Mae West! - Sex~Kitten.net

Mae West!

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Sex-Kitten Salutes Mae West!

The original sex-kitten, Mae West, was not just a screen legend, but a sex legend as well. West not only broke barriers onscreen with her bawdy sexuality and salacious one-liners, but also was involved in the writing production, and direction of most of her films and plays. A true feminist icon, West was once the highest paid woman in the US and is featured in sex museums in New York and Amsterdam. Not bad for a girl from Brooklyn!

Born Mary Jane West on August 17, 1893 (same birthdate as Madonna), West began performing in vaudeville at the age of five. At the age of 14, West already had earned the title of “Baby Vamp” for her stage performances and later moved on to writing her own plays. One of her earliest stage plays, entitled SEX, landed her in jail on obscenity charges in 1926. She later had a Broadway success with DIAMOND LIL, which was made into the movie SHE DONE HIM WRONG, a best picture Oscar nominee.

West’s impeccable sense of style and comic wit became such a huge success with moviegoers in the 1930’s and her films broke box-office records, even at the height of the Great Depression. Her highly sexualized behavior in the films SHE DONE HIM WRONG and I’M NO ANGEL (both films also launched the career of Cary Grant) launched the Motion Picture Production Code which put regulations on what could be said in films. West found a way around the censors by using “double talk” so her lines could be interpreted any way the viewer wished, but everybody knew what she really meant. In fact, one of West’s most famous quotes was “I believe in censorship. After all I have made a fortune out of it.” Even today, her films seem way ahead of their time in the way women’s sexuality is portrayed. There is no actress even today that matches her boldness and frank sexuality towards men.

The Legendary Ms West

Unbelievably, West only made 12 films in all including NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (1932), BELLE OF THE NINETIES (1934), KLONDIKE ANNIE (1936), GO WEST YOUNG MAN (1936), EVERY DAY’S A HOLIDAY (1937), MY LITTLE CHICKADEE (1940), THE HEAT’S ON (1943), MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (1970), and SEXTETTE (1978). By 1936, she was the highest paid actress in Hollywood and a screen legend, but retired from the screen after 1943’s THE HEAT’S ON because of pressure from the censors. She wrote her biography “Goodness had nothing to do with it” in 1959 and made her screen comeback in 1970’s gender-bender MYRA BRECKINRIDGE. Her final film SEXTETTE was released in 1978 when she was 85 years old but received poor reviews mainly due to West’s ill health while filming. She died on November 22, 1980 after suffering a series of strokes.

Because of her “Ultimate Drag Queen” look and curvy figure, there have been rumors that West was actually a man, but there were proven to be untrue. After all, many people had never heard a woman talk the way she did before or use her sexuality in such a forward manner. She was often the pursuer, not the pursued, and was just as quick to pass judgments on men as she was to jump into bed with them. Her status as a cultural icon remains today and her style, wit, and attitude remain unmatched by anyone since her time.

She is often remembered for her famous movie quotations, all of which she wrote herself. Here’s a sampling of my favorites-

“I’m no angel, but I’ve spread my wings a bit.”

“It is better to be looked over than overlooked.”

“I’m a woman of very few words, but lots of action.”

“Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.”

“Give a man a free hand and he’ll try to put it all over you.”

“It ain’t no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just as long as you don’t break any.”

“Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can’t figure out what from.”

“Men are all alike-except the one you’ve met who’s different.”

“It’s easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.”

“The best way to behave is to misbehave.”

“I’m single because I was born that way.”