Hollywood Legend Mae West Profiled in New PBS Documentary: 'She Was a Sexual Gangster'

"Is that a gun in your pocket or are ya glad t'see me?" Mae was one of a kind.

To me she always seemed to have the shape of a box of saltine crackers.

She Wash A Sheckshual Gangshter.

Seems like she has a resurgence every 20 years for new generations to learn about her.

They really should do a biopic on her - fascinating stuff.

Some box of saltine crackers, R2.

Alaska did a terrific impression during Snatch Game: Why don’t you come up and see me some time and fuck me in the ass.

Mae West's film debut. She was great.

Great doc. I highly recommend it.

Dear R4:

The 1982 TV biopic of Mae West was a veritable smorgasbord of DL faves. It starred Ann Jillian as Mae, Piper Laurie as Mae’s mother, James Brolin as a hot love interest, and Roddy McDowall as a drag queen. The tragic Bridgette Andersen of “Savannah Smiles” fame played Mae as a child.

Go watch it on YouTube right this minute or your DL membership is hereby REVOKED!

Saw the PBS show just now. Really good. A bit thin on the later years but so was her career.

For R7

"She is to appear in Night After Night. She will play a lady of no character."

- Los Angeles Times, 1932

George Raft may have put it best when he said, "Mae West stole everything but the cameras."

In the very beginning, when she was in vaudeville, she wore low cut gowns. But after that, she was covered up. You can tell she was wearing flesh colored material all over, even when she appeared to be scantily clad, like in the OP photo. Looking closely you’re can see she’s wearing material on her chest & arms.

Mae also found that 1890s clothes were a good way to cover herself up. She did Diamond Lil on Broadway, (which was She Done Him Wrong on film) and Belle of the Nineties. After that, she seemed to wear an awful lot of 1890s type clothes even in movies that weren’t set in the 1890s.

Mae was no doubt wearing whalebone corsets under all those clothes as she aged. She insisted on doing the lighting for her scenes, which irked directors. At one point she started that ridiculous exaggerated “vamp” walk of hers because she was short and a bit squat looking, so she wore 6” heels to make herself look taller & more svelte. The 1890s tall feather hats also added height. Mae was a corseted, draped, overly made up, high hatted, heel-tottering mess, but she pulled it off for a number of years, so I guess you have to hand it to her.

My sister was short & she used to wear at least 3” heels. She could not walk normally in them & looked like a clodhopper. One day I went to her job & in the parking lot, she was sliding & tipping & wavering in her shoes. I told her she couldn’t carry off heels & she would look much better if she wore flats & in fact, she might get promoted. (She was always complaining that she didn’t get promoted, but honestly, who would promote someone who who was sliding around, teeter-tottering in their shoes?)

It didn’t go over well.i learned to keep my big mouth shut after that.

"The Drag" looked like it was a great show.