Fashion and GlamourHayworth required considerable art and expertise, and the same talents
moulded Norma Jean Baker into Marilyn Monroe. Even Garbo and Dietrich
were very ordinary, rather gauche women before being thoroughly reshaped
by the studios. The sex appeal of the stars was not an intrinsic feature,
although ‘personality’ was a quality the industry regarded as vital to star
creation; on the contrary it was a manufactured, artificial phenomenon that
the studios conferred on their protegés.
The inventor of sex appeal in American cinema was the English novelist
Elinor Glyn, who arrived in Hollywood at the invitation of Jesse Lansky in
1920 and subsequently worked for MGM. Glyn, author of the scandalous
novelThree Weeks and the short story It, believed that sex should be disguised
as romance. She also believed in the creation of an aura of mystery to arouse
public interest.^18 Working with Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, she
taught them poise, elegance and seductive techniques (such as Valentino
kissing the palm rather than the back of a woman’s hand) which fuelled the
atmosphere of sensuality. In the course of the 1920s and 1930s, Hollywood
set design and costume applied the lesson of deflected or displaced sexuality
by incorporating the exotic or the sensual (shimmering fabrics, shiny surfaces)
into the structure of film-making. Actors were also moulded through cosmetic
surgery, cosmetics and flattering lighting.
Perhaps the most extraordinary and enduring examples of Hollywood
glamour are provided by the stills of great studio photographers like George
Hurrell and Clarence Sinclair Bull. These portraits, for which the stars often
posed reluctantly at the end of a day on the set, are today gathered in
numerous volumes. Moreover, when an occasion presents itself, contemporary
actors are more than willing to allow themselves to be photographed in the
studio manner of the 1940s because they know that the allure of those images
is unrivalled.^19 In the sultry black and white photographs of the past, actors
were turned into icons. They appeared almost as gods and certainly as
archetypes, their individuality giving way to a generalized image of seduction.
The perfection of the images did not derive from the beauty of the subject
but rather from the invention of the photographer.
Speaking in the 1980s, Hurrell said that he regarded glamour as a synonym
for ‘giving a sexier attitude’ or creating a ‘bedroom look’. ‘You know, glamour
to me was nothing more than just an excuse for saying sexy pictures. In
- See Rosen, Marjorie, Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream, London:
Peter Owen, 1973, pp. 117–20 and Glyn, Anthony, Elinor Glyn, London: Hutchinson, 1955,
chapter six. - See, for example, the ‘old Hollywood’ portraits of present-day actors in Prince, Len,
About Glamour, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.