Once upon a time, a drama queen was born. Her name is Mae West—described as creamy white and blonde beauty with an hourglass figure and a goddess of glamour and maybe controversy. The actress produced enough fascination not just with her play that earned her a prison sentence, but in almost everywhere her name was mentioned. Yet a more intriguing secret shrouded her sensual appeal and courageous behavior amidst career fame. The Milwaukee exposes the one dark secret she almost deleted from history, but like they say, nothing is hidden under the sun. Wait until you hear her dark, deep secret revealed.

Retrospectively, what was Mae West’s dark secret unveiled after her demise? Some ladies are born great and others achieve greatness, but Mae West is somewhere in the middle. She was a phenomenon that would not be easily forgotten in the history of American theater shows. Mae West is one iconic lady who understood that sex, controversy, and scandalous media reports are powerful ingredients of entertainment fame—the reason she capitalized on them to achieve stardom, wealth, and anything the American entertainment industry was offering, including highly publicized civil rebuke and sensational pardon.

Mae West is the kind of entertainer that even the present generation would applaud without blinking because of her bravery, creativity, and foresight that even made people like us wonder who her mentor was—if she ever had one. Like a stunning marble statue, this legendary sex symbol created and lived a career immersed in shocking controversy. But even more shocking is that her real life was bedeviled with secrecy and deception.

West may have been one of the most controversial celebs of her time—not just with issues around her career, but jaw‑dropping twists about her personal life. I heard that this cute lady preferred much younger men when it came to her bedroom taste. What’s my business with that? I’m as fascinated as an average Hollywood pre‑Code fan about the intriguing behind‑the‑scenes story of a woman whose history makes a good read for me any day. Her real‑life issues would go for a blockbuster movie even in contemporary Hollywood.

Mae West thought she could enjoy her fame while her past remained in oblivion for eternity. But her charm and vivacious image created so much imagination that people began to ask questions and dig deep about the forgotten past, resulting in the revelation of her Milwaukee secret—which she very much wanted to stay a secret. Mae West was clearly cherished for her favorite use of figures of speech in her productions—most of which she scripted herself—plus the double entendre that is usually sexually suggestive. No wonder she seemed addicted to her appearance and did not care about her reputation until her best‑kept secret became a source of concern.

By the mid‑1930s, Mae West was among the world’s ultimate sex symbols—the practical blonde bombshell of the self‑styled pre‑Code era of Hollywood. She was the second highest earner in the United States behind William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper mogul, and the highest‑paid woman at the time. Interestingly, it was at the height of this fame that hell broke loose about her scandalous secret Milwaukee marriage, which she swiftly denied—until records proved her wrong.

A renowned media house once described Mae West as the epitome of playfully vulgar sex while analyzing how she rose to fame and accumulated massive wealth by portraying confident and shameless outspoken characters on stage and in movies. She paraded herself as a confident single lady, and her audience believed her—not knowing she had contracted at least one marriage when she was 17 in Milwaukee, a controversial one indeed. But before this time, Mae West’s lewd 1926 play “Sex” ensured her a jail term, even though it arguably provided an easy rise to superstardom while swimming in fame and notoriety.

Some of the issues Mae West grappled with were related to censorship, which she agreed made her millions of dollars. This is what she meant when she said, “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.” Critics say West bypassed the studio system through her creation of comics for everyday ideas of the Depression era and won a huge audience. By the time her productions waned, West continued to exhibit creativity through books and drama script writing—contrary to what most symbolic sex pinups do after their careers.

Because of what many have heard about West, it’s natural to underestimate her talent—but make no mistake. She wasn’t just reading lines; she wrote nine of the 13 movies she featured in. Her effort in the industry is what the American Film Institute validated when they judged her the 15th greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema. But there is more to this free‑spirited lady, massively hammered for her provocative act—some fans demanded she quit “vile” performance and concentrate on burlesque production.

What caught my attention is what I call her shadiest secret, never revealed until after her death. The lyric was that long before Mae West’s demise in 1980 at age 87, there were rumors of her being a man. Those who postulated the theory drew inspiration in part from the “drag” appeal of her screen character. But in Jill Watts’ narration of Mae West’s biography after her demise, Watts did not just reject the theory—she introduced a shockingly different complexion to the rumor. And what was the surreptitious about Mae West? While her death certificate—signed by a physician and mortician—confirmed she was a woman, throwing the rumor into the trash, another underground information emerged suggesting that Mae West was really Black.

Mary Jane West—the lady you know as Mae West—was born in Brooklyn in 1893. She is the eldest surviving daughter of a prizefighter and a corset model. West made her earliest stage appearance at age five, glimpsed fame, and tried to consolidate a career in that direction. Years later, she told an interviewer she cherished the spotlight more than anything, adding, “I ached for the spotlight like the strongest man’s arm around me.” As a teenager, she was already doing the vaudeville tour—singing, dancing, and showcasing a regular flair for comedy.

