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Hollywood and the World

Edited by

Robert James and Roy Vallis

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2014 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

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 without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-293-5 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2014. First Edition.

Table of Contents Hollywood and the World: An Introduction Robert James and Roy Vallis Part I

Part II

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Searching for Authenticity: Costumes, Sets, Themes, Icons and Images Reading the Reality of Simulation and Commodification in The Matrix Trilogy Fetson Kalua

3

‘Sophie in the Camp’: A Comparative Visual Reading of Concentration Camp Costumes in Sophie’s Choice Sofia Pantouvaki and Merja Väisänen

11

The Hollywood Affect: A Comparative Study of Costume in Australia and The Proposition Tiziana Ferrero-Regis and Madeline Taylor

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The ‘Hula Girl’, Snapshot Photography and the Creation of Cross-Cultural Romance in Hollywood Films of the Early Twentieth Century Nicola Goc

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The Misfits: Art and Magic in the Desert Virginia L. Vogel and Howard Rosenberg

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Lost in Hollywood: Fitzgerald as Screenwriter Artur Ribeiro

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The Type that Sold Hollywood Louise McWhinnie

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Speaking to Audiences: Society, Practices and the Politics of Screening Lost in Translation: Disrespect and the Importance of Cultural Nuance in Hong Kong/Hollywood Cinematic Relations Joyleen Christensen

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The Artist and Hugo: Contrasting Perspectives on Cinematic Nostalgia Emmy Perryman

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Breaking the Sound Barrier: The Role of Subtitling in Hollywood Market Hegemony Roy Vallis

113

Films and the Construction of ‘Loyal Citizenship’ in South Africa during the Second World War, 1939-1945 Fankie Monama

125

Hollywood in the British Neighbourhood: Local Moviegoing in Britain in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Robert James

137

New Memories of Old Stars: Carmen Miranda and Marilyn Monroe in the YouTube Canon Louise Elali and Catalina Vásquez

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New Memories of Old Stars: Carmen Miranda and Marilyn Monroe in the YouTube Canon Louise Elali and Catalina Vázquez Abstract Digital media offer new possibilities of preserving and representing the past, allowing for creativity and expressivity in interpretations and remixes of historical records. The Internet (and YouTube in particular) permits a more democratic prosumer approach that combines official discourses and mediated memory making. Therefore, YouTube not only has been progressively transforming the way we consume film, television, news and user-generated video—participants decide what and when to watch, as well as create channels and load content—it might be effectively becoming an active force in the (re)shaping of collective memory. In this space, Hollywood idols reclaim their status as timeless icons that are found, refound and, to a certain extent, re-introduced and re-created within this cluster of participant-led content. This study looks at this phenomenon through a case study of Carmen Miranda’s and Marilyn Monroe’s presences on YouTube. It aims to identify how Miranda and Monroe are captured and recaptured in this canon, and whether there is a departure from their Hollywood personas. The research combined qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis to examine 40 videos (20 for each actress). The criteria for sampling involved performing a YouTube search (sorted by relevance) and excluding videos that were exclusively reposts of photos or scenes from movies. Amid professional or amateur portrayals of both stars, tribute songs about Carmen’s and Marilyn’s hair/make-up tutorials, it finds that, although both icons are often refereed to from new spaces of production, the videos tend to focus on the same characteristics that defined their careers (i.e. appearance and sex appeal), falling in line with, and not challenging, collective memory. Key Words: Digital media, collective memory, prosumption, YouTube, Hollywood stars, Marilyn Monroe, Carmen Miranda. ***** In a culture where celebrities are ‘the flavour of the week’—they quickly gain exposure, then become over-exposed and fleetingly fade away—Carmen Miranda and Marilyn Monroe have demonstrated unique staying power. Although it might be hard to explain why, it is rather easy to observe that Marilyn and Carmen are as present in our collective memories as they have ever been, even decades after their deaths. Marilyn Monroe is a household name that does not need introduction. A North American actress who starred in a number of Hollywood motion pictures during

