Mae West: It Ain't No Sin

by Simon Louvish

Overview

Enlightening and exhaustively researched biography that makes use of her recently uncovered personal papers. Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville brat—Mae West remains the twentieth century’s greatest comedienne. She made an everlasting mark in trailblazing Broadway plays such as Sex and The Constant Sinner and in films such as She Done Him Wrong, Klondike Annie, and I’m No Angel. Simon Louvish brings Mae to vibrant life in this unparalleled new biography. He charts her amazing seven decades in show business, from early years in teenage summer stock to her last reincarnation as 1960s gay icon and grande dame of Hollywood survivors. Mae West: It Ain’t No Sin is the first biography to make use of Mae’s recently uncovered personal papers, offering an unprecedented view into the endless creative drive and daring wit of this legendary star.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566560122
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Series:	The Louvish Hollywood Biographies
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Simon Louvish is a biographer of comedians and author of satirical and outrageous fiction. He is a film screenwriter and teaches film at the London Film School. His film biographies include, Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Story of W. C. Fields, Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers, Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy, Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennet, Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art, and Mae West: It Ain't No Sin.

Read an Excerpt

Mae West

It Ain't No Sin

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By Louvish, Simon

Thomas Dunne Books

Copyright © 2006 Louvish, Simon
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0312348789

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Mae West on Mae West
--It's better to be looked over, than overlooked.
--To err is human---but it feels divine.
--When a girl goes wrong, men go right . . . after her.
--It's not the men in my life that counts--- it's the life in my men.
--I used to be Snow White . . .  but I drifted.

Continues...

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Excerpted from Mae West by Louvish, Simon Copyright © 2006 by Louvish, Simon. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Mae West: It Ain't No Sin 7

Prologue 11

Part 1 Rap Rap Rap

Chapter 1 More Sunlight and Less Smoke 21

Chapter 2 Made Ready for the Footlights 27

Chapter 3 In Dahomey 33

Chapter 4 "I Always Wanted Attention…" 43

Chapter 5 There Is Never Enough Hot Water in the Dressing Rooms 53

Chapter 6 Very Violetta, Et Cetera 61

Part 2 The Low-and-Behold Girl

Chapter 7 Looking Pretty and Saying Cute Things 75

Chapter 8 "No Vulgarity Whatsoever!" 83

Chapter 9 Of Jimmy and the Shimmy 91

Chapter 10 "What Do You Have to Do to Get It?" 99

Chapter 11 To a Rag and a Bone and a Hank of Hair… 109

Chapter 12 You've Gotta Have a Certain Something 121

Part 3 Sex, Drag, and Rocky Roads

Chapter 13 Never Has Disgrace Fallen so Heavily… 139

Chapter 14 Tire Scarlet Sisterhood For Life 149

Chapter 15 "Everyone in the Police Force Is Not a Dancer" 159

Chapter 16 The Wicked Age 167

Chapter 17 I Want to Be Bad! 177

Chapter 18 Miss Don't Give a Damn 191

Chapter 19 The Constant Sinner 203

Chapter 20 Song's Words Don't Offend, but Tune Does 213

Part 4 Belle of the Thirties

Chapter 21 Being Bad in a Nice Town 227

Chapter 22 Coming Soon: The Street of Scarlet Memories… 241

Chapter 23 "If He Swallows It, I'll Buy It"-The Legend Begins 249

Chapter 24 "Beulah-Peel Me a Grape!" 259

Chapter 25 A Diversion-The Secret Life of Mae West 275

Chapter 26 The Devil's Daughter 285

Chapter 27 A Member in Good Standing 303

Chapter 28 Revenge of the Song-and-Dance Man 317

Chapter 29 The Devil's Daughter Revisited 323

Chapter 30 The Fifty Monkeys, and Other Primates 341

Chapter 31 Flutter By Little Butterfly 353

Part 5 Herself Alone

Chapter 32 Off Screen As On… 369

Chapter 33 "Mae West Haunted by Dead Romance…" 385

Chapter 34 Catherine Was Great-But She Drifted… 397

Chapter 35 Mae West, With Diamonds, Arrived… 409

Chapter 36 Crossing the Sahara… 419

Chapter 37 Is This the End-Or Are We Just Beginning? 431

Chapter 38 Something Left Over 439

Chapter 39 "The Last of Living Legends" 451

The Epilogue: Of Short Weddings and Long Honeymoons 457

Appendix A Notes on Sources 469

Appendix B Chronology, Stage Plays & Filmography 498

Appendix C Selected Bibliography 518

Acknowledgments 522

Editorial Reviews

"Although at least four full-length biographies have been written about Mae West since her death at 87 in 1980, Louvish (Man on the Flying Trapeze) is the first biographer to have access to the recently opened archive of West memorabilia including a 2, 000-page collection of quips and jokes and the numerous revisions of the 12 plays, eight screenplays and three novels she wrote. West created and perfected her languid sex goddess persona during years in vaudeville and by serving as her own playwright, but Louvish discovers West's secret life was filled not with lovers but long nights of polishing and refining her scripts. She was almost 40 when she made her first film, but two years later, she was the highest paid performer in the U.S. Louvish's bio is appreciative and extensively detailed, focusing on West as writer. It can sometimes feel plodding as he transcribes skits and routines (although most still sparkle seven decades later, like 'I used to be Snow White, but I drifted')... Louvish's research cements West's reputation as the definitive siren of suggestion, without which there would never have been any Sex & the City."

