She was her mother's favorite child, however, and as soon as she was able to walk, her mother took her to vaudeville shows. At five she was performing in church socials, and at seven she enrolled in dancing school, soon making a debut in a song-and-dance number with a twelve-piece orchestra. In her preteens she had child parts, both with stock companies in New York and on the road, in melodramas like
Little Nell and
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. West then began appearing in burlesque shows, eventually earning the name "the Baby Vamp." She first appeared on Broadway in a musical revue at age fourteen, and for the next few years appeared in other revues and in vaudeville shows. It was at this time that she first began to rewrite the material given to her by others. In 1909 West married Frank Wallace, a song-and-dance man with whom she had appeared in the same vaudeville act. Wallace wanted her to give up her career; she left him and in 1941 paid him a considerable sum to consent to a divorce.
By 1911 West was an established performer on the New York stage, appearing in musical comedies and revues and finally developing her own vaudeville act.
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