Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom

232 Pages·2001·1.52 MB·English

by  Diane Negra

OFF-WHITE HOLLYWOOD
‘An undoubtedly important book. With its analysis of the historicaltransformation
in the cultural understanding of gender and ethnicity in film, Off-WhiteHollywood
fills a gap in both whiteness studies and cinema studies. Negra is to becongratulated!’
Jon Stratton, Curtin University of Technology
‘Diane Negra’s smart, savvy, imaginative exploration brings to the surfacecultural
changes – from the turn of the twentieth century to the present – in the invis-
ible racial and ethnic assumptions that underlie the allure of filmic glamour and
sex appeal. Perhaps Negra’s most startling effect is to break the silence withwhich
the culture industry typically embalms stars who once seemed to rule Holly-
wood but were ultimately casually discarded by a system that regards women as
commodities, ethnicity as artificial flavoring, and whiteness as a norm.’
Martha P. Nochimson, Mercy College
Off-White Hollywood investigates how the ‘ethnicity’ of white European-
American actresses has played a key role in the mythology of American identity
and nation-building. Embodying national fantasies and ‘assimilation myths’,
ethnic female film stars symbolised the promise of American multiculturalism
and proved the desirability and reliability of the American Dream.
Through case studies of stars spanning cinema’s history, Diane Negraexamines
Hollywood films and promotional material as a vehicle through which American
culture expresses and negotiates gender and ethnic identities. Negra focuses on
key stars of the silent (Colleen Moore and Pola Negri), classical (Sonja Henie
and Hedy Lamarr) and post-classical eras (Marisa Tomei and Cher) to demon-
strate how each star illuminates aspects of ethnicity, gender, consumerism and
class at work in American culture. Tracing processes of transformation, contain-
ment and resistance, from the assimilation imperatives of the early twentieth
century to the current ethnic revival, Off-White Hollywood shows how star per-
sonae have reflected the changing meaning of whiteness in US culture.
Diane Negra is Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio, TV and Film at
the University of North Texas. She is the co-editor of A Feminist Reader in
Early Cinema (2002).
GHH
OFF-WHITE
HOLLY WOOD
American culture and ethnic female stardom
Diane Negra
London and New York
First published 2001
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2001 Diane Negra
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Negra, Diane, 1966–
Off-white Hollywood : American culture and ethnic female stardom/
Diane Negra. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Minorities in motion pictures. 2. Women in motion pictures.
3. European Americans—Ethnic identity.
4. Actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN1995.9.M56 N44 2001
791.43′652042—dc21 2001019928
ISBN 0-203-99658-5 Master e-book ISBN
iv
ISBN 0-415-21677-X (hbk) ISBN 0-415-21678-8 (pbk)
CONTENTS
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Hollywood film and the narrativization of ethnic
femininity 1
2 The wearing of the green: Irishness as a promotional
discourse in the career of Colleen Moore 25
3 Immigrant stardom in imperial America: Pola Negri and
the problem of typology 55
4 Sonja Henie in Hollywood: Whiteness, athleticism and
Americanization 84
5 Ethnicity and the interventionist imagination:
Domesticity, exoticism and scandal in the persona
of Hedy Lamarr 103
6 Marisa Tomei and the fantasy of ethnicity 136
7 Stardom, corporeality and ethnic indeterminacy: Cher’s
disrupted/disruptive body 164
Notes 182
Bibliography 200
Index 215
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ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Colleen Moore cover from Motion Picture 27
2 Colleen Moore stationery 30–1
3 Come On Over promotional card 40
4 Frames from Ella Cinders (1927) 48
5a & 5b Pola Negri publicity photos 69–70
6 Sonja Henie on skates in Scandinavian costume 85
7 Sonja Henie on tennis court 91
8 Rialto lobby display photos 127
9 Marisa Tomei on Seinfeld 138
10 Picture gallery from the Cher homepage 165
11 Promotional image for Faithful 174
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Off-White Hollywood was conceptualized and written as I lived and worked in a
number of different locations during the last five years including Texas, New
York, Ireland and Poland. It has struck me from time to time that my own
geographical and cultural mobility has facilitated my interest in and understand-
ing of the lives of the women I discuss in this project, many of whom negoti-
ated significant national, cultural and linguistic borders in their lifetimes. I hope
that my discussion of their work proves the more illuminating for the travels I
have been fortunate to undertake.
There are a number of people whose exemplary behavior as teachers and
scholars has influenced and inspired me and in this capacity I want to thank
Robert Allen, Sabrina Barton, Jennifer Bean, Mia Carter, Natasha Casey, Mary
Desjardins, Luke Gibbons, Susan McLeland, Mary McGlynn, Walter Metz,
Anne Morey, Marcy Paul, Tom Schatz and Justin Wyatt.
I wish particularly to thank the participants in my Ethnicity and American
Film seminars at the University of North Texas and the University of Gdansk
for their intellectual curiosity, enthusiasm and energy. I am also indebted to the
members of the Women’s Writing Group formed at the University of North
Texas in 1998. Diana York Blaine, Francesca Morgan, and Claire Sahlin pro-
vided evenings of rich conversation that helped to further this project. Other
UNT colleagues past and present especially Harry Benshoff, Olaf Hoerschelmann,
and Shanti Kumar have provided timely advice, support, and humor. Elizabeth
Butler-Cullingford, Steven Cohan, John Hartigan and Sean Griffin offered
perceptive readings of chapters in progress. In 1998, Jeff Chown and Bob Self
kindly invited me to share in the rewards of directing the Media and Culture
in Ireland Summer School in Dublin each summer, and my understanding of
the dynamics of ethnicity and European heritage has been furthered by working
with American students studying abroad.
I wish to thank Dean Warren Burggren and Kathryn Cullivan of the College
of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Texas for their help in facil-
itating my leave on a Fulbright Lectureship to Poland during the last year
of my work on this project. At the University of Gdansk Andrzej Ceynowa,
Beata Williamson, and Cheryl Malcolm offered generous and collegial support
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