Mae West on stage: Themes and persona.
Item
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Title
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Mae West on stage: Themes and persona.
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Identifier
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AAI9136797
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identifier
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9136797
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Creator
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Helfer, Richard.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Stanley Waren
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Women's Studies | Cinema | Biography
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Abstract
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Mae West's is one of the most famous images of our times, but she had already perfected that image on stage before she made her first movie. She spent more of her career on stage than in film and she was able to make more varied statements there than in Hollywood. Despite that, her stage work is now almost totally unknown.;This study traces the stage career of Mae West from her beginnings as a child performer. Special attention is paid to her sexual "image" and to the use of that image in the themes and effects of her plays. The plays themselves are placed in their times and compared with contemporaneous works, and West's own claims about their influence on social mores are examined.;Materials used in this study are mainly contemporaneous. Extensive use is made of the collections of clippings in the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, the Shubert Archives, and The Museum of The City of New York. Various legal depositions filed in connection with her trials are also used.;Above all, the main sources of this dissertation are the plays themselves, which have been totally hidden for many years.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
