Original subtitles

I'm Loretta Swit tonight on intimate

portrait Mae West

goodness goodness I happened to do with

a giri in her long show business career

of almost 80 years Mae West burst more

bubbles of sexual and social pretensions

than any other entertainer

she won fame and fortune at one time she

had the highest reported income of any

woman in America and her West isms were

quoted everywhere

she was the 20th century's icon of sex

one of the first truly emancipated women

[Applause]

[Music]

maiya was born in Brooklyn New York on

August 17th 1892 or 93 or maybe 1900 or

possibly 1888 most have settled for 1893

records of vital statistics were not

well kept and the true birth date will

remain a mystery or she was a legend and

legends are not born they're made

May's mother Mathilde named her Mary

Jane but it was soon changed to may

spelled with an E because as may

explained the why went down and an E

went up and Mae knew she was going her

father John West ran a livery stable

with horse-drawn carriages for rent he

was known as battling Jack because he

had once been a prizefighter

he took baby Mae to the gym on many

occasions perhaps it was there that her

taste for matilda affectionately known

as Tilly quickly pulled her baby away

from the gin and pushed her into amateur

nights at the local theaters she thought

Mae was very special and made for the

line

mom would work behind the scenes the

year was nineteen oh one I believe she

was seven years old she had entered a

contest in Brooklyn and she had to sing

a song they gave her the words to sing

and unbeknownst to anybody else she

rewrote the words and wrote extra words

for herself she did the number and she

won a prize

continuing to win amateur nights led to

our entrance with moms pushing and

blessings into vaudeville she was only

eight years old

Mae worked hard to perfect her craft she

later said my education was the theater

the only time she spent away from the

stage was between the ages of 12 and 14

the awkward years she got to know her

sister Beverly and her brother John she

later said these were happy times and

her only remembrance of early family

life in 1908 it was back to vaudeville

and playing the circuit this meant long

periods of time on the road the road was

lonely and dangerous for a single girl

so when she was 17 the show was in

Milwaukee and she secretly married a

cast member by the name of Frank Wallace

he was a hoofer in one of the Shubert

shows and she said she married him for

protection that she felt at least now

she was a married woman but Mae didn't

have time for love and domestic bliss

I believe Mays love affair was really

with herself in the end because it was

herself the only one she really knew the

only one she could really trust the one

who really knew the secrets that may I

don't think I really enjoyed imparting

to any other people including those who

considered her they're very dear close

wonderful friend may appeared in a Ned

way burned vaudeville revue called

a la Broadway she continued to learn and

grow and searched for the

characterization that would be forever

Mae West

broadville required performers magnetic

enough to dominate an enclosed area on

the stage

and with the specialness of their

personalities hold the attention of the

audience until the finale of their act

may constantly worked toward that end

may receive good reviews for her work in

a la Broadway but she had not yet found

the indelible image she sought it took

Mae West about 30 years to create the

image that would sustain her throughout

her very long career which was nearly 80

years and her long life she once said to

me should when your parents put you on a

stage in your five you'll learn to take

care of yourself

and take care of herself she did on

November the 20th 1911 she finally

opened on Broadway for the world-famous

Schubert Brothers in a Romberg operetta

there are Violetta starring Al Jolson

then it was back to vaudeville

unlike burlesque vaudeville was not

looked down on and for survival

performers often played on the circuit

as well as on Broadway she teamed up

with two young men Bobby O'Neil and

Harry Laughlin they played the circuit

as Mae West and the Gregory Brothers she

almost caused a riot in New Haven by

driving the students from Yale in the

audience to Stampede when she did her

wriggle she twisted her body with

sinuous writhing motions and the

Bluenose censors were up in arms the

cautious theater owner played it safe

and fired the act the newspapers said

that her wriggles cost her her job in

spite of this Mae was pleased the

audience reaction had excited her she

knew she was on the right path to future

stardom it was only a matter of time and

an unswerving attention to the creation

of what would become Mae West

[Music]

