“Ask most straight men if they’ve heard Judy at Carnegie Hall and they’ll respond, ‘Judy who?’. Many gay men, however, know that Judy is Judy Garland, and Judy at Carnegie Hall, Garland’s 1961 Grammy-winning Album of the Year, is the concert album that put the diva back on top.From: What Does It Take to Be a Gay Icon Today
And rightfully so. Today’s performers could learn from Garland’s comeback concert, a brilliant performance from a legendary entertainer. Here she is, alone on stage with her band—no pyrotechnics, back-up dancers, costume changes, dazzling lights, or mammoth sets—throwing herself without abandon into song after song after song. ‘I don’t ever want to go home,’ she shouts to the frenzied audience. ‘I’ll sing ‘em all, and we’ll stay all night!’
For many gay men and women, the appeal of the album is not just the artistry of a true superstar, but the fact that Garland had to overcome numerous demons just to walk out on to the stage that night. Battling her drug addictions, washed-up status, and an almost paralyzing anxiety that led her to believe she would fail miserably, Garland considered cancelling the concert until seconds before she flew onto the stage, smiling and gesturing wildly. She rose above all the obstacles, and as they say in show business, ‘knocked ‘em dead’.
It is her perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds that has earned Garland her status as a Gay Icon. A chubby kid who was forced to take diet pills by her studio, a failure in marriage, a star whose popularity rose and fell repeatedly, an addict (thanks to the diet pills), a financial disaster who often had to sneak out of towns without paying hotel and restaurant bills—there was no reason why Garland should have enjoyed the kind of success she did, except for an adoring fan base and the sheer will to survive in the only business she knew.
Garland is hardly the only diva upon whom society has stuck the label ‘gay icon’. Who exactly is classified as a gay icon will vary depending on whom you ask, but the one trait that most all who are listed have in common is an ability to overcome the odds or fly in the face of conventional wisdom. Bette Davis, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand—too unattractive to be stars, at least by Hollywood standards. Cher, Dolly Parton, Carmen Miranda, and yes, Tammy Faye Baker—too over the top. Madonna, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford—too trashy for their respective times. Yet, all have succeeded, and in their success, they have earned the admiration of homosexuals worldwide. And it doesn’t hurt that, for the most part, they have embraced their gay fans, in turn.
Why is it that older gay men are attracted to such tortured souls? Why don’t gay women share the same list of icons? And why don’t young gay men share the same attractions for these legends? The stereotypical answer would be that these women make great subjects for female impersonators to emulate, but such an answer is superficial.
For older gay men, the women they idolize represent their own personal struggles. Gay men who are in their 40s or older grew up in a time when they were judged on the basis of one thing: their homosexuality. It didn’t matter if you were a great teacher, dentist, accountant, neighbor, citizen. What mattered, and what people talked about, was that you were ‘that way’. Understandably, there emerged a desire to be judged for the whole package, not just for sexual inclinations—a longing to be recognized for your skills on the job and whether or not you were a good person who played by the rules, paid your taxes, and treated your neighbors with kindness and respect. Those were all a part of what made these men individuals, but they were rarely acknowledged. (While gays are still judged on their sexual preference today, it is not a factor that limits one’s ability to succeed in society as it once was.) ….more….”
When Judy Garland sang ‘Over the Rainbow,’ the sadness in her voice, even when singing about such happy images as bluebirds and lemondrops, was palpable, hinting at complex depths beyond the wholesome image projected on screen. This was, in effect, the sound of the closet, and it spoke to gay men’s consciousness that the image they presented in their own public lives was often at odds with a truer sense of self that mainstream society would not condone.FYI -- current gay icon, Rufus Wainwright, presents homage to Judy Garland and her Carnegie Hall comeback concert | video excerpts.
This duality was only reinforced by the scandals in which Garland’s career became increasingly mired. Hearing shocking reports of drug and alcohol abuse, of exhaustion and collapse, gay men could not help but sympathize with a woman whose career, whose image, whose entire life, appeared to be dictated by an authoritarian studio system run by powerful men.
While Garland’s scandal-plagued life and tragic death hinted at the damaging aspects of a closet-like dual existence, there were other early icons who gay men admired for their determination to depart from societal standards and expectations. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, in classic films like Jezebel (1938) and Mildred Pierce (1945), played strong-willed female characters who glaringly strayed from the subservient, meekly feminine norms associated with being a typical wife, mother, or daughter.
And in their careers and private lives, as well, they were labeled “difficult women” who fiercely fought studio executives who they thought were mismanaging their careers, who never settled happily down for conventional marriage (Davis was married four times, Crawford five). They were living embodiments of how strong-willed individuals might defy closet-like restrictions forced on them.”
Who had a better voice?
Well, there you go, no one. She's not just a gay icon, she's an ICON.
posted by caddis at 8:44 PM on February 18, 2008