The almost perfect Anglo-Saxon type, more English than the English’
Vilma Bánky’s star image in 1920s America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12895745 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Agata Frymus (0000-0002-5971-5970, University of York, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 425-441 |
| Publication date | 2017-10-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Early Popular Visual Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1746-0654 • E-ISSN: 1746-0662 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17460654.2017.1383928 |
| OpenAlex | W2768060683 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
The early 1920s witnessed a spike of interest in the import of European stars to Hollywood, as the film studios hired talent scouts to keep a constant watch on successful stage and film actors on the continent. Vilma Bánky’s Hollywood career began when she was signed to Samuel Goldwyn’s film studio in 1925. This paper analyses the characteristics\nof Bánky’s star image, particularly in relation to her conspicuously white features and the story of her discovery, which successfully located her within the Cinderella narrative. To the movie going public, Bánky achieved stardom through being discovered by a film producer rather than through conscious efforts, thus, her story was encoded as a patriarchal text that denied her any form of agency. Bánky’s star publicity suggested she incarnated the highest ideals of whiteness; her gentle way of being and feminine charm was a natural extension of her physical attributes. Fan magazines propagated the concept of perfect white womanhood by emphasising tranquillity, elegance and grace as characteristics inherent to her persona. ‘Miss Banky’s charm is a subtle, winsome appeal which one associates inevitably with the\ntruly feminine’, declared one columnist writing for Picture Play. The fan discourse also showed Bánky as an eager subject of Americanisation, as an actress who owed her ‘lucky break’ not only to her producer, but an individual in debt to transformative power of America at large
Appeal · Art · Art history · Hollywood · Humanities · Literature · Narrative · Persona · Political science · Studio · Visual arts · White (mutation · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
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The Femme Fatale
The Heart of Whiteness
Cultures of United States Imperialism (review)
White Privilege and Looking Relations
Ideology and Foreign Policy
American Silent Film
Ah, love! It's not for me!' Off-screen romance and Pola Negri's star persona
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| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |