Mae West: "Dirt" Plays

During December 1925 and January 1926, MAE WEST and her collaborator Adeline Leitzbach were expanding a sketch "Following the Fleet" into a three act play under the working title of "The Albatross." The action followed Margy LaMont, a prostitute from Montreal’s red light district as she traveled to Trinidad and the well-helled mansions of Westchester County, New York. Energized by her bold waterfront vixen, West revealed that ideas flowed forth — — and covered paper bags, stationery, envelopes, and old scraps of paper that she forwarded to Timony’s secretaries for transcription. It was a sprawling band concert of a narrative, a might busy and messy story with the center act given over to a musical night club frolic.
• • Eventually, this 3-act drama was retitled.
• • In her play "Sex," Mae West broke with Broadway's middle-class moralities and the fey tradition of "off-shore sex" by making sin a domestic product. She set her brothel scenes not in the South Seas but squarely in North America (Canada); the final scenes were set in tony Connecticut.
• • During Prohibition, sin was in and the Gay White Way was no exception, noticed Mae.
• • The rialto was frequently overrun with crowd-pleasing "dirt plays," shows such as John Colton's "Shanghai Gesture" [Martin Beck Theatre, 1926], starring Florence Reed in the role of an Oriental madam Mother Goddam — — an occidental overlord who presided over an elaborate bordello with specialty suites such as the Gallery of Laughing Dolls. Other examples were "The Half Caste" [1926], "White Cargo" [1924], and "Lulu Belle" [1926].
• • Sin, however, had a black syntax. The subtle subtext of the "dirt play" was retribution. All of these theatre pieces obeyed an unwritten rule: fallen women had to suffer and repent. And these exotic tanned temptresses were always positioned in foreign lands — — Samoa and the South Pacific being popular as the pants seat of Satan's circus.
• • Theatre-goers were in for other surprises, though, when "Sex" by Jane Mast debuted at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre on 26 April 1926.
• • According to Brooklyn College Professor Lillian Schlissel, "Sex" was an amateur effort with echoes of O'Neill's "Anna Christie." . . . But no playwright had ever attacked "respectable women" from the stage before. Margy accuses Clara, the "society lady," of being a whore in disguise. "She's one of those respectable dames who . . . is looking for the first chance to cheat without being found out." And later, "I'll bet without this beautiful home, without money, and without any restrictions, you'd be worse than I have ever been. . . . The only difference between us is that you could afford to give it away." Margy goes on, "I'll remember this night as long as I live. And if I ever get a chance, I'll get even with you, you dirty charity. I'll get even." Margy's anger is one of the startling apects of the play." [From Three Plays by Mae West edited by Lillian Schlissel, N.Y.: Routledge, 1997].
• • Before Mae West's play was closed down by the New York City cops, urged into compliance by the non-uniformed "purity police" (i.e., The Society for the Suppression of Vice), "Sex" had run for 339 performances — — and been seen by over 300,000 adults.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" is based on true events during 1926-1932 when Mae West was arrested and jailed for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Michael DiMotta • • Mae West star of SEX • • 1927 • •
NYC
Mae West.