Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood2020 Best Early Career Research Monograph, Monash University Malaysia Damsels and Divas investigates the meanings of Europeanness in Hollywood during the 1920s by charting professional trajectories of three movie stars: Pola Negri, Vilma Bánky and Jetta Goudal. It combines the investigation of American fan magazines with the analysis of studio documents, and the examination of the narratives of their films, to develop a thorough understanding of the ways in which Negri, Bánky and Goudal were understood within the realm of their contemporary American culture. This discussion places their star personae in the context of whiteness, femininity and Americanization. Every age has its heroines, and they reveal a lot about prevailing attitudes towards women in their respective eras. In the United States, where the stories of rags-to-riches were especially potent, stars could offer models of successful cultural integration. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Ah Love Its Not for Me | 10 |
Temptatious Pola Assailed Picture Citadel by Storm | 31 |
The Almost Perfect AngloSaxon Type More English Than the English | 64 |
Bedecked in Flowing Gowns and Layers of Pearls and Jewels | 81 |
My Mother Brought Me Up to Be a Wife | 102 |
She Looks Like a Beautiful Cossack She Looks Like an Oriental Princess | 122 |
A Riddle in the City of Eager Autobiographies | 142 |
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Common terms and phrases
accessed August actors actress appeared argues artistic Banky beauty Bella Donna blonde Cal York career Carmen character Cinema Colman connotations constructed costumes critical cultural DeMille discourse diva Donnell Ernst Lubitsch ethnic European exotic exoticism Famous Players-Lasky fan magazines femininity femme fatale figure foreign French Gaylyn Studlar gender girl Goldwyn Greta Garbo Gundle Gypsy Blood Hari heroine Holmes identity ideological Jetta Goudal London lover Lubitsch Margaret Reid marriage married McKegg Mdivani Motion Picture Classic Motion Picture Magazine movie players moviegoers Myrtle Gebhart mysterious narrative Negra off-screen Off-White Hollywood on-screen Oriental Passion performance Photoplay Picture Play Pola Negri popular portrayed position producer professional racial representation Richard Dyer Rod La Rocque role romantic Ronald Colman Routledge Rudolph Valentino Schallert Schildgen screen sexual Sheik Silent Film social star image star persona star system stardom story studio system suggested temperament temperamental tion University Press vamp Vilma Bánky visual woman women