Mae West : dirty blonde
Languages
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, English descriptive audio.
Publication Information
[Arlington, Virginia] : PBS Distribution, [2020]
Physical Description
1 videodisc (approximately 85 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
Audience
Not rated.
Added Uniform Title
Summary
Mae West achieved great acclaim in every entertainment medium that existed during her lifetime, spanning eight decades of the twentieth century. A full-time actress at seven, a vaudevillian at 14, a dancing sensation at 25, a Broadway playwright at 33, a silver screen ingenue at 40, a Vegas nightclub act at 62, a recording artist at 73, a camp icon at 85--West left no format unconquered. She possessed creative and economic powers unheard of for a female entertainer in the 1930s and still rare today. Though she was a comedian, West grappled with some of the more complex social issues of the 20th century, including race and class tensions, and imbued even her most salacious plotlines with commentary about gender conformity, societal restrictions and what she perceived as moral hypocrisy. Mae West: Dirty Blonde is the first major documentary film to explore West's life and career, as she "climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong" to become a writer, performer, and subversive agitator for social change.
Notes
Title from container.
Originally broadcast on PBS as part of the series American Masters in 2020.
Bonus features: Birth of the talkies ; The 1890s ; Mae's modern counterparts.