Archived Events/ Spring 2012

Karen McNally

The ShowRoom Chichester

Album Cover Moments: Frank Sinatra, Gender and the Complexities of Star Imaging

Performing Arts, Music and Film/Media

Wed 25th Jan 12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO3
Free admission

Frank Sinatra’s post-war star image represents an exemplary case of intertextuality, crossing the multiple boundaries of film, television and nightclub performances, musical recordings, and an extensive variety of media commentary. The image of masculinity articulated via this intertextuality both illuminates post-war debates around masculinity and challenges further ideas of gender, sexual and American identity. This paper considers some of this imagery, exploring in particular the 1954 Warner Bros. film Young at Heart and its explicit referencing of Sinatra’s persona as a singer in both musical and visual terms.