Ain't She Sweet! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Prizefighter; corset model

After his fighting career was over, Mae's father John became a private detective. Her mother Matilda, who had show business aspirations, became a stereotypical stage mother, putting Mae on the stage at age three. Her father objected until he learned that one could get paid by performing.

Then he was OK with it. Mae's mother continued to be a presence long into Mae's vaudeville career, taking up such tasks as sewing her costumes.

Answer: The "It" girl

Her first performances were as Baby Mae. In some programs she was listed as Jane Mast and as playwright. She also performed as a black-faced minstrel. Many of the acts involved 'shimmy dancing', being the butt of comedians, and some singing. At eighteen she hit Broadway in a flop musical which she got good reviews that essentially kick-started her career.

Silent film star Clara Bow was the "It" girl.

Answer: False

At the height of her fame, her biographers say she was about five feet tall and weighed around 120 pounds. Of course, as time passed her dimensions changed. To look at her early films, you might imagine a taller, plumper woman. But she was always bigger than life.

Answer: Sex

"Sex" ran for 375 performances until closed by police in February 1927. It is estimated that over 325,000 people saw it. It was the talk of New York and was attended by many members of the power elite of the city. West was charged with obscenity. She was sentenced to ten days in a workhouse and fined $500.

While at the workhouse, she dined with the warden, wore her sexiest lingerie, and got two days off for good behavior. The resulting publicity enhanced her career.

Answer: Diamond Lil

In 1933, Mae West took "Diamond Lil" to the movies. Hollywood, in its corporate wisdom, changed the name to "She Done Him Wrong". It was nominated for an Oscar as Best Picture. At just over an hour in length, it was the shortest film to be so nominated at the time. She hired a young actor that she saw on the lot and gave him his first major role. In the film West says to him the famous line, "I always did like a man in a uniform. That one fits you grand. Why don't you come up sometime and see me? I'm home every evening". The actor was Cary Grant.

Answer: Implementation of the "Hays Code"

Films made from the beginning of the sound era to the implementation of the Hays Office Code are called "pre-code". During this era, film producers were expected to censor their own film. These films dealt with sex, sexual identity, scantly clad women, and risque plots. Mae West thrived in this era. When the heavy censorship hammer fell in 1935, films had to conform to the so-called 'code'. Among the many codes were that married couples, if filmed in bed, must be in twin beds. If couples kissed, the man must have one foot on the floor. And so on.

The Hays Office set a target on "Klondike Annie" (1935), a film based on a play West wrote in 1921. West had become a symbol of the type of film that the office was trying to control. About ten minutes were completely cut by censors. In one scene, West trades clothes with a nun in order to elude being arrested. West then was the nun; the nun became the prostitute.

West was always grateful to the censors. If a line was censored, Mae would ad-lib a naughtier one. If a scene was cut, she would have it re-filmed with more innuendo. Without the help of censors, she commented, no one would know who she was.

Answer: One

Only the one. They were alike in many ways, so much so that there were conflicts. Both were used to either writing the script or rewriting to their talents. Both were used to having their way with direction.

The pair is best when the two are not in a scene with each other. According to "Modern Drunkard's Magazine": "Mae West was a teetotaler, and she had a clause written into her contract that allowed her to shut down the set if she ever caught Fields drunk. Stories vary as to whether she ever acted upon it, but everyone agrees that Fields continued to drink unabated throughout the shoot". In one scene he drinks Mae's perfume.

Answer: Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.

Dorothy Parker owns the non-West quote.

Here are a few of other Mae West quotes for your consideration:

"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it".


"Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you".

"I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it".

Answer: Salvador Dali

In 1937 Dali departed from his surrealist painting to engage in furniture design. The sofa, patterned after West's lips, was done at the bequest of one of Dali's patrons, Edward James. It measured 86.5 x 183 x 81.5 cm and was solid red. Five were made. Three have been owned by the Edward James Foundation. The Brighton Art Gallery and Museum bought one; the other was acquired by a private collector.

Fliers during World War Two wore inflatable life preserver jackets that they called "Mae Wests", an allusion to Mae's figure.

Catherine Hardwicke designed a gazebo at Hollywood-La Brea Boulevard to honor multi-ethnic leading ladies of films. Mae West is the American, Dolores Del Rio the Latin, Dorothy Dandridge the Black, and Anna May Wong the Oriental.

Answer: Myra Breckenridge

The movie was a flop. It lost millions at the box office. There was a lot of tension on the set as the director often sat for hours to ponder out the next step. West and Raquel Welch did not get along. Shirley Temple and Loretta Young sued to have scenes from their movies removed. In addition, by this time Mae was more a caricature of her former self.

Her last film in 1978 was "Sextette", based on her Broadway play of 1926. After some difficulty getting it distributed, it earned very little money before being withdrawn. West could not remember her lines so an ear piece was put in her ear to feed her the lines. Mae claimed that only thing she could hear were police calls.

In 1976 Mae West made her classic appearance on Dick Cavett's talk show. Mae got a chance to recite some of her best one-liners while Cavett seemed almost in awe of her presence.