WEST, MAE

WEST, MAE (1893–1980), U.S. actress, writer, and singer. Born Mary Jane West in Brooklyn, New York, to John P. West and Matilda Delker-Dolger, a German Jewish model and dressmaker, at seven West was winning talent shows. A year later she joined Hal Claredon's stock company in New York. By 1907, she was a vaudeville performer with Frank Wallace, whom she married in 1911 and separated from a few months later. In September 1911, West appeared on Broadway in A la Broadway and then in Hello, Paris. In 1912, she appeared in A Winsome Widow and developed a solo act later that year. In 1918, she starred in the comedy musical Sometime, followed by the musical revue The Mimic World (1921). In 1926, West wrote and starred in the play Sex, which drew the attention of censorship groups. After more than a year on stage, policed arrested West and the cast of Sex on obscenity charges; West served ten days in jail and paid a $500 fine, becoming a national celebrity. West became a success with such plays as Diamond Lil (1928), which featured the line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"; Pleasure Man (1928); and The Constant Sinner (1931) (the latter two closed over censorship issues). West went to Hollywood in 1931, appearing in the film Night After Night (1932). She went on to write her next eight films, which included She Done Him Wrong (1933), based on Diamond Lil; I'm no Angel (1933), with Cary Grant; Belle of the Nineties (1934); Goin' to Town (1935); Klondike Annie (1936); Go West Young Man (1936); Every Day's a Holiday (1938); and My Little Chickadee (1940), which paired West with W.C. Fields. In 1942, Wallace returned to sue West for divorce and alimony; West made an undisclosed settlement. Her 1943 film The Heat's On did not fare well with critics, and West returned to Broadway with Catherine Was Great (1944). In 1948, West starred in the short-lived Ring Twice Tonight, which was followed with a revival of Diamond Lil (1948–51). West toured with the nightclub act Mae West and Her Adonises from 1954 to 1956, and released several albums of her songs, starting with The Fabulous Mae West (1955). She made an appearance on the television sitcom Mister Ed (1964) and an ill-fated return to the silver screen in the sex-change comedy Myra Breckinridge (1970) and Sextette (1978), an adaptation of her play Sex. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)