There were rumors of her natural tendency toward dishonorable and outlawed practice—noting she was often seen hanging around Black juke joints, listening to stifling blues, and educating herself with sexy dance moves known as the shimmy. On one occasion, while performing in a revue, West introduced the shimmy to Broadway by ending her act with a shimmy dance. She made a comic speech in between, showcasing creativity and humor. Analysts say West also had a history of modifying her lines to make them more hilarious and sexy. Even when she sang, her lyrics took the same erotic coloration. She was crafting an identity not just as a performer but to fit her assumed persona: a spirited, sexy, wise‑cracking woman who desired men but not marriage.

Perhaps drawn by teenage emotion, West lived through that persona—falling in and out of love—until she met one man unwilling to be pushed aside. His name is Frank Wallace, and his love was strong, passionate, and persuasive. He convinced her to sign the marriage register to cement their union as husband and wife—though she was still a teenager. But rather than obey marital responsibilities, West absconded, preferring to frolic with muscle‑bound men and even unsafe men like mobsters. You might think it’s just teenage emotion—but it’s not. She defended the practice in her memoir, writing she would not conform to old‑fashioned limits set on a woman’s freedom of action.

Not much of a surprise; my curiosity is why she denied ever being married when she knew records can’t be faulted. As she grew in popularity, West continued to tell fans she had always been single, famously calling marriage “a great institution” but insisting she wasn’t ready for the institution yet. When this aging secret was revealed, fans were shocked to the marrow to learn West had been secretly married to her vaudeville song‑and‑dance partner, Frank Wallace, and their union had lasted about 31 years. The marriage became public data in 1935 when a clerk at the Milwaukee courthouse stumbled on Mae West’s name while sorting wedding records.

If you don’t understand the gravity of the ensuing scandal: Mae West was the highest‑earning talent in Hollywood, with an alleged income of $480,000 by the era’s standards. Her movies were such a hit that critics thought they saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. Early reports of the clerk’s discovery led West to issue an angry statement denying ever saying “I do” to anyone. In that denial, West rhetorically asked, “Me—a Milwaukee bride? I never was in Milwaukee until about four years ago.” She hinted that within four months of the marriage certificate report, she had been confronted by no fewer than eight men she never knew, all claiming—in her words—that “they were married to me.” She declared she was never married to Frank Wallace or anyone else.

It was only a matter of time before the truth came out, as stakeholders embarked on an investigation. Facts emerged. The public heard how in 1911, while incubating her vaudeville career, she and Wallace had played in Milwaukee. The media caught up with the real Wallace, who hired a lawyer to pursue his case in court—to prove he was the real Frank Wallace and establish the marriage’s validity. The story, as put together by Wallace’s lawyer, is that a booking agent in 1916 convinced the couple that West would have more career success if presented as single. Wallace approved and signed an agreement to keep the marriage secret. He changed his mind only after the marriage was accidentally discovered and West openly denied ever knowing him, let alone marrying him.

The stage was set for a legal battle. It was not an easy ride; the case lingered for years until West told the court she was married to him—but was against any move to share her wealth. In the early 1940s, West and gray‑haired Wallace probably settled differences behind the scenes before appearing in court together. The outcome: Wallace pulled out of his request for $1,000 monthly upkeep and informed the court he never wanted to start any legal case in the first place. “All I wanted to do was do my work,” he was quoted. When she spoke, West told the court they lived together for just weeks after the marriage and asked the jury to grant a divorce to end more than three decades of connubial ties.

There was a strong indication the marriage was troubled from the start. It seems West started cheating on Wallace shortly after their union, and when confronted, she laughed it off as innocent fun. Wallace was so smitten he preferred to live with her adulterous behavior than lose her. His trouble continued because she didn’t let family members know about the marriage—and didn’t seem willing to.

And for Mae West’s secret revealed only retrospectively, Watts elaborately explained that though no genealogical evidence accompanied the shocking claim, the ethnicity of West’s patriarchal grandfather, a tough seafarer identified as John Edwin West, is harder to pinpoint than her other three known European grandparents. Another theory to buttress this point: considering West’s childhood in partly Black and partly criminal gangland Brooklyn, and her approval of Black behaviors as she transformed from child star to teenage vaudevillian, the major focus of Watts’ idea—outside the known Black dance shimmy—is her characteristic pimp walk, an African‑American comedic drill that suggests a subversive rhetorical device using multiple and conflicting messages to obscure rebellious meanings. This is evidenced in the rebellious nature of Mae West’s acts—notably her caricature of herself in many films.

Previous interpretations did not account for a vital distinction: Black and white signification are distinct practices. Watts’ argument continues at length about how whites and African‑Americans understood signifying. From Watts’ logic, it seems West, as a performer, learned from her African‑American inspirator Bert Williams. Her use of Black signifying rests in double‑voiced and encompasses innuendo—referencing also her double entendre, parody, pastiche, cajoling, rapping, boasting, insulting, and so on—specific to her acts, all of which gave a clear clue that your legendary Mae West was a Black lady.

Critics believe West’s flamboyant nature revealed a familiar path of erratic diva behavior throughout her career, leading to waning—especially with her self‑confident sexuality and rebellious meandering—with no evidence about her numerous off‑screen romances, said to be a more qualifying factor of her true ancestry than any DNA proof.

Because we’re just scratching the surface, there’s a treasure trove of captivating stories and intriguing personalities waiting for you on our channel. Make sure not to miss our next video that delves into the enigmatic words of Karin Calet: “I had his destiny between my legs.”