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Hollywood Hollywood Glamour Glamour and and Mass
Mass
Consumption Consumption in in Postwar Postwar Italy
Italy
Stephen Gundle
After 1945 the United States indicated to war-torn European societies how to
progress from recovery to modernization, achieving in the process greater
prosperity for their populations and increased political stability. It is appropriate
therefore that, in the study of Italy’s transition to consumerism in the postwar
period, much importance has been attributed to the impact of the American
example and American techniques. However, while the history of this relationship
has been extensively examined in terms of diplomacy, politics, and economics,
very little by contrast has been said about the way in which mentalities were
altered, new desires diffused and material dreams generated and managed. Sectoral
studies of advertising, Marshall Plan propaganda, the impact of Hollywood,
fashion, the popular press, and the star system all refer to the formation and
diffusion of images of desirability, but do not underline the systematic nature or
purpose of the development of a repertoire of images of wealth, beauty, elegance,
style, and sex appeal.
It will be suggested here that the transformation of the Italian imaginary may
be explained by reference to the concept of glamour. If properly employed, this
under-theorized term can account for the particular seductive appeal which
capitalism was able to take on in the early stages of mass consumption, and which
enable it largely to bypass arguments about exploitation, imperialism, inequality,
and alienation. Glamour, it will be argued, was part and parcel of the impact of
the American model; but Italy did not merely absorb an externally generated allure,
it also gave rise to forms of enchantment of its own. These were crucial both in
privatizing and materializing dreams and in providing Italy with an imagery that
could assist the export of goods and the promotion of services including tourism.
Glamour and Modernity
Despite the vagueness of its common usage, the etymology of glamour is reasonably
clear. According to The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1996) the word
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