MAE WEST Inside Her WILD, WONDERFUL LIFE

THE LEGENDARY ACTRESS OF STAGE AND SCREEN FOUND SUCCESS AND LOVE-ON HER OWN TERMS

Mae West liked to be seen. As a precocious 7-year-old, she stepped onto the stage at the Royal Theatre in her native Brooklyn, N.Y., for a talent contest and immediately caused a fuss. "I looked up angrily at the spotlight man in the balcony, stamping my foot. 'Where is my spotlight?" she wrote in her autobiography. "I stamped it again and the spotlight moved across the stage onto me." She won the contest. And Mae ensured the spotlight stayed on her for the rest of her life - one way or another.

She's best remembered as a glamorous, ribald actress who easily tossed off one-liners like, "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." But Mae remained a magnetic figure into her 80s, largely because of her less-known work behind the scenes. She stayed laser-focused on cultivating her image and began writing plays to suit her - two of which got her arrested on obscenity charges!