Mae West (1893-1980) was an American actor, writer and singer.  A popular vaudeville performer and a top Hollywood star at Paramount Studios, she developed a comic persona, employing sexual double entendres.  Her films included She Done Him Wrong, I’m No Angel and My Little Chickadee.  She also wrote several plays, including Sex, The Drag and The Wicked Man, exploring sex work and homosexuality, among other topics.  (She was arrested for staging Sex).  Greatly influenced by female impersonators and by black performers, she supported gay and lesbians and African-Americans her whole life.  Censorship in Hollywood movies eventually destroyed her film career.  West turned back to the stage and to radio and clubs and later made rock and roll recordings.  In her older years she appeared in the films Myra Breckinridge and Sextette.  The American Film Institute ranked her 15^th among the greatest female screen legends.  She was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and became a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Mae West was a pioneer of erotica, using humor.  She was a remarkable artist, who was always in charge of her own career.

A quote:

“Good girls go to heaven, but bad girls get to go everywhere.”

S. Gray

December 2025