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__________________________________________________________________ the 1950s and early 1960s, she was born in 1926 and spent most of her childhood in foster homes before beginning her successful career as a model, actress, and singer. Nowadays, she is often featured in an array of mass media productions, from television shows like Smash with its ‘dueling Marilyns’ (as the press has come to refer to Ivy Lynn and Karen Cartwright, the characters played by Megan Hilty and Katherine McPhee), to Michelle Williams’ much revered portrayal of the star in the film My Week With Marilyn, to countless books about her life. The test of time has proved that Monroe is a lasting cultural icon: the quintessential sex symbol and pop culture motif. Carmen Miranda was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s, who was nicknamed the ‘Brazilian bombshell’. Known for her signature fruit hat first worn in the movie The Gang’s All Here (1943), she led a successful career as an entertainer. Many Brazilians, including herself, thought of her as an ‘ambassador’ of Brazil in foreign lands. To this day, Miranda is considered the epitome of Brazilian by international standards and one can often see references to her persona when the subject is Brazil. Although they have very different images, these successful women share a few traits. At different times, both of them have started fashion trends, as well as been considered the highest-earning woman in the United States. They also have very well-defined visual elements as part of their image—blonde hair and a mole; or colourful clothes and big hats. While alive, both Miranda and Monroe longed to break away from the typecasting into which they were quickly forced. Although they were undoubtly successful and highly recognised actresses, it seems neither felt that their on-screen roles matched their off-screen strength and individuality. Indeed, Carmen and Marilyn have been vibrant presences in the world’s collective memory. However, what do they truly represent nowadays? Is the prosumer-friendly internet culture changing our collective memories of these two icons? In order to answer this question, we decided to analyse videos posted on YouTube. More specifically, we wanted to explore the Carmen-related and Marilyn-related content that is being produced and reproduced, and equally as important, what that means for both stars’ time-honoured iconic images. YouTube is the perfect social media tool to use in addressing such a socially complex query. Not only is it currently the third most visited site in the world (after Facebook and Google), but this social media based website also seriously gives way to a growing bottom-up, user-generated approach in creating stardom, since it is guided by prosumption—a new word used to describe the users’ role in social media platforms by putting together the ideas of ‘production’ and ‘consumption’. On the other hand, it still incorporates the long-standing Hollywood star system. In this new and visual space, Hollywood idols reclaim their status as timeless icons that are found, re-found, re-introduced and re-created within this cluster of participant-led content.

Louise Elali and Catalina Vázquez

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__________________________________________________________________ As unexpected but explosive as Monroe and Miranda themselves, the YouTube platform came from left field and, like the beloved actresses that demanded and gained the attention from viewers all over the world, this social media tool that we have all come to know — and in many ways rely upon — has requested and received participation from all kinds of people. It has become truly significant in the way we communicate in our society. Within this organized chaos that is actually video sharing led by prosumers, we dig for the standing of our beloved Hollywood stars in our collective memory. Collective memory is a shared pool of information held in the memories of a group. Sak explains that it can be described based on six premises. Collective memory is, thus: 1. processual, because it is a transforming, unfolding and changing process; 2. unpredictable, for it does not follow a linear or rational logic; 3. partial, as it engages a range of fragments from diverse histories; 4. usable, since it can facilitate the connections that are necessary for the production of meanings; 5. particular and universal, considering that it can characterize both a particular occurrence past for a specific group and a universal connotation for another; and 6. material, as it exists out in the world, and not only in our minds. In fact, communication scholars recently have been exploring the relationship between the Internet in general (and YouTube in particular) and collective memory. Gueorguieva explains how ‘collective memory’ becomes ‘online collective memory’ when paired with the Internet (and specially with YouTube). In new media, memory is constructed in a process of meaning making while searching, selecting and rearranging parts, which is a practice where the user is guided by his or her emotions. If memory is a way to conserve history, digital media not only puts forward new potential for preserving and representing the past, but also, at the same time, it lets the individual express creativity in their own interpretations and remixes of historical records, which are then shared with friends and possibly many anonymous fellow users. This is the defining characteristic of the new media: the Internet (and more specifically YouTube) permits a more democratic prosumer approach that combines official discourses and mediated memory making. Gueorguieva subscribes to Lovink’s thought that the people in Western societies no longer watch film or TV, they watch databases. In this context, YouTube becomes an archive of information that the user manipulates