[Music]

her search for image and success in the

quirky arena called show business led me

to write her own sketches for the act

she would constantly shape the material

to serve her own purposes she admitted

that her ego was grand but it was

bringing in 350 dollars a week for the

act a lot of money at that time Flo

Ziegfeld who would gain Fame for his

Follies produced a comedy the winsome

widow in 1912 in which may appeared when

she was just 19 years old then she set

out with a solo act on the Keith

vaudeville circuit billed as the

original brinkley girl the act was

provocative to say the least

that's earlier stages according to all

records and people I've known like

George Peter actually saw this stuff it

it was pretty raw you know it was pretty

raunchy for that era 1914 began her

lifelong association with her mother's

lawyer James Timoney who gave up his law

practice to manage May's career there

are stories of a quick romance and after

that a lot of jealousies on the part of

Timoney but he managed Mae until the day

he died and kept her focused on her

career may introduce the shimmy dance to

Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in the

musical sometime she based the dance on

her observations of dancers she had seen

in a lowdown jazz club called elite

number one on Chicago's South Side

there was little movement of the feet

just shaking of the torso breasts and

it translated to the audience in a

rather amazing way when they did it they

stomp their feet and whistled and the

critics approved and Mae approved of the

audience's reaction and continued to

give them what they wanted in 1921 she

was Cleopatra in a play called mimic

world and dazzled the eyes of boxer Jack

Dempsey he asked her to make a screen

test for his film called daredevil Jack

but the picture was never made

Hollywood was still a long way down the

road for me

venturing into the male-dominated area

of the playwright Mae began to write her

first play under the name of Jane mast

it would deal with a prostitute with a

heart of gold

Margie lamont she thought about what the

play should be called settled on a

working title

the Albatross when she completed the

manuscript she read it to her mother and

her manager James Timoney who decided

they should produce the play themselves

of course Mae would star

the money was raised and may hire the

director mr. Edward Elsner who

encouraged her not to act that herself

mocking sexuality acquired from

vaudeville was all she needed to bring

margie to life Mae decided that the

title the albatross was too heavy she

informed Elsner the play would have a

one word title sex

he said if only we would dare use that

word and dare they did sex opened on

Broadway at the Daily Theatre in April

of 1926 and it was shocking the word was

unheard of to be put up in print and

when she wanted sex put on top of the

theater and lights they would not do it

but the play had great publicity great

notoriety and the only part of sex that

really related to sex was the curtain in

Act one she's covered with a blanket and

the leading man jumped on top of her

curtain came down and she was arrested

she ended up spending I think ten days

in jail welfare island or something and

she always had dinner with the warden

though and she also said she got to wear

her own underwear

in addition to the jail sentence she was

fined $500 for corrupting the morals of

youth this charge would be leveled at

her time after time during her long

career but his may said she who laughs

lasts and may was laughing she had

received a million dollars worth of free

publicity for her play she was the talk

of the town a personality to reckon with

a legend in the making may began to cut

records on the famous Brunswick label

she sang purred low down honky-tonk

songs and her sensual styling woven to

the jazz accompaniment in a way that

said she had lived what she sang in 1928

Mae finished writing the play with which

she would become forever synonymous

diamond will diamond lil was set in the

gay 90's in a dancehall

in the Bowery gangsters and regulars

mixed together in the opulent setting

Lille was the super businesswoman and

was at the top again she had a heart of

gold and brilliant diamonds given to her

by her many admirers may surround it

herself with men on stage and a West

produced herself she was very witty as a

human being she was also very kind but

she didn't necessarily like women she

much preferred being with men in diamond

lil she sang the rather suggestive song

Frankie and Johnny and spoke the line

that would become identified with her

further the search for the elusive image

was over Donald lil was the culmination

of all the characteristics that may had

found in nearly 30 years of vaudeville

when she came across the material that

became the basis for diamond lil this is

where she got her frame work everything

came together and she was 35 by that

time she had developed this wonderful

way of quips

and spontaneous lines and by putting it

in an 1890s framework this gave her some

distance and the whole aiming started to

come together and this was where she had

her really great big success of people

took her seriously as she always said

she said I'm not a sex symbol I'm a sex

personality which I thought was a very

astute distinction

and this is where the beginning of the

Mae West image emerged diamond lil

opened on Broadway at the Royal Theatre

on April 9th 1928 and ran for 176

performances and then went on a highly

successful tour successful revivals

would follow for over the next 30 years

in her autobiography goodness had

nothing to do with it

Mae wrote diamond lil I'm her and she's

me and were each other she added lil and

I in my various characterizations

climbed the ladder of success wrong by

wrong in 1930 came up low that staggered

Mae and closed diamond lil in Los

Angeles her beloved mother Tilly became

ill may cancel the tour and rushed home

to be with her but she died Mae said of

this experience her death was the

greatest shock and deepest sorrow of my

life

father and another man had to hold me as

I howled for self-destruction finally

she returned to work in a place she had

written based on her own novel babe

gordon retitled the constant sinner

again may played a prostitute with a

heart of gold it would be May's final

Broadway show for many years talking

pictures had arrived the concept of

filmmaking was turned upside down

no more title cards and exaggerated

action the movie moguls wanted actors

and actresses that had voices and maze

certainly had that and a lot of other

things so in 1932 when Paramount

Pictures Cole

Mae said should think about it this is

one thing to be a stage star even tour

all the key cities of America but it's

another thing when you have the

tremendous access of the silver screen

and neighborhood theaters and movie

palaces all over the country all over

the world and this is where I think she

really had her big lasting impact

in June of that year she and her manager

Jim Timoney boarded a train for the West

Coast

it was bye-bye New York City California

here I come

[Music]

