An 1814 engraving of a double entendre. He: "My sweet honey, I hope you are to be let with the Lodgins!" She: "No, sir, I am to be let alone."

A double entendre is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first (more obvious) meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a double entendre as especially being used to "convey an indelicate meaning." It is often used to express potentially offensive opinions without the risks of explicitly doing so.

A double entendre may exploit puns to convey the second meaning. Double entendres tend to rely more on multiple meanings of words, or different interpretations of the same primary meaning; they often exploit ambiguity and may be used to introduce it deliberately in a text. Sometimes using a homophone (i.e. a different spelling that yields the same pronunciation) can sometimes be used as a pun as well as a "double entendre" of the subject.

Structure[link]

A person who is unfamiliar with the hidden or alternative meaning of a sentence may fail to detect its innuendos, aside from observing that others find it humorous for no apparent reason. Perhaps because it is not offensive to those who do not recognize it, innuendo is often used in sitcoms and other comedy considered suitable for children, who may enjoy the comedy while being oblivious to its second meanings. For example, Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing used this ploy to present a surface level description of the play as well as a pun on the Elizabethan use of "nothing" as slang for vagina.^[1]

A triple entendre is a phrase that can be understood in any of three ways, such as in the cover of the 1981 Rush album Moving Pictures. The left side of the front cover shows a moving company carrying paintings out of a building. On the right side, people are shown crying because the pictures carried by the movers are emotionally "moving". Finally, the back cover features a film crew making a "moving picture" of the whole scene.^[2] Another example can be observed in the 1995 film GoldenEye, in which the female villain is crushed to death between a tree, to which James Bond quips, "She always did enjoy a good squeeze." This references her death, her method of executing men (crushing them with her legs) and her sexual appetite.^[3] Another example is a sports bar at the bottom of 5th Street in Benicia, California, named "Bottom of the Fifth", referring to (1) the address, (2) baseball's fifth inning, and (3) a measure of consumption of a common quantity of alcoholic beverage.

In contrast, comedian Benny Hill, whose television shows included straightforward sexual gags, has been jokingly called "the master of the single entendre".^[4]

Etymology[link]

The expression comes from French double = "double" and entendre = "to hear" (but also "to understand"^[5]). However, the English formulation is a corruption of the authentic French expression à double entente.^[6] Modern French uses double sens instead; the phrase double entendre has no real meaning to a native French speaker.

The term "adianoeta" comes from Greek ἀδιανόητα and means "unintelligible".^[7]

Usage[link]

Literature[link]

The title of Damon Knight's story To Serve Man is a double entendre, it can mean "to perform a service for humanity" or "to serve a human as food". An alien cookbook with the title To Serve Man is featured in the story, implying that the aliens eat humans.

Examples of sexual innuendo and double-entendre occur in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (14th century), in which the Wife of Bath's Tale is laden with double entendres. The most famous of these may be her use of the word "queynte" to describe both domestic duties (from the homonym "quaint") and genitalia ("queynte" being a root of the modern English word cunt.)

The title of Sir Thomas More's 1516 fictional work Utopia is a double entendre because of the pun between two Greek-derived words that would have identical pronunciation: with his spelling, it means "no place"^[8] (as echoed later in Samuel Butler's later Erewhon); spelled as the rare word Eutopia, it is pronounced the same^[9] by English-speaking readers, but has the meaning "good place".

The poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley published in 1818, is an example of ironic double entendre. Looking upon the shattered ruins of a colossus, the traveler reads:

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

The speaker believes that the king's sole intended meaning of "despair" was that nobody could hope to equal his achievements, but the traveler seems to find another meaning—that the reader might "despair" to find that all beings are mortal, that king and peasant alike inevitably share oblivion in the sands of time.^[10] This portrayal of an unintended double entendre exemplifies a case of the double entendre as the poet's figure of speech. Earlier in the poem, the narrator says the face "lay in the sand", referring to the shattered statue. However, the barren wastland around, contrasted with the boastful statement, shows a double entendre.

In Homer's "The Odyssey", when Odysseus is captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, he tells the Cyclops that his name is Outis (No-one). When Odysseus attacks the Cyclops later that night and stabs him in the eye, the Cyclops runs out of his cave, yelling to the other cyclopes that "No-one has hurt me!", which leads the other cyclopes to take no action, allowing Odysseus and his men to escape.

