More plays followed but West was not content to play it straight and often rewrote and changed her characters to suit her own persona. She had her first starring role on Broadway in 1926 in a play she wrote, produced and directed entitled "Sex". It was a hit with the Broadway audiences but the more conservative critics called it obscene. The show was raided and West was arrested, along with most of the cast, convicted on morals charges and spent 10 days in jail. It was the best publicity she could have asked for.
Her next production was called "Drag", which dealt with homosexuality, got rave reviews on the road but when she announced it would open on Broadway the Society for the Prevention of Vice vowed to ban it. Not wanting to tempt fate again, the play did not open in New York. West continued to write plays for the next several years, always involving adult subject matter and always skirting just outside what was considered acceptable. On several occasions the actors learned two scripts, one for general audiences and one for when the vice squad was rumored to be in the house.
In 1932 Hollywood came knocking. At 38 she was well passed the age when most new film actresses could command a starring role but West's beauty and persona convinced the studio otherwise. In 1933 she played the leading female character Lady Lou in "She Done Him Wrong" based on a play she had written earlier and starring a young Cary Grant. In the film she spoke her famous line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me." The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture and helped save Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her next film "I'm No Angel" was also a huge success and by 1935, West was the second highest paid person in the U.S. behind William Randolph Hearst.
West's steamy productions caught the attention of not only the adoring public but the Motion Picture Production Code. Her scripts began to be meticulously checked for "inappropriate" material which made her even more creative with how she manipulated dialog and delivery. For the most part she got away with it but it became a struggle to maintain her own creative integrity. The movies that West made toward the end of the 30's were not as popular and an appearance as herself on Edgar Bergen's radio show further enraged the censors. Moral groups went after the show's sponsors and West was banned from further NBC productions.
In 1939, West was approached by Universal Pictures to do a remake of "Destry Rides Again" costarring W.C. Fields. West demanded creative control, wrote the script and despite tension between the stars (West was a tee-totaler while Fields was famously not) the movie was a comeback for both of them. Her last film of that era in 1943 when she was 50 did poorly in the box office and West did not make another until the 1970's when she appeared in Gore Vidal's "Myra Breckenridge" and, in 1979, her own film "Sextette".
In the 50's West went on the road with a variation of her stage act which featured hunky men fawning over her, song and dance numbers and her usual racy dialog. The show was a great success and ran for three years. She also appeared in Las Vegas and made made several record albums, among them a Christmas album which was not one of religious celebration. West went into retirement and wrote her autobiography, "Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It" recounting her experiences in show business. A year after her last film appearance in "Sextette" West died from complications of a stroke at the age of 87. When asked about all of the censorship she endured throughout her career, West replied in her usual witty way, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."
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