Becoming Mae West [Hardcover]

Emily Wortis Leider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997

Presents a provocative portrait of the early life of the dynamic actress whose scandalous career transformed the entertainment and film industry of the 1920s and 1930s and made her into a cultural icon, in a biography complemented by thirty-two pages of photographs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

She was the Madonna of her time, parlaying a modest talent into international celebrity with a carefully cultivated, outsized personality and an unerring instinct for just how outrageous to be without alienating her audience. Mae West (1893-1980) crafted the persona that made her the biggest movie star of the early 1930s during her vaudeville and Broadway apprenticeship. Those formative years are the subject of this absorbing cultural biography, which closes in 1938 when Paramount dropped her contract. A generous sampling of West one-liners adds sparkle to the text.

From Library Journal

Leider (California's Daughter: Gertrude Atherton & Her Times, LJ 11/15/90) traces West's development from child performer to coltish shimmy dancer to the drawling, wise-cracking persona recognized today. The author's focus on West's early career allows her to examine significant changes in American culture as the population became predominantly urban and the new media of film and radio began encroaching on established forms of entertainment. Yet the heart of the story is West, already a veteran performer with over 30 years' experience when she arrived in Hollywood. But once West honed her persona, she was reluctant to deviate from the successful formula, stifling her arresting creativity and originality. This combined with perennial censorship problems caused the decades-long break in her film career. Recommended for large public libraries and subject collections.?Marianne Cawley, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore, Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 431 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T); 1st edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374109591
• ISBN-13: 978-0374109592
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mae West: A Self-Made Woman, July 4, 2000

By 

Frank Cullen "Frank Cullen, American Vaudevil... (formerly Boston, MA and now Edgewood, New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Mae West (Paperback)

"Becoming Mae West" is simply the best book written about the star because it is focused and meticulously researched, employing primary sources when available. Ms Leider's book has the authority without sacrificing readability; the author writes well. The fascinating part of West's life is how she cobbled together an act and a personality that is an amalgam of Police Gazette melodrama, the comic camp of female impressionist Bert Savoy, and the daring sexual style and musical sense of the great African American blues women. Mae West's sense of possibilities allowed her to transform herself from a pudgy Jewish/Irish girl with more guts than talent into a blond sex symbol of amazonian proportions (okay, she used six inch platform shoes) who refined the rough soubrette type into a witty American icon. Emily Leider tells this story well. For those who wanted the dirt on West's declining decades, Ms. Leider sketches it in to complete the tale. But as Leider warns the reader, it was the act of Becoming Mae West that prompted her to write this book, not the effort of a woman entrapped by her creation to preserve it. Highly recommended.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's the Life in your Book that Counts, February 26, 1999

By 

Anthony J DAguanno - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Mae West (Hardcover)

Having read several books about Mae West already, I was caught a bit off guard by the content of Ms. Leider's fine biography. I went into the book expecting a straightforward tale of the escapades of Miss West's illustrious career, but was handed a different deck of cards all together. The atmoshere of early 20th Century New York is so wonderfully depicted, that I felt like I was off in another time and place while reading. Leider expertly weaves in and out of the tale of Miss West's life story and the culture of the time with such finesse, that I didn't realize I was getting a history lesson at the same time. There is so much more to this novel than the biographical nature of it. Everything from early Broadway to Hollywood and the changes in societal norms is handled superbly. Mae West was a fascinating person all on her own. This novel supports the legend while making its own mark as well. This novel is by far the most superior book on her that I have come across. I would venture to guess that even non-fans will find it extremely good reading.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mae West: Real to Reel, July 12, 2000

By 

Frank Cullen "Frank Cullen, American Vaudevil... (formerly Boston, MA and now Edgewood, New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Mae West (Paperback)

Emily Wortis Leider has written a biography of Mae West that is more than a rehash of her films and a retelling of her famous lines. Leider writes well and entertainingly and has researched her subject conscientiously. The result is a clearer picture of who Mae West was as a person and how she "became" the character that became her. Leider states her intention early and clearly. While her bio does cover West's entire life, her films and her efforts to remain an icon, Leider is more interested in how the little girl from Brooklyn became a musical soubrette, a vaudeville star, a playwright and stellar star of stage and screen. Along the way we get revealing glimpses into the show business of the early 20th century, America's social attitudes and the personal rebellions that would emerge into movements. Highly recommmeded.