Customer Reviews

Mae West: Empress of Sex

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mae West: Empress of Sex by Maurice Leonard is a spirited account of the wild, serenely-brazen, sex-drenched life of Americas's foremost 1930's sex goddess Mae West. Saucy Miss West was born in 1893 in Brooklyn, New York , a gal with nerve to spare. Although in many ways still a product of the times, West was an autonomous, calculating cookie that knew the power of image and scandal in generating a stage career. Leonard shows West at the black clubs of 1920's New York City studying the outrageously sexy dances of the black crowd, doing her best to capture their moves, and then introducing those moves as her own to a properly shocked, white Broadway audience. West wrote her own stage and movie material; she felt she knew what was right for her better than anyone else. She wrote plays, books, and screenplays dealing with the forbidden topics of homosexuality(The Drag), and sex (The Constant Sinner). She had a taste for musclemen, handsome black studs and wayward lawless thugs. She generally never met a man she didn't like. Leonard's tome on West shows a woman who liked to be in control, control of her career, her men, and delusionally time itself. (She believed she looked twenty-six while in her eighties.) This book is a must read for all West's fans.

Mae West: Empress of Sex by Maurice Leonard is a spirited account of the wild, serenely-brazen, sex-drenched life of Americas's foremost 1930's sex goddess Mae West. Saucy Miss West was born in 1893 in Brooklyn, New York , a gal with nerve to spare. Although in many ways still a product of the times, West was an autonomous, calculating cookie that knew the power of image and scandal in generating a stage career. Leonard shows West at the black clubs of 1920's New York City studying the outrageously sexy dances of the black crowd, doing her best to capture their moves, and then introducing those moves as her own to a properly shocked, white Broadway audience. West wrote her own stage and movie material; she felt she knew what was right for her better than anyone else. She wrote plays, books, and screenplays dealing with the forbidden topics of homosexuality(The Drag), and sex (The Constant Sinner). She had a taste for musclemen, handsome black studs and wayward, lawless thugs. She generally never met a man she didn't like. Leonard's tome on West shows a woman who liked to be in control, control of her career, her men, and delusionally time itself. (She believed she looked twenty-six while in her eighties.) This book is a must read for all West's fans.

Originally published in Great Britain and later distributed in the colonies, The Empress of Sex, by Maurice Leonard, was a welcome addition to the rather staid Mae West biographies available at the time. Leonard, a British television producer, flew to Los Angeles and spent considerable time interviewing some of Mae West's gay entourage in order to give his book a sensational slant.
One inner circle devotee, extremely upset at not being interviewed, at the time living in the desert as a virtual recluse and changing his phone number every few months, publicly denounced this intriguing examination as "utter trash and a pack of lies," when he was promoting his own pictorial tribute to Ms West.
Although well-researched and documented, this fascinating study failed to capture the imagination of Mae West fans, and was sadly overlooked, in part due to Leonard's dry British wit. Pity, because it's a jolly good read.

This book gives you real insight into Mae West's life and personality. While there are some errors in the captions under a few photographs, it is all well researched and very entertaining. I have read it more than twice...

The book about Mae West was good. I enjoyed all of it. It was funny, touching and very entertaining. I recommend it highly.