[Music]

from the moment the train pulled into

the station may felt as if she had

entered another reality Hollywood in

1932 was not the Hollywood that it is

today it was still a little town in many

ways and the movie industry was just

beginning to turn itself into a colossus

there was sunshine and palm trees there

were beautiful people on the streets and

there were studios in Hollywood where

they actually made motion pictures

paramount was one of them

paramount had secured an apartment for

May that was only a mile from the studio

it was called the Ravenswood Mae

approved it reminded her of New York

little did she know at the time that

this would be her main residence for the

rest of her life some in Hollywood were

intrigued with Mae but others like

gossip columnist Louella Parsons were

skeptical she wanted to take the big

Broadway star down a notch or two when

she first came to Hollywood Louella

Parsons interviewed her and she says

well how do you think the theater

audience is going to accept you you know

you're a Broadway star and she says well

so that they're paying 40 or 50 dollars

a ticket to see me in the stage I think

they'll pay two bits to see me in the

screen after her first picture

night after night which starred her old

friend from the stage George Raft

audiences gladly shelled out more than

two bits to see me again

[Music]

night after night was a hit

Studio Chief Adolph Zukor said it

brought Paramount back from the brink of

bankruptcy

although may only received fourth

billing in the picture it was clear that

it was her presence that brought an

otherwise dead movie to life she had a

small part in it but she made it the

focus of the picture I believe she had a

scene with a character actress called

Alison Skipworth and a Miss Skipworth

was furious when the scene was over

because she felt that she was left in

the background and it was her scene do

you believe in love everyone agreed Mae

stole the picture George Raft who had

recommended Mae for the part laughed and

said Mae stole everything but the camera

her second picture was based on maze

play diamond lil they had to change the

name because they didn't take diamond

they'll sounded a good

the original working title was ruby red

and then they changed it to she done him

wrong and that's the movie first movie

with Cary Grant

[Music]

she done him wrong was a big success and

may was an even bigger one the public

loved her and so did Maremma she was a

movie star and acted accordingly

[Music]

her talent made her seem ten feet tall

but in reality she was just under five

feet so to be on the safe side she wore

7 inch heels under her long dresses the

last time anyone saw her legs

professionally was when she played a

lion tamer in I'm no angel

I know angel was May's third movie and

Cary Grant was once again her co-star

stories circulated that the two had an

affair if they didn't everyone wanted to

think they did just how main Carey ended

up together in the movies depends upon

who is telling the story she was in the

car going I believe to her set when she

said stop the cop and she was looking

through the window and she said who's

that now that's a good-looking guy

that's the guy I want for my picture my

next picture and that's how Cary Grant's

career was born the night of the big

Hollywood premiere for I'm no angel in

1934 at Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater

was a gala affair all the stars came out

the brightest being made

I'm no angel boss I didn't call the lab

no angel for nothing

May was a good businesswoman she made

personal appearances at movie houses

throughout the country plugged her

movies and the box office receipts

soared as the box office revenue on her

pictures climbed so did Mays personal

finances

she had renegotiated her contract with

Paramount for 300,000 a picture a share

of the profits and an additional

$100,000 for her writing services by

1935 she had the highest reported income

of any woman in America and they did not

squander her money

[Music]

