Mae West
Created | Updated Jul 28, 2003
Mae West. Born 1893. Died 1980. She was (in alphabetical order)...
Actress
Blond
Comedienne
Controversial
Dancer
Director
Feminist
Icon
Intelellectual
Novelist
Playwright
Producer
Scriptwriter
Sex Symbol
Singer
Wit
Woman
She was all these things in a time when women didn't even have the vote.
By the time she left school at 12 years old she already knew what she wanted to do with her life. She had made her debut on the stage aged 5 and was in vaudeville by age 15.
She lived her life with the same freedom that men had at the time, sleeping with who she wanted and saying what she thought. Famous for her body, her one liners and her controversial writing, she has become a legend.
Despite shocking a world full of repression, hypocrisy, and censorship, she was hugely popular.
She went to prison on Devils Island after her 1926 Broadway hit 'Sex', charged with obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth, even though the district attorney admitted that it was only her personality that made scenes suggestive.
She always insisted on having creative control and wouldn't sign a Hollywood contract unless it contained a clause giving her final say on the completed film.
Below is a list of her films, should you wish to see her in action...
Night After Night
She Done Him Wrong
I'm No Angel
Belle of the Nineties
Goin' To Town
Klondike Annie
Go West, Young Man
Every Day's A Holiday
My Little Chickadee
The Heat's On
Myra Breckinridge
Sextette
And here are some things she said...
"Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?"
"A hard man is good to find"
"It's better to be looked over than overlooked"
"When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad I'm better"
"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before"
"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful"
"Some women pick men to marry--and others pick them to pieces"
"You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest"
"Climbing the career ladder, wrong by wrong"
"It takes two to get one in trouble"
"A man in the house is worth two in the street"
"Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!"
"It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any"
"Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from"
"Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different"
"The score never interested me, only the game"
"Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up"
"It's not the men in my life that counts-- it's the life in my men"
"I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing"
"Women with 'pasts' interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself"
"Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile"
"Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays"
"Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring"
"I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond"
"I like a man who's good, but not too good--for the good die young, and I hate a dead one"
"Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art"
"Men are easy to get but hard to keep"
"I take it out in the open and laugh at it"
"Look your best--who said love is blind?"
"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises"
"Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier"
"I'm single because I was born that way"
"It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it"
"Sometimes it seems to me I've known so many men that the FBI ought to come to me first to compare fingerprints"
"Come up and see me sometime"
Actress
Blond
Comedienne
Controversial
Dancer
Director
Feminist
Icon
Intelellectual
Novelist
Playwright
Producer
Scriptwriter
Sex Symbol
Singer
Wit
Woman
She was all these things in a time when women didn't even have the vote.
By the time she left school at 12 years old she already knew what she wanted to do with her life. She had made her debut on the stage aged 5 and was in vaudeville by age 15.
She lived her life with the same freedom that men had at the time, sleeping with who she wanted and saying what she thought. Famous for her body, her one liners and her controversial writing, she has become a legend.
Despite shocking a world full of repression, hypocrisy, and censorship, she was hugely popular.
She went to prison on Devils Island after her 1926 Broadway hit 'Sex', charged with obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth, even though the district attorney admitted that it was only her personality that made scenes suggestive.
She always insisted on having creative control and wouldn't sign a Hollywood contract unless it contained a clause giving her final say on the completed film.
Below is a list of her films, should you wish to see her in action...
Night After Night
She Done Him Wrong
I'm No Angel
Belle of the Nineties
Goin' To Town
Klondike Annie
Go West, Young Man
Every Day's A Holiday
My Little Chickadee
The Heat's On
Myra Breckinridge
Sextette
And here are some things she said...
"Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?"
"A hard man is good to find"
"It's better to be looked over than overlooked"
"When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad I'm better"
"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before"
"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful"
"Some women pick men to marry--and others pick them to pieces"
"You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest"
"Climbing the career ladder, wrong by wrong"
"It takes two to get one in trouble"
"A man in the house is worth two in the street"
"Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!"
"It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any"
"Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from"
"Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different"
"The score never interested me, only the game"
"Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up"
"It's not the men in my life that counts-- it's the life in my men"
"I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing"
"Women with 'pasts' interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself"
"Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile"
"Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays"
"Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring"
"I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond"
"I like a man who's good, but not too good--for the good die young, and I hate a dead one"
"Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art"
"Men are easy to get but hard to keep"
"I take it out in the open and laugh at it"
"Look your best--who said love is blind?"
"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises"
"Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier"
"I'm single because I was born that way"
"It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it"
"Sometimes it seems to me I've known so many men that the FBI ought to come to me first to compare fingerprints"
"Come up and see me sometime"