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__________________________________________________________________ based on the database: he or she can search, view, navigate, comment, create lists or add content, and remix digital material into new compilations. Therefore, collective memory refers to the shared knowledge and perceptions of any group of people, and online collective memory adds on the contemporary context created by the Internet. In our study, these concepts create a bridge between the user-generated videos posted on YouTube and representations of Carmen and Marilyn. After all, we intend to find out the place that these actresses hold in the public’s eyes (which would be mirrored in the videos shared by the prosumers), and, consequently, collective memory. Therefore, in order to approach these concepts in a more concrete manner, we decided to focus on their presence on YouTube. The choice of Marilyn Monroe and Carmen Miranda is based on a few similarities and comparable traits not only in their careers, but also the position they hold in collective memory. In fact, they both received Hollywood (and worldwide) exposure and were considered sex symbols of their time and eventually became typecast and wanted to move away from that. More importantly, however, is the fact that they both became big international representatives of their own nations: Marilyn might be one of the most recognized North-American faces, while Carmen continues to be parodied when a representation of Brazil is called for. Their stardom has carried over for decades and their images are consequently firmly cemented in collective memory. As a result, this research centres on the question: Do YouTube representations of Marilyn Monroe and Carmen Miranda play into or move away from the Hollywood narratives in which they were originally placed? In order to answer this question, we performed a series of YouTube searches as an anonymous user (that is, ‘not logged in’), with the language set to ‘English (US)’ and the location set to ‘Worldwide’. The safety system was turned off and the results were ordered by relevance. Under these parameters, we searched for ‘Carmen Miranda’ and, afterwards, for ‘Marilyn Monroe’. In this first step, over 80% of the videos brought forward for both actresses consisted in simple reposts of movie scenes — for example, Marilyn’s performance of the song I Want To Be Loved By You in the movie Some Like It Hot (1959) and Carmen’s performance of The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat in the movie The Gang Is All Here (1943) seem to be unmistakable favourites, as they were repeated three times each—or other footage of the actresses themselves—such as Marilyn’s iconic rendition of Happy Birthday, Mr. President or Carmen’s Hollywood Reel interview—which means that, on this website, original presentations of the actresses take lead over user-generated representations. Since our initial intentions were to analyse how the performer is recaptured in the YouTube archives by its users, we decided to add an extra filter we called ‘variations’. Therefore, we excluded videos that showed exclusively material


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__________________________________________________________________ performed by Marilyn Monroe or Carmen Miranda themselves, including: scenes from movies, performances, and tribute-like photomontages. As a result, the data collection was performed again, and we created a new sample of 20 videos for each actress, gathered in the last week of April 2012. The videos were analysed on the basis of: Basic Video Data: recording each video’s meta-data, namely title, date posted, total views, number of comments, likes and dislikes, category, and tags; Production Quality: establishing if the content was generated by the user (or, better yet, prosumer) or a simple copy of a professionally created production; Original content: we registered if and how the actress was present in the video, i.e. in a visual manner (moving or still image), in an audible manner (through her voice, either in a song or a dialogue), both, or none; Reference: if the actress was not part of the video, how did the piece convey her? We made note of visual elements (clothing, accessories, hair style, birth marks, among others), name-dropping, or another unpredicted manner. Amongst our most relevant results, we found that both actresses can be considered pop culture icons (albeit in different contexts) with a constant presence in collective memory. This idea is supported by the fact that 95% of the Marilynrelated videos and 80% of the Carmen-related videos were posted in the last six months. Unsurprisingly, Marilyn’s videos were more popular than Carmen’s—the American actress averaged much bigger numbers in views, comments, likes and dislikes per item. However, 70% of Marilyn-related content was generated in the US, while Carmen’s came from a more international space, with nine countries (and three continents) represented. This is especially surprising given that Monroe is a household name worldwide, while Miranda’s name is not as easily recognized outside of Latin America. Most of Marilyn’s videos (65%) were professionally produced for a variety of media, and, therefore, were mainstream. They included music industry productions (for instance, there were two songs by contemporary artists Nicki Minaj and Brianna Perry and an Epic Rap Battles of History episode), several re-imaginations of Marilyn and/or her movies previously aired on television (such as NBC’s Smash musical numbers and episode previews, as well as Gossip Girl’s re-creation of Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend), interviews with actresses that took on the role of Marilyn (namely Michelle Williams and Megan Hilty) and other such tributes. Only 35% of the videos were considered user-generated, and those items were

