Screen Time: 'Scandals of Classic Hollywood'

On this week's Screen Time, we discuss "Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema," a new book by Anne Helen Petersen about gossip, crimes and cover ups.

In a Washington Post interview, Petersen said Mae West is her favorite scandal in the book:

Mae West is my stock answer here because she was so smart and savvy and funny. [West starred in a Broadway show called "Sex," which was raided by New York police in 1927 at the behest of acting mayor Joseph McKee. She and the rest of the show's actors were jailed. When she refused to close the show, a grand jury called it "obscene, indecent, immoral, and impure." West spent eight days in jail, and she showed up in a limo and told the press she was wearing silk underwear. Once sprung, Liberty magazine paid her $1,000 for an interview. West used the money to fund the Mae West Memorial Library for female prisoners...]

Her story, unlike so many other women in the book, isn't tragic. She lived on her own terms, whereas almost every other female star either died or went crazy.