Mae West (Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon Episode 12) /
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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!
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