When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment [Paperback]

Marybeth Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520210948 | ISBN-13: 978-0520210943 | Publication Date: December 8, 1997 | Edition: 1

In a world of trendsetting film icons, few are more familiar than Mae West. Yet for all her public controversy, West is also a mystery. Marybeth Hamilton combines elements of biography, cultural analysis, and social history to unmask West and reveal her commercial savvy, willpower, and truly shocking theatrical transgressions.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mae West is one of the best-known celebrities of the 20th century; she is a cultural symbol that, 65 years after her heyday, continues to be remembered, imitated, and mocked. Yet how is it possible to know Mae West? She left no diaries, no letters. Her ghostwritten biography is inaccurate. The image she created in interviews and in plays and movies offers only slanted insight into her personal life. Acknowledging all of this, Marybeth Hamilton has created a unique biography that focuses as much on the impact of West's public persona as it does on speculations about her private self. Hamilton's take on Mae West is particularly interesting when she focuses on West's appeal to gay culture and the idea, which originated as long ago as the 1930s, that West was a female impersonator.

From The New Yorker

"The most reliably sober and informative of the recent crop of West studies, Marybeth Hamilton's [book] pinpoints West's startling transformation from frank man-hating to easy sexual mockery."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520210948
• ISBN-13: 978-0520210943
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #746,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cheap ploy, August 23, 2008

By 

Kavity Killer (denver, colorado United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment (Paperback)

The author has stumbled onto a gimmicky trick to get herself published, but one as old as time: Iconoclasty. In other words, she picks a subject almost at random. Today its delta blues music, tomorrow its Mae West. Next week it might be The Beatles or Picasso. It doesn't matter. Then write a book "shattering" everyones image of said topic. Wow, see how wrong you were about that. I must be a great author to point that out. Problem is, its all in her head. Why only a few reviews of each of her books? Because not many people give her any credibility. Even less care. Notice the cliche'd academic style title too: Statement, colon, three words. Always three words. Here's a title for you, I'm Trying Too Hard: Academia, Pretension, and the Desperate Need to Get Published.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent description of those vaudeville days, March 27, 2007

By 

Ace (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment (Paperback)

Made me wish I was there back then to see some of those (now) obscure and (now) little-remembered performers!

Although the book follows Mae's career, and reveals her exceptional talent and her extremely creative ability to be able to Think On the Run and/or In the Paddy Wagon, (so to speak) it does not give us the essence or the character of Mae the Woman. In many places it bogs down with critical analysis instead of narrative.

However, I DID find it interesting enough to read through to the end, AND the book piqued my interest enough to make me go to my local library and pick up other books on Mae West that have more of her "personality" in them.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Mae, September 4, 2001

By 

damon devine (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment (Paperback)

This book uncovers every detail of Mae Wests early career. Though Hamilton seems to accent on the negative, those who love Mae West will relish in the new details and great photos. The author is the exact opposite of Mae West, one can easlily surmise, so every triumpth of West's is quickly dashed with a failure, indicating an almost peciliar jealousy on behalf of the author towards her subject! THAT is what makes this book so interesting.