Press Release
For Immediate release!
Special Auction Celebration of the 1930s Hollywood Icon’s Bodiced Gowns, Headdresses, Tiaras, Film Costumes, Scripts and More to Headline Two-Day “Legendary Women of Hollywood” Auction Extravaganza
NOVEMBER 1, 2019 IN BEVERLY HILLS
Los Angeles, California – (July 29, 2019) – Julien’s Auctions, the world-record breaking auction house, has announced its highly anticipated event PROPERTY FROM THE LIFE AND CAREER OF MAE WEST auction, part of the LEGENDARY WOMEN OF HOLLYWOOD two-day extravaganza taking place on Friday, November 1 and Saturday, November 2, 2019 at The Standard Oil Building in Beverly Hills and live online at juliensauctions.com. This special event celebrates the trailblazing career and style of the 1930s American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian, and sex symbol. The star who coined legendary one liners such as, "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better," will showcase a dazzling collection of ornate headdresses, tiaras, jewelry, wigs, film and stage worn bodiced gowns and more. (top photos left to right: Mae West’s Diamond Lil gown and gold lamé headdress).
Born in Brooklyn, NY on August 17, 1893, Mary Jane “Mae” West began her seven decades long entertainment career on amateur nights at the age of six years old. West attracted immediate attention performing various personas, such as a male impersonator, and developed her signature sashaying walk early in her adult career. She was singled out by the New York Times for her performance at the age of 18 in the Broadway 1911 revue of A La Broadway and appeared in various stage productions including Vera Violetta opposite Al Jolson, A Winsome Widow in 1912 playing a vamp and in her big break as Mayme who danced the shimmy in the Schubert Brothers revue, Sometime. From the start of her career, West’s work was met with censorship and controversy when she began writing and starring in her own risqué plays including the 1926 Broadway play, Sex, whose production was panned by religious groups and conservative critics. (photo right: West’s 1940 custom made silk dress).
West’s arrest and prosecution for corrupting the morals of youth led to a ten-day jail sentence that she served on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island), which garnered her immense publicity and even more attention by the media who crowned her the darling "bad girl." Other plays which she wrote, directed and starred in included The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner, which all attracted controversy and boffo ticket sales. Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy and smart lady of the 1890s, was a Broadway smash which West successfully revived many times throughout her career. Hollywood eventually came calling and in 1932, West was offered a motion picture contract by Paramount Pictures despite being close to 40, an unusually late age for actresses to begin a movie career at the time. West made her film debut opposite George Raft in Night After Night (1932), where her trademark for bawdy, brilliant deliveries in her deep contralto voice of innocuous one-liners with double entendre meanings (which West often wrote herself) first shone.
She brought her famous Broadway Diamond Lil character, now renamed "Lady Lou," to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933), starring opposite a young and relatively unknown Cary Grant in one of his first major film roles.
The film was a box-office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture which grossed over $2 million (equivalent of $140 million today) and saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. Her next film, I’m No Angel (1933), opposite Grant again was also a box office hit and the most successful film of her career (photo left: script page from film I’m No Angel). She became a pop culture phenomenon with references and accolades to West found everywhere from Cole Porter songs to a Betty Boop cartoon and a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural depiction of her of San Francisco’s newly built Coit Tower.
