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1
Is her humor, with its innuendo, too hot for the air?
Mae West!
For four years, that name has been the biggest news name in Hollywood. A single item about this amazing woman, who swept into Hollywood in a small part in Night After Night, was certain news all over the world. No woman so wholly captivated the motion picture industry, as did Mae.
And yet, today, you hear her name mentioned less and less. Even the Mae West stories — those little sayings with their naughty twists — have disappeared into Hollywood's shadows. Her contract has not been renewed with Paramount and no other company has rushed to sign her on the dotted line, at least at her salary.
I recently asked a Hollywood executive why Mae West had not signed again immediately. He shrugged. "She wanted too much money. There's a limit to pay, even in Hollywood and when you reach it, you might as well stop hollering for more. She got the most and then she wanted more.
"Mae wouldn't compromise, so she's out. Of course, if she comes down . . . You can tell Hollywood just so long and then Hollywood starts telling you. And when Hollywood makes up its mind . . . say, there isn't a single person out here bigger than the industry itself. Mae made a hit. She cashed in. But she reached the top. Artists never know when they've gone the limit. This uisiness ran before Mae West came into it. It'll run lfter she's out. Unless she's sensible, she'll find she's lefinitely through in pictures." Perhaps he's wrong, but as this is written Mae is not working in a picture and hasn't for several months — which always is a bad omen for any Hollywood actor. If Mae West has reached the top in motion pictures — what next?
Retirement ? Personal appearances ? Pictures in England? Radio?
No one who knows
Mae personally can think of her retiring. She once told me her life-story. She explained in detail how she had made herself into an institution, an institution dedicated to .success.
She once loved a man. Loved him madly.
"I learned will power, then," she said, "I learned determination. It took a lot of both — to say goodbye to him. But success takes the same thing. I tell you, I had to talk to myself over and over and over ... I learned to sell myself to myself, if you get me. I can do it, today. When I see a man I might like and know he might interfere with my career, I can sell myself out of the idea of liking him. From the time of that one man, I have thought only of Mae West. I have thought only of myself — as I am to the public. Men have been important only as they could help me to help that Mae West, the one who belongs to the public."
No, I cannot think of Mae's retiring, despite the fact that she has much money. Did you know that she has carried her checks personally to the bank every Wednesday morning since she's been in, Hollywood? She's saved more than any star I know. She lives today in the same apartment house into which she moved upon her arrival. She thought of buying a house but told me: "Decided against it. Can save more this way." And anybody can call her through the house telephone. She might miss a business call, if they couldn't.
Personal appearances ? Naturally, she could make a vast fortune in a very short time. A stop-gap, perhaps. But there is nothing per ^ (Continued on page 74)
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