She always knew how : Mae West, a personal biography /
Biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980, as well as interviews with people who worked or lived with her. Actress, playwright, screenwriter and iconic sex symbol Mae West created a scandal--and a sensation--on Broa...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Simon & Schuster,
[2009]
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| Edition: | 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Contributor biographical information Publisher description Sample text Table of contents only |
| Summary: | Biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980, as well as interviews with people who worked or lived with her. Actress, playwright, screenwriter and iconic sex symbol Mae West created a scandal--and a sensation--on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Sentenced to ten days in prison for obscenity, she went in a convict and emerged a star. Her next play, Diamond Lil, was a smash, and she would play variations on Diamond Lil for virtually her entire career. In 1930s Hollywood she saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her screenplays included some notorious one-liners that have become part of Hollywood lore, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire to see women treated equally with men. She fought the double standard of the time that permitted men things that women would be ruined for doing. |
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| Item Description: | Includes index. |
| Physical Description: | xiii, 317 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| ISBN: | 9781416579090 1416579095 |