By 1933, West was one of the largest box-office draws and in 1935, became the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States. Throughout the rest of the decade, her on screen work and script writing of her best one liners in films such as, Belle of the Nineties (1934) and Goin’ to Town (1935), continued to be censored by the Production Code while West fought to keep them in her scripts, knowing that the censors would cut them out. Censorship ultimately took its toll on her next films including, Klondike Angel (1936), Go West Young Man opposite Randolph Scott (1936) and Every Day’s a Holiday (1937) as the studios found it challenging to distribute West’s suggestive brand of humor and eroded her best on screen work and dialogue with cuts to her films. Her next role opposite W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee (Universal Pictures, 1940) was a box-office success while religious leaders condemned West as a negative role model, singling out some of her most memorable lines in the film such as "between two evils, I like to pick the one I haven't tried before." Her next roles continued to be plagued by the censors including the film, The Heat’s On (Columbia Pictures, 1943), her first film where she only agreed to do if she was allowed to write her own dialogue and her last film role for the next quarter-century. (photo right: inscribed "Mae West" life preserver)
West returned to the stage where her career flourished and performed one of her most popular stage roles as Catherine the Great in Broadway’s Catherine Was Great (1944), a spoof of the Russian empress’ story, which was produced by theater and film producer Mike Todd and ran for nearly 200 performances. In 1949, West followed up her successful run with her revival of her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, which the New York Times raved about and called her an “American institution.” In the 1950s and the following decades, West pursued a successful and record-breaking career touring her famous show in top nightclubs, in theater and on Broadway as well as in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom and on radio and television. The American Film Institute ranked her number 15 on their list of greatest female stars of classic American cinema.
“Mae West was an indomitable force to be reckoned with who pushed the envelope and broke all the rules,” Darren Julien, President/CEO of Julien’s Auctions said. “Julien’s Auctions is proud to present this fabulous collection and an important archive of her work and singular style that made her one of the first female icons and feminist pioneers of her time.“
One of the top highlights of the auction will be an array of her curvaceous, show stopping costumes, such as a custom made scarlet red satin gown worn by West in the 1950 production of Diamond Lil (estimate: $10,000-$20,000). 
The gown has a boned bodice with puffed layered tulle sleeves and is embellished with foliate trim with ruby red bugle beads, sequins, and faceted glass in metal casing and a long skirt with layered tulle embellishment and a train. Also included is the custom made rose silk chiffon hostess gown worn by Mae West in the 1952 production of Diamond Lil (estimate: $2,000-$4,000).
Other highlights of the auction include:
- a collection of over 250 fan letters to Mae West dated from 1969 to 1980 housed in four ivory colored scrap books
which West would show to press when they would come to her Rossmore home (estimate: $600-$800);
- a gold tone trophy on a wood and marble base that reads "To the Queen of Mens Hearts Miss Mae West From your Athletes we love
you 1955" (estimate: $500-$700);
- a gold tone tiara with rhinestones and painted faceted glass stage worn by Mae West in her starring role as
Catherine II of Russia in the 1944-45 Broadway production of Catherine was Great, which she wrote (estimate: $800-$1,000) (photo above right);
- a black silk dress worn by West in 1952 while viewing the Navy's latest "Mae West" life-jackets (estimate: $1,000-$2,000);
- a hand held wood mirror frame painted ivory with gold detail used by West in her 1950s Las Vegas stage show (estimate: $600-$800) (photo above left);
- a custom made silk chestnut maxi dress with ivory dots worn by Mae West in 1940 (estimate: $1,000-$2,000);
- a circa 1960s custom made white silk dress printed with artistic black roses (estimate: $600-$800);
- an inscribed "Mae West" life preserver presented to West by Major George Gaines in 1954 (estimate: $600-$800);
- a 'Dialogue Continuity' script from arguably the star's most famous film, the 1933 Paramount release co-starring a young Cary Grant
annotated with West’s pencilled edits as well as the film’s treatment titled "Don't Call Me Madame," the working title of the film (estimate:
$2,000-$3,000);
- West’s custom made heavily embellished gold lamé headdress worn in photographs taken by G. Maillard Kesslere B.P. circa 1944 for
promotional pieces for Catherine was Great (estimate: $1,000-$2,000);
- a blonde Catherine was Great wig worn by West in the 1944-1945 Broadway production (estimate: $800-$1,000) and more.
JULIEN'S AUCTIONS PUBLIC EXHIBITION & LIVE AUCTION LOCATION
Julien's Auctions
257 N. Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
JULIEN'S AUCTIONS PUBLIC EXHIBITION
Monday, October 28th - Friday, November 1st, 2019
11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Free to the Public
JULIEN'S AUCTIONS LIVE & ONLINE AUCTION
PROPERTY FROM THE LIFE AND CAREER OF MAE WEST
Friday, November 1, 2019
Session I: 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time
PROPERTY FROM THE LIFE AND CAREER OF MARILYN MONROE
Friday, November 1, 2019
Session II: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time
LEGENDARY WOMEN OF HOLLYWOOD
Friday, November 1, 2019
Session III: 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time
PROPERTY FROM THE LIFE AND CAREER OF OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Session I: 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Session II: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time
For inquiries, please email
info@juliensauctions.com or call 310-836-1818.
