MAE WEST: "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better."

In a Thinkwriter post entitled “bat-out-of-hell” published in 2007, readers were invited to name “Carrie Ann’s” worldview by way of perhaps her most revealing early childhood recollection.

Carrie Ann’s childhood memory is the story of a brief verbal exchange between her mother and father, followed by a request for a favor from Carrie Ann by her mother. At one point in the recollection, Carrie Ann’s mother refers to her daughter as a “bat-out-of-hell.”

Readers of Thinkwriter were asked to think about Carrie Ann’s memory and to select her worldview from a list of four possibilities: (1.) I have to win, (2.) Women rule, (3.) I’m courageous, and (4.) I’m the man.

(To learn more about Carrie Ann’s worldview, please read the post entitled, “a smug little smile says it all.”)

What follows now are four engaging earliest memories from the indomitable queen of the bawdy double entendres, the remarkable Mae West. Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol, West was one of the most controversial stars of her day . . . and way ahead of her time!

Taken from the 2009 biography of West by Charlotte Chandler, Mae West’s earliest memories clearly demonstrate West's approach to life.

And so you may be wondering…what do Carrie Ann and Mae West have in common, if anything?

For one thing, they have in common the list of choices for worldview. Thinkwriter is using the same four worldview choices for Mae West as previously offered for Carrie Ann’s worldview selection. Whether or not these two women share the same worldview (or anything else, for that matter), remains to be seen. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, after you read Mae West’s four memories, please choose from the following list the best worldview for Mae West. Vote in the poll to the right, and thank you so much for participating! (poll now closed - correct answer is #4)

(1.) I have to win. (33% chose this response)
(2.) Women rule. (25%)
(3.) I’m courageous. (16%)
(4.) I’m the man. (25%)

And here we go…

1. (Chandler writes…) One of Mae’s earliest memories was her desire to have her picture taken with a dog, a very particular dog with long white hair, a black eye and a black ear, which she had seen ‘around the corner.’ One of her uncles was delegated to bring the elusive canine in.

2. “We went to a store and there were a hundred dolls. Everyone thought all the dolls looked alike. The one I wanted was on the highest shelf no one could reach. Everyone in the store thought I just wanted that one because I was difficult. But I wanted her because she had a mauve dress. If you see the difference and other people don’t, they just think you’re being difficult. I always knew what I wanted. My mother never questioned it. She made them get a ladder and get me the one I wanted.”

3. “I grew up in Brooklyn in a fine residential section near a block of those single buildings, one story high and all French, housing a barber shop, a millinery shop and a hairdressings parlour, all with mirrors in the doors and windows, long fancy work at the bottom, and I’d pose as I’d walk along and I’d look at myself this way and then that way…In a window of a jewelry story there used to be a big diamond hanging on a black velvet bust and I’d say to myself, “I’ve got to have a diamond like you and then I’d be absolutely more than happy.”

4. (Chandler writes…) About her earliest stage appearance as “Baby May – Song and Dance,” at a Sunday concert at the Royal Theatre in Fulton Street, Brooklyn, at the age of seven “going on eight,” at which she wore “a pink and green satin dress with gold spangles and a large white lace picture hat,” with pink slippers and stockings…and sang “Movin’ Day” to great audience applause and won a gold medal from the Elks….Mae West says,” I heard the applause…applause just for me, and I knew they really liked me, and I knew then there wasn’t any other place I ever wanted to be.”