Mae West: It Ain't No Sin

by Simon Louvish

Book Overview

Enlightening and exhaustively researched biography that makes use of her recently uncovered personal papers. Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312348789
• ISBN13: 9780312348786
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 491 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Fan

Like just about everything that has to do with Mae West. Nothing new here other than her actual plays being highlighted, reviewed so to speak. Risque in her day and a fascinating personality. Her dedication to herself and herself only was amazing, though it would seem lonely to me to dote on myself ALL the time.

Enjoyable read

This biography chronicles Mae West's life and achievements very well. However, the author's writing style could have used some editing to avoid repetetive phrasing and over-use of "as we shall see". A fact checker might also have helped since the New York hotel mentioned as being on the site of Mae's old theatre is not called the "Marquess Marriott". It's the Marriott Marquis. I know because I worked there a few years after it opened. One would think a British author would be better versed in noble titles. But back to Mae. This book shows just how hard Mae West worked at her craft in order to make everything she did seem effortless. She was a dedicated performer and this book does a better job than most in conveying that fact.

Stretching the limits of permissibility

Mae West provided civil libertarians with new limits for permissible discourse at a prudish moment in US history. Louvish presents the cases brought before the courts in which she stretched what was allowed to appear on stage and in print. I found this the most fascinating part of the book, making it a must for those who want to know more about US censorship and its nefarious effects on artistic creativity. The amazing thing is that Mae persisted in the face of harrowing restrictions that would have daunted anyone else. Louvish's chronicle of how she faced the censors, and thrived anyway, is a study in courage in the face of state controls. The research is thorough and revealing as he presents Mae West as a crusader against censorship of any kind. The fact that she continued her career despite major restrictions placed on her scripts attests to her fighting spirit. Behind this dolled up woman was a steeled professional.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

Simon Louvish's biography of Mae West, "It Ain't No Sin" is a workmanlike examination of a remarkable show woman's career that spanned the entire gamut of 20 Century showbusiness from vaudeville, the Broadway stage, talkies, sound recordings, Las Vegas, and eventually television. Placing the accomplishments of this extraordinary performing artist in chronological order and making sence of her impact at the time and beyond represents a yoman's task, which for the most past, Mr. Louvish is well prepared. It is disappointing that the much ballyhooed entree to "her previously unaccessed papers" offers so little insight to the workings of her mind. However Mr. Louvish does point out that Mae West spent a lot of time pushing the pen well into the wee hours of the night polishing and perfecting her craft , giving her adoring public the impression that she was pushing against something mightier than the proverbial pen. Mae West endured well past her initial Hollywood prime and continued to thrill new audiences well into the 1950's, Sixties and Seventies. Unfortunately, this aspect of her career and life are skipped over lightly. Mae West flowered during the Free Love Generation of the 1960's and became a cultural icon that outgrew her initial camp second coming. Her contribution to Gay Liberation and the legions of fans gay, hetrosexual and try anything who befriended and encouraged her in the later stages of her career are sadly overlooked. Perhaps this is because Mr. Louvish did not have the time available to dig beyond the surface in regards to this remarkable period of her public and private persona. I have had the remarkable good luck to become acquainted with many of Mae West's "gay mafia" and been privy to many of the remarkable adventures they shared with her. Through the stories her confidantes related during the last two decades of her life, one comes to understand the truly personable and lovely individual Mae West really was. It is my hope that my manuscript, "Saint Mae Our Lady Of Hips & Quips", researched over a ten year span, will eventually find a publisher, and give Mae West's adoring public another aspect of this truly unique individual, who was like a diamond in her ability to focus light on the facet of her life she wanted seen at any given time. In the meantime, Mr. Louvish's tome is as good a read on Mae West currently available, and is well worth having in your personal library.

GOODNESS HAD EVERYTING TO DO WITH IT

She loved to push the envelope . . . and push it she did. There was her highly publicized arrest in NYC on moral charges and a 10-day jail stay, but few people know that Mae West pushed that #10 a bit too far on radio---a 1937 sketch about Adam and Eve (she was Eve, Don Ameche, Adam) was so far out of bounds that she was barred from NBC and did not appear on radio again for 31 years. Proof, indeed, that when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was better. Simon Louvish's biography of the sexpot is a detailed, unapologetic work on the woman who reinvented herself artistically while constantly maintaining an aura of sexuality uncommon in public display at that time. Enlightening and exhaustively researched (this is the first West bio to make use of her recently uncovered personal papers), but the publisher still has done her wrong: The reproduction of the photos is dismal and distracting.