Mae started performing at an early age and never looked back. She took advantage of the Roaring Twenties and society’s less constricted view of what a woman was allowed to be. Naturally, she pushed the envelope farther than anyone else by calling the first play she wrote “Sex” and causing a sensation in the leading role. Arrest and conviction on a morals charge didn’t slow her one bit – the publicity was fantastic! – and she followed up with success after success on the Great White Way.
In 1928 her fourth full-length Broadway play, “Diamond Lil” drew rave reviews, lines around the block, and made Mae a full-fledged Broadway star. But Hollywood didn’t roll out the red carpet for Mae as it had for other Broadway sensations. The film companies’ self-regulatory body, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (commonly known as the Hays Office) banned the play as unsuitable for the screen.
Mae West Quotes – I’m A Women of Very Few Words, But Lots of Action #2
Mae started performing at an early age and never looked back. She took advantage of the Roaring Twenties and society’s less constricted view of what a woman was allowed to be. Naturally, she pushed the envelope farther than anyone else by calling the first play she wrote “Sex” and causing a sensation in the leading role. Arrest and conviction on a morals charge didn’t slow her one bit – the publicity was fantastic! – and she followed up with success after success on the Great White Way.
In 1928 her fourth full-length Broadway play, “Diamond Lil” drew rave reviews, lines around the block, and made Mae a full-fledged Broadway star. But Hollywood didn’t roll out the red carpet for Mae as it had for other Broadway sensations. The film companies’ self-regulatory body, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (commonly known as the Hays Office) banned the play as unsuitable for the screen.