Written by Dana Demange
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VOICE ONE:
I’m Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about film actress Mae West. She was also a writer, producer and businesswoman. The sexual nature of her life and art represented her liberal and often disputed ideas. Her funny jokes have become part of the language of American popular culture.
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VOICE ONE:
Mae West was born in Brooklyn, New York in eighteen ninety-three. Her father, John West, had several jobs but started his career as a competitive fighter. Mae’s mother, Matilda, played an important role in developing her daughter’s career as an entertainer.
Mae started to perform in local theater groups as a young child. By nineteen oh seven she was part of a national vaudeville tour that performed across the country. Vaudeville was a theatrical show with several entertainers performing songs, dances and jokes. Vaudeville was very popular in the United States during the early nineteen hundreds.
When Mae West was about eighteen years old she started performing on Broadway, the famous theater area of New York City. She appeared in many musical shows such as “Hello, Paris” and “A la Broadway.” For the next fifteen years she sang and danced in both Broadway and vaudeville shows.
VOICE TWO:
In the middle nineteen twenties, Mae West started to write, produce and act in her own plays. She also started to create the sexual jokes that would make her famous -- and also get her into trouble. Her first Broadway play was called “Sex.”
The play was very popular, but soon closed temporarily. City officials put Mae West in jail for more than a week. The police arrested her because they said the play was not moral. Mae West knew that this incident would make her a national success --- and it did.
Serving time in jail did not stop West from writing more plays or causing new disputes over their sexually suggestive subject matter. In fact, she said that she learned from her jail experience. She said the people she met in jail influenced the characters she later created.
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VOICE ONE:
Mae West wrote many kinds of theatrical productions, but some details remained the same. Her humor was often sexual. But her jokes had two meanings. Her statements were humorous and intelligent because they could be understood in two different ways. She was also funny because she greatly overstated her sexy nature and love for men. Mae West always played the role of a young and strong woman. She also made sure that she always had the biggest role. She wanted everyone to know she was the star and she was in charge.
VOICE TWO:
One of her most famous plays was called “Diamond Lil.” Mae West made careful choices when writing this play so that it would be popular with a wide audience. She set the play in a famous New York City area called the Bowery. Audiences knew the history of this dangerous area. West also had the story take place in the late nineteenth century. She knew that the clothing from this period looked good on her large and curvy body. She thought that older people would like the time period. Female audiences would like her rich clothing. And younger people would like the play’s action and sexy style.
West plays a singer named Lil who works in a saloon, a public drinking place. She walks around in very tight, shiny dresses. She has shiny, golden, wavy hair. She wears diamond jewels and large hats. She has many lovers and adventures.
VOICE ONE:
“Diamond Lil” was a big success. It was performed more than three hundred times on Broadway. Then it was performed all over the country. Lil became the most representative example of Mae West’s characters. It was a role she would play many times in her life.
“Diamond Lil” shows the way Mae West appeared in many of her productions, and even in real life. Mae West once said: ''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.”
VOICE TWO:
After the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine, Mae West faced a difficult period. Many theaters could no longer remain open in this time of economic depression. She also had to deal with legal battles over the disputed subjects of her plays. Her latest musical was a failure on Broadway. And, in nineteen thirty her mother died. It was soon time for Mae West to make a change.
