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This first in-depth study of Frank Sinatra’s film career explores his iconic status in relation to his many performances in postwar Hollywood cinema. When Frankie Went to Hollywood considers how Sinatra’s musical acts, television appearances, and public commentary impacted his screen performances in Pal Joey, The Tender Trap, Some Came Running, The Man with the Golden Arm, and other hits. A lively discussion of sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, and male vulnerability in postwar American culture illuminates Karen McNally’s investigation into Sinatra’s cinematic roles and public persona. This entertainment luminary, she finds, was central in shaping debates surrounding definitions of American male identity in the 1940s and ’50s.

Analyzing and challenging the film industry’s infamous treatment of women

The #MeToo revelations put a twenty-first-century stamp on the age-old story of women’s mistreatment in Hollywood. Karen McNally edits a collection focused on examining and revising film history in the aftermath of the women’s stories, past and present, that have come to light.

The collection begins with essays on the interplay between reality and imagination in narratives and representations of women’s experiences of unequal treatment. In Part 2, contributors discuss how the gendered attitudes of the media’s stories enable inequality in Hollywood and look at the forces that arise whenever women resist these media assaults. The next section addresses the structures that built the inequalities and mistreatment while Part 4 revisits established narratives to challenge, renew, and expand upon our understanding of film history through women’s stories. Essays in the final section address the combination of inequality and resistance that defines women’s experiences in Hollywood.

Piercing and astute, Women in Hollywood’s Dream Factory confronts our perception of Hollywood as a mythological land of dreams.

Contributors: Alicia Byrnes, Anna M. Dempsey, Harriet Fletcher, Amanda Konkle, Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Kerry McElroy, Adrienne L. McLean, Karen McNally, Donna Peberdy, Melanie Piper, Victoria K. Pistivsek, Sarah Polley, Ina C. Seethaler, Gabrielle Stecher, and Jennifer Voss