We discuss Mae West - her transgressive and contradictory negotiations of gender, sexuality, class and ethnicity, her body image and her incredible film costumes and extravagant jewels. See links below.
Lowell Sherman (director), Edith Head (costume designer, uncredited), ‘She done him wrong’ (1933): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024548/
Wes Ruggles (director), Travis Banton (costume designer), ‘I’m No Angel’ (1933): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024166/fullcredits
Leo McCarey (director), Travis Banton (costume designer), ‘Belle of the Nineties’ (1934): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024873/
Jill Watts, ‘Mae West: An Icon in Black and White’, Oxford University Press (2003):
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mae-west-9780195161120
Mae West speaks at UCLA (5 December 1971): https://comm.ucla.edu/content/speaker-series-mae-west-5121971
FIDM Museum, ‘Mae West’ (14 August 2009): https://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2009/08/mae-west.html
Bert Williams, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038860/
Cait Miller, ‘Celebrating Bessie Smith: “Empress of the Blues”’, In the Muse - Performing Arts Blog, Library of Congress (30 April 2018): https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2018/04/celebrating-bessie-smith-empress-of-the-blues/
Jacob Bagwell, Anjelica Huston and Peter Lester, ‘New Again: Mae West’, Interview Magazine (11 December 2013, first published in 1974): https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/new-again-mae-west