She Always Knew How: Mae West: A Personal Biography (Applause Books) - Softcover

Chandler, Charlotte

Softcover

ISBN 10: 142348410X ISBN 13: 9781423484103

Publisher: Applause, 2010

Synopsis

Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West (1893-1980) created a scandal and a sensation on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict but emerged a star. Later, in Hollywood, she was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners – which she wrote herself – that have become part of Hollywood lore. But behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word “feminism” was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing. Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground.

In She Always Knew How, Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of extensive interviews that she conducted with Mae West just months before the star's death. Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who knew and worked with Mae, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, and her close assistant. Their insights enrich this fascinating book.

About this title

About the Author:

Charlotte Chandler (New York, NY) is the author of several biographies of actors and directors, including Groucho Marx, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, and Joan Crawford, all of whom she interviewed extensively. She is a member of the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

From Publishers Weekly:

Chandler (Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford) draws on her interviews with the 86-year-old Mae West, known for her "risqué brand of humor," in this chatty memoir. West carefully constructed and guarded the image of her personality as a woman who enjoyed sex at a time when "skirts had to cover ankles." She contended she was "never vulgar. The word for me was suggestive." West (1893–1980) craved the spotlight from a young age and had been a success in vaudeville, where she began to write her own material. Her screen legend perfected her sexually playful alter ego in such films as She Done Him Wrong, which contained her most quoted line: "Come up and see me sometime." Chandler also includes West's first-person account of her 10 days in jail, when she was found guilty of producing an immoral Broadway show, her first full-length play, Sex. West remained a box-office draw into her 70s, appearing in the 1970 film Myra Breckinridge. Whether discussing her love life or advising on playwriting or beauty tips, Mae West was always entertaining. Photos. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Applause
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 142348410X
• ISBN 13: 9781423484103
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350