Mae West: Endurance

On 4 May 1938 The New York Journal American labelled Mae West a box-office poisonality. But the actress's reputation recovered and endured. The poet Emily Wortis Leider described MAE WEST's status as a cultural icon in her book BECOMING MAE WEST [NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997]. Here is an excerpt.
• • It could be argued that by the time MAE WEST and Paramount Pictures parted company her career had been damaged beyond repair. But by another reckoning she had no reason to worry. Her status as a cultural icon had become so securely ensconced by the late thirties that it remained invulnerable, safe in a place where no Joseph Breen or William Randolph Hearst could dislodge it.
• • From the movies she had already made, the world knew what she looked like, how she walked and talked. Many could quote at least one of her signature lines. . . .
• • Source for this text: Becoming Mae West by Emily Wortis Leider
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West • • sketched by Mark Summers • •
NYC
Mae West.