Often, older media contain words or phrases that were innocuous at the time of publication, but have a more obscene or sexual meaning today, such as "have a gay old time" from The Flintstones ("gay" means "happy" in this context). One possibly intentional example is the character Charley Bates from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, frequently referred to as Master Bates. The word "masturbate" was in use when the book was written.

Stage performances[link]

Flax on a distaff

Shakespeare frequently used innuendos in his plays. Indeed, Sir Toby in Twelfth Night is seen saying, in reference to Sir Andrew's hair, that "it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off;" the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet says that her husband had told Juliet when she was learning to walk that "Yea, dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;", or is told the time by Mercutio: "for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon"; and in Hamlet, Hamlet torments Ophelia with a series of sexual puns, viz. "country" (similar to "cunt").

In the UK, starting in the 19th century, Victorian morality disallowed innuendo in the theatre as being unpleasant, particularly for the ladies in the audience. In music hall songs, on the other hand, innuendo remained very popular. Marie Lloyd's song 'She Sits Among The Cabbages And Peas' is an example of this. (Music hall in this context is to be compared with Variety, the one common, low-class and vulgar; the other demi-monde, worldly and sometimes chic.) In the 20th century there began to be a bit of a crackdown on lewdness, including some prosecutions. It was the job of the Lord Chamberlain to examine the scripts of all plays for indecency. Nevertheless, some comedians still continued to get away with it. Max Miller, famously, had two books of jokes, a white book and a blue book, and would ask his audience which book they wanted to hear stories from. If they chose the blue book, it was their own choice and he could feel reasonably secure he was not offending anyone.

Radio and television[link]

In Britain, innuendo humour did not transfer to radio or cinema at first, but eventually and progressively it began to filter through from the late 1950s and 1960s on. Particularly significant in this respect were the Carry On series of films and the BBC radio series Round the Horne, although this humor is carried because of the apparent "nonsense" language that the protagonists use but in fact are having a "rude" conversation in Polari (gay slang). Spike Milligan, writer of The Goon Show, remarked that a lot of blue innuendo came from serviceman's jokes, which most of the cast understood (they all had been soldiers) and many of the audience understood, but which passed over the heads of most of the BBC producers and directors, most of whom were "Officer class."

In 1968, the office of the Lord Chamberlain ceased to have responsibility for censoring live entertainment, after the Theatres Act 1968. By the 1970s innuendo had become widely pervasive across much of the British media, including sitcoms and radio comedy, such as I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Round the Horne. For example, in the 1970s series Are You Being Served?, Mrs. Slocombe frequently referred to her pet cat as her "pussy", apparently unaware of how easily her statement could be misinterpreted, such as "It's a wonder I'm here at all, you know. My pussy got soakin' wet. I had to dry it out in front of the fire before I left." Someone unfamiliar with sexual slang might find this statement funny simply because of the references to her cat, whereas generally a viewer would be expected to detect the innuendo ("pussy" is sexual slang for vulva).

Modern U.S. comedies like The Office do not hide the fact of adding sexual innuendos into the script. One repeated example comes from main character Michael Scott who often deploys the catch-phrase "that's what she said" after another character's innocent statement, to turn it retroactively into a sexual pun.

Movies[link]

Bawdy double entendres, such as "I'm the kinda girl who works for Paramount by day, and Fox all night", and "I feel like a million tonight—but only one at a time", were the trademark of Mae West, in her early-career vaudeville performances as well as in her later plays and movies.

Double entendres are popular in modern movies, as a way to conceal adult humour in a work aimed at general audiences. The James Bond films are rife with such humour. For example, in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), when Bond is disturbed by the telephone while in bed with a Danish girl, he explains to Moneypenny that he is busy "brushing up on a little Danish". Moneypenny responds in kind by pointing out that Bond was known as "a cunning linguist", a play on the word "cunnilingus". More obvious examples include Pussy Galore in Goldfinger and Holly Goodhead in Moonraker. The double entendres of the Bond films were parodied in the Austin Powers series.

Music[link]

Double entendres are very common in the titles and lyrics of pop songs, such as "If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me" by The Bellamy Brothers, which is based on an old Groucho Marx quote, where the person being talked to is asked, by one interpretation if they would be offended, and by the other, if they would press their body against the person doing the talking.

