Decoder Ring: The “Sex” Scandal That Made Mae West

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 1930s, Mae West’s dirty talk and hip swiveling walk made her one of the biggest movie stars in America. But before West hit the big-screen, she was prosecuted for staging not one, but two scandalous plays. In this episode, we look at how West honed her persona when she was under the bright lights of Broadway and the flashbulbs of the tabloids — and briefly behind bars. More than a century later, her career arc offers a blueprint on how to survive a scandal…and maybe even come out ahead. This episode relied heavily on a lot of archival material and innumerable books: When I’m Bad, I’m Better: Mae West, Sex and American Entertainment by Marybeth Hamilton; When Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan; Lillian Schlissel’s introduction to Three Plays by Mae West, Mae West: a biography by George Eells and Stanley Musgrove; Mae West: An Icon in Black and White by Jill Watts; Becoming May West by Emily Wortis Leider; Gay New York by George Chauncey; Mae West, She Who Laughs Last, by June Sochen: Goodness Has Nothing to Do with It by Mae West; and Linda Ann Losciavo’s play “Courting Mae West” and her blog, which you can find at Maewest.blogspot.com. This episode of Decoder Ring was written by Willa Paskin. It was produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. Derek John is Sr. Supervising Producer of Narrative Podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our Technical Director. Thank you to Benjamin Frisch for this topic. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you get ad-free podcasts, bonus episodes, and total access to all of Slate’s journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On February 9th, 1927, a Broadway show called Sex played its 339th performance.
0:16.9	Sex was a provocative comedy about prostitution that had scandalized its way into becoming
0:22.3	a hit.
0:23.3	It was stuffed with salacious dancing, adult situations, and loo dialogue.
0:46.3	The show was one of the longest running of the Broadway season and a breakthrough for
0:50.8	its star writer and producer, May West.
1:02.1	West within her mid 30s and had been performing for over two decades, but Sex had finally made
1:07.7	her the talk of the town.
1:09.9	And then on that night in February, 10 months into the show's run, the cops busted in.
1:16.6	11 officers crashed after the final curtain and escorted West and about 20 other cast members
1:22.1	out of the feeder through a crowd of hundreds and into 10 just hailed taxi cabs.
1:27.7	They were taken to a Hell's Kitchen police station and then down to night court in Grinich
1:32.1	Village.
1:36.6	West spent the night in jail right next to the courthouse, which was a zoo with onlookers,
1:42.3	journalists, and photographers trying to get a glimpse of the actress would make front
1:46.7	pages across the city for months as Sex went on trial.
1:53.8	During the resulting brew, Ha Ha West would be asked what she thought the scandal would
1:58.0	do to her career.
2:03.5	She was right, but it wasn't as inevitable as she makes it sound.
2:15.4	In the early 1930s, May West's dirty talk and hip swiveling walk, her quick wit and slow
2:20.9	delivery, her sexual bravado and horny zingers, her boldness, her campiness, made her one
2:27.4	of the biggest movie stars in America.
	...

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