She Could Not Be Had

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Mae West was born in 1893 to a prizefighter and a corset model. Her mother wanted her to be in show business and by the time she was eight years old she vaudeville. She experienced the spotlight for the first time on an amateur night. In this prohibition time, she created the scandalous shimmy dance and got reviews saying it was a freak show. "When I am caught between two evils I choose the one I haven't tried." (Her quote) She wrote such plays as "Sex" about an angry prostitute. It got horrible reviews saying it was unvarnished pornography. In May of 1927, she is taken to night court, held over for trial, and convicted of obscenity and for behavior to corrupt youth. She is given 8 days and in that time she becomes friends with the warden and his wife who take her out several times. The entire ordeal gives her a lot of publicity. She goes on to write "Drag" which employed 'queens' and 'fairies' and had a 20-minute parade of them at the end. "When I'm good I'm very good but, when I am bad I am better." (Her quote) At the age of 40 she does her first movie, "Night After Night", she read the script, and seeing that her part was very small she rewrote it. Her co-star, George Raft, said about her: "She came in and stoled everything but the cameras." She was a pioneer for women who dared to be sexy. Confident and driven she was a parity of male sexuality. She was playing men's games their way. She was called into the Paramount movie studio office in the early 30s and asked to sign a contract. She told them she wanted to write her own scripts, create her own costume designs and, get the most money. When asked how much she asked him how much did he make. When he told her she replied she wanted $1 more. And, she got it. In 1935 she was the highest-paid Hollywood star. At one point she had an affair that ended in a pregnancy. She got a botched abortion which left her baron. She died in 1980 at 87. "You only live once but, if you do it right, once is enough." (Her quote)