Songs in the blues style often employ double entendre. The first meaning is usually rather prosaic while the second meaning is risque. For example, Bessie Smith sang: "I want a little sugar in my bowl." It is clear that on one level she is referring to a sugar bowl, but the second or hidden meaning refers to her female genitalia; the sugar is a man's semen. Another blues double entendre refers to thoroughbred racing. "My daddy was no jockey oh but he could ride/My daddy was no jockey but sho' could ride. He said jes git in the middle and sway from side to side." Finally, a more recent blues song (circa the 1980s) contained the double entendre: "Granpa can't fly his kite because grandma won't give him no tail."

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, in his somewhat controversial song "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", repeats the line "Everybody must get stoned." In context, the phrase refers to the punishment of execution by stoning, as described in the Bible, but on another level it means to get stoned, a common slang term for being high on narcotics. AC/DC's unintended hit Big Balls off their album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap refers to ballroom dancing, but the lyrics suggest masturbation of the testicles. Sometimes, even when the prosaic meaning is more obvious, the risque one is thought of as the factual one; for example the humorous Bruce Springsteen song Pink Cadillac uses a pink Cadillac car as a metaphor for a woman's vagina. ZZ Top's song "Tush" uses the prosaic and risque meaning in exact equal portion, as in the band's native Texas "tush" has two meanings: when rhyming with "bush" refers to the female buttocks but when rhyming with "rush" is a slang term for "good enough" or "adequate".

During the 1940s, Benny Bell recorded several "party records" that contained double entendre including "Everybody Wants My Fanny" where the lyrics state "Everybody wants to seize my fanny, everybody likes to squeeze my fanny, they do everything to please my fanny, still she loves no one but me", where "Fanny" could be either a girl's name or a slang for someone's backside.

Conscious rap and other variations of rap music are known for several complex metaphors and double entendres.

Comics and pictoral[link]

The Finbarr Saunders strip in the British comic Viz is built around double entendres. It is one of Viz's longest running strips, often titled 'Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres'.

Donald McGill was the creator of many cartoon seaside postcards which used innuendo.

Social interaction[link]

Double entendres often arise in the replies given to inquiries. For example, the response to the question "What is the difference between ignorance and apathy?" would be "I don't know and I don't care". The dual meaning arises in the iteration (though from a first-person perspective) of the definitions of both terms within the reply ("I don't know" defining ignorance, and "I don't care" defining apathy). In the more obvious sense, the reply may simply indicate that the replier neither knows nor cares about what the difference is between the two words.

Another instance of double entendre involves responding to a seemingly innocuous sentence that could have a sexual meaning with the phrase "that's what she said". An example might be if one were to say "It's too big to fit in my mouth" upon being served a large sandwich, someone else could say "That's what she said," as if the statement were a reference to oral sex. This phrase was used in the "Wayne's World" Saturday Night Live skits, and was a recurring joke on the US sitcom The Office; it has in fact become so common among some young social circles in the United States and other countries that it is seen by some in those circles as something bordering on dumb and cliche. The phrase "...as the actress said to the bishop" is used in a similar way, usually in England.

United States military pilots often respond to any statement that might be construed as a double entendre with an erotic alternative meaning with the phrase "so to speak," much to the same effect as the Wayne's World reference above. So pervasive has the practice become that much verbal expression in some units is stilted or stylized to avoid any possibility of double entendre. For example, the word "head" (military term for a restroom, a term used to give or receive oral sex, as well as more common use to mean head of a person) is eschewed in favor of terms such as "cranium" or "brain housing group."^[11]

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Double entendres

Look up double entendre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Albur
• Coincidence
• Doublespeak
• Euphemism
• Iham
• Paraprosdokian
• Pun
• Spoonerism
• Said the actress to the bishop (also That's what she said)
• Word play
• The Blues

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

Mae West
Publicity photo for Night After Night (1932)
Born	Mary Jane West (1893-08-17)August 17, 1893 Bushwick, New York
Died	November 22, 1980(1980-11-22) (aged 87) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress, playwright, screenwriter, comedienne
Years active	1907–1978
Height	5'0" (152 cm)
Weight	121 lbs (54 kg)
Spouse	Frank Szatkus, stage name Frank Wallace (m.1911–1942) Guido Deiro (m.1914–1920; divorced)
Partner	Paul Novak (1954–1980)
Website
http://www.allaboutmae.com/

Mae West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980)^[1] was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades.

Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute named West 15th among the greatest female stars of all time. One of the more controversial movie stars of her day, West encountered many problems, including censorship. When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums. She used the alias Jane Mast early in her career.

Early life and career[link]

West was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, delivered at home by an aunt who was a midwife. She was the eldest surviving child of^[2][3][4] John Patrick West and Matilda "Tillie" Doelger (also known as Matilda Delker Doelger), who had emigrated with her family from Bavaria to the United States in 1886.^[5] West's parents married on January 18, 1889, in Brooklyn.

Her father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and then as a private investigator who ran his own agency.^[6] Her mother was a former corset and fashion model.^[7] The family was Protestant, although by some accounts West's mother was of partial Jewish descent.^[8][9] Her paternal grandmother was an Irish Catholic,^[10] and West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin, was African American.^[11]

Her eldest sibling, Katie, died in infancy. The other siblings were Mildred Katherine West (December 8, 1898 – March 12, 1982), known as Beverly, and John Edwin West, II (sometimes inaccurately referred to as "John Edwin West, Jr."; February 11, 1900 – October 12, 1964).^[12] During her childhood, West's family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, Queens, as well as Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn. She may have^{[clarification needed]} attended Erasmus Hall High School.^[13]

At five years old, West first entertained a crowd at a church social, and she started appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She often won prizes at local talent contests.^[14] She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907 at the age of fourteen.^[15] West first performed under the stage name Baby Mae,^[16] and tried various personas including a male impersonator,^[17] Sis Hopkins, and a blackface coon shouter.^[18] Her trademark walk was said^{[by whom?]} to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were famous during the Pansy Craze.^[19] Her first appearance in a Broadway show was in a 1911 revue A La Broadway put on by her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn. The show folded after just eight performances,^[20] but at 18, West had then been singled out and discovered by the New York Times.^[21] She next appeared in a show called Vera Violetta, whose cast featured Al Jolson. In 1912 she also appeared in the opening performance of "A Winsome Widow" as a 'baby vamp' named La Petite Daffy.^[22]

"Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" sheet music cover with portrait, 1918

Her photograph appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" in 1918. She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that whatever her daughter did was fantastic.^[23] However, other members of her family were less encouraging, including the aunt who delivered her, as well as her paternal grandmother. Along with certain other relatives, they are all reported as having disapproved of her career and her choices.^[10]

In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn.^[24] Her character Mayme danced the shimmy.^[25] Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast.^[26] Her first starring role on Broadway was in a play she titled Sex, which she also wrote, produced, and directed. Though critics hated the show, ticket sales were good. The notorious production did not go over well with city officials and the theater was raided with West arrested along with the cast.^[27]

She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to ten days for "corrupting the morals of youth."^[28] While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife and told reporters that she wore her silk underpants while serving time.^[29] She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention about the case enhanced her career.^[28] Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality and was what West called one of her "comedy-dramas of life".^[30] After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York.^[31] However, The Drag never opened on Broadway due to the Society for the Prevention of Vice vows to ban it if West attempted to stage it.^[32] West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, but stated she was not a feminist. She was also a supporter of gay rights.^[33]

West continued to write plays, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions were plagued by controversy and other problems, although the controversy ensured that West stayed in the news and most of the time this resulted in packed performances.^[34] Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit.^[35] This show enjoyed an enduring popularity and West would successfully revive it many times throughout the course of her career.^[36]

Motion pictures[link]

"Diamond Lil" returning to New York from Hollywood, 1933

In 1932, West was offered a motion picture contract by Paramount Pictures, when she was 38 years old, an unusual age to begin a movie career. However, West would keep her age ambiguous for several more years. She made her film debut in Night After Night starring George Raft. At first, she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes.^[37] In West's first scene, a hat check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds." West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie."^[38] Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras."^[38]

She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933).^[39] The film is also notable as one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead.^[40] The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.^[39][41] The success of the film most likely saved Paramount from bankruptcy.^[42]

Cary Grant and Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933)

Her next release, I'm No Angel (1933), paired her with Grant again. I'm No Angel was also a financial success, a film that proved to be her most successful film of her entire movie career.^[43] By 1933, West was the eighth-largest U.S. box office draw in the United States^[44] and, by 1935, the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst).^[45] On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced, and her screenplays were heavily edited.

