Mae West

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine St.

Mae West was born 1892 in Brooklyn, New York, to "Battling Jack" West and Matilda Doelger. She began her career as a child star in vaudeville, and later went on to write her own plays, including "SEX", for which she was arrested.

Graduated from Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School in 1911, as did silent film star Norma Talmadge.

Playing opposite Ed Wynn in Arthur Hammerstein's "Sometime," with music by Rudolf Friml, she introduced the shimmy to the Broadway stage in 1918. The dance requires hardly any movement of the feet but continuous movement of the shoulders, torso and pelvis. She had seen the dance at black cafés in Chicago.

Guido Deiro claims that West married his father, Guido Deiro, in 1914 under an assumed name, Catherine Mae Belle West, and on the condition of secrecy. West filed for divorce from Deiro on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9, 1920.

The comedy entitled "Sex" she wrote in 1926 revived in NY, off Broadway, Dec. 1999.

In April 1927 she was convicted of "producing an immoral play", the title of which was "Sex". She was sentenced to ten days in jail in New York City, but was given one day off for good behavior.

Her films are credited with single-handedly saving failing and debt-ridden Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy in the early 1930s.

Though her first movie role, at age 40, was a small part in Night After Night (1932), her scene has become famous. A coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it". Her next film, in which she starred, came the following year.

She Done Him Wrong (1933) was based on her earlier and very popular play, "Diamond Lil".

After two years of denying that she had ever been married, West admitted in a reply to a legal interrogatory in 1937 that she and Frank Wallace had married in 1911. During her divorce trial in 1942, she testified that they had lived together only "several weeks".

She went on to write and star in seven more films, including My Little Chickadee (1940) with W. C. Fields.

Was in consideration for the part of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950) but Gloria Swanson, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.

Hollywood's outrageous, self-proclaimed psychic Criswell predicted in 1955 that she would win the 1960 Presidential election, and would fly to the moon in 1965 with him and friend Liberace!.

Turned down a role in Roustabout (1964), which eventually went to Barbara Stanwyck.

Her last movie was Sextette (1977), which also came from a play.

Is portrayed by Ann Jillian in Mae West (1982) and by Gloria Gray in Marlene (2000)