Although many students of our era may not be completely familiar with stage and film icon Mae West, practically everyone has heard a sample of her work without even realizing it. West famously delivered the clever quips like, “Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?” and “When I’m good, I’m very good. When I’m bad, I’m better.”
But in addition to her ability to create lines that are occasionally tweaked and inserted into greeting cards, West also remains an important figure in the history of American cinema for largely demolishing a double standard and challenging popular attitudes about sex. It is for this reason that the UCLA Film and Television Archive will host the event “She Always Knew How: A Celebration of Mae West” tonight at 7 p.m. at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, where West’s favorite costumes will be on display along with film clips and discussions with people who knew her.
The event will celebrate the life and career of West and showcase Charlotte Chandler’s recently published book “She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography,” a biography of West based on a series of interviews conducted in the few months before the actress’s passing.
Chandler’s book offers an inside look into West’s life, starting from her childhood years and working its way up to 1980. A large portion of it is written in West’s own words, which is why Chandler calls the book a “personal” biography. So far, the biography has received positive reviews from the speakers at the event.
Tim Malachosky once worked as West’s personal assistant.
“It is the best (biography) as far as getting an in-depth look at her from (West’s) side,” he said.
The biography takes its name from some of the content of Chandler’s first interview with West. During their greeting, Chandler’s hand managed to get scratched by one of West’s many diamonds. When West inquired as to the whereabouts of Chandler’s diamonds, she was shocked to find out that the interviewer had none. Subsequently, she resolved to show Chandler how to get them by attracting male admirers because she “always knew” how to get what she wanted.
Quite the trailblazer, West did much to combat what film critic Kevin Thomas deemed “Victorian prudery” by placing the topic of sex in the public arena, but not without conflict from critics. She wrote and directed a play entitled “Sex” in 1926, and while the play drew a large public audience, it received poor reviews. According to Thomas, “The critics were savage.” They were appalled by the perceived indecency of the play. West was met with further resistance as the result of censorship laws and she was sentenced to live in a women’s detention center for 10 days, where she carried out her sentence still wearing her silk lingerie. Later, West would write two more plays: “The Drag,” which dealt with issues of homosexuality, and “Diamond Lil,” which she later had remade into a film.
West thought it important sex should be enjoyed as one of life’s pleasures instead of a hushed-up topic, but she also sought to demolish the double standard.
“She had a very strong personality although she spoke softly,” Chandler said. “She had a sweet voice, but she was very strong on women’s rights.”
West often depicted strong female characters that actively pursued men, believing that women should get as much pleasure out of sex as men. West also lamented men’s attitudes toward women and said, “He would want to put a diamond on my finger, and then he’d put an apron around my waist.”
In the early 1930s, West made her way to Hollywood where she became a major star. Many accredit her with single-handedly saving Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy during the Depression. Her first two major films with them were huge box office hits.
“I don’t think there’s anybody today that could break box office records the way she did,” Malachosky said.
What people often forget about Mae West is that she wrote her own lines. When she did not write the script, she would at least write the dialogue because she knew how to sell herself better than anyone else.
Though she was widely recognized as a sex symbol, Thomas said, “She wasn’t like a Marilyn Monroe delivering lines written by someone else. She was the creator of her own image.”
As a writer, West was particularly adept at the use of wordplay. A skilled comedian, she liked to invert or alter familiar sayings to create witticisms like, “One man in the house is worth two in the streets.”
Her workaholic mentality meant that she often jotted down thoughts for dialogue on scraps of paper. Thomas describes her as “quite possibly the most quoted playwright since Shakespeare.”
Unfortunately for West, three films into her Hollywood career, her films became subject to review by the Motion Picture Association of America, an industry organization that filtered out any scenes viewed as inappropriate. West had to become inventive once again with her sexual suggestion, despite the fact that she never included sex scenes and was usually overdressed in her films.
Shannon Kelley, the head of public programs at the Film & Television Archive, said that despite West’s cultural significance, “After a certain amount of time, you don’t get Mae West at full blast.”
Still, West managed to make her mark with her revolutionary image of the modern woman.
“A lot of people I think nowadays recognize this figure if someone is doing the movements or the voice of Mae West,” said Kelley. “It’s familiar to you even though you don’t know what her name is and even if you’ve never seen her face before, because it so permeated the culture.”