1892-1980
Entertainer

Buxom Blonde.

More than any other mainstream entertainer, Mae West — with her blonde hair, heavy-lidded eyes, and voluptuous figure — epitomized the liberating force of sexuality—a sexuality that managed to express itself despite the heavy hand of Production Code censors. However, though West is remembered as the heavy-breathing mistress of the double entendre, she is not always recognized for the artistic control she maintained over a career that began when she was five or for acting in stock theater.

Beginnings.

By the time she was fifteen West was already starting to rewrite the vaudeville and Broadway revue material in which she appeared. A few years spent in burlesque, where she was billed as "The Baby Vamp," no doubt gave her material for her first play, Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed on Broadway in 1926. The ten-day jail sentence she received...