Mae West: Dirty Blonde 

Mae West: Dirty Blonde explores the life and eight-decade career of groundbreaking writer, performer, and subversive movie star Mae West. The film is the first to explore West’s controversial rise to become a writer, performer, and subversive agitator for social change.  

West’s career spanned the business of entertainment. She was a full-time actress at seven, a vaudevillian at 14, a dancing sensation at 25, a Broadway playwright at 33, a silver screen ingenue at 40, a Vegas nightclub act at 62, a recording artist at 73, and a camp icon at 84. Her creative and economic powers were unheard of for a female entertainer in the 1930s, and she grappled with some of the more complex social issues of the 20th century—including race and class tensions, gender conformity, societal restrictions, and what she perceived to be moral hypocrisy.  

Watch the documentary online at PBS American Masters.