@peacewriter51
On this date in 1927, MAE WEST was prosecuted on morals charges, and sentenced to 10 days for "corrupting the morals of youth" for her New York stage play entitled "Sex" (April 19th 1927) 
In the mid-1920s, Mary Jane West began writing risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast.
@peacewriter51
The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from some religious groups, and the theatre was raided, with West arrested along with the cast.
She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House, (now Jefferson Market Library), where she was prosecuted.
Though West could have paid a fine and been let off, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner.
While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife; she told reporters that she had worn her silk panties while serving time, in lieu of the "burlap" the other girls had to wear.
West got great mileage from this jail stint. She served eight days with two days off for "good behavior". Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong".
The video here features several classic scenes from her films that I've upscaled and colourised from the black and white originals.
Buxom actress Mae West employed clever double-entendres throughout the course of her long career on stage and screen.
More than once she managed to squeeze something suggestive past the eagle eyes and ears of her rigid censors, and her public came to adore her for it. In fact she boasted of the feat, saying, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."
Similarly, the titles of West's recordings veered toward the suggestive and risqué. The Rosetta Records release Mae West Sings Sultry Songs includes such numbers as "A Guy That Takes His Time," "Easy Rider," and "Pardon Me for Loving and Running."
@peacewriter51
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