she was very good with finance

she was very good with investing her

money she knew to the dime practically

every penny she had where it was etc she

knew a lot of things that most men

really controlled but she controlled it

for herself and built herself a vast

real-estate empire that provided her

with a great deal of money to the very

end

she never really had to worry about

finances

she had large parcels of land in the San

Fernando Valley and a ranch there where

her sister Beverly lived she had a beach

house in Santa Monica where she often

entertained but her real home remained

her beloved Ravenswood apartment Mae

thought it was cozy it's a small

apartment in or two bedrooms and of

course her famous boudoir with the the

mirrored over the ceiling at all it was

all ultra ultra LOUIE LOUIE she had baby

grand piano which had sort of like

fraggin or or Bouchet a kind of

paintings on the side the room was very

elegant it was an it was everything was

white on white and it was but it was

actually sort of cream I was very

flattered all the lighting everything

was very flattering but it was a perfect

setting for her you know but it was but

it was comfortable you sat down on the

couch and it was comfortable as to her

love life Mae kept everyone guessing she

led people to believe that she had an

infinite capacity for men on screen and

off the writer F scott Fitzgerald said

in a world of Garbo's Barrymore's

Harlow's Valentino's and Clara bows Mae

West is the only type with an ironic

edge a comic spark that takes on a more

cosmopolitan case of life's enjoyments

this enjoyment of life that may shared

with her audiences put her into the

forefront of sexual emancipation for

women named West is very honest about

that that a woman can have the same

sexual appetites as a man as far they're

just perfectly natural and that she

could even be the aggressor in the

situation and she can have a romance

with somebody outside of wedlock and not

be damned perdition for it

all this was really quite daring in

popular entertainment Ruby I must have

you your golden hair your fascinating

eyes your luring smile and lovely arms

of your form divine wait a minute what

is this a proposal he had taken

inventory her provocative but often

subtle manner of presentation drove the

self-appointed censors and religious

zealots into a frenzy it wasn't so much

what she said but rather how she said it

May was 42 years old worldly seductive

and desirable

she struck a responsive chord with the

public audiences loved her for telling

it like it is the Hollywood censors

reigning supreme at the production code

offices didn't they stood poised with

their scissors waiting to cut Mays next

even vaguely suggestive scene

[Music]

[Music]

may would make four more pictures for

paramount go into town Klondike Annie go

west young man and everyday is the

holiday all between the years of 1935

and 1938 she became one of the

best-known women in the world her movies

had enormous influence on society women

sat up and took notice so did the senses

it seems to me that every 10 20 years

somebody comes along from Washington who

says Americans should not be doing this

we need greater morality May believed in

freedom of everything she never liked

censorship she would never believe in

censorship they thought that whatever

she did on stage the material she wrote

her Hollywood productions that there was

never anything really bad in 1937 May

appeared on the chase and Sanborn radio

show with Edgar Bergen and Charlie

McCarthy

she played Eve to don amici's adam time

I told you a thing it soon ever since

creation I've done nothing but playing

double solitaire

thus customers shut me down well we've

got a nice place here that's too much

well I'm not complaining but I want

something that happened a little

excitement a little adventure the girls

that I have a little fun once in a while

there's no future mother a fig tree for

this remark the network executives

banned me from radio and will haze czar

of motion picture censors told

Washington that Hollywood would police

themselves and they were as zealous

especially with maze scripts

every day's a holiday released in 1938

was the first picture to lose money for

Parramatta the censors had their way May

tried to please them she cut or changed

scene after scene and the film failed

she left paramount and ultimately agreed

to make a picture for Universal what

emerged in 1940 was the great classic my

little chickadee which United May and WC

Fields in a spoof of the Western film

would you mind if I avail myself the

second helping compromising me she

didn't want any of the leading men to

kiss her she really wanted to feel that

she had the freedom of a woman not being

possessed by any one person May's desire

for freedom found her moving from one

affair to the next apart from show

business her reason for being was a

secret she did not share with her public

she became interested in ESP and psychic

phenomenon she would often hold evenings

of psychic readings for friends in the

reception room of the Ravenswood

perhaps she was looking for something

beyond the footlights and her interest

in psychics and the world beyond really

became a whole world for herself I am

positive that there was this other side

of me may the little girl may the

private private person that probably no

one ever saw when somebody gave her a

good reading on a number of occasions I

saw a very happy smiling face so it was

something that somebody said that

obviously gave her a moment of joy

beyond that which she attained listening

to the clapping of an audience what was

to be May's final picture for many years

was released in 1943 the Heat's on for

Columbia Pictures was a musical

extravaganza of sorts which presented

May with a new contemporary look the

picture died at the box office her

career was her life and her one true

love and when her movie career slowed

she returned to Broadway with her famous

creation diamond lil she got the very

bright natural idea of reviving diamond

lil in the late 40s and that was a big

critical and commercial tryouts she took

it to London she toured all over the

country this is the beginning where

people realized that this is a great

American institution here on February

5th 1949 diamond lil opened at the

Coronet Theatre in New York she took it

on tour until November of 1951 she

returned to radio after an absence of 13

years as a guest on Perry Como's

Chesterfield supper club this time the

Bluenose censors didn't interfere the

sketch comeö and juliet was a

[Music]

wherefore art thou

down here in yonder orchard below your

balcony why don't you come up

in 1954 amazed dear friend and longtime

manager James Timoney died he had been

with her for 38 years her link to the

past

her early days in vaudeville she would

miss him tremendously but life went on

[Music]

the same year May pioneered a nightclub

act that would turn the tables on the

traditional Vegas Villa fare she

surrounded herself with mr. America

types and invited the women in the

audience to AH deled the boys the way

men had traditionally boggled the girls

with the nightclub act because she

thought you know if I just have myself

the women our income and so she said

I've got to have something in that show

that that's gonna bring the women in and

that's when she said I'll have men you

know muscle man and it's why she did and

she's probably the first one ever do

that may and her Adonis's set box-office

records in Las Vegas it was 1954 she was

almost 61 years old and still packing

them in once again she was on the top

[Music]

