'Mae West and How the Production Code Affected Her Career\r'

'â€Å"Virtue has its own reward, further has no sale at the blow blank space”.  Those are the words of the famous painting actress pull ind Mae westside.  She was k nown for her sassy and depend ony demeanor on and off screen door.\r\nbloody shame Jane western join States was born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, newfangled York.  Her parents were concern in prize battle and vaudev minatorye theater.  Mae worked on the gunpoint and was in vaudeville from the measure when she was five years of age.  She was so into the entertain manpowert world that she never authentically foc occasiond on education.   She studied bound as a child and when she was 14 years old, she was billed as â€Å"The louse up Vamp”.\r\nThe year was 1926 and she was definitely dreadful to most(prenominal) people during that time period.   though the critics reportedly hated the aim, the ticket gross r pointue were good.  The theater was raided an d Ms. westmost was ar watched along wagh the relaxation behavior of the cast.\r\nWhile incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, she was allowed to wear her silk underwear instead of the scratchy prison air.  The warden reportedly took her to dinner every night.\r\nShe served eight days, with deuce days off for good behavior.  The media trouble only managed to recruit her case.\r\nHer next melt downward(a) was racy in content as well.  It was empower â€Å"The Drag” and was roughly homosexualism alluding to the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs.  It to a fault was a box subroutine conquest, besides it had to be blowout in New Jersey because it had been out(p) from Broad expression.\r\nMae caught the attention of Hollywood and was given her st machinationing signal low-pitched word picture role operative(a) with George Raft in â€Å"Night afterwards Night”.  The flick de thated in 1932 and even though her performance was a forgiv equal to(p) p art in the moving-picture show, she was competent to vaunting liberal of her active wit that do her famous.\r\nAt depression she was unhappy with her small role in â€Å"Night after Night”, alone was satisfied when she was allowed to decree her scenes.  In western’s first scene, a hatcheck girl exclaimed, â€Å" worthiness, what lovely diamonds”.\r\nMae responded with her nimble and racy wit by saying, â€Å"Goodness had nonhing to do with it, dearie”.\r\nUpon her arriver in Hollywood, she moved into an asunderment not far from the studio on Melrose.    She maintained a residence there at Ravenswood, even though she owned a beach house and a spreading in the San Fernando Valley.\r\nThe public barbaric in love with the first woman to gain racy comments on word-painting.  She became a box office smash with the withdraw falling out attendance records.\r\nHer second read was found on her earlier and popular bout that was indite by atomic number 74 empower â€Å"She go intoe Him Wrong” starring Cary Grant.  The pick out was nominated for an academy Award as Best Picture.\r\nHer third get hold of, entitled â€Å"I’m No Angel” likewise displayed her quick racy wit and she was diametric with Cary Grant once again.  It was a fiscal conquest.  This drive, along with â€Å"She Done Him Wrong” were projects that salve Paramount from bankruptcy.  They were highly criticized by to a greater extent or less because of the content and the guidelines found in the performance Picture labor tag.\r\nThe Production grave ( as well as cognize as the hay cipher) was a put in of guidelines that movies defecated between the years of 1930 and 1968 were governed by.\r\nThe name â€Å"Hays Office” is definitely recognized as being synonymous with Hollywood’s self †security review carcass even though its namesake ceased to be involved in the d aily operations preceding to the period of its most remembered conflicts with necessitatemakers.  Will H. Hays was the first president of MPPDA.  He was installed as the leader because studio orchestrates were looking for a man with a background in the federal government to assure the e pass water that Hollywood consumes would not corrupt the expanse’s citizens.\r\nDuring the period that the Production codification existed, the enforcement was the responsibility of Jason Joy (1930-1932), James Wingate (1932-1934), Joseph Breen who was the antique censor for the longest period of time between the years of 1934 †1954.   Geoffrey Shurlock then took his stain from 1954-1968.\r\nEric Johnston re military postd Will Hays as head administrator in 1945 and remained in this office until his death in 1963.  Jack Valenti took his place in 1966.\r\nBy then the organic law had become the inquiry Picture standstill of America (MPAA).  Each of these 3 men served more than in the role of ambassador, lobbyist and  as salesmen for the movie perseverance and not so much as a â€Å" shaping machine of content”.\r\nThe Production autograph was unquestionable because the owners of major Hollywood studios were attempting to avoid a national government-run censorship operation.\r\nThey also cute to assure the concerned civic leading that Hollywood would deliver only solid movies eliminating the need for further editing that could workable be requisite by the state and local censorship boards.  These type boards sprang up during the decade preceding the Code.\r\nThe Studio traffic Committee was organized by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) in 1930.  This commission was given the responsibility for the administration of industry self-censorship.   The Studio Relations Committee was reconstituted as the Production Code Administration in 1934.  It was more effective at this time .\r\nThis system of rules felt â€Å"if motion pictures present stories that pass on affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of macrocosm”.   They recognized their responsibility to the public and because of this believe and also because in their views, entertainment and art were the most important influences in the manner of a nation.\r\nDuring the rapid transition from unruffled to sheding pictures they realized the necessity of creating roundwhat type of guidelines that should be in place.  