Episode Details

Mae West was arrested for obscenity, spent ten days in jail, and used the publicity to become the highest-paid woman in America. She wrote her own scripts, controlled her own image, and turned sexual innuendo into an art form so profitable that she single-handedly saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy during the Depression.

This episode traces West from her vaudeville childhood through her Broadway obscenity trial, her Hollywood career, and the careful self-invention that made her a cultural icon for over sixty years.

• She was arrested in 1927 for her Broadway play Sex and served ten days in jail on obscenity charges
• She saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy during the Great Depression with the box office success of her films
• She wrote most of her own dialogue and scripts, maintaining creative control rare for any actor of her era
• Her line "Come up and see me sometime" became one of the most quoted phrases in American popular culture