[Music]

you have a wonderful future I see a man

in your life what only one may like

muscle men just unique different big

guys and she loved to be around handsome

pupils and one day I did ask her I said

did you ever have an affair with all of

these men that you've met and she gave

me one of those looks and she said there

was some things girl you'll never ask a

lady of balance part of the Mae West

myth was built around the number of men

in her life early in the century Frank

Wallace had married her but that didn't

last she was close with gangster Owney

Madden owner of the famous Harlem cotton

club at the Cotton Club may met

orchestra leader Duke Ellington and

would later cross sensitive color lines

when she put him in her movie Belle of

the 90s like all of the men in her life

just how close Mae was with Gangster

Madden is a mystery I can hear mace say

when she spoke of owning she said oh so

always with the parole so vicious so

sweet and she was very impressed for the

fascism

you know he took about 26 sluts and

lived to tell the story and she said

every couple of months aids have to go

the hospital I'd dig another bullet out

of him the final man in her life was

Paul Novak who had worked in her act in

Las Vegas he lived with her at the

Ravenswood and would be there for me

until the end

for all the years that I knew made

personally the man in her life was Paul

Novak and I never met anybody who was

ever so kind so gracious so good who

loved this woman more than life itself

he adored her everything was done in the

name of Mae West everything he had her

on a pedestal that was so high I mean

and he enjoyed her being there and

needless to say she enjoyed being there

too in 1959 Mae's autobiography goodness

had nothing to do with it was published

to great success one tends to forget

that Mae was an accomplished writer in

that same year Mae appeared with Charles

Collingswood on TVs highly rated

primetime show person-to-person its

specialty was visiting celebrities in

their homes and conducting interviews as

the camera followed Mae pointed out

various things in her apartment for

Charles when asked about the mirrors

over her fabled canopy bed she said I

like to see how I'm doing the show never

aired now in her 70s Mae kept busy with

a variety of activities she appeared on

the red skeleton and the mr. edge

television shows she continued to write

and still enjoyed a night on the town

and then it happened after being away

from films for over 27 years at the age

of 77 she was asked to play the part of

big-time casting director

Leticia Van Allen in the film version of

the gore Vidal book Myra Breckinridge

may had a lavish production number and

received three hundred and fifty

thousand dollars for her appearance she

also got to act with the then reigning

sex symbol Raquel Welch I mean have you

any that I don't know about what about

stunts they don't call you the queen of

the casting couch for nothing

Raquel Welch and may certainly did not

get on and that to me was to be expected

I mean when you know that may doesn't

enjoy being in competition with other

women it would be very difficult for her

to be in a movie with the so-called sex

symbol of the 70s when she still

considered her to be the sex symbol of

life Myra Breckinridge was a colossal

failure but May received good notices

many thought she was dead and were

surprised at her vitality May was 77

years old and she wasn't even thinking

about retirement

[Music]

her final years were filled with honors

she was named the sweetheart of Sigma

Chi at USC the maskers club saluted her

in Hollywood and there was one film left

for her to do sextet based on her play

of the same name

in sextet Timothy Dalton was her leading

man George Hamilton was guest Ringo

Starr George Raft made a cameo

appearance which you know that was his

last film in her last film sextet

premiered in Hollywood on March 2nd 1978

may knew the film was less than perfect

we got back it's the limousine after the

opening I was looking out of my window

on the left she was looking out of the

window on her right

suddenly she put her hand on mine and I

did turn to her and she said Herbert

that was yesterday

now I must think about tomorrow May

suffered a stroke on August 10th 1980

and died on November the 22nd that her

beloved Ravenswood apartment in

Hollywood she was 87 years young to me

Mae West is unique an American show

business I think it could be arguable

that there have been as great or even

greater stars but I truly believe that

no star had greater impact in the long

run than Mae West Mae West was a

one-woman sexual revolution

but legacy is that she was a true

original that when history is written

she'll go down as being a true

Emancipator for women and that till the

end of time people will always remember

some of those West witticisms her career

had spanned an amazing 80 years from a

confident little girl on amateur nights

to one of the most famous and polished

women performers in the world Mae West

was perhaps the greatest sexual icon of

the 20th century

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]