"For our idols are us, the reflection of America's dream of itself." Robert Lipsyte and Peter Levine
Elvis Presley, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and Jackie Kennedy Onassis—just to name a few of the important media figures of the middle decades of the 20th century—are our modern American mythological figures and, in many ways, our mirrors. Studying these icons and understanding how these actors, musicians, athletes, and political figures came to be deified, a student of American culture can learn as much about American ideals and American values as any "great American novel" can teach us. Constructed by the burgeoning media and the political and social climate of their times, American icons are rich texts to be read and explored. To understand these texts--to discover why, for example, "60,000,000 people can’t be wrong"about Elvis Presley--is to understand something essential about Americans and the truths that we perceive to define us.
I chose this time period because figures like Elvis, Marilyn, Joltin’ Joe, and Ol’ Blue Eyes are still as recognizable as ever. These figures still are viable, marketable objects idolatry, and they have yet to release their hold on the American imagination. Special television programs on these figures appear regularly on E Television, A & E, and The History Channel. Contemporary novelists continue to feature these figures in their works (see Don Delillo’s Underworld (1998) and Joyce Carol Oates’s Blonde (2001)). Musicians have immortalized these figures in song (The Eagles’ "James Dean, "Elton John’s "Candle in the Wind," and Simon and Garfunkel’s "Mrs. Robinson"). By keeping their fame alive today, we are again saying (or perhaps we have never ceased saying) that these people stand for, on some level, our desires and our wishes.
Yet, the same reasons that we still worship Marilyn, Elvis, and Sinatra today are not necessarily the same reasons that people worshipped them in the middle part of the twentieth century. The study of these figures’ fame over time is one of the most important lessons of this research project. By studying these figures—knowing their life stories, their image, their moments imbedded in a collective American consciousness (i.e. Marilyn’s white dress aflutter, DiMaggio’s fifty-six game hitting streak, Dean’s red leather jacket, etc.)—students will learn that identity is constructed by a number of forces and that identity is fluid: our rememberance and fascination with these figures today is our participation in their texts
Besides gaining an understanding of American values and ideals and understanding how identity is constantly changing over time, students will learn through the writing of a research paper on their chosen icon how to analyze and incorporate visual media (films, documentaries) into their research. Because of the proliferation of materials on the Internet on these figures, students also should gain a better understanding of what is useful, scholarly information on the Internet and what is not. (This unit begins with a visit to the computer lab and an exercise that asks student to research the producers of various websites.)
There is no set criterion for deciding an American mid-century icon. What distinguishes the figures above from other popular people of the time period is what I call "crossover appeal." Almost all of the figures above crossed genres at some point, either as artists our after their careers were over: Sinatra and Elvis both made movies and made albums; John Wayne is remembered as much for his conservative politics as his Westerns; Marilyn Monroe is the subject of memorable songs, novels, and art (Andy Warhol’s "Marilyn" (1962)); etc.
With any project that involves research of different forms of media from mid-twentieth century, I am concerned about the predominating white masculinity of the "important" figures of this time period. I do encourage students to pursue and research female, non-white figures from the time period. Past students have focused on Muhammed Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Princess Grace Kelly, and Bette Davis.
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