Knowing and Being Known: Sexual Delinquency, Stardom, and Adolescent Girlhood in Midcentury American Film
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2014 KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN: SEXUAL DELINQUENCY, STARDOM, AND ADOLESCENT GIRLHOOD IN MIDCENTURY AMERICAN FILM Michael Todd Hendricks University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Hendricks, Michael Todd, "KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN: SEXUAL DELINQUENCY, STARDOM, AND ADOLESCENT GIRLHOOD IN MIDCENTURY AMERICAN FILM" (2014). Theses and Dissertations--English. 14. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/14 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. 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Blum, Major Professor Dr. Andrew Doolen, Director of Graduate Studies KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN: SEXUAL DELINQUENCY, STARDOM, AND ADOLESCENT GIRLHOOD IN MIDCENTURY AMERICAN FILM _________________________________________ DISSERTATION _________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Michael Todd Hendricks Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Virginia L. Blum, Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky 2014 Copyright © Michael Todd Hendricks 2014 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN: SEXUAL DELINQUENCY, STARDOM, AND ADOLESCENT GIRLHOOD IN MIDCENTURY AMERICAN FILM Sexual delinquency marked midcentury cinematic representations of adolescent girls in 1940s, 50, and early 60s. Drawing from the history of adolescence and the context of midcentury female juvenile delinquency, I argue that studios and teen girl stars struggled for decades with publicity, censorship, and social expectations regarding the sexual license of teenage girls. Until the late 1950s, exploitation films and B movies exploited teen sex and pregnancy while mainstream Hollywood ignored those issues, struggling to promote teen girl stars by tightly controlling their private lives but depriving fan magazines of the gossip and scandals that normally fueled the machinery of stardom. The emergence and image of the postwar, sexually autonomous teen girl finally began to see expression in mainstream melodramas of the late 50s, and teen girl stars such as Sandra Dee and Natalie Wood created new, “post-delinquent” star images wherein “good girls” could still be sexually experienced. This new image was a significant departure from the widespread belief that the sexually active teen girl was a fundamentally delinquent threat to the nuclear family, and offered a liberal counterpoint to more conservative teen girl prototypes like Hayley Mills, which continued to have cultural currency. KEYWORDS: Star Culture, American Film, Juvenile Delinquency, Adolescent Female, American History – 20th Century. Michael Todd Hendricks Student’s Signature May 9, 2014 Date KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN: SEXUAL DELINQUENCY, STARDOM, AND ADOLESCENT GIRLHOOD IN MIDCENTURY AMERICAN FILM By Michael Todd Hendricks Virginia L. Blum, Director of Dissertation Andrew Doolen, Director of Graduate Studies May 9, 2014 I dedicate this dissertation to Dr. Harold Jason Baxter, who first taught me to love and to think about the movies. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Virginia Blum, my dissertation chair, saved my career as a graduate student by agreeing to lead my committee in 2007, when times were difficult. I owe her my life as a scholar. She is a consummate model of professionalism, generosity, and rigorous intellectual inquiry – qualities which I hope to embody someday as well as she does. I would also be lost without the guidance and brilliant feedback of my committee, which included Michael Trask, Alan Nadel, Carol Mason, and outside reader Jeffrey Peters. Pearl James read an early draft of chapter three and lent me her valuable insights. I am also grateful for respondents at the 2013 Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900 and the 2013 Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College. Of the latter conference, I particularly thank Soyica Colbert and Christian Ravela for their thoughtful advice. The libraries and archives at Stanford University, the University of Kentucky, Kennesaw State University, Emory University, and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction were invaluable to me as I studied the social, historical, and cinematic contexts of midcentury female adolescence. Friends and family provided the necessary emotional, financial, and at times editing help that saw me through this process. Rev. Mike Hendricks’s encouragement to enter graduate school and earn a doctorate was the genesis of this long quest, and his enthusiasm as a father, along with an endless supply of coffee shop gift cards, fueled many days of writing and revisions. My mother, iii Beverly, was also very encouraging and supportive. I am grateful for my sister, Sarah Newton, for housing me during a two year period when I returned to Lexington to finish writing. Finally, I thank my wife, Sheila, for enduring the hardships of being married to a graduate student and for tirelessly reading and editing all of these chapters. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. iii Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..……….. 1 Female Adolescence and Girls’ Culture in the Early 20th Century…………………….. 9 Natalie Wood as Case Study of the Delinquent Teen Girl Star…………………………. 14 The Post-Delinquent Teen Girl Star…………………………………………………………………. 26 Fandom and Hollywood…………………………………………………………………………………… 33 Teenagers as Stars…………………………………………………………………………………………… 35 Chapter Two: Knowing and Being Known: Teenage Girls, Sexual Delinquency, and Sex Education in Midcentury American Film……………………………………………. 42 The Curable Neurotic: Delinquency Transcends Class…………………………………….. 48 Peyton Place: The Crossroads of Knowing and Being Known…………………………… 62 Disciplined Girl, Careless Couple: The Careless Years………………………………………. 69 Explosive Generation, Autonomous Girl………………………………………………………….. 74 Chapter Three: Rebel without a Child: Exploitation and Teenage Pregnancy in Midcentury American Film..………………….…………………………………………………… 79 Mom and Dad Near the Street Corner – Sexual Hygiene and Roadshow Pictures of the 1940s ………………………………………………………………………………………. 84 Unwed Mother – Teen Pregnancy as “B” Movie Melodrama…………………………. 100 Delmer Daves and the Mainstream Pregnancy Melodrama…………………………… 106 Chapter Four: Virginity No Longer Required: Elizabeth Taylor, Sandra Dee, and the Transition to Post-Delinquent Teen Girl Stardom………………………....... 116 Early Marriage and Exploitation in the Delinquency Era………………………………… 120 Sandra Dee and Post-Delinquent Teen Girl Stardom in the late 1950s…………… 133 Chapter Five: Homewreckers: The Post-Delinquent Teen Girl Star in 1960s Hollywood………………………………………………………………………………………. 151 Chapter Six: Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..………………….. 197 Endnotes…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 207 References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 222 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 235 v Chapter One: Introduction “In her relations with her parents she often seems like a typical teenager. Her mother frequently waits up for her to get in at night and, on a date, when the evening begins to wane, Natalie glances frequently at her watch. “I don’t like to worry my mother. She might be waiting up”…Natalie has been on dates, during the past few years, with virtually every eligible male in Hollywood, young or old…her mother has not always approved…nor has the studio. That has made little difference to Natalie, who since a tender age has been living a life that is almost exclusively her own…In many ways she is a rebel without a cause.” (Gehman 92) The teen girl film star was perfectly designed