"But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive jewels
A kiss on the hand may be quite continental
But diamonds are a girl's best friend
A kiss may be grand but it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat, or help you at the automat
Men grow cold as girls grow old
And we all lose our charms in the end
But square cut or pear shaped
These rocks don't lose their shape
Diamonds are a girl's best friend!"
--Styne and Robin
Breakfast at Tiffany's was published in 1958
Good bye to Berlin was published in 1939.
Peyton Place was published in 1956.
To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960.
Truman Capote is lionized for creating the indelible, shocking and totally original Holly Golightly.
Christopher Isherwood is barely known, in America, and his 19 year old Sally Bowles, who pursues men for their money, hoping they will make her into a movie star, or at least a very rich mistress, is known only as she is portrayed by Liza Minelli (and before her by Julie Harris) on screen and stage.
The stories of both pseudo ingenues are told through the voice of a male narrator who is slightly, occasionally in love with the young woman he describes, but who never has that love consummated or even, really, reciprocated.
Bowles is a self absorbed, utterly self defined character, who doesn't care what an older generation or a proper society might think of her, as long as she gets what she wants: movie stardom, or at least wealth, but preferably both wealth and fame. She has, of course, no idea how to attain these goals and, as Isherwood observes, she makes only desultory efforts in any direction which might procure them, e.g. auditioning for roles. The most she does to put herself forward is to perform at the night club, and she is more of a curiosity there than an talent.
Holly Golighty follows the same path, hunting down rich men, a shameless gold digger, in hopes of getting her hooks in deeply enough to insure her a life of luxury; Holly is almost as clueless as Bowles, having decided whatever she is doing with men will lead to more permanent wealth than it is actually ever likely to do.
Both women eventually latch on to men who they think they are exploiting but who are actually exploiting them. Their methods, mores and ultimate outcome are nearly identical.
Both are the women "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" was written about, but neither is an original; they are copies. Marilyn Monroe gave voice to the credo in the 1953 song but Carol Channing had sung it on Broadway years earlier. And that was based on a book written in 1925 by Anita Loos, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" about a flapper who absorbed America's materialistic culture, more concerned with collecting hard assets than marriage licenses.
Before this, before "the Code" thwarted Hollywood's ability to tell truth to the American public, a series of women appeared on screen in the May West mold, women who were frank about sex, about what they wanted and why.
"Peyton Place" features the rape of a teen age girl by her step father and the quandary of the town doctor, who decides to go ahead and perform the abortion he reasons is the best way to deal with all this. He is put on trial for this act of moral rectitude.
"To Kill A Mockingbird" features the trial prompted by the sexual act of an adolescent girl and the Black man accused of raping her, when in fact, it is clear it was her step father who did the deed.
Step fathers are the convenient villain. Real fathers would have been too much for America of the 1950's-60's to absorb. Statutory rape was one thing, but incest quite another.
Grace Metalious, a woman from New Hampshire nobody in literary circles had ever heard of, was rebuked as a smut dealer; Harper Lee, working in New York publishing, friend of Truman Capote, was lionized as the great literary talent of her day for her book published 4 years after Peyton Place.
And gives expensive jewels
A kiss on the hand may be quite continental
But diamonds are a girl's best friend
A kiss may be grand but it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat, or help you at the automat
Men grow cold as girls grow old
And we all lose our charms in the end
But square cut or pear shaped
These rocks don't lose their shape
Diamonds are a girl's best friend!"
--Styne and Robin
Breakfast at Tiffany's was published in 1958
Good bye to Berlin was published in 1939.
Peyton Place was published in 1956.
To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960.
Truman Capote is lionized for creating the indelible, shocking and totally original Holly Golightly.
Christopher Isherwood is barely known, in America, and his 19 year old Sally Bowles, who pursues men for their money, hoping they will make her into a movie star, or at least a very rich mistress, is known only as she is portrayed by Liza Minelli (and before her by Julie Harris) on screen and stage.
The stories of both pseudo ingenues are told through the voice of a male narrator who is slightly, occasionally in love with the young woman he describes, but who never has that love consummated or even, really, reciprocated.
Bowles is a self absorbed, utterly self defined character, who doesn't care what an older generation or a proper society might think of her, as long as she gets what she wants: movie stardom, or at least wealth, but preferably both wealth and fame. She has, of course, no idea how to attain these goals and, as Isherwood observes, she makes only desultory efforts in any direction which might procure them, e.g. auditioning for roles. The most she does to put herself forward is to perform at the night club, and she is more of a curiosity there than an talent.
Holly Golighty follows the same path, hunting down rich men, a shameless gold digger, in hopes of getting her hooks in deeply enough to insure her a life of luxury; Holly is almost as clueless as Bowles, having decided whatever she is doing with men will lead to more permanent wealth than it is actually ever likely to do.
Both women eventually latch on to men who they think they are exploiting but who are actually exploiting them. Their methods, mores and ultimate outcome are nearly identical.
Both are the women "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" was written about, but neither is an original; they are copies. Marilyn Monroe gave voice to the credo in the 1953 song but Carol Channing had sung it on Broadway years earlier. And that was based on a book written in 1925 by Anita Loos, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" about a flapper who absorbed America's materialistic culture, more concerned with collecting hard assets than marriage licenses.
Before this, before "the Code" thwarted Hollywood's ability to tell truth to the American public, a series of women appeared on screen in the May West mold, women who were frank about sex, about what they wanted and why.
"Peyton Place" features the rape of a teen age girl by her step father and the quandary of the town doctor, who decides to go ahead and perform the abortion he reasons is the best way to deal with all this. He is put on trial for this act of moral rectitude.
"To Kill A Mockingbird" features the trial prompted by the sexual act of an adolescent girl and the Black man accused of raping her, when in fact, it is clear it was her step father who did the deed.
Step fathers are the convenient villain. Real fathers would have been too much for America of the 1950's-60's to absorb. Statutory rape was one thing, but incest quite another.
 |
| Grace Metalious |
Grace Metalious, a woman from New Hampshire nobody in literary circles had ever heard of, was rebuked as a smut dealer; Harper Lee, working in New York publishing, friend of Truman Capote, was lionized as the great literary talent of her day for her book published 4 years after Peyton Place.
 |
| Harper Lee |
