Why Mae West Chose Jail Over a Fine for Her 'Indecent' Play: ‘I Believe in Censorship. I Made a Fortune Out of It'
Prison wasn't exactly the Waldorf, but for Mae West, the eight days she spent behind bars in 1927 were the best marketing money couldn't buy. The Hollywood star turned her stint in prison on an indecency charge into a badge of honor she wore like a fur coat.
West was already a hurricane in a corset by the time the New York police department decided they'd had enough of her play, Sex. They raided the theater and slapped her with an obscenity charge. And because West understood the value of a headline better than any publicist in Manhattan, she turned down the easy out. She could have paid a fine. Instead, she accepted the jail time.
Looking ahead at her legal troubles, West famously told a journalist, "I expect this will be the making of me." Her prediction unfolded on April 19, 1927, when she received a ten-day workhouse sentence for obscenity and for conduct intended to corrupt the morals of the youth.
Although sentenced to ten days, she earned a two-day reduction for good behavior, a period during which she famously dined with the warden. Reflecting on the experience, the actress maintained that the massive media attention was well worth the incarceration, as it boosted her career. Her only complaint about the ordeal was the requirement to wear cotton underwear.
"I believe in censorship," West later quipped. "I made a fortune out of it."
The authorities wanted to make an example out of West. They thought a stint in the cooler would quiet the double entendres and the swaying hips. They were wrong. Because the arrest didn't shame her; it validated her. It gave her what every performer craves: publicity and curiosity.
Suddenly, everyone who hadn't seen the show wanted to know what the fuss was about. The jail sentence gave her a seemingly dangerous edge that translated directly to the silver screen. When Hollywood came calling, West didn't have to change her act. She starred a woman who stared down a judge and won.
West's career skyrocketed after she leaned into the controversy: she wrote her own lines, she controlled her own image. And she did it all while the moral majority tried to keep her under lock and key.
The prison stint took her from a local theater actress to a national obsession. She proved that if you're going to be a bad girl, you might as well be good at it.
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This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 8:12 AM.