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__________________________________________________________________ mostly ‘how-to’ tutorials, explaining how to achieve Marilyn’s sexy look through a specific make-up technique or hairstyle. The opposite is true for Carmen Miranda’s sample. 70% of the videos were categorized in the user-generated variety. These videos had a tendency to portray impersonators, actresses or dancers performing a routine set to one of her songs. Most of the professionally produced videos were in the form of tribute songs (e.g. Leslie Fish’s Carmen Miranda’s Ghost). The most common tags provide a good overall picture of the content portrayed in the videos. In Marilyn-centred videos, many words were related to the TV show Smash, including cast members’ names (i.e. ‘smash’, ‘musical’, ‘megan’, ‘hilty’, ‘katherine’, ‘mcphee’). Other frequently used words refer to appearance (i.e. ‘look’, ‘beauty’, ‘cosmetics’ and ‘tutorial’). The most common tags in Carmeninspired videos reflect her typical performances (i.e. ‘samba’, ‘brazil’, ‘fruit’, ‘dance’, ‘funny’, ‘banana’). As a result, it is not surprising to find that the videos were usually posted under the category ‘Entertainment’, which made up 45% of both samples. In addition, Marilyn had a strong presence in ‘How to & Style’, while Carmen’s videos favoured ‘Music’. As far as ‘original’ content, 40% of the Marilyn videos analysed included ‘original’ content (usually pictures of Marilyn herself in the background). The other 60% did not include ‘original’ Monroe material, and usually relied on namedropping, which was a more common way of referencing than leaning solely on her iconic look, although both methods were often used in conjunction. In Carmen’s case, 55% included ‘original’ content (usually her voice) while the 45% that did not contain ‘original’ material used evenly her name or visual references. Therefore, both Marilyn and Carmen are referred to from new spaces of productions, which are based on their names and image. Marilyn’s references are more popular and mainstream while Carmen’s seem more marginalised. A large amount of Carmen’s content connotes comedy at her expense, while most of the Marilyn content centres on taking on her persona (professionally in movies/television or ‘in real life’ through make-up and hairdos). Consequently, much of the content refers exactly to the typecast from which these actresses desired to break away. Based on these findings, we cannot help but question the true relationship between the Internet (via YouTube) and collective memory. The scholarly implication that digital media is able to change and re-shape collective memory does not seem to play out as strongly as predicted. However, these are certainly the early stages of this technology, and this relationship can unquestionably progress and become more (or less) intrinsic over time. Consequently, although the Internet in general and YouTube in particular are seen as new influences on collective memory, capable of restructuring it because it is a prosumer-centric approach, this case study hints at the possibility that these changes might be more punctual than expected, since both Marilyn Monroe and Carmen Miranda are kept in the same


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__________________________________________________________________ type of role they fulfilled while they were alive, even though both expressed an apparent desire to move away from that. In spite of this, their public personas were so powerful that their images still hold similar values to what they represented decades ago. There are no signs that these stars will be remembered differently or under a more dynamic interpretation any time soon.

Bibliography Gueorguieva, Valentina. ‘Remixes and Appropriations of Socialist Legacy Online’. Navigating Landscapes of Mediated Memory, edited by Paul Wilson and Patrick McEntaggart. Oxfordshire, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2011. Lipsitz, George. Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 2001. Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. 3rd Edition. London: Sage, 2012. Schreier, Margrit. Qualitative Content Analysis in Practice. London: Sage, 2012. Snickars, Pelle and Patrick Vonderau, eds. The YouTube Reader. Lithuania: Logotipas, 2009. Sak, Segah. ‘Collective Memory and Video-Sharing on the Internet’. Image, Time and Motion New Media Critique from Turkey, Ankara (2003 - 2010), edited by Andreas Treske, Ulfuk Önen, Bestem Büyüm and I. Alev Degim. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. Louise Elali is a Brazilian-born journalist (Universidade Potiguar, Brazil) and psychologist (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil), who has completed a Masters degree in Global Visual Communication at Jacobs University Bremen (Germany) in 2012. Her interests are highly transdisciplinary, constantly wandering around the intersection between Communication Studies and Psychology, especially in the realms of entertainment and mass media (in its many forms), and their lasting effects in the viewers. Email: [email protected] Catalina Vazquez is a multimedia journalist (University of Oregon) who focuses on the representation of marginalized people within big media. Born and raised in California, she has covered everything from undocumented migration to the historical role of converse chucks in street culture. Her intense curiosity is what contributed to her first degree in Ethnic Studies and Intermedia Arts (Mills College) and second Master’s in Global Visual Communication (Jacobs University

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__________________________________________________________________ Bremen). She gears her focus to the intersection of media and politics, paying great attention to the people and movements who redefine their social limitations. Email: [email protected]

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From their very beginning, Hollywood films have garnered worldwide a en on. Whether celebrated for their unique style and technical sophis ca on or cri cised for imposing American cultural values on the world, they have made an indelible impression on audiences everywhere. In this fascina ng volume, interna onal film scholars and prac oners consider how Hollywood films have been produced, distributed and received. This unique collec on is ha presented in two sec ons corresponding to two main themes: representa onal authen city and demographic-specific recep on. The first sec on explores issues of authen city in film as represented in wardrobe, se ng and theme, while the second sec on focuses on Hollywood film as received by audiences in a variety of markets, both domes c and interna onal. Hollywood and the World persuasively demonstrates that Hollywood is not just an industry or an ins tu on; it is a social phenomenon that has fundamentally changed the world and the way we view it.

About the Editors Roy Vallis teaches public discourse, rhetoric and cri cal wri ng for film at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His interests include the history of sound-on-film technology, cinema as propaganda, narra ve theory and film and folklore. He lives in Southern California with his family, which includes his dog and two rescued parrots. Robert James is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom. He is author of Popular Culture and Working-Class Taste in Britain, 1930-39: A Round of Cheap Diversions? and is currently inves ga ng leisure provision and consump on in Bri sh port towns in the first half of the twen eth century.