Praise for Glamour ‘In her relish for brassy blondes, gutsy flamboyance and tinsel vulgarity, Dyhouse writes like a woman who knows her way around the lipstick counter and the flea market. She shows how a parade in the trappings of glamour expressed aspiration and assertion at odds with mousy, unobtrusive conformity. Glamour was a cynical business, but also a shriek of camp defiance. All fur coat and no knickers. Dyhouse has whipped the stopper from a vintage bottle of Evening in Paris and conjured a vanished world – cheap, a little tarty, but impossible to forget.’ Amanda Vickery, author of Behind Closed Doors ‘In Glamour: Women, History, Feminism, Carol Dyhouse has written a study of the conception of glamour in the twentieth century that is sprightly, provocative, and penetrating. She adds greatly to our understanding of a phenomenon that has been central to women’s attitudes toward themselves … This work will be interesting to both scholars and general readers alike.’ Lois Banner, author of American Beauty ‘In her survey of changing ideas about “glamour” throughout the twentieth century and beyond, Carol Dyhouse has succeeded in fashioning scholarly empirical research into a clear, engaging and enthusiastic account.’ Elizabeth Wilson, author of Adorned in Dreams ‘Rigorously researched and persuasively argued, Glamour represents an important contribution to the social history of fashion and of fabulousness.’ Caroline Weber, author of Queen of Fashion ‘Riveting – from perfume to sexual politics and the precise definition of “It”, Dyhouse gives us an entertaining and innovative analysis of a topic that, while hitherto underexplored, has a huge impact on all our lives.’ Sarah Gristwood, author of Fabulous Frocks Glamour Women, History, Feminism Carol Dyhouse Zed Books London & New York Glamour: Women, History, Feminism was first published in 2010 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.zedbooks.co.uk Copyright © Carol Dyhouse 2010 The right of Carol Dyhouse to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 Text and cover designed by Safehouse Creative Index by John Barker and Nick von Tunzelmann Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press, LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan- ical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available ISBN 978 1 84813 407 2 Contents Illustrations vi Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 The origins of glamour: demi-monde, modernity, ‘It’ 9 2 Hollywood glamour 29 3 Dreams, desires and spending 49 4 Princesses, tarts and cheesecake 81 5 Revolutions 109 6 Glamazons, grunge and bling 133 7 Perspectives and reflections: glamour for all? 151 Notes 169 Sources and select bibliography 203 Index 223 Illustrations Advertisement for Helena Rubinstein’s Valaze skin creams, 1920s 16 Advertisement for Grossmith’s perfume Phul-Nana, 1920s 18 Perfume card advertising Shem-el-Nessim, 1920s 20 Wana-Ranee, another of Grossmith’s ‘oriental’ perfumes, 1920s 22 Fur wrap edged with rows of tiny feet and tails, 1900s 24 Adverts for Revillon Frères,1920s 26 Gloria Swanson on a tiger-skin 31 Adelaide Hall 34 Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily in Shanghai Express 35 Coats with intricately stitched pelts from the late 1920s 36 Madeleine Carroll looking slinky in bias-cut satin 39 Advert for Ballito silk stockings, mid 1930s 40 Pulp novelette from Gramol Publications, 1935 50 Cover of the first issue ofGirls’ Cinema, October 1920 53 Film Fashionland 54 Designs from Film Fashionland, mid 1930s 56 Advertisements from the British Fur Trade, 1937 60 Advert for Snowfire vanishing cream and face powder, mid 1930s 63 Cover of Miss Modern, March 1935 66 Advert for Atkinson’s popular scent Californian Poppy, 1940s 69 Advert for Coty’s Chypre, 1938 71 Illustrations Wedding photo, wartime Leeds 78 Kestos advert, 1950s 82 Model Cherry Marshall in an advert for Susan Small, 1949 84 Hairdresser Betty Burden, photographed by Bert Hardy 86 Model Barbara Goalen, photographed by John French,1950 94 Lady Docker, 1954 98 Diana Dors on the cover of Picturegoer, December 1955 100 Alma Cogan performs for the BBC Home Service, 1954 103 Joan Collins on the cover of Picture Post, September 1954 106 A mother takes her daughter shopping in the 1950s 111 Adverts for Marchioness velvets (Martin & Savage Ltd) and Hoggs of Hawick 116 Shirley Bassey at the London Palladium, 1965 127 Claudia Jones with black beauty queen Marlene Walker, 1960 129 Claudia Jones congratulating Carol Joan Crawford 130 Shoulder-padded glamazon in an advert for Krizia, British Vogue, 1985 137 1980s tailored androgyny in an advert for Georges Rech, British Vogue, 1985 139 vii Acknowledgements Many people were helpful while I was researching and writing this