I’d like to know something about actress Mae West.
—Grace McIntyre, Carnegie, Pa.
The vaudeville child star, born Mary Jane West in Brooklyn, N.Y., grew up to become the most controversial actress of her era. Her self-penned 1928 play, Diamond Lil, made her a Broadway sensation, and with a plot and title change, became her first big Hollywood film, She Done Him Wrong, in 1933. She went on to star in I’m No Angel, Belle of the Nineties, Klondike Annie, Go West, Young Man and My Little Chickadee. Decades later, West took her act to Las Vegas, where she was a hit with her fabulous costumes, sexy double entendres, saucy songs and a chorus of weightlifters wearing loincloths. She died in 1980 at age 87 after a series of strokes.
