#maewest

MAE WEST

17 August 1893 – 22 November 1980

            Mae West was an actress who had worked on both stage and screen, and was also a writer. She is best known for her blonde hair, witty one-liners and appearing in risqué films during the 1930s.

            West was born in Brooklyn, US, the daughter of a boxer and a fashion model. She was of German, Irish, English and Scottish descent. She started performing in burlesque as a teenager and made her debut in 1911 on Broadway.

            West was married in 1911 to Frank Wallace (Szatkus), the couple divorced in 1943, after only living together for several weeks. She also had a relationship with her manager James Timothy who died in 1954 and the African American boxer William Jones who was barred from the apartment where she was living. West solved this problem by purchasing the entire building. At the end of her life, she had a relationship with wrestler Chester Rybinski who was 30 years younger than herself, they were together until her death.

            In 1926, West was imprisoned for obscenity due to her show, Sex. She was sentenced to 10 days imprisonment for the play she wrote and starred in. It had been showing for a year and thousands had seen it before the authorities in New York shut it down. Her play The Drag (1927) about homosexuality was banned outright. She said ‘I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.’

            West moved to Hollywood in 1930 and lived in the penthouse at Ravenswood apartment building until her death. Her mother died in 1930 which devastated her, and the rest of her family moved to Hollywood whom she provided for.

            West died in 1980, she had a stroke in August and tripped whilst getting out of bed and was taken to hospital. She died three months later, aged 87. She was entombed in her families mausoleum in Brooklyn.

"I used to put my heart and soul in my dancing, To keep the wolf from my door, But now I'm a lady, Don't have to dance anymore.

I played with handsome men and asked them no questions, I met the best and the worst, But now I'm a lady, I see their pedigrees first.

Let me say there is many a boyfriend, That knew me when, But today there's a guise in the army, Of my forgotten men.

I used to play around without any conscience, I just broke hearts left and right, But now I'm a lady, I plan to be more polite.

Hi-de-ho, baby I'm going places, I've made my plans, hi-de-ho, Love is dealing the aces, I've got my man.