DUSTING=20 THE
MAE = WEST
MEMORIAL
LIBRARY
Her first play, = Sex, had already run for over 300 performances at Daly=92s = Theatre, =20 New York, before it was raided by police on the grounds that it might be = "corrupting the morals of youth, or=20 others".
Her term was served =
in Welfare=20
Island Women=92s Work House, a granite fortress built by convicts, its =
location is=20
now called Roosevelt Island.
Upon completing her = prison=20 sentence, she announced that she would in future devote some of her time = to=20 philanthropy, especially to getting jobs for some of the unfortunates = whom she=20 met on Welfare Island.
She started =
by a=20
donation of $1,000 to the Mae West Memorial Library in the Women=92s =
House of=20
Detention. This donation was the fee she received for a magazine article =
she=20
wrote on her experiences there.
tattered drug addicts, wasting = and=20 prematurely aged
a spinster type with a =
long scar on=20
the side of her face and neck
she spoke with an Irish=20
accent
sentenced to 10=20
days for stealing a $3.89 pair of shoes
a black woman of comely =
personality,=20
her presence gave them all a lift
Mae was permitted to = take her=20 meals in the warden's home. Six other convicts worked there, and Mae = asked each=20 of them about their paths to prison.
Mae's article in = Parade=20 magazine 1929: For years I have been devoting my career in the theater to = education=20 of the masses to certain sex truths. My last four plays, Sex, = Pleasure Man,=20 Drag and Diamond Lil have all dealt with major, vital sex=20 problems
Mae = speaking to the=20 press on her next stage production, Drag :
Some = of our best=20 people have been in jail
I was really the=20 director.
Nobody could tell me how = to be=20 me
Copyright Christine Kennedy = 2003
All photos and web show design copyright to Christine Kennedy
Source material on Mae West from the following = publications:
=91Peel Me a Grape=92
Ed. =
Joseph=20
Wientraub
Futura Publications Limited, Aylesbury 1975
=91Day with Mae=92 by Count
Deluxe =
No. 2,=20
1978
London, H.M. Schneider Deluxe Publications Ltd
Too Much of a Good Thing: Mae West =
as=20
Cultural Icon
Ramona Curry
University of Minnesota Press, =
Minneapolis=20
1996
Becoming Mae West
Emily =
Wortis=20
Leider
Farrar Strauss Giroux, NY 1997
Three Plays by Mae West: Sex, The =
Drag, The=20
Pleasure Man
Ed. Lillian Schlissel
Nick Hern Books, London=20
1997