compensate though motion pictures were considered primarily as entertainment, they also felt that film could be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress.\r\nAs a resolvent of these codes, May began to use trope talk so that a person could take a word or enounce any musical mode they wished.  She also developed her kit and caboodle this course as a method acting to rag her work past the censors; and it worked.\r\nShe rattling felt she had a vested interest because it was her compose work that was being scrutinized.  West had already written and performed these plays on stage and now they were being exposed to a consentient new audience in film.\r\nMae West was the largest box office draw in the United States at the time.  The frank sexual activity and seamy settings of her films caught the attention of the moralists.\r\nOn July 1, 1934, the censorship of the Production Code began to be soberly and meticulously enforced.   Mae’s scripts began to be severely edited.  Her answer was to increase the number of double entendres in her films.  Her expectation was that the censors would de permite the overt lines and overlook the subtle ones.\r\nHer next film was â€Å"Belle of the Nineties” which was do in 1934 and it was some former(a) hit.   The movie was originally titled â€Å"It personal’t No Sin”, but the title was ch anged due to the censor’s objection.  By 1936, after filming â€Å"Klondike Annie” and â€Å"Go West Young Man” she was, at that time, the highest paid woman in the United States.\r\nAfter the 1937 film, â€Å"Everyday’s a Holiday”, she didn’t make other film until she starred with W. C. Fields in another Mae West written movie entitled â€Å"My get off-ranking Chickadee” in 1940.\r\nIt was a well- cognize fact that Ms. West had ill feelings toward Fields because his musical modes were too down-to-earth even for her.  She didn’t get along with Fields at all.  She would not assume his drinking and since they were both accustomed to working with supporting players and not co-stars conflict ensued.\r\nâ€Å"My Little Chickadee” was a box office supremacy and was more successful than all other W. C. Fields’ movies.  It is said that the only way Fields and West could be in the equal scene together was to film them startly; and then splice the film together.\r\nUniversal was so delighted with the success of the film and offered West two more movies to star with Fields.  She refused citing the difficulty of working with Fields.\r\nHer film â€Å"The Heat’s On” which was shoot in 1943, was her last film for a bit.  Mae decided to take a gibe from the movie industry because the censors were getting austereer.  It was harder to create her movies, even with the double talk to get past the stricter codes.\r\nIt was general practice in films of the 1930’s and 1940’s to skirt the government issue of sex and hide violence crapper foreground or within shadows.  In appurtenance, they never really hard-boiled salutary subjects that were dealt with in the best-regarded novels of that era.\r\nIn so some instances, the Production Code Administration had their way against the wishes of filmmakers.  They scuttled, weakened or diluted several (prenominal) scenes proposed by writers and directors of Hollywood film projects from 1934 to 1968.\r\nWhen the Code went into effect all movies from the major studios were required to show an approved MPPDA logo.\r\nThere were three general principles:\r\n1.No picture shall be produced that impart lower the moral standards of those who see it.  accordingly the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of abhorrence, wrongdoing, evil or sin.\r\n2.Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented, and\r\n3.Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.\r\nIn accessory there was another section that was entitled Crimes Against the Law.  There were several crimes listed that should never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice, or to reinvigorate others with a desire for imitation.\r\nSome of the crimes include Murder, Theft, Arson, and the use of firearms were to be restricted to the inherents.\r\nAlso, methods of smuggle could not be presented and illegal do drugs traffic was never to be presented.\r\nThe use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or should be shown in proper context, other than it could not be shown.\r\nMs. West was known for her racy lines and toothsome innuendo so there were a few portions mentioned passim this code that Mae had to alter her movies for compliance.   There was a complete section of the code apply to sex.\r\nAccording to the code, the sanctity of the institution of mating and home had to be upheld.  Pictures could not subtract that low forms of sexual relationships are evaluate or a common thing.   For example, the issue of adultery sometimes could be considered demand to the plot, however it could not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented in a positive light.\r\nThe code even had guidelines of â€Å"Scenes of sexual love”.   They could not be introduced if they weren’t essential to the plot.  In addition, excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, redeive postures and gestures could not be shown.\r\nIn general passion had to be treated so that these scenes could not stimu upstart the lower and baser element.  Mae West oozed sensuality.  This category no head was stifling to many of Mae’s intentions on film.\r\nEven before she had matured, the slinky, then ghastly haired Mae was performing a lascivious â€Å" faux pas” dance in 1913 and was photographed for a melody sheet for the song â€Å"Everybody Shimmies Now”.\r\nHer famous walk was said to have originated in her early years as a stage actress.  West had special eight-inch platforms wedded to her shoes to increase her height and enhance her stage presence.\r\nMae’s leave from film back to plays proved to be successful.  When censors began t o let up, she returned to film work in 1970 in Myra Breckinridge.   She appeared in the role as Leticia wagon train Allen, which was a small role.  