Article: Come Up and Signify Me: Mae West Meets Academia.(Arts&Entertainment)(Review)

Byline: Robert Gottlieb

Mae West: An Icon in Black and White, by Jill Watts. Oxford University Press, 362 pages, $35.

Poor Mae West! First, struggling up the hard way--the not-quite-savory background, burlesque, vaudeville; notoriety (well, she enjoyed that); sneered at by the classy side of Broadway and later of Hollywood (Miriam Hopkins huffed of her own films and West's: "They don't belong in the same conversation or category"); slow artistic and box-office death at the hands of the Hays Office; desperate attempts to reassert her appeal; the ghastly Myra Breckinridge (when she thought they were offering her Myra, she turned it down: "I like my sexes ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!