Mae West Double Feature! The Drag & Sex
Mae West Double Feature! The Drag & Sex
The Play that was Banned!
The Drag is a dramatic play written by Mae West under her pen name Jane Mast.
The play opened in out-of-town tryouts in New Jersey and Connecticut, but was later forced to close for its portrayal of homosexuality and cross-dressing. The play never opened on Broadway, as West had planned.
The Play That Sent Mae West To Jail!
SEX, a comedy-drama premiered April 26, 1926, at Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre in New York City.
Sex received many scathing reviews from a variety of critics because of the play’s moral implications.
The New York Times considered it be a “crude and inept play, cheaply produced and poorly acted” while Billboard condemned it as “the cheapest most vulgar low show to have dared to open in New York this year”.
On April 19, 1927, actress Mae West pulled up to Welfare Island, now known as Roosevelt Island, in the back of a limo. She was sharply dressed down to her silk underwear and carrying a bouquet of white roses. When she stepped out of the limo, she smiled for the waiting photographers…and then checked into the women’s prison to begin serving a 10-day sentence.