Mae West was born 1893, the daughter of Matilda, an Austrian corset model and Jack ,who was a small time boxer. Growing up in Bushwick , Brooklyn and she had a dialect that became a part of her persona. West began to travel and perform mostly around 1911, starting in revues and eventually burlesque incorporating her own voice and exuding confidence. West's career started as a shimmie, suggestive dancing; then accompanied by singing which started her career and added to her seductive charms onstage, this was later used in her Broadway plays and films; depending upon the character she played. Her real success was in the films that made her famous, allowing West to write and have a say in the roles she wanted to portray.

The first attempt at play writing was in 1921 titled The Ruby Ring, and then in 1922 she and Adeline Leizbach, a screen writer collaborated on The Hussy. In these and other writings West was wise cracking, intelligent and impossible to resist. Mae West made twelve films in forty- six years, but had several blockbusters. She died on November 22, 1980, at the age of eighty-seven. A New York Times article was written about her death the and put to print the following day entitled Mae West, Stage and Movie Star Who Burlesqued Sex, Dies at 87.
(Three Plays by Mae West), (http://www.nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/articles/west1.html), (Too Much of a Good Thing).