West's next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). Originally titled It Ain't No Sin, the title was changed due to the censors' objections.^[46] Her next film, Goin' to Town (1935), received mixed reviews.^[47]

Screenshot of Mae West performing her burlesque dance in I'm No Angel (1933)

Her following effort, Klondike Annie (1936) dealt, as best it could given the heavy censorship, with religion and hypocrisy.^[48] Some critics called the film her screen masterpiece.^[49] That same year, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man. In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay.^[3][50] Directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, Young Man is considered one of West's weaker films of the era.^[51]

After Go West, Young Man West starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end. After Every Day's a Holiday finished as only a moderate success, West was put on a list of actors named "Box Office Poison" by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners Association. Others on the list were Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río, Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, and James Cagney. The attack was published as a paid advertisement in the Hollywood Reporter and was taken seriously by studio executives. The association argued that these stars' high salaries and extreme public popularity didn't affect their ticket sales and thus hurt the exhibitors.^[52]

In 1939, Universal Pictures approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields. The studio was eager to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart with a vehicle starring West and Fields.^[53] Having left Paramount eighteen months earlier and looking for a comeback film, West accepted the role of Flower Belle Lee in the film My Little Chickadee (1940).^[53][54] Despite their intense mutual dislike,^[55] and fights over the screenplay,^[53] My Little Chickadee was a moderate box office success, but the film outgrossed Fields's previous film, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939), and the later The Bank Dick (1940).^[56]

West's next film was The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia Pictures. She initially didn't want to do the film but after producer and director Gregory Ratoff pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she didn't, West relented.^[57] The film opened to bad reviews and failed at the box office. West did not return to films until 1970.^[58]

Radio[link]

On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour.^[59] By this point in her career, West's fame was fading and she was on the show hoping to promote her latest film, Every Day's a Holiday.^[60] Appearing as herself, West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, using her usual brand of wit and risqué sexual references. West referred to Charlie as "all wood and a yard long" and commented that his kisses gave her splinters.^[61]

Even more outrageous was a sketch written by Arch Oboler that starred West and Don Ameche as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. She told Ameche in the show to "get me a big one... I feel like doin' a big apple!"^[61] Days after the broadcast, NBC received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene".^[62] Women's clubs and Catholic groups admonished the show's sponsor, Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company, for "prostituting" their services for allowing "impurity [to] invade the air".^[59] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) later deemed the broadcast "vulgar and indecent" and "far below even the minimum standard which should control in the selection and production of broadcast programs".^[63] There is some debate regarding the reaction to the skit, however. Mainstream reaction was not as swift as that of Catholics. Some claim that Catholic groups already had it in for Mae West; they despised her sexual image and warned the sponsor of the program they were planning to protest.^[64] Nevertheless, the incident is known as one of the first cases where radio programming faced claims of indecency from the FCC.

NBC personally blamed West for the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations.^[65] They claimed it was not the content of the skit, but West's tonal inflections that gave it the controversial context.^[60] West would not perform in radio for another twelve years until January 1950, in an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club hosted by Perry Como.^[66]

Middle years[link]

Mae West in 1953

After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West remained active during the ensuing years. Among her stage performances was the title role in Catherine was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she spoofed the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors.^[67] The play was produced by Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances.^[68] In the 1950s, she also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders.^[69] Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West's muscle men, a former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay.^[70]

When casting the role of Norma Desmond for the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder offered West, then nearing 60, the role. West turned down the part. Wilder later said, "The idea of [casting] Mae West was idiotic because we only had to talk to her to find out that she thought she was as great, as desirable, as sexy as she had ever been."^[71] Gloria Swanson was eventually cast in the role.^[72]

In 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson.^[73] In 1959, she released her autobiography entitled Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, which went on to become a best seller.^[74]

Later career and final years[link]

West made some rare appearances on television, including The Red Skelton Show in 1960. In 1964, she guest starred on the sitcom Mister Ed.^[75] In order to keep her appeal fresh with younger generations, she recorded two rock and roll albums, Way Out West and Wild Christmas in the late 1960s.^[76] She also recorded a number of parody songs including "Santa, Come Up to See Me"^[77] on the album Wild Christmas.^[78]

