In this week’s Off Script column, actor and singer Jackie Clarke explains how, despite her 45-year career (including an MNZM award for service to entertainment and Variety Artist Club’s lifetime achievement award), her drama-free personal life means she probably won’t be remembered.
As Earl Spencer shamelessly hauls his sister Diana’s ashes out for yet another public airing, I am reminded how insatiable the public appetite is for a woman who was equal parts charisma and hot mess. We will never be able to take our eyes off Diana; she will be reframed by endless historical reimagining, her legend never dimming as each generation takes a bite out of her and chews thoughtfully.
Diana was a diva, and a diva is the exception to the rule when it comes to women in history; give me a side of schadenfreude with that star quality and we have a winner! The politics of who gets “seen” and written about has traditionally been a patriarchal domain; sure, we’ve spent recent decades evening up the ledger to include legions of extraordinary women glossed over by this swinging dick approach, but women have always been at the fuzzy end of the historical lollipop, unless you are a tortured diva.
Judy Garland died prematurely at 47, her body halved in size, the life literally sucked out of her by decades of giving every ounce of her humanity to audiences. Would I still watch The Wizard of Oz at least once a year without knowing the shocking truth of the amphetamine abuse going on behind Judy’s big brown eyes?
Would Patsy Cline still be so revered if she had not died at the age of 30 in a plane crash? It’s the untimely death that’s the clincher when it comes to history, just ask Marilyn Monroe and Amy Winehouse. Divas who live to a ripe old age in rude health, do not get mythologised.
When I think of Maria Callas, I think of that famous photo; her face contorted in anger as some hapless US Marshal delivers a summons and she rips him a new one. Her tragic personal life was as dramatic as the Puccini and Bellini heroines she gave voice to. Callas was the ultimate incandescent diva, her vanilla contemporaries long since fading from history.
As a state-house Gizzy kid in 1981, one of the first LPs I owned was by Billie Holiday. Kim Carnes had the biggest song in the world, but her star was eclipsed by a woman who had died at the hands of drugs and booze 22 years earlier.
By crikey, women have to over-deliver to be remembered! In 100 years, no one will recall Christina Aguilera, while Britney Spears will forever be remembered, but not for selling more than 100 million records or becoming the youngest solo artist to debut at No 1 on the Billboard 200 ... but for publicly shaving her head during a rebellious outburst.
So, a big thank you to Dolly Parton for being the exception to the exception to the rule. Her sad passing reminds me that not every diva remembered is a hot mess. When Dolly died, no one had a bad word to say about her. She will always be remembered as an icon of love, talent and authenticity. RIP Dolly, I hope you’re up there swapping stories with Edith, Maria, Patsy, Judy and Billie, over biscuits and gravy.
- Jackie Clarke performs ten characters and the voices of five legendary singers – Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas – in Songs for Nobodies by Figment Productions at Q Theatre from October 28 to November 1. qtheatre.co.nz