“You Can't Get a Man with A
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: “YOU CAN’T GET A MAN WITH A GUN” AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS: BIOGRAPHY IN THE AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE Valerie Michelle Joyce, PhD., 2008 Dissertation Directed By: Dr. Heather Nathans, Theatre This dissertation compares the versions of Annie Oakley’s persona that have been presented in American popular culture from 1885 to 1999 and analyzes the startling similarity to the state of womanhood in America across the same period. It also examines musical theatre’s ideological potential, gender problems that emerge at particular historical moments, and the reciprocal relationship between audience and cultural context. Annie Get Your Gun and its revivals function as a case study that reveals the complicity of musical theatre in advancing certain agendas. Because the creators and producers molded the biography of Annie Oakley for different ideological purposes that suited different audiences, the various versions are particularly useful for comparative analysis and they offer insights into the way the present shapes and reshapes the past. This investigation aims to identify what each production teaches us about American cultural life and to reveal and describe the ideological operations of musical theatre in order to establish its significance in the larger landscape of American popular culture. In its many reincarnations, Annie Get Your Gun’s ideological agendas primarily address American female spectators, millions of whom have watched it, largely uncritically. It is my contention that over the course of the late-nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, several artists, from Oakley and Buffalo Bill, to Irving Berlin and Dorothy Fields, to Graciella Danielle and Peter Stone, have used the life story of Annie Oakley in order to convey specific ideological content and to reflect the moral views and behavior of women in the audience. In 1946, the musical collaborators took Oakley’s story and crafted a message that would resonate with post-World War II female spectators. Through this investigation, I have identified changes that have been made to Oakley’s biography and to the original Annie Get Your Gun script and read them in light of their cultural moment in order to offer possible reasons why these changes appealed to particular audiences; essentially, why spectators forgive and even applaud the factual omissions and changes that occur. A non-redacted version of this dissertation with the images is available in the University of Maryland library. “YOU CAN’T GET A MAN WITH A GUN” AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS: BIOGRAPHY IN THE AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE By Valerie Michelle Joyce Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Advisory Committee: Professor Heather Nathans, Chair Professor Gay Gullickson Professor Faedra Carpenter Professor Korey Rothman Mr. Dwight Blocker Bowers © Copyright by Valerie Michelle Joyce 2008 DEDICATION for Ellie Joyce thank you for teaching me how to read to write to learn to teach to be a wife to be a mother to be a woman. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank Heather Nathans. It is not an exaggeration to say that without her motivation this dissertation would have never gained momentum, without her guidance this dissertation would not have taken shape, and without her calling to say, “Stop now. Walk away from the computer,” this dissertation would have never ended. For those moments and for all of the other nuggets of wisdom along the way, I am very grateful. I am also very fortunate to have such a generous and enthusiastic committee in Korey Rothman, Faedra Carpenter, Gay Gullickson, and Dwight Blocker Bowers. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Gullickson and Catherine Schuler, who guided early versions of this work at the University of Maryland. Thank you all. The final leg of this journey was funded in large part by the University of Maryland’s Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship, a windfall that not only allowed me to focus on my work, but gave me the confidence to see it through. Many others along the way have also been generous with their time and insight, including Oakley descendants Bess Edwards, Dan Hunt, and Don Blakely, Paul Fees of the Garst Museum, Geraldine Duclow of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Theatre Collection, and the very helpful research librarian at the Library of Congress who found the video of the 1957 Mary Martin televised special. Also, Heidi Taylor, Steve Friesen, Elizabeth Holmes, Penny Perry, Brenda Arnett, and Walter G. Snyder all assisted in some way with photographs for this study. Thank you. Finally, to my long-suffering family, who have supported me with everything they have. Thanks, Dad, for the article that started it all. Thanks, Valerie and Pete, iii for the best writing shack ever. Thank you, Mom, for the million big and little tasks that seem to go unnoticed. This began as a look at the musical theatre. It has become a dissertation about being a working wife and mother and learning to negotiate the joys and perils of that combination. Parris, thank you for the on-the-job training and for being my research partner. You defy gender-role logic. Thank you for the love, patience, and support that has seen me through and for giving me the best cheering section a girl could ask for. Keegan and Ciara, I love you. You really are the sun in the morning and the moon at night. All of my time away studying and writing brings only this wisdom: Do something that you love to do and don’t ever settle for being second best. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 YOU CAN ’T GET A MAN WITH A GUN —BUT YOU CAN GET AN AUDIENCE : MARKETING ANNIE OAKLEY FOR Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (1885-1903) ................... 20 CHAPTER 2 ANNIE , SURRENDER YOUR GUN !: THE CULTURAL MOMENT (1942-1946).................. 61 CHAPTER 3 Annie Get Your Gun : BROADWAY (1946) ................................................................. 109 CHAPTER 4 WHAT COMES NATUR ’LLY ?: CASTING THE “I DEAL ” WOMAN IN Annie Get Your Gun (1947-1957) ...................... 183 CHAPTER 5 ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO …E QUALLY : BROADWAY REVIVAL AND REVISICAL (1966 & 1999) .............................................. 259 APPENDICES & FIGURES ............................................................................................ 308 v INTRODUCTION “One easily forgets that human education proceeds along highly theatrical lines. In a quite theatrical manner the child is taught how to behave….The human being copies gestures, miming, tones of voice….Their education never finishes….Think this over and you will realize how important the theatre is for the forming of character. You will see what it means that thousands should act to hundreds of thousands. One just can’t shrug off so many people’s concern with art.” -- Bertolt Brecht “Two Essays on Unprofessional Acting” (c.1940) “A theatre is a business that sells evening entertainment.” -- Bertolt Brecht “Emphasis on Sport” (1926) “With a Gu-uun, With a Gu-uun, No you can’t get a man with a gun.” This line haunted me. It followed me everywhere…into the shower, at the store, in the car…perfect for belting and maniacally repetitive. It was the spring of 2001, I was choreographing Annie Get Your Gun, and that lyric had insidiously conquered my subconscious. One month later, after a successful run and the catchy tune long forgotten, in researching another project I ran across an article, “Annie Oakley and her Ideal Husband of No Importance,” in which historian Tracy C. Davis observes that Annie Get Your Gun , written by Irving Berlin, Dorothy Fields, and Herbert Fields in 1946, was “a timely lesson for wives of returning veterans.” 1 A light bulb switched on in my mind and thus began my dissertation research. In that moment, I began to recognize the awesome potential of musical theatre as a means of indoctrination into dominant ideology. I sang that song a thousand times without once questioning its possible ideological content. This, I realize, reveals that I did not approach musicals with much critical distance. But if nothing 1 else, as I sat in my seat opening night, I was a perfect reflection of the average audience member for musical theatre. With my guard down, I sat there eagerly anticipating the music, the dancing, and the romance. Surely, I would find no substance behind this flash. Unwittingly, I was an empty plate in line at an ideological buffet. Certainly, I am not the first to suggest a connection between a piece of popular culture and its historical context. But, because of the perception of traditional musicals as “fluff,” there is a dearth of critical research regarding the musical theatre as an artistic form with significant ideological force. Musicals are often seen as theatre’s equivalent of “chick flicks.” 2 Whether buying tickets to a chick flick or musical, most spectators assume that the entertainment ahead will be frivolous and far from thought-provoking. However, the musical