Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical [Paperback]

Steven Cohan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2005

With their lavish costumes and sets, ebullient song and dance numbers, and iconic movie stars, the musicals that mgm produced in the 1940s seem today to epitomize camp. Yet they were originally made to appeal to broad, mainstream audiences. In this lively, nuanced, and provocative reassessment of the mgm musical, Steven Cohan argues that this seeming incongruity—between the camp value and popular appreciation of these musicals—is not as contradictory as it seems. He demonstrates that the films’ extravagance and queerness were deliberate elements and keys to their popular success.

In addition to examining the spectatorship of the mgm musical, Cohan investigates the genre’s production and marketing, paying particular attention to the studio’s employment of a largely gay workforce of artists and craftspeople. He reflects on the role of the female stars—including Judy Garland, Debbie Reynolds, Esther Williams, and Lena Horne—and he explores the complex relationship between Gene Kelley’s dancing and his masculine persona. Cohan looks at how, in the decades since the 1950s, the marketing and reception of the mgm musical have negotiated the more publicly recognized camp value attached to the films. He considers the status of Singin’ in the Rain as perhaps the first film to be widely embraced as camp; the repackaging of the musicals as nostalgia and camp in the That’s Entertainment! series as well as on home video and cable; and the debates about Garland’s legendary gay appeal among her fans on the Internet. By establishing camp as central to the genre, Incongruous Entertainment provides a new way of looking at the musical.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Steven Cohan's Incongruous Entertainment brings together two fascinating subjects--camp and the musical--that are often casually linked but have never been explored as carefully and usefully as they are here."--Pamela Robertson Wojcik, author of Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna "Steven Cohan's scholarship is impeccable and his writing elegant and witty. He pulls together all the previous approaches to camp and uses them to explore the mgm musical and its stars from every angle I could think of--and a few I would never have thought of."--Alexander Doty, author of Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon "Cohan meticulously supports his argument with detailed examples while eloquently and often humorously bringing the musicals and their stars to life. Both fans and novices are invited to rethink the political import of the MGM musicals from the studio era through the present... Because of Cohan's revisionist scholarship, this book is also an essential read for anyone who studies camp and musicals."--Leah Perry, Journal of Popular Culture

From the Publisher

"Steven Cohan’s Incongruous Entertainment brings together two fascinating subjects—camp and the musical—that are often casually linked but have never been explored as carefully and usefully as they are here."—Pamela Robertson Wojcik, author of Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna

"Steven Cohan’s scholarship is impeccable and his writing elegant and witty. He pulls together all the previous approaches to camp and uses them to explore the mgm musical and its stars from every angle I could think of—and a few I would never have thought of."—Alexander Doty, author of Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (October 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822335956
• ISBN-13: 978-0822335955
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,159,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent and rich, January 12, 2012

By 

Thomas Witholt (Syracuse, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical (Paperback)

When I bought this book, I was surprised at the reviews. I know Steve Cohan and have read other books by him and I find his writing to be both insightful and slyly entertaining. Now that I have read the book, I have to add my own two cents. _Incongruous Entertainment_ is a scholarly work, written by a film scholar and published by a university press, so it is long and full of information. I'm not sure why some think this is a bad thing. After all, arguments require substantiation and Cohan makes several, including his significant (hence its length) introductory claim that camp is not simply in the eye of the beholder and that it can be found in the texts themselves. This book focuses on MGM musicals as exemplars of camp objects and the author identifies, explains, and analyses the many factors that play into their creation as such and what that might mean for musicals' place in American culture.

For those who aren't familiar with all of the musicals, Cohan describes with precision the particulars relevant to his analysis and is able to include a limited number of images from the films to anchor the descriptions in concrete visuals. By the end of his description of _Ziegfeld Follies_'s "Here's to the Girls," I felt as if I had seen the number though I have never seen any of the film. As an academic, I might not notice the "jargon" mentioned by an earlier reviewer but I am not an expert on the musical and still I found the book to be accessible. That doesn't change the fact that it is long and full of information, which isn't what everyone expects.

My only gripe is that I would have liked more of the pictures from the films, both in size and number. This is more a copyrights and publishing problem than anything else and is not a reflection of the individual book, though it does affect it.

1.0 out of 5 stars Yawn., June 25, 2010

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical (Kindle Edition)

How a single work can manage to suck every ounce of joy from should have been a fascinating and juicy topic is beyond comprehension. What a wasted opportunity.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Academic Work of Interest for Die-Hard Fans, December 31, 2007

By 

Melissa Halverson "misysu2" (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical (Paperback)

As a whole, the book delves into the idea of "camp" in context of the MGM classic musicals. The Introduction gives the reader a very lengthy definition of "camp" and it's relation to homosexuality, queerness, and gayness (which he describes as all different ideas).

If you can actually sit down interrupted, the book hits on some unique ideas, including the "butch-ness" of Esther Williams, the sissy, yet heteroerotic Gene Kelly, the cultural value of Judy Garland information on the internet, and an entire chapter devoted to Singin' in the Rain, by far my favorite chapter.

This chapter felt the least wordy, least academic. It delves into the period of silent movie to talkie transition historically. It also discusses SITR's reflection and fusion of the most often cited early MGM musicals, "Broadway Melody" and "Hollywood Revue," as well as why the movie stands the test of time.

I'm not a film student, just a film buff, and I'm glad I read the book. May be a little unaccessible-- the author could have easily truncated and simplified his book for a more general, non-academic audience, but you can get through it. Wish the paperback wasn't so expensive.