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Once West made her decision to continue on with her acting career she spent a year in
amateur circuit. During this time, she was recruited to be a part of the Gotham Theater “a
stock company which consists of a group of salaried full-time actors who appear in a
rotating sequence of plays from their repertoire or lists of selections.” The man who ran
Gotham, Hal Clarendon, hired West to play children’s parts in English “drawing room”
comedies and dramas. After her time in the Gotham Theater, William Hogan hired her to tour
with him in his act. This act consisted of Hogan dressing as a country boy and
“regaling the audience with barnyard inspired humor.” In the act, West played an innocent girl
under her innocent girl performance however “an independent and determined woman was
developing.”
West continued with odd acting jobs and then made her way to Vaudeville.
West and Hogan were member of an act in Vaudeville and appeared in New York. They
appeared in a program that included a man by the name of Henry Wallace who West later
asked to be her partner. Wallace described West as “a slinky, preppy, classy little
German girl.” Wallace and West eventually married in 1911, but never established a real home
because West never took her relationship with Wallace seriously. This led to the end of
their marriage in 1942. One of the things that West portrayed in her performances was
her feelings of dissatisfaction for marriage. The fact that she never really took her marriage
seriously show not only did she use this to reinforce the changing culture, but she also used
it to show a lot of her own views about things that were taking place in this time period.
It was during her time in Vaudeville that West would perfect her stage personality. One of the
many things that West perfected while in Vaudeville was her unique sexual personality.
During this time, West will also seal the name of Queen of Camp. The idea of camp or
“female impersonations” was first attributed to West when she began performing in
“exaggerated, flamboyant women’s dresses, heavy makeup and gaudy jewelry” just like the
female impersonators that were becoming popular at the time.
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