Add to wish list | Link to this book | Add your own review | Add to My Bookbag

Click on this books subject categories to see related titles:
Subjects > Biography & autobiography > General
Subjects > Biography & autobiography > Entertainment & performing arts
Subjects > Biography & autobiography > Rich & famous
Subjects > Biography & autobiography > General > Biography
Subjects > Biography & autobiography > Entertainment & performing arts > Motion picture actors and actresses
Subjects > Motion picture actors and actresses - biography
Subjects > West, mae



About This Book:

Title: Becoming Mae West

Other Available Formats:
Paperback, 2000
Hardcover, 2001

Synopsis
This first intensive biography of Mae West focuses on the creative, dynamic, sexually adventurous young woman who took control of her own performances--from the vaudeville days to her legitimate stage career to her box office successes as a Hollywood star. It is also a window on the history of American urban entertainment, especially its love-hate relationship with sex.

Details
Language:        English

Size
Length:        431 Pages
Weight:        1.8 Pounds
Height:         10 Inches
Width:          6.5 Inches
Thickness:    1.5 Inches



Publisher Notes
Mae West loved big cities, form-fitting clothes, lipstick, jazz, sex in taxis, intrigue, gun-toting bootleggers, boxers lathered in sweat, and cops who read her the riot act. Born in Brooklyn in 1893, she was the child of a former bare-knuckles boxer and an immigrant whose aspirations made her a classic stage mother. Baby Mae was performing by age five; by the time she was twenty, she was a seasoned trouper on the Keith vaudeville circuit and had begun to write her own material. When prudery squelched her as a vaudeville headline, she moved to the more cosmopolitan legitimate stage. Here, too, censors tried to shut her down, but the headlines sparked by obscenity trials for her plays Sex and The Pleasure Man catapulted her instead to box office success and Hollywood. There, in 1933, she was credited with restoring a sick box office and reviving the moribund Paramount Studio. But when bluenoses struck once again, this time the formidable Hays Office, her career suffered a blow from which it would never completely recover. This first intensive biography of Mae West focuses not on the kitsch of her later years but rather on the dynamic, creative, sexually adventurous young woman who took aggressive control of her own performances and in the process made her face and form among the world's most famous. It is also a window on the history of American urban entertainment, and especially on its love-hate relationship with sex.



Industry Reviews
"A vibrant story of a star's life and times--not just for the movie buffs."
(04/01/1997)
"An admirable record of an extraordinary life, Leider's lively, detailed style creating an almost documentary feel for what it meant to be a stage performer in the first third of the century, especially one who insisted on doing things her way, without apologies."
(06/01/1997)
"Leider has gotten a good way toward what appears to be the truth about Mae West."
(06/29/1997)
"Exhaustive research, fine writing, and a keen appreciation of Mae West's own bawdy wit inform this energetic and erudite biography of the flamboyant vaudeville, theater, and film star."
(05/05/1997)


Show Amazon Customer Reviews

Book Details Summary: The title of this book is Becoming Mae West and it was written by Emily Worth Leider. This edition of Becoming Mae West is in a Hardcover format. This books publish date is June 1997 and it has a suggested retail price of $30. There are 431 pages in the book and it was published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. The 10 digit ISBN is 0374109591 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9780374109592. For the most current lowest price, Click Here.