Screen Icons Hollywood
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
theARTS ALEXANDER VAN DER POLL Correspondent The faces we he original meaning of the word ‘icon’ referred to religious paintings of TChrist, Mother Mary and other saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church. These can’t forget days the word is used to describe anyone who is strongly identifi ed with a certain fi eld of activity. In popular culture most of these ‘icons’ SCREEN ICONS have emerged from the worlds of music and cinema. However, in this correspondent’s opinion, to become a true icon one needs to have such strong visual imagery associ- of 20th ated with oneself as to be practically etched in the minds of millions of people. In the last 115 years of cinema many screen icons have come and gone. Some century have proven to have the ‘staying power’ to truly own that title. Many screen legends such as Rita Hayworth, Mae West, Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Lana Turner and the HOLLYWOOD like may not get mentioned in this article, but that should not detract from their place in this vast pantheon of gods and god- Part One desses of the silver screen. Neither should it prevent readers from delving into the fi lms and literature available in CPLS, featuring This icon of the stage and screen became these stars. Judy Grln a legend at the age of 16 when she landed Perhaps one of the earliest screen queens the career-defi ning role of Dorothy Gale (with signifi cant longevity, notwithstanding in The wizard of Oz. She also broke the her untimely death) is the girl who im- Academy Awards records that year, becom- mortalised the line ‘I don't think we're in ing the youngest actress (at that time) to be Kansas anymore’. In addition, this special awarded a special Oscar for Best Juvenile star turned the theme song from the same Performer. (Those were the days before fi lm Somewhere over the rainbow into the Academy handed out awards to pre- one of the best-loved songs of all time. Judy teens, such as Anna Paquin in 1993 for her Garland (born Frances Gumm in 1922) was performance in The piano opposite Holly no stranger to the world of show business Hunter.) before she fi rst stepped into the magical It is somewhat amazing that Garland's world of *The wizard of Oz in 1939. career as an actress at MGM, under the The young Garland was groomed by both heavy hand and control of Louis B Mayer, her parents to be a singing, dancing and scarcely lasted ten years, and yet produced acting sensation. And she didn't disappoint. some of the most memorable musical fi lms She started singing with her sisters in of that period. By 1949, addled by a drug Vaudeville in an act unluckily known as the addiction (fuelled by Louis B Mayer's private Gumm Sisters. It didn't take very long for prescriptions for uppers and downers, to young Frances to shine and become the help the young star cope with a schedule standout phenomena the world knew as consisting of almost one fi lm every two Judy Garland. months), Garland was unceremoniously fi red by the studio. She only made a handful of Judy Garland 4848 Cape Librarian, November/December 2010 Ladysmith Black Mambazo theARTS Day started her career as a singer for a series of big bands in the early 1940s before breaking out with the hit single, Sentimental journey in 1945. By 1948 she had made the move to Hollywood and signed a contract with Warner Bros. Her fi rst appearance on screen was in the lightweight comedy Romance on the high seas (1948). In the following few years she would make four fi lms with legendary singer/actor Gordon MacRae (including *Tea for two, West Point story, On Moonlight Bay and By the light of the silvery moon) which catapulted her name and status to great heights. Her next fi lm, *Calamity Jane (1953) cemented her fame and provided her with her second important signature tune in the form of Secret Love. A year later she made her last fi lm (Young at heart with Frank Sinatra) for Warner Bros under her contract. For MGM Studios Doris Day made the fi lm which she refers to as the most impor- Jack Haley, Judy Garland and Ray Bolger in a scene from The Wizard of Oz tant and artistically fulfi lling of her career. Love me or leave me (1955) told the real life story of another legendary singer, Ruth fi lms for other studios over the next three Etting, and the title tune of the fi lm became decades. The most signifi cant of these post- another huge success. MGM fi lms must be her Oscar-nominated In 1956 she joined the luminary list of performance in the 1954 musical adaptation blondes to make fi lms for Alfred Hitchcock. of *A star is born. *The man who knew too much was a re- She made a comeback with a string of make by Hitchcock of his own earlier 1934 widely successful concert tours, but her un- fi lm. Hitchcock knew that the viewing public timely death in June 1969 (aged 47) robbed would expect Doris Day to sing if he used the world of a talent which was larger than her in his fi lm, and with Jay Livingston’s com- life itself. postition, Que Sera, Sera he had a hit fi lm and Judy Garland’s legacy does not only a hit song on his hands. The song is deeply include the legion of fi lm and sound record- entrenched in the Doris Day persona. She ings, but also includes her daughter, Liza later used it as the theme song to her televi- Minnelli, whose own life sadly parallels that sion series, The Doris Day Show, though read- of her mother, and yet, she has also attained ers may be surprised to learn that Day was cult/icon status among her multitude of fans. initially vehemently opposed to the song, and at fi rst refused to record it. Drs Day Over the next decade and a half Day Doris Day (born Doris Kappelhoff in 1924) reinvented herself with a series of mild sex is Judy Garland’s junior by only two years, comedies with co-stars like Rock Hudson and she also managed to rise to iconic status and Cary Grant. By the end of the 1960s in her recording and acting career which the popularity of her brand of entertainment spanned almost thirty years by the time she Doris Day on her fi rst day on the set for her fi rst had faded, and she decided to go into retire- retired from screen acting in 1968. movie role in Romance on the High Seas ment at the age of 44. Her personal life had seen many tragedies and travesties. Kaapse Bibliotekaris, November/Desember 2010 4949 theARTS adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ electrify- Though his career spanned more than half ing stage play, A streetcar named Desire. a century Brando seems to have completed Brando had played the part on Broadway most of his best work during his fi rst ten before taking the part in the fi lm. The major years in Hollywood (1950 to 1960). During difference in the casting of the fi lm was that that time he managed to perform in 13 fi lms, Vivienne Leigh was cast as the pitiful Blanche, almost all of which were critical and com- as opposed to Brando’s original Broadway mercial successes. co-star, Jessica Tandy, whom many readers Some of his later contributions include will remember as the titular character in the *Last tango in Paris, *The Godfather, and 1989 fi lm, *Driving Miss Daisy. *Apocalypse now. Brando had a reputation for having a Brando also had quite a tumultuous voracious sexual appetite and was linked private life in his later years, mainly romantically to almost each of his female co-stars in the 1950s and 1960s, not least of which was the Italian actress Anna Magnani who had starred opposite him in The fugi- tive kind (1960). Another actor who greatly admired Bran- do, and was also a student at The Actors' Studio in New York, was James Dean, an icon in his own right. Brando himself, accord- ing to legend, complained that Dean was Doris Day getting prepared for her big mud scene fashioning his acting technique on Brando’s in Calamity Jane own. It is hard to dispute this claim, as when one compares the two ‘mumblers’ (both actors had a habit of speaking quite inaudibly A car accident at the age of 17 confound- at times, to accent their broody characters), ed her aspirations of becoming a dancer and there is a remarkable similarity. her long-time husband and manager Marty Melcher had, unbeknownst to her, defrauded her of millions, leaving her bankrupt despite a lucrative career in Hollywood. In 2004 Day suffered another devastating blow with the death of her son, Terry Melcher. Despite this she has worked relentlessly for the cause Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward in United of animal rights and still lives a quiet life at Artists’ The Fugitive her home in California as she approaches her 87th year. concerning his son and daughter. Perhaps Mrl Brn because of this he seems to have become Hailed by many as one of the greatest actors negligent in his art and diffi cult to work with, of all time, Marlon Brando also managed to often arriving on set with hardly a working become a screen icon due to his memorable knowledge of the script.