Mae West arrested...
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* Actress Mae West moral obscenities
* Starts jail sentence
This 34 page newspaper has a one column headlines on page 2: "MAE WEST STARTS ON JAIL TERM" and "Found Prison Inmates 'Very Interesting' On First Night".
wikipedia notes: West began performing in vaudeville in 1905 at the age of twelve. She performed at that time under the name The Baby Vamp. Though she had not yet matured, the slinky, dark-haired Mae was already performing a lascivious "shimmy" dance in 1913 and was photographed for a song-sheet for the song "Everybody Shimmies Now." She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that whatever her daughter did was fantastic.
Her famous walk was said to have originated in her early years as a stage actress. West had special eight-inch platforms attached to her shoes to increase her height and enhance her stage presence.
Eventually, she began writing her own risqu plays using the pen name "Jane Mast." Her first starring role on Broadway was in a play she titled Sex, which she also wrote, produced and directed. Though critics hated the show, ticket sales were good. The notorious production did not go over well with city officials and the theatre was raided with West arrested along with the cast.
She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to 10 days in jail for publicobscenity. While incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, she was allowed to wear her silk panties instead of the scratchy prison issue and the warden reportedly took her to dinner every night. She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention to the case enhanced her career.
Her next play, The Drag, was about homosexuality and alluded to the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. It was a box office success but it played in New Jersey because it was banned from Broadway. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue and was also an early advocate of gay and transgender rights. She famously told policemen who were raiding a gay bar, "Don't you know you're hitting a woman in a man's body?", a daring statement at a time when homosexuality was not accepted.
She continued to write plays including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions were plagued by controversy and other problems. If they did not get shut down for indecency, they closed because of slow ticket sales.
"Diamond Lil" returning to New York from Hollywood, 1933
"Diamond Lil" returning to New York from Hollywood, 1933
Her next play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit in 1928. This show enjoyed an enduring popularity and West would successfully revive it many times throughout the course of her career.
Category: The 20th Century
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