her life story or her filmography, but they do know her name and /or image. I was watching an old clip from the early 1900s of a NYC street. One young couple walked by and the woman's long skirt blew up when she walked over the grating. Many commenters referred to it as a "Marilyn Monroe moment."

R181, you can keep pluck'n that chicken all you want, but Bert Savoy, Julian Eltinge, Sophie Tucker and others had been doing that schtick for years.

It is like people who blather on about the 1939 Wizard of OZ while being completely ignorant that most of it was borrowed from the numerous earlier films and get testy when anyone points out that the material did have a life prior to 1939.

[quote]It is like people who blather on about the 1939 Wizard of OZ while being completely ignorant that most of it was borrowed from the numerous earlier films and get testy when anyone points out that the material did have a life prior to 1939.

How do you mean?

He's just a contrarian, R185.

Her act was apparently so passe that Hollywood offered her a contract.

Selling real estate and not knowing anything about the building and the apartment you're trying to peddle.

When Mae moved to Ravenswood, she took umbrage when the doorman refused to allow her African American friends (and lovers) access to her apartment. So she purchased the building, fired the doorman and changed the rules. She was something else.

[quote]It seems all the greatest female sex symbols were NOT threatened by other females, even attractive ones.

Mae stole one of Raquel Welch's costumes and destroyed it while they were filming Myra Breckenridge.

[quote]OK let me spell it out for you. On stage, Mae West's act was beginning to be passe. That is one of the reasons for her pushing-the-envelope plays was that her usual act was already stale. Shock value was basically all she had to offer.

So, she was old-hat because she shocked people?

God, you're a fucking idiot.

I had no idea she wrote so many books. Anyone have a recommendation?

Jesus, I am not the one responding to you, but let me see if I can get you to understand R190. What he is telling you is that the stage was much more open and honest in dialogue about sex. When Mae was over in Hollywood and couldnt get a film, sje was also old hat in theatre because having to talk about sex in double entrende was OVER and not necessary. The stage has always been more open about sex and homosexuality. That is why they had to change the storylines of plays and books for films during that time. The stage progressed much faster than film.

R192 film was also hindered by the ridiculous Hays Code. Those Pre-Code films prior to 1934 are rather risque with pushing the envelope. Who knows how film would've progressed otherwise. It wasn't until the late 1960s that films were freed from their restraints and became more daring.

Of course, nowadays we've entered a new era where film is once again being neutered. Only this time the censorship is coming from the left.

Mae had one of her hunky male assistants give her an enema every morning. She said enemas, warm baby oil on her face as a moisturizer, and never drinking or smoking was why her skin looked so good. Even in her elderly years, people who met Mae would remark on how good her skin looked.

R194 She also balmed her udders on a daily basis.

[quote] Shock value was basically all she had to offer.

Sounds like someone we know. I nominate Madonna to play Mae West.

This is Ann Jillian as Mae West....this is early in her career....remember the times...let alone its a WOMAN being risque. Aside from that, if this is any indication of how West performed (its a biopic). she must have been something to see on stage.

.....

Ann Jillian does not make a good Mae West.

There had been rumors circulating around the time of her death that she requested her body be embalmed and put on display at a museum in New York - complete with recordings that (allegedly) she herself made shortly before her death of many of her famous one-liners which were to be heard at the press of a button while viewing the display. I guess that would have been one way to keep her memory alive.

Creepy, too, considering how well-preserved she looks in this actual death photo.

Her skin looks great here.

R193 someone might have mentioned this, but West's bawdiness contributed to the enforcing of the Code in 1934. Bluenoses got all knicker-twisted. But she had also saved Paramount.

R197, I recall being very impressed with Jillian in that part, but it's a long time ago...

R200 that gives a whole new meaning to "Come up and see me sometime."

A friend gave me this book which I ended up selling on eBay. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to read it.

She must have written it in play form as well.

I read Sex, Health and ESP. it was pretty interesting, part autobiography, part self help/advice book.

She talks about: growing up and how she always preferred hanging out with boys because they'll do things for you.

She didn't date married men. I paraphrase the lines from one of her films Girl: Any advice on how to get a husband Mae: Leave the husbands alone, there are plenty of single ones.

She didn't smoke, drink or do drugs. Was kind of conservative about it. I don't remember any diet advice.

She recommend that if your husband doesn't satisfy you get a dildo/vibrator. Pretty daring advice since this book was so old.

She said that women should never compare themselves to models because that is their job and they have the job because of their body type. She recommends finding a look that suits your body type best. She explains that the Gay 90's look wasn't really in style but it fit her figure so she went with it.

She also discusses how the trend for thin models came to be. She said that after WWI all the women in Paris were very thin and since Paris sets the fashions that's how it came about. Not sure if it's true just relating what she said and she lived through it.

Can't remember much about the ESP part but she did talk about laying in bed naked to get inspiration.

She did mention daily enemas. But it was in a very obscure kind of way that I had to read it a couple of times to figure out that's what she meant.

She mentions getting arrested and how it pissed her off that Basil Rathbone was in the play or something like that but didn't go to jail. (Although that might have been in her autobiography and not this book)

I wish I could remember more but those are the highlights that stood out for me.

"I was walking through a field, and a bull started chasing me. I was tired, so I ran."

"...she did talk about laying in bed naked..."

Whom was she laying?

Where can I get the sordid details about the Mae-Micky-Jayne drama?