Show Notes
“Come up and listen sometime.” Mae West was an icon of old Hollywood. She has been impersonated by The Looney Tunes and Drag Queens alike. She was a woman who was so ahead of her time that her comedy holds up to this day. She was an actress, writer, and producer who wrote her own material - and sometimes that material was SO controversial that she wound up having to go to court over it. We are talking about the one and only Mae West as we get into her enduring legacy, her impressive career, and her court case over sex. That was the title of her script, not like a court case over whether or not she could have. Because I’m pretty sure she did…a lot. Listen to her wild adventures in and out of show business.
This episode originally aired on Grab Bag Collab earlier in 2026. Directora was created by Stephanie Weber, who researches, writes, records, edits, and hosts every episode. Artwork by Brock Alter.
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Sources:
American Masters: Mae West: Dirty Blonde. PBS. Season 34. June 16, 2020.
Chandler, Charlotte. She Always Knew How: A Personal Biography of Mae West. Applause Publishers. March 1, 2010.
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her. Directed by Gene Feldman and Suzette Winter. PBS Documentary 1994. Wombat Productions.
Longworth, Karina. "Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon: Mae West". You Must Remember This. December 3, 2018.
West, Mae. Edited by Schlissel, Lillian. Three Plays By Mae West. Taylor and Francis, LTD. 1997.
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