Previously: Ella of Ella Enchanted
Aw, guys, I feel like I'm taking you on a literary tour of my greatest influences.
Sally has become kind of a character type, I think. You could find a million Sallys all over literature and pop culture. Manic pixie dream girls probably owe a lot to Sally Bowles, though she's obviously quite a bit more than that. She was Holly Golightly before Holly ever lit a cigarette. Sally is charming, flamboyant, quirky, and a little strange. She dresses in gorgeous loony clothes. She wears pounds of makeup. She is my idol in this way. She's an actress, a singer, a gold-digger. She's nineteen but everyone thinks she's twenty-five. She's selfish but she has a heart of gold. There's something just kind of off about her, her brittle shiny exterior hiding deep sadness. Underneath her gorgeously tacky facade she's a broken little girl.
Sally is given to us by one of my most favorite writers, Mr. Christopher Isherwood. Sally is a real person, based on a friend of Isherwood's during his time in Berlin named Jean Ross (given her due without a pseudonym in Christopher and His Kind). She first appears in The Berlin Stories, which was turned into a play by John Van Druten called I Am A Camera. Then, of course, came the musical, Cabaret. Sally was entered into our general consciousness. She was made iconic by Liza Minnelli on film (though I personally don't like her as Sally). She's gone through any number of variations, English to American and back, little things changed here or there. But she's always intrinsically the same. And she always has green fingernails.
The BBC did a flawless adaptation of Christopher and His Kind with Matt Smith and Imogen Poots (it's on YT, go!!!) so I'll be using Imogen for Sally/Jean in graphics. She doesn't match the textual physical description, but she's my favorite portrayal of Sally on screen. I think she put the role to bed, really. She has that flighty-broken thing down, as well as Sally's described mix of beauty and ridiculousness. Sally's gorgeous but somehow comic. Which I think is true of Imogen, who is lovely but has a kind of elasticity in her expressions that can read as comic.
A lot of my love for Sally is obviously owed to Isherwood's writing, because he can really turn a phrase beautifully. I feel like I almost have to let the quotes do the talking, because they explain everything so much better than I could! I mean, I defy you not to fall utterly in love with this minx.
Sally's airy little debutante actress thing is undercut throughout with her deep sadness. She is constantly disappointed in work, a failing actress who does extra work in film and sings (poorly) in little nightclubs. She is constantly disappointed in love, too. She has numerous affairs, some more serious than others, and whenever she does get emotionally invested, her lovers leave her. After one such breakup, Sally finds out she's pregnant and she and Christopher immediately go on their way to end it. There is not ever a second thought, for her; it's what she has to do. It's arguably the defining moment of her narrative. And it was something that actually happened to Jean Ross, who had to give permission for the incident to be published because Isherwood feared a libel suit otherwise. It was a risky thing to include in the 30s, obviously, but Isherwood felt that without the abortion Sally would lack depth, coming off as just a silly flighty little thing. Or, in his words, "a silly little capricious bitch."
Now. I don't know that I agree with that. I do think that it brings weight to her character and I believe it's important to tell these kinds of stories for women, because they don't get voiced enough. Buuut I resent the idea that it's necessary to give her depth, because I felt her restlessness and unhappiness were plenty clear and poignant before it. Also, there is nothing wrong with being a silly little capricious bitch.
She is obviously filtered entirely through Christopher, as he's the main character and it's first-person. They're like brother and sister, utterly non-romantic, despite the numerous insistences of adaptations that ~something's going on. Christopher's character has changed more than Sally's did over the years, getting gayer and straighter depending on where you looked. Sometimes he was the father of Sally's baby, which strikes me rather absurd. Sally sometimes asks if Christopher loves her, or expresses a desire to fall in love with him; she also always seems to be very grateful that they aren't in love. I think he's very safe for her in a way a lot of men aren't. Their relationship is just wonderful, too, and very real. They clearly have fun together, but also get tired of each other, are selfish, pick each other up, put each other down. She's an aspiring actress and he's an aspiring writer, so they often share their fantasies of being rich and famous. It's just lovely, really.
(Also, any of this sound familiar, HOLLY GOLIGHTLY?)
There you have it! I just think Sally's glorious, really. A style icon of mine for sure - when I a was fifteen I had a jet-black bob because of Sally Bowles. I love the clothes, the makeup, the nails, her utterly affected way of speaking. Nothing is as fun as reading her lines aloud in a 1930s British accent. I urge you to try it. She's fun, and she's tragic. She's the party at its height and the party at its end, when no one's left. Her loneliness is depthless. She longs for love. She just want to have a good time.
Up next (and last): Ellen Olenska