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Today we begin part two of our season, Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon. Mae West was the biggest new star in Hollywood in 1933, thanks to two hit films she co-wrote and starred in as a sexually implicit, wisecracking broad who romanced a young Cary Grant. In Hollywood Babylon, Anger credits West’s abrupt decline in movies to a coordinated conspiracy organized by William Randolph Hearst and carried out by the Hays Office. Today we’ll explore West’s background, her history of pushing the censors past the limits of legality, and the truth of her lightning-fast rise in Hollywood and somewhat slower descent back to earth. Featuring special guest Natasha Lyonne!
SHOW NOTES:
Sources:
Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger
Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It by Mae West
Becoming Mae West by Emily Wortis Leider
She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler
Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration by Thomas Doherty
The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code by Leonard J. Leff
Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. The outro song this week is “I’m No Angel” by Mae West.
Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:
One Two Three 4 - Peter Sandberg
One Two Three 5 - Peter Sandberg
My Simple Thing 2 - Peter Sandberg
Up We Go 4 - Peter Sandberg
Yellow Leaves 5 - Peter Sandberg
Eventually Maybe - Oakwood Station
Say It Is So - Magnus Ringblom Quartet
In The Lounge 02 - Lars Olvmyr
In The Lounge 05 - Lars Olvmyr
City Fashion 3 - Björn Skogsberg
Tomorrow I'll Be Gone - Franz Gordon
Corny Local Restaurants 2 - Magnus Ringblom
Goofy Moments 3 - Magnus Ringblom
Sophisticated Gentlemen 2 - Magnus Ringblom
Bachelor On The Move 4 - Martin Landh
Thieves Adventures 21 - Magnus Ringblom
Club Noir 2 - John Åhlin
Mae West and Grant in I'm No Angel (1933)
Credits:
This episode was written, narrated and produced by Karina Longworth.
Editor: Cameron Drews.
Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.
Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.
Logo design: Teddy Blanks.
Mae West, shot by Diane Arbus, c. 1965