book. My family has been unstintingly generous and has put up with a great deal, so as always my first thanks go to Alex, Eugénie and Nick von Tunzelmann. Alex and Eugénie have always been willing to discuss ideas on glamour, feminism and fashion, and have shared with me a passion for perfumes and their history. Nick has patiently read through drafts, corrected proofs and encouraged me to persevere. I would particularly like to thank Claire Langhamer, Lucy Robinson, and other colleagues at the University of Sussex: Alex Shepard before she left for Cambridge and then Glasgow, Ian Gazeley, Michèle Harrison, Hester Barron, Eugene Michail, Naomi Tadmor, Paul Betts and Alun Howkins. Thanks also to Jenny Shaw, Marcia Pointon, Joyce Goodman, Stephanie Spencer, Ruth Watts, Jane Martin, Amanda Vickery, Sally Alexander, Penny Tinkler, Sylvie Zannier-Betts and Clarissa Campbell-Orr, all of whom were supportive in different ways. Elaine Uttley, Eleanor Thompson and Kate Rose helped me to explore collections at the Fashion Museum in Bath, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, and Worthing Museum. Claire Smith guided me round the fashion and textiles collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London. Daphne Hills at the Natural History Museum in London answered questions about musk pods and civet cats in relation to the history of perfume. My thanks go also to Irene MacGregor, Christine Clennell, Paula Sedgwick and the enthusiasts who contributed to the magazine Common Scents. Simon Brooke offered information about the history of Grossmiths. Mick Hamer was knowl- edgeable about Adelaide Hall. Gerry Webster shared his enthusiasm for pre-1960s cinema. I owe Glamour of the Screen to Frank Gloversmith. My thanks go to Norman Dombey for his keyword search on ‘glamour’ in The Times. I am grateful to the staff in the libraries at the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex, and in Special Collections at Sussex; also the staff in the British Library, and the University Library in Cambridge. Gen Carden, Maggie Hanbury and Tamsine O’Riordan were all encouraging at key points. The team at Zed Books and Jonathan Chapman at Safehouse Creative have all been a pleasure to work with. Acknowledgements Thanks to Pat Harper, who has been a sharp-eyed copyeditor; any remaining solecisms will be my own. For help in identifying copyright holders and with picture credits generally my particular thanks go to Jakob Horstmann at Zed Books. I am grateful for the help and co-operation of Anne Ward, Tessa Lewis and Sarah Crowley. For permission to reproduce images I am indebted to the British Library, the Mary Evans Picture Library, the Advertising Archive, IPC+Syndication, V&A Images, Getty Images, Magnum Photos, John Bishop, Donald Hinds and Lambeth Archives, and David Tinworth of Martin and Savage. Material from Mass Observation is reproduced with the permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd., London, on behalf of the Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive (© The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive). Every effort has been made to trace and to acknowledge copyright holders of the images that appear in this book. The author and publishers apologise for any unintentional errors or omissions. If brought to their notice, any such errors will be corrected in future editions. ix Introduction When it was first used, in the nineteenth century, the word ‘glamour’ meant something akin to sorcery, or magical charm.1 It became a buzz word in the twentieth century, its strongest associations being with American cinema between the 1930s and 1950s, the classic period of the Hollywood ‘dream factory’, and in particular the screen and still photo- graphy of its female stars. Men as well as women can be described as glamorous, and the term can also be applied to things, places or lifestyles. Any judgement of what is and is not glamorous will be partly subjective: glamour (like beauty) can be judged to exist in the eye of the beholder rather than that which is beholden. Notions of what constitutes glamour have changed through time, and yet there are marked continuities. Glamour has almost always been linked with artifice and with performance, and is generally seen as constituting a form of sophisticated – and often sexual – allure. This book will focus on feminine glamour, the relationship between glamour and fashion, and what glamour has meant to women in modern social history. ‘Glamour’ as a term implying a form of sophisticated feminine allure has a history which is interwoven with changing constructions of femininity, consumerism, popular culture, fashion and celebrity. Few of Glamour those who have written on the subject have done so from a position of neutrality.