'England's Apollo' : Ivor Novello - post-war icon, matinee-idol and 'ambassador of the British film'

• Main Author: Williams, Michael Thomas
• Published: University of East Anglia 2001
• Subjects: 791.43
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.393308

Drawing extensively from empirical research into British film fan magazines such as Picture Show and Picturegoer, this thesis demonstrates how such secondary media were crucial in shaping Novello's star persona and the ways in which nuanced references to Art History, Philosophy and Classical Greek iconography and myths informed his iconography. Juxtaposing such eclectic influences with textual analysis of his films themselves, I argue that Novello's most singular stardom in the twenties -- an extension of the fame he achieved through his composition of one of defining songs of the war, `Keep the Home Fires Burning' -- is founded on a historically specific and, in the broadest sense, queer appeal to the disparate elements of his mass audience. This appeal, I demonstrate, engages with a range of contemporary discourses around nostalgia, sexuality and the symptoms of war-trauma. I argue that in the films of Ivor Novello we apprehend an essentially modern, quite paradoxical and sometimes disturbing product of his time, rather than the anachronistic, histrionic figure presented thus far by critics.