"Meticulously researched and finely crafted. Theatrical and cinematic history are skillfully related to the wider social and political background."

"This is the fifth of Louvish's scrupulously researched studies of celebrated comic figures. . . . As with its predecessors, the style is jaunty, and as all of its subjects are wreathed in myth, often of their own creation, he takes great pleasure in laying out and sifting the conflicting evidence on the page."

"If you appreciate a wealth of facts delivered in a straightforward, readable style . . . then Louvish's-book will delight you."

From the Publisher

"If you appreciate a wealth of facts delivered in a straightforward, readable style . . . then Louvish's-book will delight you."

Scotland on Sunday

"Meticulously researched and finely crafted. Theatrical and cinematic history are skillfully related to the wider social and political background."

The Independent

"This is the fifth of Louvish's scrupulously researched studies of celebrated comic figures. . . . As with its predecessors, the style is jaunty, and as all of its subjects are wreathed in myth, often of their own creation, he takes great pleasure in laying out and sifting the conflicting evidence on the page."

Observer

Although at least four full-length biographies have been written about Mae West since her death at 87 in 1980, Louvish (Man on the Flying Trapeze) is the first biographer to have access to the recently opened archive of West memorabilia including a 2,000-page collection of quips and jokes and the numerous revisions of the 12 plays, eight screenplays and three novels she wrote. West created and perfected her languid sex goddess persona during years in vaudeville and by serving as her own playwright, but Louvish discovers West's secret life was filled not with lovers but long nights of polishing and refining her scripts. She was almost 40 when she made her first film, but two years later, she was the highest paid performer in the U.S. Louvish's bio is appreciative and extensively detailed, focusing on West as writer. It can sometimes feel plodding as he transcribes skits and routines (although most still sparkle seven decades later, like "I used to be Snow White, but I drifted"). Summing up West's final three decades in a mere 50 pages feels rushed. But Louvish's research cements West's reputation as the definitive siren of suggestion, without whom there would never have been any Sex & the City. Photos. (Nov. 21) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Mae West (1892-1980), whose famous lines included "Come up and see me sometime" and "It ain't the men in my life, it's the life in my men that counts," created a persona that made her a living legend. The buxom blonde started out in burlesque and vaudeville and later segued into movies. By 1934, she was the highest-paid performer in the United States and went on to costar with everyone from Cary Grant to Raquel Welch. Louvish, who has also written biographies of Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers, presents a well-researched account of West's life, complete with a helpful chronology and a list of her stage plays. Other books on Mae West include Jill Watts's Mae West: An Icon in Black and White and Emily Wortis Leider's Becoming Mae West. For libraries owning one of these, It Ain't No Sin is an optional purchase, though it is the first to draw on West's recently uncovered personal papers. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.-Barbara Kundanis, Addison P.L., IL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Seasoned show-biz biographer Louvish (Man on the Flying Trapeze, 1997, etc.) digs deeper into the saucy bombshell's hidden life. Best known for her titillating movie roles and provocative off-screen persona, Mae West (1893-1980) was also a prolific writer who crafted her own image. With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' blessing, Louvish got a first look at her recently opened personal archives. There, as he writes in the prologue, he uncovered some little-known aspects of the ageless sex goddess's career. Before delving into those, however, his narrative traces Mary Jane West's life from her relatively obscure beginnings, growing up in Brooklyn during the early 20th century, through starring roles in various vaudeville performances and burlesque shows to the scandal aroused by suggestive plays like Sex. Stage opportunities began to dissipate as West approached 30, so, encouraged (and spoiled) by her mother, she focused on literary aspirations. The author sidesteps a lot of hearsay to delve with aplomb into his subject's successful side career. He reveals that, rather than slinking her way in and out of men's beds as many of her critics would have the general public believe, West spent countless hours alone at home poring over manuscripts. She constantly revised and rewrote her 12 plays and three novels; she also amassed a stockpile of personally penned comedic quips, many still familiar today. Press clippings, lyrics and witty asides enliven Louvish's pages and his research, while generous illustrations and vintage photographs provide visual proof of West's brisk ascent to fame as "the highest-paid performer in the U.S." during Hollywood's golden era. The author's knackfor injecting new life and a distinctive perspective into well-worn biographical information gives his text a vitality that also characterized this performer, from her first baby steps on stage right up to the time of her death. Enlightening, exhaustively comprehensive look at an entertainer who unapologetically shimmied sexuality into the mainstream.

Kirkus Reviews