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Mae West was born August 17, 1893, and long before Hollywood made her famous, she had already learned that censorship could be remarkably good publicity.

In 1926, West wrote, produced and starred in S*x, a Broadway play about a Montreal pr******te named Margy LaMont. Critics attacked it, but audiences came. After hundreds of performances, New York authorities raided the production and West was prosecuted on obscenity charges.

She was convicted in 1927 and sentenced to ten days in jail, serving eight with time off for good behavior. Newspapers eagerly covered the spectacle. West reportedly arrived at Welfare Island in a limousine and later claimed she wore silk underwear beneath her prison uniform.

The punishment accomplished almost the opposite of what authorities intended. West emerged with greater name recognition and an increasingly marketable reputation for challenging sexual convention.

She pushed further with The Drag, a play centered on gay men and featuring a large cast of gay characters and drag performers. Its depiction of homosexuality was extraordinary for commercial theater of the period. Following successful performances outside New York City, plans for a Broadway production encountered intense opposition from officials and reform groups.

West understood something about celebrity culture decades before scandal became an industry of its own. Attempts to suppress her work could generate headlines, headlines could generate curiosity, and curiosity sold tickets.

When Hollywood eventually came calling, it wasn't discovering an accidental provocateur. Mae West had already spent years learning exactly what happened when respectable society told the public not to look.