to conceal it.”
It was that kind of witticism that made Mae West so brilliant. She was sent to prison for ten days, but as she left, she sold her story to a magazine for one thousand dollars, then used the money to set up the Mae West Memorial Library at the female prison.
Mae’s next plays were also controversial. The Drag was about gay men, and is often called the first play to show homosexuality in a sensitive light. Pleasure Man featured a troupe of female impersonators. This show was also raided by police twice, and 60 cast members were arrested while still in costume. Mae bailed the actors out both times, and was acquitted in court thanks to a split jury.
Then in 1932, Paramount found itself in financial trouble and looked to Mae West for help. The studio wanted to buy the play which had been her biggest success, called Diamond Lil. It was about a saloon singer and prostitute in the 1890s, and had Mae wriggling her way through her sexy starring role, resplendent in elaborate costumes. As often was the case with Mae’s work, it was about sex, but actually featured nothing indecent.
Universal Pictures had tried to buy the play a few years earlier, but had been warned by the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), which advised on the content of films, that it had too many “vulgar dramatic situations” to be made. Paramount got around this by altering a few details, including changing the title, to She Done Him Wrong. Mae chose to cast Cary Grant as her co-star, saying that she loved his voice. He wasn’t yet famous, but this film helped to promote him as a sexy leading man.
Audiences around the country loved the film so much that there were reports of people sitting through multiple screenings. Photoplay magazine ran an article saying Mae was “blonde, buxom and rowdy,” and that she specialized in “naughty ladies with big souls and golden hearts.” The film, its star, and her body became famous.
Mae’s voluptuous figure was coveted, both because it was different and because this was in the middle of the Great Depression, when many people were starving and thin. Her attitudes toward sex were also bold and new. Mae had ownership over her body, and saw sex simply as a natural act. “We can no more eliminate the primary emotion of sex-hunger from our birthright, then we can remove our hearts,” said Mae. By being so open with her thoughts, Mae removed any smuttiness and shame. The New York Times said she was “the healthiest influence which has reached Hollywood in years.”
When Paramount came knocking a second time, Mae was able to make some demands. She wanted final cut approval, the ability to choose her director and leading man (Cary Grant once again), and most importantly, she wanted to write a new script, one not based on a play. For I’m No Angel, she consulted her existing joke books for sexy one-liners to add to the film. One of the most famous was, “When I’m good, I’m good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.”
At the time, censors were becoming uncomfortable with the content of movies. Despite the MPPDA making suggestions, they weren’t always heeded. There was a rush of violent gangster films like Public Enemy and a slew of sexual movies, including the two Mae West pictures. The Catholic Legion of Decency and some women’s groups protested about the “morally corrupt” content, and the production code came into force.
With its list of strict rules, the change was dramatic. In 1933, Mae West had topped the box office, but in 1934, it was Shirley Temple.
The code restricted Mae’s fierce sexuality and was the beginning of the end for her career. Mae had been working on her next film, I’m No Sin, but with the code it was quickly changed into a pale and unrecognizable imitation. Gone was the title, in favor of the more generic Belle of the Nineties. Also out was any provocative material and witty one-liners about sex. The film was lackluster and didn’t do well with audiences.
As for her image, Paramount and the publicity team worked hard to recreate Mae West. They insisted that her performances and frank interviews were complete fiction, and tried to erase her working-class background. For her next film, Mae worked with censors to make sure it was completely clean, and the ads for Goin’ To Town stated this was a “new, streamlined Mae West,” ready to “set a new standard.” But without the ability to be herself, in all her sparkling sexual glory, audiences lost interest.
In the end, Mae West was “too much” for Hollywood. Too sexy, too bawdy, too much herself and not a carefully created Hollywood starlet. But her legend has lived on, and as Mae herself said, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Hattie McDaniel: The Oscar Winner
When Hattie McDaniel attended the 12th annual Academy Awards as a nominee, producer David O. Selznick had to call in a favor just so she could sit down. The 1940 Oscars were held at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel, which had a strict segregation policy. Hattie was allowed in, but had to sit at a table hidden in the back, far away from the rest of the cast from Gone With The Wind.
This is just one example of the many battles Hattie McDaniel had to face in Hollywood. From getting interesting roles to attending her own premiere, the value of her Oscar, and even where her family was allowed to bury her … it was not easy to be Hattie. Inside Hollywood, she had to deal with racism. Outside, she was criticized for playing stereotypes. But she had to play by the rules in order to break them. As Hattie famously said, “I would rather make seven hundred dollars a week playing a maid than being one.”
Both of Hattie’s parents were former slaves who escaped during the Civil War. They met at a “contraband camp,” filled with other slaves who had managed to break free. Her father volunteered for the Union Army, and later they married. But when they started to have children, they faced heartbreak after heartbreak, with six babies dying at birth or soon after. By the time Hattie was born, the family was living in extreme poverty, and she suffered from malnutrition as a baby. And despite her father’s service in the Army, the Government refused his pension several times. On one occasion, his claim was denied on the grounds he could not prove his exact age. “It is impossible for me to furnish a record of my birth,” he replied, “I was a slave.”
They had a hard life, but the McDaniel family was full of natural talent, so their small rented house was always filled with song and dance. Hattie’s brother Otis was a particularly skilled dancer, and was determined to change his family’s situation. He and his brother Sam, along with some friends, started performing as the Cakewalk Kids, hiring themselves out for community functions and white society dances. The Cakewalk was a dance move originally created by slaves poking fun at their white masters, but it had become a popular trend around the country.
Hattie would sometimes perform in their shows, and she drew praise for her singing and satirical skits. Often, she poked fun at the “Mammy” stereotype, but ironically, this was the very role which would make her famous later on.
When she was fifteen, Hattie took part in a drama competition. This is a moment she always pointed to as being life-altering. She performed an emotional rendition of the poem Convict Joe, a story of a husband who kills his wife during a drunken rage. As she finished, she was in tears, and the crowd erupted in applause, rising to their feet. Hattie won the Gold Medal, and said later this win gave her an indescribable feeling of happiness and the knowledge that performing was her destiny.
In the early 1930s, after a brief stint as a blues singer, Hattie moved to Los Angeles. There, she met casting agent Charles Butler, one of the few black people working behind the scenes in Hollywood. He was hired by Central Casting as “head of all Negro employment,” and his job involved going into black neighborhoods to search for African-Americans who could
