Charlotte Chandler - She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography

W ITH S PECIAL A PPRECIATION

Bob Bender, George Cukor, Tim Malachosky, and David Rosenthal.

W ITH A PPRECIATION

Michael Accordino, Linda Ayton, Marcella Berger, David Brown, Helen Gurley Brown, Charles William Bush, Fred Chase, George Christy, Bud Cort, Tony Curtis, Gypsy da Silva, Bette Davis, Mitch Douglas, Marie Florio, Joe Franklin, Steve Friedeman, Tom Gates, Cary Grant, Tracey Guest, Dick Guttman, Edith Head, Angela Herlihy, Peter Johnson, Jane Klain, Alexander Kordonsky, Deborah Landis, John Landis, Ted Landry, Johanna Li, Groucho Marx, Paul Morrissey, Jeremiah Newton, Dale Olson, Paul Novak, Arthur Novell, Marvin Paige, Dan Price, Anthony Quinn, Joan Rivers, Robert Rosen, Michael Sarne, Arthur Schlesinger, Dana Sloan, Carly Sommerstein, Jeff Stafford, Kevin Thomas, Brian Ulicky, Robert Wise, and Danny Woodruff.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, Anthology Film Archives, the British Film Institute, the Cinmathque Franaise, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Paley Center for Media, and the UCLA Department of Theater, Film, and Television.

M Y FIRST THOUGHT was, women need a Bill of Rights.

And then I thought, no, what women need isa Bill of Wrongs.

When I was a girl, Mae West continued, I understood right away that there was this double-standard thing for men and women, not just in sex, but in everything. A mans world was one of freedom, a womans one of limitations. I believe in a single standard for men and women.

Many womens lives are defined by the man or men in their lives. I wanted to define my own life. I never thought of myself as a feminist, though many people have said I was. I never identified with groups. It seemed to me that Im for peoples rights, and women are people, too.

When a man was courting me, hed want to put a diamond on my finger, and as soon as he thought he had me, he wanted to put an apron around my waist.

I made my way in a mans world. I lived in the world of show business, which was a mans world as far as where the power was concentrated.

My mother told me you cant be too smart, as long as you dont let it show, especially with men. Men dont like a woman to be smarter than they are. Brains are an asset as long as you hide them. My mother was born in a different time. Things were true in her time that werent as true in mine. My mother was forced to live in what was a womans world, while the Great World was for men.

What Im proudest of is that I offered entertainment, not a message. But there was a message, too, only it was subliminal, hidden behind the wisecrack. Women told me I inspired them to stand up and walk on their own two feet, not just lie on their backs.

I let people know that women like sex, too, and thats a good thing, not a bad thing, as long as you dont hurt anyone and as long as you are responsible about children. I cant say I had a mission, but it turned out that way.

In my opinion, I lived a selfish life. If you asked me, thats what I would call it. I was dedicated to myself.

But then, one day, a woman came up to me in a restaurant, and she said, Miss West, I just wanted to tell you how wonderful you are.

Well, thank you, honey, I said, assuming she was talking about my work as an artiste . Is there something special you liked? I thought she was going to name a few things, or maybe say something like, Everything. Well, she surprised me. I was expecting something short, but she wanted to tell me all about myself. Fans often do that, but this was different.

She said, You made a difference, a wonderful difference for all of us women.

Well, that made me think. I had to ponder. It made me look back on my life and what it all meant, and you know, I decided my trying for myself had turned out to be trying for all women.

I hope she was right. Wouldnt my mother have been proud! My life had made a difference not just for me. That meant my mothers life had made a difference, because she was the important person in the shaping of who I am.

Someday therell be a woman president. Im sure of that. Women have been leadin men around for centuries. Myself, I never wanted to hold any political office, except maybe vice president.

Can you believe that there are people who say that I must be a bad person because I play the bad woman so well? They believe the parts I play are me! They dont give me the credit I deserve as an actress, and a writer.

The image I want to offer to my public is very important, but even more important is my self-image. Thats my own image of myself.

My advice to you is, throw away any bad pictures of yourself.

And dress up in your own home, just to talk on the phone. It changes the way you are, even on the phone.

You know who Mae West is? Im Cinderella in modern dress sort of modern dressand I wear high-heel wedgies, cause those glass slippers are too fragile! The thing I know is, I wouldnt change my image for no one.

I created myself. I developed myself. I didnt turn out exactly this way all at once, though I wasnt very different when I was a little girl, from the first days I can remember. But in the beginning, I did some tinkerin.

Ive become legendary, but not historical. Im contemporary.

Im proud of my movies, and Im really glad I made them. They were wonderful in their time, but they are more important now because the grandchildren of the people who watched me in those films can watch me. Many of the people who saw me in the theater are gone, and the others will take their memories with them.

Im grateful to my parents, who got my timing right. The twentieth century, its a century to treasure.

When Mae began her career, doors were opened for women. When she finished her career, doors were open to women.

O N MY ARRIVAL the afternoon that Mae and I met, she held out her hand to me. As I took it, I scratched my palm on one of her diamond rings. Noticing what had happened, she commented in a matter-of-fact tone, Theyre old-cut, very sharp. Thats the best kind.