Mae West An Icon in Black and White

by Watts, Jill

• ISBN13: 9780195161120
• ISBN10: 0195161122
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

"Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae West invited and promptly captured the imagination of generations. Even today, years after her death, the actress and author is still regarded as the pop archetype of sexual wantonness and ribald humor. But who was this saucy starlet, a womanwho was controversial enough to be jailed, pursued by film censors and banned from the airwaves for the revolutionary content of her work, and yet would ascend to the status of film legend? Sifting through previously untapped sources, author Jill Watts unravels the enigmatic life of Mae West, tracing her early years spent in the Brooklyn subculture of boxers and underworld figures, and follows her journey through burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and, finally, Hollywood, where shequickly became one of the big screen's most popular--and colorful--stars. Exploring West's penchant for contradiction and her carefully perpetuated paradoxes, Watts convincingly argues that Mae West borrowed heavily from African American culture, music, dance and humor, creating a subversive voicefor herself by which she artfully challenged society and its assumptions regarding race, class and gender. Viewing West as a trickster, Watts demonstrates that by appropriating for her character the black tradition of double-speak and "signifying," West also may have hinted at her ownAfrican-American ancestry and the phenomenon of a black woman passing for white. This absolutely fascinating study is the first comprehensive, interpretive account of Mae West's life and work. It reveals a beloved icon as a radically subversive artist consciously creating her own complex image.

Author Biography

Jill Watts is Professor of History and has served as the Director of the History Department and Co-Director of the Women's Studies Program at California State University, San Marcos. She is the author of God, Harlem, U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
They Were Too Smart	3	(24)
The Way She Does It	27	(23)
Shimadonna	50	(20)
Speaking of the Influence of the Jook	70	(23)
You Can Be Had	93	(25)
The Subject of the Dream	118	(25)
Good Night to the Dichotomies	143	(27)
If You Can't Go Straight, You've Got to Go Around	170	(28)
Naturally I Disagree	198	(28)
Bring Me Rabelais	226	(28)
A Glittering Fascimile	254	(28)
I Had Them All	282	(23)
I Wrote the Story Myself	305	(11)
Really a Prologue	316	(47)
Sources
Archival Sources and Abbreviations	319	(2)
Notes	321	(36)
Bibliographical Essay	357	(6)
Index	363