West arriving to the 1978 opening of Sextette, her last film

After a 26-year absence from motion pictures, West appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small part. The movie was a deliberately campy sex change comedy that was both a box office and critical failure. Vidal later called the film "an awful joke".^[79] Despite Myra Breckinridge's mainstream failure, it did find an audience on the cult film circuit where West's films were regularly screened and West herself was dubbed "the queen of camp".^[80]

West recorded another album in the 1970s on MGM Records titled Great Balls of Fire, which covered songs by The Doors among others.^[81] Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished.^[82]

In 1976, she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show^[83] and that same year began work on her final film, Sextette (1978). Adapted from a script written by West, daily revisions and disagreements hampered production from the beginning.^[84] Due to the numerous changes, West agreed to have her lines fed to her through a speaker concealed in her wig.^[85] Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through.^[85] In spite of her determination, Hughes noted that West sometimes appeared disoriented and forgetful and found it difficult to follow his directions.^[85] Her now failing eyesight also made navigating around the set difficult.^[85] Hughes eventually began shooting her from the waist up to hide the out-of-shot production assistant crawling on the floor, guiding her around the set.^[86] Upon its release, Sextette was a critical and commercial failure.^[87]

West family crypt at Cypress Hills Cemetery, with Mae at top

In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, West was unable to speak and was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke.^[88] She remained in the hospital where, seven days later, she had a diabetic reaction to the formula in her feeding tube. On September 18, she suffered a second stroke which left her right side paralyzed and developed pneumonia. By November, her condition had improved, but the prognosis was not good and she was sent home.^[88] She died there on November 22, 1980, at age 87.^[89]

A private service was held in the Old North Church replica, in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980.^[90][91] Bishop Andre Penachio, who was also a friend, officiated at the entombment in the family grave at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn, purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother were also entombed there before her, and her younger sister was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months after West's death.^[87][92][93]

For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.

Personal life[link]

West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Szatkus,^[94] stage name Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she first met in 1909. She was 17, he was 21.^[95] West kept the marriage a secret.^[96] But in 1935, after West had made several hit movies, a filing clerk discovered West's marriage certificate and alerted the press.^[97] An affidavit in which she had declared herself married, which she made during the Sex trial in 1927, was also uncovered.^[98] At first, West denied ever marrying Wallace but finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they had been married.^[99] Even though the marriage was a reality, she never lived with Wallace as husband and wife. She insisted they have separate bedrooms and she soon sent him away in a show of his own in order to get rid of him. She obtained a legal divorce on July 21, 1942, during which Wallace withdrew his request for separate maintenance, and West testified that she and Wallace had lived together for only "several weeks."^[100] The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943.^[101]

West may also have had another secret marriage. In August 1913, she met an Italian-born Vaudeville headliner and star of the piano-accordion, Guido Deiro. Her affair went "[v]ery deep, hittin' on all the emotions. You can't get too hot over anybody unless there's somethin' that goes along with the sex act, can you?"^[102] Deiro fell in love with West and arranged his bookings so that the two traveled together. They became engaged in either late 1913 or early 1914.^[103][104] Some sources reported the pair were married.^{[105][106][107]} During a 1935 radio broadcast Walter Winchell incorrectly reported that Mae West had been married to Guido's brother, Pietro. Walter Wincher, a writer for Accordion News magazine, corrected the error: "In a recent radio broadcast, Walter Winchell conveyed the information that Pietro Deiro had been married to Mae West for four years. As one Walter to another, I must set him right. Pietro was never married to the 'come up and see me sometime' girl. Guido Deiro, his brother, was supposed to be the fortunate accordionist."^[108]

West made no public statements indicating that she had been married to Deiro. She referred to him simply as "D" in her autobiography. West's biographers state that the two never married.^{[109][110][111][112][113][114]} West and Deiro split in 1916.^{[115][116][117]}

Deiro's son claimed that years later Mae West privately revealed to him that she had become pregnant by Guido, and had an abortion without his knowledge, resulting in complications which left her sick for nearly a year and ultimately unable to bear children.^[118]

According to Deiro's biographer, West filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920.^[119] The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9 of that year.^[120] West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution yet."^[121]

West in 1973, by Allan Warren.

