The first examination of Mae West's meaning in American popular culture.

Before Madonna, before Marilyn, there was Mae. The impact of Mae West—through her films, attitude, and aphorisms (“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”; “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”)—continues to reverberate through American popular culture fifteen years after her death. In Too Much of a Good Thing, Ramona Curry examines the interplay between West’s bawdy, worldly persona and twentieth-century gender and media politics.