One of the greatest Hollywood stars of the classic American film industry, Mae West enjoyed seven decades of entertaining millions both on screen and on stage. She was a multi-talented tour de force who wore many hats – from comedian, actress, playwright, director, producer, writer and singer, she did it all and always with a little sass.
One of Hollywood’s First Leading Ladies
She was an outspoken and liberally sexual woman known for her one-liners and witty comebacks that often got her into trouble. In 1926, she was jailed for 10 days for inciting promiscuity and corrupting her young audience when she appeared in her first starring role in her Broadway play, Sex, which she also wrote. But it didn’t put a stop to her rise in popularity or fame.
Born in 1893, West started performing at the young age of 5 at church socials and at small, amateur venues, later appearing as a regular in the Vaudeville scene from the age of 14. She came late to the silver screen in 1932 at the age of 39, when she was signed by Paramount Pictures, starring in her first film, Night After Night by Archie Mayo. It was her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy and smart lady of the 1890s that attracted the attention of Hollywood magnates, and was one of her most beloved characters that she reinvented again and again.
I believe in censorship; I made a fortune out of it
Censorship, known as Production Code that became strongly enforced in 1934, finally got the better of Mae West and her bawdy wit, putting a damper on her best lines and robbing her films of their popular sass and the controversial, confident women that she portrayed. She took a 27-year hiatus from Hollywood, choosing the stage as well as radio and TV, where she could let her true personality shine.
Come up sometime and see me
She enjoyed an extraordinary career well into her 80s and amassed an impressive collection of costumes, hats, jewellery, and accoutrements, some 237 of which were auctioned off at Julien’s Auctions in their Property from The Life and Career of Mae West.
One of the most iconic and valued lots in the auction is the racy, red satin Diamond Lil gown that West wore in the box office hit, She Done Him Wrong (1933), alongside a budding Cary Grant. It was one of her first major film roles and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, grossing over $2 million (equivalent of $140 million today), and saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy.
The gown is a testament to the success of her most beloved character, Diamond Lil (known as Lady Lou in this film). It features a boned bodice with puffed layered tulle sleeves, embellished with foliate trim with ruby red bugle beads, sequins, and faceted glass in metal casing and a long skirt with layered tulle embellishment and train. The gown was also worn by West in the 1950 production of Diamond Lil. While we couldn't identify a sold price for the gown, it was expected to fetch more than $20,000 at this auction.
Cultivate your curves – they may be dangerous but they won’t be avoided
West was no stranger to writing scripts and often she would re-write her own dialogue, branding it with her iconic witty one-liners and risque double entendres. Several of these scripts, with hand-written changes and notes, came up for auction, including her second film and box office hit, I’m No Angel from 1933. It was this film that launched West as a pop culture phenomenon. After the film’s success, references were made to her in Cole Porter songs, Betty Boop and Disney cartoons, as well as a Works Progress Administration mural for San Francisco’s newly built Coit Tower. The I'm No Angel script sold for US$5,760.
By 1933, West was one of the largest box-office draws and in 1935, became the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States. She was the very essence of Hollywood glamour and inspired many artists and designers, including Salvador Dali who modelled his famous lip sofa, now on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, after West’s sensuous mouth.
Perfume bottles were modelled on her curvaceous figure by French designer, Elsa Schiaparelli, who also designed many of her costumes and one Joseff of Hollywood tiara, crafted in gold tone with rhinestones and painted faceted glass. The tiara was worn on stage by Mae West in her starring role as Catherine II of Russia in the 1944-45 Broadway production of Catherine was Great, which she also wrote. The tiara sold for US$1,024.
But perhaps the strangest representation is a U.S. Navy life preserver (1954), signed by Mae West, that was modelled after her bust. It was sold for US$2,187.50.
Property from The Life and Career of Mae West
Among the many costumes and stage props, the auction also presents a collection of over 250 fan letters to Mae West dated from 1969 to 1980. The letters, estimated at $600-$800, are housed in four ivory colored scrapbooks that West would show to press when they visited her Rossmore home.
There is a custom-made, heavily embellished, gold lamé headdress worn in photographs taken by G. Maillard Kesslere B.P. circa 1944 for promotional pieces for Catherine was Great - it sold for US$2,812.50. And a hand-held wooden mirror with painted ivory frame and gold detail, used by West in her 1950s Las Vegas stage show, sold for US$1,280.
To add to the authenticity, not to mention the nostalgia and history of this auction, many of the items are depicted in photos of West, either wearing the items up for sale or standing beside them. Covering five decades of her career, these items are being offered to the public by Tim Malachosky, who was Mae’s assistant and secretary during the last decade of her life.