Mae West 1982
If you search the Internet for pictures of Susan Browning, you will find obscured collections that seem to discourage prying eyes. A similar Mae West who started her career in entertainment thru live vaudeville shows, later breaking into film, Susan Browning was a stage actress and TV actress who eventually landed roles in movies like The money pit and Sister act I and II. Her publicity photos are nary to be seen attached to her accredited works. Could the reason be because she pulled off a complete change in persona?
Just like the biopic Mae West starring Ann Jillian, West completely changed her appearance. How fitting would it be if Ann Jillian underwent a similar transition? After all, one of Jillian’s autographs pops up on the Internet where she writes to a caring fan that her new look (bangs) was inspired by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). I know this only because I searched autographs of both Susan Browning and Ann Jillian determined to compare handwriting as photographs of Browning were limited.
Frustrating as my searches for Jo Wilder photographs came to be when I began to query where Jennifer Grey’s looks stemmed from, if by some miracle my intuition that Browning had plastic surgery done and assumed a new identity afterwards, it is the similarities of the ears I found online, as well as their handwriting that sparked my interest in the movie Mae West. For I would not likely watch a biopic that didn’t have a MPAA rating of R, much less a made-for-TV movie. These factors are what made the movie good in my opinion. It’s true that handwriting samples aren’t identical and the ear I found of Ann Jillian not substantial enough. I found myself juxtaposing her performance as Mae West with Browning’s acting method as Pat Gimble in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.