For hi res images at 300 dpi (and above), please email requests to: info@juliensauctions.com
For Inquiries, Please Email info@juliensauctions.com or Call 310-836-1818.
Register to bid
LIVE AUCTIONS
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE AUCTIONS
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE AUCTIONS
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Media contact
info@juliensauctions.com
For hi res images at 300 dpi (and above), please email requests to: info@juliensauctions.com.
About
Julien’s Auctions is the world record-breaking auction house to the stars. Collaborating with the famous and the exclusive, Julien’s Auctions produces high profile auctions in the film, music, art and sports markets.
Julien’s Auctions has received international recognition for its unique and innovative auction events, which attract thousands of collectors, investors, fans and enthusiasts from around the world. Julien’s Auctions specializes in sales of iconic artifacts and notable collections including Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Lady Gaga, Banksy, Cher, Michael Jackson, U2, Barbra Streisand, Les Paul, Neil Young, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Hugh Hefner, Pelé and many more.
In 2016, Julien’s realized $5 million in the historic auction of the Brazilian soccer icon, three-time World Cup Champion and FIFA Player of the Century’s collection of memorabilia, personal property and awards, which featured the sale of Pelé’s 3 World Cup Gold medals, sold for a combined total of US $970,992 (£674,300),
including his 1970 World Cup winner’s medal sold for $427,100 (£346,000), which set world records for the most expensive Pelé item and the most expensive soccer medal ever sold at auction. In 2020, Julien’s shattered multiple records of sports jerseys sold at auction in the sale of a trio of historic #23 basketball
jerseys worn by Michael Jordan (his historic 1984 “Signing Day” official Chicago Bulls rookie #23 which sold for $320,000, a new world record sale for a jersey worn by the 14 Time All-Star and five-time MVP legend), Barack Obama (the forty-fourth U.S. President’s 1979 #23 Punahou School jersey which sold for
$192,000, a new world record selling price for a high school jersey) and Lebron James (the NBA legend’s 2003-2004 official Cleveland Cavaliers rookie year NBA jersey rookie season which sold for $128,000) which combined totaled $640,000 as well as Colin Kaepernick’s official San Francisco 49ers rookie jersey which
sold for $128,000, a new world record for most expensive NFL jersey sold at auction. Other notable Sports memorabilia sold by Julien’s Auctions include Babe Ruth’s 1938 Brooklyn Dodgers coaching uniform which sold for $187,500 and NASCAR legend Richard Petty’s 1974 Dodge Charger Daytona race-winning car
which sold for $500,000.
In 2016, Julien’s Auctions received its second placement in the Guinness Book of World Records for the sale of the world’s most expensive dress ever sold at auction, The Marilyn Monroe “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress which sold for $4.8 million. Julien’s Auctions achieved placement in the Guinness Book of World
Records in 2009 for the sale of Michael Jackson’s white glove, which sold for $480,000 making it the most expensive glove ever sold at auction. In 2020, Julien’s Auctions received its third Guinness Book of World Record placement for the sale of Kurt Cobain’s “MTV Unplugged” 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic-electric guitar,
which sold for $6 million making it the world’s most expensive guitar ever sold at auction.
Based in Los Angeles, Julien’s Auctions has a global presence bringing their auctions and exhibitions to targeted destinations worldwide including London, New York, Las Vegas, Japan and China. Live auctions are presented for bidders on-site and online via live streaming video and mobile technology. For more information on Julien’s Auctions, go to www.juliensauctions.com.
Connect with Julien’s Auctions at www.facebook.com/JuliensAuctions or www.twitter.com/JuliensAuctions
or www.instagram.com/juliens_auctions.
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