Mae West is remembered by most for her hourglass figure, platinum blonde hair, and sassy one-liners. (“Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else.”) But she was much more than a Hollywood sex symbol. 

Born Mary Jane West in Brooklyn in 1893, she made a name for herself with sharp wit and a fearless confidence. She was a brilliant writer, a savvy businesswoman, and an unapologetic boundary breaker. Mae West was in complete control, both on and off the screen.

Mae West wrote most of her own material

Mae West’s iconic quips and double entendres were rarely written by others. She authored more than a dozen plays and wrote or co-wrote many of her films, often under her pen name “Jane Mast.” By writing her own lines, she ensured that her stage persona was consistently clever, sexually confident, and delivered a uniquely female perspective.  

West became an expert at tweaking lines just enough to pass while keeping the audience in on the joke. This creative control allowed her to become one of the few stars in Hollywood history whose voice and style were self-made.

She was nearly 40 when she became a film star

Although Mae West started entertaining neighborhood audiences when she was just seven years old, it wasn’t until she was 38 that she appeared in her first film. By comparison, other successful actresses around her age—such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Gloria Swanson—began their film careers as teenagers. 

West, however, had already made waves in New York, where her bawdy stage plays drew crowds, outraged critics, and even landed her in jail on a morals charge. Her willingness to defy censors fueled her reputation as a fearless star. West and Paramount Pictures inked a movie deal in 1932, and she soon headed for California to shoot her first film.

A week ahead of her arrival in Hollywood, Relman Morin of The Los Angeles Record reported, “Mae West, according to the dispatches, has signed a contract with Paramount….  Mae has much, aside from her literary talent, to recommend her. She must be about 40 years old, but to see her, you wouldn’t suspect that she is a day over 39.” 

How generous of them to notice!

By emphasizing her quick wit instead of chasing youth and ingénue roles, Mae West created a brand new type of female star in the early days of Hollywood.

She knew how to exploit publicity

In 1927, Mae West was arrested for “corrupting the morals of youth” with her Broadway play Sex, which she wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. She was sentenced to 10 days on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island) and fined $500. West shrewdly turned the ordeal into a publicity opportunity. 

She provided provocative updates to an acquaintance at the Daily News, who issued reports about her baths and the silk underwear she wore instead of standard prison clothes. West left jail early for “good behavior” after serving just eight days.

Rather than harming her reputation, the arrest helped boost West’s fame. 

Mae West saved Paramount Pictures

By 1932, West’s success (and notoriety) as a Broadway star and playwright had attracted the attention of Paramount Studios. The film studio, in financial trouble, was looking for a new, attention-grabbing star to entice audiences.

She was initially brought in for a small role in Night After Night (1932). Asked by her co-star George Raft  to “punch up” her dialogue, she famously rewrote her scenes and added a line that became a classic: “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.”

Audiences were thrilled and couldn’t stop talking about the unknown actress who completely stole the picture. Paramount moved West into a starring role in She Done Him Wrong (1933), based on her Broadway hit Diamond Lil. The film not only saved Paramount from near bankruptcy but also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

From there, Mae West quickly became one of Paramount’s top moneymakers through the mid-1930s, carrying box-office hits like I’m No Angel (1933) and Belle of the Nineties (1934).

Mrs. Mae Wallace? A secret marriage

Long before her Hollywood debut, Mae West married a vaudeville dancer. She was only 17 when she wed Frank Wallace in Milwaukee in 1911. Fearing it would tarnish her image as an alluringly independent woman, West kept her marriage status a secret for nearly 24 years. They didn’t live together as a couple, and she never even told her parents about the union. 

West did not behave as if she were in a monogamous relationship. As biographer Emily Wortis Leider wrote, the “marital misadventure served only one good end as far as Mae could tell: it prevented her from marrying anyone else.”

In 1935, after West had become a major Hollywood star, Wallace filed for separation. Fans were stunned at the news, wondering how a “hidden husband” fit into the independent, self-made image West projected.

She did not deny the revelation or make a big public apology. Instead, she downplayed the whole thing, calling it a youthful mistake. By keeping the spotlight on her career, the secret marriage only added to Mae West’s aura.

She made her final film when she was 85

Mae West’s last big screen appearance was in 1978’s Sextette, a zany musical comedy that teamed the 85-year-old with a star-studded cast that included Timothy Dalton, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, Dom DeLuise, Regis Philbin, Keith Moon, and Alice Cooper. Based on a play she had written decades earlier, Sextette followed West as glamorous screen siren Marlo Manners, who has just married her sixth husband.  

Sextette was a critical and box office flop, but it’s become a cult favorite. Many of West’s fans admire the fact that she insisted on playing a romantic lead well past an age that Hollywood deems “desirable.”  

‘Come up and see me sometime’

“Come up and see me sometime” is one of Mae West’s most famous lines, but it was initially worded a little differently. In the 1933 film She Done Him Wrong, co-starring Cary Grant, the actual line she spoke is, “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” 

The shorter version was used in a later 1933 West-Grant collaboration, I’m No Angel. Making things more confusing, the “incorrect” but nearly identical line was used in promotions for both films, and West recorded a song titled “Come Up and See Me Sometime.” This secondary version is the one that became synonymous with Mae West’s bold screen persona.

She recorded a cover album that included  ‘Light My Fire’ by the Doors

In 1972, Mae West released an album of rock covers. Great Balls of Fire was initially recorded in 1968 and included West’s versions of hits like Neil Sedaka’s “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” and “Light My Fire” by The Doors.

While it didn’t become a hit, the album became a cult favorite for its novelty and audacity. A woman in her late 70s tackling one of the most sensual rock songs of the ’60s? That’d be wildly unexpected from most stars, but it was exactly the kind of bold move West was known for.

Works cited

Leider, E. W. (2000). Becoming Mae West. Da Capo Press.

Louvish, S. (2006). Mae West: It Ain’t No Sin. Macmillan.

Morin, R. (1932, June 13). Mae West signs with Paramount. Los Angeles Record. EBSCO.