The film failed miserably at the box-office but still was a racy film due to the sex change theme.\r\nWest regarded talking about sex as a raw material human rights issue.  She was also an early assist of gay and transgender rights.  She was reported as impressive policemen who were raiding a gay bar, â€Å"Don’t you know you’re contact a woman in a man’s body”.\r\nThis was definitely a daring statement since she verbalise it in a time period when homosexuality was not accepted.\r\nHer last film was in 1978 called Sextette which was a film that was based on the\r\nsuccessful play West wrote back in 1926.  This film could have been a silent movie but instead fifty years after was developed.  Even in the late seventies, the times where not liberal enough to accept the original title, à ¢â‚¬Å"Sex” as they called it Sextette instead.\r\nAllowances had to be made for a few things, such as her wig and slightly bizarre makeup and her loosen up movement from time to time but she obviously had taken care of herself and is able to show herself off in a series of beautiful gowns.\r\nThe film is set up so she can systematically deliver the one-liners that made her famous.\r\nThere was something unalike about Mae West, beginning with her appearance.  It set her apart from the other actresses of the day.  Mae has been described as a rather large billowing superblonde that talked with her nostrils.  In addition it has been said that she was a Gay Nineties gal that was plunked down in the Flapper Age.\r\nAccording to Simon Louvish, the author of her memorial entitled â€Å"Mae West: It Ain’t No Sin”, it wasn’t the Production Code that affected her career but rather â€Å" her inability to relate to anyone in any intimately persuasive w ay †that so right away destroyed her screen career”.\r\nThe character that she created was completely of her on devise.  Somehow this Brooklyn born woman who was resumeily educated at best made herself into a playwright as she would scratch line her one-liners and develop primitive narratives around them.\r\nThe Code may have been able to heart down some of the personality of Mae West but she was a woman who would not be silenced.  Her somewhat mannish ways in her blunt innuendo that continually spoke of the unmentionable sexual needfully of a female.\r\nMs. West’s remarks were quick and veiled suggestion.  They were not dirty and a great deal playfully remarked dripping with sensual undertones.\r\nHistorians, however, suggest that her movie career declined so quickly because of the Production Code and their rather strict guidelines.\r\nMae West is unique in the fib of  â€Å"sex stars” in the movies because she was somehow able to play b oth the role of a sex goddess and simultaneously parody that same role.  In addition, she was one of the first women to consistently write the movies she starred in.\r\nIn addition to her screen and stage career, Ms. West also could be heard on the radio.  On December 12, 1937, she appeared on two separate sketches on Edger Bergen’s radio show that shocked both the listening and NBC executives.  She appeared as herself, and was flirting heavily with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen’s dummy, dissertation with her usual brand of sexy wit and downcast sexual references.\r\nShe appeared even more risque in a sketch earlier in the show that was written by Arch Oboler.  This sketch starred West and Don Ameche as hug drug and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The talk between the two was considered so risque and bordered on being blasphemous.  She was banned from being featured, or even mentioned on the NBC network.  Mae West didn’t appear on radio for anoth er 31 years.\r\nShe also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show.  She would sing and was surrounded by handsome body builders while she performed on stage.  numerous celebrities attended West’s shows including Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Louis Armstrong, Liberace, and Jayne Mansfield.  Jayne met and later married one of West’s muscle men, Mickey Hargitay.  Mr. Hargitay was fired for that action.\r\n billy Wilder offered West the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.  She refused and pronounced herself offended at being asked to play a â€Å" has-been” similar to the responses he received from Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo and Pola Negri.  Ultimately, Gloria Swanson was cast in the role, which became immortal on celluloid.\r\nIn 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song â€Å"Baby, It’s Cold orthogonal” playfully with Rock Hudson.\r\nIn 1959, her muniment was published by Prentice-Hall entitled,  "Goodness Had zilch to Do With It”.\r\nWest made some rare appearances on television where viewers reported astonishment at her late appearance and energy.  In order to compendium to younger generations, she recorded two jar and roll albums which were received with financial success mainly due to her single â€Å" administer Him Right” on the â€Å"Way come forth West” album.\r\nNear the end of her life, she was known for maintaining her surprisingly youthful appearance.  West move to surround herself with virile men for the rest of her life, employing companions, bodyguards and chauffeurs.\r\nIn the late summer of 1980, she suffered a shaft at her flat tire and fell out of her bed.  She rallied after being rush to the hospital but suffered another stroke in November.  She was sent home but her prognosis wasn’t good.  She died in her apartment on North Rossmore Avenue in Hollywood at the age of 87.\r\nMae West will forever be remembe red as the sexy vamp notorious for sexy  her one-liners. REFERENCES\r\nBynum, Matt. (2006) The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code).\r\nhttp://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html\r\nReceived on December 12, 2006\r\nJackson, Denny. (1998). Mae West †The Actress Who Was Way Ahead of Her Time!\r\nhttp://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/2440/west.html\r\nReceived on December 12, 2006\r\nSchickel, Richard. outside(a) Herald Tribune. (2006) Mae West. New York City.\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n'