Mae West remained close to her family throughout her life and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930.^[122] In that year, she moved to Hollywood and into the penthouse at the historic Ravenswood apartment building (where she would live until her death in 1980).^[123] After she began her movie career, her sister, brother and father followed her there. West provided them with nearby homes and also jobs and sometimes financial support.^[124]

Another person whom West spent her life with was attorney James Timony. She met Timony, who was fifteen years her senior, in 1916 when she was a vaudeville actress. They became romantically involved and he also began to act as her manager. By the mid-1930s when West was an established movie actress, they were no longer a couple. However, they remained extremely close, living in the same building, working together, and providing support for each other, until Timony's death in 1954.^[125]

A year later, when she was 61, Mae West became romantically involved with one of the musclemen in her Las Vegas stage show, wrestler, former Mr. California, and former merchant marine Chester Rybonski^[126] (1923–1999). He was thirty years younger than West, and later changed his name to Paul Novak. He soon moved in with her and their romance continued until West died at the age of 87 in 1980.^[127][128] Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West."^[129] West also had many other boyfriends throughout her life. One was boxing champion William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones. When the management at her apartment building discriminated against the African-American boxer and barred his entry, West solved the problem by buying the building.^[130]

In popular culture[link]

The "Four Ladies of Hollywood" gazebo at the western border of the Walk of Fame: Mae West, Dolores del Río, Dorothy Dandridge and Anna May Wong.

• During World War II, Allied aircrew called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae Wests" partly from rhyming slang for "breasts"^[131] and "life vest" and partly because of the resemblance to her torso. A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction (partial inversion) which contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of an extraordinarily large brassiere.^[132]

• West has been the subject of songs, such as in the title song of Cole Porter's Broadway musical Anything Goes and in "You're the Top", from the same show.^[133]

• One of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement was the Mae West Lips Sofa, which was completed by artist Salvador Dalí in 1938 for Edward James^[134]

• When approached for permission to allow her likeness on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, West initially refused stating that she would never be in a "Lonely Heart's Club". The Beatles wrote her a personal letter declaring themselves great admirers of the star and persuaded her to change her mind.^[135]

• Mae West has a statue at Hollywood-La Brea Boulevard in Los Angeles, designed by Catherine Hardwicke built to honor of multi-ethnic leading ladies of the cinema together with Dolores del Rio, Dorothy Dandridge and Anna May Wong.

Broadway stage[link]

Other plays as writer

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Albums:

• 1956: The Fabulous Mae West; Decca D/DL-79016 (several reissues up to 2006)
• 1960: W.C. Fields His Only Recording Plus 8 Songs by Mae West; Proscenium PR 22
• 1966: Way Out West; Tower T/ST-5028
• 1966: Wild Christmas; Dragonet LPDG-48
• 1970: The Original Voice Tracks from Her Greatest Movies; Decca D/DL-791/76
• 1970: Mae West & W.C. Fields Side by Side; Harmony HS 11374/HS 11405
• 1972: Great Balls of Fire; MGM SE 4869
• 1974: Original Radio Broadcasts; Mark 56 Records 643
• 1987/1995: Sixteen Sultry Songs Sung by Mae West Queen of Sex; Rosetta RR 1315
• 1996: I'm No Angel; Jasmine CD 04980 102
• 2006: The Fabulous: Rev-Ola CR Rev 181

At least 21 singles (78 rpm and 45 rpm) also were released from 1933 to 1973.

Bibliography[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mae West

• West, Mae (1930). Babe Gordon. The Macaulay Company.  (the novel on which The Constant Sinner was based)
• West, Mae (1932). Diamond Lil. Caxton House.  (novelization of play)
• West, Mae (1959, revised 1970). Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It. Prentice-Hall. 
• West, Mae (1975). Mae West On Sex, Health and ESP. W. H. Allen. ISBN 0-491-01613-1. 
• West, Mae (1975). Pleasure Man. Dell Pub. Co. 
• West, Mae; Joseph Weintraub (1967). The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West. G. P. Putnam. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mae West

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Mae West

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mae West

• Official website
• Mae West at the Internet Movie Database
• Mae West at the TCM Movie Database
• Mae West at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photographs and literature