Goodness Had Nothing to do with it: The Scandalous Life of Mae West
“Come up and see sometime!” “I used to be Snow White… but I drifted.” “Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” “When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.” These are just a few of the gems that Mae West, sex goddess and comedienne, was responsible for during her long career in vaudeville, theater, movies and Las Vegas. A playwright as well as an actress, Mae West scandalized theater goers with her 1926 play simply entitled Sex, starting off a long battle against censorship that lasted her whole career. She was a feminist icon who showed the world that sex was a natural thing and not something dirty to be hidden. Her costumes and look have been duplicated by drag queens the world over. Mae West entered the world as Mary Ann West on August 17th 1893 in Brooklyn, New York when it was still a separate city. Her father had been a prizefighter known as ‘Battlin’ Jack West’ before settling down to various careers including owning a detective agency a...